Chapter 14: Rabid Dog
Sakura stared at the Will of Fire — Third Hokage in her hand and couldn't help but feel underwhelmed. If she wrote this book, even the filler would have more substance than this hollow mess.
The entire thing boiled down to four words: Loyal to Hokage, love your village.
She tossed the book aside and stretched. Half a day sitting in a classroom — time to move.
She closed her eyes and let her mind go blank, gearing up for training.
The rest of the class was out on the grounds practicing shuriken. She could faintly hear Iruka screaming at Naruto.
Something about a "Shuriken Scatter Technique"…
Something about a "self-invented super-advanced jutsu"…
Something about "no more making up ridiculous techniques"…
A breeze carrying the earthy scent of rain-soaked dirt drifted through the window, stirring her hair. Then a chill crawled down her spine, and a shadow fell across her.
Sakura's eyes snapped open.
A face hovered inches from hers — a face that could only be described as hollow. Despair and death, carved into features far too young.
"Sasuke?"
She blinked in surprise.
Why was he here? Shouldn't he be—
"Sakura Haruno."
The words came out flat. Emotionless. Like something mechanical.
"Hm? What is it?"
"Fight me."
Sasuke's eyes were vacant. Overnight, everyone he'd ever loved had vanished.
His stern father. His gentle mother. And—
And that scum, Itachi Uchiha.
I was so weak I wasn't even worth killing…
For such a pathetic reason…
"To test the limits of my ability" — and he murdered all those innocent people!
Every warm memory — every moment of family, of happiness, of something that felt like home — shattered like glass in Sasuke's mind.
Everything that had seemed so real, so warm, so close — Itachi had cut it all away with a single blade.
I'm too weak. Not just against Itachi.
Even here at school, Sakura Haruno has been ahead of me the entire time.
"No."
"I've got things to do. I don't have time for this — and honestly, Sasuke, I think you should go home and take care of—"
Sakura gathered her things as she spoke.
A palm slammed into her desk with a deafening crack, cutting her off.
"Do you look down on me too?!"
Sasuke's face twisted, raw and unhinged, as he snarled at her.
The word home had detonated something inside him.
Home?
What home?
He didn't have one anymore.
Sakura frowned, suppressing her irritation.
"Sasuke, I think right now you should—"
A fist cut through the air an inch from her face, the wind scattering her pink hair. If she'd been a fraction slower, it would've connected.
Stronger. Stronger. STRONGER.
Sasuke attacked like a wild animal — a flurry of strikes, reckless and savage.
To kill Itachi, he needed power. And the girl who'd always been better than him was the first wall to break through.
Sakura wove through his attacks — chaotic, sloppy, fueled by nothing but rage — watching him with furrowed brows.
"Sasuke — if you don't stop, I'm going to stop being polite about it."
That only made it worse.
"Stop being polite"?
Is she saying she's been going EASY on me?
The fury consuming Sasuke burned hotter. One thought pounded through his skull.
Beat her. BEAT HER.
But watching this broken, frenzied boy, Sakura felt her anger quietly dissolve. What replaced it was something closer to pity.
He was like an abandoned dog.
One that couldn't accept what had happened — and was lashing out at the world.
Sakura retreated step by step. Sasuke advanced step by step.
Her back hit the wall.
A dull thud echoed through the empty classroom.
Sasuke's eyes went wide.
She'd caught his fist. One hand. No effort.
Sakura held his fist in her grip, unmoved no matter how hard he pulled or twisted.
"See the difference?"
"Between you and me."
Her calm words landed like stones. Sasuke thrashed harder, trying to wrench free — kicking, pulling, clawing — but Sakura didn't budge. She might as well have been carved from rock.
When he tried to swing with his free hand, Sakura slowly forced his captured fist downward.
Sasuke's body followed, driven toward the floor by nothing more than her grip.
"AAAARGH!!!"
He screamed — wild, guttural. And then he saw it. In her eyes.
Pity.
Since when do I need anyone's PITY?!
"Taking out your pain on someone else — that's beneath you, Sasuke."
"Especially when that someone is your classmate."
Green eyes looked down at the struggling boy without a flicker of malice.
"And besides—"
She caught herself. Bit back the words.
She wasn't supposed to know any of that.
"Besides — you can see for yourself. You can't beat me."
"I'll accept your challenge. But I won't accept this version of you — the one attacking like a rabid dog."
"Go home, Sasuke."
She released him.
Freed from her grip, Sasuke stood motionless. At some point, tears had begun streaming down his face. He said nothing.
Sakura glanced at him, offered no further words, and walked past.
"Sakura Haruno."
A choked voice, barely holding together.
"I will beat you."
In the Hokage's office, Hiruzen puffed on his pipe and watched the crystal ball in silence.
He thought of Itachi's parting request — and felt a headache building behind his eyes.
Every Uchiha who awakened the Mangekyō was a lunatic…
Madara. Itachi. All of them.
In this moment, he finally understood why his teacher — Tobirama Senju — had refused to send the Uchiha to the front lines, assigning them to the Konoha Military Police instead.
The stronger the Sharingan evolved, the more warped the mind behind it became. The Mangekyō only amplified that.
Extreme methods. Extreme emotions.
If the Uchiha had been deployed en masse to a battlefield — that many unstable, obsessive shinobi in one place — it would have been a catastrophe.