At this point in the story, the Akatsuki has not made any moves against Konoha, but most of the bijuu have been captured (save for Hachibi and Kyuubi). The story starts six years after Sasuke's departure, so the Konoha 11 + Sai are all around 19.

Welcome back, everyone! Thanks for giving this story ANOTHER try. (Also, yeah, I changed the name back #srrynotsrry)

Warnings: Lots of line breaks, dashes, and italics. I'm serious.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent underneath it."

~Shakespeare, Macbeth: Act I Scene V

"Have you heard?"

"The Uchiha boy…"

"Came back last night–"

"...dragged in by his own teammates..."

"It looked like he was dead–"

The whispers followed her on her trek down the main road, stopping when the gossipers noticed her and surging up again once she disappeared from sight.

Sakura Haruno was once again caught up in a scandal involving a loudmouth blonde and an antisocial psychopath.

It didn't matter that she obviously did not want to be noticed because really, people don't suddenly dye their hair for no reason, right? but seriously, did the civilians have nothing else to talk about? Of course, as she constantly reminded herself, that dipshit was practically a celebrity to these people. He was the "only survivor of the Uchiha Massacre" and all.

Tch.

Damn it. She'd unknowingly picked up that habit from the dickhead years before he left, but it didn't start actually showing up in her speech patterns until he was long gone and her life completely jaded.

"Sakura-san."

The suddenness of the interruption caused her verdant gaze to zero in piercingly on the monkey-masked ANBU.

Rather young, judging by his or her stature. Definitely a her, judging by the smell of her conditioner. Posture rather relaxed–faking it? No, new recruit, hasn't been out on the front-lines yet. The fidgeting, however–ah, she's heard of me before.

Thanks to her training, Sakura took in all these details within a second, before the ANBU could even open her mouth to deliver her message.

"Tsunade-sama requires your presence immediately at the Hokage Tower," she said, and Sakura's tone drastically softened when she noticed the slightly trembling hands.

"Tell Shishou that I will be there as soon as possible," Sakura replied as kindly as she could.

ANBU nowadays were so young, and so unprepared. It pained her to see them go through their first field mission, first assassination, first cold-blooded massacring. She was never ready to let any students go in the first place, but to see the trauma–that was the worst part of watching them grow as shinobi under their care.

"Ah–"

"Who was your mentor?" The girl (because really, that was all that she was) ducked her head and blushed. Ah, probably should not have worded it like that, Sakura admonished herself. "Just curious," she added, hoping to lighten the severity of the question.

"Inuzuka-san," she replied meekly.

"Really?" Kiba, loud-mouthed and brash Kiba, was her teacher? She couldn't help deciding to have some words with Kiba about his teaching abilities because something was going wrong if this girl was intimidated by some rumors of all things.

Then again, it wasn't her place to judge. Kiba's policies were his own, and she had as little right to comment on them as he had to comment on hers. "Hm." Her tone of voice was neither approving nor disapproving, but the girl seemed to figuratively burrow further into herself.

"Tsunade-sama also said I was to stay with S-S-Sakura-san to ensure that she did not try to run away." She narrowed her eyes at the stuttering. Now really, was she that frightening? ANBU or not, it was ridiculous.

"Did she," Sakura mused with a skeptical eyebrow. Her teacher knew her all too well, even if it had been a nearly two and a half years since they had truly spoken. "Then we might as well get a move on."

With a long-suffering sigh, Sakura leapt onto the nearest roof, startling the girl enough that it took her a second to follow. They reached the tower in less than a minute.

"Shishou," Sakura greeted as she slipped through the window and bowed deeply. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Sakura, I'm glad you finally decided to show up," her previous master replied. Sakura noticed the redness of her mentor's cheeks and gave the two ceramic bottles and shot glasses on the desk a skeptical glance before meeting the honey-brown eyes of her Hokage. "Saru-san, you are dismissed." The girl nodded, a bit too quickly for it to look casual, and was gone in a flash.

"By the way, Shishou–"

"I thought I told you to stop calling me that," Tsunade cut in, not meaning to be harsh, but coming off that way anyway.

"Very well, Tsunade-sama." She couldn't help replying with a sharp edge to the name, if only to sate her own bitterness. "What have you called me for today?"

Tsunade steepled her fingers, and Sakura internally blanched. This can not be good news.

"It has come to our attention that Sasuke Uchiha is a criminal–" No shit, Sherlock, thought Sakura, "–and must be punished accordingly. He has agreed to any punishment, as long as it is decreed and agreed by both you and Naruto."

"Me? He had to have heard of what happened last year, but he still-" She interrupted herself with a sigh. It wasn't like Naruto could be trusted to make sound decisions in any situation, but ever since his induction into the ANBU Black Ops, he was better at listening to directions and generally at being a good shinobi. Her, however–well, mental soundness wasn't one of her strong points. "Either way, where is Naruto?"

