Chapter 1

It felt cold, why did it feel cold? The boy wondered, the last thing he remembered was Granny had sent him on a B-rank mission with Kakashi and…and…damn it who else was with them, was it… "Arghhh," pain exploded into the left side of the boy's head forcing him to writher in pain and bite his cheek to suppress any screams that might have come out, it felt as if Baa-chan had punched him straight into a wall. He sat there, curled up into a ball until the pain slowly went away.

"Why did that just happen?"He thought as he slowly uncurled himself and opened his eyes and as he observed his surroundings a new thought appeared in his head, "And how did I end up here?"

The blond-haired boy reached out, looking for any sort of indicator to tell where he was but couldn't get a grip on anything, it was dark and musty and from what he could tell it seemed like he was in some sort of cave.

"Well that's just great…" he thought to himself. He was starting to worry about how he would get out of here.

"This is no time to sit and worry, you're Naruto Uzumaki! You'll find a way out of here."

With that last thought he stood up, or at least he tried to because once he started to move his body he felt a wave of nausea and pain hit him and he stumbled around, he tried to hold put his hand on something to get some balance but all he ended up doing was falling forward. "Aw shit-" was all he could think of before he struck his head against the side of a rock, knocking him out.

-Meanwhile in Konoha-

"Sakura-chan, are you awake sweetie?" Mebuki asked from the other side of the door, to her surprise she didn't hear an answer back.

"Sakuraaaaaaa-chan" said Mebuki; this time a bit louder "Are you awakeee" she waited for a response but yet again her pink-haired daughter hadn't responded.

"Alright I'm coming innnn" Mebuki stressed that last word, she knew Sakura hated when she barged in on her without asking so if she hadn't responded before she was bound to open the door now but she didn't, "Sakura, darling..."

Mebuki slowly unlocked the door preparing for the worst and took a step inside, when she looked inside the room though she exhaled, there lying on Sakura's bed was a note, she hurried over to it and picked it up and started to read it.

"Dear Mom, don't worry I'm fine, I just decided to get up earlier today and go over to the training field, I wanted to train a bit on the off-chance that we would ever find him again, I'll be back in a little while. Love, Sakura."

"That girl… she's just like me, worrying about those she cares for" Mebuki placed the letter back down and smiled, leaving the room and heading back down the stairs to tell her husband where her daughter went.

-Near Ramen Ichiraku-

The pink-haired girl was making her way down the street, waving to street vendors and shop owners as she made her way to Ichiraku's. By the time she got there, the lunch rush was ending so the restaurant didn't have many customers at this time and she was fine with that; it gave her some time to sit and think.

Entering the restaurant she waved to Ayame who smiled and waved back, proceeding along she took a seat near the back, she didn't want to be bothered by anyone now. Once she took a seat Ayame came over and asked "What can I get for you Sakura-chan?" she said politely, but Sakura didn't respond, she was gazing out of the window and was lost in her own thoughts. "Alright I'll just tell Teuchi to make your usual..." she said quietly, and then left.

"Why didn't I see it, why didn't I try to stop him from going, now he's gone and I might never see him again," she thought to herself, tears threatening to spill from her emerald-green eyes. She had thought about it every night, each time a different theory running through her head, every single time, every fucking time she'd lose him, no happy ending, no way to make him stay.

She thought back to that day, three months ago when Tsunade had called her into her office, when she was first told about it she broke down, not believing what she heard.

-Flashback-

"Thirty minutes ago I received news that the mission that was being carried out by Naruto, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Orochimaru has failed, as of right now everyone on that mission is missing and for all we kno-" she was cut off as an anbu appeared in her window, "Hokage-sama, we've just received word from the squad leader of Team B, apparently there was a body found at the last known location of where Kakashi's team was," he stated.

Sakura felt a sense of dread come over her "oh no, oh no, oh no, please don't let it be Naruto, Kakashi, or...him, after everything he's done, bringing Sasuke back after their battle at the Valley of the End and even helping Kakashi and Jiraya capture and bring Orochimaru to the village for interrogation. He's done so much for me..for the village..more than I could ever repay him," she thought as worry creeped upon her.

" Who...who was it?" She forced out, her voice wavering. The unnamed Anbu operative looked at her now.

"Uhm, I'm not sure how to go about saying this..." He looked back at the Hokage, her face full of worry but she wasn't about to let anyone see her this way.

"WELL?" She barked out at him, the anbu operative cowered at the words that were being spat out at him. He's faced some of the worst criminals in Konoha and his body has paid the toll for it yet he'd rather face each one of them again instead of receiving a scolding by the Hokage. She was relatively new to the position, being only there for 4 months but she acted as though she had been there much longer and was determined to show she was right for the job.

"Well Hokage-sama it was rather difficult to figure out who's body it was, the body was charred, and there were multiple gashes all over the body but we figured out that it was-"

*SLAM*

"Here you go Sakura-chan" Ayame said as she put a bowl of ramen in front of Sakura, snapping her back to the present.

"Thank you Ayame-san" said Sakura softly as she slowly started eating.

She continued eating only stopping a few times to look and see if someone else was at the restaurant but she'd quickly return to the ramen, a sad look set across her face as she realized he wouldn't be there…

A/N: Hello to anyone who's reading this, I just want to say that I am really thankful that you would take the time to read my story because this is my first story that I've ever written on here so I know that I won't be that good at the beginning but as I continue writing I hope I get better and I hope you guys are there to experience it with me. Also this is a rather long note so sorry for that I'll try to keep it shorter next chapter. Enjoy!