The Fourth Apprentice is a Naruto story written by SaiyanWarrior200 (author of A Father's Wrath and Blood is Thicker than Bone) and can be read here
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Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime of The Hidden Leaf Village, God of Shinobi and Sensei of The Sannin, decides in the twilight of his years to come out of retirement as a teacher and take one final ninja as his last student. After much thought over who it should be, he makes his decision.
To her and nearly all of Konoha's surprise, Sakura Haruno is chosen to be his apprentice. Sarutobi takes her under his wing and begins to train and pass down everything he knows to her.
Tropes in The Fourth Apprentice include:
- Adaptational Villainy: Dosu Kinuta suspected that something was afoul after the mission to kill Sasuke, ending his loyalty to Orochimaru in canon. Here he's a loyal henchmen and not above attacking civilians like Teuchi and Ayame.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Kyuubi's Berserk Button is being treated and talked to as though he is some mindless beast by humans. Naruto in Chapter 12, when talking to him calmly, asks him that if he is not a mindless beast, than how come he spends all his time craving violence and destruction, like a beast would? Kyuubi is silent for the first time only to later angrily roar at Naruto to Get Out!.
- Badass Boast: Sakura delivers this at The Chunin Exams, right after she has defeated Neji and announcing to everyone there that she will become Chunin.
- Sakura: I see with my own eyes the next Chunin and everyone is looking at her! Because I'm the one who's going to win this Tournament! Sakura Haruno, and all of you here can believe that!
- Boring Yet Practical: This is how The Sandaime trains his students, he doesn't show them any fancy techniques or put them through Training from Hell, he instead opts to go for methods that he knows they can accomplish and training techniques that anyone could do, even without realizing it. Many of Sakura's jutsu she learns are also this, as her Stone Fist jutsu will leave a bad impact on anyone's face.
- By the Hair: Long hair is nothing more than a easy target to grab and immobilize an opponent as Sarutobi demonstrates to Sakura and she does to Ino later on. Ninja normally have short hair with the exception of those who have trained to prevent that from happening leading to her Important Haircut above.
- Chekhov's Gun: During the beginning of the story a new type of Drug enhancer called Pink Eye is found and apprehended by Konoha, a couple chapters later at the Exams, it's revealed that Orochimaru is creating it and using it to strengthen his men, as seen when Zaku uses it to defeat Shino.
- Defensive Feint Trap: Dosu purposely goes to attack Teuchi and Ayame knowing his next Chunin Exams opponent Naruto will try to attack him if he does and runs off and Naruto gives chase, which is what Dosu wanted him to do as he leads him to an ambush where he is attacked by three men.
- Deconstruction: Sasuke using The Sharingan on Sakura to copy her Stone Fist jutsu is seen not as him utilizing his clan's bloodline, but him stealing her jutsu.
- Dirty Old Man: An evil version; A target passes himself as a friendly masseur and upon getting into women's homes, violates them.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Sakura's chakra element is discovered to be Earth
- Fix Fic: A rare story which involves Sakura, who got the short end of the stick numerous times both in the series and in fiction. Thanks to Sarutobi working with her, she has dropped her fangirl attitude and started working hard and training and developing her skills showing signs of becoming a capable kunoichi.
- Gory Discretion Shot: We don't get to see what Cursed Seal awakened Sasuke does to Kagari, but its not pretty the way it sounds.
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Inverted, Sakura wields a pair of Kodachi passed down by her father, while Naruto instead uses a repeating crossbow.
- Green-Eyed Monster: A number of Shinobi aren't happy that Sakura was chosen over them. Neji and Sasuke in particular, even Naruto shows shades of it but snaps out of it when he realizes how he's been acting and that Sakura needs him as a friend.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted, the only reason Sakura is becoming a better ninja is because she's worked and trained with Sarutobi.
