Less Than Ideal - Chapter 1
I still have no idea what to title this, so for now I'm calling it "Less Than Ideal." I also considered "Ending Means" and "What Thin Partitions," but with those I was sort of injecting a theme into something which isn't terribly thematic .... relying on the title to convey a message is sort of crutch, right? I guess I'll just pick some random line after I finish.
Wait, did I just say that? I'm not going to finish this, so forget it. Prologue is here.
Series: Naruto
Author: sub_divided
Email: onyabear@yahoo.com
Pairings: None, really. SasuNaru if you're obsessive. SakuLee if you squint.
Disclaimers: Not mine. I'd ruin it.
Description (whole story): "Naruto is forced into a lose-lose situation, where failure means death, enslavement, or, worst of all, being stuck in second place; success means taking away his partner's purpose in life."
Description (this chapter): Sakura at 17. From whence comes strength?
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One last official Hidden Leaf seal, one last personal seal, and she'd finished. Sakura rolled her report closed, glad to be free of it. It wasn't the paperwork that had bothered her, but the entire affair. It had been a delicate mission, one conducted entirely in disguise, and it felt good to be herself again and even better to be back home. Foreigners, she reflected, were weird.
Her task had been strictly reconnaissance, and had been given to her by the Hokage's personal secretary. "We've been getting a lot of requests from the around the Thorn Country," he'd told her. "It's too much work. I need you to find out what's up, but don't let anyone know you're a ninja. We don't want to be involved in this." Thorn Country was only recently- and violently- independent, and its new Lord was cousin to the old one. That made the split partially treason and partially civil war- and altogether nasty, Sakura thought. It figured that the memories she most wanted to be free of were the ones that would probably never leave her.
The job itself had not been particularly difficult - first, to assess the stability of the political situation (not very); second, to provide useful background information for future undercover ninja.
The best advice I can give them would be to act like zombies and dress as if they've lost everything they ever owned, Sakura thought. In a few months it might actually be true of everyone in that damned country.
Inner Sakura, she knew, had been manically amused by her shocked initial reaction. What the hell did you expect? she had asked.
Now to deliver this thing. She glanced at the office door - "Out to Lunch. Go Away for a While" - and sighed. Knowing the work habits of the Hokage's secretary, "a while" meant a few hours at least. Probably he would not bother to return until he either grew bored or decided that his presence really was required.
Sakura would normally not have minded the wait, but today she had more important things to do: it was the first day of her independence. She (finally, at 18) had her own apartment. The contract had already been signed; all that was left was to move her things. Rock Lee was helping.
It seemed strange to have lived at home for so long, but then, she had never really needed to leave. Once, when she was 14 and tired of being alternately overlooked or outdone by her teammates, she had considered living alone as they did. Only, she hadn't known who to see or what to do, and so she had ended up in a tent in the woods for a few weeks, and then at Ino's family's flower shop, in the storeroom, for a month.
Her mother had considered it "one of those ninja things" and left her to it. It had actually been Naruto who had convinced her to go home.
"I don't live alone 'cause I want to, and neither does Sasuke," he'd said. "It's family you're giving up! Why do some dumb thing like that? Anyway," and here he'd looked... un-Narutoish? Thoughtful, that might have been it.
"Isn't that a kind of strength too? Having a family like yours? Sakura-chan?" A narrow-eyed smile, for emphasis. Then, slyly: "Sasuke would say so, too."
And, Sakura realized, he was right. Sasuke would say the same thing, if he was the kind of person who said what he was thinking like Naruto did. And while her teammates were strong people, trying to live their lives wasn't ever going to make her a better ninja.
Damn straight, took you long enough, was what Inner Sakura had said.
She'd never be a genius with a famous bloodline like Sasuke, or as strong or strange as Naruto. She'd probably never be quite as suicidally driven as either of them, and maybe she didn't want to be. So what was left?
Delicacy. If there was one thing she had that her teammates lacked, it was tact, and control. So she'd specialized, worked on her illusions, disguises, and observational, analytical skills. The surprising result: while she'd been the last of them to become a chuunin, she was the first promoted to jounin. That had been a year ago.
"My daughter! A Jounin!" her mother had said. "If that isn't reason enough for a party, I don't know what is. Oh, I'm so proud of you! Sakura, have I told you you're the first in our family to ever be promoted to Jounin rank?"
"Only a million times, Mom," she'd said, and tried to escape her mother's crushing hug. "And anyway, I'm not really a full Jounin, I'm just a cultural specialist."
Her mother hadn't cared. And, Sakura realized, she didn't either. She had become a strong ninja. And later today she would finally become an independent one, too - just as soon as Shikamaru dragged his lazy butt back to the office.
She looked up in surprise as the door opened - wow, that was fast - only to be confronted with two ninja who were definitely not her boss. For one, the short one was much too loud; for another, Shikamaru never bothered with arguments, even one-sided ones. Now I know I'm home, Sakura thought.
"I'm telling you, we could have just left those guys a ways from the gate. What were they going to do, walk away?" Naruto was saying. Sasuke ignored him.
