Tsuyoku: This is my new story. Don't worry, I'm going to have Sound Sleep and Tempt of Fate updated soon if you guys are also following those stories. If you aren't and you like this story then I encourage you to check those out. Well, here's a new one that I just suddenly thought about when I was exercising one day... You'll see how the name comes into play soon enough. ^.^

CopyCat

She had never had a special move or amazing powers. Sakura was just the damsel in distress until she became obsessed with proving them all wrong... namely one man.

Sakura felt like a failure...

She sat with her back against a tree, holding back tears as to not seem more weak than she'd already proven herself to be. The girl held her face in sweaty hands that smelled of the grass she'd been gripping not two seconds ago. Every time she blinked, Neji's face came back to her mind; the look he'd given her was of a condescending disgust—mostly at the state in which he had found her.

Not that he had 'found' her in the first place, Sakura noted. Neji was there to rescue her from captivity that resulted from a stupid mistake on a mission Tsunade had assigned her and Naruto. The obnoxious blond and she had split up in the forest and Sakura had been the one that got captured by a rogue nin. Naruto had obviously gone for help when he couldn't find her.

It had only been a day, not even twenty-four hours, but the time had crept slowly and painfully in that bare room. She'd been alone save the nin who read a book in the corner, obviously waiting for her cavalry. He had his guard down reading a book less than a yard from her! And she was helpless to do anything. The first thing Sakura had noticed was the lack of restraint to anything in particular, but as she struggled to rise, her legs and arms wouldn't move.

Sakura shook her pink head clear of the memories and lifted herself from the ground grasping the canteens as she rose. She'd been gone long enough and was now forced to return to the campsite, where she was sure the rest of the 'rescue squad' was waiting for water. But Sakura vowed to pretend she didn't know what they were all thinking even though Sakura was thinking the same thing.

Why had Tsunade sent someone as incompetent in the field as she was out on an A-rank mission? Sure, she'd completed six or seven A-ranks successfully, but this one had been the first that only requested two ninjas tops.

'I'm being a nuisance again, just like in the Chuunin exams. Why do I always have to be the damsel in distress? Is there any hope that I may one day prove them all wrong?' Sakura cursed herself for doing so much to tone down her 'Inner Sakura' monologues. Sometimes the girl needed some help and encouragement from her split personality, especially right now.

By the time she entered the campsite area, Sakura had composed herself to her fullest but still was uncertain about facing the disappointed stares: namely from the silver-eyed Hyuuga. But when she reached the center, she was surprised that only Choji sat poking at the fire.

"Where are the others?" Sakura handed him a canteen as she spoke, and he didn't reply until he had taken a hearty helping of the fresh water inside.

Wiping his mouth, Choji began, "Neji wandered off somewhere; don't ask me. Naruto said something about going to get something to eat, though I think he'll have trouble in this area." Sakura assumed that Choji regretted not carrying much food with him these days, even after sliming down so much. Grasping her abdomen, she sat near the small fire and turned the canteen to her own lips in hopes that some water might fill the empty spaces in her stomach.

"Hmm." Was all she said, for there was nothing that she would rather talk about to her quiet companion at that point. He was more talkative than some of the genin that she'd grown up around, which was more than Neji or... Sasuke could ever say. But truthfully, Sakura had nothing in common with the former team-ten member.

So her back collapsed against a nearby fallen tree, and she closed her eyes, glad to not have to encounter Neji and his degrading stares for the time being. However, she wouldn't be so lucky when it came time to return to Konoha the next morning; it would be impossible to avoid the pride-filled clan member, though most days Sakura was tempted tell him to shove something big and blunt where the sun didn't shine for all she cared when it came to his ego.

It was like her tedious nature when it came to her hair back in the day. When Sakura let her obsession to be beautiful fade, it made her a better ninja, maybe it would work for him if he actually talked to people instead of looking down his nose at them. Through her closed eyes, the scene with the now dead nin played back at her on repeat, including Neji's face when he looked at her.

