Author's note:
I do apologize, I didn't make it clear that this story is a AU, nonmassacre. I don't have a pairing in mind just yet. And I have left a lot for the imagination on purpose. Hope you all enjoy this chapter. I don't know what my updating schedule will look like, but I will try to update as much as possible. Thank you all and much love.

*.*.*.*

"Little blossom..
Little blossom..
It's time to go.
You're already awake..
It's time to go.."

Sakura's eyes snapped open, darkness greeting her as she did. Her breathing was labored and she felt as though she had been running for miles. Her body ached and her head was killing her.

The voice was becoming more and more frequent, it would push inner to the side and take over at times. Inner never said much about it, she didn't seem to care much nor feel threatened..

Sakura wasn't sure what to think or feel about this.

Getting from her bed, the medic winced and had to hold herself straight for a long moment before she gained her balance - small dots filling her vision for a few moments as her head came together. When she was ready, she made her way to her bathroom and peeled off the night clothing that were now drenched in cold sweat. Looking into the mirror, Sakura frowned deeply - her eyes were a pale green and her face was almost hollow.

Leaning her forehead against the mirror, Sakura sighed deeply. "You're going to be fine.." she said to herself softly. A shower and change of clothing helped her, as well as some food and tea. Even with feeling a bit better, she still felt restless.

So, she did what she always did. Pulling on her gloves, she took off from her balcony towards the training grounds. She enjoyed the feeling of freedom the wind gave her as it spread itself over her heated skin and pushed it's fingers through her tousled hair.

Then it caught her attention. Two very familiar Chakra signatures. Masking her own, she made her way towards a training ground further out, not wanting to be bothered. She could hear Uchiha Shisui and Itachi going at it, giving it their all, no doubt. She was envious of that. No one took her training that seriously other than her shishou.

After a few stretches, Sakura stood proudly and began her training. A clone of herself appeared next to her - it was interesting because her clones had become so.. real. It wouldn't just 'poof' away when someone "killed" it. It ate and slept, it could even fool the Sharingan into believing it was the real deal. While it took a greater amount of Chakra to keep it around, Sakura was very proud to have been able to do such a thing.

The training kept going and going, her body giving and giving as the anger from before came off of her in waves.

"You're just a cherry blossom in the wind.. and they.. they're gods.."

The voice kept edging her on, taunting her and pushing into the parts of her filled with anger and bitterness. It fed to the seed it had planted.

Emerald eyes became a dark green, the Chakra radiating from her no longer the warm green people were used to. No, it was black and filled with rage and anger. No longer masked, it bared down on all that was unfortunate enough to be in its direct vicinity.

This, of course, did not go unnoticed by the two Uchiha training just a few grounds away. The Chakra they felt was both familiar and foreign and neither Uchiha understood how that could be. Trading a look between the two, they made a silent agreement to check out what it was.

"How the hell is that possible?" Shisui voiced as his blood red eyes glanced around the clearing. Just as they appeared near the Chakra signature was coming from, it vanished.. and so did whoever it belong to.

Itachi remained silent, his eyes staring at the ground... it was cracked and much of it was uprooted. By the way it looked, the impact had been made in the center, causing the breakage to come outwards. That would mean a single, or a series of hit were made in that center in order to make such an impact. There were only two people Uchiha Itachi knew that had enough strength to single handedly do such a thing. The Godaime herself - which was rather unlikely seeing as she was probably drunk in her room..

Or Haruno Sakura, the Godaime's apprentice and the angry teammate that his foolish younger brother decided to taunt.. and have his ass handed to him by.

He of course did not share any of this information nor his musings with his elder cousin, and he wouldn't any time soon. Not until he was sure. Not until he could test his theory.

Not until he got to see what made the Haruno tick.

*.*.*.*.*

A loud groan came from a certain Pinkett as she willed herself from the porcelain bowl of the toilet she now hung off of. Her body felt as though it was on fire, she had a migraine that was practically killing her, and her stomach was not happy with either of these things so all contents that may have previously been in there were now emptied into the toilet with a rather weak and annoyed Sakura.

"Did you go out drinking?" Mused a man's voice. Had Sakura been in a better situation she would have thrown something at the asshole who decided to creep into her house. She really needed to lock her shit better.

"Hyuuga.. you have fifteen seconds to tell me why you're standing in my bathroom door way." Sakura finally growled.

"Fifteen? That's ten more than usual."

"Yes.. well.. I'm feeling a little bit generous today." Sakura commented dryly.

When Neji was sure Sakura was ready to get up, he helped her from the floor and into the bathtub. They had been on plenty of missions together and in turn had seen each other naked plenty of times. Even if they hadn't, Sakura was too tired to give a shit about being modest.

