Off the Beaten Path

As Sakura watched Tsunade storm out of the izakaya with Shizune hot on her heels, she was suddenly startled by the sound of glass shattering behind her. Her heart leaping into her throat, Sakura quickly tore her gaze away from the door, her head swivelling towards the source of the sound, already imagining the worst…

…much to her relief, the sound hadn't been caused by Orochimaru and Kabuto launching a surprise attack on them. Rather, it had originated from Jiraiya slumping forward in his seat and in the process knocking his tall glass of beer off the table.

From the looks of it, Tsunade had roofied Jiraiya under all of their noses, in order to keep him from stalking her any further while she made her escape!

"Odourless," Sakura muttered to herself, as she dipped her little finger into the spilled beer on the table and held it up to her nose. "Tasteless too, I suppose… as expected of Lady Tsunade."

Sakura was too young to drink alcohol, and she was a very responsible girl!

"What… what should we do?" Naruto asked worriedly. "Is… is Pervy Sage going to be all right?"

Sakura stared grimly at Jiraiya's peaceful sleeping face, not even bothering to answer Naruto's question. 'What should they do,' was indeed the question they ought to be asking themselves…

In the original timeline, Tsunade would have got in a fight with Naruto and made a bet with him; that he wouldn't be able to master the Rasengan within a week. Then, Orochimaru would have conveniently got in a fight with her, allowing Naruto to step in and show off his utter gutsiness; curing Tsunade of her haemophobia and convincing her to finally accept the mantle of Hokage.

But somehow, things had gone terribly wrong— Orochimaru had never shown up, and without him, Naruto would never get the opportunity to show off his guts in front of Tsunade (not literally, because of her haemophobia). Furthermore, Tsunade had stormed out without fighting Naruto— and Sakura couldn't help but think that she might have been partly responsible for that, too… more or less.

'It's completely our fault,' said Inner Sakura, ever the voice of self-doubt in the back of her mind.

Sakura clenched her fists in frustration, turning her knuckles white…

"First of all, let's get out of here," Sakura said after thinking for a while. "We'll figure out where to go from there."

Sakura paid for the meal, and together with Naruto, they frogmarched Jiraiya's hulking form out of the izakaya. They had spent a considerably length of time eating and drinking— the moon was already high in the sky. It was getting awfully dark outside despite the moonlight, so Naruto and Sakura dragged Jiraiya to a nearby inn, and they checked into a free room.

Once they had retired to the privacy of their rented room, Sakura reached into her cleavage, retrieving the sealing scroll in which she had enclosed the Manyuu blade.

Since walking around civilians with a sword on your hip tended to unnerve them, Sakura had temporarily stored away her weapon, but now, it seemed like she was going to be needing it after all…

"Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto, as he watched her unseal her sword. "What are you—"

"Purification Slash!"

"SAKURA-CHAN!?"

Sakura swung her sword through Jiraiya's unconscious body, but instead of cleaving him in two, it passed harmlessly through him. Spotting flecks of white on her sword, Sakura then experimentally raised the blade to eye level, observing that it was covered in some sort of fine powder— the sleeping drug that Tsunade had slipped into Jiraiya's beer.

"Don't worry, he'll wake up soon," Sakura told Naruto reassuringly, before adding, almost as if it were an afterthought, "…and I'm so sorry. Please don't hold this against me, okay…?"

"Huh?" said Naruto in confusion, as his eyes began to glaze over. "What are you—"

Despite his best efforts to keep his eyes opened, Naruto's eyelids kept closing on their own… He soon keeled over, and a few moments later, he was sleeping soundly on the floor next to Jiraiya.

"Generic Sleeping Genjutsu!"

Once she was sure that Naruto was sound asleep, Sakura grabbed a leaf of hotel stationery paper and a pencil from the bedside table, and she began writing a letter:

'To Naruto and Jiraiya,

This is where we part ways, but hopefully, we'll see each other again soon.

I'm not sure if you've heard, but our old classmate Hinata-chan was kidnapped a few weeks ago. Tenten said she could find her, and she asked for my help to save her.

I thought about it long and hard. Kakashi-sensei taught us to never leave a companion behind, so I agreed to help her.

We were probably never going to get the go-ahead for the mission, so Tenten, Neji, Karin and I are all going on an unofficial rescue mission to save Hinata-chan.

P.S.: Don't try to follow me, it'll cause a diplomatic incident.'

As she was writing her second postscript, it suddenly occurred to Sakura that she wasn't sure how to write a certain kanji. After thinking about it for a while, she struck out the 'bird' radical that she had begun writing and wrote the word hawk in katakana instead. There!

'P.P.S.: If you're not heading back to the village straight away, would you mind sending a messenger hawk to the higher-ups to let them know we're not defecting? We'll gladly accept our punishment when we return.'

Sakura reread her letter, making certain that her handwriting was legible and that she hadn't forgotten anything important, before carefully sticking the piece of paper to Naruto's forehead protector with a safety pin; to make sure that it wouldn't get lost.

Sakura had decided that Naruto and Jiraiya would have better luck convincing Tsunade on their own, without her around to muck things up. Besides, she had wasted too much time already, and Princess Peach was still waiting to be saved…

And so, Sakura climbed onto the sill, opened the window and peered into the darkness. It was pitch-dark outside— unlike the Hidden Leaf Village, there weren't any street lamps here in scenic Tanzaku Town— and it would only be getting even darker, once she left town and entered the forest….

'Last chance to back out,' said Inner Sakura. 'We're about to do something monumentally stupid…'

Out there was true wilderness; and she would be braving it alone for a while.

Sakura had known from the start that the shinobi continent wasn't a safe place, unlike her homeland of Japan— but she had never realized just how little of this world had truly been conquered by humanity. Even though humans were the dominant species on this star as well, they only occupied a minuscule slice of the world; at least, when compared to the humans of Earth…

'Next stop, the Land of Hot Water,' said Inner Sakura solemnly.

After reviewing her bearings one last time, Sakura took a deep breath, before jumping out of the window and disappearing into the night, allowing the darkness to swallow her whole…