Rewriting Naruto Shippuden

Chapter 12

Sakura face planted into the ground. She didn't get up, nor did she plan on getting up. Despite the rain, despite the mud, despite how much her limbs hurt, she hadn't stopped for hours. Originally she was training near Naruto, both to help if it was needed and in hopes of keeping her own motivation by seeing his progress. After she finished reading all the books borrowed by the library, she left to find an empty training ground in hopes of practicing without distractions. Sakura kicked the ground, 'Dammit!' She continued to kick the ground like a toddler throwing a tantrum, 'Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!!! Okay, Sakura, focus!' She then noticed how the rain stopped pouring over her head. Before she got the chance to look up and see who it was, she heard, "Is laying in the mud a hobby of yours?" Identifying the person as Sai, Sakura didn't look up, "Ha, ha, very funny." Sai asked, "Why are you in the dirt?" Sakura answered, "I'm resting. What are you doing here anyway?" He answered, "To talk to you, the books said that spending time conversing with others builds stronger and closer bonds." Sakura looked up at Sai's fake smile, "You wanted to talk to me?" Sai responded, "Any member of team 7 would do. However, Naruto and the others appeared to be busy." Sakura sighed, "What was I expecting? Sorry, but I'm also busy." Sai said, "Busy laying in the mud?" She responded, "Training!"

A moment of silence passed between the two. "Why?" Sakura was pushing herself off the ground, "Huh? What do you mean, why?" Sai elaborated, "Why are you pushing yourself so hard? I'm aware of Sasuke, but you could just leave that to Naruto. Unlike him, you're from a civilian family, they don't exactly get far in the shinobi world. Every born civilian shinobi I've met has settled at chunin, if they even got that far. But you just keep working until you collapse, why?" Sakura was standing now and looking at the ground, thinking about her answer. She looked at Sai, who had dropped the smile, and answered, "I want to be strong enough to stand beside my teammates and protect the people unable to protect themselves. I won't be a liability anymore. That's the only reason I've ever had and will ever need."

Sai looked shocked at the answer for a moment before his fake smile returned, "You're a weird one." His comment got under Sakura's skin, "I don't want to hear that from you!" Sai asked, "Would you prefer hearing it from Naruto?" Sakura yelled, "As if!" Sai chuckled then turned towards the forest, still holding his ink umbrella over Sakura, "You should take a break. The Akatsuki Suppression teams are on their way back, you'll also catch a cold." Sakura sighed, "Yeah, I should probably make sure Naruto hasn't done anything stupid anyway." As Sakura dusted herself off she remembered, "Right! That means Ino's gonna be back soon!" As the two began walking towards Naruto's training grounds under the umbrella together, Sai asked, "Ino was the blonde girl from our mission with team 10, correct? Are you two close?" Sakura nodded, "Yeah, we've been friends since we were kids. Well... there was a point in our academy years when we didn't get along..." Sai responded, "Really?" Sakura confessed, "Yeah, I made a pretty stupid decision and broke off our friendship over a boy. Our relationship is mended, but I still regret what happened." Sai asked, "Was the boy Sasuke?" Sakura awkwardly nodded. To lighten the mood, Sakura jokingly asked, "Are you jealous?" Sai stated, "Of a traitor who joined Orochimaru and tried to kill his former teammates? Never." Sakura's face fell into an unamused look, "Are you trying to piss me off?" Sai answered awkwardly, "That wasn't what I had in mind, no."

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Naruto laid on his back with his eyes closed, unbothered by the heavy rain. 'When focusing on the change in chakra, the kunai cracks or breaks. When focusing on the kunai, the change in chakra becomes unstable... I'm so pathetic...' He opened his eyes, looking up at the rain. 'It was raining then too.' Naruto's mind wandered back to Sasuke. When he left. How much stronger he was. How he couldn't bring him back.

Naruto forced himself onto his feet and made the clone hand sign, "Dammit! I don't have time to just sit around!" All his clones pulled out metal weapons and went back to focusing on their chakra. One began bubbling red, catching the attention of nearby clones. The nine tails began seeping out, "Everyone, be careful!" The Narutos began moving away from the clone, "YAMATO-TAICHOU! HELP!" Wooden pillars latched onto the rage-filled clone, suppressed the nine-tails chakra, and dispersed the clone. The blonde was once again in a near-empty field. Naruto wiped at his face as Kakashi walked over to him, "Are you okay?" Naruto looked away in frustration and shame, not answering. "You've barely begun your wind style training and you're using around 1000 shadow clones." Naruto interrupted his sensei, "But the chakra control is too hard and 1000 clones is my limit. I don't think I'll ever be able to do this." Kakashi commented, "You're unusually negative, it's not like you. Is that the Uzumaki Naruto I know so well?"