"Visiting Sasuke. Which is what I expected you to be doing when Saru-san found you."

Tch. There was that annoying little verbal tick again. Tsunade really didn't know her as well as she used to if she thought that Sakura would be even looking at, let alone amiably visiting, the jerkass who ruined her life. And if anyone asked, no she wasn't bitter about him abandoning her on a cold park bench with not so much as an explanation and leaving her to fend off the insults and criticisms of the adults around her which eventually led to last year's situation. Nope, not bitter at all.

Okay, maybe a little.

"I was not aware that my actions were decreed by your expectations," she replied snarkily. Before Tsunade could protest, she leapt onto the windowsill. "I'll take my leave, Tsunade-sama, and speak with Naruto of this."

She jumped off, landing nimbly in the street. As long as she didn't meet anyone she knew on her way to the holding cells, she would be in a pleasant enough mood that the shitstain's face wouldn't be ripped off the moment she caught glimpse of it.

Of course, luck was not on her side.

"Sakura-san."

"I was not aware that you were off-duty today, Kakashi-senpai," she sneered. "Unless, of course, you're slacking off as usual."

Oh, yeah. Forgot to mention one little thing.

Bad history between the ex-teacher and ex-student led to interactions like this daily. She remembered every instance of "Oh no, Sakura. I can't train you today because Naruto is the prized student who can actually amount to something, not weak little you that can barely make Chunin." Every time she asked for a training session to actually get stronger so that he'd be more interested in training her, he brushed her off with one of his lame excuses.

Although, he never said anything outright, she could feel it in every word he threw her way, every distrustful glance he shot her way when he thought she didn't notice. Even now, he believed she was weak. Everyone seemed to. Training potential ANBU members? Ha, pathetic! Even compared to Kiba, who did the same thing she did, she was the weaker one because she was a stupid girl who thought she fell for the wrong boy at the wrong time in the entirely wrong universe, and because after being criticized so ruthlessly for it that she nearly lost her mind, it was much too late to become a worthwhile shinobi, sorry.

"Well, I, unlike you, am busy at the moment, so if you'll excuse me," she threw over her shoulder as she walked away, unwilling to let him have the last word (or any words at all). He thought she didn't catch his scowling glare, but Sakura still felt it, clear as day.

So yeah. So. Fucking. Bitter.

Mood now suitably ruined, Sakura stalked into the ANBU holding cells, sending guards scrambling at her fierce expression. They knew enough of the rumors to avoid the woman when she looked like that.

"Naruto, we need to talk." She slowed her pace when she reached the door to the deepest depths of the dungeon. At this point, she was stubbornly unwilling to go inside, so she waited for her only friend to appear from the darkened corridor.

"Sakura-chan! You actually came!" he greeted cheerfully as he pushed open the dungeon door. He threw his strong arms around her in a hug, and she responded languidly, barely lifting her arms to circle his waist.

"Merely at the insistence of Shishou," she replied immediately. She had no desire to see the asswipe's face.

"You gonna go in?" he asked with his sympathetic look that was probably the only thing she actually, truly hated about her Naruto.

After the incident from last year, he had compassionately forgiven her even when everyone else hadn't, but he was always so worried that it physically hurt to see his sympathetic stares. From then on, Naruto never repeated his promise to her, and even though he still asked her to join him on his missions once in a while, he stopped bringing the shitstain's name up in front of her.

She was so messed up, to the point where even Naruto understood her feelings.

"No. I came only to tell you that you can decide on that bastard's punishment. It has nothing to do with me."

"But Sakura-chan–"

She was already gone.

"Shit," Naruto cursed, eyes tightly shut in frustration. "Why can't I ever save the people I love?"

In three weeks, the shitface's punishment was set.

"Holy fuck!" Kiba complained in the tiny break room. "How the fuck is that even fair!"

"It's Naruto, you know how he is." Sakura calmly peeled her apple with a kunai, paying little attention to Kiba's rant.

"But he's an S-class criminal! He killed tons of people! Three months of community service is the punishment for that?!"

"We can't do anything about that now." Kiba's gaze narrowed at her blasé reply.

"Don't give me that. You could have done something! Like, I dunno, made him do something fucking embarrassing!"

Sakura chuckled lightly. Kiba reminded her so much of Naruto, it was no wonder they got along well.

"Even if I had suggested something stupidly embarrassing, Shishou would have vetoed it ruthlessly," she replied with a grin. She looked up curiously when Kiba didn't reply, and was hit by the pitying look he sent her way.

"So what the fuck are you gonna do when he gets out?" Aaand, back to the walking on eggshells around my mental health.

"What the fuck can I do?" she growled out, frustrated. "What do you think I'll do?"

"Maybe you can help along with that 'Uchiha Clan restoration' or some shit," Kiba joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Sakura briefly debated whether throwing the kunai into Kiba's jugular would mean more or less work for her (seeing as it would shut him up but he might also die and then she'd have to do paperwork).