But that was best left for later, since Sakura assumed she'd have to recount the entire incident to Tsunade when she returned.

This might just be her last mission for a while, but at the moment, considering her stiff muscles and the embarrassment, Sakura didn't quite mind the thought.

–

As the kunoichi had predicted, it was a long, grueling trip back to the village in which Neji gave her no looks, nor the time of day. In fact, Naruto was the only one who talked to her at all as they hopped from tree to tree, yet it was more casual talk and less affectionate than years prior—thanks to a transfer of attention to a certain female Hyuuga. It took her mind off the impending meeting with the Godaime for a couple of hours until the gates came into view. When they passed through, Neji and Sakura both made a bee-line for the Hokage's office while Choji and Naruto parted their own ways.

"It's about time you returned, Sakura," was her greeting as she completely bypassed Shizune and entered the office. Tsunade had meant to berate her apprentice more but stopped short when Neji followed in after her. The bustful woman was less inclined to embarrass Sakura in front him, and her hazel gaze turned towards Neji.

"Mission Successful." Tsunade nodded once at his announcement, looking at the paper on her desk.

"I assume the ninja has been neutralized."

"Completely." The dark haired man and Tsunade exchanged silent conversation for a moment before he turned on his heel and exited the office, sparing no glance for the pink-haired girl that had stood by his side.

"Sakura," Tsunade poured another glass of sake and leaned back in her chair. "If I decide to forgo yelling at you for causing an uproar, will you explain to me just why I had to send a recovery team for you?" Sakura looked down at the floor, ears red with anger at herself.

"It was a stupid mistake."

"They usually are."

Nodding, she took a seat in front of the desk.

"Naruto and I had the nin in sight and split up to attack from both sides. But I didn't realize that the form I had in sight was a copy and soon I found myself thrown against a tree by the target." She shifted uncomfortably in the chair for a moment, a little antsy about retelling the events. "And that was the last thing I remember before waking up in a bare room underground. The guy was blatantly sitting in the corner with his guard down reading a book; he was so engrossed, it reminded me of Kakashi with his dirty novels."

Tsunade threw a glance towards her apprentice who continued. "Well, I wasn't chained down or anything. There was no good structure to the wall to secure something like that. But I had these weights on my arms and legs. They must have weighed at least a couple hundred pounds because I couldn't move my arms, let alone lift anything to free myself." Sakura sighed. "I was defenseless, and I did not enjoy waiting for someone to rescue me."

Her eyes might have started to tear had she not blinked away the evidence, "And it didn't help that Neji was the one who found me! Can you imagine that? Spread eagle, laying on the floor helpless and who do I get to untangle me? Neji, who already has plenty of reasons to think me weak, why not add another one!" If there were tears before, they were gone; Sakura was in pumped mode.

Tsunade noticed this, and glanced out the window towards the forest. "There were a few trees destroyed today when some genins were training; use some of that extra chakra to patch them up—it'll take your mind off of the mission and Hyuuga." Sakura was about to comment that saving the forest wasn't really going to make her feel better, but past experience with Tsunade made her think better of it.

She lifted from the chair and had half her body out the door when her boss stopped her, "Sakura," the girl turned. "Don't let anything or anyone ever think that you aren't strong. You have many talents that most of the jounins, including Hyuuga, can't boast. Everyone has their areas of expertise."

Easy for her to say, Sakura commented in her mind. She has plenty of signature moves that make her a formidable opponent, I don't even have one.

–

The trees were healing very nicely, and Sakura would admit that relieving some of the extra chakra in her system had served to lessen some of the rage that had built up her chakra supply in the first place. She wiped a few beads of sweat off her brow with a delicate hand wondering if that's how people saw her—delicate.

She'd show them. It was a vow that the rosette had made many times in the past, but this time Sakura was willing to stick with her new goal of becoming someone who didn't need help to finish a mission or have to be rescued. If Naruto and her other teammates through the years had shown her anything it was that enough hard work (and in Naruto's case, yelling and determination) would get you to your goal no matter what.

