Summary: She was gone & he blamed himself. Perhaps if he had done something differently. Now they search. They follow the broken trail of memories. They follow her ghost, her image, her child. They follow in hopes of finding her again. But what will they find? With time she loses a little bit more of herself, with time she begins to forget, receding into herself, where no one can reach her.
A/N: This is an AU story. The characters might be OOC but that's done intentionally :)
ENJOY!
EVE
The exasperated blond huffed as he hurried after his best friend, "You can't keep doing this teme!"
The bar door swung shut just as he slipped past.
His raven haired best friend said nothing. He continued walking, taking purposefully long strides away from the annoying blond. He clenched and unclenched his bleeding fist. The pain didn't bother him, in fact, he barely felt it.
The blond groaned and reached forward to halt his friend.
With a hand on his shoulder, the callous man turned his cold gaze to the man that was holding him in place.
"Don't give me that shit, teme! It doesn't work on me!" The blond scoffed and rolled his eyes. Apparently the blond had become immune to his cold gaze.
There was a glint of red in his eyes before he looked away. He dug into his coat pocket and produced a small case of pure silver. A cigarette lay between his lips, and an ebony lighter lay in one hand. He lit the cigarette and took a quick swig.
The blond eyed his best friend. He had picked up that habit when she disappeared.
Maybe his friend didn't want to admit it, but he knew that he was trying to stay in control.
That occurrence at the bar had been another indication that he was slowly losing his cool. The blond knew that he blamed himself for her disappearance.
He recalled the last few minutes in the bar. They had been following a lead that ended up nowhere. Both men were sitting at the bar and when a cute, blonde haired, emerald eyed woman, sitting just a table away, yelled out against the man that was harassing her. Sasuke rose from his seat nonchalantly, walked towards them, and struck the man in the face with his fist.
Before anyone could do anything, or say anything, the handsome man was already heading for the door as if nothing had happened. The blond who had looked on with shock rose from his seat and hurried after him.
Maybe Sasuke didn't like men harassing women, but Naruto knew better. That woman had those same big, emerald eyes that she had. The blond who had looked on with astonishment had risen from his seat and hurried after him.
Now he eyed him carefully.
"Look teme, maybe we should stop. It has already been four years." His best friend finished his cigarette and snuffed it out with his shoe. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned to face his friend. He still said nothing. "Maybe she got tired of putting up with our shit, maybe she wanted something different. You know, she always had a hard time getting the job done. She wasn't cut out to be a killer, like us."
The raven haired man closed his eyes and sighed. He tilted his head back but said nothing.
"She always wanted to be a doctor, you know. Whenever we had to work overtime on a job she'd talk about Tsunade and everything that she was teaching her." The blond smiled at the memory.
Sasuke couldn't hear him anymore. His mind had drifted, to his own memory. He could remember the lingering taste of vanilla on her lips, and the feminine smell of her shampoo on her hair. Her laugh, light and carefree rang in his ears. 'Sasuke.' He never got to tell her that he had liked the sound of his name on her lips.
He opened his eyes abruptly and ran his fingers through his hair, tearing the memory asunder. "I got a lead."
The blond looked at his friend, a glimmer of worry in his blue eyes.
"Teme, we're chasing a ghost." His best friend shook his head slowly, his blue gaze filled with grief.
"Let me finish." He turned away and continued, "If this goes nowhere we'll let it go."
The blond was once more surprised, "Are you sure?" His best friend nodded slowly.
"We- I have to let it go." He still blamed himself and his best friend could see that. That was partially why he had been so determined to find her.
"Alright, we follow one last lead and then we let her go."
The silence that followed was broken by the giggling of two drunken girls that emerged from the bar. One of the girls spotted them and whispered to her friend before both of them fell into a fit of laughter.
Naruto groaned as both women drunkenly stumbled towards them. To his horror Sasuke had already started walking towards the car. "Ey, teme! Don't leave me here to handle that!" He pointed an accusing finger at the women, who were still giggling like girls.
With another groan he escorted both women to a nearby bench. He called a cab, waited, paid, and hurried after his supposed best friend.
When he slid into the driver's seat he was seething with irritation. "First you leave me with the tab and then you bail and leave me to deal with drunken women! Do you know how dangerous that is?! And I thought we were friends!" The blond reached for his seat belt rather forcefully and listened as the car roared to life.
With a sigh he pulled away from the parking lot and onto the empty street.
"We're heading north, towards downtown Konoha." The blond grumbled to himself but did as he was told.
After a thirty minute drive the car pulled up across from a small pawn shop. The shop was closed and Naruto turned to his partner with exasperation. "Really teme?!"
"Shut up, dobe."
"Why couldn't we just come in the morning?! It's three in the morning!"
As Naruto whined a hooded figure emerged from a street corner. The hooded figure looked around casually and continued walking. When he was before the pawn shop he stopped.
"Are you kidding me?!" The hooded figure groaned and wrapped two pale hands over the bars blocking the entrance into the shop. He shook them rather forcefully. He was too caught up in the moment to notice the two men watching him from the car.
The boy kicked the bars in his way and grumbled to himself. He covered his face with both hands and yelled out his frustrations.
Naruto laughed to himself. He found it rather funny. Sasuke, on the other hand, didn't. Sasuke watched the boy carefully. There was something familiar about him but he couldn't quite place it.
The boy sighed and scratched his head. That movement caused his hood to fall back and both men were greeted with a shock of pink. He was actually a she.
