The Dango Gesture...

Chapter 1: Throw Away Sadness

My chance!

Falling, the whooshing of air around her as her hair whipped wildly around her. It came back and thrashed at her closed eyelids.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto.

"Sakura!" Sasuke.

Bastards.

You don't care.

So stop pretending you do.

Her body flipped around, she knew that the ground was coming closer.

You know she almost expected Kakashi-Sensei to come out of nowhere, and save her.

But he wouldn't, because he wasn't here. That's why she choose this mission in particular for her plan. It was foolproof. Nothing would go wrong because she'd spent weeks planning it. Nothing would stop her. She'd throw away her old life, and she'd start new. Without the expectation of being the same as her teammates holding her back.

A quick hand sign of a Jutsu that she'd practiced for this moment later, and a form, her exact replica was kicked down towards the rocks, whereas she, flew into the ice-covered river.

She heard the smash of fake bones on sharp rocks just as she heard the smash of ice. She knew that the river was beginning to thaw. That's why she had not only picked the mission because tracking something in the Land of Frost was extremely hard, but also because she could leave those two liars so much easier in this country.

She couldn't go up for breath now, so she continued to swim. Opening her eyes, Sakura did a Jutsu that Sasuke has taught the team a while back. A simple jutsu that would continue to circulate blood even when the user was cold. It would keep her from freezing, for now anyway.

We need to hurry!

I couldn't agree more!

Swimming until she absolutely had to get a breath, Sakura didn't feel any different. From the distance, she could hear Naruto's anguished cries, nothing from Sasuke, but that was to be expected, the emotionless prick.

She couldn't get out of the river yet, she knew that if they were to send a team of ANBU to find her, she'd be screwed. She took into account the fact that they'd most likely bring ninja dogs as well. That wouldn't be too good, they'd have her tracked down within a couple of hours no doubt.

Sakura knew that she wouldn't even able to keep up the simple body warming jutsu for long. The last time that she'd used this Jutsu was when it was first taught to her and Naruto. That had been months ago, and even then, Sakura could only keep it up for about two hours before she felt completely drained. Although her reserves had grown a considerable amount, that would make for no difference in the end. She needed chakra, she would have to conserve hers if she was going to do this right.

Damn, she thought as she neared the waterfall that she'd made sure was on the map.

Sakura quickly braced herself, this might hurt. It was the same sensation as it always was. You fall, your stomach feels like it's going up, you clench your throat to keep from vomiting. The same old Hara. Thankfully the Jutsu kept her from feeling much, like it scorched her nerves, she was unbelievably happy for that. She swam up to the surface, feeling for the bank so that she could start running. She needed to be two steps ahead of everyone else, or, she thought back to her very long list of worst-case scenarios, something bad would most certainly happen.

Wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand, Sakura looked at her surroundings. Only hearing the subtle shift in the leaves that were almost non-existent.

Nothing...

Good...

Throwing herself up onto a solid surface, Sakura looked up to find it beginning to snow.