I am not the greatest writer but I do strife to be one. I struggle a lot to get a good story going, which is why this story took me ages to finally put up. I deleted my account years ago when I first started my Naruto/One Piece story. It was so bad that I spent such a long time trying to find a good story to make out of it. With stories like Naruto and One Piece I try to make something that wouldn't be like an insult to their creators. My first story was definitely worse than insult...ugh it was so rough. But looking at what I have now, I think I can be happy with it and hope you can as well. I put a hell of a lot more effort into this story than I did the other and can't wait to see what happens with it in the future. Hopefully, you'll still be there to stick around and see it through with me.

Thanks for stopping by.

I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1: Prologue

"Live"

The sound of footsteps were seemingly non-existent as three figures broke through the forest line. They could have been mistaken as children for their babyish face and slim physique, but in their home, they were more than that. They were ninjas. Cold blooded fighting machines with the strength and fighting capabilities that not many people have been able to master. But as ninjas, even at their young age, they were forced to fight to the death no matter the situation. And at this moment, Sakura Haruno, was nearly at the brink of witnessing death first hand. Clutched in her teammates arms, she can feel her blood seeping from her own stomach. No matter how hard he tried, the blonde boy couldn't seem to control the flowing. His cerulean eyes gazed worriedly down at her pale face as he gently tugged her closer. It didn't matter that his arms were starting to grow numb, he would carry his teammate forever if he needed to.

"I'm okay, Naruto." Sakura whispered, sensing his fierce protectiveness for her.

Naruto Uzumaki unconsciously began to hold her tighter. "But you're bleeding so much!"

"I'm okay." She nearly shouted but forced her voice into a loud whisper. They were still hiding and the last thing they needed was to give away their location. Judging from the glare her other teammate was giving her, he was thinking the same thing.

They were at war, and even though they were caught off guard, they still needed to react efficiently. Which meant no more risks or they could all end up dead.

Sakura's emerald eyes looked up and into Naruto's.

She distinctly realized they refused to stare back at her and her scowl softened. Her small hand, damp with blood, weakly rose to rub against the whiskers tattooed to his face. The other boy gave a distressed whine, finally flicking his eyes down to look at her.

"I can't die from something like this." She said, "We're stronger than this, right?"

The spiky haired blonde didn't answer but Sakura could tell that he was more determined to protect her now more than ever. He wasn't over her brash actions but he was slowly beginning to let it go for now. That, however, didn't go the same for their quieter teammate who was still sending a side ways glare at Sakura.

"Naruto's right, Sakura."

The pink haired girl flinched slightly in Naruto's arms. There were only two times that her teammate ever said her name; in times of great stress or when he was extremely pissed at her. Sakura guessed this case had to have bee about the latter. She intently waited for the verbal beat down she was going to receive.

"You could have been killed." The raven haired boy growled. The two lighter haired teens flinched at his tone but it was Naruto that was quick to retaliate.

"She was only trying to help that poor girl, Sasuke."

Sasuke Uchiha's glare seemed to intensify as his eyes blazed red. "We don't have time to be sympathetic. Or did you all forget that we are at war!? The only people we can worry about are ourselves from here on out. Understand?"

Silence was the only answer Sasuke received. Though, if they thought about it, that was probably the best response he could have gotten.

In the mixture of all the confusion andd chaos, Sakura and her teammates had entered the front lines of their country's war. Nearly seconds into the battle they lost dozens of their comrades and friends to the enemy. People Sakura had grown up with and thought she would never lose were one-by-one picked off like flies. And the worst part of it all, they had been separated from their command leader and without him they were at a loss for their next steps. The longer he stayed missing, the more likely chance he was dead rather than alive. It was a terrible thought but it was the only logical answer they could come up with in all the madness. Besides, if they didn't make a decision on their own, they would only receive the same fate.

Suddenly, Sasuke paused from his position slightly ahead of the other two. His scarlet eyes began to scan the area. Naruto and Sakura already knew from experience what that stare could possible mean.

They were too late. Someone had finally found them. Naruto stopped a few paces in front of Sasuke but still close enough to protect his flank. Sakura was just staring at something in the darkness when she felt and saw Naruto flinch.

"Did you hear that?" Sasuke said, glancing at Naruto from the corner of his eye.

The blonde boy nodded, eyes narrowing at something behind them. Sakura noticed it was coming from the same direction they just arrived from. If she was correct, then they had been followed from the battle they barely managed to escape from. There were a few ninja, possibly hundreds, they were forced to face against. There was no telling how many managed to follow them. Using what little chakra she had left, Sakura lifted herself from Naruto's arms and squeezed her chakra powered hand to patch her wound. Sasuke wrenched her hand away before it managed to heal completely.

"Conserve your chakra!"

