Shades of Grey

Chapter 12

Sakura laid out her bedroll and looked up at the blanket of stars above her. She could hear nothing but the crackling of her fire and the occasional gust of wind. It was in times like these that she missed her friends the most. She could feel loneliness cutting her down to her very core. If her boys were here it would be so much different. Sai would be sketching, Naruto and Sasuke arguing until she whacked one or both of their heads, and Kakashi would be chuckling while reading his dirty book.

She wondered what they were doing now. Sai was probably still sketching, but with one less teammate to inspire his art. Kakashi did not have his book, so he could not be using it to hide from the world. Her Naruto was no doubt still not over losing another of his precious people. That just left Sasuke. If he were here, he would probably slap her for leaving him the way that she had.

Another wave of loneliness crashed upon her. She had always been a social creature. This was maybe the hardest part of being banished from her home. Everything else she could handle.

Long ago she had grown accustomed to sleeping under the stars. Running for miles on end became a distraction of sorts which she enjoyed. She mused about her time away so far. Who would have thought that Sakura Haruno would face two S-ranked shinobi on her own and survive? As she thought about it though, if Itachi Uchiha had truly wanted her dead, she was sure that she would be.

Itachi; the thought of him drew a sigh from her lips. Ironically, he had been her first break from the loneliness that threatened to rip her apart. She was certain that if Sasuke ever were to learn that he would have done much more than slap her. There was no doubt he would take it as a personal betrayal, but Sakura did not live in a world that allowed her to worry about silly childhood crushes anymore. No, she had chosen to put herself into a world that forced her to take whatever she could get.

Itachi was an enemy of that there could be no doubt, but he had offered her advice on two occasions now. He had even gone so far as to offer to offer to stand guard as she healed herself. In turn Sakura had voluntarily healed Konoha's most wanted missing nin. What did that say about her loyalties? No, she pushed the thought aside. She was still loyal to Konoha and to her friends; things were simply different out here. She had grown up in a world that was so very black and white. Now however there only seemed to be varying shades of grey. She just hoped that it would not change her so much that her friends would not be able to recognize her when she was at last able to go home.

She did her best to push away such troubling thoughts. Tomorrow she would be surrounded by people that she knew were her friends. Itachi had said that peace awaited her in Wind. She hoped that it would prove to be true.