Naruto stumbled as he skittered backwards, his shoulder meeting his front door with a solid thump with his mouth sputtering in surprise. "Ha—you—what—um—uh—heeeeey...?"

Sakura cocked an eyebrow, looking much like her father when he found something interesting. "Good morning to you too, Uzumaki." She shut the door behind her, locked it with her key, and started down the metal staircase. Naruto blinked a few times before physically shaking himself out of his stupor and quickly made his own way down the steps after fumbling with his own lock.

"H-Hold up!" he called. She didn't slow down, but cast an inquiring look over her shoulder. "You're Sakura, right? From the Academy? In my class? For the last, like, five years?"

"Yes."

"Oh." They walked in silence for a little while before he decided to speak up again. "So you moved in next door, huh? Does 'at mean you don't got any parents neither?"

"Don't have any parents either," she corrected inattentively. "And yes, I don't. Any more questions for me, Uzumaki?"

Naruto hummed as his face scrunched up in thought. He'd never really talked this much with Sakura before. In fact, he never really talked to her at all during the years they'd been taught. Her and the dude with the dog were gone at least half the time, and when they were in class, they paid as much attention as he did. Which was nada. So he peered up at her curiously, miffed that she was at least a few inches taller than him. "A couple a' years ago in detention—didja really punch Ami in the nose?"

Sakura snorted and allowed a small grin. "The reason why she was gone for a month was because she didn't want anyone to see her 'broken and bruised face ruining the gods' version of perfection!'." Her imitation made her raise her voice to a nasally octave and threw Naruto in for such a loop that he barked out an incredulous laugh before slapping his hands over his mouth and reduced himself to poorly concealed amusement. Her lips quirked up a tad higher at that until they stopped at a fork in a road that each led to a different set of training grounds. "We split here. You're part of Team Seven, right?"

"Yup! And you're... uh..."

"Eight," she finished with faint traces of amusement. Turning left towards her path, she threw up her hand in a casual wave. "See you around, Uzumaki."

He stared after her blankly with a strange expression on his face. But just as quickly as it came, it left, and he cheerfully waved at her back. "Dattebayo! Bye, Sakura!" Naruto ran down his own path, past the trees and the shimmering streams of light that filtered through the leaves.

::

"There's something about you, hm. I just can't put my finger on it."

It was the customary quiet at Akatsuki's cavern hidden in Wind Country. With the meeting over and nothing much more to stick around for, only two pairs lingered behind. Deidara, one of the four remaining, idly tossed a ball of clay from hand to hand.

Kisame glanced up from the kunai he was sharpening. "There's lots of shit about me, kid. What's got you so pegged?"

"I'm not a kid, un."

"Coulda fooled me," he grinned. His pointed teeth glimmered in the low light. "So. What's this something?"

Deidara frowned and pointed. "That. That exactly, un."

"Not followin', kid."

"It's just—ugh, how the hell are you so friendly, hm?" he groaned. Ever since Deidara was 'recruited', he resolved himself to be in the company of some of the morally inept people the shinobi community had to offer. On top of being strong, ruthless, S-class criminals, there was no way they could be remotely pleasant without a twist; Sasori had a respectable craft but was a nightmare, Itachi was a fucking dick, Hidan was an unstable fucking dick, Kakuzu was downright mental, and Kisame—

Well, he was twirling his kunai between his fingers, looking at him like he really was a little kid asking a curious question. "You want me to act like I'll gut you any second? 'Cause I can if you want."

"You know that's not what I meant, hm," Deidara said. He crossed his arms. Kisame laughed and stood, his huge frame a tower as he picked up Samehada and slung it across his back.

"The universe won't do shit for you if you spend it all being a bitter old man. Be happy when you can—people like us don't got all the time in the world for it."

There was something in his eyes then. It was sad and lonely, undulating and swirling before it returned to the beady blackness of a jaded shinobi. He saluted Deidara lazily before walking down one of the carved hallways of the cavern, probably looking for that asshole partner of his.

"... the hell are you on about, un?"

::

If Team Eight was going to succeed, then everything had to be bared out in the open with no subtleties to hide behind. So, as Sakura appeared on the training field at 8:16 in the morning while her two other teammates ran their assigned fifty laps around the training grounds, Kurenai gestured her forward and spoke in a low tone the other two tried to strain to hear. "I do want an explanation as to why you've decided to cover your true abilities, Sakura."

The girl sighed in resignation, seeming to have fully expected the statement. "Yes, ma'am. Will I answer in front of my whole team as well?"

"... No. You don't need to," Kurenai decided. "But I'd like to take some of your time after practice, if that's alright."

Sakura bobbed her head. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Now you have sixty-six laps to make up. I expect them to be finished within two hours."

She nodded again, and when she briefly met her teacher's eyes, Kurenai couldn't help but think of how she'd been able to make them look so cold.

Kiba sidled up to his friend once she entered the sides of the clearing to run her rounds and bared his teeth in a cheeky grin. "Got caught?"

"Yes," Sakura grunted unhappily. His grin grew wider, but she elbowed him in the ribs for his trouble and picked up her pace, leaving him sputtering and yelling behind her.

::

Kurenai found herself at her dinner table by seven in the evening with a steaming cup of tea at her elbow and her students' files laid out in the open. Sakura sat across from her, her hands clasped around a cup of black coffee as her eyes quickly scanned the documents presented.

"So, what exactly is the reasoning behind this cover up of your true potential?" the elder inquired curiously. She wasn't necessarily upset about the turn of events but was interested at the fact that she'd never seen a case like this before.

Sakura responded without looking up. "Misdirection."

