"Ah, home sweet home." Sakura sighed, tossing her keys onto the table near the front door.
She walked through her quaint apartment and surveyed its condition. Aside from the light layer of dust coating her belongings, everything seemed to be exactly as she had left it two weeks prior.
Suddenly hit with a strange wave of fatigue, Sakura made her way to her bedroom. She plopped down onto her bed, her arms spread to the side and her hair splayed on her pillow. Dust jumped into the air, disturbed by her presence and filled her nose.
"Ugh. Gross. Maybe I should clean up a little."
Sakura waved a hand in front of her, trying to clear the air.
Starting in the kitchen, Sakura began gently wiping away two weeks' worth of dust. Moving from room to room, she left everything sparkling in her wake. When she reached her bedroom again, Sakura decided to scrap everything, picking up sheets and blankets and putting them into the hamper.
When she was done, everything was bare, but clean. She sighed with satisfaction. After throwing her laundry into the washing machine, she re-sheeted her bed and took a long hot shower.
All the cleaning had made her tired and she craved some quiet time with her books. Climbing into bed, she curled up into a ball. The crisp sheets felt good on her skin. Sakura moved to her side, reaching out to grab the book in her drawer. The bracelet caught the light, momentarily blinding her.
"Ugh. What am I going to do with you?" she whispered to the silver band.
She sat up and looked at it, experimentally pushing chakra into it. Every time she put chakra into it, the band seemed to glow and consume her energy like a starving animal. Other than those meager observations, she couldn't pull any other information out of it.
She sighed for the umpteenth time, resolving that tomorrow will be a good time to stake out the little teahouse from her previous (and busted) mission. As she rummaged through her drawer in search of a pen and paper, her hand touched something foreign. Peering into her night table drawer, she took out a small, unremarkable box. Inside, swathed in a cloth with a design similar to the Akatsuki cloak uniform, a twin silver band glimmered in the light. She picked it up and examined it in every possible way.
It was exactly like the one she wore.
"Where did this come from?" she wondered aloud.
That single chance encounter was becoming more and more confusing, where each new discovery brought on more questions.
- x -
It was still early morning when Sakura woke and she used every second of it to pack her essentials and get ready. She still needed time to leave her hastily written letter in the Hokage's office explaining her situation and relaying her whereabouts for the next few days.
According to her note, she was going to spend the week in a small rural village on the outskirts of the Fire Country helping the staff of a local hospital. These unorthodox volunteering excursions were routine for Sakura and didn't expect Tsunade to object. It was her perfect alibi.
- x -
An hour later, Sakura found herself standing at Konoha's gates, scanning the nearby trees out of habit. She knew how incredibly reckless she was being. No one would know where she would be and should anything happen, it would be immensely difficult to track her down. She couldn't even say why she wanted to do this so desperately. It couldn't just be for curiosity. She knew Tsunade could have figured something out, given time.
She pushed all distracting thoughts aside and took a deep breath. She had to move quickly. The guards would be back in a few minutes to take their posts and she didn't want to lie any more than she had to. Clutching the tiny box holding the matching bracelet in her hands, Sakura leapt into the trees, disappearing into the shadows.
A/N: Ha! I bet you didn't think this story was going to go anywhere xD I fooled you, huh? I've been working on this story a lot lately because I really want to see some progress myself (See, you're not the only one!). I'm still not quite sure about how this will unfold, but I do know that I want to stick to the whole ItaSaku theme. I'll get there soon, I promise. Hey, maybe I'll even throw in a lemon! Well, no. Not really. I'll probably add the lemon as an optional reading choice instead of a must-read chapter – if I add a lemon at all, that is.