The sounds of the forest were crisp in the night air.

Sakura felt every current, every rustling leaf, every insect buzzing in the gloom. She was sitting cross-legged in the center of a small clearing. Her eyes were closed, but she saw more than ever before.

Her threads of chakra, dozens of them, extended from her fingertips, thin and nearly invisible. They slithered across the forest floor, transmitting every vibration to her. She felt the movement of a beetle under a root ten feet to her left and sensed the moisture settling on the moss of an old oak.

This is... real,she thought, amazed. It's not a trick. It's part of me.

She was no longer just a spectator. Since the ritual, she had become something more. A sentinel. Her senses were expanding, not to ensnare, but to perceive. To protect.

With a mental command, she tensed one of the threads. A small pinecone lifted from the ground and floated in the air, spinning slowly. The control was exquisite.

She smiled to herself.

"Not bad, Sakura-chan."

Naruto's voice, though a whisper, made her jump. The thread snapped and the pinecone fell to the ground. She spun around, her heart racing, ready to yell at him.

But she stopped.

He was standing at the edge of the clearing, his left arm in a sling. He wasn't looking at her with his usual grin, but with quiet approval. Beside him, Hinata watched with a shy but proud smile.

"How did you know I was here?" Sakura asked, her pulse slowing.

"We followed you," Hinata answered in a low voice, "we saw you leave alone."

Naruto shrugged, a gesture that caused him to wince in pain.

"Don't worry, we won't tell Sasuke you're out here playing with pinecones. He'll think it's some super-advanced secret training."

"It is super-advanced training," Sakura replied, no anger in her voice. She stood up. "I'm testing the limits. The distance, the sensitivity. Did you know I can feel a mouse's heartbeat if I concentrate?"

"That's awesome!" Naruto exclaimed, his blue eyes shining.

"Well, it's time for dinner," she announced, changing the subject. "Tsunami made stew!"

Sakura nodded, retracting her invisible threads. As they walked back, she realized she no longer felt like the third wheel, but like part of something. A secret team, as Naruto called it. And she liked it.

***

The next morning, duty called. Sasuke, obsessed with his training, stayed behind to perfect his chakra control in the trees.

The morning sun illuminated a tense atmosphere at the construction site. Several workers moved with a fearful slowness, their gazes constantly turning toward the mist that covered the sea.

"I can't take it anymore, Tazuna!" a burly man named Giichi's voice rang out. "This is suicide! Gato's men could show up at any moment. My family needs me alive, not as a martyr for your bridge."

Tazuna didn't look away from the beam he was measuring.

"Go home, Giichi, no one's forcing you to stay."

"We should all stop!" the man insisted, desperate. "Stop construction until Gato is gone!"

Tazuna finally turned, his tired eyes fixed on the worker.

"And when will that be, huh? You think a tyrant like him is just going to leave? This bridge isn't for me, Giichi. It's so your family and mine can have a future. It's so this whole country can get back on its feet. If you're scared, then leave, but don't try to drag the others down into your despair."

Giichi clenched his fists, but finally, he lowered his head and walked away without another word.

Naruto, who had been watching the whole thing with a frown, looked at Tazuna with renewed respect.

"That old man is really something else," he muttered.

Sakura nodded, but her attention drifted to the other workers, who now avoided Tazuna's gaze, fear etched on their faces. Hinata stayed close to Naruto, her expression full of concern for the atmosphere of the place.

On the way home, they stopped at a small shop to buy something for dinner. The shelves were nearly empty: a couple of dried fish, some wilted vegetables, and sacks of rice were all they offered.

"Not much left, Tazuna-san," the old shopkeeper said with a sad smile.

As Tazuna paid, a small boy with ragged clothes and a dirty face approached them and gently tugged on Naruto's sleeve.

"Mister... do you have any food?"

Naruto froze, staring at the boy. He opened the bag he was carrying and, without hesitation, took out an apple they had bought and gave it to him. The boy took it with both hands and ran off as if he'd stolen a treasure.

"This is awful," Sakura said in a low voice, looking at the desolate streets and the hopeless faces of the people passing by. "Why is everyone like this?"

