Disclaimer: No owny Naruto… sadly…
F.Y.I.: This is happening….. oh…… 3 years after Sasuke leaves, which means Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto are all 15 years old. That is all.
Konoha…. Eight O'Clock at Night…. Hokage's Office…
"Come in," Tsunade responded to the knocks at the door as she placed another mission file in the 'complete' rack.
The door quickly opened and, at first, only two ANBU ninja walked in and bowed.
"What is it?" The hokage asked, not in the best.
One of the ninjas answered, "Hokage-sama, I'm glad to say we will be having a 'special' guest with us today during our mission report…"
"'Special' guest?" But as soon as the other four ANBU dragged in a worn figure, who had a wool, brown bag over their head, she immediately recognized them.
The prisoner's wrists were chained behind their back, the chains jingling every time they moved.
They were forced to sit down in the chair in front of her desk.
The fifth instantly noticed the cuts and bruises that covered their captive; also the slowness of their reactions.
"So…. I take it you had an interesting encounter on your mission today, then?" The hokage continued, taking out a new mission file to record the information.
The ANBU leader nodded.
Pushing the prisoner's head forward, the ANBU ninja untied the rope that was around their neck.
Quickly, the bag was removed, exposing a set of onyx eyes to the setting sun that shone in through the window.
The prisoner pulled against the chains, trying to free their hands to block the stinging light.
"That's probably the most amount of light you've seen all week."
Tsunade turned around and slightly lowered the blinds, just enough so that the sun wasn't in their eyes anymore.
"Well… it's already eight, and I have an important meeting with a noble that wishes to move just outside of Konoha. We have enough time for the mission, only…." Tsunade explained, sitting back down into her chair. "Shizune!"
The assistant immediately appeared next to the captive, surprising them a bit.
"Yes Hokage-sama," Shizune responded.
"Please take our 'guest' to the ANBU headquarters. Two ninjas from this will help escort you two."
"Yes Hokage-sama."
Just as said, two ninjas, one grabbing each of the hostage's arms, pulled them out of the chair and out the door.
They didn't replace the bag, though they did blindfold him half way there, as to not reveal the location of the headquarters.
A sudden burst of cool air into a hot summer day told the prisoner that they had entered the building.
The ANBU didn't take him immediately to a holding cell, but into one full of files and files of all the criminals ever kept there.
"Uchiha Sasuke," A deep voice said, making the prisoner lift his head a bit, "I was wondering when I'd be seeing you here! Though you won't be here long. In a few days you'll be sentenced to death and-"
The voice was interrupted by a smack.
"Don't go saying things you know aren't going to happen IDIOT!!" a second, kinder voice exclaimed. "You two, (points to ANBU (Shizune left)) please guard the door on the outside. Dai, you go get a cell ready."
"Oh, come on, Aki! Kicking me out AGAIN!!" Dai responded as he followed the other two out the door.
Sasuke stood there, in the middle of the room, chained and blindfolded.
Aki stood up and led the Uchiha to the chair in front of her desk.
After he sat down, she fiddled with the cloth that covered his eyes.
This time, when the light was once again visible to him, there was no setting sun, or forest landscapes. There wasn't even a window.
Just four closed-up walls… keeping him in and the world separate… almost like they protected the other villagers from knowing that a traitor was behind their walls and still living.
Aki grabbed a key from her desk and unlocked his sore arms.
Sasuke sighed.
The chains jingled as Aki threw them on her desk.
Slowly, Sasuke brought his arms in front of him and he rubbed his wrists hard.
Right before she passed him, she noticed something on the palms of his hands.
"What's that?" she asked, reaching for his hands.
He tried to hide it quick, but he wasn't fast enough.
She pulled his hand closer for her to see.
"Ah," she said eventually, "I see… the ANBU squad that brought you back must've had a sealer in their team…."
"S-sealer?" Sasuke asked, his voice wavy and sore from not talking to much of anyone for the three years he was gone, especially this past week.
"Yep. Looks like your chakura's been temporarily sealed. Let me see if I can do something about that…"
Aki traced the seal's marks, and his hand began to sting.
