Over the following weeks upon fleeing the Hidden Grass Village with Karin in tow the two eight year old girls made their way in the opposite direction intent on getting as far away as they possibly could.
All while Sakura taught Karin which plants had medicinal properties and how to turn those plants into medicine to help with the common cold or ointment for bruises and flesh wounds, she was careful not to stop in villages though just in case for the time being.
Seeing as she had no idea how far Kusagakure's reach was "This is really hard" Karin cried as the pinkette made her practice chakra exercises as Sakura did them herself in order to expand their chakra reserves.
"Maybe but if you want to be a proper medic that doesn't rely on that other healing ability you have then being able to manipulate chakra is just the first step on that long, long road" Sakura chided, only repeating what she'd been told.
Crimson orbs widened "Just how long of a road are we talking about here Sakura-chan" Karin pouted, attempting to keep her chakra focused in her hands while Sakura practiced keeping a leaf stuck to her fingertips.
The pinkette grinned "Very long, even Isha-sensei was still always learning and improving, like how just before she passed she'd only just gotten down how to heal broken bones and she was 33 and she'd been training to be a medic since she was 15" Sakura admitted.
Karin gaped in horror "That's like half of her life and we haven't even begun learning how to use medical ninjutsu" Karin gasped, realizing that being a medic ninja really was super hard and it took half of someones lifetime just to be somewhat good at it.
Because apparently it required continuous training and relentless practicing with the mystical palm jutsu "Exactly, though she also did say that she was terrible at chakra control hence why she started teaching me how to use and manipulate my chakra early" Sakura added.
"So what your saying is that it could take us half the time it took her to learn how to heal broken bones if we really crack down on these chakra control exercises before we get to the actual learning of the mystical palm" Karin summed up the conversation so far.
Earning a nod from Sakura as they resumed their practicing until it was clear that they were running out of chakra so without further ado Sakura left the safety of the cave to look for wild edibles to eat and replenish their chakra.
Half an hour later Sakura was back sporting a frown, completely empty handed so she rifled through her backpack and found even less "Looks like we're going to have to enter a town or village soon to get supplies" Sakura winced.
Pulling out the tin foil and some potatoes which was really all that she had left, "I think there was one a day from here back in the other direction, I thought I saw a whole bunch of buildings together I could be wrong though but I don't really want to go backwards" Karin said.
"We might have to Karin-chan or I could and you could stay here with what you brought, I'm sure it would be enough to sustain you for a day at least" Sakura offered not wanting any Kusa-nin still looking for her friend to find Karin at all.
Who didn't like the idea of being left on her own at all in the same regard that she didn't want to return to an area they'd passed through already and get caught "Okay but you have to swear that your not gonna abandon me here and go running off on your own" Karin demanded.
Looking absolutely petrified of being alone, being the extremely kind and tender person that she already was despite her young age Sakura grasped Karin's hands and squeezed them "Never, I'll come back no matter what and that's a promise" Sakura assured determinedly.
Then went about cooking the potatoes and eating them plain since she had no salt, butter or pepper to put on them, after they'd eaten Sakura headed back out sporting an extremely determined expression on her face.
And she finally came back an hour later with her arms filled with all the wild edibles that she could find, a couple of carrots, another potato, a few pears that didn't look completely ripe, a large daikon radish, and lots of wild herbs.
Before distributing them between the two of them, she kept the unripe pears and most of the wild herbs, one of the carrots and left the daikon whole "How long do you think you'll be gone Sakura-chan" Karin inquired nervously.
"Well it will take a day to get there, then I have to buy supplies and possibly earn money if I can so that we don't completely run out of money so maybe three days at the max, which means I'm gonna have to find some more food" Sakura ticked of her fingers.
Extremely nervous herself because she wasn't a big fan of places overly crowded with people after her last experience and after going back out for a third time and coming back with literally everything that she could pick and that they could eat the two settled down to get some shut eye.
The following morning after distributing the supplies evenly so they each had enough to sustain themselves for a few days Sakura set forth from the cave in the direction they'd come from, her pace was a near run because she really didn't like being out in the open.
