Prologue

Sakura's p.o.v:

I sat in my car outside of the hospital and sobbed into my hands. It had been three months. Three months since my marriage had broken down. Three months since my husband had walked out of my life and I had just found out that I was losing my house.

My phone was buzzing in the passenger seat, distracting me. Dragging my hands over my face, I composed myself before answering the call.

"Hello," my voice was shaky.

"Sakura are you alright?" My Aunt Tsunade asked. "I heard about the divorce."

"Yeah," I rubbed my forehead, feeling a headache beginning to blossom. I still didn't know what to say when people asked me about it. There was silence on her end of the line and I felt compelled to fill it. "He got the house."

"What!?"

"Well, he bought it," I sighed. As it turns out, being twenty-three and divorcing a man twice your age wasn't as easy as you might think. I felt the tears coming again. I was sat in my car with nowhere to go. Try as I might, I couldn't keep myself together. "I've lost everything," I sobbed.

"Oh, Sakura," my aunt consoled. "You know you're always welcome to come home."

I paused. Everything I had built over the last few years had been built with the intention of making sure I never had to go home. I had moved to a city hundreds of miles away to escape my childhood home. Not that I had an unpleasant childhood, I had just been an unhappy child. An ungrateful child, according to my parents.

"Thanks," I replied, but my voice was hollow. "I…I have to go. I have work. I'll call you after my shift."

"Sure," Tsunade sighed. I hung up the phone.

I threw my phone back onto the passenger seat, collapsing back into my seat. After several more minutes, I gathered my things and headed into work. Thankfully the hospital was so busy I barely had time to think about my own problems. By the end of my shift, I was so tired that I barely had the energy to cry anymore.

The prospect of spending the night in my car was hardly appealing, but I couldn't go home. I didn't want to see my husband, knowing that as soon as the papers we signed he wouldn't be my husband any more. Despite everything that had happened I couldn't bring myself to hate him.

I had got married in college to one of my professors, a move which caused quite the scandal at the time. I had been young and naïve, wanting a house and a husband with a steady job. I never stopped to think about him being unfaithful. Perhaps I had ignored a lot of the signs. From the very beginning, he had been secretive, staying out late and lying about where he was going. We had spent almost no time together between my work and his extra-curricular activities.

Determined not to cry again, I buckled my seatbelt and started the engine. I drove around the city for a while, my eyes burning from tiredness and tears. The sky was as dark as it had been when I'd started my twelve-hour shift at the hospital and the city was lit just as brightly. For a moment I felt my eyes close, the sound of a passing car horn jolted me awake.

I pulled my car into the nearest layby and threw up.

Sitting on the grass verge by the side of the road I stared at the passing traffic. I watched as countless pairs of headlights passed me by, each one searing their blinding light into the back of my eyes. I was tired, hungry, and cold but I had nowhere else to go. I sat there for a long time until my hands started to turn blue from the cold and my teeth started to chatter violently in my skull.

Getting back in my car, I huddled in the backseat. I pulled an old sweatshirt I kept in there over me and shut my eyes, hoping distantly that I wouldn't wake up.

Of course, I did wake up.

The blue and red lights of a police car and an officer banging on the car window woke me an hour after I had fallen asleep. Groggy, I opened the door. Sitting on the edge of the back seat I asked him what the problem was.

"Have you been drinking?" The officer asked as he leaned against the side of the door.

"No," I sighed, rubbing my eyes tiredly, not quite awake enough to understand what he was insinuating.

"We got a call about a female driving erratically and vomiting on the side of the road," the officer explained, taking out his note book. "You fit the description perfectly."

"I haven't been drinking," I insisted, though I knew it had been me who had been reported. Despite my sincerity, it was clear that the officer didn't believe me. He sighed and took a step back, asking me to get out of the car.

Not wanting to cause a scene I obliged. The night had gotten even colder and I shivered, wishing I had thought to pick up my coat when I had changed at work. After performing and passing the usual roadside inebriation tests, I was still subjected to a breathalyser much to my chagrin.

"Ok, it's coming back fine," the officer reassured and I tried not to roll my eyes.

"So, can I get back to sleep now?" I asked grumpily. Cars were slowing down as they passed, strangers gawping out the windows trying to see what was going on. I tried my hardest to ignore them. I knew that it was only a matter of time before someone I knew or worse, someone my husband knew, drove past and I would never hear the end of it regardless of my innocence.

"Do you not have a home to go to?" the officer asked, jotting down some notes.

"No," I replied stiffly. I didn't want to cry in front of a total stranger, I still had my pride.

"No relatives or?" he prompted.

"Do you really think I would be sleeping in my car if I didn't have to be?" I snapped, letting my emotions get the better of me.

"There's no need to shout, ma'am," the officer said firmly. "It's not safe to sleep in your car on the side of a busy road like this. You'll need to move along."

"Fine," I huffed, folding my arms over my chest. "Am I free to leave now?"

