If You Walk Away I'll Walk Away
The Return
Summary: When Sasuke left so did Sakura... but she didn't chase after him... she went to fulfill her destiny as a true shinobi. She went to train with her original master in her old village. When Sakura comes back to Konoha to re-take the chunin exams four years later she meets up with some people from her past that she didn't expect to ever see again.
Authors Note: The village she originally comes from is from Full Metal Alchemist and so does her original master Dante but FMA is not part of the story otherwise, like there's no alchemy or anything like that.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the idea...
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When you live in a village that is always at war then as a child you have no chance of surviving. In such cases they train you to protect yourself, to become a murder if you have to. That was the case for Sakura Haruno.
She was born in a large village, though not as big as a lot of the major ones. The village was called Ishbal, its inhabitants Ishbalins. She was trained almost since birth to be strong and to survive no matter what, because alive was always better than dead... at least that what she was taught. She had faced many obstacles in her short life and by the time she was 7 she had become an exceptional shinobi, although she had no proof to it seeing as she had taken no test to rank her skills.
Her master Dante was a legendary ninja, but she had a life threatening illness and would die a young death. Upon hearing this for the first time she decided she would have an apprentice so she picked just-born Sakura for the "job". She chose this young girl, who had no training and no extraordinary traits, because she had no family and no one would miss her. That would mean that Dante would become her mother. Also she chose her because she had a certain... air about her. Dante could tell, even at that young age, that Sakura would be a determined girl and would never give up.
And so Sakura became the apprentice of Dante and was brought up on the mentallity that if she should ever fail then she was worthless and Dante would hate her for it. Perfection was the only option for her all of the time that she trained with the woman who had raised her.
But, when the village of Ishbal went to war everyone had to evacuate. They went to allying villages, but only certain people to certain places. the village where Sakura was sent to, Khonoha, only wanted children because they were in need of young ninjas for the chunin exams. So Sakura went there and seperated from Dante, but before she left Dante told her, "When the time is right I will come for you and you will be the greatest ninja of all. Perhaps even better than I." With those final words she left, leaving Sakura to find her own way to live in this strange new place.
Four years later, in her twelfth year, she was training to become a chunin. She had been accepted by the village and most had forgotten that she was an outsider to begin with. She was accepted but had no one to really connect with. Until she saw Sasuke Uchiha.
Sasuke was a beautiful boy who had dark troubled eyes that were full of hate and longing. Sakura immediately fell in love with him when she first saw him. Just like all of the other girls. But she had actual reasons for loving him the way she did. She knew what it meant to suffer, for she had all her life with Dante, and so she thought that they could connect in a way he could not with any of the other girls.
This, however, was not the case. He rejected her, and called her annoying, saying that she was just like all of the other girls and that she could and would never understand anything about him. The thing was Sasuke wanted to kill his older brother Itachi, because Itachi killed his whole family and left Sasuke alive because he wasn't "worth his time". For that Sasuke's whole life was devoted to gaining power to kill his S Class Criminal brother.
She still loved him even after all of his cruelty and tried to show him she was good enough. But she always had to hold back. She had always been afraid to show her full strength because she was paranoid. She thought that if everyone knew how powerful she was they would hate her. So she held back always. Even when she wanted to show Sasuke she was good enough for him she had to pretend.
When she was put on a team with Sasuke to train for missions and exams she was thrilled. But she was also put on the same team as Naruto Uzumaki, the kid who liked her. She didn't like him back of course, she was in love with Sasuke, so she always turned him down and was mean to him. He also was a troubled youth. He had a demon inside of him and was an outcast to the village, a social moron. But that didn't stop him from being friendly and happy all the time. In fact it made him even more determined to reach his lifes goal. He wanted to be Hokage one day. And all of the insults and negativity just amde him want to show people just what he could do. So he worked hard for it and hated Sasuke for having all of his talent naturally and for being loved by the village.
