The air was chilly against my exposed flesh. It wrapped its cold strands of silk around my arms trying to nip out all the warmth I had stored. Letting out an annoyed breath I looked towards the sky as a deep dread filled my soul.

The morning sun was yawning ignoring my presence as it spread its golden rays of light for us all to see. It has been five years since I had returned to the home that birthed me; the village hidden in the leafs.

It was a warm afternoon when the last day of my training with Tsunade came to pass. I can still recall the day so clearly. I remember the sun most of all, how warm and inviting it felt when it embraced me.

Tsunade was barking out orders with the faint smell of liquor lingering on her breath. She was carelessly tossing jutsu at me, that was all her training was.

An hour and a half of this repetitive session glazed by. I felt hot from the heat; my shirt clung to my skin sticky with sweat, but I knew I did not have to wait long. Once the bottle of rum in her hand was low, she would stop for the day so she could get to the store in time before they closed to restock. I was so close to being let out of my training with Tsunade then I would be able to run off and find my shinobi team who consisted of Naruto, Kakashi and sometimes Sai.

It was not until a rogue group of shinobi snuck into the leaf village and tried to strike down my mentor, was the event which permanently ended my training with Tsunade as well as ending my life inside the leaf village as I knew it...

The shinobi were so strong, too strong for me to handle on my own and with Tsunade drunk from her day drinking we stood no chance for survival. I remember lying on my back, the dirt felt gritty against my skin. I had deep desperate breaths being pulled quickly into my lungs due to the deep gash on my side leaking out blood. All I could do in that moment was watch as they beat Tsunade, she fell from her knees onto the burnt grass unmoving.

When I thought back to this moment in my life, I can still feel that pressure freely swirling around inside my chest. It felt so tight, like my rib cage was constantly being pumped with dry scorched air and I praying to burnt open.

Then the heat ignited.

God it was so hot.

It was like my skin was sizzling against my own bones, scorching the muscle and organs inside my body. The last thing I remember before blacking out was the sensation I was raising to my feet. I thought this feeling was just a mixture of hallucinations and dehydration because I was not that person, I was not the hero that rose against struggle and tipped the scales between good and evil.

I am not strong enough to raise after being knocked down.

My next memory was of Tsunade, she hovered over my face and she appeared to be screaming at me but her words were like bubbles, floating away as I gaze above me at the puffy white clouds in the sky as darkness reached out ripping me back down into its pool of sleep. I remember Tsunade's facial features from that day so clearly because I had never seen her look so petrified before then.

When I woke and found Tsunade, she explained to me that I had forced the strength of one hundred seals to appear on my forehead which was how I rose to my feet, it was how I took down those rogue shinobi and saved Tsunade's life. My mark was different from hers; it was blue while hers was purple. Tsunade's mark remained on her forehead while mine vanished when not in use.

Tsunade said this could be because I forced my seal and did not truly earn it. The next day went as it normally as it could, I did my rounds at the leaf village hospital. I ate lunch alone since my team was too busy and then met up with Tsunade at the training grounds. She had her favorite bottle of rum in her hand, some things will never change. She told me to get ready and then summoned a wave of fire, little to my knowledge I could not control the forced strength of my new seal and in return I destroyed the training grounds with one wave of my hand.

I didn't feel pride like Naruto would have, I foolishly felt fear as I spun around looking for Tsunade. She was staring at me with wide eyes as her half empty bottle of rum slid from her fingers and shattered on the ground. That had to be some cheap glass to shatter on a patch of dirt. As I displayed my newfound strength, it was like I turned on a faucet that I could not shut off.

There was a hungry sensation that built up pressure, it wanted to explode from inside my rib cage. I felt an urge pounding against my skull, my body wanted to go against my command and involuntary release damage on the nearby surroundings. I explained this to Tsunade, because I was her scared student and she was my sensei, she was supposed to protect me no matter how scary I seemed. Tsunade backed away from me as I approached her, her hands were raised keeping me feet away from her as if I held an infectious disease.

Tsunade told me she would go quickly do some research on what to do, and that I was to stay inside the training grounds. I watched her flee, leaving me alone with swirling questions scratching from within my skull. I thought she was leaving me alone to protect the other people of the village. I didn't want to be walking through the village, flick my finger as a wave of damage bloomed in its path. So, I stayed put and leaned against a tree hugging my knees for hours, waiting.

As the sun fell asleep and night bloomed across the sky my stomach rumbled. I picked myself up, believing it would be safe enough for me to enter town because most of the town's folk should be inside their homes by now. I walked through the streets as that summer night grew stiff and cold.

