Ah! A Battle Goddess [ON HIATUS]

In the short amount of time since Sakura had become a Genin, she has experienced true helplessness three times in her life.

The first time it happened was in a mission in the land of waves, their team had been given small D-rank missions to complete for a couple of weeks and the mission that time had been to escort a master bridge-builder and it was a C-rank mission. Everything had seemed to be going smoothly until two kiri-nin ambushed them, Sakura jumped in to defend Mr. Tazuna from the attacks but was momentarily saved by Sasuke. Kakashi-sensei then proceeded to easily defeat the two kiri-nin and figured out that the reason why they targeted Mr Tazuna was due to him being hunted down and thus, making the mission B-rank or higher.

Soon after they came across a man named Zabuza, Demon of the Hidden Mist. Although suspicious if this was an actual demonic attack, Zabuza was purely human so Sakura played her role as an inexperienced Genin facing a ruthless killer. While she stayed behind to watch over the master bridge-builder, Kakashi-sensei had fought against Zabuza. With a bit of ingenious help from Naruto and Sasuke, their Sensei was able to gain the upper hand but before he could give the final blow, a hunter-nin killed Zabuza and took his body away.

Within a couple of days, Zabuza and Kakashi-sensei met yet again and fought another ruthless battle. The hunter-nin was named Haku, and he turned out to have been working with Zabuza. Haku had lured Naruto and Sasuke away into their own battle and Sakura was once again left to guard Mr. Tazuna. She watched with worry as Naruto and Sasuke kept getting stabbed with needles, she watched as Kakashi spilled as much blood as his enemy, and she watched as Sasuke collapsed on the floor due to a huge amount of needles stabbing him to protect Naruto.

Her body begged her to move and take care of the situation. As a Battle Goddess, this would be child’s play for her but both her mission and due to her pride as a Goddess, she refrained from doing so. After all, she was not allowed to interfere in human affairs unless demonic forces were at play. Thus far, this senseless battle was the result of human greed, therefore she had no right to interfere in it. She hadn’t known the feeling of being completely helpless in a millennia, it rubbed her the wrong way to know that these were her limits until she could be able to release more of her power according to human standards.

In a tragic turn of events, Haku sacrificed himself by taking a chidori for Zabuza. The corrupt leader emerged from seemingly nowhere and tried to dispose of him with a mercenary group, but to everyone’s surprise, with two broken arms and many stab wounds, Zabuza managed to reach the corrupt leader and kill him. The mercenary group fled in fear and for one final moment, Zabuza was able to lie down next to Haku and drift into death. 

Holding her hands together, quietly without nobody’s notice, Sakura sang the ‘Song of Light’, granting the tragic man’s last request and letting him and Haku reunite in the afterlife.

The second time Sakura used her powers was during the Chunin Exams. Her team had successfully managed to pass the first half of the exam, a written test where all members had to get the same scores. However, the second part of the exam was more challenging than she anticipated. The goal was to obtain both ‘Heaven’ and ‘Earth’ scrolls in the Forest of Death, then bring them back to the tower in the middle of the forest, but doing so had been far more dangerous and even more challenging. 

Although her team had been able to obtain the scrolls, the real battle began when a woman with long black hair in a hay sunhat had disguised herself as Naruto. After Sasuke had managed to decipher her tricks, she revealed her true form with a cloud of smoke. As she declared the Battle of the Scrolls to begin, she casted an illusion strong enough to root Sakura in her place, the image had been quick but it was far too detailed to not feel like reality. In the illusion, Sakura saw her own death at the hands of the mysterious woman. Because she lacked the skills to use her powers like humans used theirs, she wasn’t able to break through the enchantment. Luckily before the kunai could touch her, Sasuke had stabbed himself and thrown both of them away from the weapons. 

The way the woman moved was too snake-like, but these were still her own human abilities. So once more, Sakura could not directly interfere in the battle as she once again watched a petrified Sasuke and a reckless Naruto fight against the woman and her Beast Snake. In one swift motion, Naruto had stopped the Beast Snake from attacking a shocked Sasuke. The young deity felt her heart in her throat from just watching the scene play, unable to help due to her set limitations. 

The mystery woman managed to knock out the blond boy, tossing him aside as if he was an object. Sakura moved before she could think, this is one thing she could do right now, she threw herself forward from the branch and managed to catch Naruto before he could hit the ground. She held him securely once they reached the ground and gave the unnamed woman a fierce stare, seeing her hesitate just for a second. “You will not get away with this!” she yelled.

The woman chuckled at her antics, but before she could say anything Sasuke had barreled her with kunais and shurikens, starting yet another battle for survival. His eyes glowed red and two black tomes floated in his irises, his reaction time and speed had increased a bit more, and it seemed he was matching the woman in the battle. Punches, kicks and fireballs were exchanged between them and in a decisive maneuver, Sasuke had managed to trap the woman with metal wire to a tree and then incinerated her with his flames.

