A/N:
This story is an inspiration from watching Togainu no chi. So, this is like a crossover between Naruto and Togainu. I do not own them I am only here to satisfy Sasusaku, Naruhina and Shikaino fans with this story! (Well, and to make myself happy really. I have been thinking about writing this since last year. Darn that Togainu no chi have very hot characters but no hetero pairings or even more than one woman appearing throughout the series! Imagine the pain I have to suffer watching a bunch of ikemen(s) fighting against each other but no romantic hetero stuff. /T=T/)
Now, now, I will stop rambling so you can move on to reading the story.
To those who don't like Sasusaku, Naruhina or Shikaino, I suggest not to read this story.
Please excuse my grammar. :( I always welcome a beta if anyone like to help.
Chapter 1
Following the end of the Second Shinobi World War, everything that was once what they were, were altered, replaced into the so called 'Brand New World'. In just decades of time, buildings were modernized, tall buildings transformed the majority of villages in every large and powerful lands into cities.
Every man and woman who survived the war were apprehended of their abilities, either they die of disobedience, or join the force. Same goes to those who were born with special abilities from their bloodline after the war, although an exception was made, particularly to the female born. They were spared and pushed into more delicate works, equivalent to housewife, florist, and merchants. Some who have the gift of healing the injured and have the passion to save people's life, were emitted to medical school for training either as nurses or doctors. Whereas, polar to the former gender, male born were to be sent to the Police Academy at young age, to hone their skills and persist on their definite future career. With an exception that each person were only allowed to practice their bloodline abilities. Any learning methods were disbanded, every scrolls ever existed in the world were obliterated and for those who still have one in their possession or created one in any circumstances, will be considered committing a treason.
The present 'Shinobi' World, now the the Brand New World, was a form of alliance of every country. For most, it was for the better, but for some it was as if the war was still ongoing.
After the third decade into the peace treaty, another war was initiated by one man originated from the most powerful country in the world, once called the Land of Fire. Traitors, former rouge ninjas and gangs united as one from every land, cities and villages in the second biggest metropolitan city of Fire, Otogakure, devising a plan to take over the world and brew wars amongst every country in the formerly Shinobi World.
A sacrificial decision was made.
They had to lose Otogakure.
The land of Fire with the assistance from the land of Sand, gathered their soldiers for a sudden attack.
Explosives and fire arms were involved.
Civilians were migrated, most survived, but some weren't so lucky.
The numbers their enemies, though strong but they're small in number. Thanks to the technology at hand, the war ended in just days. Less than a half of the soldier deployed perished on the battlefield. Few cowardly turned into deserters. However, most went home with victory.
Otogakure was left a dead city. No one was to step there ever again, chains were circling the once lively town. For years it was deserted, until one great general from the military devised a new system. Criminals are to be brought and dump into Otogakure for their execution. Mysteriously, things turned out differently after another decade...
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The serene night sky was clear of clouds. Beautiful stars sparkles in the blanket of dark blue sky sprawled across the horizon. In the midst of all, a perfect silver disk was illuminating the land like a beacon, flashing it's ray of holy lights upon every surface, every corner they could reach. Such magnificent sight does not deserve to be witness from such a vile place he stood on. Oto was not worthy of such enticing scenery, not in a millenia, not ever. Even when there comes a day when it'll be demolished to the ground, Oto will still be a tainted land of death and destruction.
Though at least he still have something to look forward to help him sleep at night, and pass by clouds would do for his afternoon , deserted and dilapitated high buildings were the least on his lullaby list.
The smell of blood and dirt reached his nostrils, involuntarily filling themselves into his lungs and nauseated him. Tearing his dark orbs away from the wild blue yonder, he inspected the bloodied paved ground he stood on. It seemed that the rumours were true. Every single one of them.