Where anything could happen, Sakura wasn't keen on stopping for very long so when she did pause it was only long enough to eat or drink some water or even go to the bathroom if she had to but thankfully she reached the village right after sundown.
As all the shops and stalls were closing up for the night and already feeling guilty about what she was going to do Sakura planted herself in an alley like she had what felt like years ago when she'd first found herself on her own with no memories.
Then waited patiently when she was certain that all had gone home and the streets were empty before darting for the first stall that she saw which happened to be a stall that sold banana's and just because Sakura left a hundred yen as she snatched a few.
Stuffing them in her backpack as she ran for the next stall that had tomatoes, each stall that she stole from she left a hundred yen in it's place until there were no more street stalls to steal from so she hide herself in the alley again.
Hiding her overstuffed backpack behind a trashcan as she curled up on the ground to get as much sleep as she possibly could until she was woken early by it suddenly raining down on her, so she suffered through the downpour with only the cloak to shield her.
Not that it did much as it wasn't water-proof but Sakura endured by using the lid of the trashcan as an extra buffer, unfortunately it didn't look like the rain was going to be let up any time soon so wearily Sakura trudged from the alley in an effort to complete her task.
By buying supplies despite having already stolen, her other task of earning money was simply not possible because as soon as she'd bought as much as her arms could carry, more banana's, tomatoes and the like a thunder cracked over head and lightning lit up the sky.
Prompting stall vendors to close up and run for the safety of their homes, there was some close calls when someone nearly rammed in to her on their way home but she managed to dodge in the nick of time as she ran for her alley.
Her pack with stolen goods was still there which she hid in the trashcan in order to protect the food from the rain then dashed back out to a proper store that had essentials that she needed, stealing wasn't an option here however.
As she grabbed a matchbook since they were running out, more tin foil to cook vegetables and two cheap daggers with meat seasoning along with a book on hunting, the cashier eyed her up warily clear up to the moment she actually handed over money to pay for what she wanted.
Leaving Sakura to hurry back to the alley once her purchases were safe in a plastic bag, and since she was still so small there was enough room in the trashcan for her to curl up in a position where she didn't actually squish her supplies and ruin them and get some more sleep.
Midway through the night the storm finally passed and the rain let up and Sakura seeing as she'd slept most of the day, decided that now was a good a time as any to skedaddle by grabbing her stuff and booking it out of the little village.
Running as fast as her feet would allow her without tripping back to where she'd left Karin, the trip back felt like it took less time than the trip to the village had taken as right around 3 in the afternoon Sakura reached the cave that was their camp.
Karin startled when a black blur shot past her and nearly screamed until that blur stopped and a hood was removed to reveal long muddy pink hair "Sakura-chan" Karin exclaimed seeing her friend and savior.
Following by launching herself at the other girl once Sakura had removed her pack with their supplies "Couldn't do what I wanted but I did at least get us enough food to last for a couple more weeks and a book to hunt with a couple of cheap daggers" Sakura admitted.
Revealing the daggers, one she handed to Karin the other she tucked back into her backpack "D..Did you have to steal" Karin asked hesitantly, feeling terrible that, that was what they were probably going to have to resort to.
Sakura winced "Unfortunately, I did leave some money 100 yen but I doubt it covered what I took completely it was still something where no one was even complaining about a thief or they just didn't notice anything was stolen I'm not sure" Sakura frowned.
Extra tired from her three day excursion so after chowing down on a couple of tomatoes, Sakura curled up and went to sleep now that she was in a secure place, equally exhausted, Karin cuddled up next to Sakura and also fell asleep as the both of them rested.
The next few days were interesting as Sakura and Karin attempted to hunt down any creature that they could ending in failure each time "Maybe if we throw it at them as their running" Karin suggested hating that she was so useless.
"Or learn to be sneakier so they don't figure out we're trying to catch them, Isha-sensei said something about using chakra to hide scents" Sakura offered, barely remembering the lessons of being a ninja since Isha hadn't exactly been a ninja.
