History Fanfic / MoreThanEnemies

* AdaptationalSkill: {{Justified}}. Several developments steer Sakura to gain a range of mundane abilities, including some not so combat-oriented.

* AdaptationalSuperpowerChange: {{Justified}}. Being trained by Kakashi and Itachi means that Sakura's jutsu repertoire gets some additions not present in canon, and much earlier at that.

* PromotedToLoveInterest: {{Inverted}} and {{justified}}. It all starts with Sasuke hating Sakura's guts for getting in his way to achieve power which makes every interaction with him too awkward and unbearable. The distance and spending more time interacting with other people causes her to realize how shallow her crush on Sasuke is and stop pining after him. To be fair, she went after him in a self-assertion move. To make the statement she wasn't any less than her Clan classmates, that she had the same potential to be strong and a worthy kunoichi as them.

* WaxOnWaxOff: As noted in the description, Kakashi does this to subtly but surely improve Sakura's stamina, endurance, and speed. What did he make her do? To walk his dog summons whom Sakura describes as demon spawns. {{Justified}} as she has to chase them all over Konoha with few if any moments of respite and using chakra to walk on vertical surfaces and jump large distances just so she can keep up with the dogs. First, he asks her to do it as a "thank you" for comforting her after the first test flop. Then as an exchange for the brand new genjutsu he's crafting for her. It ends up as an indirect bonding activity between the two. Sakura is delighted to note the effects while running from a very pissed [[spoiler: Orochimaru]].

** [[spoiler: Río]], his grand-granddaughter and [[spoiler: Chihiro’s daughter and originally called Inoue]] who was kidnapped at a young age to be trained into a ROOT agent but had a rather convoluted story with the foundation. Several escape attempts, at least twice times she was LeftForDead, an infiltration into ANBU, the grueling survival training of an entire ROOT division, and getting to be [[spoiler: Danzo’s {{dragon}}]] are some of her more notable exploits. She inherited her ancestor’s knack for Water Release, stubbornness, and most of his out-of-the-box but genius thinking. Finally, [[spoiler: she got to interact with Shibuimaru, Minato, Kakashi, and Shishui at different points in her life]].

''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/22667056 More than Enemies]]'' is an ongoing[[note]]Last updated on 2021-12-31[[/note]] [[WhatIf canon divergent]] ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' fanfic written by [[https://thinknicht.tumblr.com/ thinknicht]] that starts off [[CrackFic crack-ish]] but turns a lot more serious soon enough.

-->-- Sakura's farewell note to Itachi.

* PromotedToLoveInterest: {{Inverted}} and {{justified}}. It all starts with Sasuke hating Sakura's guts for getting in his way to achieve power which makes every interaction with him too awkward and unbearable. The distance and spending more time interacting with other people causes her to realize how shallow her crush on Sasuke is and stop pining after him. To be fair, she went after him in a self-assertion move. To make the statement she wasn't any less than her Clan classmates, that she had the same potential to be strong and a worthy kunoichi than them.

** Río means river in Spanish and points at her mastery of the Water Release techniques.

* SupportingProtagonist: {{Subverted}}. As we get to know Río’s intricate backstory linking her to more people than Danzo Shimura while she herself gets to be one of the most relevant players of the Konoha Crush’s arc, it seems like this whole ordeal engulfs Sakura’s struggles and developments. However, Sakura did play a huge role in the previous {{plot point}}s and stirred many changes. Furthermore, her role in the respites of the said events is still impacting enough to guaranty her status as the MainCharacter.

* ConfoundThemWithKindness: Kakashi thinks this was the fake Yugao's plan when she infiltrated Konoha's [=ANBU=] corps. He feels simmering rage and utter confusion at how his close friend, the first he'd allowed himself to have after his teammate's tragic demise, betrayed the village so easily. The reality proves to be a {{subver|ted}}sion, though, because the whole affair is [[spoiler: accidental]] on the impostor's part. For her, it's a [[BreatherEpisode much-needed pause]] on her hectic life.

* AdaptationalSkill / AdaptationalSuperpowerChange: {{Justified}}. Several developments steer Sakura to gain a different skillset from canon and much earlier. This includes.
** Concerning the more "mundane" ninja skills:
*** Sakura's combat approach exploits the element of surprise and weapons (kunai, senbon, and shuriken) due to her precise aiming.
*** Her taijutsu is a mish-mash of katas from both the Academy Basic and Itachi's style, with the latter revolving around flexibility, viciousness, and turning the enemy's strength against them. After all, Itachi created it when he had a child's under-developed musculature. This veers far from her canonical "punch your opponent to hell and back".
*** She also learned how to pick locks.
** As for her " ninja superpowers":
*** She figured out by herself the Water Walking technique and later developed an Air Walking technique (hang from the water surface like a bat by walking on the water-air interphase) to rapidly mobilize and fight underwater.
*** Sakura has assimilated various useful genjutsu from Itachi -- how to induce calmness in an animal and how to conceal herself or others. She is also way better at spotting and breaking genjutsu.
*** Kakashi gave her the initial hint to figure out chakra sensing and taught her the [[FlashStep Body Flicker]].
*** While within a snake's bowels, she picked up chakra-coating on the spot.
*** She can channel chakra to any part of her body to improve said part's function -- her lungs to boost her oxygenation or breath underwater, her limbs to stick objects on them, her ears to improve hearing, etc.
*** Shi-chan make her sign the Crow Summon Contract which gave her the ability to not only summon crows but to use them as a hivemind for recon and environmental awareness. And also to produce her own crow clones.
*** Another important change is Sakura's apparent lack of an Elemental Affinity. It doesn't matter how many times she pours chakra in the chakra paper, nothing happens.
** An overlap between both tropes occurs with the genjutsu Kakashi crafted for her. It emulates the Sharingan's preternatural environmental perception, specifically in terms of measuring distances with a mere glance. Sakura is yet to master not how to cast it but how to effectively use it. As she is a self-described paper ninja, she's got AwesomenessByAnalysis, but she still needs to hone it to calculate angles and speeds on the spot like the Sharingan does automatically while tuning the genjutsu's input to not saturate her brain. The ultimate goal is to grant her absolute aiming.

