Sakura: 1 ; ANBU: 0

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Sakura spent the rest of the night tittering on the edge of consciousness. Every time she closed her eyes her mind would come up with the most twisted nightmares. The sentence for treason was death, but only after a healthy (Ha!) dose of torture.

Laying in her bed, she couldn't help question herself. What was treason? Or loyalty for that matter?
From the moment she stepped into the Academy they hadn't stopped repeating that they had to be loyal at all costs. That they had to obey the Hokage, that his (or her, now) word was law. That they were always right. Propaganda and indoctrination, her brain catalogued nearly on it's own.
It made sense, in a weird, twisted, kind of way. They lived in a military dictatorship for kami's sake, they trained children to kill and slaughter and feel no remorse. What was a little brainwashing here and there?

Little, innocent, civilian Sakura didn't question orders, even if they seemed absurd. It was just the way things were, she assumed. Who was she to doubt her leader, someone with far more experience and strength than her?
So she had obeyed, she had followed through with an A-rank mission because it was the right thing to do. She had fought in a game-war, put her life on the line for political, bullshit, reasons, and had done so without a second thought.

Fighting for the village was great on paper, but in reality? What was there to fight for, really?People whom she didn't know and didn't care for. Strangers that paid her to die in glorious battles.

Ninja scoffed at the mention of samurai and their bushido; honour had no place in the life of a ninja, only duty mattered.
As if there really was a difference between dying for a master you had sworn allegiance to, and dying for a master that paid you. The endgame was the same: you were dead.

The Will of Fire was another great joke, Sakura thought blithely, everyone praised it like something sacred but the instant you asked for clarifications, for what it was... Well no one knew.

Konoha the nice village indeed. Just better at justifying murder is what.

Thinking of murder led her trail of thought back to her unfortunate meeting with Sasuke. She had buried it in the back of her mind, scared of loosing herself and blurting something out during the interrogation. At least compartmentalization came in handy.

A coup, he had said. And the more she turned that idea around in her head, the more she found it plausible. Hell, here she was, Haruno Sakura, genin, having treasonous thoughts; how could she blame a noble clan of planning a (supposed) coup after years of scorning by their peers?
It even matched Nanami's ominous warnings and the meager information she had acquired during her so-called investigation.

Sighing, Sakura pushed a stray strand of hair away from her face and proceeded to put all the facts back in chronological order.

1-The Uchiha clan founded Konoha along with the Senju. Common knowledge.
2-There had been two Senju Hokages and no Uchiha. Unsurprising, as the co-founder had gone on a murder spree.
3-The Uchiha were hated. Again, common knowledge, but nevertheless more surprising. There weren't any worthwhile reasons, at least to her knowledge. Although, Sakura could admit, emotions were rarely logical.
4-The Uchiha planned a coup. Normal, somewhat expected even, response to their treatment over the years.
5-They were killed.

Like Sasuke surely did, it was easy to assume that the Hokage had gotten wind of their preparations and decided to cut the revolution at the bud and slaughter them all. It was, however, a huge leap of logic, and one Sakura didn't feel quite comfortable with.
She knew that she lacked information. Badly.
Knew of the consequences of fighting rashly, without all the cards in her hands.

Rushing ahead had always been her teammate's trademarks, not hers.

Her brains were her biggest asset and she wasn't going to forgo them in favor of storming in blindly.

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