Disclaimer: :sigh: I don't own Naruto. There. I said it.

Author's Notes: I'm new here. I've never written any kind of story in my LIFE let alone felt any want/need to publish ANYTHING. Yet, I'm here... and I'm trying. Please do review; I'm more than open to constructive criticisms.

I don't plan for this fic to be long. I'm estimating maybe 3 chapters or so. I highly doubt i'll be going any higher than 5.

DREAMS

1. To Suna

From a distance, wisps of pastel pink seem to glide through the branches among the sparse trees near the edge of Konoha territory and the Wind Country. Upon closer observation, the streaks of color belonged to a petite figure of a young female clad in a sleeveless rose top and a khaki-colored skirt with black shorts underneath. Red and black elbow and shin guards, along with fingerless gloves and a forehead protector completed her outfit.

Haruno Sakura continued weaving through the trees before stopping on a relatively high branch overlooking the changing landscape where the trail of trees and tall grass ended and drier grounds began. She was on a simple solo mission to drop off medical supplies to the guards some twenty miles from the gates of Konoha, help heal any of them who were injured due to the short confrontation with Sound the day before, and then advance into Suna for a brief training session with the Sand medics.

Tsunade saw it fit that her best student should learn from many sources other than her. Among other excuses, the fifth hokage was also starting to run out of jutsus to have Sakura perfect, so assigning the kunoichi study time in the allied country gave Tsunade a break from training her.

Sakura made herself comfortable on her perch - her back leaning on the trunk, one leg bent for an arm to rest on while the other hung over the branch. She just finished delivering the remaining herbs to the guards closest to the border, and now she was taking her time getting to the desert. She figured the night that came with cooler temperatures would be a suitable time for her to manage the desert as opposed to the blazing heat during the day. Besides, there really was no rush to get there; her shishou not-so-subtly hinted that to her. She fully understood how much work load Tsunade accumulated during the three months Sakura practically kidnapped her from her office to a small clearing and demanded that she train her harder than before.

In those three months, Sakura pushed herself to her limit. She trained six days a week, letting her body rest on the seventh. Even on that one day of rest, she crammed her brain with information from the books and scrolls Tsunade gave her to study. Heck, Tsunade had to kick Sakura out of office too many times and scolded her for taking so many extra unassigned books when she should have been allowing her body to recover from rough training.

Tsunade wasn't really mad at Sakura. In fact, she was proud that her pupil had as much determination as Naruto and was inching her way to surpass the hokage herself. She was just concerned that Sakura would get sick from over-exertion.

Sakura drew in a deep breath as her gaze lingered on the warm sunset and her thoughts drifted to her recurring dreams. She'd been having the same dreams for years, granted it wasn't the same thing each night, but it came to her often enough to grab her attention.

In her dreams, she was standing somewhere in the darkness – not the eerie kind, but a comfortable darkness. There would be some sort of sparkling objects floating around her and she'd just stand and watch them. Then, the objects would slowly move and accumulate in front of her, where they'd obscure a figure behind them. There was someone behind those objects, and she'd reach out to them. She'd always be so close to touch them, but her dream would abruptly end there.

Sakura believed that dreams spoke in riddles; they were her subconscious thoughts that manifested in her dreams. But she never had enough time to analyze her dreams, so the illusive figure remained unidentifiable.

Maybe it was her father?

She'd never seen him in person. The pictures in the photo albums her mother kept weren't enough for her to actually visualize him. Maybe that's why his form was distorted by those sparkling things. But then again, who says it was the late Haruno-san?

'Could it be Sasuke?' She asked herself.
She could see him so clearly in her mind – his raven hair spiked in daring angles, those meticulous eyes, and cool expression. It wasn't that she was still infatuated with him. She grew out of that stage long before. She just missed him as a teammate. Granted she never actually bonded with him the way Naruto and he did, but they were teammates nonetheless. Sakura knew that one way or another, Sasuke cared for her too.
How she missed him.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a cool breeze that gave her arms goose bumps. She rubbed at them briskly and noted that the sun was just about done setting and the first stars were appearing rather quickly.