He sat her down and took hold of the shower head, bringing it down to wash over the female's hair and back. "Want to talk about it? Nara told me about the fall out.."

"Of course he did.."

"Well.. he and Yamanaka care deeply about you. Seeing as they're gone, I was next best, I suppose." He answered gently to stifle the anger he knew would come if he didn't. Sakura nodded slightly, her chin resting on her knees.

"It's getting worse..." Sakura whispered. Neji was the only person to know what had been going on in the medic's head. He had looked at her with the byakugan during a mission while she had been sleeping - she was giving off odd vibes and was restless - almost as if she were having a nightmare. Switching to the byakugan, he watched her and what he saw both intrigued and scared him..

Slowly, she became enveloped in a dark film of chakra, but it wasn't lethal or angry - just dark. He brought it up to her a few days later after the nightmares became worse and that's when she told him about the voice. He had heard about her... alternate personality by Ino. During the chuunin exams, Ino had witnessed the inner alter ego personally and, well he assumed it's just not something one forgets. But Sakura insisted it wasn't 'inner', it was something else.

Sighing deeply, he didn't continue with the conversation, he washed her up, dried her down with a towel and carried her to her room and helped clean her up. "Sakura, I cannot tell you what to do.. I can only hope that you say something to someone who can help.. Maybe Tsunade-Sama... I know you're afraid of whatever this is.. but I hope you realize you are strong enough to fight it, but you don't have to do it alone."

Sakura looked Neji straight into the eyes as he spoke.

Neji didn't think less of her. He didn't question her ability. He trained hard with her and acknowledged her hard work, intelligence, and strength. So did Shikamaru and Ino.

Sakura gave a curt nod, "I will think about it.." she gave a small smile and Neji pulled her into a hug.

Sakura had gotten close to Neji, Shikamaru, and Ino during missions together. The first two she had been placed on several missions with when Sasuke went with Kakashi to train and Naruto went with the pervy-sage. During her training with Tsunade, the Godaime had insisted on Sakura taking missions with people from other teams so she could learn more than what she was being taught by her shishou. She wanted her to be able to feel apart of something.

The Godaime was not blind to how her student's 'sensei' treated the Pinkett and how her 'team' treated her. It enraged her and because of this, she pushed Sakura beyond her limits because she would be damned if she allowed such a thing to continue.

But alas, it seemed pointless. The team in question made no note of the medic's change. When the three men came back two years later, Sakura was already running the hospital, was entertaining the idea of becoming ANBU and was already a Jounin. She had all but surpassed her teacher, and yet the three male teammates she was placed with seemed to only see the fourteen year old Sakura they left behind.

It angered Tsunade greatly, she couldn't imagine the pain it caused Sakura - which handled it rather gracefully without complaint. So, Tsunade continued sending the Pinkett on missions with The Nara and the Hyuuga because she knew that they saw all the things she herself saw in the young woman.

"I'm here if you need me.." He murmured into her hair before poofing away. She had felt them before she heard them, her 'team' was heading towards her house.

*.*.*.*

"Sakura-chan!" Came the loud blonde's voice, "Let us in!" He whined.

Sakura rolled her eyes and shook her head. She was not really in the mood to deal with them, but what choice did she have? Sighing deeply, Sakura found herself at her front door and opened it. Sasuke stood behind the blonde, his eyes burning holes into the medic while Kakashi stood by giving a false smile. Narrowing her eyes for a split second, she had to keep herself from giving them a sarcastic comment. Turning on her heels, she headed back into her home, leaving the door open for the men to enter as she was sure they were going to.

The smell of that man on her bothered the Uchiha for some reason. When had Sakura gotten so cozy with the Nara and that damn Hyuuga? When had they gotten so close that he could smell him on her the moment she opened the door? Were they together? Sasuke wasn't sure why it would matter if they were, but it bothered him greatly for some reason. It bothered him that he didn't seem to know much about Sakura and that he even cared that it bothered him that he didn't know much about her. He was annoyed at how she had done a complete 180, changing from who she had been when they left this new person.

He knew for a while when he had gotten back that she was still smitten with him, because she still called him Sasuke-kun, but other than that she didn't really show him much affection - not like she did when she was twelve and always all over him. She was strong now and radiated self discipline, earned respect from those around her and had an air of pride and confidence about her. She looked people in the eye when she spoke and didn't blush nor baffle her words about as she did before they had left.

She was professional on the field, at work, and sometimes even when they were all just hanging out. He had seen her take on opponents and how she ran the hospital. She was gentle yet could kill someone with the same hands that could bring them back to life.

She was the epitome of beauty and strength and he was but a man - of course he noted all of this.. but who was she?

Before, he didn't really care much for who she was, honestly. She was just the annoying female of the team who swooned over him and got in their way. Now..