- Humble Hero: Kizashi, Sakura's father, is revealed to have been no slouch himself during his days as a ninja and was of The Chunin rank, and yet he'd rather be Overshadowed by Awesome and let others get recognition as he didn't concern himself with personal glory.
- Hypocrite: Sakura points this out when she is confronted by Neji, he enjoys looking down and berating others, but gets furious whenever someone gives him a dose of his own medicine.
- Important Haircut: Sarutobi on the first day makes Sakura cut her hair and justifies it in how it got in her way and how opponents could use it against her. Sakura later on makes Ino do the same thing.
- Keep the Reward: Lee, Nice Guy that he is, tells Naruto and Sakura to keep the Scroll they get from fighting off Oboro and his team when they offer it to him.
- Megaton Punch: Sakura does this to Sasuke in The Forest of Death.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Orochimaru is showing shades of this. Instead of infecting Sasuke with the Cursed Seal and having him dispose of The Sound Team when he awakens with it as in Canon. He instead first has them attack him after luring away Naruto and Sakura and then gives it to them. It's explained and justified later on he did it so that Sasuke would be more susceptible and influenced by the Cursed Seal when he gave him it and more likely to use it if he had to be rescued by others he had dismissed beforehand.
- Shoot the Hostage: Orochimaru tries to goad Naruto into doing this, holding Sakura out in front of him and daring him to fire. Naruto averts this however as if he did he'd likely hit Orochimaru in the heart and possibly kill him, but the risk of hitting Sakura is too great and refuses to fire.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Sakura pulls this on Ami when she tries to belittle her, pointing out that unlike her, Ami dropped out of the academy and quit and so the only real loser is Ami.
- Later on she does this to Neji during the Chunin Exams when he makes a snide remark towards her and Sarutobi. She didn't mind him trying to put her down but when he insults her Sensei, not to mention The Hokage she lets him have it
- She's not the only one, Lee does it as well to Neji and Neji who's so used to berating others and them not saying anything back is speechless
- Small Name, Big Ego: Sakura calls Neji out on this when he goes to put her down and dismiss her, that as while he believes himself an elite ninja, to everyone else he's nothing more than an expendable servant of the Branch Family.
- Talk to the Fist: Sakura puts an end to Neji
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Neji is given one by Sakura when she counters his attempts at a Breaking Speech, calling him out on his arrogance and superiority he believes he has over everyone and the fact that he had the gall to insult Sarutobi over not selecting him.
- The Rival: Kin Tsuchi is shaping up to be this for Sakura.
- Took a Level in Badass: Thank to Hiruzen's training, Sakura is gradually undertaking these much earlier than she did in canon. Her stamina and strength has improved, she's learning to stand up for himself and not let others try and drag her down.
- Underestimating Badassery: People months later are still thinking that Sakura is the same fangirl who gushed over Sasuke and possessed no skills or abilities and don't understand why on Earth she was selected by Sarutobi, unaware that due to training under The Sandaime that she has discovered her chakra element and learned how to increase her strength and speed using it. Some like Neji are refusing to believe or accept that she could possibly improve.
- We Have Become Complacent: Sarutobi has realized during his training with Sakura, that due to lax standards, Konoha is gradually becoming weaker over time and that things must be changed quick before one of the other Villages realizes it as well.
- His fears have been confirmed, as Orochimaru has realized it as well and is preparing to attack.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: The entire premise to many readers at first glance is that its where Naruto gets chosen as his Apprentice and gains godlike power similar to a good number of stories. To their surprise they find out that it's Sakura who Hiruzen selects.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Sakura, after being treated like a joke or having gotten mad at by everyone after she is selected, thinks about dropping out of being a ninja. Hiruzen comforts her when she's at her lowest and tells her that even he was just as inexperienced as she was and compares her to a seed, with the proper care and growth, that even the tiniest seed can become the greatest tree.
- She get another speech from Naruto later on in The Forest of Death after they are encountered by Orochimaru
