Sakura stared at Sai in horror. His face showed remorse, one of the few emotions he learnt to feel.
"I'm sorry," he apologised.
Sakura looked away. She stood but continued to stare down at Tsunade who was still in a coma. Sasuke did this. Because of Sasuke, Danzou is now acting Hokage until Tsunade wakes up; if she ever wakes. And because Danzou was given such power, he's taking advantage of the situation by eliminating any opposing forces. The Root Anbu have come to light. Two hundred and ten Anbu are in Root. He sent Naruto off on a mission with about sixty of them to hide. Naruto was taken kicking and screaming.
Konohagakure is now a village of fear and tension. Danzou caused this. He killed Shizune when she retaliated to Danzou's insults towards Tsunade. She was publicly executed to help install that fear. Now he was sending Sakura away.
Actually, that's putting it nicely. He's banishing her, accusing her of helping Uchiha Sasuke and conspiring against him. She is granted safety until tomorrow at sun down where she will be hunted down by Hunter-nin. Come to think of it, he banished Itachi also. Where he went, no one knows.
She looked up at Sai and moved to him. He closed his eyes, waiting for the oncoming punch when he felt a slight pressure wrapped around him. He opened his eyes to find Sakura hugging him.
"S-Sakura?" He asked in surprise, so surprised in fact that he used her real name.
Sakura stepped back.
"Thank you, Sai."
He helped her put her things into scrolls before she packed it up. She headed back to Tsunade and placed a jutsu on her, preventing any other kind of chakra other than hers to touch her.
"To protect you, Tsunade-shishou," Sakura whispered.
She caressed her face.
"When you learnt that I was without a mother, you took me in as your daughter. You protected me, encouraged me and gave me strength as any mother does. I promise, in your name, I'll take Konoha back."
Sakura kissed her forehead and left.
She walked to Konoha's south gate. She turned to see her friends hiding in shadows around the area. She didn't let it show, but she was smiling. She saw each nod to her and she knew. They would work to try and stop Danzou from the inside. Sakura pointed to her forehead where a certain red-head had a kanji symbol for love. She saw her friends nodding and she knew they knew where she was going. She nodded and turned to face the forest outside the gates.
"Good luck, Sakura-sama," Izumo told her.
"And take care," Kotetsu finished.
Sakura nodded and took off outside the gates.
Not even a few hours later, she felt Hunter-nin coming after her.
"What?" Sakura cursed.
She hid in one of the trees and pulled a couple strands of her hair out. Putting her hands together with the strands between her fingers, she performed one of her special jutsu.
"Ninja Art: Sakura Wires," Sakura whispered before thrusting her hands out.
The strands shot out and wrapped around the branches. Only the tiniest bit of chakra was within them so they were completely untraceable. Once it was completed, she turned and ran. It wasn't long till she heard their yells. She continued on, turning the three day trip to Suna into two, stopping only to fill up her water bottle at a lake. She got to Suna, stopping before the large stone walls. She was covered in tiny cuts, having not enough chakra to spare when using it to go faster than the Root Hunter-nin.
"Hey, who's that?" A Sand-nin asked.
"It's the Hokage's apprentice!" Some gasped.
Sakura collapsed, passing out from chakra depletion, fatigue and dehydration. Kankuro, who was checking the rounds and saw her, ran out to her with a few others.
"Sakura," he called.
Once he checked over her, he knew she was only unconscious. They carried her to the Suna Hospital where she was taken care of. Gaara was called down and he waited for her to come to with Kankuro, Temari and Baki.
"Sakura," Temari called when she saw her eyes flickering. "Sakura, wake up."
Sakura's eyes flew open and she shot up in bed, panicked. After that, she couldn't move. She looked down and saw she was covered in sand. She looked up and realised where she was.
"I made it," she whispered with a sigh.
"What happened?" Gaara asked.
"Danzou," Sakura hissed, absolute hatred flooding her eyes and making her voice thick. "You know how he sent Naruto-kun and Itachi off and…murdered Shizune," tears came to her eyes. "Well, he knew I was ever faithful to Tsunade and guessed I'd rebel against him. The bastard was right, I'd never take orders from him," Sakura spat.
"Did he try to kill you?" Temari asked.
Sakura snorted. "No, that would require getting his superior hands dirtied. No, he banished me and promised me safety until a day later. But not long after I left was I followed and hunted down by Hunter-nin. It took a lot of chakra to hide and fight them off and to run here."
"Well, you're always welcome here," Gaara stated.
Sakura smiled. "Thank you so much, Kazekage-sama."
"Sakura, call me Gaara. We're friends, aren't we?"
Sakura couldn't help but smile. Indeed, they came a long way since they were twelve.
"Yeah, we are."