"Did you see that?!" Naruto gaped at the empty seat beside him and the door that had been left ajar. "Wait for me!" He yelled, even though he knew that Sasuke could no longer hear him.
When the hooded figure noticed the man running towards her she sped off. But to her dismay she knew that she wouldn't be able to outrun him. He was like a shadow, slipping in and out of her line of vision as she ran.
When she turned she collided into another man. "Sakura!" The girl looked at the blond with settling discomfort. She stepped aside and collided into the man that had been chasing her. She backed away slowly.
"Who the hell is Sakura and what do you want with me?" The blond frowned and scratched his head, as if trying to understand something.
"Sasuke, she looks just like Sakura but it can't be her. This girl, is well, just a girl. She can't be older than thirteen."
The girl scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at the blond man.
"Who are you?" The blond asked tentatively, as if afraid that he would frighten her. The girl said nothing but defiantly looked away, that is until someone approached her.
When the man named Sasuke walked forward, emerging from the shadows the girl gulped. She shifted her weight from one leg to the other and her glare wavered.
He eyed her silently and she began to feel very self-conscious.
"We're looking for someone." The blond began. "She looks just like you."
The girl rolled her eyes, "You mean I look just like her." The girl cursed herself at her mistake. The raven haired man took a menacing step forward.
"What do you know about her." It wasn't a question, oh no. Sasuke didn't ask, he demanded.
Under his cold glare the girl did the stupidest thing, she sidestepped him and ran. No one could outrun the Uchiha, absolutely no one. She barely took a few steps before she was being pulled up by the hood of her sweater.
She struggled against his hold and to her horror her cherished bracelet clattered to the floor.
The blond stepped forward and crouched down to pick up the fallen object. "Teme, look." The Uchiha looked at the object in his best friends hand and his hold tightened, if that was even possible.
"Where did you get that?" he demanded, through gritted teeth. The girl ceased her struggling and turned to look at her captor. The menacing red of his eyes turned her blood cold and sent a shiver of fear down her body.
She turned back to the blond who stood stiffly, the bracelet clenched in his fist. "I gave this to her." He whispered brokenly, but when he looked up to meet her gaze his eyes were also a menacing red.
The bracelet consisted of a simple red cord with three pendants: a circle, a swirl, and a circular fan.
The girl didn't know what to do or say so she answered his first question. She slumped defeated in his hold and sighed.
Sasuke then chose to release her.
"I'm Saki." She began.
Both men exchanged a glance.
"I don't know anything about her. All I know is that she's my mother."
"WHAT?!" Naruto exclaimed. "She can't be your mother!" The girl looked at the blond incredulously as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
One moment the blond was ready to tear her apart and the next he was acting like an outraged child.
The blond rambled on, "You're thirteen and Sakura would be twenty-five. That means…" he began counting on his fingers, "That she was twelve! Ugh GROSS!"
The girl face palmed and Sasuke's eyebrow twitched with annoyance.
"Explain." Her emerald eyes turned to the man who had spoken. His eyes were no longer a menacing red, which she was thankful for.
Hesitantly she pulled off her oversized sweater and lifted her medium length hair. On the back of her neck was a series of numbers.
"004." Naruto lifted one eyebrow in bewilderment, "What does that have to do with Sakura."
Saki rolled her eyes, "I don't know much about it but I'm one of the five successful clones produced from the genetic makeup of Sakura Haruno."
"Are there only five of you? Where is she being kept?" The Uchiha had a calculating look in his eyes that always informed Naruto that it was time to get down to business.
The girl looked uncertain but shook her head after a while, "I don't think so. I ran away about three years ago but I'm sure that there are more of us. As for where she is being kept, I have no idea. When I woke up I was at Sound." Saki shivered at her recollection.
Sasuke stiffened and Naruto growled menacingly.
She was saying too much but for some reason she felt compelled to tell them. "She won't be there. No one has seen her. No one even knows about her, very few actually do."
Sasuke contemplated his options, he had very few. "Naruto, get the girl and let's go."
The blond looked at Saki and seemed to debate the consequences of their actions. From what Saki had told them she was a clone and had no parents. Since she was genetically engineered then she had no family, of course, excluding Sakura and the other clones.
He was sad to say that no one would be looking for her. If anyone did, it would most likely be those from the Sound. He smirked to himself; the Sound was no threat to them.
The blond nodded and gave her a small smile. The girl sighed, "Fine, I'll go with you but can I have my bracelet back?" Naruto looked at her strangely and then shook his head slowly.
"Ey," he called and Sasuke, who had been walking away, turned to look at his best friend over his shoulder. Naruto lifted his arm and threw the bracelet to Sasuke, who caught it with ease. Sasuke clutched the bracelet and stuffed it into his pocket.
"Sorry Saki, but that doesn't belong to you." For some unknown reason Saki was hurt by their actions. She didn't know that she was unprepared for what lay ahead.
As they walked to the car she looked from one to the other and an unsettling feeling began to stir within her. 'Oh, boy.' She thought as she followed after the raven haired man, her emerald gaze never leaving the back of his head.
As they walked on all three were oblivious of the woman who stirred from a deep sleep.
A/N: Well this is something new that I'm working on :) I haven't had the time or encouragement to put something out. I'm not very confident in my writing skills but I do enjoy writing :p Since I have the time I decided to give it a go :]
This story might not be for everyone.
Feedback would be appreciated :)