Chapter Text
eighteen year old Sakura Haruno had everything she could ever wish for , for starters the goddamn war was finally over , her team was finally whole again-- 2 limbs not included , and she had recently been appointed as the youngest medical director in the history of Konoha
so all in all everything was perfect , right ?
Sakura was truly grateful , thankful even , but every day she had to fight tooth and nail with men older than Madara's dust for approval of a medical research— one which they couldn't even understand its title - she felt her lifeforce shortening , every time she had to practically beg for scraps to fund their very underdeveloped medical facilities she felt like she was a hair breadth away from running her kunai through her head band and leaving this stupid village behind .
but thankfully Sakura wasn't a pyromaniacal teenager with fire abilities , so every day she swallowed down her grievances , put on her best smile , and worked like a slave for a system that was never going to care about anything above profit .
it was always about money ,
the most powerful thing in their world wasn't ultra- rare clan dojutsu's , it wasn't some mythical chakra entity , it wasn't even the goddamn hokage , the most powerful thing in their world was simply -- money .
Sakura knew the truth since she had learned about the kage- system in the academy , and how the hidden villages were nothing more than glorified mercenaries ,how the strongest position in their village was reduced to nothing more than a personal army leader for some rich guy who wouldn't know what a jutsu was if it exploded in his face.
after all no matter how strong shinobi were , they still needed food , and for food you need farmers , who need land , who need you -guessed it money
Sakura huffed , at least she wasn't on some redemption mission to god knows where for god knows how long , sure Sasuke might've deserved it (he deserved a lot more if you ask her ) and he probably prefers it over staying in a village that practically wiped out his entire clan , but his so called 'freedom' was nothing more than banishment , and his so called 'duty' was nothing more than enslavement
it hurt her to think , that her only other option besides being at the beck and call of the hokage , was being tied up in a position were her power was constantly restrained by a lack of 'funds' , funds that she knew for a fact existed in abundance for 'shinobi business' as lady Tsunade would put it , but never for the actual improvement of Konoha's citizen's .
even with her sensei in the office nothing much has changed , and she doubted that her orange clad teammate would be able to change much either , after all their entire livelihood is based on war and conflict , many of which they have no say in refusing to participate in.
if only she were rich enough to not care about funding ! if she had a quarter of the Hyuga's or half of the Nara's fortune for her hospital , she would be set for life!
if only she was born as a clan heir or something , Sakura thought grimly , she probably wouldn't really be able to work as a medical- nin thought , maybe the second in line then ? she then remembered that even the powerful Uchiha clan , with a budget rivaling the Hyuga ended up six feet underground , their only remaining heir turned into a wandering traveler with no money to his name , courtesy of said 'reparations' that he had to pay to his victims , including a very high fee for both the Raikage and the land of iron
Sakura sighed tiredly , her inner monologue never ending , as she wished for the nth time that she could turn off her brain for five minutes , she walked out of her 48 hours shift back to her barely inhabitant apartment that was draining all her savings on rent
"maybe I should move back with my parents " she stumbled at her apartment door , reminding herself that if nothing else at least she had both her parent's alive and well , a fate that most of her friend's unfortunately didn't share .
as she walked through her narrow hallway , filled with laundry tossed haphazardly , she reached her stuffy living room before throwing her self at her old sofa face first , nearly suffocating her self with the flying dust
"ACHOOO" she sneezed with force, sitting on the sofa in a crouching position , her feet half crossed as she looked around her messy apartment
"ughh I need to pay the water bill " she scratched her itchy hair , she'd have to shower in ice - cold water for now , nothing she hasn't done before.
"I need to take my clothes to the laundry " she looked around , her eyes half closed
" buy some groceries " she mumbled despite knowing that anything she bought would probably go bad before she could consume it
"get a hair cut " she pinched a strand of her long bangs in front of her face
"KAMI I'M BROOOKE " she whined facepalming into her dusty couch
it made no sense ! she was the medical director of Konoha's central hospital! she worked double - no- triple shifts! she went on diplomatic trips ! and she never bought anything nice for herself ! but she was still broke !
why ? where did all of her overtime compensation go ? oh right — she didn't GET ANY ! "FUCK THIS STUPID SYSYTEM !" Sakura growled punching her poor couch into oblivion
"I should have invested in land or something instead of becoming a medic-nin " she laughed manically , real state was a no-go after all the destruction the village had been through , but land prices despite their changing nature , still had some value
"I should buy my own land " she smiled manically " farm my own food " she chuckled fully knowing that she would kill even the toughest of weeds with her 'green thumb'
"I WANT TO BE RICH" she cried
maybe her mother was right all along , she wasn't made for the shinobi business , she should hurry up and get married to a sugar daddy or something
"dammit if only Sasuke-kun still had his inheritance!" she laughed to herself , as if Sasuke would even think about her — inheritance or not , she chuckled grimly
"oh money why are you so far way from my reach " she laid on her couch dramatically , reaching her hands to her dingy ceiling
"everything I want is always so far away " she grumbled
she wanted love and it— he left her ....
then she wanted strength , and she nearly died instead..
finally she settled on something no too hard , she wanted her team back , and they were back , but there was no team anymore ...
and now even the money that she worked for with sweat and tears seemed so far away ..
maybe she was just too greedy , Sakura flipped over on her small couch her thoughts ebbing away to exhaustion, she couldn't have it all after all , she closed her eyes tiredly
if she could do it all over , she wouldn't care about anything else ! she'll simply search for the greatest power ! money !
as Sakura fell asleep in her hospital scrubs , on her moldy second hand couch , her heart and body spent from the past two days , she couldn’t guess that for once in her pathetic life , her wish would be granted .