NORTH (xoIndigoRain)

Chapter One: Silhouettes

In the heat of battle, silence is as much an enemy as those who fight against it. Although it poses as an ally, silence inevitably seeks revenge on those who seek to destroy it. For a shinobi, breaking the silence can mean revealing one's position and laying waste to strategy. Break the silence, and everything that everything a team works comes to a crashing end. So it was silence, really, disguised within the rubble and destruction beneath the hazed glow of an autumn moon, that held all of the chips that night. The shinobi who waited for silence's reign to end simply had to count the seconds that ticked away on their watches, hoping that the silence was a good omen rather than a curse.

Although Sakura and her team had planned out this small-scale invasion for months, it would be seconds that made all of the difference in the end. They'd timed their attack down to the second, and any disruption of the silence before then meant that something had gone wrong. This, however, was not an option. They were too deep in enemy territory; too exposed… the only safety they had was in surprise and in silence.

The rosette kunoichi herself was crouched in position behind an upturned boulder, hugging the rock behind her while her eyes flashed about her surroundings. Although the stars were out in earnest, the fog characteristic of Mist and Water territory kept the light from reaching earth, making everything hazy and miserably dark. Rather than searching for faces or sudden movements, Sakura was straining to make out shapes and features of the tree line only a few meters away. She wished she could speak with her teammates, to exchange reassurances and warmth, before diving into the fray they were expecting… Unfortunately, they were scattered around the outskirts of the clearing like her, to get the best visual possible, so she would have to wait to speak with them until after.

The rosette-haired kunoichi checked her watch, pursing her lip in impatience. The clock hands seemed to slow as she tracked their movements above its face, taunting her. Ten seconds. Nine. Eight.

A slight breeze rustled through the treetops to the south, then calm silence. Seven. Six. An owl hooted somewhere in the forest behind her, followed by the flutter of a dove's wings. She saw the bird's silhouette against the cloudy sky, wondered where it was going, and why it was going at all. Five, four.

Sakura then slid a kunai, laced with poison, from the weapons pouch on her hip and adjusted her weight from one leg to the other, trying to get in some last-minute movement. Three. She turned to the giant rock she had been using as protection, charged her fingertips and feet with chakra, and clawed her way up its face.

Two. She stopped, breathed, before emerging over the top. All her training, all her prep work, had geared them for this moment. The infiltration strategy had been perfected through hours of review. They knew where the entrance was, they knew the secret pattern of movement and code needed for passage, and they knew the exact time in which they could reach it without presence of a guard. It was just a matter of waiting in the deafening silence. One.

Her muscles twitching, adrenaline pumping like fire through her veins. Go.

The kunoichi launched herself up and onto the top of the rock, emerald eyes flashing about the destroyed expanse of rubble for her teammates as she scrambled down the other side. Her heart thundered in her ears as she leaped to the ground, now completely exposed in the night, and shot out across the open clearing. She saw her target as she approached - a slightly discolored boulder with a strange design carved subtly into its surface that stood between her team and the maze of passageways below ground that would lead them to the hideout. Weeks spent collecting date, amazing research, on the secret corridors and the jutsus needed to pass into them: Almost there-

"SAKURA!"

A gut-wrenching scream pierced through the darkness. It was the voice of one of her teammates - a young and gifted kunoichi who had been hidden only a handful of meters away. Sakura shoved away the feeling of terror clawing its way up her throat as she skidded to a halt, searching frantically around for the source of the scream. Nothing, she saw nothing. Only the unchanging rubble, upturned boulders, angered rock faces…. She then heard the distinct clack of shinobi sandals on rock from the direction in which she had come, and turned to see a face she had dreaded to see.

A mist nin, his face hidden behind a swath of black cloth, had her teammate in a headlock, a long and curved blade held against the white of her exposed throat. The young kunoichi had been disarmed, her body limp and her chakra channels blocked. Her captor was a large man, the muscles in his arm bulging even through the loose fabric of his shinobi garb. Sakura tensed, lowering herself into an anticipatory crouch as her mind raced for a solution. Their plan had been foolproof; there was no way any of their positions should have been discovered...

Sakura was one of six people, including her three other teammates who had been sent with her, who knew about the mission at all. Although the description wrote that it was supposed to be a "standard" mission to recover stolen "medical supplies" from a hidden enemy base, this was merely a cover-up to hide the real reason for their infiltration: gathering intel. It was known that this particular base was used by more than just "standard" Mist thieves, and a string of missing-nin turned traitors from Konoha who had been linked to the base were of particular interest... he fact that the kunoichi had been captured was unfathomable. Of the four teammates, she had had the safest hiding place, and was supposed to be the last to enter the clearing. The capture meant that the plan had been leaked or otherwise influenced by a rat before Sakura's team had even left Konoha... It was a terrifying idea, and one that Tsunade needed to be aware of immediately...

But Sakura couldn't even be thinking of that. Survival had suddenly become the top priority, and she had to remove her team and herself from the situation immediately before Mist reinforcements came.

But where were her other teammates?!