I didn't feel like this place was my home, I felt like a stranger walking through the sidewalks I grew up on. I spotted Kakashi and Naruto, they were sitting at the red bar in Ichiraku Ramen. I felt the last smile I would ever have while inside the leaf village bloom onto my lips as tears flourished in my eyes. I picked up my speed to reach them, as if they were my lantern in this darkness.

"Naruto!" I called out, "Kakashi-Sensei!" The two slightly turned their heads to see who was calling out their names.

"Sakura!" Naruto smiled. "Where have you been all day?" Naruto wondered.

"Well I kind of need to talk to you about-"

"Hey!" Naruto bounced on his stool. "Guess what!?"

"Uh...What?" I flashed a fake smile.

"Kakashi and I were training, and he said that I-"

"You guys were training without me?" I felt a tingle in my heart.

"Well-Well you were with Tsunade and so..." Naruto babbled on about what he and Kakashi trained on today.

They did this a lot, trained without me or 'forget' to invite me to their sessions. Kakashi has never given me a private lesson, it was almost as if he believed I was a waste of his time. Naruto was his golden student and I was just...I looked away from them as Naruto went on talking. What was I to them?

"Listen-" I said, cutting Naruto off. "Yesterday I-"

"Jezz Sakura." Naruto muttered taking a bite of his ramen.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Just cut me off...I wasn't done talking." Naruto explained further. I looked away from Naruto and towards Kakashi, waiting for him to defend the fact Naruto cut me off first.

"Sakura!" I jumped at the angry voice that sparked from behind us. I slowly turned, praying to not see her image but I knew her voice better than I knew my own. Tsunade stood behind me, her arms on her hips looking displeased.

"Ooo." Naruto mocked. "Someone is in trouble." He sang. I shot a glare; you would never know this kid just turned seventeen with how he acted sometimes. "You were supposed to wait for me, Sakura." Tsunade's voice was forced, I studied her posture trying to read her, but I couldn't read people like Kakashi could.

"I-I" I heard my voice and my brain was making words for me to use but nothing came out. It was like the words were getting scrambled together in a jumbled mess inside my throat.

"Come Sakura." Tsunade said, raising a handout gesturing me to follow her. I looked back at Kakashi, I wanted to talk to him- "Now." Tsunade added.

I swallowed the lump of failed words in my throat turning from my team, leaving the warmth of Ramen Ichiraku I followed Tsunade without question, like I had been taught to do. I glanced back, seeing Naruto and Kakashi had turned back to their meals and conversations as if I had never interrupted.

Was that all I was to them?

As I followed Tsunade, I noticed she never made eye contact with me. Her research must not have been good for her to be acting this way, I prepared for longer training hours and maybe not being around other people for a while. I followed Tsunade to the front gates of the leaf village, there I saw four masked black ops waiting.

I turned to Tsunade with my eyebrows pulled together reflecting my confusion onto my face.

"Sakura-" Once again, Tsunade would not look at me. "-you have to leave."

"What-?" I pulled my eyes off my parents and onto Tsunade who still wouldn't look in my direction. "-leave?"

"Yes." She confirmed.

"Where? Like on a mission?" I wondered, was this my first solo mission!?

"No, Sakura you are no longer apart of the Leaf Village." Tsunade corrected my thoughts.

"H-How can-can you-"

"You are a danger to the Leaf Village and its people!" Tsunade snapped. "You are hereby banished from this village!"

The leaf village was my home. My family, friends and entire life was rooted within these walls, I didn't want to leave. To end the pointless bickering Tsuande threatened the safety of my parents, she claimed they would be thrown into the leafs jail if I did not leave. I was shoved a messy bag that my father had been forced to pack.

I turned to the cracked open gates of my village, I gazed through into the circulating darkness, she dared me to step into her as she bared her teeth at me, I knew she would swallow me whole.

I begged Tsunade to change her mind, I had nowhere to go, my heart was pounding so hard my chest was beginning to hurt. I had no ties with any other village, no family outside of these walls to run to for help.

Tsunade did not give me the courtesy of set up any living arrangements for me, she truly did not want me to stand for the leaf village in any way. She was ready to throw me to the wolves and not look back. Tsunade simply wanted to wash away the problem, even if that meant banishing her sixteen-year-old student.

With one last look over my shoulder, still begging Tsunade with my wide terror filled eyes. I took my first step out of the village and onto an unknown path that lacked light to search out a place I could live and not end up hurting innocent people.

My future never looked so dark