Rage.

It was all Sakura felt as it bubbled inside of her causing her to feel like her lungs were on fire. All consuming, all encompassing, her rage wrapped around like a blanket made from lava.

She had never run this fast, never with such despiration, such conviction. If she ran fast enough she hoped she could make it in time. That maybe her rage was enough to push her forward, to propel her further and faster than she had ever gone.

Sakura's chakra hummed around her, slicing the wind as she ran past the blurred forest. She could see it, the village gates just beyond the forest clearing. It almost made her smiled, she almost felt the rush of nostalgia hit her as she saw her village appear between the foliage before her eyes.

Sakura had almost let herself pretend that she was on her way home, but the ANBU guards were waiting for her at the gates and her joy vanished as quickly as it had formed. Whatever she once felt for the village disappeared as her rage reemerged.

Years she had been gone from her village, and years she had trained so that they couldn't take away what was hers again. But she could see it in the way the guards stood before her, like she was the same young girl that had snuck out in the middle of the night all those years back. The same little girl they could restrain with little effort. The same little girl they robbed of a future. But Sakura wasn't that same little girl anymore.

Sakura skidded to a halt in front of the guards as the shinobi before her all fell into a defensive position.

Konoha would one day learn of the woman she had become in spite of them, the woman she trained herself to become but today time was not on her side. Time did not permit her to show them who she now was.

Sakura moved, making plans as she went. She knew ANBU shinobi where fast.

But she was faster.

Sakura pushed her chakra to her feet propelling her forward past the guards and over the gates. If they thought that they could force her into a long drawn out battle they were wrong.

Her plan was simple.

Get in and out.

Get Tsunade and leave the village for good.

There would be no turning back this time. No sleepless nights wondering if she made the right decision in leaving. If she had given Konoha a chance to change.

But going after Tsunade was an obvious declaration of war between herself and her former village.

Sakura moved as fast her she could, her chakra aiding her speed to create distance between her and her pursuers.

Move Sakura she screamed at herself, move or you will lose her too.

Just the thought of losing Tsunade was enough to push her past every limit she had ever set for herself. She would leave this village with Tsunade, but if she didn't make it in time she had no plans on leaving Konoha alive. Her power would make them feel her pain. She would destroy them as they had destroyed her.

As the Hokage's tower came into view Sakura was filled with a new resolve. She didn't think she would make it this far with speed alone. She thought she would have been captured, gagged, and on her way to a torture cell. Either Konoha's strength had fallen, or her's had grown. She chose to believe it was the latter.

Sakura was so close she would be within the Hokages tower in seconds. She just need to push a little bit -

"SAKURA" Naruto yelled landing in front of her. "Sakura stopped, you don't have to do this" he said panting between breaths, "we can figure something else out".

Naruto. Her thoughts rang out. Her Naruto was standing in front of her yelling at her to stop. She could see that he was pleading with her but she couldn't hear him, her heart and mind were racing a mile a minute. Like a ghost she never thought she would see again her knees almost buckled from the weight of looking at him and having him within arms reach.

"Sakura" he took a tentative step forward when he saw that she had stopped. The years had changed the girl he once knew into the women that stood before him. She looked so similar to his Sakura-chan but her eyes told the story of all that she had been forced to endure.

This wasn't his Sakura. And by the way she was looking at him.

He was no longer her Naruto.

"Naruto move" she said between clenched teeth. "I don't want to hurt you".

"You could never hurt me Sakura-chan", he said looking at her with a sad smile, "even if you wanted to".

Naruto looked at her, his eyes sad when he saw all that she had become. She would always be his childhood Sakura-chan, even if she didn't see herself as that person anymore.

You don't have time for this, her thoughts scream. Naruto is in front of you, alive. But he is not on your side. He will never be on your side.

The site of Nartuo had made her determination slip, but she was right. Neither time nor Naruto were on her side. Her mission would remain the same.

Get in.

Get out.

And never look back.

But she knew Naruto like she knew herself and he would not let her get by without a fight and she had already wasted precious seconds standing there with him. She needed to move. She needed a way out. Just behind him stood the Hokage's tower and where she would find Tsunade. She just had to move.

All of a sudden a body flew from the air and skidded to a stop at her feet before her mind had a chance to process what had happened.

"There is the bitch you were looking for" Saskue said jumping out from the window of the Hokage's tower. The window he had just thrown Tsunade's body from.

He landed a few feet from Sakura looking at her with the same blank stare he had always had.

"The village will be a safer place without that -", Sakura moved before he had a chance to finish his sentence. Even with his Sharingan a he didn't see her move.

Her hand wrapped around his face smashing him into the ground with as much force as she could muster. She felt it in her hands, the way his skull crushed against her chakra.

Dead or not. Saskue would not cause her trouble today.

Sakura didn't have to look back at Tsunade's body to know that she was dead. If whatever torture that had happened to her in the tower had not killed her, then Saskue throwing her out of the window surely would have.

Sakura tried to breath, tried to stay calm as her mind ran through all the possible scenarios but her grief wouldn't let her mind focus. Her grief cut deeper then her rage ever could. She was late. She gave Naruto her last few seconds to save Tsunade. She let Sasuke kill the last thing that ever meant anything to her.

That's it, she thought. Her resolve hardening. Today Konoha burns.

Her chakra exploded around her encasing her like a protective layer as kunais ricocheted off her body. ANBU was in behind her poised to bring her down and Naruto stood in front of her shaking from the shock of Saskue's broken body on the ground.

With one deep breath she pushed the swirling chakra around her to the soles of her feet making her movements fast as she flew fist forward towards the tower.

"SAKURA" her could her Naruto voice boom as she flew past him, his Kyuubi chakra leaking into the air fueled by his wrath. But the Kyuubi was of little concerned to her as she unleashed the chakra she had gathered in her fist against the tower. With one hit the tower didn't even crumble beneath her power.

It evaporated.

Tiny pieces of the tower soured through the air showering the shinobi in deberi. Sakura had leveled the largest building in the village with one blow and she turned her eyes to the few members of the council that had escaped the blast.

Three.

Only three council members stood near the rubble, their eyes terrified at the site of what they had just witnessed.

In seconds, two of them were dead by her chakra scalpels and the only one that remained was Danzo looking at her like he had seen death for the first time in his life. He was right.

Today Sakura Haruno was the embodiment of death for him and Konoha.

Danzo was surrounded by his Roots agents in seconds as Sakura crouched down to ready her attack.

Sakura knew she would not make it out of this alive, it was her against an entire shinobi village. But no matter the odds Sakura was going to make sure that Danzo died with her.

Tsunade's blood was on many hands but none more so then Danzo, and for that his death would be excruciating.

Her chakra flared around her causing the debris to lift by the sheer force she expelled. Behind her she could feel the the heat of Naruto chakra as he readied to take her head for the death of his friend, but she knew Danzo would be dead before Naruto could ever get to her.

A calmed settled over her as she prepared for her final battle, she would both win and lose but soon she would be with Tsunade.

Sakura stood up straight as her hand began to fly through an intricate jutsu before she heard it.

A shallow intake of breath.

Tsunade was breathing.