MY crazy little one-shot about seeing someone for the first time in many years and finding them, shall we say, different.
The small village bustled peacefully; the city's markets the loudest part of the city besides the music concert in the park. If you flew high above the town, you might hear light footfalls from high above the streets. The light sound came from two figures crossing the city. One of them was far behind the other, seemingly tracking them, occasionally ducking out of sight when the first figure turned around.
The second figure continued to race across the clay rooftops behind the first figure, only duck out of sight again, bobbing and weaving like a frightened rabbit to avoid any contact. The first figure cursed, having hoped to get a good look at the person chasing her. She was pretty sure it was a man but she would have to see him head on to be sure. She smirked, glad for her ANBU mask and head covering to partially disguise her identity.
Uchiha Sasuke had been on his own for two months ever since he had killed Orochimaru. He planned to catch any ANBU who came near his hideout and interrogate them about the changes in Konohagakure before he returned. This first ANBU might be hard to catch before they discovered that he was there. They had lightning fast reflexes and had nearly caught him several times before.
Ahead of him, Haruno Sakura took an enormous bound into the forest. She pulled ahead of her pursuer, intending to wait for him and ask him who he was and what he was doing following her. Her knee high black ninja boots tapped lightly against the tree boughs as her Jonin vest rippled in the wind of her speed. Inside her head, her brain was busy calculating the best place to stop. Her jade eyes roamed over the woods and noted a good spot to pause and get her bearings. The branch only slightly wobbled as she landed, twisting in midair to face the way she had come.
She didn't have long to wait, her light pink hair stirring in the light breeze as she slipped off the annoying head covering she had to wear. The black tattoo on her right shoulder contrasted sharply with her pale skin. Her porcelain mask was shaped into the usual face for that of an ANBU with a small marking on the forehead to mark her as a captain and medic ninja.
He landed on a branch opposite her, noting the tattoo on the right shoulder but failing to notice the markings on her mask. Luckily for her, those had been invented after he had left otherwise he would have attacked her without question. The unusual shoes were not left unnoticed but were duly recorded as well to remember.
"Why are you here?" He was the first to speak, his arms crossed over his chest.
"To accomplish a mission given to me," Sakura said, acting the part of a young, inexperienced ANBU member. She was glad for her facial mask as it masked her expressions and face from his sight.
"What mission?"
"To deliver a message to the Lord Kazekage. Don't ask me what it said, I don't know."
He cursed silently before asking, "Do you know who I am?"
She opened her mouth to talk but closed it immediately, turning away from Sasuke to look towards the middle of the woods. She jumped back, her feet takking on the tree limb as the branch she had previously been standing on exploded from a clay bomb dropped from above.
"Kuso! Damn you, Deidara!" she yelled, flicking a kunai towards the giant clay bird. Sasuke, having landed near her, heard her muttering "cut off both of his arms, he has mouths in his feet, cut off his legs, where's he going to have mouths now!"
"You still underestimate me and my power! I have mouths everywhere, even in my chest," he cried, sticking out his chest as he perched precariously on his giant bird. "Hello, Uchiha. Why were you talking to an ANBU captain?"
"You're an ANBU captain?!"
"Yes! Ever since you left, we changed the uniform so ANBU captains are only identifiable by a small mark on the mask," Sakura informed him, sending off another kunai towards Dei which hit his bird and the letter bomb promptly exploded, leaving him to fall to the forest floor.
"Kuchiyose: Summoning Jutsu! Pakkun, I need the rest of my team and Kyu's (short for Kyuubi, a codename for Naruto) team, stat!" she said, holding a small dog up to her face before hurling him in the direction of her squad. To Deidara she said, "I gave you enough chances after that fight two months ago when you nearly killed the Kazekage, Gaara."
"What!?" Sasuke exclaimed, his face whitening.
"I forgot, Orochimaru never found out. Gaara became Kazekage but was kidnapped so that his bijuu could be extracted. The Akatsuki succeeded but their plan was thwarted by the arrival of a team from Konoha and some from Suna. A Suna elder used a forbidden jutsu to bring Gaara back to life after the containment for Shukaku was smashed so that he could be restrained once more," Sakura said before quickly drawing her blade, jumping down and stabbing Deidara through the heart. She wiped her blade and jumped back up, landing next to Sasuke.
"You know, I should really know the name of the person who killed me. It feels shameful being killed by a person in a mask," Deidara complained, coughing up blood.
Sakura looked down at him with something akin to pity before jumping back to Deidara's side, whispering her name in his ear and then knocking him out so he would die painlessly and not tell Sasuke her name.
The moment of silence was broken as the two ANBU teams thumped to a halt next to her. Sakura wordlessly embraced everyone in her team, which was made up of Tenten, Hinata, Temari, Ino, and herself. Naruto's team was made up of himself, Shikamaru, Neji, and Choji. The person who made the teams uneven was Sasuke, who watched them curiously from a branch above.
"You have pink hair," Sasuke remarked. "I knew someone who had pink hair. I hope she grew up and got over me leaving. I bet she's at least a Chunin. I have a question. What has Haruno Sakura been up to?"
"You mean Haruno Sakura, the Fifth Hokage's apprentice, Haruno Sakura, the best medic in the village, Haruno Sakura, one of the lead Jonin in the village?" Sakura asked, disguising the bitter tone in her voice behind curiosity.
"Yes," he sighed. "Will you give her a message for me? Tell her that I will be back to see her again and to stay. I promise."
"Fine," she said, signaling the rest of them to leave. "I'll hold you to your promise, Sasuke," she said, removing her mask before forming a hand sign and disappearing in a swirl of leaves, leaving behind a shell-shocked Uchiha and a dead Akatsuki member as all the proof that that scene had ever happened.
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