She'd only learned medical ninjutsu for the sake of being a doctor in a non shinobi village "Alright but how exactly do we do that" Karin asked, having only barely gotten into using chakra control exercises.
Now her only friend wanted her to learn how to use chakra to hide her scent "I think she said that in order to conceal ones presence they have to wrap a thin layer of chakra around yourself and suppress both it and your scent at the same time" Sakura announced.
After drawing on her eidetic memory "That sounds a little to difficult for me right now, couldn't I learn how to like sense things out instead" Karin winced, knowing that Sakura had a year head start on manipulating her chakra.
"Okay then close your eyes and spread out your senses, tell me what you feel" Sakura instructed, she of course understood that Karin would have a very limited reach with her senses at first but it was something that could be expanded upon with constant practice.
Karin did as told "A rabbit in the bush there" Karin declared after a few moments nodding her head at the bush, indicating that she had some talent at sensing things already despite having no training in the skill until now.
But now it was Sakura's turn as she focused chakra in other places than just her hands to wrap a thin layer of it around herself "Can you still feel me Karin-chan" Sakura inquired after several minutes of standing there and feeling like an idiot.
To her frustration Karin immediately nodded her head in answer "Well no ones expecting us to be perfect on the first try Sakura-chan" Karin soothed having become a little more confident instead of the nervous wreck that she usually was.
Seeing as they were getting further and further away from Kusagakure every day since they didn't stay in one place for to long "Guess that's true but I don't want to have to rely only fruits and vegetables, we need meat in our diet to" Sakura sighed.
Giving one last try of attempting to hide her presence but Karin still sensed her and catching the rabbit in the bush ended in failure like their other attempts "Lets just go back to the cave for now" Karin said, tired from running in vain after a fast animal.
Thankfully Sakura agreed with her that it was best to return to their cave "I can hardly believe it's been a month since you joined me out here, it's not exactly a cushy life style though" Sakura commented once they were settled around the little fire she'd made.
Her new book had been plenty helpful on teaching her how to make a fire without wasting the matches so that was at least one thing they wouldn't hopefully need any more unless it was an emergency.
"Me either but I don't really regret it since we're mostly staying out of villages and the like, I do wish I could have gotten to say goodbye to my mom's grave before leaving but I understand there was no time if I didn't want to get caught" Karin admitted.
Curling her knee's into her chest like Sakura was fond of as the pinkette roasted some vegetables for dinner where afterwards they read for a couple hours or meditated if they wanted before going to bed for the night.
It was a week later that Sakura managed to block her scent and partially block her chakra from Karin's rapidly improving sensory skills and finally catch a small deer by sneaking up on the forest creature and driving her dagger deep into it's young body quickly.
A mercy of a quick death was all that she could offer the tiny deer "I'm sorry, I know you probably didn't want to die" Sakura sniffled overcome with emotion at her first kill of anything, and even Karin shed some tears for the baby animal.
For it couldn't have been any older than a year old, it took them several minutes to calm down before dragging their catch back to the latest cave they'd found and Sakura began skinning it and cutting off strips of meat to put on the drying rack she'd made out of sticks days ago.
While she was busy with that Karin added the seasoning she'd bought by coating the strips of raw venison liberally until they had a huge pile of drying venison so they could have venison jerky to snack on without having to hunt for food all the time.
It was no where near lunch time however so the two girls decided to meditate until it was where they had their first meal of roasted venison "Say Sakura how long did your book say it took to dry meat into jerky" Karin asked.
Curious about the process it took to make homemade jerky's "Nearly forgot that I have to smoke the meat and about eight hours so we'll have to make another fire for dinner" Sakura jolted in remembrance as she placed her drying rack over the fire.
Answering Karin's question at the same time as they switched to their chakra control exercises for the rest of the afternoon, for dinner they cooked the left over venison and buried the young deer that had fed them quite a distance from their cave before going to bed for the night.
Eventually Sakura knew that trouble would catch up with them and it did as they packed up a couple days later intent on leaving the area only to step out of the cave and run right into a person Karin never wanted to see again.
