So guys, here you have the next chapter:) I thought it would be better to update before I have to go to university. More babbling on the end, as always;)

He couldn't believe it. He wouldn't. It was just impossible. But there he stood, in the middle of her apartment, in her bedroom, surrounded by her belongings. There on the bed laid the picture of team seven and on top of it was a white paper with a small note.

Sasuke, Naruto, I am sorry but I had to do this on my own. I will see you in a few years. Don't cause too much troubles, ne? Love Sakura

He grabbed the stupid paper with that stupid note and vanished in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto jumped out of his chair at the look on Sasukes face.

"What happened with you?" he asked and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. His empty ramen bowl stood on the counter. Without another word he shoved the note in Narutos face and sat down himself. He counted the seconds.

"Eeeeeh!? Sakura-chan is gone!?" And there it was. Narutos yell startled quite a lot of people. Sasuke just grunted and glanced at his stupid best friend. He was shocked to see the hurt and anger in his eyes. Sure he had expected to find him surprised and a little angry but not that angry. He seemed furious. He turned on his heel and sprinted towards the Hokage tower.

"Tche" he sighed and made to follow him. On their way to the Hokage tower they met Ino. Or rather she saw him and decided to attach herself to his arm. She didn't stop talking about the huge party she was going to throw for forehead. Gosh that girl was so stupid. He couldn't understand how Sakura could stand her.

Then Naruto burst through the doors and into the Hokages office just to wake a hungover Tsunade. In the one week he had been back he had learned quickly that a hungover Tsnuade was to be treated kindly.

"Hey! Baa-chan! Where is she!" Naruto growled and slammed the note on the table. The whole room went quiet and even Ino seemed to feel the tension now. Thank Kami.

But the huge explosion they all expected from their Hokage didn't come.

"Naruto" she sighed and dragged a hand over her face "why she left is hers to tell you. But I will tell you this much." And here she glared at both of the boys from team seven. "You have no right to be angry at her for leaving you. No right! You hear me?" Her voice had become deadly silent. Ino let go of Saskues arm and stepped towards the table. She took the note and read it over. Her hand clenched and her angry eyes were directed towards the black haired boy.

"After all it were you two who had left her behind first, ne?" she asked sharply. Naruto, surprisingly didn't explode in an angry cloud, no, he seemed to deflate.

"But it is her birthday and…" his eyes zeroed in on the floor. "She saved me. Without her I wouldn't be standing here. And I couldn't even thank her or apologize for abandoning her." His voice became a whisper before he turned around and made to leave.

"Where did she go?" Sasuke demanded and Naruto froze in his steps. His azure eyes slid over to Tsunade. The busty woman sighed once again.

"It is best if you wait and find out for yourself when she comes back." Tsunade snapped and they all could see that she had reached her limit.

4 years later

The wind pulled on her hair as she jumped through the trees. She relished in the feeling, of being on the move. She would miss it for sure but it had been the right decision. She finally felt comfortable with herself. Never again would she deflate when being called useless. Actually she did laugh the one time a nuke-nin did call her that, right before she had slammed her kunai through his heart. As was agreed on with Tsunade-shishou she had been sent on her mission alone. She was only to be accompanied if she didn't know where the nuke-nin were to be found. To reduce this particular situation she had learned a new summoning. Especially used for sneaking and finding stuff. Right now one of her little friends was running next to her. She could imagine what Kakashi's summons would think of that. After all cats and dogs don't go well together. But they were really helpful and after all she had always loved animals.

Her slugs were great for healing, intimidating and defending. But she had needed a summon that could sense chakra and luckily for her Sai had gifted it to her as a birthday and goodbye present. With her cats she didn't need to take other shinobi with her. And she even had a cat under her summons as big as a dog that was trained to fight. If she remembered correctly it was a lynx. She was beautiful with reddish fur and black spots. Her name was Kira and she was the one currently traveling with her.

In those last four years there had been actually quite a lot of nuke-nin who did mean no harm for their villages. They had just wanted to leave and start over as civilians. She did understand them and made a deal with them. They could either die as was the fate as a nuke-nin or have their chakra paths destroyed and sealed by her. All of them which wanted to live a normal life allowed her to make their chakra paths unusable forever. They were rather thankful and proud of her for being from the same village. The nuke-nins from the other villages weren't quite as forth coming. Actually a lot of them were Madara followers and shared his opinion. She hadn't killed every nuke-nin out there. She just got rid of the ones from her own village and then traveled around, taught medical ninjutsu and fought the nuke-nin she came across. She had found her inner strength and herself in those long years. And she had been able to visit the battlefield again and cope with all the trauma she had suffered from. Of course she still felt the pain of all those losses but she didn't despair about it anymore.

She came to a stop in front of the grave Naruto had made for Jiraiya. It was a beautiful grave with the three kunais. The kunais stood for Nagato, Konan and Yahiko, she had learned. It was a beautiful gesture and so very thoughtful of Naruto.

She missed them, all of them. But at the same time she was scared of their reactions. Sasuke was sure to be pissed, that was a given. But she hoped he would understand. Naruto would be hurt but he would understand, for sure. The others, well…. She would have to find out. And Sai… poor Sai. He must have surely felt left out after Sasuke had returned. She had met him on the night she had left. He had somehow known she would leave and had waited at the gates to give her her present. When she had asked how he knew he just said that he had expected her to leave when he had seen her walking away from training grounds three that morning.

