The wind rushed through her hair as she leaped from tree branch to tree branch. Only one thing was on her mind- to find that evil man who caused her so much grief; to kill Sasuke Uchiha. After all this time we've finally found you. Sasuke…you just wait until I get my hands on you!... She couldn't remember the last time she felt this angry. Forget bringing him back to Konoha! As soon as I find him I'm finishing this! Her raging emotions gave her a boost of energy and she began to pick up speed.

"Thank you"

How could two simple, everyday words fill her with such a wide array of strong emotions? Heartbreak, because he left her so coldly; hatred, for the way he's made her suffer for two and a half years; longing, for wanted to see him more than anything right now; pity, for she knew he had to give up what could have been a normal life all for that sake of vengeance; sadness, for the former love of her life had gone; gratitude, for now she finally realized how stupid she had been for ever liking that cold, heartless, insensitive being? His brother was no better. Uchiha Itachi. Every time she heard that name a wave of hatred swept over her. The man had killed his entire clan! Just to test himself to see how strong he was! He had killed every one except his little brother, and even then he still tortured him. Could he really be considered a human being? He left his little brother alive just so he could live his life alone, knowing that he must someday become an avenger of his clan. He took away from the poor boy any possibility of a normal life style! A life style that could have involved her...

"I'm an avenger. My purpose is to kill that man."

Itachi took everything away from him and made it seem like the only thing Sasuke could do was to seek power. And Sasuke just played into his hands instead of choosing his own way. Damn both those Uchihas! They have caused nothing but trouble. But today that will all change. I'll make sure of that! Now that her blood was boiling with anger and frustration she picked up even more speed.

I'm almost there… I'm almost to where he is. I just hope Naruto hasn't finished him off before I get there. Naruto had left just before she had, right after hearing that he, and possibly Itachi, was near.

Not far ahead of her she heard and saw a large explosion. She hoped and prayed that it wasn't Naruto who had sustained the damage from it. She was almost there…so close…

At arriving to a clearing of burnt debris, she stopped dead in her tracks at the horrid sight in front of her. She had reached the stop where the explosion had taken place a minute before. Burnt tree parts lay every where. She surveyed the entire area only to find something that made her heart sink. Protruding from a particular pile of debris was a hand. Oh my God! Please don't let it be…

She ran to the pile and began removing frantically the rubble that was covering the body. Oh God! Please don't tell me! Please don't tell me it's Naruto! With part of the debris gone she saw that the hand was connected to an arm. Thank God! Still digging through the heap she found that the arm was attached to a shoulder. Thank God! She then found his face. As gently as she could she pulled the body out and cradled his head in her lap.

"Naruto! Naruto! Please, Naruto! Open your eyes!"

She laid her head on his chest and checked for a pulse. She found one, but it was weak. Needless to say, his body couldn't have looked much worse and still have been recognizable. Many gashes covered his scorched body in blood. He slowly opened is eyes. His normally bright blue eyes were glassy and slightly grey. They almost had a hint of death in them. Everything was blurry and out of focus to him. He opened his mouth to speak but no words would come out. Only a gurgling sound followed by a trail of blood came from his mouth.

"Naruto, don't die on me! Ya hear! Don't you worry. I'll have you fixed up in no time. Just hang in there!" she said trying to fight the erg to cry her eyes out. Damn! Sasuke must have done this! Sasuke! Damn you!! She did what healing she could for him. To any other medical ninja, this seemed like a hopeless attempt. But she wasn't just any medical ninja. She had the determination of 20 ninjas and wouldn't accept that he couldn't be saved. She put everything she had into it. The bleeding had mostly stopped and she once again checked his pulse. It was almost normal and his breathing was steady. He was going to be ok. He was going to live!

She hugged his head as tears of joy dripped down her face. Thank God, Naruto! You're gonna be ok! But I'm not out of the woods yet. I still have to find-

"Aw. How touching. It almost makes me want to cry." Came a mockingly sympathetic voice from behind her.

She whipped her head around to find none other than the person she despised most at that very moment.

"I've finally found you, Sasuke." She said through gritted teeth. Her face was screwed up in malice. There wasn't a trace of her normal cheerful face.

"Now, now, my cherry blossom. What's that look for? You seem upset."

