When Sasuke makes his decision to leave Konoha, he is confronted by a foolish girl who's in love with him. She begs him to let her stay by his side and he is left with the decision of whether to bring her with him or to leave her behind. In canon, he chooses the latter. Here, he chooses the former.
This is partly out of sentiment but there's also a tiny voice telling him that he can use her in the future to gain the Mangekyou Sharingan. So instead of leaving Sakura unconscious on a bench outside, they travel together to meet with the Sound Four where Sasuke convinces them to bring her along and keep her unharmed. As Orochimaru's new favourite, they agree to his demands but hold no inhibitions about taking advantage of her presence if Konoha pursues them.
But this time Sakura isn't around to sound the alarm and it was thanks to her that they found out that Sasuke had defected so quickly. Now, with the village being low on manpower and Kakashi out on a mission, they take far too long to discover the defectors' absence. Even Naruto is left ignorant as he spends his time in training, believing that his team would be fine and he should give them some space after the volatile events of the day before.
The S4 reach Orochimaru's base unmolested but they still don't make it in time for him to complete the body transfer (which would be a whole different story), leaving Sasuke to become his apprentice whilst Sakura is pushed to work under Kabuto. When this betrayal is finally discovered, it's far too late for it to be worth organise a retrieval mission and Team 7 is officially broken.
Ponder and discuss.
This is partly out of sentiment but there's also a tiny voice telling him that he can use her in the future to gain the Mangekyou Sharingan. So instead of leaving Sakura unconscious on a bench outside, they travel together to meet with the Sound Four where Sasuke convinces them to bring her along and keep her unharmed. As Orochimaru's new favourite, they agree to his demands but hold no inhibitions about taking advantage of her presence if Konoha pursues them.
But this time Sakura isn't around to sound the alarm and it was thanks to her that they found out that Sasuke had defected so quickly. Now, with the village being low on manpower and Kakashi out on a mission, they take far too long to discover the defectors' absence. Even Naruto is left ignorant as he spends his time in training, believing that his team would be fine and he should give them some space after the volatile events of the day before.
The S4 reach Orochimaru's base unmolested but they still don't make it in time for him to complete the body transfer (which would be a whole different story), leaving Sasuke to become his apprentice whilst Sakura is pushed to work under Kabuto. When this betrayal is finally discovered, it's far too late for it to be worth organise a retrieval mission and Team 7 is officially broken.
Ponder and discuss.