Ending up at Konoha General Hospital after a battle is starting to become a regular occurrence for Sarah. Sure she had a few minor injuries, fainted as soon as the medic ninjas arrive to take her back to the village, and almost died trying to protect Naruto (if she ever had to give a report she's choosing to leave that out of it). At least she was able to achieve her Byakugou seal..and a bastardized version of mana conversion?

     Sasuke was now heavily guarded by ANBU ninjas. He isn't particularly happy about the arrangement but Tsunade assured him it was for the best, at least until he became strong enough to defend himself. Her teammate is pretty capable of fighting, Sarah argued but her pleas fell on deaths ears.

     They weren't exactly going to listen to a freshly promoted Chuunin. The council decided all, Tsunade (or any other Hokage in that factor) were just mere figureheads. No matter how much you can plea your case, in the end it's fruitless.

     Sarah was checked out of the hospital after spending a day resting. Recovering from exhaustion was quite easy considering she had access to a larger supply of mana. Her forehead now had a diamond in the middle of it, but that's the only mark that came out of the battle.

     "It's such a pity that my vest got ruined," Sarah pouted as she sat down beside Sasuke's hospital bed.

     She was just wearing a plain white shirt and black shorts with small black shinobi sandals. Her short hair cascaded down her face, her bangs partitioned to where the Byakugou seal on her forehead was visible. A bandage was covering her right wrist, hiding the discoloration on her skin.

     "That vest wasn't exactly proper ninja attire, neither was your long ass purple hair." Sasuke popped a small cherry tomato in his mouth. He was doing fine all things considered. An ophthalmologist had to come in and check his eyes, but Sasuke reassured her that it was just overexertion of his Sharingan.

     None of the members on Team Seven were ever going to reveal that Sasuke had unlocked his Mangyekou Sharingan during the battle with Kimimaro. They didn't want to relive that day nor face the trauma of Sarah almost dying, so they just chose to ignore what happened and moved on with their lives.

     Naruto went off to train with Jiraiya. He wasn't going to be back for another three years, which saddened both Sarah and Sasuke as they missed the blonde's chaotic behavior. Team Seven just wasn't going to be the same without him.

     "Sarah..." Sasuke looked his purple-haired teammate in the eyes, "I want to become a medical ninja."

     "Huh?" Sarah blinked. Where had this came from?

     "I can't rely off of my Sharingan forever if I wish to beat Itachi, not to mention you...almost died trying to save mine and Naruto's life and there was not a damn thing I could've done to save you," Sasuke's hands clenched the blanket tightly, "So I'm taking it upon myself to become this teams medic. I also want to learn under Kakashi so that I can master some more jutsu and get a better grasp of my Sharingans abilities."

     "But who are you going to ask to teach you medical ninjutsu?" Sarah asked.

     "I'm taking up Lady Tsunade's offer for an apprenticeship. She's the best one in the whole world, also... you're not exactly what I would consider...'teacher material'..." Sasuke gestured towards her wrist, "Not to mention you would just use me as a test subject for your weird ass experiments."

     "Fair point." Sarah shrugged. She wasn't going to deny it; she would use everyone, "I think I'm probably going to try and see if I can enlist in the ANBU."

     "ANBU? Are you seriously trying to kill yourself?" Sasuke exclaimed.

     "No no no! That's not what I'm trying to do at all! I just...want to go out on missions and expand my horizons." Sarah explained, "I'm good at stealth and we both know by now I'm almost at Jounin level. Sensei isn't going to be focusing time and effort onto me since he'll be training you, so my next best bet if I want to continue broadening my skills would be to join the ANBU."

     "You could train with Might Gai on taijutsu, try and get an internship with Anko Mitarashi, hell I'm sure Tsunade has room for more students. Just...don't join the ANBU, please... I can't stand the thought of loosing you again," Sasuke begged.

     "Sasuke...this is a path that I'm going to need to take for myself. Team Seven wasn't going to last forever you know," Sarah comforted her male teammate, "Besides I might see if I can get more information on Orochimaru. If we can get just the slightest edge over him then that could potentially turn the tides in our favor."

     Sasuke scoffed, "Fine. Do whatever you please. Just don't do anything stupid."

     "I'll try my best," Sarah responded with a smile on her face.