He was one of the Kusa-nin's that had participated in biting her to heal himself "I was starting to think that I was wrong in heading this way to search for you but I'm glad I came this way otherwise you'd have never been found" he smirked.
Inwardly enjoying the way the little runaway cringed away from him into the other brat who was of no importance to him as he reached out and gripped Karin harshly by the arm "HEY YOU LEAVE KARIN-CHAN ALONE YOU JERK" the little pinkette threw herself at him then.
Taking action when it was clear he was going to try dragging Karin back to Kusagakure with him "Fuck off this brat belongs to Hidden Grass" he sneered kicking the rosette and sending her flying harshly into the side of the cave.
Sakura slid to the ground dazed from the impact but still conscious, tears pricked at her eyes from the pain she felt as she watched the Kusa-nin take off with the girl who was becoming like a sister to her.
Her hands clenched into fists and she beat at the ground in frustration that she was to weak to do anything until she saw her dagger, her heart beat frantically against her ribs, mind protesting against what she was thinking.
Even as she picked up the cheap dagger and carefully stood on her feet, then hesitantly took a step forward, focusing on blocking her presence from his senses, another step forward, determination blared in her verdant orbs.
And then she was running, charging head first at the bastard from Hidden Grass where she swung her dagger wildly at the back of his legs cutting through tendons and the Kusa-nin dropped to the ground, Karin watched in wide eyed horror.
As Sakura leapt upon her abductors back and slammed her dagger into the back of his neck killing him instantly "S..Sakura-chan" Karin whispered only hearing Sakura's heavy breathing in the ensuing silence.
Less than a second later Sakura came back to her senses and upon realizing that she'd actually killed someone became violently ill as she dashed for the bushes and tossed the contents of her stomach into them.
Karin jolted and hurried towards her friend "It's okay, it's okay he was a bad person you don't have to feel guilty" Karin soothed by rubbing Sakura on the back as she continued vomiting violently into the bushes.
Tears were pouring from her eyes "But I killed someone, he was a person just like us and I just killed him" Sakura sobbed finally done puking and Karin enfolded her arms around her rocking Sakura back and forth while avoiding looking in the direction of the dead ninja.
"Look if you hadn't taken him out I would have been dragged back to Kusagakure where I don't ever want to be again, I would have been tortured worse than what they were already planning for me, I would have been hurt for running undoubtedly to" Karin admitted.
Because her former village was just that horrible, after awhile Sakura did manage to calm down and think about things rationally by taking a deep breath and marching towards the dead body while vividly remembering the others she'd seen in her very short life so far.
And knelt, Karin grimaced as Sakura pilfered through his pockets and pouches "Come on lets go" Sakura said once she'd finished her search, he had some money on him, barely any food supplies just food pills which were of no use to her and hardly any weapons save for a kunai that she took.
Considering her dagger was stuck deep in the back of his neck and she didn't have the adrenaline like strength to pull it free like she'd had when she'd jabbed it there so with that they left the immediate area as quickly as they could.
With that the two resumed their trek to even an further distance away from the Hidden Grass Village by entering into Lightning Country where any foreign shinobi was guaranteed to possibly be killed for entering the Raikage's territory.
Or so Isha had told Sakura during a rare historic lesson on the other lands which made it the perfect place for two girls not affiliated with any ninja village to hideaway in, though it was clear even a couple days after the incident with a ninja from her former village.
Sakura was still in pain both from where she'd been kicked and where she'd slammed into the cave wall "I think we should take our chances by going to the Hidden Cloud Village, you need a doctor, those bruises are really bad looking" Karin suggested.
After they'd taken a dip in a slow moving stream to wash up clothes and all though Sakura decided to change out of the dress she'd been wearing for a week now into a different one allowing Karin to see the dark bruises upon her flesh.
"Nu-uh no way, not where someone can find out about your ability, I won't have you taken away from me now, not when I'm beginning to see you like a sister" Sakura shook her head obstinate to a fault like how she was with that dirty yellow ribbon she always wore in her hair.