"Don't you ever call me that again, you son of a bitch! You know damn well why I'm upset! After what you did to Naruto…after what you've made everyone go through over the years…after what you've made me go though over the years…. I'll kill you!!" She was so furious she could no longer speak. She just glared daggers at him. If glaring could hurt someone, then Sasuke would've been slaughtered in an instant. She no longer hated him, she loathed him.

" I thought you loved me, though, Sakura." He said with mock sadness.

"I did. When I was younger. When I was stupid. I see now that it was a mistake. A mistake that I won't make again!"

Quick as a flash she pulled a kunai from her pouched and charged with everything she had and the evil man standing in front of her, with every intention of tearing him to shreds.

Sasuke, of course, saw her coming and performed a series of hand signs in a split second. He raised his cupped hand to his mouth and through it he shot out a blast of fire. Sakura redirected her path and got out of the way in time. But then she remembered…Crap! Naruto! She realized that he was right in the line of fire. NO! She raced the blast of fire back to the unconscious form. She grabbed him and leaped out of the way in what she thought was just in time. Several feet to the side, she landed, but as she did so a sharp pain shot through her foot. Apparently her foot hadn't been fast enough and was caught by the blaze. It was scorched black and pretty much useless at the moment. But she didn't care.

Gently she set Naruto's unconscious body down and took out another kunai, planning round two of her assalt on the wretched man. She knew that Sasuke had become strong after training with Orochimaru, maybe too strong. She had become strong, too, but even she was smart enough to know that she couldn't take him down by brute force alone. That was it! She was smart! Some would go as far to say genius! Of course! Her only chance was to out smart him. Sasuke did graduate from the academy with the top grades, but screw that! With a little luck she could pull this off! Besides, she had a little secret weapon hidden up her sleeve.

Sakura got to her feet and winced slightly only just remembering her injured foot. That didn't matter to her. As far as she was concerned, she would go on even if she was missing an entire leg! She charged at him in a zig-zag pattern, kunai at the ready. She was almost near him when he disappeared and pain shot through both feet. She looked down and saw that her feet had been stabbed with abnormally long kunais and were now firmly planted to the ground. When did he…? Just then he reappeared in front her, smirking.

"I've always wanted to try this on you." He said through his evil smile. He was coming closer toward her and as he did, lightning began forming in the palm of his hand. Sakura knew exactly what he was going to do. She knew she couldn't move with these kunais pinning her feet down. He kept coming closer and closer. The sound of a thousand birds chirping was growing louder and louder. She took a deep breath and pull out the blades. Unfortunately, she was too late. She looked down in horror to see Sasuke's hand protruding from her stomach.

Sakura immediately started coughing up blood. Sasuke smirked and pulled his hand out. Her legs gave way and she sank to the ground holding her stomach. A pool of blood quickly began forming under her. NO! This isn't how it's supposed to end! This can't be! It can't end like this! It can't! The hand that was on her stomach began to glow a bright green, but Sasuke couldn't see because her back was to him. I won't let it end like this! I won't! I have to kill Sasuke!

"I'd love to stand around and watch you die, but I have more important things to take care of. Oh, wait. No I don't! You see, I've already taken care of "that man". Yes, my God forsaken brother is dead. And that low-life scum that I used call sensei- he's dead as well. Like hell I'm giving him my body. I have much better use for it. So the only thing left to do was to come and see my old team. However, when I got here, all you wanted to do was fight. But that's alright since I so badly wanted to fight you as well." He said through a smirk.

"Shut up…" Sakura said weakly.

"What was that? I couldn't quite hear you." Said in his again mockingly sad way.

When no response came, he turned his back to her and began to walk away, satisfied that she wasn't getting up again.

"I said…" Sakura said as she slowly and shakily got to her feet. Sasuke stopped in his tracks and turned to face her. Her body didn't want to cooperate with what her brain was telling it and it wouldn't stand up. Get up you damned body! Move!

"I said…"

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock. How can she still be able to move?! She should be dead! What new jutsus has she been learning? His eyes returned to normal after remembering that even if she survived she still was no threat to him in her state.

"Shut up!" the words finally left her mouth. She staggered to her feet and finally stood upright. The bleeding had stopped for the most part but not completely.