-

     Getting accepted into the ANBU was easy considering her already established feats; defeating Orochimaru, saving the third Hokage, saving Sasuke, and being one of the strongest medical ninjas in the village (if not the world). She had to go through a series of tests - conditioning Sarah would call it. Her hair was cut to an even shorter length, now resembling more of a pixie cut.

     Sarah wore the traditional ANBU uniform but with the edition of having small scrolls on her belt. She had the signature tattoo on her left bicep, one that she had to keep concealed at all times unless on active duty.

     Her codename was Neko. Quite fitting considering who she signed a summoning contract with. It's not like it matters anyways; many people have summoning contracts these days, especially in the ANBU.

     Training was excruciatingly painful, especially since she's still getting used to this new ability of hers. Manipulating mana into chakra took a lot out of her. At the end of the day all Sarah wanted to do is take a nap and never wake up.

     Taijutsu, luckily enough, was her specialty. She utilized both that and kenjutsu during her missions. If she or her teammates were ever to get injured in combat, there was no need to head to the hospital - Sarah can easily heal any wound; mana exhaustions a bitch but she's slowly working on increasing her limit. She was the Hidden Leafs Trojan horse, one full of many secrets and surprises.

     Whenever she wasn't on the field Sarah was busy working in the hospital. It was more of a cover so that none of her graduating classmates nor her sensei found out about what she's been up to these last couple of months. The only ones who knew outside of ANBU was Tsunade and Sasuke. Kakashi's probably been informed of this decision too but he still has yet to approach her about it; Sarah chalked it up to the confidentiality rule ANBU has in place for its members.

     Sasuke wasn't too pleased about her decision - he makes that very well known everytime Tsunade brings him to the hospital. He's still scared that he'll loose her, no matter how much reassurance she given that everything will be okay.

-

     Not everything was okay. She was still suffering from the effects of her hasty decision. Her dreams were plagued with blood, death, and the cries of her comrades as her body laid limp on the ground with a sword stuck out of her chest. No matter how many sessions she has she still can't get that image out of her head.

     She and Sasuke has been clashing a lot here recently. Despite it being only three months since Team Seven disbanded the duo seemed to argue more now than they did during their Genin days. Kakashi attempts to mediate the two, but Sarah knows he will always side with Sasuke.

     Kakashi always did have his favorites. He couldn't care less about her. All he wanted to do was keep her from being a frontline fighter, let her stay on the sidelines, protect her.

     She doesn't need his or anyone else's protection, she can fight for herself.

-

     A month has passed since she had last spoken to them. Sarah had to face the harsh reality that the bonds between Team Seven are starting to deteriorate...and it was all her fault.

-

     Sarah celebrated her fourteenth birthday in the hospital performing surgery. It was an emergency. Tsunade and Shizune were out of the village and there was nobody else that was capable of performing an S-ranked surgery but her. It was an awful experience. Sarah had seen more blood and guts coming out of that man than she's seen her whole life. He passed away after three hours on the operating table. There was nothing they could do to save him; he was already a lost cause when he came in.

     When Sarah made her way back home, she was greeted with a note on the kitchen counter. Kakashi and Sasuke were out training. They had forgotten her birthday was today.

     Sarah wasn't particularly upset by this; she never was one to celebrate her day of birth. It was just another year on the planet for her - another cursed year alive.

     She decided to spend the rest of her birthday at her favorite Chinese restaurant, unfazed at the looks some villagers had given her. Sarah was used to the stares by now; coming back to life after dying wasn't exactly a feat any normal person could do. She wasn't normal - far from it; being on a Genin squad full of powerhouses and having a... demon(?) sealed inside of her were just some of the examples that made her stand out from the typical shinobi.

-

     Another few months have passed. Nothing new has changed. She still receives looks from people within the village.

     Byakugou no Sarah, a moniker bestowed to her from people all across the village. Not everyone could come back from death like she had just done. It was an impossible feat - one not even Tsunade Senju has accomplished.

     It was a curse. Sarah did not want to have this kind of reputation. Everyone already looks at her as if she was a ghost.

     Maybe things would've been better off had she stayed dead.

