Thump…Wham! Sakura gritted her teeth, ignoring the pain in her right hand. She continued to slam her fists into the practice dummy, allowing the thin trickle of blood to flow freely from her knuckles like tiny winding rivers. Tears trickled from the corner of emerald orbs silently as the owner continued to bruise her pale skin with all her might. It was wrong to feel so sad; she knew that she was being weak again, crying at the drop of a hat. He had abandoned them all to gain power, and eventually revenge; he deserved the fate he got. Despite telling herself this over and over, Sakura still had slip away during the day to prevent herself from breaking down every time she saw something that reminded her of her ebony haired ex-teammate.
When Naruto had first come to her with the news that he had been forced to kill his best friend, the blonde demon container had been shaking and pale. Even now, a smile had yet to appear on the lithe jonin's face, and he had refused the ramen lunch offered to him by Iruka earlier. Sakura should have been off comforting him at the moment, but instead she hid here, taking out her mix of fury at Orochimaru for starting this whole mess, and guilt for not knowing how to help Naruto properly, on an innocent burlap bag filled with rice. What should she tell the fragile young man, that he had every right the kill the bastard who had tried to obliterate him even though they had once been almost brothers. Instead she had forced herself to be the numb one, the person who helped others move on without showing any signs of pain themselves, it was better that way.
Tsunade, the hospital staff, and Ino had been avoiding the topic altogether. This tactic just made it that much worse for the petal haired kunoichi. Half of her mind wanted to scream to the skies and curse Sasuke for everything he had done, the other half wanted to curl into a ball and melt with grief. She couldn't do either however; it had been almost two months since the incident, and she had to keep up her façade of strength. Within the hour she would have to paste another fake smile on and pretend that nothing had happened. For now however, she had a chance to savor the silence that permeated the emptiness of the training grounds, the only place she felt it was safe to reveal her true feelings.
It was strange really, when he had left seven years ago she had sworn to herself that she would become stronger, that she would help get him back. As the years past she had held to this promise, becoming the fifth's apprentice and gaining her fantastic reputation as a medic, and that still hadn't been enough. Looking back now she realized that he had never even bothered with her, much less liked her. So why did she feel so cut up about someone who had never even really noticed her existence, after all her crush had long since evaporated into an embarrassing memory. She could only guess that it had something to do her need to mother the members of Team 7/Kakashi, not that those feelings were doing her much good now as she dealt with her Naruto problem.
With a sigh, Sakura stopped, wiping the tears away with the hem of her rose colored dress. Wrapping her knuckles in a length of bandage with an expert flourish, she gathered her things. Her evening shift was going to start soon, and she needed to shower off the perspiration that clung to her entire body. She slung her small pink backpack over her shoulder, she really should convince Naruto to go out to dinner with her afterwards. After all, it was her job to make sure he made it through each day without completely shattering. That was what she was there for, to make sure eveyone else was moving on, while she stayed behind and mourned alone.