"Haruno Sakura of the Leaf." The enemy shinobi's voice came as more of a statement than a question, dark and drawling, before the man moved and murmured something in the ear of his captive. Noiseless tears began to leak down the girl's pale face, and she fought pathetically against his vice grip, still unable to free herself. Sakura grit her teeth, curled her gloved hands into fists, and charged each up with fiery-cerulean chakra. She was not going to let this happen: it was still her mission, and she was not going down without a fight. Tsunade had put her in charge for a reason and had trusted her with the welfare of these three honorable shinobi, and she could not – would not – let them down.

"Yes, and I am not alone. Let her go, or I'll see to it that my team will kill you on the spot," she commanded. Her voice was firm, steady, laced with venomous anger... A teacher had once taught her to always use real emotions when bluffing, for it makes the liar seem more legitimate. Yet, even as she spoke with such confidence, she could feel the fear bubbling up in her gut. She had had plenty of experiences as a mission leader, but none had prepared her for this. She had never had a plan go south so quickly, and had never been faced with a hostage situation quite like this one… It was terrifying.

To her absolute horror, the man across from her began to laugh. A blood-curdling, humorless cackle that shook the pinkette to her core. As she watched, two more Mist nin appeared to his right and left, dragging the limp bodies of her other two teammates behind them. One, a brown-haired jounin whom she had long regarded as a mentor and friend, was clearly dead... the other was close to it.

"I call your bluff, Haruno Sakura. Surrender now or we'll kill this last one," taunted the first Mist nin as he finished his chuckling. He fingered the hilt of his curved blade, eyes dancing between the captive he held and the pinkette kunoichi. The other two shinobi threw the bodies of her teammates aside and advanced towards her.

"Sakura, please... please. Don't let him kill me, please, no, don't let-" her teammates shrieked, throwing her small body against her captor. Her attempts went unnoticed as the Mist nin held her to himself even more tightly. Tears tumbled down her cheeks. Sakura felt herself quivering, wholly unnerved by the gravity of it all. She could attack... but doing so would risk the life of the only teammate she had left, and wouldn't even guarantee her own safe escape. If she ran, she'd be caught, and her teammate slaughtered. Her eyes flashed around the clearing for signs of more enemy nin, and to her dismay found a handful of foreign chakra signatures were closing in from the tree line. She was surrounded and outnumbered.

The mist shinobi seemed to have noted the realization she'd come to as it played out across her expressions, for the two unoccupied ones loosened their strides as they approached her. Carefully she uncharged the chakra from her hands and rose from her defensive crouch, dropping the kunai she'd had ready to the ground as she rose her arms above her head. Her body quaked as the men reached her, but she stood tall and firm and met their eyes with her own glare of defiance. They, in turn, wrenched her arms down from the air and behind her back and threw her to her knees. They then bound her wrists with thick, chakra-infused rope and pressed a kunai to her throat... She was a captive.

"You've got what you want, now tell me... what the hell do you need us for?" Sakura's voice neither shook nor stirred, and she directed her question at the Mist nin still across from her. He was clearly the one in charge of the band, and it was he that she wanted answers from.

"Well... strictly speaking, we only need you," hissed the man. Before she could make a move, his hooked blade disappeared from sight - seamlessly into the soft flesh of his captive's throat. The girl didn't have time to protest, her face completely blank with shock. She coughed blood, a pitiful choking sound, and fell to the ground in a heap. The shinobi withdrew his blade simply, brushed it clean on the leg of his pants, and sidestepped the crimson pool that was spreading quickly near his feet. Sakura's mouth hung slightly ajar, struggling to grasp what she'd seen and to balance the overwhelming despair and shock that screamed through her head and veins.

"Y-you, you promised that..." she stuttered, looking wildly around her for any recognition of what had just taken place. Her whole body began to shake with anger as she let a new wave of chakra course through her. She shrieked something unintelligible, slammed her bound fists into the shins of her captors and launched herself to her feet. "How dare you kill them, you disgusting, piece-of-scum bastards!!" The kunoichi charged forward, but abruptly faltered. Dizziness. Overwhelming dizziness. She stumbled to the right but was able to catch herself, whirling on the men she'd knocked to the ground. They hadn't moved from where she had left them and appeared unphased by her surge of tenacity and willpower.

One of them was chuckling, and as Sakura stared, he reached into his pocket and began to wave an empty syringe in the air, pointing at her arm. She swore and, even as the whole world kept spinning, charged up her foot with chakra, about to blast a hole into the earth so large it would consume them all. They had drugged her, and she didn't know how long she had. Seconds, maybe minutes… once she was captured, chances of escaping were minimal. Her only hope was to destroy what she could before the end. Her vision was blurring, going dark. As her foot descended, something heavy slammed into her from behind, knocking her flat and forcing the air from her lungs. Everything was black; all she could make out was a lot of muffled yelling, some low grumbling, and footsteps. That too began too fat, until all she could bare to feel was the cold rock beneath her cheek and her heart, hammering, against her breast.

