I do not own Naruto.
"Sometimes, Life might give second chances because maybe Time wasn't ready for the first one."
- Anonymous
Sakura ran. She leapt branch to branch, making sure to land lightly so as not to leave a trail for trackers. Running was all she seemed to be doing nowadays. She and Naruto where the last survivors of the once mighty Konohagakure.
Narrowly avoiding a high branch, she swore. Damn that Sasuke!
After her former teammate had learned the truth of the Uchiha massacre from Itachi, he had gone mad with anger.
Setting out to destroy Konoha and everything Konoha represented was his new goal. Luckily, Naruto being Naruto, confronted him. Convincing Sasuke to calm down and that all the blame lay in Danzo and the elders, Naruto had managed to bring Sasuke home.
Sakura had been so happy. Naruto was safe. Konoha was safe. And Sasuke was home. What else could go wrong?
It turned out a lot could go wrong. Two weeks after Sasuke had returned, he killed the Anbu guard assigned to him and had set out to kill the elders. Their bodies were found the next morning and, God, the village had been in an uproar. Sasuke had disappeared once again, destroying the fragile hope Sakura had kept alive all these years.
Two years had passed with no sign of Sasuke and the people of Konoha had begun to relax, letting their guard down.
That had been their downfall.
In retrospect, they should have seen this coming. Sasuke had always been spiteful, one slight against him and he'd hold it against you until he got his revenge...
They should have known he was just biding his time, waiting for the right moment to strike. And strike he did. He and hundreds of Oto nin struck so suddenly, that the civilian population of Konoha was nearly wiped out in that one attack. Remaining survivors were sent to neighboring villages while Konoha prepared for war. The blow to Konohagakure ninja ranks was so devastating that Konoha would have fallen immediately if not for the alliances they had between Suna and Kumo.
Otogakure was a intimidating village, though in actuality it was not a village but a large underground laboratory composing of various bases scattered throughout the Land of Sound.
They truly took the term "Hidden Village" to a literal level. Because the village was so well hidden and its bases were spread out through most of the countries, Oto had the upper end of the war despite the sheer number of opposition they were facing.
Kumo had been forced to retract forces to deal with the threat they were facing and Sakura couldn't blame them; Konoha was practically gone. With only a small amount of Leaf Shinobi left, including, miraculously, the entire Rookie nine, Konoha nin left to join Suna in the war.
That was when disaster struck. Sasuke would not stop until every single thing related in anyway to Konoha was destroyed. The Land of Fire was decimated to smoldering plains, its large trees and abundant plant life destroyed and it's civilian population dead or scattered across the other nations.
Soon Sasuke had come after the left over Konoha shinobi determined to get rid of every last one. With all the tailed beasts except Kurama in his thrall, the rage filled man began destroying everything in his path. Opposition was quickly decimated. Sakura still remembered seeing the bodies of her friends, family, even slight acquaintances.
Suna soon followed Konoha.
Death was everywhere and Sakura was sometimes surprised how used to it she had become. There was once a time when she had been squeamish at the sight of a drop of blood. It seemed so long ago that it was a distant, foggy, dream-like memory.
She jerked out of her deep thoughts.
She and Naruto had separated a few miles back to distract their pursuers. The hunter nins after them would have to separate into two groups; one after Naruto and one after Sakura.
Divide and conquer or at least that was what they wanted the enemy to believe.
Unfortunately for them, Sakura was leading her pursuers straight into a trap she had placed earlier.
Really, hunter nin from Mist village should know better to take on a Konoha nin in her own environment.
Spotting an abnormally tall tree she leapt on it and ran to the top of the tree.
The trap had begun.
As the nin came into view, she slowly began to weave her Genjutsu. After years of dealing with mad/crazy/bent on revenge Uchiha aka Itachi, Madara, and Sasuke, she had become very proficient at dispelling and making Genjutsu, though medical ninjutsu was still her area of expertise.
Sure enough the recipients of her illusion were soon fighting each other, each thinking the other was the enemy, seemingly unaware that a Genjutsu had been cast on them. She began to slip quietly away to find Naruto when a loud, thunderous crash sounded through the forest.
A large ominous dark red energy could be seen to the north and Sakura began to run. There was only one person with that type of energy. Naruto.
When Sakura arrived at the general area where she had seen the energy come from, she arrived at a large plain of burnt ground. Carefully hiding in the trees at the outskirts of the area, she saw Sasuke and a small group of his army facing a large pedestal. To her horror she realized Naruto was chained to it and Sasuke seemed to be in the process of dragging the Kyuubi out using his Tsukuyomi.