"There!" she exclaimed as she walked back to her chair.
Sasuke looked down at the seal.
Noticing nothing different, he asked, "So… what'd you do?"
Aki smiled and said, "The seal was set to over a year. I lowered its lasting time to about two weeks. If we were to leave it at a year, you would've lost all your techniques by the time you got your chakura back. You should be thanking me."
Sasuke lowered his head, added, "Oh… thanks I guess…."
"Anytime!!"
Aki took out a file and began looking through it. (A pretty big file if I do say so myself!)
After recording much information about the past three years, Aki called in Dai.
The ninja walked in.
"Dai, can you please take Sasuke to the cell?" the ninja asked her teammate.
"Sure," he said as he reached for the chains that remained on the desk.
Sasuke tensed up, remembering the pain around his wrists.
"That won't be necessary, Dai…" Aki said, picking up the chains and putting them in the first drawer of her desk.
"Uh, ok…"
Looking down at the Uchiha, he motioned for him to follow out the door.
When they exited, however, the ANBU members that were waiting outside were no longer there.
'Damn… I'm so tired… that I didn't even…. Notice them gone….' Sasuke thought as he silently followed the man down the hall.
There were doors… and doors…. More doors….
Finally, they got to the end of the hallway, where there was a large metal door with many locks.
Using his chakura, he unlocked the door, only to be faced by two masked ANBU ninjas with their swords drawn and ready to fight.
"Don't worry guys, he's with me. I'm putting him in cell 5."
Dai grabbed Sasuke's arm and dragged him past the guards.
One of the guards locked up the door behind them.
The other, however, quickly turned and exclaimed, "Wait!"
Dai turned around and asked, "What is it?"
"Is he sealed up? The last person we put in that cell was able to escape, using his chakura to climb up to the window and cut his way out…" the ninja responded, being very doubtful.
Dai sighed.
Sasuke looked up at Dai and swallowed hard.
"Really guys. You have to have a bit more trust than that. You make me depressed that I even know you sometimes!" Dai said, turning around and continuing on his way, dragging a confused Uchiha after him.
The ninja was still gripping his arm; specifically in the spot where a deep cut was.
His pride refused to let him show it, but Sasuke was in pain.
He looked down at the hard hand and then up at the ninja it belonged to.
"You're making my cut worse…" he said plainly.
The ninja stopped for a moment and turned to face him, confused.
Sasuke shook off the ANBU's hand and pointed to the large river of blood going down his arm.
Lifting his sleeve, a large wound on his upper forearm was clearly visible.
"Oh…" Dai started, "As soon as I get you to your cell, I'll get a medic-nin to come and fix you up. You're covered in cuts…"
Sasuke nodded and continued to follow him down the hall.
A drop of blood began making its way down from his forehead and in between his eyebrows.
Sasuke quickly wiped it away before it got in his eyes.
The Uchiha had many cuts on his face… ESPECIALLY his face.
Opponents usually found it amusing when they thought about ruining his 'good looks,' thinking it might making his will to fight weaker.
Of course, he could care less.
He figured that if he had ever came back to Konoha, then he ruined 'good looks' would bring the end of his fan girls.
Presently, there was a cut across his forehead and one running in a straight line from his lip, down his chin and neck.
The largest one started at the top of his forehead, ran down, intersected with the other cut, came through his eyebrow, barely missed his left eye, and finally ended by going diagonal across his cheek and stopped to the left of his mouth.
It was painful for him to do anything; talk, walk, move, anything and everything.
He sighed.
Finally, after many turning corners and doors, they reached the cell.
Using his chakura again, the ninja opened the door.
The room was very bright, which annoyed Sasuke greatly.
"You'll be here overnight. Then we'll take you to a better room," Dai explained, "If I can't get a medic-nin in here to fix you up, you'll be taken to the hospital beforehand. Ok?"
Sasuke nodded, but hesitated to go into the room.
He even took a small step back.
"Yeah, I know," Dai continued, "It's too light in there. But we just replaced the bulbs and this is the most secure room in the headquarters. I'm afraid it's only getting worse from here…"
Sasuke lowered his head and slowly walked into the cell.
