Green eyes assessed the room, studying its contents carefully, trying to make everything look the way it was supposed to: neat, orderly, with dirty laundry still in the basket in the corner of the room.

Her focus remained on her windows for a few longs seconds, staring at the curtains that she kept tightly shut. She knew that at one point over the past hour, an ANBU had passed by, carefully studying the houses, perhaps peeing into the windows, to make sure that everything was the way it should be.

Of course, if it had been a Hyuuga, she would've been found out already; her suspicious behavior certainly would've caused alarm and Hokage-sama would've been alerted right away.

But she had to make sure that nothing looked out of place. So when she left her bedroom, her normal clothes on and her old, worn, backpack thrown over her shoulder, she knew it looked like she was simply going into the hospital for a late shift.

That's what she'd told her parents at least.

Her stomach churned when she thought of them. Their last conversation that had taken place at dinner that very night could very well be the last time she ever spoke with either of them. Now, they lay sleeping in their bed in the room across from hers.

She would've never been able to tell them anything, or to even hint to them that something was awry or that she'd be going somewhere. If she'd wanted them to live, they'd have to remain entirely oblivious and ignorant to what she was planning.

She didn't want anyone else she loved killed.

Walking down the streets of Konoha, she quickly—but not fast enough to arise suspicion—made a bee-line for the main gates. Praying silently, luck finally came through for her when she didn't see a single familiar face the entire walk. With the gates in clear view, she knew it would only be a matter of minutes before she was out of the village and running far, far away.

Stopping before the front gates she politely smiled to the ninja sitting behind the desk off beside the road. He had a vaguely recognizable face; she could remember he was somewhat new, older than her by possibly ten years, and his sandy blonde hair and blue eyes almost reminded her of Naruto. For the life of her Sakura couldn't remember his name, but she greeted him politely anyways before approaching and informing him that she'd be back by sunrise—right after she knew his shift ended and someone else would take his place—and that she was just going to the gardens Konoha had that were located several miles east of the village, to retrieve some herbs.

He smiled right back at her, showing off the gap where a front tooth was clearly missing, before nodding and waving her off, after jotting a few notes down on a clipboard.

Yet before she could even turn away from him, breaking eye contact, she felt a presence immediately to her left. From the look on the ninja's face in front of her, she knew it was an ANBU. Her stomach churned once more as she recognized the look on the man's face as panic; fear.

"Pass please." The ANBU ordered in a stern, almost-nasally voice. Sakura frowned as the strange voice fell on her ears; of course she wouldn't recognize his voice. She'd never been in contact with a majority of any of the root agents, with the obvious exception of Sai and the ANBU that now kept guard at the front of the hospital during the day time.

With compliance, she turned and handed the guard her perfectly-formulated excuse in the form of a small, yellow slip of paper.

"I'm going to the hospital's gardens. The ones east of the village. I should be back soon, I need to pick up herbs for my medical salves." She tapped her foot impatiently. "I have patients waiting that could have used some of this stuff days ago," she did nothing to hide the annoyance in her voice, implying that it was due to the new, near-constant ANBU patrol and their need to stop and check-in with the ninja that roamed the village. 'For security purposes', they would also say, but Sakura knew better than that.

Hokage-sama didn't trust a single ninja who had worked under the Godaime.

Sakura knew this wasn't a random stop though; with her proximity to Tsunade, it made her a prime candidate to being tailed nearly day in and day out.

"It's past curfew," the ANBU informed her, handing her back the slip of paper.

Sakura rolled her eyes clearly, knowing that he'd see, and pocketed the pass. "Hence why I have special permission to leave the village," she said it clearly, as if an idiot could've figured that out. "The hospital never closes, and my shifts never really end. That's what happens when you're a medic. Now," she made a move to step around him, "if you'll excuse me…"

But as he blocked her path again, she halted, looking up at the mouse mask he hid his face with and managing a half-hearted glare.

He didn't say anything, he simply studied her, eyeing her up and down and even leaning towards her, only to loom over her for a few long seconds as he appeared to study the top of her head.

"Are you done?"

The man remained silent but eventually it was clear that his urge to end their exchange overpowered his need to stay and question her further. Instead of stepping aside, he became a blur as he launched himself upward and into the trees, disappearing into the night.

Sakura didn't even look back toward the ninja at the desk before she briskly walked away, through the gates, and away from the village.

As soon as the gates were out of sight, she began to run. And as she picked up speed she worked hard to keep her emotions—and ultimately her chakra signature—in check and under control. The last thing she needed was for an ANBU to leave the village and chase her down due to something as suspicious as that.

