Ello! This is my first fanfic and I'm excited. This is important so please read this. This takes place during the Naruto Shippuuden series [when they're older so if you're not that far, then don't read – unless you don't mind a FEW spoilers. There shouldn't be that many. .

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto; the story line is too ingenious for someone like me to come up with. T.T

Warning! This is a SasuXSaku story! There may be a few other couples in there. It's rated M for a reason, too. Be aware of that.

Anyways, I hope you guys like this and just to be sure I'm not wasting my time…lol…I'm just going to do a prologue real quick and see what the feed back is.

He smirked.

He looked over the hundreds of lifeless bodies scattered before him.

He looked down at the man who'd used him; he kicked the body in contentment.

Victory was his.

Prologue: Feeding the Fire

Sakura ran her fingers through her clumped and matted hair. It was morning, and early morning at that. She'd never understand why, but whenever she awoke her hair was horrible. She let out a frustrated sigh and sat up from her bed.

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun." It was a ritual she'd picked up when she was younger. She'd wake up and look at the picture she had of her, Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi-sensei and say good morning to only Sasuke. She knew it was silly since over the past few years she'd grown closer to Naruto then anyone, but old habits die hard.

It was 5:30AM; however, Sakura had to be up, for today was the day that Team Kakashi reunited. Sai had been the most current addition to the team, but Sakura and Naruto requested that the original team members of Squad 7 be together again for this mission. Thankfully, Tsunade-sama was understanding.

A small yawn escaped Sakura's lips as she tidied up her room. Once that was over, she sat in front of her amour and brushed her hair and rubbed the sand from her eyes. She smiled as she thought of Gaara. It was random, indeed, but Sakura felt as thought it had a meaning. She wiped the sand away, and the thought - she couldn't afford to be distracted today.

"Ah! Kakashi-sensei! You're early today!" Sakura smiled a wide smile. Kakashi was almost never early.

"When the time calls for it, I can be." Kakashi smiled back at her.

"Well, are we ready?!"

"You're as impatient as ever, Naruto." A small breeze breezed between the old friends. They all new each other so well.

Then they all double checked themselves and their supplies and set off for Konoha's entrance.

The large double doors were just that: large. They'd never seemed so large to Sakura before, but she'd never really taken the time to look at them. The excitement and the rush of a mission always distracted her, but now she was nostalgic and looked upon the towering doors sadly. The mission's summery ran through her head and she couldn't help but wonder: 'Is this the last time…the last time I'll see them?' The doors seemed to tower over her menacingly. Sakura was aware that what they were going to do had a 50 chance failure rate. They didn't know what they were up against, well they did…but didn't at the same time.

She glanced to the right. Kakashi was unfazed and obviously dedicated to the mission. She glanced to her left. She got the same aura from Naruto. Was she the only one who was…afraid? No, she couldn't be…maybe she shouldn't be? After all, Sakura was now an elite healer and had super human strength, Kakashi was the infamous Copy Ninja, and Naruto had learned to call upon the Kyuubi's chakra when ever it was sought for. They were finally ready to do this.

"Alright, let's head out!" As usual, Kakashi took charge of the situation. Yes, Sakura and Naruto were of his level in skill, but it was a habit that Kakashi be leader. Sakura and Naruto just couldn't see themselves as equals with Kakashi.

"Let's go over the plan." Sakura's graceful had pushed a few annoying strands of hair out of her face. They'd gotten the briefing of the assignment from Hokage-sama and never really set up a plan. They'd all silently agreed with each other to 'go with it' until absolutely necessary and Sakura saw now as absolutely necessary.

They all jumped up into the trees and reached a good 'flying' speed, kicking off trees occasionally to maintain momentum.

"Well, I knew you'd ask that, Sakura, and I came up with something last night." Kakashi kicked off of what he thought was a small branch, but was actually a leaf attached to a twig. It quickly snapped under his weight causing him to fall to a branch below it. He was off this morning and he couldn't place his foot on it…literally.

"Ahahaha….anyways!" Kakashi rubbed the back of his head and caught up with his comrades. "We'll head to the Sand village and get a few items from there. I've already informed Gaara, err…Kazekage…and he's prepared a few things that Konoha doesn't have due to its location."

Sakura was well to aware of the bead of sweat running down her face. It wasn't hot; in fact it was mid-fall and cooling rapidly; the sweat was from her nerves. She thought of Gaara and the sand in her eyes this morning and the strange feeling - the omen - it gave her.

"After that we'll head straight to our location. It'll take 3 days to get to the village in Sand and 3 and a half to 4 days to get to our final destination after that. I hope you're all prepared because I plan to make it there in 5 days."

"Eh? Kakashi-sensei is that even possible?!" Naruto clenched his jaw.

"Considering out situation, it has to be."

He'd never felt so powerful in his life.

He felt he was ready.

He knew he was ready…but…

he had something he had to take care of first.

"Kakashi-sensei! We've been running so fast and hard, let's please take a break!" Naruto usually wasn't the one to whine or complain about things, but they were REALLY pushing themselves.

"Yea, we're about to reach the outskirts of the desert and it's been 1 day. We've covered a distance that should've taken us 2 days! Let's take a good break at the edge of the forest!" Sakura looked at the feeble supply of soldier pills she had left. She hadn't expected this, so she wasn't nearly prepared enough.

"Fine. We'll stop…here." Kakashi placed his foot on a tree branch below him. His body was at a diagonal to the ground, upward. He was stopping very abruptly so he would have to prepare himself. He quickly focused chakra to the soles of his feet and did a 360 degree circle, facing his comrades.

Naruto and Sakura also had to quickly adjust to the situation. Sakura landed on a branch with her hands and did a back flip while Naruto simply put chakra on the soles of his feet and ingrained himself into a tree trunk.

"Ano…sensei…why…right…here?"

"There's a stream near by." Kakashi closed his eyes in a gesturing way. Naruto and Sakura quickly caught on and focused on the sounds around them. There was indeed a stream around them.

He left the area.

He was walking at a leisurely pace.

He had a murderous grin stuck to his face.

He thought of nothing but genocide…but then he was struck by something.

He was struck by something inside him. Something he thought he let die away. Something…something.

"Ah…full full full FULL!" Naruto smiled a huge grin. He just had ramen and fish. What more could a guy ask for?

"Naruto, this is no time to be like that." The area was quiet. There was nothing about them but the natural things of nature.

Sakura meant no harm in her words, but Naruto was hurt. "Think about our mission, how can you be so happy?" His eyes were now downcast.

"Why didn't you just kill me then?!"

"It's simple…I didn't want to give him the pleasure of letting him know I was like him."

…mangekyou sharingan…

Naruto placed his hand to his eyes as if he didn't ever want to see the world again.

Sakura felt an overwhelming sadness. She had an urge to comfort and hug Naruto, to tell him that everything was going to be ok; however, she knew that it wasn't that simple.

"I know this mission will be successful. That knowingness feeds the fire inside me…that burning desire to retrieve what's so important to us, that fire that's kept me so dedicated. That's how I can be this happy."

That made no sense.

But Sakura understood.

'We'll be reunited with Sasuke again, I know it.'

The only thing was…Sakura didn't understand just how true her thought was.

&&….le end to le prologue!!

I hope you guys liked it.

The italicized part was a flash back, obviously. Now, I hope you're kinda confused, but kinda not.

Are you wondering what the mission was? I'll give you all a hint. It has NOTHING to do with Sasuke.

Well…leave me a review. Please and thank you!

Oh, and the title of the story shall be explained later because there's actually a meaning to it.

-Berrinda