She told him as much, but he merely laughed, doubting her intentions again.

"I'll be back when the break is over," was her only warning before she left.

"Hey!" Kiba spluttered. "I didn't really mean it! Come back–Sakura!"

She ignored him.

"Only three months of community service, huh?" Sakura repeated once more to herself as she decimated a tree trunk. "Reformed, my ass." A high kick finally destroyed it, and she moved onto the next tree.

How did she really feel about it? There was a surprising amount of reticence mixed in with her never-ending resentment, but the anger she expected was nowhere to be found. Have I really cleansed my heart of that bastard? she couldn't help wondering.

"My, my, you're working hard."

And, there it was. The confrontation she'd been waiting for.

"Sasuke-kun," she replied with mock sweetness. "How nice to see you again. How is life here, now that you can't kill whomever you want?"

"Kukuku." Holy shit, he did the creepy laugh, too. "I'm perfectly fine. However, maybe you should be more worried about yourself." He shot her a smirk that she might've once thought attractive, but only served to incite the ugly hatred sleeping in her chest.

"Is that a threat I hear?" she mused, slamming her fist into the tree trunk repeatedly.

"Oh, no. Just some...advice." Sakura turned around to tell him just where he could shove his 'advice,' but he was already gone.

Not even a mere second after he disappeared, she received a message from the Hokage. Apparently, she was no longer needed as an ANBU trainer. In fact…

She was being replaced by Sasuke Uchiha.

Fuck.

She sprinted all the way to the Tower. Without hesitation, she slammed open the window and darted through, making her way to the desk littered with empty bottles in seconds.

"You can't do this." Sakura's voice was sharp with frustration, her jade eyes blazing with barely restrained anger. In her fit of rage, she slammed her fist into the Hokage's desk, leaving an indent a couple inches deep.

"There's no other choice." Tsunade's eyes were as hard as flint, words clear despite her inebriation. "He is confined to the village for the next three years, so we must do everything we can to ensure that he is not tempted to leave again. If it means giving away someone else's position, then so be it. I'm sure you can find another job easily; you are a strong kunoichi after all."

"Tsunade-sama, you realize that this appeasement will never sate him–"

"Sakura. I have done my best to tolerate your complaints, but I will not take this challenge to my authority lightly! Be careful of what you say, for I am still your Hokage."

Angry was an understatement compared to what she was feeling at the moment. With a glare that was equal parts resentment and hate, Sakura stormed from the room, slamming the door with a sense of finality.

I will not stand for this.

A week later, Sakura's decision was made.

Whether it was luck or fate, everything was in place for her plan. She had no obligations now that she had no job, and her escape route was as clear as it could be. She had been planning this ever since she was taken off active duty and the whole mental institution thing happened, but this was the first time she actually had a perfect chance to carry out her plan.

That evening after her last day of teaching (her students promised that they'd miss her and that they'd write; Sakura didn't doubt it, but it'd be a tad bit difficult), she called Naruto, packed her bags, and went out for a walk in the woods.

"So, what'd you wanna talk about, Sakura-chan?" he asked, bounding ahead of her on the path. A smile flitted gently across her face–she'd miss him, really–but she couldn't stay any longer.

"Naruto." He stopped, hearing the note of seriousness in her voice and knowing what was coming. "It's time."

"Sakura-chan…" He trailed off. He had known about her plan for months, and had desperately tried to convince her to forget it, to stay, but she had been adamant in her decision, and he understood her feelings enough that his protests eventually died off.

"I'm sorry. You know what needs to be done."

Tears sprung in his eyes, but he nodded determinedly and grabbed her for a quick hug. "Be safe, Sakura-chan. I'll miss you, and I'm sure Kiba and Sai will as well."

"Tell them both that I'm very sorry as well. I...oh gosh, I haven't even seen Sai since he came back from that horrid mission to Iwa. He's going to be so angry." She lingered, vestiges of contrition evident in her hesitation.

"I'll tell him everything," Naruto assured with a slight push. "You're the one who wanted to leave, Sakura-chan, so get a move on!" His voice, alight with false cheerfulness, nearly made Sakura want to stay, but he was right–she had promised herself to leave with no regrets.

"Goodbye, Naruto. I love you."

Naruto beamed. "I finally got to hear those words from you, Sakura-chan!"

One last hug, and she was gone.

"Go chase your destiny, Sakura. And come back stronger, so you can kick our asses."

Yatta! It's finally over.

You guys have no idea how hard I tried to make this version better. For those who don't know, I've literally rewritten this story altogether THREE TIMES! Yeah, it's been a tough ride.

I'll be up with the next chapter as soon as possible.

~UlquiSchiff

5/12/14

PS. Title is a song by Lovers and Liars and I highly suggest you all listen to it. :D