Sakura was sitting in the Godaime's personal library at a desk, hidden behind mountains of rare tomes. She was jotting down notes in her medical notebook as she studied to further enhance her already impressive knowledge and skill. She had already surpassed her teacher in this particular field, but she still yearned for more knowledge on the subject; the entire topic intrigued her.
Originally, when she chose to enter this field, she believed that it was simply used for healing others and nothing more. However, she quickly discovered that this conclusion was only a common fallacy. If you became a master Med-nin, as she was, there were no limits of what you could use it for. Sakura was constantly creating her own medically based offensive and defensive jutsu, some of which even the Hokage hadn't discovered. These discoveries only fueled her fascination.
All of this extensive knowledge was crammed into one singular, leather-bound notebook. The leather was black and visibly worn down. Sakura treated this notebook like it was a holy book- and to her it was. It was always stored inside of her medic pack along with medical necessities, her cherished sketchpad, and some other random items.
For today she was done studying. Now, it was time for Sakura's personal training with the fifth Hokage. At these training sessions, she refrained from using her medical skills and tried to use the sparring time to accelerate her skills in genjutsu, taijutsu, and ninjutsu.
Sakura was just about to pack up her things when a Chuunin appeared in the doorway of the library. He simply stood there looking at her. After a few minutes of him silently watching her pack her things, Sakura began to feel a bit agitated. She was on the verge of snapping at him to beat it if he was just going to gawk at her. That was when it dawned on her that no one but her, Shizune, and the Hokage herself were permitted to enter the library; it was restricted from others because of the secrets it held.
Sighing tiredly, Sakura walked over to the Chuunin who was waiting patiently to give her a message, most likely from the Hokage canceling today's training so she could get wasted and ditch more paperwork. After she was at her maximum alcohol intake, Tsunade would proceed to pass out on her unfinished mounds of paperwork.
When she reached the doorway, the Chuunin began, "Sakura Haruno, Apprentice of the Godaime, Head Medic-nin of Konoha, Head Ninja of the ANBU-" Sakura had cut him off with the wave of her hand; had he addressed all of her titles, they could be standing there for hours. It's mind-blowing that she was only fourteen and she had so many titles.
She studied the Chuunin momentarily—he looked about her age or older. His cropped, brown hair was messy and looked like he didn't have access to a comb. He had big, round, brown eyes that accented his tanned skin. He seemed very attentive and over-excited, so it was probably the first message the Hokage asked him to relay.
"I'm sorry for keeping you waiting as I packed my things. Oh, and there's no need to list all of my titles… Sakura is fine," Sakura amended, just wanting to get things moving.
"Don't worry about keeping me waiting, I feel honored by simply being allowed to stand in the presence of the prestigious Sakura Haruno as she goes on with her daily tasks!" the boy exclaimed, his voice lacking the sarcasm that the sardonic remark should have held. It took her a few seconds to realize that he wasn't being the least bit cynical; in fact, the Chuunin was being entirely honest about how he felt.
Sakura cleared her throat uneasily and said sighing, "The message?" She received this sort of admiration often, but it never ceased to embarrass her.
"Oh, yes! I forgot what I came here for; I've been watching you for so long! Anyway, the admirable Hokage sent me to tell you that today's training session has been cancelled. However, you will be meeting her in her office tomorrow at 6:00 P.M. sharp!" the Chuunin exclaimed energetically.
It appeared that her prediction was correct. Instead of training she would probably go somewhere peaceful and draw. She would most likely wander off mindlessly and just plop down to draw wherever her mind felt content.
Sakura replied while smiling gently, "Thank you very much. You should probably report back to the Hokage now, though." He nodded in agreement and was on his way. Sakura walked over to the desk she was studying at and retrieved her medical pack.
After she secured her pack over her shoulder she walked out the door and performed to seals to lock the library and keep out unwanted intruders who were attempting to steal the secret knowledge inside.
Once she finished successfully completing the sealing jutsu, she exited the building. As she walked down the road, quite aimlessly, she stared at her feet, just thinking. Mainly random things, like what she learned today, nothing serious.
However, she looked up when she bumped into someone—it was Shikamaru.
Then there was a long sigh followed by, "What a drag…"
"Oh! Sorry about that, Shikamaru!" Sakura apologized, then asking, "Are you going cloud gazing?"
Shikamaru shook his head and said sighing, "Sadly, no. I would love to be doing that right now. I'm going to the meeting that Tsunade called. She said that it was an emergency. I have a feeling that it's about the Akatsuki… Either that, or maybe Orochimaru… Aren't you headed to her office now too?" Sakura just stood there, completely dumbfounded, wondering what meeting he was talking about. Tsunade hadn't invited to her to any meetings of any sort… Then it must not concern her.
"Ah, no, actually, I'm kind of wandering aimlessly right now. Have, umm… fun at your meeting though!" Sakura beamed, inwardly wondering what the meeting was about. After all, he hadn't called it a mission briefing, so it couldn't be just for his team… Was she still not good enough to be involved in important matters? Still too weak?
Plus, this apparently involved the very people she was after. Those people—the Akatsuki and Orochimaru—would lead her, without fail, to Sasuke.
Sasuke… Was he even worth the trouble? He had only rubbed her face in the dirt; did he honestly warrant her efforts and her care? Was he worth all the pain? Did he earn her patience and devotion?
Without waiting for an answer from Shikamaru, or even recalling his presence, she darted off. She was running quite slow-paced for her, but that was because she was more focused on her thoughts than anything.
