Chapter One: A Rift...in More than One Place
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach!
Sakura brushed through the streets of Konoha with an authority few dared to challenge. Since her return to Konoha a year earlier she had seemed distant...cold, even. Or maybe it was just the air she carried about herself--the ethereal, visually imperceptible glow that radiated from her.
Sakura pushed her side-swept bangs away from her eyes as she raked her knee-length hair into a ponytail at the base of her neck. She glanced at herself in the mirror: Her face was like Rangiku's now, feminine but softer in the chin...less angular. She looked the same as the day she had left the Soul Society. And although her biological age was only sixteen...she had been a woman of twenty-one when she left Uryu... And she still looked like one...She felt torn between times, places, duties...love...
Sighing, she dropped her head and glared at the sink for a few moments before walking into her room. Pulling a black heaven-style shirt over her head, she slid into a pair of capris with several pockets running down each leg. She slid into her sandals and pulled a pair of gloves over her arms. They were her favorite piece: They attached at her middle finger but otherwise were fingerless. Running down them was a series oflacings like those on a corset, and those were secured by buckles running every inche.
Tightening the headband on her thigh and the holsters on her legs and hip, Sakura stepped out of her house.
"Good to see you, Sakura. I unfortunately have been called on a mission." Kakashi said without peering up from his book.
"I see..." She replied, unsuprised. "I assume we'll be training alone, then."
He nodded, glancing briefly at Sai, Naruto, and Sasuke before turning to her and smiling. "I really am sorry."
She sighed, nodded, and walked off toward the training ground as the jonin disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"Sakura...are you alright?" Naruto asked as he stopped mid-throw, letting his shuriken slip harmlessly to the ground.
"Of course." She replied without bothering to stop.
"You've been distant lately, Ugly..." Sai agreed.
"I can assure you that I'm fine."
"Sa..."
The Jinchuuriki was cut short as a slice of light cut through the space beside him.
"Get back!" Sakura cried as she jumped in front of her teammates...they couldn't handle an Arrancar...
But this was no Arrancar stepping through the rift.
Even before his name as slipped from her mouth, Sakura's lips were pressed to his.
"Uryu..."
TBC