"Well", she told herself, "time to head off."

Sakura got up from her sitting position, smoothed out her shirt and skirt, and leaped off the branch onto the tall grass. As she sped through the grass that led to the barren lands, her mind wandered off to her dreams again.

"Who are you...?" Sakura mumbled.

Tsunade told her to bring four containers of water.

Sakura brought three.

'Idiot.', Sakura scolded herself. There she was in the middle of the desert, traveling at a slower speed than what she started with, sweating under the sun, with barely four gulps of water left in her third canteen. Sakura narrowed her eyes in search of the buildings of Suna in the horizon. The hazy desert atmosphere made it difficult to distinguish anything that far, so it was unclear whether Suna was just in view or not.

"Dammit", Sakura considered the latter. "If I can't even see it from this far, how much more do I have left to go?"

She'd passed the guards patrolling the far vicinities of Suna hours ago. Glancing behind her, she could still see the mile marker from where the guards stood. During the sun's peak hours, Sakura spent her time hydrating under the man-made shade by the mile marker. It was then that Sakura's memory registered what the sign read.

"Suna - 17", she grunted. That meant 17 more miles to the damn city. She hoped her body would allow a few more miles with the remaining water to reach Suna.

Tsunade told her to bring a hooded coat.

Sakura brought Naruto's jacket.

'You really are an idiot', Sakura scolded herself yet again. The sun sank below the horizon too soon for Sakura's liking and the cold temperature that the desert brought in was not as forgiving as the one the first night near the border provided. As much as she loved wearing Naruto's stuff, she cursed it now; sure it covered her upper body, but what about her legs? How was Naruto's jacket the first thing she picked up on her way out of the house before leaving for Suna anyway?

Sakura had asked Naruto to spar with her when Tsunade had a mandatory meeting. Their sparring session lasted longer than expected and by the time they agreed to call it a day, it was two hours past dinner time. It was cool during that April night, and with the sweat that collected on Sakura's body, she shivered slightly. This didn't go unnoticed to the blonde, and he unzipped his jacket and covered Sakura's form with it. It wasn't until the next day that Sakura woke up in her bed that she realized she still had his jacket. In fact, she slept with it on.

She kept forgetting to give it back to him.

A week later, Tsunade assigned her to Suna. She almost forgot her shishou's reminder about a coat, and Naruto's was conveniently ready on her bed.

So here she was, feeling the harsh cold air of the desert on her legs and face, with three empty containers of water in her bag, and a body that was begging to be replenished. Silly her for thinking she'd make it to Sunagakure in less than the four days Tsunade estimated.

Sakura was seriously dehydrated at this point and was more than worried that she'd collapse any moment now. She'd used up a generous amount of chakra healing the Konoha guards by the border, and she hadn't bothered sleeping since then. Hopefully, adrenaline and fear of fainting in the middle of the desert would get her body through this?

Sakura's left foot gave up on her and she slipped on her next landing. She fell unceremoniously on the now cool sand, and she stayed there inhaling and exhaling deeply to clear her dizzy head and catch up with rapidly beating heart.
'What the hell…?' Sakura thought. 'Shouldn't there be another post somewhere nearby? I know I should have passed 10 miles by now.'

Sakura suddenly tensed, her senses picking up unknown chakra sources nearby. Due to Tsunade's training, Sakura was able to feel a person's killing intent, and right now, it was very present. It couldn't be Sand; they knew she was coming to their city. Tsunade sent a message to the Kazekage informing him of Sakura's visit. The two guards she passed earlier wouldn't attack her. The Kazekage notified them she'd be passing, and if they had planned on killing her, they would have done so earlier.

Three were coming her way.

Sound. Great. Just what she needed.

There were small battles between Sound and the village of Konoha and Sand for years. Attacks were quite common nowadays. Sakura mentally cursed her weakened body for not sensing them much earlier. Her mind started strategizing for the inevitable confrontation.

