A/N: This is the sequel of "Beautiful dream or cruel reality". Of course you don't have to read the prequel to understand this one because they can both work as separate stories. Though I will give you a short summary of what happens in the prequel so you have a better time understanding this story.

Summary of the prequel: Sakura goes on a mission to deliver a scroll to Kumogakure but ends up being attacked by Sasuke Uchiha who she thinks to be dead. She is then taken to sound disguised as Sasuke's slave. Beaten up badly Sasuke brings a boy to heal her. After being healed Sakura falls asleep and when she wakes up she understands it was all just a dream. Walking towards the Hokage tower she bumps into someone that suddenly gives that dream a perfect sense.

Yeah, not very short but whatever :P Read and enjoy, yours truly MyAmaranthGrin formerly known as ByakuganLove.

Chapter 1: Meet and Greet

Crouching on one of the branches, the figure clad only in black, stared at the target ahead emotionlessly. The target, which was a young cloud missing nin who wandered off to the fire country border, sat on the ground from exhaustion and took deep, ragged breaths. Haruno Sakura shifted in her position ever so slightly. She decided to attack since her target had been completely exhausted and his chakra reserves were almost depleted. Twirling the kunai in her hand, she managed to formulate a plan. The said kunai zoomed past the target and jabbed itself in the ground near his right thigh. Almost immediately his eyes widened in realization and he stood up, taking his fighting stance.

From where she was hiding in the tree branches she immediately found the mistake in his stance and she couldn't help but to shake her head and tsk at the inexperienced cloud Nin. 'If that's his fighting stance, I could beat him only with Tai jutsu and I'm not that good at it which says something about how wrong he is.' Actually she wasn't that bad in tai jutsu. In fact she was actually strong with her melee attacks what with her chakra infused punches and what not. She smirked and decided to make her appearance.

"Who's out there?" The boy asked almost out of breath, holding the handle of his still sheathed katana. A gasp pushed past his lips as a kunai grazed the skin on his neck. Instinctively he grabbed the handle of the katana tighter and was ready to draw it out when Sakura pressed the kunai even further into his neck, droplets of blood trickling down.

"Drop it" Sakura's feminine voice spoke into his ear. She was damn well tired of this guy. He had been running away from her for 3 days. Luckily for the boy, Sakura was well known for her patience while on a mission otherwise with her short temper this guy would have been dead within seconds.

"What do you want?" The boy asked.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out. Now walk and don't even think about escaping because I'll punch your brains out." To prove that she was not joking as she started gathering chakra in her hand and smirked when she saw the guy gulp down in fear. Normally she wasn't this snappy and cranky but 3 days without a sleep can do that to you. The guy sighed and walked calmly in front of her. It somewhat surprised Sakura but then again she too would be afraid of herself and that chakra infused punch had she been in the same scenario. Grumbling lowly under her breath, Sakura continued walking ahead through the forest and towards the Konoha walls. They weren't too far from Konoha because that cloud-nin bastard made sure to give her a long run before she was able to catch him. Luckily for her he wasn't giving her a hard time with running away and stuff. Though with Sakura's snappy behavior he would be haunted down, decapitated and buried and all of that in a total of…about 1 minute. Yes, that's how tired, angry and cranky Sakura had been. When she was finally able to see the big concrete walls of Konohagakure, she released the breath she didn't know she was holding and hurried to get inside quicker.

"State your purpose." Someone's fierce voice said from above. Sakura looked up at the big watching tower that was next to the big gate, her hand coming up to her forehead effectively blocking the sun.

"Haruno Sakura, arriving from a mission."

"Ah Sakura." The Chunin said in recognition as he disappeared from the watching tower and reappeared in front of Sakura. "I didn't recognize you." Kotetsu said and flashed her a genuine smile. He gave her a once over before turning his gaze towards the guy standing next to Sakura. "Who is he?" He pointed his thumb at him as if to point out who was the person he was talking about. Though when his eyes landed on the long horizontal scratch carved into his cloud hitai-ate, some things became clearer to him.

"That, I'm afraid, I still don't know." Really, she never caught his name. "What's your name boy?" She addressed the brown haired cloud nin that seemed to space off for a second.