Sakura just kept on running. Different questions kept on tumbling and tossing back and forth in her head. All of her feelings -her love, hate, confusion, sadness—it all revolved around him, it was all caused by him. But, was he worth it? Did he deserve to hold the dearest place in her heart? No, he owned her whole heart as well.
Even if he claimed to have "severed those bonds long ago," he couldn't demolish her feelings for him. But then who could? He had complete control over her, so it seemed. Yet, in all reality, she could control how she felt. Instead of actually thinking of herself, she handed over her soul to the devil and said, "Do as you please." The only person that could change how she felt about him was… herself.
She could if she was strong enough. However, Sakura couldn't possibly believe that she was courageous or solid enough. Sure, in battle she knew how and when to lay down the smack down, against anybody. In fact, it was a miracle that she hadn't killed anybody yet. Using her medical skills, she made sure that she never did, since she didn't want to become a mindless killing-machine like so many other powerful ninjas.
Is that what Sasuke had become as well? He was already egotistical, what happened when he attained more power? Did he become another person that let the power go to their head?
Snapping out of her reverie, hoping that she could find the will power to overcome the pain she let him cause, she looked to see where her legs took her. Sakura sighed and slapped herself in the forehead when she found herself of all places, inside of the Uchiha complex.
What was she supposed to do here? She could always venture around for a bit, after all, it was currently vacant. Then again, that would still be an invasion of the privacy of others. She thought for a minute, and after a moment's hesitation, she headed into the largest building hoping that this was where Sasuke's nuclear family lived.
When she walked in, she immediately noticed the stark bloodstains on the floor. She quickened her pace and entered the hallway, then turning into the nearest bedroom. This room was full of broken objects, torn pillows, and broken glass from the shattered window. Also, the bed was completely torched.
Maybe a bunch of zealous vandals came while they were drunk to trash the place. Then again, maybe it wasn't. To test her theory, she decided to check a few more rooms, since vandals wouldn't destroy one room and just leave, unless they were holding a long-lasting grudge against the deceased.
The next room she walked into was very neat, but coated with a nice layer of dust. There was also a few cobwebs here and there. The bed was king-sized and appeared plain, nothing too flashy or luxurious. The only other things in the room were a dresser and a desk.
Sakura walked over to a desk, since it appear to have something on top of it. She realized that it was a picture frame that was face down. It seemed to have a bit less dust on it than every thing else in the room. Sakura was going to lift up the frame to see what picture it contained, but decided better off it, not wanting to be snooping through the property of the dead. So she decided to move on to the next room.
The next room seemed a bit messy, like someone had lived there recently. She gasped, then realizing that this had to be Sasuke's room. It wasn't recently that he last lived there, in fact, he hadn't live there for two-and-a-half years, but the bed was unmade and it lacked the air of absolute vacancy.
Since he wasn't dead, she had absolutely no problem with checking out his room; of course that and the fact that he was a jerk. To justify her actions, she decided that she was doing this to… help her find clues to his whereabouts. Which wasn't entirely true, but she couldn't cure her curiosity, it was a disease. Kind of like him.
The real reason that Sakura was looking in Sasuke room, which she considered completely unethical, was that she hoped to find a reason to not care. Not care about him, or the pain he put her through every day.
The first thing she looked at were the walls. She noticed that there was one picture hanging on the walls. At first glance, she thought it was Sasuke, but then she had to second-guess that, since she didn't think that he was conceited enough to hang a picture of himself on the wall to adore or anything like that.
After studying it for a moment, she realized that it had to be his brother, Itachi. He probably kept it there to remind himself of his hatred every night before he went to sleep, to keep himself driven on the dark, selfish path he chose.
Sakura expected to feel hatred towards this man, now seeing his face. She had seen him before, but it was only some form of a clone that they had battled. Instead of abhorring the man, she became curious.
His face was unsmiling and empty. However, it seemed that hidden behind the blank expression there was a dark abyss of sadness and moreover—loneliness. He probably couldn't understand why he felt so alone when he had a family that adored him and received so much admiration.
That was it. He was it. Itachi Uchiha was the one she would draw. He knew how she felt in every aspect. Sure maybe their situations differed, but the feelings were the same.
Immediately, Sakura whipped open her medic pack, pulling out one of two, medium-sized books, opening it up. She quickly realized that she had accidentally grabbed her medical notebook instead of the sketchpad.
"Opps…" Sakura mumbled under her breath as she exchanged the notebook for the sketchpad and took a pencil while she was at it.
As soon as she opened it, she began drawing on the paper. With each new line and shade she made, she instilled more feeling into the drawing. Sakura kept going without pausing, occasionally having to erase a mistake or two.
When she finally completed the drawing, Sakura admired her work. It was truly beautiful, in a sad, cold sort of way. It showed the Itachi she saw in the picture on the wall staring at the dead bodies of his family with an empty stare. However, behind that blank face, there was disbelief and shame. If you examined his onyx eyes closely, you could just barely recognize the gleam in his eyes caused by held back tears. He looked like he wanted to run away and hide.
As she examined her artwork, she suddenly understood why he killed off his entire clan. It was because he knew that the only reason people even gave him a second glance was his strength. Itachi realized that people didn't admire him for being him; they loved his ability and potential. They loved the fact that he was "the pride of the Uchiha clan," but they didn't actually love him.
Suddenly, Sakura realized that she was quite tired. She looked out the window and realized that it was late at night. The stars were twinkling brightly and a lonely crescent moon hung high in the night sky.
She dragged herself over to the bed, and plopped down on it, which shook an unhealthy amount of dust into the air. After sneezing multiple times, Sakura laid her head on Sasuke's pillow and immediately fell asleep.