As he attempted to walk, he sensed the viscousness of the red flowing fluid he had inadvertently treaded upon. Red juices of blood seeped through beneath his derby shoes, the same pair his female blonde childhood friend had gifted him for his birthday, and thanks to his own carelessness the once polished surfaces were now smeared with gore of multitude people. He took in a deep breath as he cocked his head and let out an exasperated sigh. If he ever return, he'll have to deal with that woman's unplesant nag. "How troublesome." he mumbled to himself.
Well, if only his mother hadn't bawled and pleaded him to stay, he could have change out of his working apparel into something much complacent before he headed out. Served him right, his mother was a drag through and through.
He smirked sadly at the thought of his mother and made a mental promise to himself that he would return home no matter how long it would take, but not without his father.
Once again, his ears twitched when they caught the sound of slashing sword and the echoing screams of agony coming from feasibly two blocks away and his eyes narrowed in concentration, his ears peered to the source attentively trying to gather anymore hint he could possibly then decipher. From the moment he stepped foot into this place, he was greeted with the crime scene; mutilated remains and the heavy scent of rusting steel. Who? Why? and What could be the source of the nightly masscare? Appearing before the monster would be very foolish, attempting to snoop from a distance was no option either. This manslaughterer was smart and agile from what he had gathered, he needed more information,something that could help him start strategizing.
The culprit was not covering his tracks throughout every killings, not even the very least of subtle, yet leaving no tracks that could lead to the culprit himself. It's adequate to assume that whoever did this, must be the top dog he had been hearing so much about. Most likely someone with authority, or a henchman of sorts, ordered to execute the bidding.
Trouble piling up on top of another, akin to scattered dark clouds converging together, looming over him to put an end to his afternoon nap and rain all over him . The dissapearance of his father, the mystery of this lawless place used-to-be old battlefield prior the last World War, the game played and the system deployed by the boundless criminal organization. Nara Shikamaru was determined to uncover them all.
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Sakura stared at her reflection in the mirror, which had turned out to be a habit of hers prior to her adolescent years. Brushing her hair, she noticed they had grown longer
Haruno Sakura stood in front of the full-lenght standing mirror by the corner of the room - one she had been sleeping in for the past twenty years of her life. Her green eyes surveyed her own reflection for the umpteenth time that day, a habit she had come to acquired prior to her adolescent years, upon the first she experienced her heart beating with excitement for every attractive boys she ever laid eyes on.
Reminded of her own puerile times as a girl who then has yet to reached her puberty, Sakura smiled at her own mirror image with absurdity. Being best friends with Yamanaka Ino does that to you, her fierce and vehement inner self reminded her.
Still, being Ino's friend was the best thing that had ever happened to Sakura. A lonely child she was before her encounter with Ino, ridiculed by her classmates for having to be born with an exceptionally broad forehead. She was then saved by Ino's gentleness, promise to protect, and her treasured red ribbon that signifies their strong ongoing friendship -that Sakura was sure, will last forever-. So yes, life would be dull and Sakura wouldn't be who she was today without the extrovert and conceited Ino, whose temper rivalled her own.
Her illuminated jade eyes were trailing the gentle motion of the wooden round hair-brush grooming her long pink hair that had reached her waist. Wondering how long ago since that gum episode that had forced her to cut her precious locks of hair to stand just above her shoulders. Sakura clicked her tongue in distress as a flash of yellow hair, moronic grin and his orange tracksuit presented themselves and formed together into an image of a certain indivual who had caused her that temporary, yet in a sense, permanent mental damage. For that was the day her inner self went ballistic, seriously over the top monstrosity she displayed in front of the whole class, the embarassment for a top student such as Sakura to get an F in her social studies was a humiliation, and the years and years of grooming her hair was all in vain. That imprudent, dim witted Naruto! she murmured bitterly in between gritted teeth.
If it weren't for Kakashi sensei and his fellow teachers Sakura would have break every functioning bones in that blonde troublemaker's body.
Sakura exhaled deeply as she caught herself gripping on her hair-brush with intense vigor, angry veins apparent on the surface of her temples and knuckles at the recollection of the lamentable event that had transpired almost half a decade ago. And she could never truly understand this... What exactly does Hinata sees in that moronic shell of a guy?