The three Sound nins slowed to a halt as they came by the kunoichi's form. Sakura feigned unconsciousness while her hand clasped a kunai ready and gathered chakra in her good foot and free hand.

One of the nins loomed over her figure to look closer at Sakura's forehead protector.
"Well what d'ya know? We've got ourselves here a Leaf."
The other two sniggered. They were assigned too ambush Sand nins within miles of Suna and take one hostage. They already captured a guard a few hours ago, but when they sensed another source of chakra speeding towards the city, they figured they'd have some fun and kill this one too. How fortuitous it is that a Leaf nin lay there for the taking. They needed a hostage from Konoha anyway. Images of extra pay flashed through their minds as the nin bent down to throw the kunoichi over his shoulder.

Just as he hauled the girl's arm to turn her over and pick her up, Sakura's eyes shot open and drove her kunai deep into the nin's face. She pulled it back immediately, throwing the now bloody kunai to the furthest nin. The third Sound nin charged at her fast, and Sakura reacted with a punch that he barely dodged. Sakura successfully swung her leg straight into his ribcage, and spun around to meet a katana that managed to pierce a few inches into her left shoulder. The second Sound nin holding the weapon smirked at Sakura's surprised look, but froze when the kunoichi's form poofed and revealed a knapsack in her place.

Sakura used what was left of her Chakra in one punch that sent the nin flying a couple meters away. The sound of facial bones crushing echoed into the desert air as Sakura's exhausted body gave up on her. She collapsed face front onto the sand, her breathing uneven. Sakura coughed and struggled to ease her lungs.

'Dammit!' She cursed to herself for the second time that night.
How the hell had she messed up this simple mission so damn much? She hadn't anticipated using up three-fourths of her chakra healing Konoha guards and didn't expect the desert's weather to be so harsh. Furthermore, she didn't count on a Sound attack so soon, especially since Sound suffered a good amount of injury from their mini-battle with Konoha.
'Should've taken that extra day off' Inner Sakura scolded.

Sakura's mind snapped back to alertness as two of the attackers recovered from her hits and again made their way towards her, weapons in tow. There was no way they'd fall for another surprise attack. Not that they had much to worry about -- Sakura used up her remaining chakra in that last punch.

"Little bitch", said the nin with a now disfigured, bloody nose and a sickening purple-green bruise on his broken cheek bones. He yanked Sakura up by the throat and pulled back his free hand for a punch. "Don't worry. I won't kill you. We'll make sure they torture you good."
The nin sneered, but his face was so distrorted that it looked like he was simply baring his teeth at her.
Sakura waited for the punch, shutting her eyes in the process and taking in a deep breath to ready herself.

But the hit never came.

Sakura chanced a look and saw that her captor was looking past her with wide eyes. His other companion's facial expression was pretty much the same, and Sakura realized there was someone standing a few feet behind her. She wondered if the presence behind her was an ally. For all she knew, it was just some random psychopath on a killing spree.
Not a moment later, the hand that grasped her throat was suddenly gone and she found herself lying on the sand once again, her gaze towards the sky. She didn't even have the strength to turn her head and see what was happening. It wasn't like she wanted to see anyway, for she cringed as she heard the nins' voices scream in agony.

And then there was silence.

Sakura started getting worried that she'd be next – whatever happened to those nins. Despite her instinct to get up and defend herself, her body was too tired to come up with some form of plan to get out of this situation, let alone fight, and she felt her eyes closing, consciousness slipping away.

The last thing she saw were sparkling dust-like objects hovering above her and her hand as she tried to reach out to it…

special thanks to my cousin Liezl for helping with the manual beta-ing

and another thing, the idea of those floating glittery crap..well, basically the whole dream sequence is based on the naruto ending with "parade" as a bg song. In it, Sakura's dreaming just as I described in fic, and then she bolts up from her bed and looks around.