The town of Masako was not used to having visitors. It was a small fishing village, located along a craggy shoreline deep in Water Country that consisted of fishermen, their families, and tradesmen. They were isolated, liked to keep to themselves, and were sticklers for tradition. Although they were naturally suspicious folk, they were kind and generous when they wanted to be and treated friends and neighbors much as they would family. The people of Masako were not poor, but neither were they rich, for they generally lived simple lives and subsisted off what they caught from the ocean, grew in their yards, or traded for with their fellows. So when three men, clearly armed and dressed in ominous black cloaks, appeared in town one day without explanation, it created quite a stir among the villagers.

The village consisted of one main dirt road, lined with various shops and cottages. Usually people spent the day milling about outside, chattering with each other or bartering for goods. That particular afternoon, however, the street was quiet. The three men advanced through the town without pause, appearing unaware of how alien their presence was to the people who eyed them from their windows.

One of the three, a tall and strapping young man with snowy-white hair and a blade strapped to his back, approached a table set up for trading along the side of the road. An elderly woman stood behind it, an assortment of fresh fish and angling equipment arranged before her. She shifted her weight nervously as the man reached her, meeting his eyes with a nervous smile.

"C-can I interest you in some freshly-caught herring?" stammered the woman finally, wiping her hands on her apron as she eyed the man before her. Her gray eyes darted over to his companions waiting expectantly behind him who were exchanging words she couldn't make out.

"Uh, no. As scrumptious as that sounds, I'm actually looking to find someone I've been told lives in town by the name of Koukai Bayashi. Heard of him?" the man inquired conversationally, leaning over the woman's counter. Although his tone was friendly and genuine enough, she realized with horror as he spoke that he had sharpened teeth. She shook her head quickly and dropped her gaze to her fidgeting hands, her wrinkled face pale.

"N-no, I'm afraid I don't know anyone by that name-" she started.

"How about Kusko? He's pretty easy to pick out…an old geezer, big glasses, gray beard... obsessed with maps?" he tried again, peering into the woman's eyes for any sign of recognition. She blinked at him, still terrified, before exhaling and bobbing her head. She did know of the man of which he spoke.

"Oh, yes... He doesn't come into town often; he lives in a cottage out on the docks… You can't miss him," explained the woman nervously, gesturing down the dirt road to the network of docks and piers extending just beyond view.

"Thank you, mam," replied the man, smiling again before leaving a large tip on her counter and sauntering off to join his counterparts. The woman watched as the three departed down the road, feeling a knot untwisting in her stomach.

The men were clearly shinobi and, from the looks of their cloaks and their arrival into such a remote village, they were probably not what most would consider 'good guys'. One of them in particular, a pale with dark eyes and equally dark hair, had sent chills into her when she'd made eye contact. Those eyes… they'd seen death, they had killed. Quickly the woman gathered up the contents of her table, stowed them in her various coolers and bags, and shuffled away with her possessions in tow.

It was a short walk to the docks. The village was located only a few hundred yards from the seashore, allowing the fishermen a short commute from their homes to their vessels. When the three shinobi reached the wooden platforms they found that the water was calm and protected within the small bay, and the docks were just as deserted as the town. The boats rocked by their anchors, empty, creaking softly.

"Sasuke-kun, not to pry, but what can we expect to gain from this man?" Although the voice came from the most hulking of the three in size, it was quiet and small. This man followed a few strides behind his teammates, eyes on his feet or on the occasional sparrow that would flitter over to land on his shoulder, clearly subordinating himself.

"Haven't you been listening at all, Juugo? God, I wish I could daydream like that... This Kusko guy basically has a map that we need to get through a bunch of uncharted waters…." responded the white-haired nin in faux annoyance as he toyed with the edge of his giant sword. Juugo raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Although Suigetsu's habit of butchering plans with childish paraphrasing was nothing new, it did irritate his orange-haired teammate at times… Now, however, appeared not to be the time to address it.

Their dark-haired leader appeared unperturbed by the exchange, and merely continued in his firm stride down the docks without waiting for them to follow. He had a plan and, as always, nothing was going to prevent him from reaching his goal. His companions hurriedly caught up to him, eyeing the water that surrounded them as they made their way towards the lone building that waited for them at the end of the plywood maze. Sasuke's obsidian eyes were the only things that betrayed his focus, for instead of being trained on the door as they should have been, they were wandering off to behold the rainbow-orange glow of the sun as it descended towards the horizon.

Note:

Howdy reader! In order to settle a few questions you might have upon finishing this first chapter, here's a little bit of info for North:

- Setting: The fanfiction take place some years after the events currently taking place in the Naruto manga (post shinobi war)
- Pairings: Although it will primarily feature Sasuke/Sakura, expect some others too! (Which ones, however, will be a surprise...)
- Updates: Will come as quickly as I can produce them! I'm a college student with a really busy schedule, but I really do love writing and will do my best for y'all!
- Reviews: Like, love, adore 'em. Seriously, you guys are like jet fuel. If I could get reviews on school assignments as I write them, I swear I'd be so much more motivated to do them...
- Still Confused? Feel free to message me!

Love you all. Stay classy,

xoIndigo