Preventing The Inevitable

Chapter 1

Haruno Sakura was by no means "talented". At least, that's what she thought.

Though she had worked her way up through hours and hours of training until she could proudly call herself one of the strongest women (and sometimes people, when she was feeling particularly confident) to ever live, there was something fundamentally different about the "gifted" people she often found herself surrounded with.

They were on this entirely different level that granted them the ability to succeed in anything, as long as they tried enough.

It was a level she could've never reached, no matter how many more hours of Tsunade's bone-crushing training she endured and how many more volumes of books she read until she knew the words by heart, because Naruto and Sasuke were continuously achieving things she couldn’t even begin to dream of in a span of months.
They – Sasuke for sure – could've probably learned the arts of healing, if only they had enough time. She wasn't special for being somewhat good at healing. She wasn't "the only one in her team that could heal", the others just didn't do it.

She 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 there was nothing that made her unique.

Nothing made her special in the face of the protégées her team consisted of.

No technique that only she could do.

Nothing that people would specifically require her, Haruno Sakura, for, because it was only a matter of time before they were miles better than her in everything she built up for herself.

That's right, in this endless war between the (remaining) Allied Shinobi Forces and Kaguya's army, it was only a matter of time before she was the useless one again and the others could do what she could do but better.

She had learned to come to terms with that fact long ago. That she could never be like them.

Don't get her wrong, her self-esteem was nowhere near low, she knew she was strong. Maybe never as strong at the boys but still strong enough and that was what mattered. As long as they all survived, it didn't matter if she couldn't even begin to compare herself to them. Sasuke and Naruto acknowledged her powers. They knew she was someone they could rely on.

The problem was the others.

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When it got to 7 years of war, nobody really remembered that there had been a time when everyone hated Naruto and considered Sasuke a traitor.
Now, they were the heroes of the Shinobi Forces. The pillars. The strongest. They were what kept the shinobi's morale high and the sole reason they could hold on this long.

But Sakura? Sakura was the same as before the war and everyone knew. She was still the weakest. She was still a burden.

Like that time when Ino threw herself in front of Kaguya's rod to save Sakura who hadn't been able to pay attention because of the dangerous levels of chakra she was losing to her summons, healing the people on the battlefield.

Or that other time when Kakashi told her to escape while he bought time, effectively leaving him to die fighting the Rabbit Goddess.

She and Kakashi got called a lot of names for that one.