"Sakura!" She turned around just in time to dodge a large open-armed hug from a large green blob.

"Hi, Lee." She waved her hand a bit in place of the hug. "I'm not really in the mood right now..." Lee saw the light dim for a second in her emerald eyes.

"What's wrong?" He sat down in front of her, eying the half healed tree in the background. As Sakura was pondering a proper, but vague, answer to his question, Lee's hand flew to his leg, itching the spot where his leggings met his spandex. Sakura almost forgot that there were weights under there, it was easy to look over for how hidden they were and with the ease in which he moved.

Wait...That was it!

"Lee, do you think you could help me with something?" Lee saw the motivation come back into her face and boasted that he would oblige anything. "Um, well, I kind of want to learn more and broaden my techniques a little. I don't have any signature moves of my own, so I wanted to learn from some of the others' fighting and training styles to see if I could get a little stronger... I don't want to have to rely on people to get through a mission anymore."

That couple hours of tree healing had left her time to think about just how she would accomplish her goal, and by the look in Lee's eyes Sakura could see that her little speech worked.

"Of course, Sakura! I will help you with any kind of training you want—if it's taijustu and weight training, that is." He rubbed his head sheepishly. "I'm not too good at genjustu or ninjustu. But whatever you need, I'm your man!" Sakura almost sighed; with the body motions and air about him altogether, Lee was becoming more and more like Gai every day—a scary thought to the rest of his friends.

"Good, when shall we begin?"

"How about tomorrow? I don't wanna start you off same day you've come back from a mission. How did that go, by the way?" Lee asked. Sakura made a promise to tell him about it the next day when they met for training, and off he went.

For the meantime, Sakura lay back on the cool grass, glad to have a breeze come into the area. Maybe Lee could help her after all.

–

Neji roamed about his room with a towel around his neck. He had needed a shower after that mission, for more than one reason. Camping out in the forest overnight with barely anything between you and the ground didn't guarantee cleanliness, of course, but it was that kunoichi.

When he'd first burst into the small room below ground that the ninja had been inhabiting, he'd seen Sakura's helpless form spread out on the floor in one of the more creative ways to secure a captive that he'd seen in a while. The way that her eyes had caught his for a brief moment begging him for help but pushing him away at the same time had struck something in Neji, but that was short lived. By the time he'd expended the man and crossed to her to lift the weights easily, the silent man took that as reassurance that she was just another weak wannabe.

But the thought, the image, of her laying there stretched out had been triggered in his mind every time he'd looked in her direction. In the woods, it was hard to miss something so ostentatious, so pink, and it was hard to miss her.

He dressed and stretched his arms and legs, preparing to head out for something to eat before talking to Tsunade about more missions. It was his wish to become ANBU captain someday, and the trials for that were usually aided by a strong successful mission background.

And so the dark-haired jounin exited the Hyuuga Branch estate and headed for town.

Would it be fate's cruel game if he didn't happen to pass by a certain woman on the way back? Neji thought not, as he stared at her form lying in the grass; her red top and white skirt contrasted and complimented the green grass framing her body among the trees' shade.

She would be more attractive if she wasn't so weak, he thought, slightly maliciously. He was angry that the subject even mattered to him in the first place. Not that Neji was interested in attraction: physical, emotional, or otherwise. His goals were set, and nothing would deter him.

As if on cue, said Sakura rolled over on to her stomach and came face to face, eye to eye with Hyuuga Neji as he stood across the dirt path staring at her.

What his reasons were for examining her, Sakura didn't know, nor was she prepared to imagine the possibilities. Even as he turned to continue his walk down the pathway, Sakura followed his lean form until it disappeared behind the trees around her. Neji would actually be attractive if he wasn't so much of an ice cube to everyone, but alas, Sakura had better things to think about, like proving to Neji... and the rest of the Konoha population that she was a strong kunoichi.

She would prove that she deserved the title however long it took.