She frowned. She had to do something but what? She couldn't take on both Sasuke and his soldiers. What she needed was a way to get to Naruto and release him from the chains. Quickly forming three solid clones she henged them into various shinobi she had seen before sending them out to attack Sasuke outwardly.
With Sasuke distracted she managed to sneak around the army, disguising her chakra, and managed to get to Naruto. Sakura eyed the large chains. She'd need her Chakra sword for this.
Making a large blade of chakra extending from her hand, she easily cut the chains. Catching Naruto as he fell and placing him on her back, Sakura began to run.
Naruto blinked his eyes blearily, "Sakura-chan? Stop. Leave me behind."
"Shut up, Naruto."
"No, you can't run with my weight. Save yourself."
Sakura nearly growled. "Shut up. Don't you remember the lesson Kakashi-sensei taught us. Those who break the rules are scum but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum. I'm not going to abandon you, Naruto."
She felt, rather than saw, him smile.
"Love you too, Sakura-chan. I knew you'd come around eventually."
"Not like that, you idiot!" She snapped though she knew he was joking.
Naruto and a certain Hyuuga Heiress had hit it off once Naruto had managed to get his head out of his ass long enough to notice how much Hinata adored him.
A large booming sound came from behind them and it didn't sound that far away. She picked her pace.
"Sakura-chan, they took Kurama from me." Sakura would have stopped right where she was if it weren't for the crazy as hell ninja coming after her.
"What! How are you still alive?"
"They were in the process of taking him. You came just in time to stop them from taking Kurama."
"Oh, thank God." Her relief was palpable. Naruto was still alive and he still had a chance of living.
"No. It's too late. They damaged the seal badly. Kurama's chakra is overwhelming mine I'm dying."
"No. No!" Sakura's emotions were already out of control and this was too much. "Please, Naruto, you can't leave me..."
"Sakura-chan, put me down here." Naruto ordered. She obeyed without a second thought, her mind trying to wrap around the fact that her closest and now only friend would be leaving her all alone.
"Listen to me, Sakura-chan. I am going to die. There is nothing you can do."
"Naruto."
"No, Sakura-chan, listen to me. I'm going to do something. Do you understand? I'm going to fix everything."
"Naruto, what are you talking about?"
Sakura was worried. Naruto had begun to mutter and whisper to himself. His movements were sluggish and slow. Most likely from blood loss. Dammit! She didn't have any of her medical supplies, the best she could do was staunch his wounds with a piece of cloth. Moving out of her grasp, Naruto, still muttering to himself, lifted his shirt showing his seal. Before she could stop him he grasped his seal and twisted, opening the seal and letting the Kyuubi chakra out.
"Naruto, Stop!" Sakura moved toward him only to be stopped by the dark chakra that was slowly consuming Naruto.
"Sakura-chan, I'm going to send you back. I want you to change everything. Save everybody."
"Naruto. I want you to calm down and try to get rid of the chakra. I'm going to try to heal you. I think I may have enough chakra sealed in my yin seal."
"Listen to me." Naruto's voice had changed, becoming more guttural and animal-like.
Before she could ask just what the hell he was talking about, a loud crash interrupted her.
Sasuke stood before them, red sharingan eyes flashing.
Team 7 reunited again, Sakura thought bitterly.
Naruto had gone silent his eyes open but unseeing. She assumed he had gone into his mind to talk to the Kyuubi. He was vulnerable in this state and Sasuke was out for his blood. She had no choice but to fight. Sasuke stared her, sharingan spinning.
"Move out of the way, Sakura."
"No. If you want Naruto you'll have to go through me." Sakura said as she pulled on her gloves.
"Hn, still as weak as ever."
Anger surged in her eyes and Sakura immediately disregarded any sympathy, kinship, and friendship she may have had for him. This monster standing in front of her didn't deserve anything from her. He had destroyed her home, her friends, and her loved ones. She refused to feel anything but hatred.
"Shut up and fight, bastard!"
She lunged forward intending to strike him under his jaw. At the last minute she switched attacks, instead sending her right leg to kick him in the stomach. Sasuke dodged, the attack just barely missing him. Sending a couple of her shadow clones, imbued with enough of her chakra that Sasuke would have a hard time telling which one was really her, Sakura catapulted herself away and assessed the move.
