You're not weaker than them, just different (Comfy-vember day 12)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
It had been almost 2 months since Sakura had begun her training with Tsunade, and yet not much had changed in her state of mind.
Despite all she was learning, she was still light years behind Naruto and Sasuke, who were considerably stronger than her, in any field.
That was why she had asked Tsunade to train her.
Sasuke had deserted the village to learn from Orochimaru, one of the legendary Sannin.
Naruto had gone to train with Jiraya, another of the legendary Sannin.
So if she wanted to keep up with them, she had to learn from the 3rd legendary Sannin: Tsunade.
And by some miracle, the Hokage had agreed to take her on as an apprentice. And although she was learning a great deal at Tsunade's side, she had the feeling that it wasn't enough.
So she went on, and on, and on. She had to get there. She had to close the gap between them. She had to.
So she trained relentlessly, sometimes spending hours on the same exercise until she got it just right.
But it still wasn't enough.
Naruto and Sasuke were both much too strong for her, and she felt that no matter what she did, it would never be enough to catch up to them.
Luckily, Tsunade was there to keep her on the straight and narrow.
One evening, night had already fallen but Sakura was still training. Tsunade had told her that they could only move on to the next stage of her training once she had passed that stage.
To do this, she had to master her chakra to perfection, running it through all the veins of a leaf without piercing it, before finally piercing it at the top, at two distinct points.
And she was doing rather well. She hadn't been accidentally piercing leaves for several dozen already, but for the moment, her two voluntary perforations at the end weren't as clean as the ones Tsunade had shown her nearly 10 hours ago.
Yes, she'd been doing the same exercise for 10 hours, with no breaks other than the occasional drink. If Iruka-Sensei saw her, he'd probably scold her for pushing herself too hard.
But he wasn't there, and to be honest, the young woman had lost track of time and had barely realized that night had fallen on Konoha.
In fact, she only stopped when she heard footsteps behind her. "I've trained a bunch of kids, but I've rarely seen any as tenacious as you." Tsunade said as she approached.
"Tsunade-sensei." Sakura said simply.
"How long have you been here?"
Sakura didn't answer immediately, looking around and realizing at that moment that it was night. "Um... how long has it been since you showed me this exercise?" She asked, knowing that she hadn't stopped since.
Tsunade frowned. "You've been here all day?"
"Yes, Tsunade-sensei."
"Okay, you're definitely working too hard Sakura. You can't train as intensively as that, you'll end up wearing yourself out before you manage to do anything."
"I don't have time to stop. I've got to get stronger. Naruto and Sasuke are already much stronger than me, and they're getting better every day. If I hope to catch up with them, I don't have time to rest."
After saying this, Sakura dropped onto a low stump, resting her elbows on her knees and taking her head in her hands. "I don't even know why I bother. I'm so much weaker than they are and always will be. No amount of training will ever change that."
There was a short silence before Tsunade stepped forward and Sakura felt a hand on her shoulder. She raised her head and saw that the Hokage had crouched in front of her, a hand on her shoulder and a serious face.
"You're not weaker than them, Sakura, just different. Your team-mates may surpass you in brute strength, but that's not what makes them better. The medical ninjutsu I'm teaching you will enable you to heal them and allow them to continue fighting, and to survive. No matter how powerful they are, if no one is there to heal them, they will die on the battlefield. What you're learning to do is far more complicated than simply sending chakra balls at your opponents. One is not necessarily better than the other, but there has to be a balance in everything. Your work is just as important as theirs."
Tsunade had said all this without ever taking her eyes off the younger girl, and her words screamed truth and experience, and Sakura wondered if she was speaking from experience, before deciding that wasn't the important thing. She nodded, remotivated, and Tsunade squeezed her shoulder briefly before straightening up.
"And stop comparing yourself to them. Sasuke is an Uchiha and Naruto is ridiculously powerful. Comparing yourself to them is pointless. You're Sakura Haruno and nobody expects you to start throwing chakra balls at every turn. Your job is to make sure your teammates can do that."
Saying this, Tsunade took a few steps away, picking up some of the leaves Sakura had been practicing on.
"Your mastery of chakra is impressive." Congratulated the Hokage sincerely.
"My incisions are not yet as precise as yours." The younger woman argued, straightening up in turn.
"I've been doing this for decades and you've only been doing it for a few hours. It’s a good sign that my tracings are more precise than yours. But you're well on your way. Show me how you do it." Tsunade asked, handing her a new leaf, much thinner and more fragile than the ones Sakura had been practicing on.
But the young woman decided to give it a try, taking the leaf between her fingers and concentrating on it.
Tsunade then watched as her protégée perfectly traced the lines of the leaf with her chakra, without ever piercing the thin layer. And the two final holes were more than satisfactory.
"Perfect. Now we can move on to the next step."
"Really?" Sakura asked, hopeful.
"Yes, but tomorrow. In the meantime go wash up, eat something and get some sleep. And don't let me see you before 10 o'clock tomorrow morning." Said the Sannin, already starting to walk away.
Sakura simply nodded, but didn't set off immediately, wanting at least to cleaned up some of the leaves she'd used.
"By the way, Sakura." Tsunade called.
Sakura turned just in time to see that the Hokage had just thrown something at her. By reflex, she caught what was flying at her and then looked to see what it was.
A pair of gloves?
Confused, she raised her head and questioned her mentor with her eyes.
"These will come in handy for tomorrow's training. Don't forget them." Tsunade exclaimed, already walking away.
Sakura, a little puzzled, looked at the gloves again, trying to work out why she could possibly need gloves, but quickly gave up. Not for the first time, the Hokage's directions didn't make sense until they actually started training.
So, as always, Sakura decided to trust Tsunade and carefully kept the gloves.
And good for her, because the next day, Tsunade began teaching her how to smash rocks with her bare hands. Hence the gloves. A very practical gift indeed.
@comfy-vember
