Title: Sakura's Home
Author: Winter Ashby (rosweldrmr)
Disclaimer: Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto-sama. I don't own anything about Naruto, this is just for fun and if I did own Naruto I wouldn't have to right this, because I would have a team of very talented people turning this into a saga right now...
Rating: K+
Warning: this not only has spoilers until Manga 270ish, but it's kind of required for you to know what's going on. I use a lot of the Gaara mission, just made it AUish.
Summary: Sakura was kicked out of Konoha five years ago but now has been asked to return… She will meet old friends and be faced with the consequences of her actions. Future AU Sakura centric. No pairings, and you need to be up to date in the manga and series.
Authors Notes: I know it's been a while. Please forgive the lack of updates lately, things have been hectic.

Chapter 13 - Murderer

It wasn't until a long time had passed and many stars fell from their perch in the rising moon's empire that she was moved. The body was stiff in her arms, so she rose on shaking legs and walked forward. Through the thick trees that led her home, back to a world that she was no longer connected to, holding the body of a woman that would never get to see home again. She was a murderer, she was a killer. She let the tears fall as the path dripped away under her feet. She marched forward with an unknown desire to see home. She wished for Tsunade, Kakashi and Naruto. She wished she could stop the tears or the horrible welling of vomit in the pit of her stomach.

So she walked until the gates rose in the distance and then there were shouts, screaming and bells sounding. She was a murderer. There were coming to get her. With a great, empty hole in her soul, she marched on to meet her fate. Resolved, and only slightly aware of the rest of the world, she traveled until the tips of her toes touched Konoha soil. That was the last time she would touch home for five years.

Those same, familiar, frightening sunglasses were the first of many heart wrenching cries she would hear this night. She doesn't know what he says, but she is sure that if she could see his eyes, surely she'd die from the hate that boiled over and shot from every inch of his body. Then he is moving, faster than she can see and stronger than she can understand. His warm hands and shaking arms circle the body in hers and in one, swift motion her empty hands hang in the air like she is begging for something.

She feels oddly light without the other girl's body resting in the cradle of her arms. "I… I…" her voice is thick and marred with tears and pain that colors her normal tone a dark shade of blood red. She shivers, because she knows he can see it to – the guilt that grips at the corners of her eyes and explodes from the slant of her soul. He can see the murderer in her. "Shino-kun."

"Stop right there!" There is another voice, and the blur of white fur against the dark sky. Drawn by the scent of blood that drips from her clothes and stains her hands – he stands. Vengeful hate glistening in his canine slit eyes, Kiba is drawn to his fallen comrade. He retrieves her body from his only remaining teammate and gently brushes his fingers over her cold cheek.

Now Shino stands, bodiless and angry. He lunges, kunai drawn, and air slipping past his face rustles his hair. Sakura tilts her head and finds it odd that she notices his hair at this moment, an instant before she is run through with metal and justice. She doesn't pay attention to the pain, or the blood that runs in thick rivers from the hole in her stomach. Instead she reaches out her trembling hand and touches his hair. She smiles a broken, blood-soaked smile, because it's soft.

Even behind the glasses, she can tell his eyes are wide as he leaps away and reaches for a handful of skuriken. But before he can strike again, his bloody hands are caught in a poof of smoke. Just beyond the fading moonlight, she can make out the shimmering silver spikes and dark blue mask of her former sensei.

"Kakashi-san." In only the time it takes to form his name, there are three more entrances. Genma, Kotetsu, and Gai also appear to restrain Shino as he threatens to break free of Kakashi's protective hold. Genma stands directly in front of him, two fingers sealing his feet to the earth, Gai holds back Shino's arm which grips the shuriken, and Kotetsu's arm is wrapped around his neck.

"Enough, Shino-kun." Kakashi is the first to speak, deep and threatening low in his throat. He turns to face Sakura as her blood pours down her shirt and soaks the earth. She can feel the power coursing through her veins with latent chakra reserves. She could easily stop the bleeding, or the inevitable death this wound carries. If only she had the will power to do so.

It only takes a few more seconds of waiting before they are joined by Asuma, Anko and Kurenai. Kiba still sits, lost in thought and silent prayers for the girl she killed. She is queasy and unsteady on her feet. Kurenai and Asuma stand before Kiba and try to pry the body from his firm grasp. It's useless, because he looks right at Sakura and swears with ever fiber of his being that he will kill her one day. She believes him.

She's not sure what comes next, Tsunade's hand on her wound, or the quiet tears of Shizune as she finally pries Hinata from Kiba's shaking hands. But in the rising sun they are joined by even more angry eyes that are white and painfully familiar. Haishi, Hanabi, and Neji arrive in time to see the timid heir to the Hyuuga family still and lifeless. She can feel their hate permeate through the morning air and twist around her neck. They wish for her death, and so does she.