Unfortunately the choice was taken out of their hands a day later as they were looking for medicinal herbs to make more ointment out of and the two girls were happened upon by the most unlikely of people.
The Raikage himself, with his left and right hands behind him, they took one look at the dirt covered girls just before the pink haired one grabbed the red haired girl by the hand and took off running as if the hounds of hell were nipping at her heels.
So obviously he thought they'd committed some sort of crime and had Darui and Cee pursue them "Ow let go of me we didn't do anything" the rosette shouted as she caught by Darui and he gripped her around the chest where she hurt the most.
Little red however hung limply in Cee's hold clearly knowing when she was caught "Why'd you run from us then Kid" Darui chuckled, finding her attempts at wriggling free from him quite amusing as she glared at him and struggled.
He didn't expect her to answer really so wasn't surprised when she said nothing as he came to a stop in front of Ay "Put them down but if you run I'll simply put you out of your misery brats got that" the huge hulking man barked at the other two shinobi.
Giving the two girls little doubt as to who was in charge at the moment, "Now why did you run and you can address me as Raikage-sama got that brats" Ay demanded in a snarling tone as he leaned over the two girls in an attempt to intimidate them into answering his question.
The redhead whimpered and trembled in fright but the fuscia haired brat glared at him "You don't have to scare us with your chakra Raikage-sama, we know that we can't outrun you or those two and the reason we ran was simple because we didn't sense you and it startled us" the pinkette said.
Clasping her hands behind her back obedient but gutsy at the same time "Well of course you wouldn't have sensed us, all three of us are Jonin level shinobi of Kumogakure" Cee scoffed with a roll of his eyes.
Verdant orbs narrowed on him and glared "I'm not illiterate I'm well aware that it would be hard if someone was intentionally blocking their scent or chakra but my sister is a fair hand at sensing things and she always keeps her senses spread just in case" the rosette shot back.
Darui bit his cheek harshly to keep from laughing as this dirty pink haired pint-sized girl rebuked his friend and partner, not only that but she purposefully didn't give away either her name or the redheads which no doubt infuriated Cee to the max.
Ay blinked then threw his head back to let out a bark of laughter "Got guts don't you brat, why don't you tell me your names now and that's not a request its an order" Ay ordered a lot less worried but still curious.
Pinky and Red shared a covert glance with one another "Sakura and she's Karin, neither of us know what our last names are" the fuschia haired brat introduced then she seemed to kind of get a dazed look in her eyes.
It was only then did the redhead named Karin speak "She's hurt and you grabbed her where she was hurt earlier" the crimson haired brat blurted beginning to look more worried by the second as Sakura paled and clutched at her chest.
Almost instantly Cee knelt hands glowing bright green as he ran them over Sakura and hissed in response "Two cracked ribs and one broken what the hell happened, not only that but you got spinal damage" Cee frowned.
Making the girl lay down so that he could tend her injuries "A ninja from my former village tried to take off with me and he kicked her in the chest she also slammed into a cave wall" Karin admitted nervously.
Having known that her friend/sister as they'd started getting in the habit of calling one another was hurting but not to the extent the blonde had just said she was "Let me guess Kusagakure, they were stupid enough to come looking here about two weeks ago" Ay snorted.
The pinkette opened her eyes to stare at him intensely "Killed them after they said they were looking for a runaway, they didn't mention you were a kid" the other dark skinned ninja informed sensing that both girls were worried.
Probably if they were going to deliver Karin to her old village "Raikage-sama we should return to the village so that I can properly treat her injuries" the blonde said, because attempting to set the girls broken ribs would draw rogues or bandits to their location en-masse.
Ay nodded and Sakura was cradled carefully in Darui's arms "Before we forget I'm Darui and he's Cee" Darui greeted seeing that they were bringing the two eight year old's back to Kumo with them.
From where she was hanging limply from Cee's arm as he carried her rather awkwardly underneath it against his hip Karin nodded silent once more, hoping that things wouldn't end disastrously once they reached the new destination someone else set for them.