-

     "I do have the power to heal myself and fight back...I'm just too afraid to use it. There will always be consequences for my actions, I'm just scared that maybe...I'll lose everything I've worked hard for...all my friends, all my achievements, my family...I just...don't want to be alone anymore."

     Her own downfall was inevitable. Sarah could feel the threads of sanity slipping through her grasp. There was nobody to help guide her to the path of light, nobody she could talk to outside of Nemuri (they weren't exactly the best conversationalist), nobody. She. Was. Alone.

     Today made it a year since Naruto left the village. Sasuke and Kakashi don't want anything to do with her, which that was to be expected when she decided to go down the path she did. They kept avoiding her, she kept avoiding them. There was no longer anything keeping them together.

     So she left the Hatake compound. Now she lived in a small apartment on the rundown part of the village. It was filthy, with wallpaper falling off the walls in some places and dust everywhere. It took a day to fix up and move all her belongings there, but to Sarah it was her new home. 

-

     The four clauses every medical shinobi trained in Konoha swore by said the following:

One: No medic ninja shall ever stop medical treatment until the lives of their party members have come to an end.

Two: No medic ninja shall ever stand on the front lines.

Three: No medic ninja shall ever die until they are the last of their platoon.

Four: Only those who have mastered the Strength of a Hundred technique of the shinobi art Creation Rebirth are permitted to discard the above-mentioned laws.

     The fourth clause might sound like a reasonable bar to set, if not for the fact that the Byakugou Seal was basically impossible to learn. What these rules came down to was that there were simply no Konoha shinobi with any kind of medical knowledge on the front lines – or taking any kind of serious mission at all. What's the worst part? Because Konoha unintentionally set the standard concerning medic-nin, other villages adopted these clauses for their own.

     Sarah thought the clauses (rules, their rules, restrictions) were complete bullshit.

     Concerning the first clause, there were several cases in which one should absolutely stop medical treatment even if the patient had not yet died. If the medic would be put in danger by continuing the healing process, if the medic had to focus their chakra on a more important target, if the medic was certain healing would be completely futile; those were some of the examples she could think of off the top of her head.

     The third clause might have made sense;of course, you would protect your healer if not for the fact that it set the norm for medics to not focus on any kind of combat skills. You were the last of your team to die. This meant the others would actually fight, not you. Sarah hated it. Most medics were inclined to a supportive role by nature. Now, they often refused to take opportunities in battle out of fear they could possibly die.

     And the second clause, oh, that one Sarah detested the most. This clause was the reason basically no shinobi knew basic medical techniques. Because if they got too proficient at it, if they would have to above by this clause, they wouldn't be able to stand at the front lines. In a shinobis world that translated to being unable to take any kind of mission above C-rank, which seemed to have been a problem Sarah had been facing up until her ANBU promotion.

     No wonder the hospital was always understaffed. No wonder it was full of non-shinobi medics. If becoming a medic meant you basically couldn't be a shinobi except as backup (unless you had god-tier chakra control and Tsunade as a sensei) Sarah could understand why shinobi did not want to learn any kind of medical techniques.

     Thankfully for her, Sarah had already unlocked the Byakugou Seal - the diamond like marking sitting on the middle of her forehead. Unfortunately, that means she was to be held at a higher standard than every other medic. She was the second best, always being compared to Tsunade. If she were to make one single mistake then it would cost her whole career.

     If she'd really understood the meaning of those clauses back then, the meaning behind being 'the best', Sarah would've never decided to learn medical ninjutsu. But there was another reason the second clause was bullshit; Medics knew the human body inside out. They had to in order to be able to build it up again. You can't just build something up without knowing how to break it down, something Sarah would end up taking full advantage of.

     While on a mission with her ANBU squad, they were ambushed by enemy ninjas. Sarah was in a desperate situation: almost out of mana, most of her squad are critically injured, and she was up against three people at once. She had already used up everything in her weapons arsenal. It wasn't enough to take the enemies down.

     So Sarah resorted to doing something unthinkable; using her medical skills offensively. The idea of weaponizing medical ninjutsu sent shivers down her spine. Medical ninjutsu was meant to heal, not hurt, and even though Sakura didn't have any qualms in making her best skill combat-viable, dirtying the very essence of a medical ninjutsu just went too far.