"Shin Yamaguchi" He stated simply while Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. Somehow the name Yamaguchi seemed familiar. She gasped when she remembered.

"From the Yamaguchi family? As in the second son of Raiden Yamaguchi?" The boy nodded again. He seemed around Sakura's age. Strands of his shaggy brown hair were falling down his face as his auburn eyes stared at the two shinobi in amusement with an arrogant smirk plastered on his face. Had he not been the son of Raiden Yamaguchi she would have probably beaten him to a bloody pulp. But Sakura was smarter than that. So instead she pretended as if the realization hadn't dawned upon her. She recovered quickly and smirked indifferently.

"Well, it must suck to be the second born." She smirked again when she noticed his on smirk fading away from his face as he stared at her, his mouth gaping open. "Come on, let's go. I have other things to do." She moved ahead, slapping her hand against Kotetsu's as he gave her a high 5 for the way she handled the brat.

"See you around Sakura" The chunin said as he disappeared in a bunch of leaves that scattered around the Konoha gates. Sakura nodded her head in recognition and walked into the village as calmly as possible with Shin at her tail.

"How old are you?" Sakura suddenly asked Shin. They had a little while walking towards the Hokage tower so why not spend the time in talking. Shin seemed a bit absentminded. He raised his head slowly and an almost inaudible "Hm?" escaped his lips.

"I asked how old are you?" Sakura repeated.

"Oh, I'll be 16 in a month." He looked back at the ground. "And you?"

"Me? I'll be 17 on March 28" After that the conversation-if it's possible to call it that-died down and Sakura didn't really bother to find a new topic to talk to Shin. They proceeded to walk side by side until they reached the Hokage tower.

"Here we are." Sakura said as they neared the door where she knew that her sensei would be. Shin nodded absentmindedly and stepped aside for Sakura to come closer to the door. The pink haired girl knocked on the wooden door and opened it when she heard a grunt of affirmation. Of course to anyone else's ears that grunt might have sounded like anything but a sign of affirmation but Sakura could easily distinguish her grunts seeing as she knew her sensei like she knew the back of her hand.

"Tsunade-sensei, the mission was successful." Sakura said with a small smile, as she entered the room and approached the desk. The Hokage, sitting behind her desk blankly staring at a pile of documents, smiled at Sakura and clasped her hands in contentment. Of course she knew her student would execute the mission perfectly; there was no doubt about it.

"I knew you would do a great job." Tsunade leaned a bit to the side so she could look at the brown haired boy that looked strangely disinterested in the small talk. "Running away again, Shin?" She asked sternly but smiled nevertheless when she saw the boy pout. She shook her head at his antics and turned her attention towards Sakura. "I have another mission for you." A groan escaped Sakura's mouth for which she received a glare from her sensei. "It's not as boring as this one had been. Plus you'll have company with you."

Sakura's eyes lit up like jewels as she straightened her shoulders and grinned at Tsunade. "I can take Naruto-kun with me?" Yes, Naruto could be stubborn, loud, troublesome and what not but Sakura hated going on longer missions alone and besides, Naruto made an awesome fighting partner, if it should ever come to a fight.

"Well that's not who I had in mind. We have a guest from Kumogakure. I would like you to be his host while he's staying at our village. You are going to be accompanying him to Kumogakure for he was sent to retrieve Shin Yamaguchi and bring him back home."

Sakura crossed her arms and frowned. "If he was sent to retrieve this boy then why was it necessary for me to chase him across the country for 3 straight days?"

"Sakura" Tsunade began with a sigh. "As the Hokage of the leaf village it is my duty to decide whether or not to help allied villages. As you can see I have decided to help our friends in need. However, I have my ways of doing things and I do not have to explain them to you" She said sternly at the still frowning Sakura. "Thus I won't need to explain to you why I sent you instead of letting the cloud-nins do their job. Are we settled on this?"

Sakura stared back at her sensei rather defiantly. Yes, the lady Hokage was not obligated to tell her everything but still, she couldn't understand why it was necessary for her to do a simple and stupid mission like that when she could be assisting some other village with her medical jutsu for example. When Sakura didn't answer, the lady Hokage banged her hand on the wooden desk and asked her again.