Sure he could be cool at times, very spirited and vehement, though not as enthusiastic as Rock Lee or Gai sensei; well no one was as vigorous as the thick-eyebrows duo of teacher and student. The only other thing that had impressed Sakura so far, was Naruto's commitment to prove his worth. Nevertheless, he's still a complete obnoxious, foolhardy dingbat. He was so oblivious to Hinata's transparent feelings for him and his to hers.
But what's the point in dwelling on such query?She was often told,Love is blind. And she'll just have to count on that and trust, better yet respect Hinata's feelings. She believed that there will comes the time when Naruto will realize his true feelings for the Hyuuga heiress and they'll finally be together in a lifetime full of love. Oh, just how lucky can Hinata get? She came from a rich family, she's beautiful, forget the fact that an air-headed police officer will be her lifetime partner, and her chest ... Sakura pouted incessantly as she stared down at her own pair of breast in the mirror. Well, Haruno Sakura may have the smallest size in the group -amongst Ino, Tenten and Hinata-, but she was the smartest. Besides, every woman have at least a weakness, whatelse can explain Hinata's feelings for Naruto? Yet, Sakura could not help but felt jealously burning up in her. It wasn't as if Sakura had feelings for Naruto, it was their relationship that she envied.
Sakura sighed wearily. She wondered, when will she ever find her true love. A question she asked herself everyday. Frankly, she was tired of all the same routine, and given the fact that she was the front seat audience to her friends love life made her envious, except for Tenten who thinks she's better off not involving herself with any guys at all. Sure Sakura had gone on dates several times, but they weren't serious.
Shooking her head to stop herself from venturing deeper into the depths of her desire, she decided she was done grooming her hair and put aside the hair-brush before she fastened her red headband into a dapper knot at the back of her neck.
"Sakura, Ino is here to see you." Sakura's mother called, her voice was a little muffled from calling out for her two rooms away.
The Haruno's apartment was of an average size, with two bedrooms, a bathroom, a small kitchen connected to their dining room where they would gather and watch television, but it was enough to house the middle-aged couple and their only daughter. They were a small family, living in a cozy house. Although at times, Sakura thought her mother could get pretty annoying, not to mention her father, with his tragic attempts for jokes and horrible puns. Still, she couldn't bear to leave the house and her two loving parents to settle into a new apartment. As aggravating as they can be at times, Sakura loves her parents no matter what.
"I'll be there in a minute!" Sakura replied, loud enough so her mother could hear from the distance. With another quick self-examine in the mirror, dusting off non-existent dirts off her white sun dress, she gathered her bag and sprinted out of her room, leaving mounds of mess of her clothes and accessories to clean up for when she return later that evening.
By the time she reached the front door, she found her mother conversing with Ino who was smiling graciously, thanking the older woman for what seemed to be a home made bento Ino was holding onto.
Sakura greeted them with a smile as they turned their attention to her.
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Inattentive on their girls day out was very unlike Ino. She had always been the leader of the group, even planned the whole gathering every once in a week to keep themselves in check and away from their straining weekdays routine of college, training and work, into the solace of the weekends. Every week, it was the same round of routine. They had lunch, shopping, karaoke, dinner, and sometimes a sleepover. They would talk about guys,work, the latest gossip, mostly initiated by Ino, who had always been the talkative and impertinent one, aside from Sakura and Tenten.
But not today.
Everyone was quiet most of the time, wondering what was going on with Ino.
Trying to break the ice, Tenten and Sakura agreed telephatically to provoke Ino by asking about Hinata's blossoming love life with a certain air-headed police in training. The conversation had started with excitement but ended up with another train of pregnant silence from there was no rebound of opinions coming from their blonde friend.
With another glance towards the distracted Ino, Sakura straightened, placed down her cup of hot green-tea and cleared her throat, signaling her other companions that she was about to make the next move. And as a respond to Sakura's cue, Hinata and Tenten nodded simultaneously.