"I mean, did you see the look on that guards face when your stupid snake went barging right through? He could of had a heart attack!" Sasuke ignored him.
"Do you even care at all about what other people think? Snakes aren't exactly popular around here, if you hadn't noticed." Naruto was really flailing. Sakura prepared herself to take sides - as soon as I figure out which side I'm on, that is. Sasuke surprised her by responding first.
"I did notice, but that doesn't make it my business," he said. "They can think what they like." And that was that, end of conversation. It never used to be like this, but even Naruto, who Sakura knew was terrible at giving up, could pick his battles. Sometimes. Actually, he'd only recently learned and was still pretty bad at it. She smiled.
"Welcome back," she said. "You two had a mission?"
"Yes," said Sasuke.
"That was my line!" said Naruto
"Looks like I'm late," said Kakashi, who had just walked in the door. "Sakura-chan, why don't you talk to them while I deliver something to the Hokage?" He walked though the first office without waiting for her answer, closing the door behind him.
"So... tell me about your mission?" She said in the silence that followed. Naruto launched immediately into a full description. A wildly inaccurate full description, if Sasuke's obvious annoyance was any indication.
"And so even if Sasuke got those six wimpy ninjas, I'm the one who took out the boss! I was really cool, you should have seen it, Sakura-chan," was his final assessment.
"That's great, Naruto," Sakura said, while Inner Sakura complained about being stuck with all the boring missions. "I just finished a mission too. Why don't we all meet up tonight for dinner to celebrate. NOT ramen," she said, quickly. "That was all I had while I was on the road."
"Can't have too much ramen," Naruto said. "But since it's Sakura-chan, you can choose the restaurant and Sasuke and I will be there. Right, Sasuke?"
"Fine," Sasuke said, and then softened. "Welcome back, Sakura."
She smiled. We've all changed, she thought. I settled for the things I could reach, and they... lost a little intensity, too, I think. I wonder if it's for the best? It was a stupid question with an obvious answer.
The office door opened, a hand beckoning. "Uncle Chen's, then. I'll see you tonight."
And as her two former teammates followed her former sensei in to see the Hokage, Sakura couldn't help but feel that everything was going well. Somehow, she was sure that whatever the Hokage and Kakashi-sensei had to say would be good, even if she couldn't say why she thought so.
She checked the clock: it had already been over an hour and a half. Just how long could it take to eat lunch, anyway?
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Problems I see with this one:
I think I made the "moral message" too obvious. Too much telling. And poor Sakura, so callously used for exposition purposes... not a lot happens in this chapter. Working in italics is both a pain and another crutch. Also, the style here is different from the style of the prologue. I wrote this one first, my first-ever piece of fanfiction for any series. So of course it's mostly an introspective (what you mean there's something else?).
Wait, did I just say that? I'm not going to finish this, so forget it. Prologue is here.
Series: Naruto
Author: sub_divided
Email: onyabear@yahoo.com
Pairings: None, really. SasuNaru if you're obsessive. SakuLee if you squint.
Disclaimers: Not mine. I'd ruin it.
Description (whole story): "Naruto is forced into a lose-lose situation, where failure means death, enslavement, or, worst of all, being stuck in second place; success means taking away his partner's purpose in life."
Description (this chapter): Sakura at 17. From whence comes strength?
******************************************************
One last official Hidden Leaf seal, one last personal seal, and she'd finished. Sakura rolled her report closed, glad to be free of it. It wasn't the paperwork that had bothered her, but the entire affair. It had been a delicate mission, one conducted entirely in disguise, and it felt good to be herself again and even better to be back home. Foreigners, she reflected, were weird.
Her task had been strictly reconnaissance, and had been given to her by the Hokage's personal secretary. "We've been getting a lot of requests from the around the Thorn Country," he'd told her. "It's too much work. I need you to find out what's up, but don't let anyone know you're a ninja. We don't want to be involved in this." Thorn Country was only recently- and violently- independent, and its new Lord was cousin to the old one. That made the split partially treason and partially civil war- and altogether nasty, Sakura thought. It figured that the memories she most wanted to be free of were the ones that would probably never leave her.
The job itself had not been particularly difficult - first, to assess the stability of the political situation (not very); second, to provide useful background information for future undercover ninja.
The best advice I can give them would be to act like zombies and dress as if they've lost everything they ever owned, Sakura thought. In a few months it might actually be true of everyone in that damned country.
Inner Sakura, she knew, had been manically amused by her shocked initial reaction. What the hell did you expect? she had asked.
Now to deliver this thing. She glanced at the office door - "Out to Lunch. Go Away for a While" - and sighed. Knowing the work habits of the Hokage's secretary, "a while" meant a few hours at least. Probably he would not bother to return until he either grew bored or decided that his presence really was required.
Sakura would normally not have minded the wait, but today she had more important things to do: it was the first day of her independence. She (finally, at 18) had her own apartment. The contract had already been signed; all that was left was to move her things. Rock Lee was helping.