"I said are we settled on this Sakura?" Tsunade said in a dangerous tone that made Shin shiver.

"Yes, we are" Sakura muttered under her breath.

"Now then" Tsunade spoke in a calmer way, visibly relaxed. "I would like you to meet our guest Higoshi Tamotsu." Tsunade pointed to a door on her far left and as if on cue the door opened. Sakura rather sluggishly and disinterestedly looked at the door but her eyes widened upon seeing who the guest actually was. There, in all his indifference, at the threshold of the door stood none other than the boy from her dream and the boy she ran into couple of days ago. His shaggy blond hair was swaying in the light breeze that strolled in from the open window and his blue eyes that reminded her of Naruto's watched her with amusement.

"Hello. You must be Haruno Sakura." He said as he walked towards her and extended his hand for her to shake. Sakura, who was a bit dazed, didn't take it at first but then when the short second of shock passed she extended her own hand and shook his outstretched one. "Nice to meet you." He said with a smile that seemed a bit too forced to Sakura.

"Y-yeah, likewise." Sakura said a bit unsure. She still couldn't grasp the fact that this was the same boy from her dream. It's not like she was having premonitions or something cause that would be too stupid and surreal, she reckoned. However, she didn't exclude the possibility of her dream actually being real. But then again, as she thought furthermore into the matter, it wouldn't have been possible seeing as Sasuke was dead. There was another possibility and she bet her money on that one. She thought that probably she saw this boy around town but didn't recall of such meeting actually occurring so she dreamt about the boy subconsciously and then mistook the whole thing. Yeah, that had to be it.

"Well, why don't you give him a tour around town. You still have time for your mission." Tsunade said and brought Sakura from her reverie.

"Oh, when are we leaving exactly?"

"Tomorrow morning, so you still have time to give him a tour." Tsunade smiled as she cast her gaze downwards and started scribbling something on a piece of paper. "You can go now" She shooed them with her free hand. Just as Shin made a move to move out the door, She pointed her long manicure finger towards him and said "Not you. You're staying here with me." Without even raising her gaze. The boy sighed loudly and sat in one of the chairs.

"Well then, we will be taking our leave now Sensei. We will be ready tomorrow morning for the mission." Sakura bowed respectively and stepped out of Tsunade's office with Tamotsu at tail. Even though she came at terms with her sanity and she settled on the explanation that the dream she had was only an emanation of her consciousness, it still felt unnerving having Tamotsu near her. 'It was just a freaking dream Sakura.' She nodded in agreement and continued walking out of the Hokage tower. Once they were in the broad of daylight she turned towards Tamotsu and smiled uneasily.

"Well, where would you like to go?" She tilted her head to the side and massaged her tense shoulders with her hand. The mission was an absolute drag but it did wear her off, especially since she hadn't had a decent sleep in 3 days.

"I think it's better if we didn't go anywhere at all." Sakura gave him a confused look. "You seem too tired to do anything, anyway" As if on cue, Sakura raised her other hand and stifled a yawn. "Go get some sleep Sakura."

"What are you talking about? I'm fine." She smiled reassuringly. "Just tell me where do you want to go and I'll take you."

"I've been here for couple of days, I can go around town on my own. Go get some sleep." When Sakura was about to protest he stopped her and continued. "Well, if you're not well rested for tomorrow how do you expect to fight if an unexpected encounter with rogue nins happens?" Sakura seemed to contemplate things and settled in for a nod.

"Alright, guess you're right. I'll see you tomorrow morning around 8 o'clock at Konoha's gates and don't be late!" With that said, Sakura turned on her heel and walked away.

Tamotsu smirked evilly as he stared at Sakura's retreating back. "Oh, don't worry Sakura. I'll be on time."

Thumping her foot on the concrete, Sakura stood in front of the gates of Konoha and waited for Tamotsu to come. 'Where is that fool? I specifically told him not to be late.' She crossed her arms in front of her chest and huffed. She grew angrier as the minutes passed by and Tamotsu was still nowhere to be seen.

"He's still not here?" Kotetsu asked as he jumped down from the watching tower and landed beside Sakura who shook her head no. "I don't know why, but there's something fishy about that guy."