With the rising sun and closed wound, she remembers felling the metal shackles that weigh heavy on her wrists and ankles. There is a fierce argument in the background. Tsunade, Kakashi, Genma, and Shizune stand on her side and call for an investigation. But on the other side, the members of the Hyuuga Clan, Shino, Kiba, and even Kurneai are calling for her death. It is only the presence of Asuma, Anko, Kotetsu, and Gai who keep more blood from spilling. Sakura is quietly calm at the prospect of being executed. She waits for the end.

Soon it's clear; there will be no trial, or jail sentence. The angry eyes - behind glasses, just above facial markings, white and red are rancorous are clamoring for swift punishment and her blood smeared across the dirt path that leads to a home that isn't hers anymore. There will no time for a conference with the elders, or anything for that matter.

Tsunade faces her, and asks questions she can't answer. "What happened?" "Were you attacked?" "Who did this?" Other inquiries that she knows she does not have the right response to. So she says nothing at all. With every second she remains quiet, the insinuations grow, and her guilt is solidified. But she can tell that Tsunade already knows what happened. Because from her proximity, she is the only one who can see the seal on her temple has spread. She knows what Sakura has done.

So she sighs deep in her throat and in a firm, authoritative voice informs the crowd that she is now a criminal of Konoha. If she ever returns, she will be captured and held accountable for her actions. But as of the dawn of this day, she is an outcast, a wandering shinobi with no home. She will be spared, and it seems that this decision make no party happy. Perhaps that is a clear sign that it's the right choice.

She is led, still bound by a party of people who will see her off. In her jumbled mind, still full of images of Hinata's gasping last breathes she faintly recalls the farewells she receives. She never gets a chance to see Tsunade again, after her verdict is proclaimed she is gone to attend to the official business of banishing her former student. She doesn't know when the others come, or how they know, but soon she's faced with all the people she would never want to leave behind. But she has no choice anymore. This is the result of her actions.

Kakashi is the first to move, once her feet are held steady against the dirt path. He lowers his head, unable to look her blood covered face in the eyes. He mumbles a "Sayonara." and disappears in the forest with nothing but the overwhelming knowledge that she has let him down. She crumbles just a little more from the inside out.

Lee touches her arm and lowers his eyes to examine the hole in her shirt. He can see her blood and so much more from another person. He sighs and allows one single tear of regret or anger to flow from his huge round eyes before he leaves without a word. But in the back of her mind, she can still feel his warm hand on her arm and breaks a little more.

Ino stands, defiant, and angry. She's never seen that kind of rage from her before. It's so strong that it infuses with her aura and radiates from her pupil-less blue eyes. She stares at her for a long moment and then shoves a red sash into her chained hands. "We're not rivals anymore." Then she too is gone, lost to a sea of painful memories and unabashed regret.

Iruka stands just behind Naruto now. But she barely sees him past the proud, mournful tears that stain her only remaining teammate's face. She doesn't speak – she couldn't for them and she can not for him either. He just watches her and weeps for the lonely reality that is slowly settling in his mind. He is truly alone now. She's given him this grief and pain. She has caused his strong hands to quiver, because she knows that deep down, he might have grown to love the timid young woman in her stead. She stole that chance from him, that life he will never get is bloodied in her hands.

Neji, Shino, and Izumo watch as she remains impassive at the goodbyes she receives and seethe with odium. They jerk her to face the horizon of the home she will never see again but it's Shino who is still splattered with her blood that informs her that if she ever returns – he will kill her gladly. She believes him.

Neji watches closely with his white eyes as Izumo unbinds her and drops her to her knees in the dirt. He slowly informs her of the many eyes of the Hyuuga clan. She will be hunted, wherever she goes, there will always be an ally of the clan, a family member who moved away who will watch her and wait for the day that her blood will run cold and be traded for the life she took. She nods, because she knows that Neji will make sure she is hunted. She is glad.

Naruto stands behind her, in the distant of her past and watches as she rises on heavy feet to met the fate of her future, a future that will not include him. He is oddly quiet, and she wishes mildly that he would smile one last time before she fades into his past. He doesn't and she can feel the crack that started at her heart split her soul in half all the way to the ground under her feet.

She is now irrevocably broken. She knows she will never be whole, so she gathers her strength and leaps from her former home with nothing but her grief, a red sash, and a green frog coin purse that somehow found its way into her hands. She weeps openly as the branches and leaves scrape away the outer layer of skin on her face and she is reborn, broken, bleeding, pink and red in the dawn of the darkest day she's ever seen.