"I won't be much help of you if I hadn't used it, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke pursed his lips in anger. He knew she was right but that didn't make the situation any better. He turned away from her but not before taking charge of her left flank as Naruto took her other side. From behind her two teammates, Sakura could only smile as confidence began to swell in her chest.

They could do this! As long as she had the two of them, Sakura knew she could do anything. Maybe even take back their lost village hidden in the leaves.

At least that's what she thought would happen.

"Sasuke!"

Sakura gave an ear piercing wail as Sasuke wrenched her into his arms, using his body to protect her from the barrage of kunai thrown at her. The boy gave a grunt, his blood gurgling in his throat as he clutched her closer. Sakura scrambled for him to release her but his grip only intensified.

"Let me go! Let me go!" She cried. "I can heal you, please!"

Sasuke shook his head from where it was buried in her hair. Sakura couldn't tell if he was smelling her hair or too tired to hold himself up right. She pushed the thought from her head in order to wrap her own arms around him and lift them both from another onslaught of knives. She leapt through the air, a few blades suddenly slicing across her. Sakura quickly ignored it. Sasuke had suffered way more damage than she had and there was no telling what level of danger Naruto was in. They had long been separated when Naruto decided to take on two ninjas earlier on in the battle.

Sakura pumped chakra into her feet the moment her jump lead her into a tree's canopy. She blazed from branch to branch, dodging the kunai and shuriken from below. Unfortunately, she had to go on the defense now that Sasuke was pretty much out of commission. She had to find Naruto, they had to regroup or they would be picked off one by one. Sakura opened her mouth to call out to her friend when something suddenly whizzed in front of her face, embedding itself in the tree she stepped onto. Sakura saw that it was a kunai, one that had barely missed her face, but nothing more.

Ssss...

That's when she noticed the explosive tag hanging at the end of the blade.

Sakura didn't have enough time to get away from it but she knew she wasn't going to let Sasuke suffer anymore pain. She twisted her body just in time for the tag to explode, sending her far across the forest and into a pair of shrubs. There was a high pitched ringing in her ear by the time Sakura managed to come to. Her body ached and protested as she tried to lift her head and look at her surroundings. A voice in the back of her mind was screaming that Sasuke was gone, not in her arms like he had been before the explosion. Even though she knew this startling fact, her body didn't act the way she wanted it to. She struggled as tears clouded her vision.

Was this how it all ended?

Green eyes frantically looked around the clearing, searching for any sign that would lead her to her teammates, her friends, her family...

"Fuck off..."

The ninja looked up at the sound of Naruto's voice. He was alive! A small hopeful smile slowly began to creep on her face as she tried to turn in the direction she heard him. But as quickly as she spotted the blonde boy, her heart dropped into her stomach and fear filled her emerald eyes. Laying in what seemed to be a small clearing under the canopy's shadow was her battered teammate.

The sleeves to his jumpsuit were scorched on one side, revealing black and burned skin. Sakura couldn't see his face from afar but she could see the large amounts of blood dripping down his pale chin. Sakura bit her lip to the point it bled. This was not good.

Two figures were watching Naruto from beneath the shadow's of the trees. Their faces were hidden in the darkness, making it hard for Sakura to identify them.

"Look what I found." Sakura nearly choked as her entire body stiffened. That voice was so close.

The fear of getting caught nearly suffocated her as she squeezed her eyes shut just, a ninja appeared a few feet away from her. His headband was blocked from around his waist as he held Sasuke's limp body out in front of him. Sakura couldn't even find the strength to cry out as her grief sucked the breath out of her lungs. Sasuke's eyes were closed and his skin looked like white paper.

The ninja holding Sasuke stepped forward to dump his body near Naruto's. The blonde didn't even bother to look at his teammate's still form.

"Where is she?" A ninja asked from the shadows.

"Where's who?"

Sasuke's escort slapped the blonde across the head. "Don't play stupid. Where's the pink haired bitch?"

Before Naruto had the chance to answer, Sasuke's body gave a violent shake as he coughed up blood at Naruto's feet. He's alive! Tears of relief sprung at Sakura's eyes.

"You'll never find her." He croaked.

"Oh, playing the hero are we?"

Naruto weakly lifted his head up and glared at the ninja. Despite how frail and weak he looked in the center of the clearing, bloody and battered, his blue eyes looked as strong as a burning flame. Sakura could tell the ninja looked slightly intimidated. Sasuke's glare didn't look any weaker without the red bleeding into his obsidian eyes. "We'll always protect, Sakura-chan."

"But she can't protect you, can she?"