–

Her training with Lee started early in the morning, so early, in fact, that Sakura was still yawning as she entered the sparring area where Lee was already stretching. Where he got so much energy even before the dawn officially rose, she would never understand. The pink kunoichi was slightly convinced that it had something to do with Gai being his mentor all these years. Both the look-a-likes had the somewhat 'more vigorous than normal' initiative that made the rest of the village just s their heads at. Lee had noticed her chakra even before the cherry-headed female had entered the clearing, and he rose from his lunges to meet her half way.

"My lovely Sakura!" He paused a few feet from her, not oblivious to the fact that she wasn't all awake yet and would probably punch him on reflex should he try anything. "Well, ahem," he coughed for a second. "Would you like to get going?"

Sakura blinked, "What? I thought we were training here..." Lee shook his head.

"Nope, I only said to meet me here. Since you asked me to train you, and this is a somewhat special occasion when my beautiful cherry blossom needs help, I have decided to take you to my special training area that Gai discovered. He taught me well in its boundaries and I will, as well, teach you."

Pft. Whatever, Sakura imagined in her head. He could spare her the speech and get along with letting her kick the shit out of things. She wanted to be able to defeat Neji in any kind of combat before they had their mission together.

She let Lee lead the way, finally noticing the area where trees split into something more open and Lee patted his feet onto the solid ground… where flowers grew all over the clearing.

"No wonder Gai likes this place so much..."

"Did you say something, Sakura?" She shook her head, not wanting to mention that Gai's' taste in training areas seemed to reflect his everyday way of life–she recalled his dances and boasts about "youthfulness" that still scared her to this day. She turned around to see Lee in a stance looking as if he was going to pounce her bones, and before Sakura could react, he did.

The pinkette tried her mightiest to dodge this way and that as he bounced along the forest floor while using the science of his body's fluent movements to attack his opponent. Sakura knew that she was doing barely enough to keep from getting hit, but as she slipped up for the last time, a fervent kick landed square on her side allowing her obliques to scream in pain. She doubled over for a moment, and Lee finally stopped.

"Well, that was a nice warm-up! Let's get started with the hard stuff, shall we?" Sakura looked up at his youthful face; he had to be kidding her. Breathing heavy, she finally rose, clutching her side before letting some of the chakra heal the pulsing pain.

This was going to be a long day.

–

The next few days were exactly the same, until after the fourth session when Lee pulled an object wrapped in cloth out of his satchel. "You will have tomorrow off, but to prepare for our next spar together, you're going to have to wear these everywhere you go." Sakura's suspicions were confirmed when he loosened the cloth and some thin weights appeared.

Well, at least they don't look as heavy as Lee's are. That's a good sign. She reached out her hand to grab one, which immediately pulled her entire body to the soft grass. I was wrong...

"Let me help you with those." Lee took off her boots while she sat unmoving; Sakura noticed that he took his time in removing the shoes from her creamy legs, admiring them, more like. But as long as he did nothing inappropriate, he could look all he wanted. "There. Now, let's just put your shoes back on."

The shin boots that Sakura wore everyday hid the weights just like Lee's abhorent leg warmers did. But even though the anchors were thin, it by no means meant they were any lighter than Lee's were. "All set! Well, I guess I'll see you in two days," Lee started to exit the clearing as Sakura attempted to rise.

"Wait, Lee!" He turned back, knowing what she was going to say by the smirk on his face. "What about me? I can barely move in these things."

"That's why I gave you the next day off. It'll take you that long to get use to even walking in them. But don't worry, my dear Sakura, we shall start off slow when we train again. Be sure of that." And with that, Lee bounced off into the trees towards Konoha.

"Lee!"

–

It had taken her and ungodly amount of time to rise, let alone start walking towards the city, but when she finally reached the roads, where the trees became sparce and the city's lights reached her eyes, it was already starting to become dark. Sakura was livid. Lee could have at least helped her a bit, or warned her before hand, but at the same time she knew that this was the part she was going to have to work on.

