A/N: Sorry for being late. I didn't feel like writing, but then I did, so now you have a chapter!

Volume 7. Purpose

Chapter 41 — Execution

Things had finally been looking up a little. Everything in my life was starting to look like it would be something I could handle. Even now, the anxiety about my situation had been beginning to ebb away.

So when Sasuke excused himself from the courtroom, looking stressed, I didn't appreciate the new wave of concern spreading through my stomach. I very much did not appreciate that Neji was wearing a similar expression to what Sasuke had, and I extremely much didn't like not knowing what was going on.

Because it was apparent that something was wrong. Sasuke was many things, but subtle wasn't one of them.

Sitting around waiting for the trial to start was no longer a viable strategy. I thought I'd be able to be patient, but after something like that, if I didn't otherwise occupy myself, I was going to lose my mind. Fumbling through my pack, I pawed through my scrolls, choosing a few to work on. Quiet, simple, engrossing work.

I had only gotten absorbed enough in the calculations for my shoulders to ease a little when the door in the back of the courtroom opened, and the Elder stepped through.

He wasn't what I'd expected— perhaps an old, wizened man hunched over with wispy hair. This man stood straight and tall, hair dark, face wrapped in myriad bandages, yet visibly scarred. He clearly didn't get his position by working at a desk. He wore simple, unadorned, traditional-style clothing: an off-white and slate-grey kimono. One of his arms was tucked into the outer kimono, the other loose. Somehow it didn't say, 'I'm dressed like this to relax', so much as 'I'm dressed like this to keep my sword arm ready'.

The man was one hundred percent pure shinobi.

I narrowed my eyes despite myself. I didn't particularly like shinobi.

The man approached the desk and, without sitting, pulled a scroll out of his sleeve. He spoke without introduction. "Docket four. The disciplinary hearing of one Sakura Haruno versus Konoha Medical Hospital. Infraction of unlicensed healing that, while not against the word of the law, Konoha Hospital claims was against the spirit." He thumbed his way down the scroll. "Lady Tsunade, standing as representative of Konoha Medical. I see you have already filed a preliminary settlement, with terms, for this court and for the defendant to take under review."

Tsunade nodded. "Correct. If I may—"

"You may not," he interrupted. "And the village's court system is not your playground. It does not exist to squeeze precedents into place for you to pass laws you wish to exist. That is not your place."

"Danzo-sama, with all due respect—"

He raised his hand. "Silence. Be that as it may, you may have done an invaluable service to your village." He smiled, slow and mirthless.

I sat numbly beside Neji, who also had remained a statue, hardly daring to breathe, barely able to process any of this. This wasn't what I'd anticipated, and I'd imagined many possibilities. What was going on?

"Oh?" Tsunade finally asked, leaning forward over her desk, eyes narrowed.

He dropped the scroll he was holding, taking up a new one. "Yes. Due to the parties involved in this particular case, and some unusual circumstances surrounding them, our intel department was alerted to double-check for any inconsistencies ahead of trial on behalf of the tower government."

Tsunade leaned back. "Meaning?"

Danzo's expression did not shift. "Having quietly looked into the past several months of Sakura Haruno's activities, contacts, and the events surrounding her, it has been decided that this case has been elevated. Of course, we will not throw out your case entirely but allow it to exist as another piece of evidence, another instance of concern."

Tsunade rose to her feet. "On whose authority?"

I couldn't move. I couldn't speak. I didn't understand what anything the Elder said meant. It was like I'd lost the ability to understand Japanese; the words felt out of place and out of order. I heard the words, but I just couldn't understand.

It seemed to mean something to Tsunade, though, and something very unpleasant. And that fact wasn't doing great things for my heart rate.

Danzo held out a third scroll, unfurling it. "Under the authority of the full council of Elders. You will find all signatures will be in order." His gaze sharpened. "Over the last several months, Sakura Haruno has exhibited qualities which, precipitated through troubling events, the village has reason to believe will cause danger for the whole. She was targeted by foreign shinobi and cannot tell us why. She cannot tell us who she is. We do not know what was done to her. We do not know in what ways she may have been acting. She may, herself, be a ticking time bomb sent by enemies to destroy us from within."

