One Step Closer

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…to the edge, and I'm about to break.

Sasuke shoved the Kusanagi sword into Sakura's stiff hands and she grasped it tightly. The flames around them grew hotter and hotter, the white Zetsu just outside shying away from the flames but never giving up trying to pass them. Sasuke cut his thumb deeply with a kunai and drew a large circle on the ground around them. His hair, slightly longer than usual, shifted around him as he quickly set whatever he was planning to work. The Zetsu around them seemed to have doubled, all around now nothing of the clearing was visible.

"S-Sasuke-kun!"

Suddenly he was in front of her, grabbing her shoulders painfully and staring down at her.

"Fix this, Sakura."

"What are you talking about?"

His grip tightened around her. "You're the only one who can do it."

"Do what? What am I supposed to do with this?!"

Sasuke looked down at his Kusanagi sadly. "If you can't stop me. Use it." his eyes traced the scars on her face before he stepped away.

The blood circle began to glow with his chakra and a foreboding feeling set into her heart. "What are you doing?"

"It's ironic that his jutsu will be the one to save us."

Sasuke slammed his palm into the ground and Sakura fell to her knees. The flames around them began to dim slowly and she gave a frantic cry.

Sasuke was in front of her again.

"It's a space-time jutsu. It will be painful," Sasuke spoke urgently, staring into her eyes. "Use this." he tapped the diamond-shaped seal on her forehead and it was then that Sakura's molecule's seemed to be fighting against her very frame. A terrible scream ripped from her throat and she doubled over trying to hold herself together, the sword clutched to her chest, her hands unwilling to release it. There was a wetness dripping from her nose and by now her entire body felt like it was vibrating. Sakura's teeth grinded together and she managed to squeeze her eyes open just a fraction. The flames were gone, Sasuke was on his knees in front of the man she was somehow - supposed to stop and there was a Zetsu reaching for her at the exact moment that she

..

…

disappeared. The spot where she lay holding no evidence that she had once been there.

Chapter 1 - By Myself

"I can't hold on,

To what I want when I'm stretched so thin,

It's all too much to take in,

I can't hold on,

To anything watching everything spin,

With thoughts of failure sinking in."

Sakura hit the ground hard, first on all fours and then collapsing completely. She lay there for a long time, covered in slime and shaking. She was freezing, despite the hot sun shining down on her, and she felt drained, utterly drained. The Kusanagi was clutched tightly in her hand. Sakura's eyes stared at it for a long time, imagining Sasuke on his knees like that, his shoulders tight. Defeated. She pulled the sword closer and hugged it to her.

"Get up," she groaned, her voice barely leaving her throat. "Get. Up." this time she pushed herself up, arms shaking beneath her weight but Sakura managed to get into a sitting position. First, she released the regeneration jutsu, immediately feeling the wonderful healing, a pleasant kind of pain throughout her body, and Sakura sat calmly - feeling power returning to her body. She flexed her slime-covered hands and gagged at the gooey feeling between her fingers. She gave both hands a few violent shakes, hearing the slime plop onto the ground. The seal on her forehead retracted and Sakura shook her long hair out, pulling the slime out in disgusting heaps. She grabbed the sword and stood. Sakura looked around, the area looked vaguely familiar but with the world so vastly changed within a year and a half she wasn't sure where Sasuke had sent her but from the temperature alone and her surroundings, Sakura had to say she was in the Fire Country. Trusting her gut instinct, she stepped forward and proceeded through the woods. First, she needed to get this slime off of her and then she needed to find a hood. She couldn't just go around looking like a scarred Haruno Sakura. It wasn't hard to miss a pink-haired, green-eyed kunoichi in the Fire Country. Frankly, the woods all looked the same - not that it mattered which direction she went. Sakura didnt even know when she was, at what point in time did she arrive, exactly? The possibilities concerning their enemy was endless, really. Hours later, Sakura reached the main road. It was empty, so she stuck to the treeline and followed along it until, eventually she saw a family on the road. They looked calm and unhurried, not at all like there was a war going on. So, maybe this was before the war. Sakura had a startling fear that Sasuke may have transported her to their early Team 7 days, but she quickly dismissed the thought. Stepping out and asking the family what the date was, covered in slime and dirt seemed utterly crazy so Sakura dismissed the thought and followed behind them, out of hearing distance, for hours. Eventually the trees stopped at a small village, which was where Sakura stopped. She had no money to pay for inn services, no money at all. The only things she had was the gross clothes on her back and Sasuke's sword. She looked down at it and her grip around it tightened before she opted for going around the small town. The sun had long since set and it was easier for Sakura to move around undetected, in the shadows. Around the back of the town she found a natural hot springs. The water was scalding hot, coming down from the mountain. Sakura stripped first, after creating a small camp fire and washed her clothing in the water before hanging them on a branch close enough to the fire before she stepped into the hot water herself, washing the slime from her skin before catching sight of her reflection on the moonlight-lit water. She swallowed, eyes tracing the scar on her left cheekbone, the went from the edge of her cheekbone down towards her nose and the other one, at the right corner of her mouth…all the way down to her jaw. They were noticeable, definitely the first thing you saw when you looked at her. Sakura turned her eyes away and leaned back in the water, washing her hair, staring up at the Fire Country stars. There was a reason Sasuke sent her to this time. She was smart, he knew it, and he knew that she could figure it out. Sakura just wished that his faith in her wasn't misplaced.