Looking at the Pinkett now was different. She was so much, much more and it bothered him that he knew nothing about her. She was right, when she screamed at Kakashi saying none of them knew her.. because the truth was, they probably really didn't.

Not anymore.

Maybe they never did.

"What's up?" Sakura asked, serving herself a cup of tea.

All three men stared at her, she didn't seem to want them there and she wasn't exactly warm to them right now.

"We were thinking about going to get Ramen, we wanted to see if you would like to go.." Naruto was the first to speak.

At the mentioning of food, Sakura nearly went green in the face, her stomach was still not having it. "No, I'm good.. I'm not feeling too hot today." It wasn't a lie, she really didn't feel good - that, and she didn't want to face her team right now.

"You were right.." Sasuke surprised everyone by saying.

Sakura cocked and eyebrow, a Uchiha admitting to being wrong was nothing to be scoffed at - especially when it was Uchiha Sasuke.

"You were right yesterday when you said we didn't know you.. so.. please.." Sasuke was trying really hard, "Come with us."

If it had just been Sakura in her head, maybe she would have felt pleased and even moved by Sasuke - but she wasn't alone and she wasn't pleased. The voice in her head kept repeating the words, "They are gods and you are but a blossom in the wind.. what need does a god have for you?"

"I um.." Sakura looked down at her hands, "Maybe tomorrow.. I really don't feel good today. My stomach really isn't happy..."

After a few minutes of silence, the men all nodded, but it was Kakashi that sat on her couch. "Well, since you can't come with us.. we'll stay here with you."

Inner Sakura was annoyed that now they were being persistent. Now they were starting to try and care. 'Better late than never?' Sakura offered inner.

This was not satisfactory, but inner remained silent for a few minutes, 'And this is why they think us weak. You are too easy to forgive.'

'They're my team...'

'That sure didn't mean shit to them when they left you. But hey, what do I know? Wanna know what a real team looks like?'

Flashes of Sakura, Shikamaru, and Neji sitting around a camp, eating breakfast together, carrying each other back from a shitty mission, patching each other and building the others up flashed through her mind.

'That's what a real team looks like. You may have had some of that with team 7, but when was the last time they challenged you, took you seriously, and treated you as an actual teammate? You can forgive them if you want to, but in the end, you're the only one being cheated... again.'

Sakura had no rebuttal.

Sakura's inner battle didn't go unnoticed by the three men, well.. Maybe by Naruto who was happily chatting away. Both Hatake and Uchiha watched as an array of emotions flickered over the Haruno's face while her internal battle went on.

"Everything okay, Sakura-chan?" The question made her jump back, not expecting Kakashi to be standing so close so suddenly.

"Yeah. Actually, I'm going to stay in bed today. Lady Tsunade gave me the day off because I've been sick all night.. so.." Sakura finally said.

"Really, is that your excuse? Or were you up all night entertaining the Hyuuga?" Shot back Sasuke, standing a few inches from the medic's face. He was angry that he actually tried to be civil and she was just shrugging them all off. That and he still refused to admit to himself that the idea of Neji, or any other male, touching Haruno bothered him.

There was a resounding smack - something that made the Uchiha's face snap to the side. "Get out." Sakura growled.

"Sakura..." Kakashi tried.

"No, get out! Now!" A thin layer of chakra began emitting from Haruno - anger making the air suffocating and thick. "Get the fuck out of my house!" She hissed..

And none of them had any idea what the hell happened next, but all of a sudden, they were standing in one of the training fields .

"What the hell just happened?!" Cried Naruto, "Why the hell did you have to piss her off again, Sasuke?!" Naruto hissed, pushing Sasuke onto his back.

"Don't touch me, dobe! It's not my fault Sakura is fucking crazy!"

"Don't you dare talk about her like that!" Naruto shot back, a red film of chakra starting to cover Naruto. Kakashi pulled up his hatai and stared at Naruto with his Sharingan.

"Enough, Naruto. We will go visit with Sakura-chan when she is feeling better. Let's go." Kakashi was not in the mood to try and sway the nine-tails.

Naruto gave a curt nod disappeared in a poof of smoke, leaving Hatake and Uchiha alone. "You really need to learn people skills, Sasuke." Kakashi commented dryly as he helped the male up.

"Hn." Was all he said as he got to his feet. "Should we tell Lady Tsunade of this?" He finally asked.

"No.. let's wait and talk with Sakura-chan first.. see what's going on. There has got to be more to the story than what we're seeing right now." Kakashi answered.

*.*.*.*.*

Standing on top of the Hokage monument, Naruto stared into the distance, "What is happening to you, Sakura?" He whispered into the wind.

Author's note:
That's a wrap for the second chapter. Sorry, had to have a little suspense going hehe. I can't promise that all my updates will be super long, like the last one.. but I shall try! Much love!