All time slowed as I began to understand.

He continued, "Even now, she is causing chaos, demanding the ear of the Hokage himself, demanding she and her hand-selected parties be allowed to infiltrate the ranks of other missions on her own orders." He slammed a fist against a table. "This is an abomination of those ideals which give a hidden village strength. An insult. We have been most fortunate that more harm hasn't been done while she's been allowed to act with such freedom within the walls of Konoha. Perhaps. There is much yet to uncover."

I felt dizzy.

"All missions with connection to Haruno Sakura or her relations are under abeyance pending further investigation. All previous missions with Haruno Sakura's involvement will be re-examined. She is hereby revoked of her ninja status, and her rank of Genin dissolved by order of the Elder Council of Konoha. Team Seven is hereby disbanded, under investigation of—"

He continued speaking, but a strange buzzing noise replaced everything around me. The strange unreality was cloying, yet everything seemed overly solid and real. My heart rate slowed as my shoulders relaxed, my previous tension draining away.

All my fighting, raging, kicking and screaming against fate, and this happens anyway. My desperate clawing to try to keep things together— to do things the right way— to not do anything foolish.

I felt my lips twist into a serene smile as I looked back down at the scrolls I had been working on. Danzo and Tsunade only had eyes for each other at the moment. To them, I wasn't worth much more than the furniture around me.

The seal I'd been working on was an explosion tag. I had wracked my mind over it hour after hour, trying to figure out the perfect way to set off the biggest explosion with the optimal delay. Now, I would have a new problem. Delaying the seal would not help; I needed the blast to give me cover. But I needed to set it off in such a way that wouldn't cause injury to myself and Neji. (I was not particularly concerned about Tsunade; she was disgustingly powerful and would already have some method of dealing with this. I didn't know for Danzo, but I didn't care. Maybe he'd duck behind his desk. Perhaps he'd just die. Who cared?)

I frowned at the scroll, tapping my pen against my fingers and feeling Neji's stare. He'd probably already worked out what I'd do. If anything, he may have even suspected I'd do it even if it had been a regular trial. It was heartening that he wasn't acting to stop me.

I nearly reeled as the reality of what I was about to do hit, but I shoved that feeling away for later. For now, I needed to plan.

Ah. Tsunade is shouting now. That's good. Gives me more time.

Well, instead of doing something with the seal directly, which was already balanced, I'd be better off seeing if there was something I could do on my end. If I tried to change the seal or change the direction of the blast, I was in danger of unbalancing it. If that happened, I ran the risk of it either 1) not working or 2) forming a large crater where the Hokage's Tower used to be.

Not ideal.

Hmm. Perhaps if I made a true double-layer air pocket, such as those used for water-breathing, I could evacuate the oxygen and compress the remaining air enough so heat couldn't travel through the dense particles? But no, the actual heat of the blast was the least dangerous part of an explosion; it was the concussive force. Maybe if I evacuated everything from the pocket, the blast itself would no longer be able to pass. A wave can't propagate in a vacuum, after all.

Well, alight wave could, since it was electromagnetic, andheat could since it was just radiation. But sound was a mechanical wave.

And in space, notoriously, no one can hear you scream.

Even so, would a vacuum be enough? And what if I wasn't able to get a perfect vacuum in an air pocket? I'd hardly tried to make one before, and as established, this was not an ideal time for experimentation. There would only be one shot at this.

Then I realised I was being silly. I actually had a straightforward way to direct the explosion.

Softly, I nodded, so if Neji was paying attention, he'd be ready. Even if he wasn't, I was.

I etched a very short timer on the seal. Steeling myself, sucking in a breath, I tapped a finger against it.

Tick.