The ninja lifted his hand and Sakura instinctively turned away as two loud thuds echoed in the forest. Her throat constricted and suddenly Sakura couldn't feel her body any longer. But that was the last of her problems, her friends were dead. Naruto and Sasuke, she would never see them again. Those few words repeated itself in Sakura's mind as her limbs lit on fire. Her head swayed and just as she was going to let out a moan of confusion, a hand wrapped itself around her mouth. She gave a slightly miffed noise and gazed up at her attacker.

To her surprise, she saw Naruto and Sasuke leaning over her. She wriggled in surprise, trying to make Naruto move his hand from around her mouth but he only shushed her.

"Quiet Sakura-chan!" He hissed with a smile. "Are you trying to get caught?"

From her other side, Sasuke shook his head with a roll of his eyes. "Idiot."

Tears streamed down her eyes even more but Sakura knew they were tears of happiness. But she was still confused as to how they were here and not in the clearing with the other unknown ninja. The only logical explanation could have been.

"Clones." She whispered. "You used substitution clones."

Sasuke and Naruto didn't answer as they scrambled to get the girl to her feet. Sakura grunted when a sharp pain stabbed through her stomach, she glanced down and noticed the wound she tried to heal earlier had reopened. Sasuke was the first to notice, "I should have let you heal it better." He said, avoiding her eyes as two boys lead her forward.

"It's okay." Sakura said. "If you had let me, I wouldn't have been able to fight with you like I did."

Sasuke didn't say anything and they continued their trudge forward. For awhile, Sakura thought they could actually make it in the clear and possibly find some sort of shelter. She should have realized she was only avoiding the inevitable. Even with her chakra so low, Sakura could still sense three chakra sources making their way quickly towards them.

"Can you run?" Naruto asked her.

Sakura nodded. "I can make it but we can't possibly run forever."

"Don't worry." The blonde smiled at her. "We can do this."

With a nod and a smile of her own, Sakura followed the blonde into the shadows, not realizing that Sasuke had disappeared from her side. Naruto decided to lead her into the trees, using the branches to catapult him forward with ease. Sakura found herself struggling to keep up and weakly reached out to him, barely missing a kunai and some other weapons to her torso.

"N-Naruto." She called. "I-I can't go that fast."

However, the blonde didn't seem to be able to hear her and continued on unfazed. That was when Sakura finally noticed Sasuke was gone and glanced around to look for him.

"Naruto where's Sasuke-kun?" But as she looked up to stare at the blonde for an answer, he was nowhere to be found. Sakura's pink hair whipped around her as she frantically looked around in the darkness. She was completely alone.

"She's gone crazy."

Or she thought she was.

A few branches deeper into a tree's canopy were one of the three ninja that had attacked her team earlier. Only one ninja caught her attention as he was the closest to her. His dark hair was spikey and pointed in every direction, his grinning face struck an irritating nerve in Sakura. He shook his head at her as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"I mean, she has to be." He said, "I know I saw her walking away after we killed her little friends."

Sakura smirked. They still didn't know the Naruto and Sasuke they saw were just clones. She figured her two teammates must have been hiding from somewhere they could attack unexpectedly. From above her, a girl with long black hair tied with a white bow moved closer from her spot a few trees away from Sakura. The girl glared at the spikey haired boy.

"If you saw her, why didn't you just kill her?" She sighed with a roll of her eyes. "I'm so sick of all this chasing."

"Where's the fun in that!?"

Before the girl could start a screaming match, another ninja appeared at her side. She instantly grew quiet as he glared between the two of them. "Knock it off. Just kill her so we can get out of here."

That seemed to be the deal changer and soon Sakura had two different blades aimed at her. Sakura knew they could easily kill her with one blow.

Sakura didn't think she had the speed now to deflect them nor the ability to get back up should their blades strike their target. The girl racked her mind restlessly for a solution when she noticed something at the corner of her eye. Waving his arms enthusiastically to gain her attention was Naruto, bright smile and happy eyes once she finally noticed him. Without even thinking Sakura jumped to join him on the ground, barely missing the two knives. She landed wobbly on her feet but by the time she looked up to speak to Naruto, she found Sasuke in his place. The raven haired boy smirked at her confused face and grabbed her arm before running off in the darkness.

"What is going on?" Sakura said through gritted teeth, the pain in her stomach almost unbearable. "Where is Naruto?"

Sasuke shrugged much to Sakura's annoyance. "Don't worry, he's fine."

The way he left such a short answer had Sakura suspicious, but Sasuke would never do anything to lie to or hurt her. She just didn't like how they were running around without each other. It was dangerous being alone at this point but they were brushing it off as nothing! Sakura wanted to argue, shout all her confusion and grief, but Sasuke's warm hand in her's kept her grounded.

It was almost as if he was sucking it all away from her. The thought was comforting but it didn't do anything to stop the blood rushing from her stomach and in between her fingers. The more she ran, the harder it became to stay focused or even see in front of her. Sasuke was slowly becoming a blur until he just completely disappeared from sight. If it weren't for him holding her, she would have thought she had been running alone.

