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Description
Part One - Anger

Sakura collapsed into the water and floated on her back, exhausted from her efforts.

This new training regimen was insane, but she was the best weapon the Leaf had... and it was up to her to persevere.

The Leaf...what a joke. The village itself still sat below tons of water, in an artificial lake meant to have killed them all. The savage sneak attack had caught the village unprepared and before anyone could react, massive ramparts of stone sprang up, sealing the wide valley the village lay within into an earthen bowl miles across.

A bare breath later, came the flood from the sky. You couldn't even call it rain, just one enormous ball of water. It was like the vast sea itself had flung one of its children at the village from miles away. The bowl became a lake in scant seconds.

Looking up into the lowering sky, Sakura grimaced. She could still remember the feeling of numb horror, looking out at the ruin of her home.

But then had come the miracle.

Anbu squads dropping their concealment all around them, and with them, the Lady Tsunade herself. Sakura had collapsed weeping into her master's arms. Tsunade had held her, like her own mother. Gently soothing, and reassuring her that all was not lost, that right after Sakura had left to aid her friends, they'd begun evacuating the village.

The buildings were destroyed, but the people remained, all of them.

In the days that followed, Sakura had helped as best she could. Tending the wounded, and trying to master her new-found control of water. With tremendous focus and a great deal of chakra, she could control open water at the mechanical level. She could make it move against gravity, shape it to whatever she needed. But it was a terrible strain. Trying to hold even a rough blob of water barely three feet across would drain her energy for hours.

And so, she worked harder. Driving herself to near exhaustion, and then going beyond.

But as she floated there, in the lake above what had been her home, she wondered for the thousandth time, what was it all for?

The Fire Daimyo had been truly furious to lose his tax revenue, only the loss of the Leaf Village itself had kept even the barest hint of civility in his voice as he hinted that other Hokage had not failed him the way Lady Tsunade had, twice now.

The people of the village crowded together in in temporary shelters, they couldn't even begin to reclaim the actual village until they could drain the lake, and that was going to take months, if not years. They couldn't just blow a hole in one of the rock dams the Depths ninja had created, they were too strong. Leaf engineers were slowly working a series of tunnels into the seaward dam, but the inner rock was proving night unbreakable. Sakura'd seen the sketched plans for the drainage plan, and the estimates of the rock density.

Snapping upright in a flash of inspiration, she had it.

The dams were designed so that taking them down from the outside was far more difficult. The angle and materials made them all but impregnable. But from the OTHER side, the side with all that extra water pressure pushing against the dam...

Now THAT would be better training then juggling blobs of water! But could she do it?

She'd certainly have a better chance than anyone else in the Leaf! Jackknifing, Sakura shot downwards. She infused a shell of water around her nose and mouth to provide her with oxygen without a second thought as she stroked deeper and deeper into the watery tomb of the village.

As she neared the bottom, Sakura noted her location by landmarks in the dim murk. She then made her way to the edge of the village nearest the seaward dam, she wondered with amazement that she didn't feel the pressure of the nearly hundred feet of water above her head. She could also see far better than she should have been able to as well. Maybe some instinctive use of her new techniques? She'd have to share this with her friends as soon as possible.

Arriving at the desired place, she settled to the floor of the lake in a wide stance, and anchored herself with more chakra. This was going to be tricky, and possibly the hardest thing she'd ever done, but if it worked...

Using every fiber of her concentration, she sent her chakra out into the water around her, and and got it moving. Just a bit at first, then more, and more. When she felt she had enough she brought both open hands back, and forward with all of her might and the flaring fire of all she was.

The blow was tremendous, but focused. The water tried to compress, but couldn't as all that force was focused on a smaller and smaller point. The roughly ten foot circle of bare rock wall the engineers had wanted to pierce with the master drain. All the kinetic energy of Sakura's massive effort become focused on that one spot....

… and with the sound of tearing rock, earth gave way to water. The dam's upper portion held, but abruptly the desired hole appeared in the fortification.

Th current increased suddenly and forcefully. Only by expending nearly the last of her strength did Sakura fire herself to the surface, and when she reached it, she flew thirty feet into the air, on a column of rising lake water, like a tamed tornado.

At the apex of her flight, Sakura turned, to see the tops of buildings appear from the lake, then roof of houses, then, finally, streets.

Sakura emitted a whoop of joy. She'd done it. She'd reclaimed her home.

