There are many people in this world. Many who are strong when they first come out into this wretched existence.
I'm not one of them.
But if you think that you can take everything I've worked toward, with your presence and your words,
I will end yo...
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I felt like collapsing, my entire body sagging forward as I trudged home with a frown on my face.
I was just about ready to die of chakra exhaustion.
For 10 hours straight, I had operated on a little girl.
Liani Machi. A sick girl who had worked herself into my heart with her happy smiles and optimism. She always brought me flowers from the roof garden, even if her other doctors told her it was much better for her health to stay inside and rest.
For hours I would sit next to her bed and listen to her talk, about her dreams and hopes. About this boy she had taken quite a liking to before she became sick, and about a new plant she saw pop up in the woods outside her window.
She was happy, despite her decreasing health.
So when I walked into the hospital, expecting a normal work day, I was appalled and in a state of frozen shock when a coworker of mine rushed up to me.
"Sakura-sama!" A voice cried in a mix of anguish and relief. I swiftly turned around and steadied the distressed nurse.
I recognized her as the matron and personal nurse of Liani, when I was not around myself.
"What is it?" I asked, firmly yet gentle.
"I-it's Liani. H-her heart rate is slowing..she's heading to the operating room right now!" She cried.
I let go of the woman and ran towards the operating room, slipping on my gloves and handing my clipboard to another doctor.
"You're going to live, damn it.." I muttered as I set to work, 10 doctors around me pushing in their chakra.
The hardest part was facing her family.
She had a little brother.
She had a dream.
I let them down.
I let her down.
I am a failure.
I don't deserve to be a doctor.
Saving lives is an amazing thrill, but the loss inside of you when you fail...it can destroy one's very will to go on.
That's how I planned on spending my entire weekend, snuggled up in my warm bed trying to sleep and regain chakra, and lowering my self worth even more.
That is, until an ANBU knocked.
•Third Person POV•
A knock sounded from Sakura's wooden door, carrying all the way to her bedroom.
Sakura groaned and threw off her blanket, standing up and stretching after a long awaited nap.
She yawned and sleepy trudged towards the front door.
Sakura opened the door, muttering curses.
"Look," she yawned. "Can you kinda make it quick because-" Sakura looked up and met the gaze of two soulless black circles of an ANBU mask.
She snapped to attention, her finger instinctively twitching towards a hidden kunai pocket on the wall.
The ANBU with a mask of a bear bowed respectively and nodded towards the sky slightly, an indication of a circling hawk.
Sakura narrowed her eyes.
A circling hawk meant to report to the Hokage's office-
The man twitched his head to the left, another signal, then poofed away with no sound.
Report to the Hokage's office. ASAP.
Sakura groaned, slamming the door closed.
Why the fu-
She shook her head and changed, making herself more presentable. She covered the huge dark bags under her eyes with light make up. In the mirror, Sakura regarded her long hair. It wasn't that she was trying to impress Sasuke anymore, because she was way past that, but she had grown used to long hair.
In her head she made a mental note to eventually cut it, as it was a hazard when fighting.
She put on a convincing smile.
Fake.
She tied up her long hair and shushined to outside of the Hokage's office.
Sakura mentally prepared herself for whatever in Kami's name Tsunade had called her there for, in the middle of her goddamn nap-
She took a deep breath and walked in.
Apparently, she hadn't prepared herself enough.
===============
"Repeat that. Now." She demanded, her eyes shining in anger.
Tsunade took a deep breath.
"Sakura..I.."
Sakura's eyes narrowed, slamming a fist on the desk in front of her.
Shizune flinched, looking down to the floor in shame. She could have prevented this, she could of-
"I said repeat it, Tsunade."
It was Tsunade's turn to flinch. She looked so vulnerable.
"Sakura..." Tsunade hesitated, but in the end gave up.
"They're gone. Th-they left to find Sasuke." She took a shaky breath, clutching her sake bottle tightly. Internally she cursed herself for stammering.
"I want names."
Tsunade took a deep breath once again to steel her nerves.
She looked up to meet Sakura's piercing gaze.
"Shino. Kiba. Lee. Ino. Kakashi. Naruto." She watched as her pupil's eyes softened with each name, tears welling up in her emerald green eyes.
"I'm sorry.." Tsunade whispered.
She expected Sakura to break down. To cry, to scream to the heavens.
How foolish of her to think that. Instead, Sakura whipped around and stalked towards the wall, fury encasing her very being.
She tightened the fists by her sides.
Sakura aimed a destructive punch to the wall.
With every punch, she wanted to do that to herself.
How could I have been so dumb?
Another punch.
Of course, they would leave behind this damn village-
The walls shook, but Tsunade did nothing but watched solemnly.
And me.
"They are classified as missing nin now. Leaving without my permission authorizes an immediate track down and arrest, due to their previous access to village secrets." Tsunade recited mournfully.
For fucking Sasuke.
Her fists flew.
Those bastards don't deserve the right to come back.
Blood spurted from her fists.
I'll show them.
I'll show them the consequences of crossing me.
Sakura abruptly stopped, massaging her fists as she turned to Tsunade.
With a straight face, she told her, "Sorry about the wall."
In a flurry of pink cherry blossoms, she was gone.