And when she was absolutely certain that she wasn't being tailed, she paused, turned West, and took off, sprinting through the trees as fast as her legs could carry her.

Minutes turned to hours, and hours brought her the sunrise, the heat of the late summer, and determination for her to travel farther, faster, and to get out of Fire Country as quickly as possible. As noontime approached, her mind betrayed her and she found herself thinking back to her friends, who were undoubtedly awake now and beginning to realize that something wasn't right.

The ANBU certainly knew at this point that she wasn't coming back; had they dispatched teams to track her down yet? She couldn't know for sure. Possibly. And that fact only made her run faster, and push her body farther.

She'd sooner lie down in the dirt and die before she let them catch up to her and bring her back to Konoha.

With the goodbyes she'd never gotten to say still on her tongue, itching to be spoken, Sakura found herself blinking back tears as she bit her cheek, trying so hard not to think about her friends, her family, and her teammates that would soon find out what she did.

The only solace she found was that thankfully, they did not know what she was planning on doing. Keeping them all ignorant and completely blind to her plan; meaning they were safe from the Hokage's harm.

Or at least she hoped.

Letting out a frustrated cry, Sakura allowed herself to have a moment of weakness; she could only afford one. Releasing the tears she'd been keeping at bay for the past several minutes, she let the tears fly behind her where they would ultimately lay forgotten in the dense forests of Fire Country.

It had to be done, she knew. And she had to be the one to do it, or else the life as she knew it would never exist for her again.

Wiping sweat from her brow, she reached around and grabbed her canteen from her pack, flipping the top open and taking a swig of the cool water, before placing it back and continuing on.

Her forehead felt painfully bare as beads of sweat trickled down her face, attempting to cool off her body in the summer heat. But it wasn't something she could dwell on too much. After all, it wasn't as if she could've taken her headband with her, no matter how much it meant to her. No matter how much she loved her village.

By now, Naruto had certainly found it, carefully wrapped and placed at his doorstep.

He could hold onto it for when she returned, just like he was doing with Sasuke's.

Sakura then found herself, not for the first time since she'd left late the night before, thinking of her old teammate, friend, and the boy she fell in love with those years ago.

Although it was months ago, it seemed like just yesterday when they found him, Naruto, Sai, Captain Yamato and herself, camping out in one of Orochimaru's many hideouts. His voice still chilled her to the bone, as he spoke of sparring Naruto's life on a whim and severing the bonds he held with them.

And even so, she felt herself yearning, aching for him to come home so that the hole in her chest that his departure had left could begin to slowly heal. Now, it was still empty, filled with nothing but the sound of his goodbye to her—"Sakura, thank you,"—echoing through.

The pain she felt in her heart was something she was used to experiencing, but that fact didn't make it any easier to bear.

As she stopped by a river, only long enough to fill her canteen, and submerge her head completely, effectively cooling her off, she wondered where he was at that very moment, and if he ever—even if rarely—thought about her in passing.

She hoped so, but didn't hold her breath.

She quite literally stumbled across her first checkpoint late that night.

For over 24-hours straight, she'd ran across the entire west side of Fire Country, crossing the border into Wind Country before sunset and beginning her trek upward toward Earth Country immediately after.

A part of her had wanted to first travel to Suna before going anywhere else. The urge to seek out the aide of Gaara and the Hidden Sand was overwhelming, but she forced herself to resist.

After all, knowing the way Hokage-sama operated, he was likely to contact Sunagakure to tell them to keep an eye open for her. And she knew that the way tensions had been running high throughout the Five Great Nations recently—courtesy of the Akatsuki—hiding her from her home village, while struggling to keep relations from getting messy, would be at the bottom of their list of priorities.

So her plan was to lay low for the first month, stay under the radar, and when word of her leaving the village would pass by like old news, she would travel to Suna. In the meantime, she had to seek out allies; as many noteworthy and trustworthy people as she could scavenge up who knew of the current Hokage's past.

It wasn't an easy plan, and she only had two names—meaning two set stops—in her mental list prepared.

But before she could put any aspect of her plan into action, she needed to find a place to wait for the storm to fade away.

And with the moon in the sky, Sakura travelled over the border of Earth Country and with her cloak on, and hood up, she walked into the tiny village that rested in a valley between two cliffs.

The village was eerily quiet, and as she approached, she found herself on high alert, wondering where any of the people were; for a moment she found herself afraid. Pulling her hood tighter over her head, she worried that she was breaking some unknown rule by walking their streets alone at night, with no other hint of life in sight.

