She was truly alone, Sasuke had gone and there had been no way of feasibility retrieving him. And then Naruto had also left to train under Jiraiya. Sakura was alone and yet she could make a case that she had been alone for a few years prior to even joining Team Seven. Growing up, Sakura had been teased about her appearance which was pointless since she had no way of shrinking her forehead any or standing any taller. All she could be was herself and most days, that meant crying alone after all the other kids had left the park after mocking her. 

Then she met Ino Yamanaka and for a while, she wasn't alone. 

The blond haired girl exuded confidence and Sakura was quickly enchanted. The two met at age eight and for four years, they played together and created a strong bond before it crumbled at their feet. Ino taught Sakura how to make up for the flaws she was convinced she had and over the four years together, Sakura learned to love herself and take the negatives the other girls had pointed out, and use them to her own advantage. By the time everyone enrolled in the Academy at age 12, Sakura was ready to stand on her own and this didn't sit well with Ino who was content with being the leader of the two.

Things finally fell apart a week into the Academy when Sakura confessed her feelings for Sasuke to Ino, who in turns confessed her own crush for the dark haired Uchiha boy. Both friends started to spend time with other people but it was Ino who had gained the upper hand in their deterioration. Ino was able to rally most of the female classmates and ensure Sakura was left with only one or two people on her side. For the next four years neither girl acted friendly towards the other. In fact whenever they did see one another, they'd sling a snide remark about the other, knowing just where to attack, in order to draw the most bad blood.

So during her time at the Academy, Sakura was alone and that allowed her to throw herself into reading again, a hobby she had to discard when it came to her friendship with Ino. Her high marks in class made her second to Shikamaru who was second to Sasuke. Being the third smartest student made her a target for some taunting but anyone who was smart enough went to her for help after school. And now those days of doing work at the park where old memories of even more faded moments with her and Ino on the swings would resurface, had long passed. She was now alone, without anyone to care for, without anyone to care for her.

Except that wasn't true.

Not really.

After the events of the Chunin Exam, she and Ino decided to reconcile and when Naruto came back, she resolved to be more active than passive. Books could only become tools if she used them and so far she hadn't yet fully committed to being the kunnoichi she knew she could be. Being the person Ino was, being the person Naruto was. Now she had to the person she could be and in the forest on her own, she had started that journey and now it was time to return to it. Three days after Naruto left, she found Tsunade and Kakashi Sensei and explained that she wanted more training.

While she was doing some training at the hospital to become a medical nin, she wanted to do more. Her knowledge had to be put to use, it just had to. Tsunade considered it and agreed to train her if Kakashi handled it first and with that, her reunion with the silver haired copy nin began. At first, she had been quite unsettled with having one on one time with the man because she felt cast aside when she thought back t o their days as the fresh newly formed Team Seven. But Kakashi Sensei appeared less aloof and decided his first mission as her teacher again was to teach her a water jutsu since it seemed to be the element she was most in tune with.

Which was why she found herself standing off near the river while her teacher was lounging behind her in a tree. She had been preforming the numerous hand seals that were needed to summon and channel the proper amount of chakra to create the Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu. It was a B Rank and as she finished yet another quick consecutive turn of hand seals, ending with bird once again, she looked up from what she was doing and began again. It hadn't been too long since they began but she was quickly growing bored of the practice. She could do this in her sleep and she knew speed would be a real factor in battle but at the present, the seventeen year old was getting anxious.

As much as she did want to impress Kakashi, she still had a bone to pick with him regarding how he had neglected her over the past year or so since having returned from their first big mission out of Konoha. But right now she was very focused and determined to keep going until she could do the seals even quicker. By now she had already memorized them but she wasn't sure when she should ask Kakashi for next task. After another thirty minutes of her quickly moving through the hand seals, she stopped and turned around to where Kakashi. He had summoned his faithful dog to keep him company.

Before the girl had started, they had been briefly introduced.

[b]"Hey, Kakashi Sensei, I think I have them down now. What do you think?"[/b] Sakura called out to him, a bit nervous. While it didn't look like he had been watching her, she had been able to tell that he was. Sakura was pretty intuitive and observant which came from her years on the sidelines. The girl in the long red dress with her choppy short pink hair was pretty sure doing repetition could only help so much and that in order to moving forward, she would need to move on and apply more to further memorization. [b]"I'm ready for the next part if you are!"[/b] She smiled. Right now she was pretty content with the progress, her Inner Self was kept quiet but if she didn't get another task soon, that would change.

[i]'Come on, I'm not Naruto, I can handle a high level jutsu, let me at it!'[/i] Her Inner Self roared, clenching a fist, her face wearing a wild inward grin.