Her Destiny

The Decision

Sakura walked through the gates of Konoha for possibly the last time, returning from Oto. She had a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it.

She had made the decision on the way back to the Village Hidden in the Leaves that she would take the offer. It was going to be hard to leave everyone, but after years of suffering in silence, having everyone look at her as the weak member of team seven, having people constantly shoving their opinion of her down her throat, being laughed at for thinking she could hold her own in a fight. She was done. She felt that Tsunade would understand, though Tsunade herself had never been considered weak.

Sakura's parents had died over a year ago while they were in Grass Country on vacation. Naruto had been avoiding her for months because of the whole Sasuke situation, somehow thinking that she would blame him for not bringing him back. Kakashi was being even more elusive than usual, no doubt back into the ANBU rotation. She and Ino had gotten into a fight not long after her parents had died, and they hadn't talked to each other since, no matter how much Sakura tried to. The people in her life were drifting away, not even believing her to be worth the time. Sakura just didn't see a point in staying around anymore if people weren't even going to check up on her. She could count the number of people that knew about her parents' deaths on one hand and still have a finger left over. Tsunade, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Neji. They had all just come back from a mission when Tsunade had told her. They took the time to check in on her every once in a while, more than she could say of her own team.

She loved Konoha, and she would do anything to keep the village safe, but it was no longer home to her, not since her parents had been killed. She had nothing holding her here. She needed a fresh start, and Orochimaru of all people, had just given her that opportunity. Of course, there would be a lot of work to be done, and it was going to be a lot of long nights and early mornings, but she was looking forward to the challenge.

She walked through the village, taking everything in, memorizing everything, while thinking of everything that needed to be done before she could leave. She wasn't going to leave without telling them in some way. She was probably going to leave a letter. It would be better to leave unnoticed. It wouldn't be that hard, considering how few people seemed to care.

She would need to clean out her apartment and terminate her lease. She would get some sealing scrolls to put the things she wanted to keep in. Then she would need to get supplies for the journey back to Oto. Without a summon it would be at least a three day journey. She had an Oto uniform to wear on the way there so that people knew that she was still part of a village. It wouldn't do for others to think that she'd gone rogue. She guessed that in a sense she was, but since she was immediately going to another village to be sworn in as the new Kage, she didn't see much point in being given rogue status.

As she walked, she didn't notice the various pairs of curious eyes noting her return, or the fact that she seemed to be happier than she had been in months. Little did she know that she wasn't the only one tired of the village, there were others too, and some had not failed to notice her sudden departure a couple days prior, only to return two days later.

When she reached her apartment, she let herself in. She felt strange, knowing that in a day or so, she would be gone, all trace of her erased from the apartment that she had lived in for years now.

She was in the middle of packing everything up when she heard a knock on her door. Who decided to come and see me? Not many people come over here, Sakura thought.

When she opened the door, and saw who was there, she smiled. Of course.

Neji, Hinata, and Shikamaru stood there, looking curiously at the various boxes scattered around the apartment.