Description
Part One - Anger

Sakura collapsed into the water and floated on her back, exhausted from her efforts.

This new training regimen was insane, but she was the best weapon the Leaf had... and it was up to her to persevere.

The Leaf...what a joke. The village itself still sat below tons of water, in an artificial lake meant to have killed them all. The savage sneak attack had caught the village unprepared and before anyone could react, massive ramparts of stone sprang up, sealing the wide valley the village lay within into an earthen bowl miles across.

A bare breath later, came the flood from the sky. You couldn't even call it rain, just one enormous ball of water. It was like the vast sea itself had flung one of its children at the village from miles away. The bowl became a lake in scant seconds.

Looking up into the lowering sky, Sakura grimaced. She could still remember the feeling of numb horror, looking out at the ruin of her home.

But then had come the miracle.

Anbu squads dropping their concealment all around them, and with them, the Lady Tsunade herself. Sakura had collapsed weeping into her master's arms. Tsunade had held her, like her own mother. Gently soothing, and reassuring her that all was not lost, that right after Sakura had left to aid her friends, they'd begun evacuating the village.

The buildings were destroyed, but the people remained, all of them.

In the days that followed, Sakura had helped as best she could. Tending the wounded, and trying to master her new-found control of water. With tremendous focus and a great deal of chakra, she could control open water at the mechanical level. She could make it move against gravity, shape it to whatever she needed. But it was a terrible strain. Trying to hold even a rough blob of water barely three feet across would drain her energy for hours.

And so, she worked harder. Driving herself to near exhaustion, and then going beyond.

But as she floated there, in the lake above what had been her home, she wondered for the thousandth time, what was it all for?

The Fire Daimyo had been truly furious to lose his tax revenue, only the loss of the Leaf Village itself had kept even the barest hint of civility in his voice as he hinted that other Hokage had not failed him the way Lady Tsunade had, twice now.

The people of the village crowded together in in temporary shelters, they couldn't even begin to reclaim the actual village until they could drain the lake, and that was going to take months, if not years. They couldn't just blow a hole in one of the rock dams the Depths ninja had created, they were too strong. Leaf engineers were slowly working a series of tunnels into the seaward dam, but the inner rock was proving night unbreakable. Sakura'd seen the sketched plans for the drainage plan, and the estimates of the rock density.

Snapping upright in a flash of inspiration, she had it.

The dams were designed so that taking them down from the outside was far more difficult. The angle and materials made them all but impregnable. But from the OTHER side, the side with all that extra water pressure pushing against the dam...

Now THAT would be better training then juggling blobs of water! But could she do it?

She'd certainly have a better chance than anyone else in the Leaf! Jackknifing, Sakura shot downwards. She infused a shell of water around her nose and mouth to provide her with oxygen without a second thought as she stroked deeper and deeper into the watery tomb of the village.

As she neared the bottom, Sakura noted her location by landmarks in the dim murk. She then made her way to the edge of the village nearest the seaward dam, she wondered with amazement that she didn't feel the pressure of the nearly hundred feet of water above her head. She could also see far better than she should have been able to as well. Maybe some instinctive use of her new techniques? She'd have to share this with her friends as soon as possible.

Arriving at the desired place, she settled to the floor of the lake in a wide stance, and anchored herself with more chakra. This was going to be tricky, and possibly the hardest thing she'd ever done, but if it worked...

Using every fiber of her concentration, she sent her chakra out into the water around her, and and got it moving. Just a bit at first, then more, and more. When she felt she had enough she brought both open hands back, and forward with all of her might and the flaring fire of all she was.

The blow was tremendous, but focused. The water tried to compress, but couldn't as all that force was focused on a smaller and smaller point. The roughly ten foot circle of bare rock wall the engineers had wanted to pierce with the master drain. All the kinetic energy of Sakura's massive effort become focused on that one spot....

… and with the sound of tearing rock, earth gave way to water. The dam's upper portion held, but abruptly the desired hole appeared in the fortification.

Th current increased suddenly and forcefully. Only by expending nearly the last of her strength did Sakura fire herself to the surface, and when she reached it, she flew thirty feet into the air, on a column of rising lake water, like a tamed tornado.

At the apex of her flight, Sakura turned, to see the tops of buildings appear from the lake, then roof of houses, then, finally, streets.

Sakura emitted a whoop of joy. She'd done it. She'd reclaimed her home.