With in minutes I was back in my car, driving further down the road. I passed several hotels as I drove, but when I thought about the meagre amount of funds in my bank account, I kept driving. Before I knew what I was doing, I was heading out of the city.

I drove to the only place I knew. Home.

It took hours, but as the day was breaking, Konoha came into view.

It had been years since I had set foot in the town. The day I left for college, to be exact. Konoha had changed a lot in five years. I noticed things as I drove through the city that, though they had probably been there several years, were completely alien to me. It wasn't a big place; the city was really more of a large town. So, it wasn't difficult for me to find my way to my childhood home. I parked outside and waited. It was 5 am, and the street was empty. The quiet suburb which I had been raised in was still a few hours from springing to life. Now that I was there, I had the sudden urge to turn around and drive back again. I turned off the engine, shoving the keys into my pocket and continued to sit I the front seat - working up the courage to knock on the door. It took some time, but I finally got out of the car.

My legs were stiff and wobbly after driving through the night and my eyes felt gritty and sore. The damp morning air hit me as soon as I stepped out of the car, the warmth of the sunlight barely breaking through the clouds. I walked across the front yard, droplets of dew clinging to my trousers, and stood by the front door.

It took a moment before I knocked.

There was no answer when I knocked the first time, or the second, or the third. I was about to give up when the door opened and a tired looking woman with dishevelled blonde hair took in the sight of me.

"Sakura?" my aunt asked, confused.

"Hi," I smiled tightly.

"Sakura," she repeated, beginning to wake up now. "Sakura! What are you doing here?"

Before I had the chance to answer, she was pulling me through the front door. I was practically dragged through the house and into the kitchen, still without the chance to explain myself.

My aunt Tsunade had lived in my parent's house since they had died, two years ago. I hadn't gone to the funeral, not that anyone was generally surprised. My parent's and I had always had a strained relationship and it had only worsened towards the end. When I had found out about their car accident they had already been dead for a month. No one had thought to call me, and when they did Tsunade had cleaned up all the mess. I was grateful for her help - she had always been there for me. She was a kindred spirit and a constant supporter of my decisions, no matter how drastic they might be.

It felt strange to be back in my childhood home. It didn't bring me the sense of comfort I had hoped it would. Though the décor had changed since I had lived here, my memories of the place were still the same.

I sat down at the kitchen table as my aunt busied herself making coffee all the while she was muttering to herself in surprise. When she finally set the tray down in front of me, her face was no less shocked.

"Are you alright?" were the first words to come out of her mouth. I hesitated before I answered.

"I'm fine," I lied. No one who drives halfway across the country in the middle of the night on no sleep is actually alright. I took a sip of coffee, knowing that it wouldn't even touch the edge of how tired I was.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, still in awe that I, Sakura Haruno was sat in front of her. The prodigal daughter returned.

"I…I don't know," I admitted. I didn't know what I was doing there. I had to be back at work in two hours, in a city that was over seven hours drive away. "I don't have anywhere else to go."

"Sakura," Tsunade spoke gently as if worried she would upset me. "You know you can move home any time you like, but what about work? What about your husband?"

I sucked in a breath at the mention of my ex-husband.

"I can't go back," I replied, trying to hold back my tears. "I can't. He's ruined everything!" I felt the tears spilling over and I slammed my fist into the table, furious at myself for crying again.

Tsunade reached for my hand across the table, cradling it gently. I let out a sob, amazed that I had any tears left to cry. It hurt to cry, my tears felt as though they were burning as they rolled down my cheeks. My chest heaved and shook as I sobbed.

"I'll…I'll call work and tell them I need some time…I just need some time," I blubbered.

My aunt nodded, taking my hand and leading me to the living room and sitting me on the couch. As I cried, she wrapped me in blankets and helped me lay down. Soon enough I was crying myself to sleep on the couch. I felt my eyes growing heavier as the red-hot tears spilt down my cheeks and eventually sleep took me.

When I woke I was sore. My entire body screamed with each tiny movement – the effects of sitting in a car all night. I yawned, feeling the dryness of my throat as I did. My head was pounding. I remained in the same position I woke up in for some time, unable to find the motivation to get up.

In the kitchen, I could hear Tsunade talking. I strained my ears to hear what she was saying, but couldn't hear anything definitive. She came in soon after to check on me.

"I called the hospital," She stated, as she handed me a glass of water. I gratefully gulped it down. "They said you'd been offered leave weeks ago."

I shrugged, knowing I should have taken it. In the first few weeks after the break down of my marriage, I had been a mess. But after a while, I had managed to pull myself together enough to function, until now. I took several more gulps of water before setting the glass on the floor beside me.

"They're giving you two weeks of paid leave. If you don't go back after that they said that they're going to have to let you go," Tsunade said gravely. At that point, I was beyond caring. Everything else in my life had gone to shit, why not my career as well?

I didn't want to think anymore. All I wanted was to sleep.