It seemed strange to have lived at home for so long, but then, she had never really needed to leave. Once, when she was 14 and tired of being alternately overlooked or outdone by her teammates, she had considered living alone as they did. Only, she hadn't known who to see or what to do, and so she had ended up in a tent in the woods for a few weeks, and then at Ino's family's flower shop, in the storeroom, for a month.
Her mother had considered it "one of those ninja things" and left her to it. It had actually been Naruto who had convinced her to go home.
"I don't live alone 'cause I want to, and neither does Sasuke," he'd said. "It's family you're giving up! Why do some dumb thing like that? Anyway," and here he'd looked... un-Narutoish? Thoughtful, that might have been it.
"Isn't that a kind of strength too? Having a family like yours? Sakura-chan?" A narrow-eyed smile, for emphasis. Then, slyly: "Sasuke would say so, too."
And, Sakura realized, he was right. Sasuke would say the same thing, if he was the kind of person who said what he was thinking like Naruto did. And while her teammates were strong people, trying to live their lives wasn't ever going to make her a better ninja.
Damn straight, took you long enough, was what Inner Sakura had said.
She'd never be a genius with a famous bloodline like Sasuke, or as strong or strange as Naruto. She'd probably never be quite as suicidally driven as either of them, and maybe she didn't want to be. So what was left?
Delicacy. If there was one thing she had that her teammates lacked, it was tact, and control. So she'd specialized, worked on her illusions, disguises, and observational, analytical skills. The surprising result: while she'd been the last of them to become a chuunin, she was the first promoted to jounin. That had been a year ago.
"My daughter! A Jounin!" her mother had said. "If that isn't reason enough for a party, I don't know what is. Oh, I'm so proud of you! Sakura, have I told you you're the first in our family to ever be promoted to Jounin rank?"
"Only a million times, Mom," she'd said, and tried to escape her mother's crushing hug. "And anyway, I'm not really a full Jounin, I'm just a cultural specialist."
Her mother hadn't cared. And, Sakura realized, she didn't either. She had become a strong ninja. And later today she would finally become an independent one, too - just as soon as Shikamaru dragged his lazy butt back to the office.
She looked up in surprise as the door opened - wow, that was fast - only to be confronted with two ninja who were definitely not her boss. For one, the short one was much too loud; for another, Shikamaru never bothered with arguments, even one-sided ones. Now I know I'm home, Sakura thought.
"I'm telling you, we could have just left those guys a ways from the gate. What were they going to do, walk away?" Naruto was saying. Sasuke ignored him.
"I mean, did you see the look on that guards face when your stupid snake went barging right through? He could of had a heart attack!" Sasuke ignored him.
"Do you even care at all about what other people think? Snakes aren't exactly popular around here, if you hadn't noticed." Naruto was really flailing. Sakura prepared herself to take sides - as soon as I figure out which side I'm on, that is. Sasuke surprised her by responding first.
"I did notice, but that doesn't make it my business," he said. "They can think what they like." And that was that, end of conversation. It never used to be like this, but even Naruto, who Sakura knew was terrible at giving up, could pick his battles. Sometimes. Actually, he'd only recently learned and was still pretty bad at it. She smiled.
"Welcome back," she said. "You two had a mission?"
"Yes," said Sasuke.
"That was my line!" said Naruto
"Looks like I'm late," said Kakashi, who had just walked in the door. "Sakura-chan, why don't you talk to them while I deliver something to the Hokage?" He walked though the first office without waiting for her answer, closing the door behind him.
"So... tell me about your mission?" She said in the silence that followed. Naruto launched immediately into a full description. A wildly inaccurate full description, if Sasuke's obvious annoyance was any indication.
"And so even if Sasuke got those six wimpy ninjas, I'm the one who took out the boss! I was really cool, you should have seen it, Sakura-chan," was his final assessment.
"That's great, Naruto," Sakura said, while Inner Sakura complained about being stuck with all the boring missions. "I just finished a mission too. Why don't we all meet up tonight for dinner to celebrate. NOT ramen," she said, quickly. "That was all I had while I was on the road."
"Can't have too much ramen," Naruto said. "But since it's Sakura-chan, you can choose the restaurant and Sasuke and I will be there. Right, Sasuke?"
"Fine," Sasuke said, and then softened. "Welcome back, Sakura."
She smiled. We've all changed, she thought. I settled for the things I could reach, and they... lost a little intensity, too, I think. I wonder if it's for the best? It was a stupid question with an obvious answer.
The office door opened, a hand beckoning. "Uncle Chen's, then. I'll see you tonight."
And as her two former teammates followed her former sensei in to see the Hokage, Sakura couldn't help but feel that everything was going well. Somehow, she was sure that whatever the Hokage and Kakashi-sensei had to say would be good, even if she couldn't say why she thought so.
She checked the clock: it had already been over an hour and a half. Just how long could it take to eat lunch, anyway?
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Problems I see with this one:
I think I made the "moral message" too obvious. Too much telling. And poor Sakura, so callously used for exposition purposes... not a lot happens in this chapter. Working in italics is both a pain and another crutch. Also, the style here is different from the style of the prologue. I wrote this one first, my first-ever piece of fanfiction for any series. So of course it's mostly an introspective (what you mean there's something else?).