Useless

Rating: T

Authors Note: Companion fic to 'Weakling' (Naruto's P.O.V.) and 'Coward'(Sasuke's P.O.V.). Doesn't matter what order you read them in, I guess, but I wrote them as Coward, Weakling, Useless. Drabblish.

Again, someone suggested I write a part to 'Coward' and 'Weakling' in Sakura's point of view. Thanks, you know who you are. XD

Sasuke views himself as a coward for everything that he's done.

Naruto sees himself as a weakling for not being able to stop Sasuke.

Sakura can see the strength in everyone but herself and hates herself for being a burden.

Isn't it stupid? I tried to get Sasuke to notice me so much, couldn't figure out what to do to catch his attention all this time, and the answer has been staring at me in the face.

Strength. Power. Skill.

That was all I needed. Naruto has it (now that I can admit it) and Sasuke paid more attention to him than he ever did me.

Why didn't I try to get better? Why did I spend an extra hour each day to make myself look neat and as pretty as possible? Wasn't the reason I liked Sasuke so much because he didn't pay attention to shallow stuff like that?

Maybe I should have spent the time on training instead. Then I might have been good enough to mean something to Sasuke.

Or maybe not.

Even back when Naruto was the worst in our class at the academy, he was still more likely to catch people's attention than I ever was. Even if it was a bad kind, at least he wasn't an average, nothing-much-expected-of-non-shinobi-offspring kind of person. Not the kind of person who anyone would call a 'burden', albeit because he never relied on anyone but himself.

Neither could the prodigy Uchiha Sasuke ever be called that. He would never suffer the humiliation of having to be saved by someone else. (Even though he's done the same for Naruto and me.)

And I was always the one left in the shadows.

During the bell test, during the Chuunin Exam, during Sound's invasion, when Naruto and the others went to get Sasuke back, when Naruto left with Jiraiya-sama to train (to get better, to get Sasuke back).

And I did nothing.

After all, is there any way for someone predetermined by birth to be a failure at worst, a mediocre, unnoticed success at best to rise up and become as important, as strong, as useful as people like Hyuuga-san, Sasuke-kun, Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, Tsunade-sama and half a dozen more? What am I, but the necessary percentage of the ordinary population? The one that exists only to be protected and saved by the heroes?

So if I can't even save myself, how on earth could I possibly even contemplate saving Sasuke, or helping Naruto?

I guess I am just a large-foreheaded idiot. Hard work doesn't achieve anything, I should have learnt that a long time ago. I dream, I hope, I pray, but it all comes down to genetics, it all comes down to luck, it all comes down to skill.

Please, Naruto, I want- no, I need you to succeed where I can't. You have to save Sasuke-kun, he can't do it by himself, he needs someone to tell him he's being a selfish bastard as always, he needs someone to open up his eyes for him, and that person can never be me, because I'm just a shadow. He'd just look over and past me, he needs someone who's really there to tell him, so he can really hear, really pay attention, because the cost of not doing so would mean getting punched in the face by a Bunshin clone, or subjected so something typically Naruto - like Konohagure's Secret Technique – A Thousand Years Of Pain.

And maybe he will listen to you, because he certainly never did me.

And sometimes I wonder if things would have turned out any different if it had been Naruto going after Sasuke that night. Maybe if he had been the one offering his everything (his everything was a whole lot more power than I could ever hope to offer) Sasuke would have at least stopped to consider it, give us at least a tiny spark of hope that he could listen to reason. Maybe then Sasuke and Naruto could have defeated Itachi together, maybe then I could have actually been of use as I heal their bruises and wounds – not form Itachi, but from beating each other up on the way home (Naruto wouldn't be Naruto if he didn't make some offensive comment at Sasuke, and Sasuke wouldn't be Sasuke if he didn't retaliate with a fist or two).

I smile bitterly. If only things always turned out as we wished them in retrospect. I guess that's what the talentless do. After all, I've never seen Naruto-Kakashi-Sasuke-Tsunade ever regret something for more than a short amount of time. After having learnt the lesson from the experience, they always move on; becoming better, smarter people. It is only people like I, who can never hope to become any better who sit and mourn in the shadows, holding onto 'I could have's and 'I should have's.

I hope Naruto finds him.

I hope he can make up for my uselessness.

End

Authors Note: hopefully, this really is the last one. Although I imagine that sooner or later, someone will suggest I do another one. Maybe for Kakashi... /sigh/ Seems like I'm perpetually working on unfinished continuations and un-started sequels... the ones that invariably get eaten by my computer when it crashes –and so I have to start over, and end up losing enthusiasm for the entire thing.

Comments would be nice I guess.