It took her several minutes to find the lone inn of the village and when she did, she was pleasantly surprised to find its door unlocked. Stepping inside, she had to squint her eyes to adjust to the thick darkness of the room. Eyeing a lit candle by what she assumed was the front desk, she approached slowly, hand hovering over her weapons couch.

She almost jumped when an old man stood up in the corner behind the desk, looking at her with stern, beady eyes, and holding a crooked, bony finger up against his grimacing lips.

He was very tall, towering over the counter which was, to her, chest-high. She would've been intimidated if perhaps he were ten, or even twenty, years younger; and maybe if he were a ninja.

"You're a dumb girl," his voice was shockingly deep, rattling her to her core after a long day on the road, "for being out this late tonight."

"I'm sorry," she licked her lips, feeling that they had grown extremely dry over the course of the day, "I'm not from here, I just need a place to stay for a little while."

"Clearly," he eyed her up and down, "how long?"

"Four days," she said, sliding money across the counter, "maybe more. But no less." A part of her wanted to ask him why. Why was it so bad that she was out that night in particular? Was it some sort of custom she was going against, or a law that she was breaking by walking the streets? But when he handed her a room key and mumbled the location of her room to her, she was too eager to lie down in bed to inquire any further.

She found her room with quick, yet lethargic feet, closing and locking the door softly behind her before she walked over to the bed. She didn't bother changing out of her clothes, nor did she take off her weapons pouch or even her boots.

She was well aware of the fact that if ANBU were to track her down and attack her, it would happen most likely within the first 72 hours of her disappearance. After that, the odds decreased dramatically with each passing day.

She'd been gone for over a day now, so all she had to do was sit on standby for another 48 hours while the ANBU ran around, searching for her.

It made her anxious to just lay still on a bed unfamiliar to her, but she knew that this village was a good choice; it was entirely out of the way of any of the Five Great Nations, and the only thing she knew about it was that it was prone to intense flooding during the beginning of the year. Of course since they were in the second half of the year, it wouldn't do either party any good, but Sakura had done well to make sure she was aware of the geological significance of the small town.

Anything to lessen the odds of ANBU searching the village, the better.

She was surprised when she had to just about force her eyes to close. She was exhausted from her non-stop travelling and had assumed that she'd be asleep within minutes of arriving and lying in a bed. But there were too many voices rattling around in her head, and too many faces she had left behind, reappearing before sleep only to haunt her.

Forcing the memories back, Sakura fell into a comfort-less sleep, bits and pieces of memories melding together with old nightmares to ensure that her rest would be difficult to achieve.

The sound of harsh winds rattling her window is what caused her to jump awake the following morning.

Kunai in her hand and wide eyes starring with panic toward the old, rickety window, Sakura urged her breathing to calm and her hands to stop shaking. It didn't help that she'd been woken directly out of a nightmare where she was running and fighting for her life from the ANBU that were certainly looking for her in some corner of the world right then.

As the window rattled again, she lowered her weapon and sighed, wiping away the nervous sweat from her forehead that she'd accumulated in her sleep. She was on high alert, and she didn't think her anxiety had ever been this bad before.

Even when the village had been attacked, she'd been high on adrenaline. But her adrenaline was starting to run out, and she found herself growing antsy and anxious more and more with each passing hour.

The reality of what she'd done was finally beginning to seep into her mind, and her fear began to set in.

What would her parents think? She was sure that by now they'd been brought in for questioning, and her house had most likely been thoroughly searched. They wouldn't find anything; no hints as to where she was, what had prompted her to leave, or what she was planning. They would find a relatively clean house and a somewhat tidy teenage girl's bedroom.

They'd probably already finished questioning them. Even if they'd had someone from the Yamanaka clan search through their minds, they'd still come up empty handed, knowing nothing more than before.

Her friends though…

She'd worked hard to keep them from her thoughts, and as images of Naruto, Ino, and even Kakashi-sensei flashed through her mind, she found herself standing up out of bed, humming along to some random tune, trying to drown out the thoughts.

Nothing that they said or did would have been able to keep her in the village. And even if they found her, perhaps waiting for ANBU to return to receive permission to look for her, they'd need to bring her back by force.

There was no way in hell she could return to her village and live peacefully under Danzo's reign. There was no way her conscience would allow it.

He'd murdered Tsunade, and Sakura was going to prove it, whether she had help or not.

A/N: Welcome to my next project. Another lengthy SasuSaku fanfic. I've had this idea swimming around in my head for years now and have been putting off writing it ever since I joined the fandom, so I'm very excited to finally share it with you. It diverges from the main plot after the Pein arc, so it is an AU in a way.

Expect regular updates every two weeks.

And please review.