"Ino." Sakura said carefully.
Earning no response, Sakura chewed her lower lip, eyes squinting before she placed a gentle hand on her absent-minded friend's left shoulder.
As she was brought back from her train of thoughts, Ino jolted slightly in her seat. "Hnh?" her baby blue orbs found their way looking into Sakura's emerald ones.
"Are you okay? You have been spacing out an awful lot today." Sakura questioned inquisitively with concern.
"Seriously, is something bothering you?" Tenten added.
Before answering, Ino rubbed the bridge of her nose and gathered her thoughts. "I don't know if I should involve you girls in this." she finished with a sigh.
Sakura frowned in disbelief. "Hey, don't ever say that. You know we are a team. Whatever it is you are dealing with, you can always count on us." Sakura reminded Ino and her hand, the one still resting on Ino's shoulder, comforting her with a light squeeze of reassurance. "You said so yourself and I thought you would never get back on your words." she finished with a small smile, her frown never cease.
"Sakura's right Ino." Tenten said with a consoling grin.
"We are best friends after all, Ino-chan." Hinata smiled graciously.
Ino pressed her lips together before turning them into a thin suppressed grin, giving in to her faithful audiences. "Alright, alright. It's about Shikamaru."
Sakura sighed softly and gave her blonde friend a sarcastic look. "Why am I not surprised." she said, rolling her eyes in irony. Truth be told, she was actually relieved, despite the fact that Nara Shikamaru was to be the main problem of the day they needed to resolve once again. A while ago, Sakura had guilelessly thought Ino might be having a catastrophic issue, worse she had ever had, considering she was acting astonishingly unusual, as if someone had just passed away. Well, Ino did have the tendancies to overeact over trivial matters, suchlike Shikamaru. "Who's it this time? Temari-san? or that flute girl? or has he gone gay with Chouji?" this earned Sakura a round of laugh coming from Tenten, and even Hinata.
"What? No!" Ino scrunched her nose incredulously, her tone accelerated to that of her customary chaotic mood and Sakura was glad she mentioned the sore spot. "Just so you know Shikamaru is a hundred percent straight." she gave them a pointed look of positive assurance. "And can you please don't ever mention those two in front of me again?"
Sakura followed Hinata and Tenten's surpressed giggles as she recalled moments of when she took part in helping a jealous ridden Ino, sabotaging Shikamaru's -and she quote- 'dates'. Which turned out to be a huge misunderstanding on Shikamaru's part. The two aforementioned senior military school girls were in all actuality attracted to Ino's crush and childhood friend, but it was all one sided. The guy may be a genius, but when it came down to girls and feelings, he's just as clueless as any of their guy friends were, oblivious to the opposite sex allure innuendo. And regarding Chouji? Well, they had their suspicions.
Ino had her arms crossed underneath her chest as she huffed in respond, her eyes closed and nose held up high indignantly. " Besides they wouldn't dare showing up now after what happened the last time." she paused momentarily before her tough exterior gradually softened. "This is something much more serious." she finished with a low sigh.
"Right." Sakura said in sarcasm. "What could possibly be more serious."
"This I have to hear." Tenten said with a choked laugh.
"This isn't a joke guys!" Ino slammed her hands on the table, earning her stupefyied glances from not only her friends, but everyone in the joint. Whispers filled their silence after a momentary pause and not even Sakura could catch her voice to at least let out a single mutter subsequent to Ino's sudden outburst.
With a fleeting look around the crowd, ignoring their conspicuous stares, Ino let out an exasperated sigh.
"Shikamaru, he's deported to Oto last night." Ino revealed dourly.
The word Oto rang a hollow tone in Sakura's ears.