Her feet dragged quite heavily through the sandy dirt on the roads, catching it in her toes. Ugh, Sakura knew she was going to have to clean that out as soon as she got home, which would be the perfect place to take the weights off while she slept. It was slightly embarrassing to walk so slow, especially when no one could see the weights on her legs, but it was reassuring that no one in their right mind would be out on the outskirts of town around this time of night.

Neji jumped from tree to tree glad to finally have reached Konoha after such a long mission. The objective had taken but a few hours to carry out, but the travel time back and forth from the Mist had been the greater part of the trip. He hovered on a branch, relaxing at the glow of the city in the fading light of the sky. Home—not that he even really considered it home when he was in the confines of the Hyuuga estate, but the city was his origin no less. At the thought, he grazed his hand lazily over the leaf emblem on his headband but was interrupted by movement from the edge of the forest.

Pink emerged from the leaves into his vision. Haruno? What the hell was she doing out here, and why was she walking so slowly? He focused on her legs, activating his Byakugan to see the weights strapped to her calves. He immediately thought back to the captor's genius way of anchoring her down to the floor and jumped to the ground right in front of her.

Sakura would have flinched when a ninja appeared in front of her so suddenly had she not felt the chakra of someone else in the forest with her, but what she didn't expect was it to be Neji. He was looking at her in an odd way—gaze moving from her face to her legs and then back up to her face again.

"Can I help you?" Ugh, this guy was annoying. First he just jumps in front of her and then he refuses to move while remaining silent.

"Why do you have weights strapped to your legs?" Sakura raised an eyebrow at his question before realizing that he probably saw them with his abilities.

"Because I can," she added. Sakura wished she could have fluently walked around him and continued towards town, but when she moved an inch one way, he blocked her path with his body.

"You realize that you are a sitting duck with such lack of movement out here. What if I had been a ninja from another village?" The rosette wondered why he cared at all but blamed it on his concern for the Konoha ninjas being the reputable best.

"Yes, I do. But I'll be fine once I make it home."

"Yeah, you'll arrive home... when dawn's starting to break." Neji shook his head, lifting her up and throwing her over his shoulder.

"What the hell do you think you are doing!?" Sakura started to beat his back with her hands and kick slightly with her weighted feet. "I don't need help, least of all from you!"

Neji pondered what she meant by that but instead replied, "You're right, you probably don't need my help. But you can train all you want with these weights when you are in the confines of Konoha. I'm not going to even ask what you are trying to prove with this amount of weight from the beginning, but at least try it when you can actually defend yourself or are around other people who will do that for you." Sakura stopped fighting back and kept quiet the entire trip to the city. She wasn't going to give him the benefit of knowing just how deep his words cut into her. She couldn't stand him! What gave Neji Hyuuga the right to look down upon anyone!

If he had any idea of how hard she was going to train, how determined she was to prove him wrong… he wouldn't give her those disapproving looks anymore.

The air flying by her head as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop had dried her face by the time she was set in front of her apartment building. Sakura said nothing to the Hyuuga genius as he turned and walked from her in the direction of the Hyuuga estate.

She lifted her keys from the pocket in her skirt and jabbed them into the lock, slowly making her ways up the stairs... one by one, excruciatingly slow. But she would make it. By the next time Sakura saw Neji Hyuuga, she would be running circles around him in these weights.

Meanwhile, the prodigy in question was still sauntering down the streets of Konoha wondering why he had dared helped the pink kunoichi. She had been in his mind off and on since the rescue mission had taken place. To tell the truth, Neji was sick and tired of his thought revolving around a woman since never (in his twenty years) had one plagued his mind so faithfully.

He could still feel the tingling sensation that remained when he set her down. The feeling of her body pressed flush against his shoulder and chest lingered, but he pushed the thought out of his mind, settling it on his male hormones. It was natural for a man his age to at least be focused on various things, including the opposite sex. However, he'd never let one control his conscience before, and he wasn't going to let that change now.