     But she had no choice. Sarah took a deep breath. She didn't want to kill anyone this way, but it was necessary. In the end, the choice between playing dirty and being dead was easy.

     Approaching the stranger on swift and silent feet, Sarah raised her hand. One touch was all she needed.

     Sarah visualized the tenketsu above his heart. She visualized the earth armor, bypassed by her mana like any other kind of barrier. She visualized the path her mana would have to take, stalling for just a moment to breath as she would have to pull this off perfectly for the first time mid-battle.

     One...two...

     Dancing around the outstretched arm that had just loosened another arrow, Sarah dashed forward. Her finger closed in on his chest. The stranger moved, quicker than Sarah could abort her own movement, he broke free of her technique. She wasn't prepared for this at all, completely focused on her new technique.

     The stranger gripped her neck tightly with both hands and grinned manically. His breath smelled awful.

     "Think I'm that easy, brat? I've got you now," he sneered, "and I'm going to make you suffer."

     A flare of panic rose up in Sarah's chest.

.

.

.

     One of the Chuunins grabbed Sarah by her hoodie and held her up as the other two went on to attacking Naruto. Sarah was gasping for air, attempting to reach for her pouch. The Chuunin holding her saw this and slammed her up against the wall. Sarah had no choice but to watch as her best friend was being beaten up for essentially no reason.

     "Why are they doing this? Aren't they suppose to be protecting us?"

     No matter how much Sarah trained and practice, she would never be strong enough to protect those she cared about. She was weak, useless... She always had to rely on Nemuri to get them out of trouble. Why couldn't she defend herself?

.

.

.

     It was now or never. With her mouth set in a grim line and the hands of the stranger putting pressure on her neck, cutting off her air, she focused. He was going to snap her neck. She needed to hurry up and concentrate.

     A pulse of mana, pulsing at exactly the opposite rhythm of the usual 150bpm mana pulse they used at the hospital, the rhythm of pulse-pause-pulse forced into pause-pause-pause. Through her neck, forcing her mana to follow the chakra pathways of his hand, running parallel to his veins, all moving towards one central point: his heart, beating widely.

     The pulse went off. For a moment, nothing happened.

     The hands on her neck tightened, spots of black dotted her vision. Her hands flew to her neck, pulling...

     And then Sarah heard it. The absence of the beat.

     For two more seconds the stranger stood stock still, hands slowly loosening around her neck before his legs sagged. His body twitched as it fought for life. His strength faded rapidly as the chakra in his body stopped circulating, no longer stimulated by his heart. Moments later, the rest of his body caught up to the fact that there was no more oxygen supporting his vital organs.

     The stranger's grin was frozen on his face as his lifeless body slid toward the earth.

     Sarah fell to her knees, gasping for breath. Her own hands shot to her throat, healing the damage done. Just a few seconds more and the man would've broken her neck.

     She couldn't believe what she had just done. She was a monster...monster...monster....

-

     Something in her snapped after that mission. She could no longer look at herself in the mirror. No matter how much conditioning she had done when she was younger, Sarah could still see the faces of those she's killed in her dreams.

-

     She put an end to her mandatory therapy sessions a few weeks later. Sarah wasn't about to let anyone find out what she had done.

-

     Sarah could feel that someone was watching her from a distance. Was it just her being paranoid due to the lack of sleep she's been getting? She doesn't know.

     The amount of traps and seals set up in her house has increased soon after.

-

     Sarah sat in the confidantes of her apartment panicking. She had just stolen a bunch of scrolls from the Hokage tower. The Uchiha Massacre, ROOT, Naruto Uzumaki.

     She always knew this village was shady. It didn't dawn on her until she and Sasuke were assigned with cleaning out the record room.

.

.

.

     The room was windowless and dark, the dusty archive is located deep below the Hokage tower with layers upon layers of dust suggesting that no living soul has been here for a long time. She sneezes once upon entry and tries very hard not to think about things skittering in the dark, moving shadows, creepy crawlies. The atmosphere is a little scary and downright ghostly.

     Sasuke was unphased by this. She was also - she's been practically living inside the hospital at this point after that mission. Tsunade must've noticed this, so bestowing a great amount of trust upon her Sarah ended up down here...with her former teammate..