With a proud smile, Sakura gently laid Naruto against a tree and rushed to her exhausted teammate's side, “You did it Sasuke-kun! You took her down!” The raven haired boy had been leaning on his knees, panting at his lack of stamina, but he gave Sakura a glance and the faint ghost of a proud smirk at her remark.

Before he could utter a word, the young kunoichi felt her body tense and a great invisible weight forced her on her knees. The woman’s face had melted, showing grey skin and a snake eye from the left side that had tore apart. Her voice was now masculine, and she still had a condescending smile on her lips. “I would have never thought such a young child could wield so much of the Sharingan, seeing as how new it is still to you. You might even surpass your brother in the future.”

Sasuke tensed at the words, scowling “Who are you?!”

The woman chuckled, “My name is Orochimaru.” Her hands formed an odd hand seal which let her neck stretch from where she was standing and speed towards Sasuke. Her fangs sunk into his neck and then she retracted her head, “I enjoyed watching your various powers,” she laughed “I look forward to seeing them grow, Uchiha Sasuke.” and then her body morphed with the tree bark and vanished.

Once Orochimaru had disappeared, Sakura was able to move her body again and catched Sasuke as he squirmed and groaned in pain. He held his neck where he had been bitten, and Sakura could see a three-tome seal had formed in the same spot. “Hold on, Sasuke!” he gripped her hand tightly while trying to suppress his grunts. “It’ll be okay, just hold on it’ll pass!” she worryingly exclaimed, the sun had begun to set and it encased the entire forest in an orange glow. With a final yell of pain, Sasuke collapsed on her unconscious. She held him closed and tried her best to not lose focus.

On the verge of frustrated tears, Sakura had created a crevice big enough to act as a tent in one of the huge and old trees of the forest. Making makeshift pillows from both boys’s weapons pouches, she laid them down on soft moss and watched over them until night passed. The sun had risen again and Sakura was on the verge of sleep but she willed herself to stay alert in case she needed to defend her teammates. Her stomach growled in hunger and her eyelids felt heavy, nevertheless she refused to fall asleep.

The third and final time happened as the sun rose in the sky’s early morning.

“A sleepless night watch?” said an uninterested voice. Sakura’s head turned to the speaker, a teenager with a bandaged face and sleeves that reached the floor with beige fur on his back. Next to him was another teenage boy with spiked black hair and a girl with long dark brown hair that wore a beige vest and camo grey pants. The same teenager spoke again, “Wake up Sasuke. We want a fight.”

Sakura frowned at them, not sparing a single word to them. In the next second, all three ninjas jumped to attack her, but Sakura had anticipated ambushes so she set off one of the traps she built. 

In total, she had prepared five traps. Each becoming more and more dangerous, but not deadly, as they got closer to the tree. And each time, the three teenagers would manage to evade or block the attacks, growing more and more impatient by the second. ‘If they manage to reach me,’ she thought worryingly, ‘i won’t be able to fight back’. The pink haired kunoichi gripped the kunai tighter, creating tactics in her mind to disarm her opponents without injuring them. 

After they had passed the final trap, Sakura braced herself for their anger. However, before they could even think of reaching her, a green blur had pushed them back. 

Rock Lee. The boy who had confessed his undying love for her before the first part of the exam, she watched him with surprise as he declared he would defend her until his last breath and then proceeded to fight the bloodlusting group. In the end, their methods were more advanced and more ruthless than Lee could keep up with and Sakura rushed to his side to try and protect him despite knowing there was nothing she could truly do.

Before she could reach him, the girl of the group had pulled her back into the group by her long pink curls, keeping her in a kneeling position while taunting her for her uselessness. It was then when she finally let a tear run down, because the girl was not wrong. She could help with healing or knowledge, but she could not fight back. Even if they were wicked humans, as a Goddess, she could not harm them. 

Just as her tear dropped to the ground, it froze in midair. Time had stood still, the sky lighted up in a heavenly light, and a message was given to her:

“Battle access granted temporarily for four minutes. Remember to cause no fatal harm to the humans, doing so could end in disciplinary action in the future.”

Then just as quickly, time had once more resumed, the tear finally reaching the ground. With a newfound resolution, the young kunoichi gripped the kunai in her hand. Bringing it upwards and slicing off the long locks of pink hair she had grown out, they had been tenderly cared for and grown out because it was something that reminded her of the people she cared for back in Heaven.

Now, she will use the short strands to remind her of her strength and of those who have protected her when she was unable to do anything else but watch.

‘One day, I will finally be able to protect you all.’ she swore. Making the best of the four precious minutes given to her, Sakura was able to once more act as a warrior.