–

Sakura fell on her bed with a harder force than usual due to the weights on her legs. These were going to take weeks to get used to, but now wasn't the time to think about it, Sakura told herself. She dumped the sand and dirt from her sandals out the window before returning to her bed and focusing on how to take the weights off for the night. Her hands looked for a seam in the sticky substance adhering them to her leg, but she was unable to find one. Franticly she pulled at the top and bottom of the weights, trying to get them off before they drove her insane. But it was no use.

How in the hell were these stuck on? Sakura ran her hands over the weights finally concluding that Lee, to ensure she kept them on, had used some sort of chakra to bind them to her for the time being... She whimpered again falling back on the bed. Perhaps this was for the best. While the thought of beating the Hyuuga remained at the forefront of her mind, it might have been easy to slack a bit had Lee not added on this last bit of insurance.

She'd gotten herself into this... now Sakura was going to have to bear with it. After all, it was her idea—her dream to become stronger.

"Sakura, I want you to think about this," Tsunade tapped a pile of papers on the desk to straighten them. The Godaime had sent a messenger the previous night to Sakura's apartment letting her know that she wanted to see her the next morning. Sakura had been thankful of the forewarning, not knowing if should would have made it to the Hokage's office on time should she have been summoned without notice.

"I want you to go on more missions—for experience—but these that I have laid before you are more reconnaissance than anything. At best there wouldn't be very much combat, I hope, but I would feel better should a medic nin accompany any of these people when they leave." Tsunade leaned back in her chair, giving Sakura a little room to decide what missions she'd take. By giving her the choice of who she wanted to accompany, Tsunade hoped Sakura's spirits could be boosted by some extra lower-rank missions with a friend.

Sakura's pink head hovered over the scrolls, looking at the missions and the people that were going. There was a scroll mentioning Tenten and Hinata; Sakura picked up that scroll and offered it to her teacher. "This one isn't for almost two months—if you find one that's a little more recent, I'll let you accompany that as well.

Her eyes paged through the papers once more, noticing, at last, a name she had passed by at first. Neji.

Quickly, before she could even think about it, Sakura handed Tsunade that one as well. It was going to be in a few weeks and might last a while, but Sakura intended on at least becoming stronger and more useful to her teammates by then. What better exhibition than a mission with the cruelest judge?

The blonde scanned the new page, finding Neji's name. "Are you sure about this one, Sakura?" The pinkette just nodded because she didn't trust her voice. Sakura wasn't sure that it was the best thing, but she wanted to agree to it before her mind could be changed.

Now she had something to look forward to in her training.

"Alright, I will inform your teammates about your inclusion. Take note of the leave times and the mission statements in your copies." Tsunade looked as if she was finished, but something in her facial expression told Sakura this wasn't the end of the conversation.

The blonde tried not to notice how her student hobbled toward the door and instead offered a little bit of mind, "You don't have to try so hard to impress someone just because you care what they think about you. Are you really sure Hyuuga Neji is worth that kind of effort?"

"Maybe not, Tsunade, but I think I'm worth the effort. And he's good motivation."

Tsunade waited the couple minutes until Sakura was out the door. "Just as long as that motivation doesn't turn into an obsession, my dear."

–

Sakura stepped out into the sunny weather. Sakura felt more chilled despite the overhead sun bearing down of her pale features. Why had she done that? Initially, it seemed like a good idea, but the more she thought about it, the more it sunk in that this was a mission with Neji. Alone with the Hyuuga. She'd have to endure his stares of belittlement and the constant scrutiny. Did she think she was going to be able to impress him the entire time they were out together?

No, she thought. I'm going to earn some respect before this mission. And then, he's going to understand that he's not the only one who worked hard to get where he is.

Was this really such a good idea? Was this kind of brooding healthy?

She shook her head, You can't change it now, Sakura. You're just going to have to earn his respect, that's all.

Yes, the woman thought darkly, he will respect me.

–

Tsuyoku: I'm going to end it here, hopefully having established a pretty good footing for this story. Let me know what you think, I would really like some feedback about this all. I'm working on a second installment as I post this. Thanks, R&R.