Once upon a time, in the original timeline, Pain had asked Naruto how he, as a fellow disciple of Jiraiya, intended to solve the age-old problem of the Cycle of Hatred™.
There were countless reasons to go to war: to defend one's country from foreign invasions; to seize resources, strategic or otherwise— gold, food, land, women, or even more immaterial things such as glory; to settle irreconcilable ideological differences; and even to divert the public's eye from political scandals; the reasons were as numerous as the worldly desires themselves.
Yet, one did not need much reason to hate.
All that was required was a single spark, a single instance of harm, and soon enough, young men and women would find themselves embroiled in conflicts so old even their grandparents had long forgotten how they began, fighting in wars they had never asked for, and hating people they had never even met. Strangely enough, for something born of the living, hatred seemed to outlast life itself these days.
Even so, hatred existed for a reason.
It could lend purpose to lives hollowed by loss, giving the broken something to cling to when all else was lost. It could harden one's will to endure, if only to live long enough to see those who had caused their pain to suffer in kind, or drive one to strike first, hoping to spare themselves fresh grief… and in doing so, fan the embers of conflict further.
Thus, the Cycle of Hatred turned on, as it always had, and the wheel would continue to grind on, so long as more than a single soul drew breath upon this continent.
However, just as not all hatred was bad, so was not all pain wholly bad.
Shared pain could bind people together; for just as every human is born with the capacity to hate, so too are they born with the capacity for empathy. Ordinarily, no one can see into another's mind, yet when one recognises another's suffering as one's own, their hearts can, for a fleeting moment, truly understand each other.
In the end, it was not Naruto's so-called Talk-no-Jutsu or flowery words that convinced Nagato to relent, but his actions.
Despite Pain having destroyed Naruto's beloved village and massacred the population of the Hidden Leaf, Naruto refused to strike down the Pain Master in hatred; that was his answer to his initial question. Naruto had no real plan to bring about peace; he embodied peace itself through his actions, and by refusing to kill his enemy, he finally broke the cycle of hatred, convincing Nagato that what had seemed impossible was, in fact, possible.
Ironically, Naruto's hopeless idealism would have only led to further tragedy, had it not been for Obito, Kabuto, Madara and Kaguya, whose actions posed an existential threat to the entire shinobi continent. Because the two sides' visions of peace collided, what should have been an impossibly intricate problem was reduced to a simple, binary, black or white choice: unite or die.
Although Sakura was not capable of fully articulating in such a fashion what had caused Pain to betray Obito and revive the citizens of the Hidden Leaf— the very people who had been the primary beneficiaries of the wars that had caused him so much pain— she had a vague sense of why he had done it… even though she had found it silly that it had taken so little to convince Pain, when she had first watched the anime.
And so, as the day of the Leaf's reckoning approached, Sakura found herself asking the same question with increasing frequency: if Pain killed everyone she had ever loved, would she be able to turn the other cheek as Naruto had?
Deep down, Sakura knew that if she were ever to face Nagato in Naruto's place, even knowing exactly what she ought to do to convince him to revive everyone, she would not be able to make the same choice Naruto had.
While Naruto was not especially charismatic, there was a magnetism about him that made it painfully clear to Sakura that she was not even the main character of her own story. Like a car crash in slow motion, she could not look away from him… and yet, Sakura couldn't help but yearn for more than just a supporting role.
Until now, Sakura had believed Naruto to be unique.
Which was why she now felt so at a loss, facing the woman standing a few dozen paces before her. Pakura, the Hero of the Hidden Sand, was not called a hero without reason, Sakura was only now beginning to realise. Despite being nothing like Naruto, somehow Pakura was everything like him… and unlike him, she had a real plan of action. Despite lacking the uniqueness of a transmigrator or any world-shaking cheats, Pakura had somehow obtained everything Sakura had never even known she wanted.
Perhaps this world was filled with people like Naruto and Pakura, but Sakura had never met them, because they had been driven into early graves by the endless wars that scarred the shinobi continent.
The thought made her strangely sad.
…
Sakura and Pakura faced each other, neither willing to make the first move. There was no question who would win if the two kunoichi actually battled, and they both knew it. There was no reason for them to fight, and yet, neither of them could back down, for the sake of their dreams.
"Well?" Pakura said tentatively. "Have you thought about my offer? Will you join me?"
