Preventing The Inevitable

Chapter 1

Haruno Sakura wasn't talented.

At least, that's what she thought.

She was strong, she knew that. Her fists had the power to punch holes in mountains and shatter the earth. And those same hands could be used to bring people back from the brink of death and heal impossible wounds. The seal on her forehead held the power of one hundred.

She had all of that, and yet there was something fundamentally different about the gifted people she often found herself surrounded with.

They were on an entirely different level, born with inherent talent that granted them the ability to succeed in anything, as long as they tried enough.

That was what set her apart from them. She had a limit. A maximum.

Sakura had been aware of that fact for a long time. She had learned to accept it somewhere along the way. And up until a few years ago—back when everything was fine—she had believed that she didn't mind it. Didn't mind not being talented.

In fact, there was a time when she had been proud of herself for having worked her way up through hours and hours of training, until she could confidently call herself one of the strongest shinobi alive. She had looked back at her old self—weak and useless—and then at her current self—standing side by side with descendants of gods—and had felt satisfied.

I'm okay with this. Even if this is as far as I can go.

And then the war had started, and it went on for years and years, and it just wouldn't end.

Sakura watched as Naruto and Sasuke gained new abilities, ascending higher and higher. And it was almost as if that brief moment—when they had stood as equals—had never happened.

Because while she had already used up all the potential she had, the others continued to discover new abilities they had secretly harbored, reaching levels that she couldn't even begin to dream of.

And then Sakura was looking at their backs again, sprinting past her with a speed she had long exhausted.

It was a level she could never reach, no matter how many more hours of Tsunade's bone-crushing training she endured, or how many more volumes of books she read until she knew the words by heart.

Sakura knew she shouldn't feel that way. Shouldn't feel jealous of someone else's success when they were in the middle of a war.

She knew.

But in the quiet moments she was given from time to time, in which she was left alone in the tiny tent she called hers before rushing back to either the frontline or the medic tent—she couldn't help but be reminded of the everlasting fact that she had been left behind once again.

Now, nothing could make her special in the face of the prodigies her team consisted of. No strength she had, no healing she could perform could ever outshine divine talent.

And in her darkest moments, a small part of her would whisper, were her techniques even really hers? It wasn't as if Haruno Sakura was the only one who could enhance their strength or use Iryōninjutsu. Who was to say someone couldn't replace her, take her place?

How long until she'd hesitate, wondering if she could still call herself a member of the same team?

Surely, in this endless war between the Allied Shinobi Forces and Kaguya's army, it was only a matter of time before she would become useless once again.

But even then, she still managed to pick herself back up. I'm strong, she told herself. Maybe never as strong as the boys but still strong enough and that was what mattered. There were people who depended on her.