** {{Averted}}with Akiha, whose name means autumn leaves and it just happened to be dawn (therefore, orange) when he was born. The meaning foreshadows the fact Akiha is [[spoiler: Shibuimaru's son]] as the latter is stated to have not cared for his son one bit.

** Akiha's name means autumn leaves and it just happened to be dawn (therefore, orange) when Akiha was born. The meaning foreshadows the fact Akiha is [[spoiler: Shibuimaru's son]] as the latter is stated to have liked autumn leaves for their color.

* SensingYouAreOutmatched: Danzo tries to score brownie points to his beloved sensei, Tobirama Senju, by "suggesting" he fights against his supposed student, [[spoiler: Río]], in order to prevent Tobirama's revived self to slaughter the rest of the Konoha nin. Though Danzo's subordinate and not really student is a very resourceful and skillful kunoichi herself, she knows she's no match for the Second Hokage. Therefore, she {{invokes}} this trope and flees. Unfortunately, Tobirama chases after her and she has to resource to every unexpected and/or dirty trick under her sleeve just to avoid dying, never mind actually landing a blow on him.

* TrainingFromHell: A self-imposed one after Orochimaru [[spoiler: stole Sasuke's eyes]] and once Shi-chan persuaded her disaster was upon them (i.e., the Oto and Suna invasion). She wakes up at dawn and goes to train with Itachi who put her taijutsu, aiming, and chakra reserves up to par in a way only a perfectionist can. Soon enough, he makes her do her katas while using the Air Walking technique. Once Itachi leaves the village to return his duties, she keeps doing the same but replaces their spars with other things. She pits herself against Academy kids or a flock of her summons to accustom herself to fight against several opponents at the same time. At 9, she has her shift in a very busy restaurant where she has to keep moving while still tired and stick the dishes with chakra so they don't fall. Whenever she can, she refines her chakra control with chakra threads. In the night, she performs various odd jobs, with several of them also including physical activity. When she is done, she sometimes practices her katas. As expected, though her training yields more than satisfying results (particularly in terms of her chakra capacity), one day she collapses from exhaustion and doesn't wake up for four days. This insane training also has the pleasant side effect of improving her sleep seeing she's too tired to have nightmares about Orochimaru and Itachi's illness.

Kakashi is flabbergasted to learn that the most unsuspecting of his little genin has been the only one to take his teachings ([[ThePowerOfFriendship Obito’s nindo]]) to heart. Sasuke hates her guts and even Naruto is pissed, though.
Kakashi pulls a [[ZenSurvivor Miyagi]] and starts training her through mystifying methods that somehow bring her to meet Stalker-san, a.k.a., Itachi Uchiha. He’s in Konoha for the purpose of giving his first report since he joined Akatsuki’s ranks but has been killing time by spying on his ''otoutou''[[labelnote: Translation]]little brother[[/labelnote]].

** Akiha means autumn leaves. Akiha Nara got his name because his father liked autumn leaves and it was dawn (therefore, orange) when he was born.
** Itachi calls his main crow summon Karasu, which is how "crow" is pronounced in Japanese. When Sakura encounters Karasu while he was spying on Sasuke for Itachi, she gets fond of it and names it Shi-chan. Shi means death in Japanese (and also four, but FourIsDeath), and -chan is an endearment Japanese honorific for pets and young children.
** Río means river in Spanish.
** All of Yuna's names throughout her life are ironic given her attitude. Yuna itself means kindness which the woman is but only for those she cares about, and even then is more like a rough love. [[spoiler: Rasna]] has two meanings: a ray of light (especially ironic considering just who gave her this name) and rope. It's possible the second alludes to [[spoiler: her status as the previous One-Tail host -- as in the rope that contains the beast]]. Finally, [[spoiler: Touka]] can be translated as 'perfect scent/perfume'. Well, it's not like the woman stinks but it's a name far too delicate for a hardened, weary old woman like her.

''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/22667056 More than Enemies]]'' is an ongoing [[WhatIf canon divergent]] ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' fanfic written by [[https://thinknicht.tumblr.com/ thinknicht]] that starts off [[CrackFic crack-ish]] but turns a lot more serious soon enough.

* PromotedToLoveInterest: {{Inverted}} and {{justified}}. It all starts with Sasuke hating Sakura's guts for getting in his way to achieve power which makes every interaction with him too awkward and unbearable. The distance and spending more time interacting with other people causes her to realize how shallow her crush on Sasuke is and stops pining after him. To be fair, she went after him in a self-assertion move. To make the statement she wasn't any less than her Clan classmates, that she had the same potential to be strong and a worthy kunoichi than them.