"Yeah, I'll say. He looks at you as though her can look through you. And what's with that arrogance of his?" Izumo said as he appeared on the other side of Sakura. The said girl looked at both of them who stared ahead and waited for Tamotsu to appear.

"Funny thing, I feel the same way. As if there's more to him that what meets the eye. Something bad." She turned to looked at both men beside her. "And to think I have to travel for around 4 days with him."

"Just…be careful around that guy. Ok? I don't want a repeat of what happened couple of years ago." The fell silent after remembering what happened years ago. Sakura had gone on a mission but was injured badly while she was coming home and if Kotetsu and Izumo hadn't found her she wouldn't have been alive. Since that day when they saved her, the three of them became friends. And even though they were both older than her, their strange friendship still continued to exist as if age didn't matter. And it didn't really matter, cause Sakura was rather mature for her own age.

"Nothing of the sort will happen. Now I have some tricks up my sleeves. If he tries anything I will punch him with my chakra infused fist and he'll be gone. CHA!" She pumped in the air with her hand causing both males to chuckle. Kotetsu grabbed her hand and slowly pushed it down.

"Alright kiddo, don't get too full of yourself." He said as he continued to chuckle when Sakura pouted. "Seriously now, where is that creep anyway?" Kotetsu continued to look at the path for any sign of Tamotsu.

"He was supposed to be here half an hour ago. I hate being late." She really did hate going to missions later than planned. It gave her a strange feeling of paranoia and she couldn't concentrate on the task at hand.

Izumo, noticing her distress draped an arm over her shoulders. "Don't worry, he'll be here. He was supposed to report to the Hokage first, so maybe there's a problem with paperwork. You know how Tsunade gets, when it comes to papers." Sakura looked at him hopefully.

"Yeah, I guess that's it." Couple of minutes had passed and finally Tamotsu appeared with Shin at his tail, looking at Sakura apologetically.

"I am so sorry for being late. But Tsunade had some trouble with our paperwork and we couldn't leave without it." Sakura fixed him with a glare but her eyes soon softened.

"Alright, alright. You're here now so that means that we can go." Sakura turned towards the two boys beside her. "I'll see you guys in a week." She informed and hugged the two chunin. "Well bye."

Kotetsu put his hand on her head and ruffled her pink hair. "Take care kiddo. And don't let that guy do anything to you or I'll have to come over there and kick both of your asses. Alright?" Sakura nodded.

"Alright." She waved at the two boys and walked out of Konoha's gates with Tamotsu and Shin carefully following behind her. Sakura strapped her backpack to her shoulder and jumped on a tree before hopping off on other tree branches.

The journey towards the border of the fire country had been silent. None of the shinobi had bothered to start a conversation and neither did the pink haired kunoichi. They didn't even have what to talk about, so as long as the silence enveloped them, they were all happy.

However, the time came to break the silence and Sakura was not too happy about it. "We'll continue by foot from here on. We should be able to remain inconspicuous for a while." The two cloud nins nodded in understanding and they descended on the dirty trail of the forest.

Sakura did the same and sighed exasperatedly. They had been hopping off tree branches for quite some time and it seemed to have worn her off. She did a mental note to practice more, since she was out shape. And of course traveling with the cloud nins that unnerved her with their presence didn't help the matter at all. When she cast a look at both shinobi looked just as lost in thought as she was. So she averted her gaze to the road and continued staring ahead. Walking through the forest of the fire country made her think about her genin days. All of the missions they had to do and all the fun she got to have with Kakashi-sensei, Naruto and …Sasuke. As she thought about Sasuke her heart constricted in her chest painfully and she almost lost her footing as an image of the raven haired boy came to her mind. It felt as though the breath had been knocked out of her and it took all of her power to gulp down the lump that had settled in her throat.

It had been a year since they had received new that Sasuke Uchiha was dead and Sakura still couldn't come to terms with that. She was still grieving over the young Uchiha. So many sleepless nights she spent wandering around the village, visiting the old places where Team 7 would go. So many memories flooded her mind, it seemed as though their weight would crush her and force her to the ground. But she kept going and she kept swallowing those lumps in her throat because she knew that no matter what, Sasuke would not come back. Sasuke was dead and she had to accept that. However, couple of stray tears fell down her cheeks. She raised her hand, wiped those traitors off of her face and continued her journey with the two cloud nins.

