A/N: I meant to write more for quack quack quack but my laptop charger decided to end it's life for no reason and the kittens took a dump on the floor, ruining my good mood. This is just something I wrote to make myself calm down after I cleaned up the living room and put them to bed. Tenses probably change a few times because I'm dumb and can't keep from switching around all the time. Also it's a bit of a failure at being ItaSaku, but whatever, it's there if you squint.

Dedication: To everyone in need of a pick-me-up. I hope you all have lovely days.

Disclaimer: Consider your bitch ass self disclaimed.

Sakura breathes. She curls her fist, rotates her hips, lifts her leg and snaps it up, pivoting on her toe as she uses the momentum to turn. Her heart pounds in her ears and her hair sticks to her shoulders and face with sweat, her muscles screaming at the way she is running through the taijutsu routine Rock Lee taught her years ago at lightning speed. The world becomes a distant blur around her as she punches and kicks and ducks and spins and above all she breathes, chest rising and falling, but the voices don't leave her alone. She clenches her teeth and swallows back the feeling of hopelessness that rises within her.

You are not twelve years old anymore, she tells herself sternly. You are not helpless, you are not the damsel Naruto and Sasuke will have to save. You can hold your own in a fight. You are not helpless, you are not helpless, you are not helpless.

It doesn't help the way it does on good days. When the hits come they never come in single stray sessions; they come in twos and threes and sometimes fours. The worst day of her life had been a four punch series of news sessions to her gut, leaving her breathless and shaking on the street outside the Hokage Tower. Today the hits had come in twos, one that had left her reeling like a punch to the face and the other rendered her breathless like a kick to the stomach. She fights to breathe and she fights to keep the voices at bay, but they will not recede to the corners of her mind to wait for nightfall so that they can haunt her dreams. The midday sun beats down on her, but in a punishing sort of way it feels refreshing and good.

I may not be helpless, she thinks as her muscles strain and scream at her from the abuse she calls training, but it turns out I'm just as useless as I was then.

"Haruno-san," someone says. She flinches, over balancing for a second before her muscles automatically correct the movement. She tucks and spins in midair, flinging herself back away from the voice until she's splayed along the ground, fingers curled around the hilt of a kunai. She gasps from breath, chest heaving violently enough that her black sports bra brushes the ground with each wheezing breath. Embarrassment hits her hard and she straightens quickly, not meeting Uchiha Itachi's eyes as she tosses the kunai back toward her discarded medical shirt and bag.

"Uchiha-san," she answers respectfully. "Do you need this training ground?"

The ANBU captain shakes his head, but Sakura doesn't melt with relief like she might have on another day. She's fit to burst and so she fidgets, staring just to the left of his head as she waits for him to state his purpose in being there. Eventually, just as she is about to crack and start shouting, he takes a step closer. She sees the way his head tilts, as if taking in the scene, kunai littered across the trees surrounding the training ground, ground uneven and broken from where she had beaten it with her fists in an attempt to control her rage. She sticks out her jaw a little, a trait she had picked up from Sasuke and Naruto, or so Kakashi once told her, but she still doesn't meet his eyes.

"I was looking for Sasuke," he explains eventually. "Mother wished to have him invite you all for dinner tonight."

Sakura's stomach swoops down to her green painted toes. Her fingers spasm into a fist that she cannot hide and what is left of her chakra flares, sparking in green bolts up her arms. Sasuke's older brother raises an eyebrow at her reaction, but before he can say anything more she turns her back on him and returns to the starting stance of the taijutsu routine.

"He's on a mission with Naruto, Sai, and Kakashi," she tells him curtly. "Won't be back from a while. Send my apologies to your mother." After a second she adds a quiet, "please," before she starts moving once more, her focus once more directed toward her breathing and the shift of her hips, her arms, her legs, but she is distracted by his presence, which comes closer instead of moving away. She spins around, mouth open to tell the prodigy of the Uchiha clan to fuck right off already, but she's stopped by the look on his face.

It occurs to her suddenly that Itachi must have served with the ANBU who died on her medical table earlier that morning. She hadn't recognized his face, still only being a chunin, but the man in front of her had made an ANBU captain almost ten years earlier, so the possibility that he knew the man she had failed to save was high indeed. Suddenly the words were back, ringing in her ears in a volume too loud to ignore, startling her since she had not noticed they had dimmed to begin with.

Sakura, her mentor had shouted, loud enough that the whole village must have heard. Sakura, he's dead, let him go. Pumping more chakra into him like that won't bring him back, it will just get you killed. Sakura let him go, that's an order! Sakura!

Sakura swallows, briefly closing her eyes. Behind her eyelids her team waves goodbye at her as they leave the city gates, off on a mission they specifically requested she not be put on. They had tossed words at her like took dangerous and won't be able to keep up and you can come next time, but you need the rest at her as if such sounds would keep her temper from boiling over, but in the end it had been only a direct order from the Hokage that kept her from following in their heels and clinging to their shirts like a frightened child might.

"Do you know any water jutsus?"

"Huh," Sakura squeaks. She opens her eyes and finds the ANBU captain much closer than he had been, his hands held casually at his sides. He isn't quite smiling at her, but it might be the closest thing to such an expression she has ever seen him make.

"Do you know any strong water jutsus, Haruno-san?"

"No," she answers, still confused. He nods once, solid and sure, and Sakura envies him for a sharp second, for his nature skill, for his calm and careful nature. She is sure he has never been left behind by his team on a mission deemed too dangerous for him even once in his life. But before her resentment can build any further he shoves his hands in his pocket in the same fluid motion Sasuke has always used and ducks his head so that their eyes can meet.

"Would you like to come have dinner at our house then? I can teach you the few that I know while Mother cooks. She would be more than glad to have you over as company, even if your foolish team has made such a mistake as to leave you behind."

It is petty of her, but it feels nice to have someone say it was a mistake for her team to leave her behind. She feels her spirit lifting at the thought of a warm home cooked meal, the kind she hasn't experienced often since her parents' deaths on a mission, but what lifts her mood even more is the opportunity to have such a strong ninja train her. She smiles at him slowly, lifting her chin so that he no longer has to duck his head to meet her eyes.

"I would love to, Uchiha-san," she says proudly. His lips twitch into a smile so brief it is like a carefully constructed genjutsu. He waits patiently for her to gather her discarded medical shirt and bag, though she stuffs the shirt in the bag with a shrug after carefully asking if his mother would be offended at her attire. The ANBU captain is quick to assure her that she is fine as she is, particularly since they plan on doing more training on the Uchiha training grounds, while means Sakura has nothing left to do but follow her teammate's older brother back to the Uchiha compound, listening carefully as he explains the mentality behind the jutsus he plans on teaching her.

It is not a good day, but once Sakura puts her mind toward the task of mastering the Water Dragon jutsu Itachi patiently teaches to her it can no longer be classified as a bad day. It is not a lot, but it is good enough for her.