Her smile was convincing as she waved the child off, watching her now ex-patient running into his mother's arms. She heaved a sigh as she turned away, walking down the white hallway; she still had an hour left, and even after that, she was expected at party, celebrating the return of Sasuke.
It had been a while since the youngest Uchiha had come back home, bringing his teammates with him. And that was what changed everything. Everyone that used to look to her for help, now found the red-headed medic, Karin, more useful. Everyone had left her, spare a select few.
She couldn't help but resent every time that she had to meet up with everyone else. They avoided her, tried to keep contact with her short and snappy. Slowly, she started to understand that she was no longer part of the close-bonded Konoha 11. She was an outcast to many, she didn't understand why, but she wasn't needed, and she understood that. She understood that the Sakura that everybody used to love had been replaced by Karin. She couldn't change that; it was a fact, and all she could do was live with it. She tried her best to keep contact with her 'friends' minimal, and focused fully on her job.
As her shift was ending, she walked down the hallways towards her mentor's office, but before she could get to the Fifth Hokage, the Fifth Hokage got to her.
"Ah, Sakura!" exclaimed the busty woman. A grin found its way up onto the blonde woman's face, giving her pink-haired apprentice a well deserved pat on the back. "Good work today, as usual!"
Sakura managed a smile, something that she thought would've been convincing enough. But Tsunade noticed. She had been noticing. She'd noticed that ever since Sasuke had come back, the gleam in her apprentice's emerald greens had vanished, leaving Sakura's beautiful viridian orbs dark and dull. At first, Tsunade had thought that it was the cause of the trauma Sasuke had left with Sakura, but it was soon that she noticed it was something else. The Hokage was determined to try and keep her cherry blossom upbeat, but it proved to be extremely hard, even to tell if her smiles and laughter were real or not.
"Thank you, Shishou." Sakura took a bow, plastering her smile onto her face, attempting to think happy thoughts. "If you don't mind, I'll have to take my leave now, people are expecting me to attend that party to welcome Uchiha-kun back."
"Uchiha-kun." Tsunade narrowed her eyes at this term, somewhat bothered by the way she addressed the former missing-nin. So it is somewhat his fault.
The Slug Princess shrugged, giving the pink-haired girl another hearty pat on the back. "Have fun, then, Sakura!"
"I'll try," she murmured in response, trudging away.
The girl in the mirror stared right back at Sakura. Green eyes, pink hair. Heaving a sigh, Sakura released her hair from the hair band that kept the long, thick hair away from her face. The medic pulled her lips into a forced smile, practicing.
"Welcome back, Sasuke-kun!" she tested, but something in her voice was cold and harsh. She couldn't go back to how she used to be; like nothing could go back to before Sasuke came back.
"Screw that," she muttered, setting out towards the ramen stand. Of course, who would hold a party in a tiny ramen stand? Snow was already settling its way onto the ground littering the ground. Sakura grunted, pulling on a jacket.
Sakura was close enough to the stand, close enough to see Karin. Green eyes met with irritated red ones. Sakura's immediate reaction was to turn and start walking away, but a dark-haired girl came running up to her.
"Sa-Sakura-chan, don't go!" the Hyuuga stammered, latching onto Sakura's arm. "Please don't go."
Hesitating for a moment, Sakura heaved a sigh and followed Hinata into the ramen stall.
The place clearly stank of alcohol, but Sakura scrunched her nose in disgust, squashing in beside Hinata and Kiba.
"Oh... Hey, Sakura," greeted the Inuzuka.
"Hi," said Sakura shortly. "Hey, I was wondering if-" Her words stopped short, as she realized that Kiba was no longer listening, already turned to Naruto, wildly chatting about something that sounded like dog food-flavoured ramen.
Something at the bottom of her heart tugged, but Sakura ignored it, asking for a bowl of shoyu ramen, while Hinata engaged some 'girl-talk' with her.
Neither Naruto or Sasuke had noticed her come in, and that caused yet another tug at her heart. Alcohol had clearly taken over both their minds; Naruto had his shirt off, and was laughing like crazy, an arm wrapped around Karin's exposed waist. Sasuke was talking non-stop to Suigetsu, pale face flushed red.
"Hey, Sakura-chan...? Are you sure you're alright?" Hinata asked, pale lavendar eyes full of concern. "You seem really down lately, especially since Sasuke-san came back with his..." her eyes darted towards Naruto's intimate embrace with the red-head, "...ah... teammates," she decided, finding no other polite term for Karin.
