Dazzle Me

Silence

Sunset in the village hidden in the leaves, Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke had been given the rest of the day off. So at Sakura's invitation they all went on a picnic. Sasuke was quiet as usual but Naruto was also being quiet which was very unusual and uncharacteristic of him. Sakura remained quiet as well allowing the silence to settle over them, she herself had nothing utterly important to talk about and so watched the sky as it began to darken

Sasuke and Naruto glanced at Sakura, normally she would have been chattering away trying to get them out of their funk but just now she looked miserable. Sasuke studied her from the corner of his eyes, she'd given up on him, true to her word she was only his friend and that's the way he wanted it but he didn't like seeing his friends sad and could feel the discontent all but come off of her in waves.

They were all miserable in their own way and just as Sakura had given up on Sasuke, Naruto had also accepted the fact that Sakura didn't want him. Sasuke let his eyes drift to the sky as Sakura's sad eyes were. They were all searching for an answer to the endless boredom they were in. Nothing happened here, not even the upcoming test could brighten them. They would get to chaperon the test and get to play with the little wanna-be ninja's.

A shooting star flew across the sky scattering its powers over the sleepy town and all at once the town seemed to say, 'I wish something exciting would happen, give us another adventure' and then returned to silence. Sakura sighed and the grass ruffled underneath the blanket as she lay back on it linking her hands and resting them on her stomach. Sasuke and Naruto lay down next to her angled out in their usual position. They didn't see the nine gorgeous figures appeared in the waterfall as simple images and then fade away.

Sakura rose when the sky had grown completely dark and the moon was hidden from view. She walked to the water's edge, comfortable in her surroundings and abilities to not fall in. She looked sadly at the never ending fall of water.

"I guess I better get home," Came Sakura's voice from the darkness.

"Yeah, it's pretty late, Kakashi might get worried." Kakashi had become something of a parent to all of them. There was no deny that. Things had settled down and they worked as a team now. It was a lie, ninja parents –even one's like Kakashi- didn't get worried about their children and Sakura had been out of their parent's house since they'd been assigned to Kakashi three years ago. Naruto gathered the things from off the blanket, putting untouched food back into the basket. He had grown without parents but wasn't bitter towards Sakura or anyone that had parents, it was just the way things were and he'd taken a giant step in understanding that.

Sasuke joined them without saying anything. He'd had a family once a long time ago but didn't speak of them or of the massacre. It was a part of his life that still troubled him greatly, that he was still angry over and didn't know what to do about, trouble was he didn't know if he should tell someone about it or keep it to himself, locking away his guilt and the emotions that were always waging a war inside of him.

Naruto and Sasuke walked Sakura home and together walked to the mountain where the hokage's faces were carved into the solid stone. Sasuke knew this was where Naruto came when he needed to think, and had followed without following him there.

"You felt it too?" Naruto asked quietly. There had been a shifting after they had made the wish. Some presence had come out of nowhere and then had gone as quickly as it had come, bring with it unknown and leaving a sense of curiosity and unease for the unknown. Naruto hadn't felt any danger from it but one could never tell with something that couldn't be see.

"Yes." Sasuke's voice was a concentrated whisper, he had felt everything Naruto had felt but what they were both afraid to think of was that this was the answer to their silent wishes. Something exciting was going to happen good or bad. There had been a promise in the air and then there had been silence again.

Something of this sort had happened before a long time ago, before the hokage's, before the villages, a wish had been made for new chances, adventure, romance, there had been an answering gift from the gods. Could this be something of the same thing?

The nine figures that had appeared as an image before in the waterfall now stepped onto its band as flesh and blood. They were dazed and disoriented, dragged out of their world and dumped into a new one full of silent dangers. The leader was a women, short, slender but powerful with cropped short black hair and dark dangerous eyes.

"Akito where are we?" a boy standing to her right asked. He had silky silver hair that glowed in the moon light; his eyes were the same silver.

"That's a very good question Yuki." Shigure said from Akito's other side. "Who all is here with us?" Shigure and Yuki stepped back and looked down the line of their family. At the end of the line was Kyo holding onto Tohru's hand. They hadn't made it in their relationship but they were still good friends. Hanajima stood on Tohru's other side next was where Yuki had stood Arisa was beside Akito then the space Shigure had left. Rin and Haru were standing side by side, there story was of the same sort as Kyo's and Tohru's and the very grown and lovely Kisa stood on the other end looked around confused, but unruffled in her calm collectiveness.

They were all wary as they stepped forward to take a better look at where they were in the darkness of this new place. Their wariness turned to smothered fear as they were surrounded the shadows growing into living breathing beings that took no time in separating and disabling them. The silence was broken but the beating of their hearts.