Sasuke slew her with a smile on his face. The one who had plagued his village was no more, as her body began to crystalize itself, he knew that it was over. His friend walked towards him, "So, what do we do with the body?"
"We're going to take it back to the village." Sasuke said after a yawn.
"What a drag." Shikamaru replied after yawning as well.
They made their way back to the village where they were finally able to rest after fighting for three straight days with the enchantress. The crystalized body of the enchantress was put in the middle of the village as a symbol as well as a warning to those who tried to mess with the village.
As the village celebrated their hero's safe return Sasuke wondered off feeling the need for isolation. He gazed at the stars feeling empty inside, after all this time he felt as if the easy death of the enchantress had taken away the years of hard work he done, almost a feeling of being cheated.
Scowling, a sudden movement caught his eyes, and a familiar figure came out of the shadows. "You..." he murmured in surprise.
Fast forward
Two strangers rode on horses, they wore cloaks to hide their faces from the scorching sun. They rode on towards a village hidden in the leaves, which in their minds would be considered a complete and utter lie considering the fact that this was the third time they had to go up a hill and there were still no trees, much less any leaves in sight so far, only dirt and occasional rocks.
"Shikamaru what is this?" Sasuke asked as they halted their horses.
"We must have taken a wrong turn somewhere." Shikamaru answered with an irritated voice. As they both glanced down, a small village could be seen near a surrounding vast of forestry. And as if the world was mocking them the drop from where they stood all the way to the bottom would be a gist of a thousand feet.
"Oi, does this mean we have to turn back?"Sasuke growled as his eyebrow started to twitch.
"Guess there's no choice." Shikamaru said as he sighed. As they both begrudgingly turned to leave a voice stopped them.
"HELLO!" A pink haired girl greeted them from far away. "Are you guys visiting?" Because it would have been better for you guys to take a guide with you." She said as she got closer to them.
"And what makes you say that?" Shikamaru asked hoping to get information.
"Because it's pretty obvious that you guys are lost." She said nonchalantly. "Oh, by the way my name is Sakura, and if you both want I can take you towards your destination.
"Fine." Sasuke answered just wanting to get this over with.
"Wait, before I forget you both have to take off your hoods, we don't really like strangers after… Some strangers ransacked our village." Sakura smiled awkwardly, which got their nerves on the edge.
"So can you tell us more about your village's ransacking?" Shikamaru asked trying to hide his suspicion.
"Sure." Sakura murmured as she led the way towards the village. "Yo-you see, there was a, thief, no bandits and the villagers hid them for a while without knowing who they were and long story short they were ransacked and some really good people died." Sakura answered as quickly as she could.
"What were you doing so far away from the village?" Sasuke asked with coldness in his voice, making Sakura gulp with guilt.
"Just gathering herbs, you see I am the town's herb doctor/apprentice." Sakura laughed out of nervousness.
"So, Sakura you must hear things when you go to pick up medicinal herbs, have you heard anything about witches by any chance?" Shikamaru asked bluntly.
"Witches?" Sakura scoffed turning to look at them. "Please tell me you're joking." All nervousness gone and replaced by an 'are you serious' look. She sighed as she realized they were not joking. "Look you guys are cute so do yourself a favor and don't ask that question in this town, mostly because there are no such thing as witches anymore, they were all killed after some 'hero's' kill them off and… I don't know whether to tell you strangers this, but one of our most beloved town herb doctor was killed because of it, the worst part was that nobody saw their faces much less identify them and that is the real reason why we don't like hooded strangers anymore."
They stared at her as she turned back and kept moving, staying silent until they finally saw the town. "Well here we are fellows 'Konoha Village."