"We're not gonna make it out of this are we?"

Sasuke didn't even falter. "Of course you will."

Sakura looked up, pink brow quirked. "Don't you mean 'we'?"

"No." Sakura couldn't help her scream of surprise when Naruto suddenly appeared beside her, that contagious smile on his face. "Just you."

Suddenly, they both stopped running. Sakura tried to follow their lead and plant her feet in the dirt to stop, but all the running and the blood draining from her body made her too weak to react fast enough. It became an even bigger surprise when she realized she was heading straight down a steep hill. Her instincts screamed at her to latch on to Sasuke's hand but he let her go just as gravity began to drag her down. Sakura craned her neck to look up at her teammates through her tears. They continued to stand at the top of the hill, not even bothering to reach out for her or help her in her descent.

However, she did notice they were smiling.

Eventually, Sakura's body collided to the ground and she went tumbling down the hill. It felt like hours had passed as she continued to roll. Bushes and branches scratched against her until she finally landed with a thump at the base of the hill. From there she couldn't even see the top of the hill anymore, the forest wildlife made it too difficult to see where she last saw her friends.

"Oh my god." A voice from beside Sakura made her jump in surprise. A masked man with spiky white hair was standing only a few feet from Sakura. It looked like he had been through a few battles himself judging from the scratches and bruises along every piece of skin she could see. Sakura's heart leapt for joy once she finally realized who it was.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura cried and the man ran forward, wrapping his arms around here in a bone crushing hug. She knew Sasuke and Naruto would be excited to see him again like she was. Sakura voiced this much to him but he suddenly went stiff.

"Sensei?" Sakura quirked a brow at him as the man continued to stay frozen. "What's wrong?"

She put a hand on his chest to get his attention but gasped when she felt something warm on her hand. She pulled her hand back, finding it red and dripping with blood. However, Kakashi didn't look like he was hurt. He seemed fine, in fact. Despite the strange looking he was giving her.

"Sakura..."He said."Did you not see them?"

For a moment, Sakura was confused, enraptured by the large amount of blood on her sensei's chest, but she snapped out of it. "I did! They're at the top of that hill, they just lead me here but-"

"Sakura." Kakashi Hatake interrupted her. "Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto are gone."

"What?" Sakura twitched, her mind not being able to comprehend. "What do you mean gone? I just saw them!"

The silver haired man just shook his head but refused to meet her eyes. He pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her like Naruto and Sasuke had done many times to her before. "I may have lost them, but I won't let them take you."

The older man stood and folded his fingers into position as he drew a symbol in the dirt in front of Sakura. The pink haired girl instantly noticed the jutsu and tried to react but her energy was completely depleted. The blood running down her stomach was now gushing out of her at an alarming rate.

"Sensei," She whimpered. "Don't do this."

"I won't let you die here." Kakashi shouted, Sakura faintly worried that someone would hear. Those ninja weren't too far behind her. Surely, they will catch up to them. "I'll die before I let them get to you too."

"I can still fight! Aren't we still a team?"

"What team, Sakura?!"

The pink haired girl didn't know how to answer that. Even though they had been separated why didn't their own commander still see them as a team? Was he quitting on them? Was he leaving them when they clearly needed him the most?

Kakashi continued as she grew quiet. "I'll use enough chakra to transport you some place you will be safe. You can still live Sakura, some place where you can be happy and be rid of this war."

"I don't want to leave!"

Sakura gasped as the symbol in front of her began to glow as it was charged with chakra. The glow became a flashing light the closer it got to its completion. Kakashi smiled down softly at his only female student. She looked back up at him, tears in her eyes that he will never be proud to be the cause of. However, he knew this was for the best.

"Live, Sakura."

And in a flash of lightning, she disappeared.

Ehhh, I don't really know how I feel about this chapter. I've probably rewritten it dozens of times but something about it just irked me. I told my roommate about it and she just told me I was being paranoid. So, hopefully, it wasn't too bad.

Anyway, I decided to make the first chapter pretty much like a Prologue because I thought it would be easier to understand the story this way. Though, there may be a few confusing spots, I assure you they will be explained in later chapters. It's no fun putting everything out there on the first chapter, you know? I don't really know when everything will be exactly explained, especially since I don't know whether or not I want Sakura to join the crew or not? I'm stuck between ending the story a few chapters in as Sakura doesn't join them or keeping it going along with the original storyline so Sakura does join them. But that worries me! Ugh, I don't know. Maybe I'll put a poll up or something.

WELL, you made it through the first chapter! The next one will be up fairly soon, I was already working on it at the same time I was working on the Prologue. That is also pretty length so you'll get a good read. I hope you enjoyed and please leave a review, they are always appreciated!