"So, I guess the mission didn't go well," Keiko sat beside the girl on the dock, their feet hanging over the water. "What happened?"
Sakura took her head out of her hands and groaned. "Well, I just--I just felt so useless back at the Land of Waves. "The boys were doing all the fighting and saving, and I just--I was just standing there. Like I was watching--kami, I'm so stupid."
Keiko wrapped an arm around the smaller girl. "Hey, it was an A-Rank, come on. Everyone has their firsts and they don't always go well," she said. "Now you have something to learn from. Practice and next time, you know what to do."
"What if there's no next time?"
Keiko looked down. "Trust me, there'll always be a next time." She sounded grave but Sakura felt hopeful. She needed to prove her place on the team and a dangerous mission was the best way to do so.
Sakura did get her next chance. But it came and went like a sunrise. She thought so often about the fear paralyzing her limbs, her brain telling her what to do but the cowardice running within her refusing to listen.
She thought of it so often.
And once the fear ran off, the battles ended, and she went home, she grabbed the knife.
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empathy (rewritten 2019)
Fanfictionthe fourth shinobi war is over. konoha, among the other villages, have settled into a peaceful era of recovery and nonviolence. but years after the war and years into their recovery, on a spring march day, sakura haruno decides. and the journey of h...
