The world was a cold, cruel place.

As she trudged and staggered back to her village, she couldn't help herself when thoughts like these presented themselves.

The things that were required of a ninja were gruesome and grueling. The things that they had to do were sometimes unspeakable, and sometimes the things they witnessed and took part in caused ninja to lose their purpose and breaks them. This was it for her. She was at her breaking point.

You see, Sakura Haruno was a Chuunin of Konoha. She'd just led her first mission as captain, and she had also just been responsible for the loss of a life that she was meant to save.

As she marched through the village gates of Konoha, no one dared to look at Sakura the wrong way. There was a menacing aura surrounding the pink haired kunoichi, letting people know that now was not the time for chatting. She passed Izumo and Kotetsu, the two Chuunin who were stationed at the village gates to allow passage in and out of the village. The two men shared a concerned look, but remained silent and did not approach Sakura.

She'd passed by many civilians on the way to her destination, but none approached her. They were all worried, but they knew better. After all, they had either been through this type of thing before, or seen the effects of it. Being responsible for losing a comrade, that is.

The pink haired Chunin walked solemnly through the entire village until she was met with her target: The Hokage Tower. As much as she dreaded reporting that she had failed her mission, it was something she had to do. It was part of the job. She wanted to go find a small dark hole and sleep the rest of her life away in it.

Sakura gave a quick knock, a simple rasp of her knuckles brushing against the wooden double doors of the Hokage's office. She knocked so softly that she was hoping Lady Tsunade wouldn't hear her and she'd get away with postponing her report. But today was not Sakura's day.

"Enter." Came the low voice of the woman who held all the power over her village, the sound partially muffled by the door.

Sakura twisted the door knob and entered her office, closing the door behind her with a soft click. Tsunade glanced up at the girl who was her apprentice in training, took in her dirty, blood stained clothes and awaited the information that was likely to follow.

"Lady Tsunade," Sakura began to speak in a brittle tone, threatening to break at any moment. Nevertheless, she continued, fighting against her emotions as best as she could. "I have failed my mission. I sent my three subordinates, Shikamaru, Kiba, and Hinata to the hospital to be treated. They were not severely injured, but were still in need of medical attention."

Tsunade nodded and examined the young girl in front of her. There were small tears in her clothing, and the fact that she sent her team the hospital could only mean that fighting had ensued. "What happened, Sakura?"

Sakura began the story. Shikamaru had formulated a plan for their mission, and it was a hard strategy to break, but broken it was. If anyone else was more disappointed than herself, it would be Shikamaru for not considering all the possibilities and having a backup plan for every scenario. Their mission had been to infiltrate one of Orochimaru's hideouts and bring back Light Haruno, Sakura's older brother. The strategy was perfect. All they had to do was sneak in, sneak out, and be done. Easy, right? Wrong.

"We successfully infiltrated Orochimaru's Southern Hideout, which turned out to be a prison. We asked the prisoners if they had heard of a guy named Light Haruno, and they said he was just taken into the back to have experiments conducted on him," Sakura said, a grimace contorting her face. She took a deep, shaky breath and tried to continue. "Y-You see, Kiba used his nose to get us a mile away from the hideout. We ran into a smoke-bomb trap though, and it temporarily destroyed Kiba's sense of smell. We used Hinata's Byakugan the rest of the way."

Sakura shifted her weight to her right leg and crossed her arms over her chest. She bit her lip, held her breath, and prevented the tears from spilling over from her eyes. She continued again, gathering another unsteady breath.

"Hinata-chan used her Byakugan again in the direction the prisoners pointed us in. Kabuto, and a woman that went by the name of Karin, could be detected. I don't know how, but Hinata indicated that the girl knew we were already there. As we broke into the room where they were holding Light, Shikamaru caught Kabuto with his Shadow Possession Jutsu before he tried to slit Light's throat."

Tsunade sat poised behind her desk the whole time Sakura was giving her report, trying her best to visualize for herself just what happened while Sakura had been giving her the horrid details. Tsunade's bright honey eyes searched Sakura's, but Sakura continued, not meeting Tsunade's gaze.

"It was easy after that.. Or it should have been easy. Hinata had just shut down Karin's chakra points, not killing her because we wanted to bring her in to gather intel about Orochimaru. Kiba and I made a bee-line for Light… But we didn't make it in time. A huge man with orange hair busted the wall open with his fists. A white haired man, and Sasuke Uchiha appeared from the opening in the wall after him." By this time, Sakura's expression had become bleak and ashen.

Tsunade let out a choked gasp as she absorbed the information, the planes of her face set with worry.

"The white haired man grabbed up the woman named Karin while Kiba and Hinata were fighting the one who busted open the wall. Sasuke and I were engaged in a fight of our own, but Shikamaru's chakra was quickly running out. He'd managed to move Kabuto far enough away from Light, but my brother was paralyzed with whatever medicine they had running through his veins."

Sakura continued. "I used an Earth style jutsu, temporarily breaking from my fight with Sasuke, to entrap Kabuto. It worked, but Hinata and Kiba were having a hard time facing the strange man with orange hair. He looked… monstrous. Hinata said he had a curse mark. Sasuke grimaced, indicated that he'd had enough of the petty fighting, and began hand signs that I knew were no doubt a lightning attack. I assumed we were his only targets, but.. I was wrong."

Sakura's tone turned dark. "I used an Earth Dome Jutsu to protect me and my team, even though earth is weak to lightning. In the heat of the moment, it was the best course of action I could think of. When I had released it, Sasuke and his team were gone, only leaving Kabuto and Light."

"I thought everything was going to be okay, because now the odds were all of us against Kabuto," she continued. She stared hard at the floor, clenching her fists in anger as her eyebrows scrunched together. "But Light coughed up so much blood... I rushed over to him, and a lightning enhanced kunai knife had struck him in the heart. The only thing I could do was watch the life drain from his eyes in a matter of seconds."

No doubt Sakura had tears running freely down her face by this time. She couldn't help the constant flow of tears that stained her cheeks, or the grief that filled her voice. Tsunade stared down at her desk, not knowing how to take in this information from her apprentice in training.

"That was when Kabuto started laughing. A white hot blinding rage consumed me, and I snapped his neck."

Tsunade shot up out of her seat at this shocking bit of news. "Sakura, you killed Kabuto Yakushi!?" The Hokage was taken back by this. Sakura was by no means strong enough to kill Kabuto.

Sakura met her eyes bravely, squaring her shoulders and proud of what she'd done. "Yes," she replied. "I've had his body sent here for examination."

This was one of Konoha's biggest enemies because he was Orochimaru's right hand man. And Sakura Haruno had simply killed him? Just like that? Tsunade was baffled. Then again, he had been considerably weakened and rage was a powerful shinobi tool if used correctly.

"My report is over," Sakura simply stated, wiping her eyes with her hands. "We brought back my brother's body.."

"Sakura..." Tsunade's voice called out to her as she turned to leave.

She stopped as her hand twisted the door knob to leave. She turned back to face the Hokage, eyes flat and lacking that sparkle that she usually had. She looked as if she had nothing left inside. Tsunade asked her in a simple tone, feeling sorry for her, "Would you like me to teach you Medical Ninjutsu?"

After much thought, Sakura agreed that she wanted to learn it. If it could help her save the life of another, then she would do it and she would be dedicated. She would do it... for Light.

Edited on 10/4/2017.