"So you're going to let my fun continue? Perfect."

Blocking all the pain from her mind, she quickly pull out another kunai and charged at him for a third time. Sasuke didn't move a muscle, he only smiled. When she was near enough she slashed at him with all her might, only to have him disappear and then reappear behind her. Just as she planned. Sasuke unsheathed his own katana and made a slashing motion down at her body. On contact, however, her body turned into a log. Very good, Sakura. Exactly what I expected from you. Little did Sasuke realize that there were exploding tags on the other side of the log. By the time he saw them with his sharingan, it was too late. He was sent flying backwards in the air from the explosion.

While he was in the air, Sakura appeared right behind him. Unable to shift directions in midair, there was nothing he could do. She reached up and smudged an inky, black liquid onto his cheek before landing. Sasuke tried to wipe off whatever it was that she put on him but he couldn't. It had stained his skin. Sakura smirked at his futile attempt to remove her special concoction. What the hell is this? It doesn't matter anyway, whatever this stuff is. Sasuke momentarily disappeared again and reappeared right in front of her.

Nice try, Sasuke. But you can't fool me now. Sakura slashed out with her kunai only to have Sasuke turn into a vapor. She sensed someone behind her and turned to see Sasuke charging at her. He decided to try some hand-to-hand combat. Big mistake. Since Sasuke hadn't been around for two and a half years, he had no idea how much physically stronger she had gotten. He threw punch after kick after punch, which she dodged and returned twice as hard. He also dodged them except for one which caught him right in the gut. At this he turned into vapor again. Sakura expected this and quickly looked around to see where he would come from next. She saw him come out casually from behind a tree, as well as four more Sasukes. She was surrounded by them. One of her fists began to glow blue.

"Which one? Which one? So many Sasukes to choose from! But only one is the real me. Which will you choose, Sakura?" each Sasuke said a different sentence.

Sakura looked at each of them carefully. She knew exactly which one was the real Sasuke, but she went after a fake instead. She grabbed him with her glowing hand. But, of course, he just turned to vapor.

"Nice try, Sakura, but not good enough!"

Sakura heard the sound of a thousand birds chirping coming from behind her. Sasuke chuckled to himself for he had hit his mark dead on. Let's see you get up again after this!

"Nice try, Sasuke, but not good enough!" she said in a quiet voice.

"What?!" Sasuke's eyes widened in shock as Sakura turned to face him, smiling.

"Rot in hell…bastard!" at that Sakura turned to dust.

"What the hell?!"

Just then Sakura appeared next to him and with her glowing blue hand she touched his chest where his heart was. Sasuke immediately felt a severe pain in his chest and began coughing up blood.

"You bitch! What did you do to me?!" It felt almost as if he were having a heart attack.

"Oh, just a little medical ninjutsu. Nothing special." She said innocently. "I've severed your aorta. Basically, I've shut down your circulatory system."

Sasuke moaned and yelled in pain. He knew he was dying. Damn! How could have lost to this pathetic little crybaby?! When did she get so strong?! Damn her!

"How did you know which one was the real me?" he struggled to say.

"Simple. The black paste I put on you earlier helped me to tell which was real and which was a clone. You see, it stained your skin, as you know. However, since I put it onto the real you, no matter how many clones you made or how good they were, only the original would have the mark on his cheek. I went after a fake on purpose. Unfortunately for you, you fell into my genjutsu trap."

With his last breath, Sasuke managed to say, "Damn you…" Now the evil man that had once been the most important thing in her life would sleep for eternity.

Sakura laughed to herself. "It's finally over." Just then she remembered that she had been stabbed in both feet and had a gaping hole in her torso. She sank to her knees and was slipping into unconsciousness when she heard a familiar voice.

"Tsunade-sama! We found Naruto and Sakura! And the Uchiha! Naruto and Sakura are alive but it looks like they took care of the other one."

Sakura felt soft hands gently lift her head. She opened her eyes to see a blurry shape of who she thought was the Hokage.

"Don't worry, Sakura. You're going to be alright." Tsunade said softly as she began to heal her wounds.

"Tsunade-sama…he's finally gone…" Sakura said weakly before she drifted into unconsciousness.