x-x-x-x-

The next morning right before sunrise, Sakura set out again, Kusanagi in hand. She's ripped a strip of fabric from her shirt and tied her long hair into a high pony tail, so it was out of her face. She'd liked to keep it down before, to hide the scars on her face, but the thought of Sasuke's sacrifice to send her here...made the scars seem less important to her. Not that she planned on having anyone see her, she wasn't a shinobi for nothing, after all.

Again, she followed the road and within hours, she knew exactly where she was. Finding the Daimyo's village had set her on the right path towards her home and feeling a sliver of hope sneaking into her heart Sakura turned east, rushing through the trees. It took her a maybe half a day to reach Konoha's border. The defenses were down for some reason and it made Sakura slow down considerably. The closer she got to Konoha, the more she began to hear his name. Naruto. Naruto. Naruto. Konoha's Great Hurricane. Hearing his name brought tears to her eyes but Sakura bit them back, she couldn't focus on him right now.

Her heart began a strange tight beating when the broken walls came into view. Sakura hid the sword in a jutsu that she would summon when she needed it. She didn't need people ID-ing her with a traitor's sword. After hours of scoping out Konoha's defenses - Sakura jumped the wall. The great city was gone with rebuilding efforts already underway, not like right after Orochimaru's attack. No, this time, everything was gone. Tents were up everywhere. Sakura swallowed. This was right after Pain's attack. Why would Sasuke send her back this far? Maybe there was a fault in the casting of the jutsu? He had been under a lot of pressure...but no. This was Sasuke. He'd known exactly what he was doing.

Sakura slinked behind the tents and tried to remember which one had been her's. She'd been in the medical tents most days after the attack ended. Her tent had been set up somewhere close for convenience, since Naruto's had been close by too. Shinobi and townsfolk were all around, talking and it was there the entire time. Naruto's name. Everywhere. It drove her crazy. If he was Konoha's Great Hurricane, she was definitely Konoha's Great Failure. And it killed her. Because there was nothing more true.

Sakura caught sight of a medical ninja whose name she'd long since forgotten since the girl had died, and followed behind her, skulking behind the tents until she was lead to where the medical area had been set up, or well – where she had set it up after the attack. How the hell had she forgotten this? Of course she would have set it up in the old training fields. Sakura moved past the rows of medical tents and eventually, she found her own and slipped in past the flap. There was no one inside and after running a quick check of the supplies she had stored up, which wasn't much since she'd taken most of it to the injured, Sakura flipped open the trunk and pulled out the travelling cloak. It wasn't stealing if she owned it. Or her past self owned it. Whatever. It wasn't stealing.

She threw it over her shoulders and flipped the hood over her head before closing the trunk again soundlessly, flicking the lock into place the way she usually kept it. Sakura looked around the small tent, a part of her wishing that things were still this simple. And when Akatsuki attacking your village is simple it doesn't mean much.

With a sigh, she stepped out of the tent, but she didnt make it two steps before something sharp pressed into her back through the cloak.

"Identify yourself."

Sakura's eyes widened. Oh, shit. She knew that voice. Kakashi-sensei!

Sai stepped forward, just a few feet from her and Sakura ducked her head down.

"What's going on here?" a voice asked, her own, but not from her lips. Shit. Sakura spun around, grabbing Kakashi's wrist and slamming a palm into his chest - sending him flying back and into her past self. Green eyes widened in shock, a smooth and unmarred face was seen before Kakashi hit her. Sakura spun around, Sai was there, sword drawn and Sakura summoned the Kusanagi to her in a puff of smoke, drawing it swiftly, blocking Sai's attack before launching her own. He blocked it and Sakura grinned beneath the hood.

"That is the correct way to block my attack." she said, mocking the tone that Sasuke had used.

Sai's eyes widened and he faltered, just a bit, but it was all Sakura needed, she delivered a swift kick to his chest with enough power to send him flying back and when Sakura turned again, the pink haired kunoichi was behind her who let out a gasp, "That's Sasuke-kun's..." her eyes on the sword.

Sakura lifted her head, just enough so that it could be seen that she wasn't Sasuke. Her past self took a shocked step back, shaking her head as if trying to clear some cobwebs and when she looked up again, Sakura, the figure in her travelling cloak, was gone.

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My new story is up! It will take in the usual Monday spot after Dark Paradise has finished!

Reviews will be adored to bits, let me know all of your thoughts on this story, I'd love to know what you think!

Zana-Lee

xoxo