"Explain."

"When people look through Academy student's files to assign them to teams or scrutinize their abilities, they base them off superficial judgments without looking deeper than the surface. Why would they dig? We're considered barely genin," she began. She took a sip of her coffee. "And with being barely genin, we're still widely regarded as children, save for the occasional prodigy. As children, we're expected to do the best we can in those six years because we want to be the fastest, the strongest, the smartest, the best. We're expected to do the best so we're assigned the correct teacher and teammates to hone in the skill set that we're expected to uptake. But as children, we're not expected to think about fundamentals, so no one really cares that they're being watched, and because I'm not expected to understand this much of the system, I can very well work against it as much as I've been allowed."

Kurenai suddenly felt very much out of her element. Of course she was a shinobi and was practically the definition of deception, but this...

Sakura set her mug down and crossed her arms. "No one pays attention to those who aren't in the top ten or the last ten. The top ten are written off as those who'll most likely pass chuunin rank, and the last ten are given remedial courses to help their development. I kept myself in the middle because I know that's where no one would find me, and they haven't for all the years I've been at the Academy. Unfortunately, though, you noticed and there was no way I was going to be able to back out of it." Her lips turned down in mild disappointment. "But I suppose it was about time. With three on one training and full access to my information, I would've been found out sooner or later."

She watched as her teacher quickly picked up the leftmost folder and scanned through it like she'd probably done a hundred times before. Average, average, average, average—

"So everything in here is a lie?!"

"Things like my times, accuracy, and IQ? Yes. In short, your Archives know nothing tangible about me."

Kurenai sat back in her chair, the jarring truth hammering at her skull. The situation, for lack of a better term, was unbelievable. There were no falsities to be found in her logic. Shinobi were proud and weren't afraid to show it—they never would've thought a young child would use that vice against them. But yet, a clearer question still stood unanswered.

"Why don't you want to be recognized for the things you can do?"

Sakura tapped her fingers against her bicep for a few moments, her mouth pressed into a thin line and her answer rolling lightly at the tip of her tongue. "Knowledge is a very dangerous thing, sensei. I know I'm here to fulfill my duty under the Hokage, but if I'm able to do so without being kept in a spotlight, then that's where the true shinobi lies, isn't it?"

Then that's where the true shinobi lies, isn't it?

"That's right..." Kurenai murmured, mostly to herself. She tapped her chin with her finger. On the barest level, shinobi were indeed creatures that lurked in the shadows who wore lies like armor and hid their skill in the farthest depths of their heart. They were meant to be the unknown; the questionable, and they were doing no favors for themselves by showcasing their skills like the power pageant that was the last test of the chuunin exams. "... And if I brought this up to Hokage-sama? What then?"

"It's in your full jurisdiction to do what you like, sensei. It's my fault for being so careless anyways," shrugged Sakura. She gave a sharp, shark-like grin. "But no matter how many times you decide to re-test me, I'll continue to be 'average'. Nothing in that file will change if I have anything to say about it."

While at this point there was nothing else that could be said about her train of thought and the outstanding reasons behind it, there was still something Kurenai didn't quite understand. All of this... intricacy and desire to be the epitome of a shadow was work no one else wanted to uptake, yet a twelve year old orphan was carrying the duty on her shoulders like it was the weight of the world.

She straightened and regarded her new student with one last question. "What's your endgame? As in, what could possibly benefit you by doing all of this?"

Sakura's eyes dimmed then and the smile slipped off her face in a show of mute blankness. It was then she spoke a single line so engraved in her bones that she would never forget it, one that Kurenai wouldn't find the importance of until much, much further down the line.

"I will be an exemplary shinobi, or I will be nothing at all."

::

It was nine in the evening when Sakura walked down the thinning streets to her apartment. With her hands stuffed in the pockets of her black pants, she grimaced silently at the turn of events that came with the first official day of her genin training. She was outed, spoke the truth to Kurenai, and she was more than likely going to be exposed to the Hokage regardless of her wishes.

Before she came to Konoha, the Akatsuki wanted to train her with the sole purpose of exploiting her skills for the better of the organization. But Papa never liked that. He never told her specifically, but she learned to pick up on his tells on how much he didn't want her to be part of the organization. He always told her she was too good for something like that and she'd be free one day, he just didn't know how yet. And every time she pushed and asked why she couldn't stay, why she couldn't work under Leader, why she couldn't be just like him, it always boiled down to the same thing.

"Because I'm not a good man."

She scowled and tucked her chin further into her chest as she weaved down the road to her place.

What was she going to do now?

::

Hiruzen observed the genin sensei standing in a line before him, arranged according to their team numbers. After the first official day of training, he made sure to go through each jounin to ensure there were no abnormalities or concerns with their young charges.

"—uto still retains a vigorous rivalry with Sasuke and Hinata tries to mediate as much as she can while within Naruto's proximity, but I suspect things will mellow with time. They passed the bell test. Barely, but they managed," Kakashi smiled. "Other than that, there are no problems, sir."

The Sandaime nodded once before moving his gaze to the next shinobi in line. "Yuuhi Kurenai leading Team Eight consisting of Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, and Sakura. Are there any anomalies?"

There was quiet for a brief moment. Kurenai met her Hokage's kind eyes with determination blaring in her own and, simply, spoke the truth.

"There's nothing to report, sir. No problems have arisen."

Hiruzen smiled and dipped his head. "Very well. Now..."

As he turned to address the person to Kurenai's left, he missed the way she let her gaze drop guiltily to the floor.

::

First, a Stumble [Rewrite] cover by TheAngelKonan !

and fanart by anonymous!