"There's a storm coming. I think we should go into town and stay in for the night." Tamotsu said after a whole day of walking.

Sakura plopped on the ground and nodded meekly at the blond haired boy. She was beyond tired but quite frankly she had no idea why. Yes, they had walked for a whole day without stopping to rest but she had been through worse.

The pink haired kunoichi looked over to the two shinobi that sat next to her. Tamotsu stared at her strangely while Shin was busy with re-wrapping the bandages on his legs.

"What?" She asked him when the intensity of the stare became scary. It was creeping her out.

"Oh nothing. I was just…lost in thought." He said as he averted his gaze and settled on staring at Shin struggle with his bandages. Shaking his head in disapproval, he got up and helped Shin with the bandages.

"Creep" Sakura muttered under her breath low enough so Shin and Tamotsu didn't hear a thing. With a tired sigh, Sakura rose from her spot on the ground and dusted her clothes off. "Well, let's get moving cause I'm tired and the storm is closing in." The two boys nodded and got up as well.

Luckily for them, the nearest town was 5 minutes away and the nearest hotel was only 10 minutes away. The walk towards the hotel was eerily quiet. Yes, ever since they left Konoha they had been quiet, exchanging few words only when necessary but at the moment it seemed awkwardly quiet. With a shrug, Sakura decided to let it go and continued walking towards the hotel that was suddenly in their line of vision.

The hotel itself didn't look half bad. It seemed nice actually. The glass double doors led to the tastefully decorated reception room where a kind old lady sat behind the wooden desk.

"Hello. We would like to get a room." Sakura said as she approached the desk. The old lady looked up from the newspaper she had been reading moments prior to the arrival of the guests and smiled kindly.

"Well hello, Welcome to the Nagoya Hotel. Unfortunately, there's only one room available and it's a double bed room."

"Well, I guess that will be alright." Tamotsu said, cutting Sakura off who in turn sent him a glare before averting her gaze to the old lady and fixing her with a smile.

"Alright then. Here is your key. Up the stairs, second door on the left." The three shinobi nodded at the old lady and headed upstairs towards their room.

Dragging her feet lazily, Sakura tailed behind the two cloud nins. She just wished for a nice, hot bath and a warm cozy bed that would inevitably invite her to a nice, relaxing sleep. 'Stupid storm. We're going to lose time because of it.' Sakura thought as she entered the room and threw herself on one of the beds. 'But I can't say it's not worth it, when the bed seems this inviting.'

"I'll take a shower." Shin said and looked over at Tamotsu, before nodding in silent agreement and entered the bathroom.

"So, what's up?" Tamotsu said as he casually leaned on the wall and smirked at Sakura, who propped herself on her elbows to get a better look at him.

"What was with that nod, Shin gave you?"

"Oh, it was nothing. Just a simple thought." He grinned this time, but then the smile on his face faltered as he began choking. His eyes bulged out and he fell to the floor. The medic in Sakura immediately kicked in as she ran over to Tamotsu to see what the problem was. People don't start choking all of a sudden.

"Tamotsu, what's the matter?" The said boy then began gasping for breath, his hands scratching at his own throat as if the air would return to his lungs if he scratched his throat out. Just as Sakura was about to gather chakra in her hand and examine him, Tamotsu stopped and smirked at her evilly.

"Now Shin." Sakura only had a short moment of shock. Tamotsu was choking one second and then he was smirking at her the next? Was he really kidding with her?

"What the-" She stopped in mid sentence as she felt a hand clamp around her mouth and kunai being pressed to her throat. Tamotsu's evil smirk spread across his face as he taunted Sakura with mischief sparkling in his blue eyes. Sakura's own eyes widened as the realization dawned upon her. Tamotsu and Shin were traitors? What was Tsunade thinking when she sent her on the mission with these two without knowing who they actually were?

"Aren't you an interesting one, Cherry blossom? Orochimaru-sama would be pleased to have you as an asset to his army." And with that, the dark veil of unconsciousness fell on her as she collapsed on the white carpet of the room.

Well that was the first chapter of the sequel. Tell me what did you think? Read and Review!

Love, MyAmaranthGrin