Sakura walked around the village. Trying to find something to do that will catch her interest. She wants to occupy her mind with other things so that she'll forget about the pain she's feeling.
She was in that state when a small black bird perched in her shoulder. She stared at the bird and realized that it was the one that Tsunade use to rely on messages to her ninjas. She took the letter attached to its leg and then the bird fly away.
She immediately turned and jumped through trees when she read that the Hokage is summoning her for a mission.
"Hokage-sama." Sakura said in a hoarse voice.
"Sakura." Tsunade acknowledge her, her brows furrowed at the sound of her apprentice's voice. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Tsunade-shishou." Sakura answered, not wanting to burden her master with her pain. She's not as weak as the others perceive her to be.
"Okay, then," Tsunade resigned as she noticed the glint in Sakura's eyes. "I'm sending you on a solo mission. This one is long-term." She reached for the scroll containing the specifics of the mission. "You'll need a good disguise, Sakura. That pink-hair of yours is a dead giveaway to your identity."
Sakura nodded as she heard this. She knows how to change her appearance.
"And Sakura, I need you to act docile." Tsunade added. "It's the only way that you can infiltrate the Village of Rain. This mission is for six months, you'll leave before sunrise tomorrow. No one is to see you leave aside from guards in the gates."
"Understood, Hokage-sama." Sakura nodded to her master without a fight.
When Tsunade waved her out, she turned her back and left. The mission works well for her, she will be able to avoid Neji and maybe when she gets back, he's already married and she don't have to witness it. Another pang of pain squeezed her heart at the thought.
Early the next morning, even before the stars stopped twinkling in the skies, she left.