Sakura resented Naruto for being so hateful to Sasuke, after everything he had been through, but she completely forgot about Naruto's feelings. All she cared about was Sasuke and it was because of this obsession that she lost her best friend Ino.
Ino had been the first person to b nice to her. She said that Sakura would become a beautiful flower one day and that she would always be there. But on the day that Sakura fell in love with Sasuke Ino ended their friendship. Ino said that Sasuke was hers and that Sakura had no right to love him. Sakura was outraged so she just stopped talking to Ino. This rivalry lasted all the way through their ninja academy days and even after the chunin exams.
The chunin exams were a big test where all of the young genin from the neighboring countries came to become chunin, the second level of ninja. Sakura's team took the test. The first stage was a written exam. The score for the test was based on the combined score of all three team members and also on the tenth and final question. On the last question they were asked if they would stay for the final question. It was all a mind game and if you said you would stay then you passes the whole first test, regardless your score on the rest of the test.
The second part was an endurance test in the forest of death, where they had to collect two scrolls and make it to the center tower in the set time. While in the forest they met, or rather fought, Orochimaru, a snake man that wanted eternal youth and life. He marked Sasuke to become his new body and made his followers, the team from the village of sound, fight them. Sasuke's curse mark gave him the strength to fight them off and make it through the second part.
Before the third test they had a preliminary round. Sakura had to fight Ino in this part of the test. She didn't want to hurt her old friend so she decided to lose on purpose, but what she didn't expect was that she'd actually tie with the girl. But that was what happened.
Toward the end of the prelims a boy named Gaara had to fight a boy name Lee. The Gaara boy was a bloodthirsty killer. He only fought to take lives, not to measure his strength. And that excited Sakura. She had grown up in a place where you had to kill to stay alive and so the concept of a blood lusting boy didn't frighten her. It, in fact, drew her closer to him.
Gaara won the match against Lee and advanced to the next round, but the only bad part was he was up against Sasuke who was currently in the hospital.
The finalists had a month to prepare for the final exam. She visited Sasuke often but never got to see him because after the first week he disappeared. She also visited Lee who was in the hospital too. But during the whole month she couldn't help but watch Gaara. She watched him train, watched him stay awake all night, and watched him struggle with his inner demon. She wanted nothing more than to go and comfort him, but she felt as though nothing she did could help. Also, she kept reminding herself, she loved Sasuke and that would be betraying him, right?
But then again it's not like she would be doing anything bad right? She ended up just shaking the thoughts off and stayed at a distance. By the time the month had passes she was filled with confusing emotions and thoughts. She ignored them best as she could but there was always that little nagging in her mind.
As she sat in the audience for the final exam she grew nervous. Sasuke hadn't showed up yet and his match was getting close. She waited and her stomach tightened until she thought the muscles might snap and still Sasuke didn't show.
The time for Gaara and Sasuke's match was at hand. The Kazekage gave Sasuke more time to show up and eventually he did. The battle was intense and Gaara started to change into his demon form. In the end Suna attacked Konoha and Sasuke had to track down Gaara and fight him. Naruto and Sakura followed him with the help of their master's dog and Gaara tried to kill Sakura. In the end Naruto ended up saving everyone.
Most everyone failed the exams because of the attack and afterwards the Hokage died. They had to go find a new Hokage and ended up getting Tsunade, a medic nin. And Sasuke grew power hungry.
A little while after everything was back to "normal" Orochimaru returned and Sasuke had to chose to stay or go with him. He chose to leave. Sakura was devastated. She ran after Sasuke and tried to get him to stay. She confessed her love for him and he left her unconscious on a bench.
When she woke up she had a feeling in her heart. It was a message that she knew was from Dante. It was time for Sakura to come home and leave this false life behind.
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Authors Note: Okay I hope you don't mind all of the explanation. I'm just trying to make sure it's clear enough for you all. Anyways R&R for me and tell me if I should continue or not. Thanks!