"Ne, Sakura-sama, we should get moving again" Kira purred and her sharp golden eyes glanced at her. She nodded and jumped back in the trees.

They weren't far from Konoha after all and she wanted to get a little sleep before she had to give her report to the Hokage.

She landed silently in front of the big red gate and smiled. It looked just as it always had. Like home.

She glanced at the two shinobis who hadn't noticed her yet. She let her mask down to dangle around her neck and made her way over to them.

"Kotetsu, Izumo" she greeted softly and watched as their heads snapped around and they stared at her as if they had seen a ghost.

"Sa-Sakura-chan?" They squealed. She chuckled lightly and they cleard their throats to get themselves together. "You really have become beautiful" Kotetsu smiled at her and Izumo winked. Sakura actually laughed and the men were entranced in her soft voice. She seemed so different from all those years before, so much more at peace and rather confident.

Then they seemed to notice her ANBU outfit and the rather large cat at her side. Shocked that their villages cherry blossom had been away for four years to kill people they just stared at them.

"Oh, yeah, that is my new summon, Kira. Be nice to her, she can be rather grumpy. Oh and don't tell anyone I'm back yet, I want to get some sleep before the asking starts" she groaned at that and seemed a little more like the old Sakura. They nodded and watched her strode fluidly away, her long hair swaying behind her.

"I don't know why, but I feel like there is a lot of trouble to come" Izumo murmured while Kotetsu nodded slowly.

Before she could go to her apartment she went to visit the cenotaph to pay her respects. She walked out of the trees and stopped. She hadn't expected to see anyone at this time here.

"Somehow I had a feeling that I would meet someone here tonight" his voice carried over to her. She smiled and stepped up to him.

Her turned towards her with an eye crinkle. Then he took in her appearance and felt breathless. She really had become beautiful. She had soft contours that told about her maturity. Her hair had grown out again and was even longer than ever before. It was bound in a high ponytail with two thick bangs framing her face, bound together by a jade green band that covered a hands width of her hair and bound it together. Her hitaiate was bound around her forehead instead on top of her head. The ANBU cat mask hang around her neck and she was clad completely in black. She looked stunning. But the most captivating were her eyes. They were calm and full of a knowledge very few gained through their life.

He smiled warmly at her. "So you have found what you have been looking for."

She nodded and seemed to take him in the same way he just had. Her eyes slowly raked over his body and he felt warmth spread over his cheeks. Kami was he glad for wearing that mask all the time.

"He looks rather hot, ne Sakura-sama?" a cheeky voice spoke. Startled Kakashi looked at the feline next to Sakura and just blinked. Sakura just laughed and bent a little to scratch the lynx behind her ears. "Yeah he kind of does" she agreed and send him a mischievous smile. Oh kami, she had matured a little too much.

She straightened again and sobered a little. "It's good to see you, I really missed you" she said in her strange calm voice. He just grunted and scratched his head nervously. He heard the lynx cackle quietly and shot her a warning glare.

"How did...they take the news?" She asked and they both knew who she meant. He sighed and dropped his hand, than lay his head back and watched the full moon.

"Naruto was really furious and hurt, more so than Sasuke. He blamed himself and I think Sasuke does too."

"Oh, it is Sasuke again? I remember that a certain someone was so angry he couldn't even say his name" she teased and when he glanced her way he saw her smiling that mischievous smile again, that reminded him of a cat.

"Ah, so you noticed?" He asked and gave her a fake eye crinkle.

"Oh please, you tried to kill him after all!" At his shocked look she giggled lightly and shot him an unimpressed look. "Tsunade told me." He just nodded.

Sakura didn't understand why she felt so giddy talking to Kakashi and decided that sometimes retreat was the best solution.

"Well, I will go to my apartment and catch some sleep before I have to go and see the Hokage" she said lightly, stood on her toes and pressed her lips softly against his clothed cheek. Then she and her lynx disappeared in a cloud of Sakura blossoms.

Kakashi just stood there, frozen in shock.

"Happy twentysecond birthday... Sakura" he murmured.

Yeah I made Sakura older. I needed her to be a little older and mature a lot before we can jump into all that drama. Actually I always thought that Sakura was around seventeen before the war and after the war turned eighteen. So yup, she is 22.

And oh gosh, fmtwa you are such a sweetheart! I truly had NO IDEA where I wanted to go with this story. Yeah there had been a few ideas but they were not really good. BUT thanks to you I have the perfect plot for this story! (At least I hope so). Thank you for reviewing again, I love reading your reviews. Can't wait to hear your reaction to this chapter;)

On that note, I have to tell you that it will probably take a while until the next chapter will come. Probably next sunday cause I have a busy week to come and this sunday I will have to use for somehow relaxing and reading a paper for my class, oh well.

BUT, you will get a sneak peak in the next chapter for my other story I am currently writing. Beware, it is a Gaara/Sakura one and I already love it. But I will tell you more about it next time, can't spoil you too much now, can I?;)

So if you have more ideas for this story please feel free infroming me about them. I would love to hear your thoughts and tips on my writing.

See you next time. Stay save and have wonderful days.