A Tale of Broken Hearts

A Mission In Suna

      Sakura huffed heavily as Tsunade continued throwing the needles towards her, hardly able to dodge them anymore. Her body was hardly obeying her commands anymore, hardly moving at all. It wasnt long until she was barely dodging the needles, a few scraped her, causing the paralyzing poison that Tsunade had made for her training to begin taking effect. She held her hand up, signaling her teacher to hault her assault. That she had been hit. Her hands glowed a vibrant green as she tried to heal herself. Pulling the poison out into a bubble of bright green chakra. It was the fifteenth time today. Her chakra was running extremely low, and every breath she drew made her feel more exhausted by the second. She was struggling to stay conscious when Tsunade walked over to her and put her hand on Sakuras head. 

     "I am proud of you. You have come so far Sakura." Sakuras eyes pricked with tears upon hearing that. She remembered when Tsunade had finally decided to take her under her wing and teach her. It was the turning point for her, she devoted every second of her time to training. She learned simple healing jutsus first. Years had indeed passed since then. She closed her eyes in remembrance, only for a split second, and the world went black around her. 

     Tsunade, realizing the girl had passed out, picked her up and carried her back to the Hokage tower. She was no longer the feeble girl who came to her when Sasuke left the village. She now had the power to not only protect herself, but also those she held dear to her.

     Sakura awoke from a fitful sleep, she hadnt slept well since Sasuke left her laying on that park bench. The memory itself invoked a familiar pain in her chest. And she wondered where he was now. She sat up slowly, knowing all to well what had happened. It was nothing new for her to pass out after training. And after a while Tsunade took a liking to her, and instead of leaving her passed out at the training grounds she would bring her to the tower and heal up all the wounds and finish extracting the poison from her body. 

      "Tsunade-Sama?" She questioned, the woman in question looked up from her large stacks of paperwork. 

     "Yes, Sakura?" She asked, her eyes seemed to hold a softer tone towards her than they did in the beginning. 

     "I have been wondering...." Her voice trailed off, not sure whether to ask the question that has been bothering her for months.

     Tsunade gave the young woman a knowing look. "We havent gotten any new news on Sasuke Uchiha in a long time.. I am sorry, but as it stands, he is a missing ninja who must be captured.." The unspoken words, alive or not didnt help the residual pain in her chest. Tsunade understood the pain all to well, her own thoughts drifting to Orochimaru himself. She stood up from the desk and embraced the young woman in front of her, she hated this for her, she really did. 

     "I have good news though. It seems Naruto and Jiraiya will be back at some point today." Sakura perked up a bit after hearing Narutos name. The two had become quiet close since Sasukes leaving, the hole he left in their hearts bringing them close together.

    "Oh Shishou, that is great news!" Sakura beamed. "Do you know when?" Sakura asked, a bit more cheer to her voice now. 

    "Sometime in the evening, why?" Tsunade had taken notice of their closeness, hoping maybe they could breath a bit more of the life they used to have back into one another. They had been so lifeless after he left. Even Kakashi himself didnt escape the sting of the boy leaving. 

     "I promised Naruto when they came back id treat him to ramen at Ichiraku" Sakura smiled, looking out the window. It seemed she had been out a bit longer than normal this time, as the sky was filled with reds and oranges from the sunset. 'Kind of like Narutos hair' She mused to herself.