"It's Gato," Tazuna answered, his voice grave. "He controls the port, the island's only trade link. He controls everything that comes in and out. He's strangled our economy until we have nothing left. That's why we're clinging to the bridge; it's our only way out. If we finish it, we can trade with the mainland on our own and take back our lives."

Naruto clenched his fists, his gaze fixed on the direction the boy had disappeared.

"We'll finish that bridge, old man. I swear it."

****

That night, the house was quiet. Sakura, however, couldn't sleep. The image of the hungry child and the empty shelves replayed in her mind. She got up and walked barefoot to the kitchen.

She found Tsunami there, her back to her, looking out the window into the blackness of the forest.

"Tsunami-san?"

The woman startled.

"Oh, Sakura-chan, I didn't hear you come in. Can't you sleep?"

"I was thinking," Sakura said, approaching, "about what we saw in the village today. The people... it's like they've given up."

Tsunami sighed, a trembling sound in the stillness of the night. She leaned against the counter.

"They gave up the day they lost him."

Her eyes drifted to the small shelf on the wall, where the damaged family photograph rested. The image of a man whose face had been torn out and pasted back on.

Sakura didn't ask. She waited.

"Tazuna told you he was a hero, right?" Tsunami said quietly, her gaze still on the photo. "And he was. But to us, to Inari and me, he was so much more than that."

She turned, and in the light of the oil lamp, Sakura saw the deep sadness in her eyes.

"When he came to the island, I was a widow trying to raise an overly sensitive child. Inari didn't have a father, and the other kids made fun of him for it. One day, they cornered him on the dock and threw his puppy into the sea. Inari jumped in after it. Neither of them knew how to swim."

She paused, swallowing hard.

"People just watched. They were afraid of the bullies. No one moved. No one, except for this stranger who had just docked his boat. Kaiza. He dove into the water without a second thought and saved them. That night, he had dinner with us. And he never left."

A melancholic smile touched her lips.

"He didn't try to replace Inari's father. He was just... there. He taught him that being brave didn't mean not being afraid, but protecting what you love despite it. He would tell Inari, 'It's okay to cry, son, but a real man only cries tears of joy.' He became our pillar."

Tsunami's voice broke.

"When Gato executed him, he didn't just kill the town's hero. In front of Inari, in front of everyone, they tortured the man who had taught him to be strong. They cut off his arms... so no one else would dare to raise their hands. That day, Inari didn't just lose his father for a second time. He saw that the very concept of a 'hero' was a lie that only brought pain and death."

A single tear rolled down Tsunami's cheek.

"That's why he tore up the photo. He hated Kaiza for leaving us. But later... I think he couldn't stand not seeing his face, so he pasted it back together. It's a mess, isn't it? That's how we all feel on the inside."

Now Sakura understood. It wasn't just the story of a public hero; it was the intimate tragedy of a broken family. She understood Inari's bitterness and the scar on the photograph.

But above all, she understood Naruto.

"To protect what you love,"Kaiza had told Inari. The image of Naruto, throwing himself in front of Zabuza's sword to protect her, appeared in Sakura's mind with blinding clarity. It wasn't an impulsive act, she realized. It was a choice. The same irrational will to put oneself in harm's way for someone else. The same spirit that had turned a fisherman into a hero.

In that instant, Sakura's perception of her teammate changed. The loudmouthed idiot vanished, and in his place, she saw someone who embodied that same courage. She saw Naruto Uzumaki not as a clown, but as the ghost of a hero who refused to die.

"Thank you for telling me, Tsunami-san," Sakura said, her voice soft but filled with a new determination.

She left the kitchen and stopped in front of the room where Naruto was sleeping. The door was ajar. She saw him on the futon, his face relaxed, the moonlight illuminating his blond hair and the bandages on his shoulder.

The wound he'd received for her.

To protect what you love,she thought.

For the first time, the image that came to her mind wasn't of Sasuke Uchiha. It was of the boy sleeping in that room.

In the silence, Sakura understood. She had been on a team with a hero this whole time, and she had been too blind to see it.