She had heard it was a place of death, plagued with terror and smelled of blood. Some referred to that former metropolis city of Japan as the Hell itself and to some, it was the God's acre, a necropolis. Rumor has it that, people who have step foot into that place, was never seen again, as in they never return.Some claimed the place was cursed, the ghosts of every fallen soldiers were still fighting against each other until this day. To Sakura, the ghost and the cursed part must be nonesense. Maybe the story was fabricated to scare people away from the once battlefield between nations, maybe it was to warn people about war.
Hinata gasped softly, covered a hand over her gaping mouth.
"So it's true then." Tenten's said grimly, her frown was apparent.
"You knew?" Sakura asked, puzzled, panicked. Her green eyes looking back and forth from Ino to Tenten.
"I heard about it from Lee and Neji." Tenten shifted slightly in her seat. "My, I thought they're just trying to scare us with some false know what happened the last time we trusted them, so I thought nothing about it."
Not too long ago, the boys did pulled a stupid prank on them girls, by lying about Lee's transfer to Suna just to get him a date with Sakura. That ended with seven pulverized man, some sporting a black eye or two, including those who didn't even get involved.
"Rumours?" Sakura asked while Ino raised an inquiring eyebrow. "As in there's more?"
"Well, apparently they did mention Naruto-" Tenten paused, her gaze softened as she bit her lower lip before she hesitantly continued."He's gone missing."
There was at least a second of silence, before they heard Hinata's choppy breathing. "W-what do you mean Tenten-san?" Hinata straightened herself in her seat, her soft lavender eyes coated with desperation and worry at the mention of Naruto.
"Bah, he's probably somewhere in a ramen hole." Sakura leaned back into her seat, crossing her arms, her facial expression was of apathy with a hint of annoyance.
"Believe me, that's what I thought." Tenten said, "But they also said he didn't showed up to Ichiraku last night after training. You know Naruto never misses ramen, he could never stop going to Ichiraku even if there's a plague on the street or a zombie apocalypse."
"Wait just a minute here. How the hell did those two get involved in this? How did Shikamaru? Does this have something to do with his job?" trains of questions spilling out of Sakura's mind was not left unbidden. "There's no way they would willing to deport an able detective like Shikamaru to Oto, unless he decided this on himself or it's an S-rank case and it's a long term duty call."
"I have no idea." Ino shook her head and shrugged slightly. "I've just heard about this from her mother." her eyes bore themselves into her plate of grilled pork that had been left cold and untouched. "She was crying her eyes out, sobbing something about him not doing anything wrong, that Shikamaru wouldn't say a word about it to his mother and he left quietly when the people in charge came to pick him up. Not even Chouji know what is going on."
"The people in charge?" Sakura asked, narrowing her eyes inquisitively.
"I am wondering that myself." Ino looked at Sakura with glossy eyes before she broke down and cried on Sakura's shoulder.
"Ino." Sakura muttered softly, eyes filled with concern as she gently pulled her blonde friend closer to her with her right arm. She felt tears seeping into the fabric of her dress and skin. What could she do in a situation like this? She would usually tell her friend to let it all out and comforting her with 'Everything will be fine', but she couldn't. She hated lying to her friend, because with Oto involved, not even Shikamaru can be fine. So this time, Sakura decided to stay quiet.
"I know who they are." Tenten's frown deepened with every word she muttered and Sakura noticed the brunette's had her two fingers gripping her chin, it was her customary old man manner.
"You do?" Sakura questioned.
Ino raised her head from Sakura's shoulder to stare wide teary eyes at Tenten. Likewise, Hinata's glossy eyes were apparent, there was a high possibilty of Naruto's disappearance being related to Shikamaru's exile.
"Hey, I am an officer of the law, of course I know." Tenten stated matter of factly. "And what I am about to tell you guys is actually very confidential and I am risking my job for this. So if you girls wanted to hear what I have to say, I suggest we move our conversation to somewhere else more private." she explained in a hushed voice.
The girls nodded together in agreement before they left the joint for Tenten's apartment. Sakura was well aware that she was stepping into a forbidden boundary into the unknown.
A/N:
There you have it. What do you think of this story?
Review and let me know :) No flaming please.