With a clap of her hands, Sakura could make trees burst from the ground at Pakura's feet, binding her with vines and branches. Enhanced with nature energy, even Scorch Style would struggle to incinerate them. Make no mistake, Pakura's Kekkei Genkai was powerful enough to reduce Sakura's Susano'o and her Wood Style to cinders in a matter of minutes, but it would take Sakura only a single second to snap her opponent in half once she had caught her. It would be all too easy, but even so…
Sakura's head hung low.
"You talk too much," Sakura said quietly. "But your words cut deep… deeper than any blade…"
Sakura's sword vanished in a puff of white smoke, and she let her arms fall by her sides. She knew that if they fought, she would definitely win, and yet… speaking with Pakura had completely drained her fighting spirit; she no longer even wanted to take her opponent's breasts.
Pakura's hopeless idealism reminded her too much of Naruto.
"Ugh, just what am I doing…" Sakura muttered to herself. "Becoming a splendid kunoichi? What a joke…"
Pakura had not defeated Sakura in a battle of words, for deep down, Sakura had already defeated herself. Even if she had not realised it immediately, she had known it ever since Team 7 had escorted Tazuna back to the Land of Waves: the Land of Fire's shinobi culture existed only to perpetuate the cycle of hatred. Shinobi were political tools serving the ruling class in enforcing a regime of oppression; nothing more.
Sakura's thoughts turned to overthrowing the system of government, but what did she know of ruling? She would be alone in this revolution of hers; her friends weren't interested in that sort of thing. In the end, in the eyes of the masses, she would only be yet another tyrant if she seized power by force… albeit a very sexy dictator, with supernatural powers.
A glint appeared in Sakura's eye. Ninjutsu wasn't only good for killing… it could protect and heal, too. As always, Sakura's thoughts turned towards the most righteous of causes to justify her actions, so at the end of the day, the real question was: if she did not wish to kill anyone, then who was worthy of her protection?
The people of the Hidden Leaf?
The citizens of the Hidden Leaf had gathered together because there was something in common that united them: a wish for peace, and an end to child soldiers… and yet, the village's birth had only served to bring about more wars and send more children to the battlefield…
…yet, even though Hashirama's and Madara's village-building project had clearly failed, the people had remained. Perhaps this was not the case for all of the villagers, but Sakura hoped that most had chosen to remain because they still believed in the dream, because there was something unattainable they desired from the village more than anything else; something that could not be obtained anywhere else.
For the sake of their collective dreams, the Hidden Leaf needed to be protected, despite all its failings and despite all the harm it had caused to others; because no matter how stagnant it had become, it was still the birthplace of the Senju clan's and the Uchiha clan's dream of peace, and there was no other place quite like it. Without hope, a society had nothing.
"These past few years, whenever I was troubled, whenever I faced a problem with no clear way out, I'd ask myself: what would Naruto do?" Sakura said softly. "But deep down, I was only dodging the issue, avoiding responsibility for the consequences that were bound to come from my own choices."
Like a firefly to a flame, Naruto's light had captured Sakura's imagination… but even though she was stronger than him, she knew deep down that she would never shine brightly in her own right until she truly started to believe.
What did it truly mean to be a kunoichi of the Hidden Leaf? What drove Naruto to believe so wholeheartedly in the village? Sakura no longer simply wanted to imitate him; she genuinely wanted to understand. She wanted more than to merely stand at his side.
"If I became Hokage, would I see the same world Naruto sees?" Sakura murmured. "Lady Tsunade… maybe I'll give it a try, after all…"
Sakura was growing up.
Maybe not in height, but as a person, and horizontally besides. Every day she grew a little wiser, and her bust a little wider. Without realising it, Sakura had already become a splendid kunoichi: beautiful, kind, and strong.
"It seems you've made your decision," Pakura said, watching as Sakura raised her head.
Sakura looked at her opponent mournfully. It was all coming back to her now: very soon, after Sasori assassinated the Third Kazekage and she lost the Fourth Kazekage seat to Rasa, Pakura would be sent on a diplomatic mission to the Hidden Mist, though it would be nothing more than a ruse to have her killed… all because the Kazekage clan feared that an outsider might overshadow Rasa's accomplishments.
"Thank you for the kind offer, Lady Pakura, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline," Sakura said. "There are people waiting for me and things I've got to do, no matter what, so I'm going to have to go straight through you."