Never mind that he was (I mean, is) a mysterious missing nin, never mind that he'd already killed more than she would ever kill in her lifetime, never mind that he'd scarred her longtime love's life, never mind that he was supposed to be dead… the first thought that slithered its way into Sakura's mind upon seeing Itachi Uchiha again happened to be: He's so damn hot. And that's when she knew… she was starting to go insane.
Honestly, she didn't even know where she was. All she knew was how it all started; she was on a mission to go find a missing amulet. Lame, right? Well, this was after the greatest war the world had ever seen. Naruto had become the great hero and landed the title 'Hokage' of the ever-victorious Konoha. Since then, all was right in the world- more or less.
Sadly, this time of peace also rendered ninjas almost completely useless. Even ANBU-member Sakura Haruno resorted to A-class missions to keep her boredom at bay.
On this particular mission, she had lost her way somehow. The amulet's high-class thief had escaped to a faraway village whose name was too long to remember. The team- sadly no other former member of team seven among them- had had a long way to go and most were getting quite lazy. Perhaps the insignificance of the mission explained their lack of determination.
Only Sakura, being who she was, wanted to get the job done as soon as possible. She didn't realize, however, that she had gotten so far ahead that she couldn't feel any of her teammate's chakras. Sighing, she decided to take in more closely her strange surroundings.
Around the unusually large tree she sprinted onto were trees of crimson-colored leaves. It was as if only this small patch of forest was experiencing autumn, in summer. The sight stood out like a sore thumb among trees whose shade could make day into night. Only this little spot allowed the soft rays of sunshine to bounce off Sakura's skin, reminding her of how pale was.
Ninjas have no time to be vain, Sakura reminded herself disapprovingly and she finally noticed how ancient the tree she stood on looked. Taking a closer look she realized that it wasn't really old- it was more like the words mangled, distorted, vandalized.
As she let her fingertips gently graze the dark, scarred bark, a thought came to her. When something doesn't seem right… it may be the work of genjutsu.
She put her hands together and muttered a single word. "Kai." And the world turned black.
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The strangest thing she ever experienced was waking up in a standing position. The realization left her falling down on hard, sand-colored, brick road. "Aaah!"
When she finally stood up, disoriented and rubbing her sore bottom, she saw the fountain she was sleeping next to. It was gorgeous in the romantic kind of way. The centerpiece was like glasses of wine pilled so that the smallest was on top. Water cascading from the top to bottom glass eventually reached a pool surrounded by glass statues of mermaids who looked like they sang water into the bottom-most, largest pool whose rim was suitable for sitting on.
This fountain was special- not only was it made of glass, what looked like a diamond surface under the water it made it reflect so many beautiful colors.
"Well hello there!" Sakura startled, jumped slightly at the sound of a deep, masculine voice calling her name. She looked around and saw that she was in a village full of people making their way through busy bricked streets. But she couldn't find the- "I'm right behind the fountain, honey."
The water distorted the glass fountain's transparency but Sakura saw a tall figure behind it. She waved gingerly, not quite knowing what to do. He made his way to her side and she saw that he was middle-aged with dark brown hair and gray irises. He also had a wise air about him and a kind-looking face. Of course, looks could be more than deceiving. She knew from first-hand experiences that the most handsome angels… There's no need to be historical, she told herself as she faced this stranger cautiously.
"You have no idea how you got here, you figured out it was a genjutsu in the forest, and you're wondering if this is all just a dream." It was a statement, and he sounded like he was used to saying it. "Me too, at first."
She didn't know whether to believe him, but figured that it didn't really matter.
"Don't worry, you're safe here and you'll soon be granted a wish…" She raised a brow at that last word. A wish? Well, I certainly deserve one after all this weirdness. "…but you'll have to find out some things about yourself first."
"Why? I've no regrets, if that's what this is about. In fact, I'm probably the most stable out of all my friends!" Sakura insisted in indignation.
"The fact that you're saying that shows how wrong you are." He said wisely, kindly.
"Well, I- I-" She sputtered stubbornly and he laughed.
"It's okay, Sakura." She was stunned at his use of her name- she didn't give it to him yet. "You'll have to do this whether you like it or not; you can't exactly escape easily. In fact, you'll find that even the most powerful genjutsu users are trapped here."
"Great… now that you've cleared that all up, I better start working on it and-" Sakura started walking away but he grabbed the back of her top and set her down next to him again.
"Not so fast. I'll let you do that, but first you have to make a wish." He gestured to the fountain.
"How?"
"Just think of your wish and throw anything you have into the fountain."
"But I don't have anything on me except what I'm wearing." She argued.
"That's true." He was grinning.
She stared into the water and saw her forehead protector in the colorful reflection. "Oh." I wish I was home. She dropped her forehead protector into the water and watched it disappear before her eyes.
"Okay!" The man said brightly. "Now you can do whatever you want. Have fun!"
Sakura just looked somewhere else for a second but when she looked back, the man was gone. Now what? He had gone and taken all her rebelliousness with him. She contented herself to sitting down for a bit. The village matched the fountain. It was quaint and romantic and it had an old 'feel' to it.
The villagers looked like they came from different villages in the 'real world,' not that Sakura knew which one was the real world anymore. But Konoha had felt the most real to her by a mile. This place was more like a fairytale waiting to happen. It was beautiful, peaceful, orderly… Kami, I can hear the birds singing and shit, Sakura mused.
She looked around again at the people passing by to figure out why they all looked so busy. It seemed like they were all trying to find someone. Now and then the random passerby would look into the fountain, scratch his or her chin in deep thought and continue on walking briskly to another destination. What is it with this fountain? Sakura looked into its depths, searching for an answer.
What she saw was not in the water but an image reflected off one of the 'wine glasses' on the centerpiece. It was Itachi Uchiha, and Sakura felt like blacking out again. Is this what the strange guy meant by 'strongest genjutsu users' trapped here? This is not funny! He's supposed to be dead! Sasuke would… He's so damn hot.