the woods are lovely, dark and deep, (but I have promises to keep)

Chapter One: miles to go before I sleep

Wind whistled in his ears as he stared down the gully, tilting his head as he weighed up the size of the drop and the distance across the narrow little ravine. Trees camouflaged him well, but he could never be too careful, given when and where he had landed. He wasn't entirely too sure of the exact geographical location – only that there were two warring clans, neither of which he was familiar with, and they were at each other's throats. They were hardly going to ask his allegiance either. He had discovered, rather abruptly, that they were the stab first kind of people and those were the kinds he couldn't reason with. He wasn't like Naruto. He couldn't talk people down. Nor could he impress his long-time crush – the beautifully deadly Uchiha Sasuke. He had long since wanted to impress the girl but had never quite been capable of that. He had thought maybe he would have a chance since becoming Tsunade's student, but he had never been able to find her and show her that. Not the way Naruto always had.

Now they were busy being happy as a couple together, and Sakura was stuck in this mess. A scowl made his lips curl down, and he left the cover of the trees, jumping across the gully, peering down at the makeshift map he had created over the last few weeks of travelling. It would be a while before he could manage to buy one in a larger town – perhaps after earning more money as a freelance shinobi.

The scent of blood hit his nose, and then he crouched down, casting a quick genjutsu over himself. It would never fool a trained sensor nor a genjutsu type shinobi, but it was enough for slipping past the clashes between the two bloodthirsty clans bearing symbols he had no idea of. It was the only way for him to get out alive without causing mass casualties in a landslide.

Ground was steeped, and sodden in weeks' worth of rain, and that meant any punches he threw would have a catastrophic affect, possibly both for himself and everyone else around him. Shaking his head, he moved on, careful to steer clear of the sounds of metal clashing as he made his way to the next village.

Shivering, Sakura moved on, careful of where he trod, blinking as he felt the droplets of rain hit his forehead. Maybe that big forehead was good for something. Not that it really was all that big. That was just his childish insecurities talking. Shaking his head, he hurried towards the south – or what he assumed to be the south in any case – shivering as the temperatures dropped, and Sakura started to have suspicions he would be entering the Land of Snow, or somewhere with similar temperatures to that place. The trees were all looking to become silver birch, and he vaguely recalled a similar looking tree in his memories of the Land of Snow. Not that silver birch were all that rare. He was just praying to kami that he found his feet soon.

Especially since Naruto probably wouldn't be coming to save him. The other boy had always been fixated on Sasuke. Probably a crush he had never really acknowledged until Sasuke had run from them after his brother. Sakura only wondered how long it would take before they wrote him off as dead. KIA or MIA, or worse rogue. Silently, Sakura prayed they would investigate. That they would figure out which one of the obscure seals he had stepped on in his diversion to Uzushio to lose his pursuers. That they would bring him back to those peaceful times when he had a place in Konoha.

Sakura laughed, staring up at the sky, closing his eyes as he used the meagre sensory abilities he was still discovering to check whether he was safe. As if that would happen. Naruto and Sasuke were happy. They didn't care how much it broke his heart when they went on dates. He was just the jealous fanboy, and that was all he would ever be.

He closed his eyes, remembering how excited he had been when he had finally presented as an omega. Secondary genders weren't that important as they had been in years gone by then, but he had foolishly believed he was perfect for the alpha which Uchiha Sasuke had presented to be. Naruto had been an alpha too, as had Kakashi – and he had been the first one out of all of them to realise what he was. Though that might have been because it was in his file.