Sakura flashed the concerned Hyuuga heiress a real smile, insisting that she was absolutely fine. She looked around the store, nostalgia filling her. Until she met eye contact with Naruto, who was, very clearly, drunk.
"Oh! It's Sakura! When did you get here?" barked the Uzumaki, getting up and walking towards her.
"I've been here for quite a while," Sakura started, "you don't have to-"
"Hooh, Sakura!" exclaimed Sasuke, "Haven't seen you in a while."
"Yeah, I know, I saw you earlier this morning, because that's such a long time ago," Sakura retorted.
Naruto grabbed another beer off the counter, laughing. "And that's what she says, being all cocky and crap, after calling me a monster behind my back!"
Sakura froze for a moment. "...What?"
The blond downed another gulp of the alcoholic truth serum. "Karin-chan here told me aaaaaaall about it, you know! She told me about how you keep spreading rumours about her, and calling Sasuke a traitor that should've just stayed out of the village!"
Pink eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "What- I- I never said anything! I haven't even had a proper conversation with her before, how do you even-"
"Cut the crap, Sakura, we all know that you don't like Karin because she's stronger than you," Sasuke cut in.
"It's true that I don't like her, but I haven't even had a chance to talk to her properly! I wouldn't go around spreading bad rumours about someone that I don't even know!"
"Yeah, right, you useless, annoying bitch," Kiba scoffed. "We know all about you talking behind Ino's back."
The medical kunoichi opened her mouth to defend herself, but the loud scraping of chair legs against the floor caused her to turn right around.
"There's no way Sakura-chan would ever do that!" Hinata shouted. Her pale hands were clenched and shaking with cold fury. "How would I know, right? You've all been telling me that she's saying bad things about me behind my back." Sakura knew that the Hyuuga heiress had never raised her voice, before, and her voice was shaking. Karin flinched at the harsh glare the pair of lavendar eyes gave. "How do you know that she's not falsely spreading rumours? How do you know that she's telling the truth? Why would you trust someone that was your enemy not too long ago; someone that you barely know, more that your teammate?!"
"I-It's okay, Hinata," Sakura hushed, "it's okay, you don't have to do this."
"We know because Sakura's never done this village any good. She's weak, she's useless, she's a slut and she doesn't know shit."
The pink-haired girl gripped the edge of the counter tightly, trying to hold in her tears. These kind of things were coming out of her teammates' mouths. And they weren't even true. The pain stabbing at her heart was real, she was weak, and she knew it, but such things coming from her teammates... It was unbearable.
"She can leave the village, she can go die, she can just disappear, and no one would care!"
"I would!" retorted Hinata. "She my best friend; don't you dare just go tell her to die!"
Naruto slammed his beer down on the counter. "Hinata, stop defending her, she's good for nothing!"
Before Hinata could say something that she would probably regret, Sakura stood, dull green eyes focusing on the people around her. "Alright. I got it. I'll do just that." She picked up her jacket, tramping back out into the snow. All was quiet for a few minutes, as people watched Sakura walk into her apartment.
When the cherry blossom reappeared again, a backpack clad on her back, she smiled. "This is what you wanted, isn't it?"
Her walk to the gates was brief. The people from the party were all crowded around the area. Stopping just before the gates, Sakura turned to the people staring at her. She whipped out a kunai, grabbing her long hair and slashed.
"All these years... They meant nothing to you. And now you mean nothing to me," said Sakura quietly. "Thank you, Hinata. You really were the only person I could count on, and I'm sorry for leaving you."
Empty green eyes stared at the group surrounding her. "Thanks... Thanks for nothing," she choked.
Sakura released her fistful off pink hair, watching them blow away into the wind like the petals of a cherry blossom. She jumped skilfully over the large gates, tear tracks making their way down her cheeks.
Goodbye, Konoha... Thank you... Thank you for everything you've given me.
Not too far from the gates of Konoha lay the body of a young woman; cherry blossom pink hair splayed out beneath her, a bloodied kunai in her hand.
Blood spraying from a large gash on her neck was splattered everywhere, like the petals of the bloody cherry blossom, staining the snow surrounding her body.
On her cheeks stained tear tracks, and on her face was etched a calm smile.
And she was gone, just like the fleeting beauty of the cherry blossoms.