She may have missed but that had been a test move. The sharingan could predict moves by seeing the slightest muscle tension. Because Sasuke had seen her gather a vast amount of chakra in her arm, he had arrogantly assumed that her attack was most definitely coming from her arms. Focusing on her arms, he didn't notice her discretely pumping her leg with a small amount of chakra. Enough to demolish a concrete and steel building. It was why her hit had come very close to him.
The only problem now was that he would probably expect a move similar to that and avoid it easily. Except...
Her eyes lit up. He wouldn't expect her chakra blade. Her chakra blade was purely chakra she used as a weapon. Expulsing it form her arm like a weapon, it could demolish the earth and slice through the human body very easily. She had developed it over the years, It had started out very short similar to a small dagger, but was now about three feet long.
Glancing at Sasuke, Sakura noticed him dispatching the last of her shadow clones. She'd only have a chance for one hit. She couldn't mess this up. She went through the seals for a single shadow clone and made sure to also fill the clone with enough chakra so that it would be hard to tell which was really her. Sakura and the clone leapt to the ground in front of Sasuke. He glared at her.
"What did you do? Its impossible to fool the sharingan."
"That's my secret, asshole."
Both Sakuras leapt, simultaneously punching, kicking, kunai flying. Of course Sasuke managed to avoid most of the hits but because he was unable to watch both Sakuras at the same time a few of the hits landed.
As the she and the clone continued to hit and kick, Sakura prepared to release her chakra blade. At the last moment a punch from her that Sasuke was going to avoid suddenly turned into a large blade of chakra, startling Sasuke. The blade nicked his left side.
Sakura leapt away, narrowly avoiding a blow from Sasuke's katana. The cut looked shallow but Sakura knew that her blade had damaged important internal organs form that slight hit. The blade worked as good as a normal dagger but it had one special feature.
When the blade made contact with her opponent even a small cut would be dangerous. Sakura was able to send a charge of her own chakra into her opponent and damage the opponents body.
The technique was one of her true treasures. One she created.
To the normal eye Sasuke looked unharmed and normal but to her well-trained medic eye, Sakura could tell Sasuke was discretely favoring his right side of his body, putting most of his weight on it. His left leg looked limp and useless and his breathing was significantly much heavier.
He was also glaring at her from his perch on a branch. She could tell he was assessing more carefully now, before he had dismissed her as inconsequential but now realized he had underestimated her desire to protect Naruto.
She only needed one more hit and he was done.
What she didn't expect was for him to pull out his Susanoo and start shooting big-ass burning arrows toward her.
Barely managing to dodge, Sakura jumped out of the way only to be captured in the large skeleton's hand. And be assured dear readers, being captured in a large chakra-covered, skeletal hand was not pleasant. Not at all.
Sakura struggled in the skeletal grip, trying to find a way out to no avail. Slumping forward slightly she glared at Sasuke who looked at her with apathetic red eyes.
"Prepare to die, Sakura."
"Shut up! Don't call me by my given name, you asshole" she hissed.
He smirked.
"What are you going to do about it, Sa-ku-ra."
She glared at him than smirked triumphantly. She wasn't going down without a fight. She had years worth of insults for him, pent up inside of her.
"Really, Sasuke. No wonder you always had to work hard to catch up to your brother. You're pathetic."
The smirk fell from his face and his eyes glinted madly.
"Shut up! You don't know anything about my brother. You don't know anything!"
She snorted, "Please you don't deserve your brother. Look at you. Your brother wanted you to be a hero. You say you're avenging him but instead you're throwing his sacrifice away like it didn't matter."
"Shut up! Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!"
Well, Sakura thought as she stared at the crazed man, it was official. He'd finally snapped.
Ironically this may have been the most emotional response she had ever seen him give.
She was already having trouble breathing as the skeletal hand squeezed her body.
God, why was she so weak? She couldn't protect Naruto like he always protected her. Sure, she had improved vastly from when she was a gennin but she'd always be behind Naruto and Sasuke.
As she started to drift in and out of conscious, Sakura noticed a large amount of dark red chakra appear suddenly in her peripheral vision.
Naruto. What was he doing? She heard a faint crash and boom and the pressure on her body disappeared.
The last thing she heard before darkness enveloped her was Naruto.
"Change everything, Sakura-chan!
I've decided to take a short break from my first story Transmigration and start this one. The idea has been going around in my head for a few days now.
R&R please
ShaSha