Dai watched him walk down the few steps on the side and look around the generally empty room.
Right before he closed the door, the ninja remembered something.
"Oh! Right!" Dai ran down the steps while looking for something in his pocket, "Hokage-sama told me to give you this."
He handed the Uchiha a small package that was wrapped in brown paper.
"What is it?" Sasuke asked.
Dai shrugged.
Turning, he left the room and closed the door behind him.
The traitor could hear the clicks of the locks as Dai closed him in.
Sasuke sighed and looked around the room again.
There was only a chair and an old mattress that was laid on the floor.
There were no windows, either, though that was fully expected.
But what annoyed Sasuke the most was that everything was WHITE.
The walls were white, the mattress was white, and the light just made it worse.
He was like a black dot in a world of white.
He sighed again and sat down on the mattress, examining the package.
Sasuke carefully lifted the pieces of tape, trying not to rip the brown paper.
Slipping out the contents, he found two items, a deck of cards and an envelope.
On the deck, there was a note.
It read:
Trust me, it gets boring in there… -Tsunade
Sasuke sighed, and moved to the envelope.
Carefully, again, he tore it open to find a small stack of photos.
Sasuke stiffened at first.
He didn't feel like being reminded of those wonderful times, and the time he made the worst possible mistake a person could make.
The Uchiha immediately put them down and looked away.
But… slowly… his curiosity got the better of him.
He carefully picked them up again and began flipping through them.
The first one was the oh-so-famous Team 7 picture.
The next was one of Naruto and Sakura sitting on that bench… he actually remembered taking that picture for them.
There was one overlooking all of Konoha.
One of the faces carved in the mountain side.
Another of Kakashi reading his perverted books.
Photo after photo, picture after picture, the memories of wonderful times hit Sasuke, one after another.
Suddenly, he stop flipping through them.
There was… a picture… of Sakura crying.
She obviously wasn't so happy about Naruto trying to take a picture of her like that either.
'Why is she crying? I've never seen her crying like that… except for that first mission to the Waves… on that damn bridge…' Sasuke thought, adding a sigh at the end.
There was only one left.
Sasuke slowly put down the picture of Sakura crying, though on a different pile than the rest.
Looking at the last photo, Sasuke blushed a bit.
He remembered that day very well.
"Hey there…" Sasuke said as he approached Team 7's meeting spot.
Naruto was standing there, looking annoyed.
"Where have you BEEN!! Sakura went looking for you. You're almost as late as Kakashi-sensei. WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU??"
Sasuke looked at him blankly.
"Naruto," he said.
"What?"
"Shut up."
Naruto immediately got irritated.
"WHAT DID YOU DO NOW BAKA!!" he exclaimed, "GO LOOK FOR HER!!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes and simply stated, "Fine."
Turning around, he walked through Konoha, looking for the girl who had originally went out looking for him.
He spotted her on the top of a large hill.
Sighing, he made his way to the hill, climbing up the less-steep side of it.
Sakura had her hand covering the sun that hit her eyes.
She was looking around the village, probably looking for him.
"Sakura, come on, we need to go to training…" Sasuke said to her, sounding half bored, half annoyed.
She quickly spun around, exclaiming, "Sasuke! I've been looking everywhere for you!"
But… she spun too fast.
She began losing her balance.
"Sakura! Be careful! You're close to the edge!!" He exclaimed, all in vain.
He ran towards her, his hands quickly gripping hers.
But it was too late.
Soon, both of them were almost off the edge, the only thing holding them up were Sasuke's underweight body.
But that wasn't enough.
The two teammates came tumbling down the cliff side of the hill.
"I'm… sorry…" Sakura mumbled before fainting from fear.
Sasuke tried his best to keep his cool.
He pulled her close to him and tried to concentrate his chakura in his feet.
However, he had underestimated the amount of time he had to stop the dropping, and they hit the ground just as his chakura was getting fired up.
He felt something cut into his back, and a river of blood made its way down his face.
Sasuke felt himself fall unconscious, but he quickly pulled himself together and sat up.
