Chapter Text
Sakura sat on the roof of the hospital looking out over the expanse of Konoha and what it was slowly but surely building into, a metropolis of tall iron buildings. She was used to the new Konoha already but she guessed that wasn’t hard to do when throughout her childhood she had watched it be destroyed and rebuilt multiple times. Every time becoming something a little different from before. A little bigger. A little taller. A little more advanced.
Sakura watched without any particular focus everything in her vision as her mind wandered going through her life and what ifs. What if she had dropped out of the academy like her parents had wanted her to? What if she had resigned as a genin after the Wave mission like Kakashi thought she would? What if she had died in the Konoha Crush along with her parents? What if she hadn’t made Naruto make that stupid naive promise about bringing Sasuke home? What if she had given up on Sasuke and her love for him when everyone around her told her she should?
What would her life be like now at the ripe age of twenty four and already getting divorced?
Sasuke had actually shown the most emotion she had ever seen since they were kids as he yelled at her that there was no other choice for him. He was the last of his clan and he needed to rebuild it by having a large family. They had just found out that she was unable to have children.
Sakura hovered a hand over the large scar on her abdomen thinking back to that infamous fight with Sasori. She hadn’t realized what damage she had endured and failed to fully heal at the time, too worried about Naruto and Kakashi and already mourning the fallen Gaara. Then she mourned Chiyo when Gaara was brought back. She had gone from one thing to the next that she had failed to completely heal her body’s inner workings until it was too late to attempt it. She was barren and didn’t even realize it. It took till when she was actively trying to have kids and failing to finally find out why nothing was working.
She cried when Tsunade had given her the bad news. Her pseudo-mother had held her in that exam room for over an hour while she broke down with the full knowledge that the life she had envisioned for herself was gone. Worse yet, it was never even there and she had just not known.
Sakura sighed and pushed herself off the cold stone ground of the roof before launching herself from the short metal railing that encircled the space to make the quick journey to the Hokage Tower. It was time to face the music.
She didn’t bother with the front doors like she normally would on any other day. Instead, she felt a need to avoid everyone. They would see it on her face and just know that she was a failure. She heard for just a second a past Tsunade yelling at her that none of this was her fault before pushing the woman out of her head. She logically knew that it wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. It just was. It didn’t mean it didn’t feel like the world was imploding around her though.
Sakura slipped into the office by the window next to the desk knowing that she was expected. Inside was the shock of silver hair and a masked face of the man who had become a dear friend to her, especially through the war.
“Kashi,” she whispered.
His eyes didn’t crinkle into a fake smile. Instead, he looked tired and sad. He stood and opened his arms for her. She immediately fell into the provided safety clutching at his vest like it was her only lifeline. But she didn’t cry. She refused to cry here.
When he pulled back, she let him. He still had an arm around her shoulders but opened up his stance to gesture to a thin stack of papers on his desk. She already knew what they were.
She took in a deep breath and held it before letting it go slowly in an attempt to ground herself in this moment. The moment she would sign the divorce papers and everything would become real.
Sakura stepped out of Kakashi’s arm and his warmth and straightened her back and clenched her jaw, her fingers flexing as she stretched them instead of curling them into a fist like she wanted. She could do this. She would do this.
Sakura stepped around the desk, now facing Kakashi, and stared down at the papers that had little color coded tabs on each page that required signatures. This was a cut and dry divorce. They shared no assets or finances. She had already packed up everything she owned into storage scrolls that dangled from leather straps on her left thigh. Three storage scrolls. That is what her entire life consisted of, just three scrolls. One was filled with her clothing and any personal items. One was just medical texts and research. And the last was every single thing she didn’t want but couldn’t leave. It contained the pressed pages of dried flowers from her wedding bouquet, her white wedding kimono since her mother’s had been destroyed with the house, and every other single thing that reminded her of the man she had thought she knew better than anyone. That last scroll she wasn’t sure what she would do with it, maybe hide it in a box in the back of her closet when she finally had one.
After this, she was supposed to go see the new apartment that Ino and Hinata had found.
Sakura did not sit. She couldn't. She remained rigid and standing as she took the pen sitting off to the side of the papers waiting to be used. She didn't read the words, not really. She had instead had Kakashi and Ino read everything in her stead knowing that Kakashi wanted to be fair and Ino wanted her to have everything. She figured it would work itself out in the end.
She signed on the presented black line with the pink tab next to it, a clear indication vs the navy blue tabs that could only be for Sasuke. She never did like the color that much. She thought it clashed with Haruno red which was always accompanied by black and white accents in her childhood. The last page was initialed and signed. It was done and it was just awaiting the other signatures that were supposed to happen later today while she was gone from this place and would safely be cozied away in a new home.
She sighed as she returned the papers to the uniform stack she started with when one more page was placed in front of her. She looked up at Kakashi with a questioning look.
His eyes were on the paper he had just placed, “It’s to return to your maiden name. I didn’t think you’d want to keep your married name.”
Sakura clenched her jaw so tightly she was actually worried momentarily for her teeth. The deep long breath came and went again in her barely controlled way of grounding herself before she set the tip of the pen to the page and signed just one more time.
The door opened roughly without so much as a knock as Sakura jolted in her current state and dropped the pen barely hearing it thunk onto the wood of the desk top.
“I can’t wait until later to sign, Kakashi. I need to meet Kar-”
Sakura stared at Sasuke standing in the doorway as he cut off his own sentence. He really didn’t have to on her account. She already knew how it ended. With his next wife, most likely.
They locked eyes and Sakura felt like her heart dropped painfully into her stomach as her body clenched in pain and fear. She didn’t fear him but she did not want to interact with the man when their last interaction had been nothing but yelling and crying. Everything was broken, including her.
His hand reached out all the way from the doorway like he was close enough to touch her and not all the way across the room, “Sakur-”
She cut him off, “I’m sorry. I can’t. You know where to find me, Kashi.”
Sakura turned on her foot and bolted like there was a demon at her heels trying to incinerate her with a touch. She left the same way she entered but didn’t bother to close the window behind her this time as she ran. She didn’t know where she was going but she couldn’t stop. She had to move even if it served no purpose but more distance between her and her soon to be ex-husband in the Hokage Tower.