I flipped the table up on its side toward the judge's stand, in the next moment throwing my arms around Neji. Instantly, I formed a double layer pocket around us, evacuating as much of the air from the shell as I could whilst still retaining structure, hoping to negate some of the damage—

BOOM—

And we were flying against the back wall because, duh, the pocket was solid; force could still act upon it, so why weren't we more injured? Before I could blink in the sudden dark cloud of debris, Neji had lifted me over his shoulder so that I was staring at the ground and— when had the windows been broken?— we were jumping out the window, we were four stories up, he was insane— and his feet were touching against the ground softly as any cat, and he was sprinting for the tree line.

"Neji," I gasped.

He didn't respond, running us so quickly through the forest that I could have easily mistaken it for teleportation, the wind whipping so aggressively that I suspected my hair was forming minor cuts against my face.

And then we were stopping, and he was depositing me unceremoniously onto the ground.

I gasped in a breath, the adrenaline catching up with me, staring at him in amazement. "Neji—?"

He was leaning against a tree, his breaths also uneven and ragged. It was the first time I had ever seen him tired. He must have put everything he had into that escape.

He shook his head silently, gasping.

"You should have stayed, Neji. It was only me. I was making it out. You shouldn't have…"

Still unable to speak, Neji walked over and half-knelt, half-collapsed in front of me. He took one of my hands. I had no time to be perplexed by this as I felt him push chakra into my index fingernail, dragging it carefully against his cheek. A thin red line formed.

"Neji? What?"

He dropped my hand, shaking his head. "I chased you. We fought. I chased again. We fought. I lost track of you." His eyes met mine. "Let them track your scent and the scent of my blood a certain distance, and when you reach water, cover yourself in an air pocket to trap the scent particles and make as much distance from this place as you can." He closed his eyes. "There will be… Something unusual happening soon, and I do not believe they will search very hard for you. You needn't leave the borders of Konoha. I'll bring your teammates to find you when it is safe."

I stared at him, mouth agape, in something approaching wonder. I had never been able to quite pinpoint what I felt about Neji. I didn't enjoy his company very much, but I respected him greatly and thought he was inherently good. But this was above and beyond that.

Oh, of course. Neji was my friend.

"Thank you," I said hoarsely. "Should I go somewhere specific so the others can find me?"

He shook his head. "I'd rather not know. I'm sure they'll find you quickly enough, and by the time they're able to look safely, they'll have whatever assistance they require from the village." He had once again become the self-possessed, disciplined Neji I was used to. "Ignore everything Danzo said. His time will come. Revenge is only a matter of waiting by the river long enough to see the bodies of your enemies drift by." The last words had been spoken all in one breath, holding the shadow of vehemence. I'd never heard so much emotion in his voice before.

Oh. I knew this feeling now. It'd been a long time since I'd felt it.

Ugh. This was not the time to realise I'd hit puberty. How embarrassing.

Shoving all of these thoughts into a far rear corner of my brain that nobody would know about, ever, I instead bowed my head. "Thank you. And…" I rose to my feet. "Whatever it is that's going on… I'm on your side. You know that, right?"

He frowned at me, some of his usual bored exasperation colouring his voice: "You have no clue what is happening, Sakura-san."

I smiled. "Don't need to. Just like you didn't. Right?"

He turned his head away, an expression of mild disgust creeping over his face. "Go. You are wasting the good lead time I have given you."

Right. With a nod, I turned and bolted for the border. Fortunately, I just so happened to know where each security outpost would be and when patrols tended to path through. Admittedly, the last time I had planned to flee Konoha, I hadn't dreamed that it would occur like this.

Hopefully, one day, in the next eight centuries, Naruto and Sasuke might forgive me.

A/N: The best-laid plans, &c.

Next update when the moon sings her hymn, soft and sweet across still waters, despite the rage of the sky above. Perhaps even sooner!

PS: "In space, no one can hear you scream" is the tagline of the Alien film franchise. Also, "If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by" is a pretty common Japanese proverb, sometimes misattributed to Sun Tzu— though, to be fair, he likewise recommended patience.