He could feel the blood running down his back, and he looked around for Sakura.
She laid next to him, still out, and a small bruise on her cheek.
"S… Sakura… w…. wake up… are… are you ok…?" He muttered, using all of his energy to shake her shoulder.
He heard some rapid footsteps echo through his sore head, but he didn't seem to notice them fully.
Sakura slowly opened her eyes.
Noticing Sasuke bleeding, she immediately sat up and exclaimed, "OH MY GOD! SASUKE! ARE YOU OK?"
The Uchiha could feel his heart calm down.
Slowly, he pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her.
"So… you're ok… good…" he mumbled into her ear.
"Sasuke, your back is bleeding, and you have a cut on your head. We need to get you to the hospital before it gets worse!" Sakura continued.
Suddenly, Naruto and Kakashi ran up to them.
A few ANBU members accompanied them.
One of the ANBU helped Sakura up while the other two pulled Sasuke up to his feet.
Naruto said something stupid, and Sakura laughed and went to hug him.
Sasuke felt himself fall forward.
The last thing he remembered was someone catching him before he hit the ground.
He was pulled up onto one of the ANBU's backs and they took him to the hospital.
Along the way, he could hear the others talking.
"Kakashi-sensei, is Sasuke going to be ok? He looked like he was in a lot of pain…" Sakura said, sounding worried.
"Don't worry," Kakashi responded, "But it looks like there were some rocks or something at the bottom. Sasuke's back looks pretty cut-up. Your lucky he was there, you would've been hurt way worse than just a bruise to the cheek…."
Their voices quickly faded away, Sasuke's concussion making him pass out.
Sasuke slowly moved his hand, reached up, and scratched the tight bandage that was wrapped around his head.
"Sasuke! Stop that!" a voice from the side yelled.
His hand was pulled down quickly.
The Uchiha sighed and opened his eyes.
Sakura was sitting next to him, looking ticked off.
Immediately, she realized that he was awake and got herself together.
"Sasuke! Are you feeling ok? Man, I was so scared…" she exclaimed to him.
He unconsciously tried to sit up, instantly getting help from the girl.
"Are you ok?" he asked her when he noticed the bandage on her cheek.
"Sasuke! I'm just FINE!! Thanks to you!"
She hugged him gently, knowing the pain that was in his back right now.
"Thank you Sasuke. You saved my life…" she said in his ear.
Slowly, because of the pain, he returned the hug, twirling her hair around his finger.
Strange tears started to run down her face.
Sasuke quickly whispered in her ear, "Please don't cry…"
Sakura answered, "Heh, I'm happy… I'm happy you're ok…"
Sasuke put his chin over her head and continued to play with her hair.
And CLICK!
That's what the picture was.
Sasuke, sitting in a hospital bed, hugging and comforting a crying Sakura, who was too happy to see him awake.
Sasuke smiled.
That was one of the fondest memories he had.
He took that one and placed it at the edge of the bed.
He took the rest of the pictures and put them back in the envelope.
The special photo was placed on top of the envelope, though not inside.
Taking the deck of cards out, he quickly tried to remember some card games he could play by himself.
'Let's see… there's the wish one…' Sasuke thought, 'How did you play that? Oh yeah... you make a wish, or if you want to know if something will happen, then you lay the cards out in a triangle, the rows overlapping the previous row. Then you start flipping through the remaining cards and remove the cards that fall in order as you go. If you can get the whole triangle gone before you finish flipping through the leftovers, then your wish will come try, or that something you wanted to know if would happen would."
He quickly laid out the cards.
"I want to know…." Sasuke thought out loud, "If Sakura still loves me…"
He quickly made the triangle smaller and smaller until he won.
Sasuke smiled to himself.
"Now I wanna know… If I'll become a ninja again…"
Again, he won.
"Will Konoha accept me?"
Winner!
He continued to ask question after question, winning one after another.
Slowly, sleepiness was getting him, though he didn't let himself sleep.
He spent the whole night, his cards the only entertainment.
#
I hope you all enjoyed that! Next chapter, coming soon!
Sakura 8D