     The two mostly avoided each other. Cleaning out the room was extremely boring. There's a number of ancient treaties, long-forgotten declassified mission reports, copies of archaic laws that make Sarah shudder. Some of it is disturbing in ways that have nothing to do with blood or murder.

     Her fingers slide over yellow pages and moth-infested scrolls, sort through towering stacks of abandoned files in hopes of maybe, perhaps, finding something worthwhile. God knows Sarah had always loved reading and surely, buried underneath all this waste, there has to be something. She thinks of herself as an archaeologist, a seeker, and finder of truth; as sad as it is, boredom is abundant, tasks few and far in between, missions completely absent as of right now. She thinks of Sasuke studying under the best medical ninja in the world and their infamous sensei, and Naruto, travelling around the world and seeing all there is to see and finds herself wanting.

     In a corner of the room, she noticed a few scrolls hidden out of sight. They looked fairly new compared to the rest, as if they've been placed there sometime within the last few years. Sarah looked back a few seconds and noticed Sasuke was currently distracted. Using this as her chance, Sarah quickly grabbed a storage scroll from her belt and placed the scrolls inside. She chose to forget about what she had done until the job was done. Sarah collected her payment and left the area, rushing back towards her apartment. It didn't dawn on her until later that she had just committed an act of treason against her village (but since when did she last consider this village hers?).

.

.

.

     "I think you should open them," Nemuri said from inside her mind, "Clearly they must've been placed there for a reason."

     "Are you sure that's a good idea? What if we find something in there that we won't like?" Sarah responded in an unsure tone.

     "Sarah, we've done a lot of atrocities within the past year or so in this world. Stealing a couple of scrolls and discovering some hidden secrets really shouldn't bother you much, besides aren't you the least bit curious to know why there's a scroll about you here?" Nemuri persuaded her, "It could be an interesting read."

     Sarah nodded as she picked up The Uchiha Massacre scroll, "Alright. I have a feeling I'm going to regret this..."

     And regret this she did. Sarah quickly opened up the scroll and read through the mission report.

     Sasuke's dad, Fugaku, was planning a coup to take over Konoha. Itachi Uchiha was ordered by councilman Danzo Shimura to kill the entire Uchiha clan. Hundreds of innocent civilians and shinobi died that night, leaving Sasuke as the only survivor.

     That was just the dumbed down version. Sarah's wavering allegiance to Konoha continued as she continued to read through the other scrolls; how Danzo commanded ROOT and ordered for the kidnapping of countless kids - all while Hiruzen did nothing about it despite him knowing the whole time, how Danzo purposefully leaked the information about Naruto being the jinchurriki of the Nine-Tails out to the public which caused Naruto to be the target of people's hatred, how Danzo was planning on recruiting her (kidnapping would be better term for it) to join ROOT but couldn't due to Hiruzen's interference. What's the worst part that came out of this? Countless people have been suffering for years because of both Hiruzen and Danzo.

     And Sarah protected Hiruzen back during the Sand-Sound invasion.. She risked her life for someone who's committed such atrocities, a wolf in sheep's clothing as the saying goes.

     She was sick. She couldn't stand being in a village that was so similar to hers anymore.

     Sarah clenched her fists.

     "I say we should let the people know," Nemuri said as they broke the silence, "Make copies of this, send it to the media outlet, hell get one of your weird ass summons to send this to Sasuke and Naruto. Take one last final jab at this villages shaky foundation before you even think about leaving."

     "But where would I even go?" Sarah asked.

     "Cash in that favor. Travel with that weird ass swordsman and his twink sidekick for a bit, take time for yourself, discover who you are and what your goals for the future will be. Fuck Konoha and its people, do whatever you want." Nemuri responded, "And for fucks sake, we're taking down that bitch Danzo when we become strong enough to do so."

     "You're right," Sarah glanced over at her hitai-ate laying down on her bedside table. She shakily picked it up and looked at her reflection in the metal. It was foolish for her to think she belonged here, to think she would still have friends in this village.

     "Team Seven wasn't going to last forever you know."

     Grabbing a spare kunai she kept underneath her pillow, Sarah used it to drag a line across the leaf symbol on her hitai-ate. She was done. She was fucking done.

    "Well it looks like we're going to need a lot more copies of these documents," Sarah looked over, "Might as well go big or go home."

     "Hell yeah!" Nemuri cheered, "Let's cause some fucking chaos."

     Sarah smiled a bit, "Yeah...let's do this."

-

     During the early hours of the morning people in Konoha were greeted with papers flying down from the sky. People picked them up and were horrified to see what has been written on them. Documents upon documents were sealed inside, only coming undone as soon as someone touched the paper.

'Lord Third, I request these people for Root. D.S. Note followed by a list of names. Clan names. Orphan names. There were multiple Aburame even Yamanaka listed. A few Uchiha also managed to make the cut long side rare Nara mention.'

'Request approved. Make sure a seal of silence is placed on them to prevent any leak of information. Regular training should be enforced right away. H.S.'

'Understood. Root will follow the usual pairing up method we agreed upon. In two-year training, each of the pair will have to try and kill the other. The one left will be officially recruited.'

...

'Request for experimentation approved. I will send over Orochimaru to work on your project. H.S.'

'Lord Third, looks like our project is getting more heat than we expected. We have to erase our involvement. D.S.'

'I will take care of Orochimaru. Make sure that the correct narrative is spread afterward. Orochimaru will take full responsibility. H.S.'

...

'Mission: Assassinate Hiruzen Sarutobi
Assigned to: Hinoe, Hinoto, Kanoe, Kanoto, Kinoe, Kinoto, Mizunoe, Mizunoto, Tsuchinoe, Tsuchinoto.
Approved by: Danzo Shimura
Outcome: Failure
Goal: Root members to be disguised as a foreign group. Mission failed as Kakashi Hatake informed the Third Hokage of the mission and took the Third's place and lured out the assailants.'

...

'Mission: Retrieve Kakashi Hatake's Sharingan
Assigned to: Kinoe and Kinoto
Approved by: Danzo Shimura
Outcome: Failure
Goal: Collect a replacement sharingan to Shisui Uchiha's right eye that is rejecting the transplantation. Kakashi Hatake's disappearance will not attract much attention, considering his bad reputation and not being a member of the Uchiha. Mission failed due to agent Kinoe.'

...

'Mission: Uchiha Clan Alienation
Assigned to: Multiple
Approved by: Danzo Shimura
Outcome: Success
Goal: Uchiha clan suspected to be behind Kyubi attack. They are a threat to Konoha. Clan has to be moved to the farthest compound and watched at all times.'

...

'Mission: Intercept Coup d'État
Assigned to: Itachi Uchiha
Approved by: Konoha Council
Outcome: Success
Goal: Uchiha clan has to be eliminated to prevent their Coup d'État. Itachi Uchiha successfully eliminated all clan members. As agreed, it was allowed to let Sasuke Uchiha live in return. Itachi will take full responsibility for the act.'

...

'Lord Third, Uchiha eyes retrieval was a success. Root intercepted Uchiha bodies before they were found out. I expect to implant the eyes in the next seven months. From my experience adjusting to Shisui Uchiha eye, it takes time to fully take control of Sharingan. D.S.'

'Keep me updated on your progress. With fully evolved sharingan we will be able to take full control of the fox. H.S.'

...

     Sarah inhaled sharply as she watched the chaos unfold from the shadows. This was a hefty bag of dirty laundry that she just aired; various sabotage missions, killing of clan members, kidnappings of Konoha people by Konoha people, the whole Uchiha affair. The dirt and shameful acts were never-ending.

     Not only did she take the time to set this up during the night, but originals were left tied with a white ribbon on Tsunade's desk. And that was not all either! Just to make sure that every nin of the Leaf village would know the full and whole truth, Sarah also ordered her cat summons to deliver copies of these documents to each villagers home. Hell she even had Nekobata personally deliver the documents to both Naruto and Jiraiya. It would only take a matter of time before the other villages find out, but that's no longer her problem.

     All that Sarah had to do now was to lean back and watch the chaos unravel. She could already tell Sasuke was going to have a field day with all the reactions he's going to be getting, Kakashi and Tsunade too. She should feel bad, really she should, but she didn't.

     With the snap of her fingers she simply vanished into thin air.

-

     On her fifteenth birthday Sarah had defected from Konohagakure. All that was left behind was a slashed hitai-ate and the chaos that came with her defection.