Merry Christmas from Lilithia!
"Well… Shit."
She couldn't believe it. What kind of genjutsu was this?! Surely it was an illusion! Sakura looked out across the battlefield before her, ninjas clashing, small armies that looked to be less like shinobi nations and more like individual clans fighting amongst themselves. They couldn't see her from where she had woken up in the forest, wandering through the trees until she had reached a blasted portion of the forest, a clearing made after the trees had been obliterated from the violence.
Sakura's eyes narrowed as she studied the ninja closer, hoping her observations were wrong. They aren't even wearing flak jackets… and what is that? She leaned forwards on the tree limb she was crouching in, dampening her chakra as she balanced upon the bark, one hand pushing aside the foliage for a better look. Their armor is ancient! Like, Warring Era… Fuck fuck fuck no pleeeease don't let this be the Warring Era!
If she had somehow been transported to the Warring Era then she was screwed. Everyone in this time period was supposed to be long dead from where she came from and everyone she knew and might have gone to for help wasn't even born yet! The Hidden Villages hadn't even been thought of yet, Konoha not even a name! Damn it all. That's it! No more accepting mysterious scrolls from senile monks no matter what the mission pays!
So the question was… what did she do now? Sakura let the foliage slide back into place, leaning against the tree trunk. The smell of earth and leaves and damp humidity was familiar. Barely thirty feet away a battle raged, one was a dark haired clan wearing red samurai armor –The hell kind of ninja clan wears something so cumbersome? –the other clan was a mix of various hair colors, brown red, white, blonde –Their fighting style is atrocious, they are brawling not fighting! Move with a purpose!Heh, I sound like Shisou.
She had nowhere to go in this world. No ninja clan in their right mind would take in a random kunoichi that appeared out of the blue (Did they even allow women to fight in this age?). Sakura had no clan name of influence; she doubted her clan was even established yet, not to mention a ninja without fealty was never trusted. Sakura's hand absently traced the Alliance forehead protector tied to her head. She should probably take this off; the light might glint on it and give away her position to the violently inclined men just a hop-skip-and-a-jump away. Sakura didn't even know why she was sticking around to watch the battle play out. It's not like it concerned her, and if she was discovered then it was game over.
Nothin' better to do I guess. She thought as she untied her forehead protector and slipped it into her medic pouch, which was depressingly low on supplies. She was going to have to restock… Crap do they even use the same currency in this time period?! Sakura wracked her brain. No. No they did not. Shit. So she was lost in time, stuck in a completely foreign landscape, low supplies, no allies, no money…
This was officially a Bad Day. With a capital 'B' and 'D'. BAD. DAY.
Sakura groaned and threw her head back. Thwack! Went her skull against the tree. A sigh escaped her and Sakura stared dazedly at the battle before her, acting as MC in her head:
Look out dude, you not watching you flank –never mind you're gonna die.
Block –good. Dodge and counter! Nice, wait don't go for that –stupid. See, now you're dead. Next!
Ouch. That guy just lost his head…
Sakura's eyes flickered as two figures began to stand out from the rest of the shinobi. The two men fought in sync, side-by-side with an ease that told her they had probably grown up together and trusted each other completely. Like… brothers… Sakura squinted her eyes. Dark hair. Dark eyes. Pale skin. Similar bone structure. Yes, definitely brothers. Or really close cousins.
They strode into the battle as if they owned the place, fighting off their enemies left and right, only leaving the other's side to finish off an enemy before returning to their respective places. They were not too overpowered, not like the shinobi Sakura had known in her day –after all, these were the beginnings of the shinobi rise to power, all the overpowered jutsus, techniques, and summonings from her day had been built upon what this generation had discovered and refined.
Where Sakura was an A-rank kunoichi in her time period, she could probably pass for an S-rank here.
Still, these men were impressive. They fought with a grace and refined form that Tsunade would have approved of and Gai and Lee would have wept at. Sakura was impressed that they used minimal chakra until it was necessary; one of her biggest pet peeves were when her teammates rushed into battle wasting half their chakra on the first move. Move with a purpose, as her Shisou had taught her. Energy is wasted in every little unnecessary movement on the battlefield. But these two men fought with a controlled savagery that was a lost art to the hotheads of her generation. Sakura admired the beauty of their fighting prowess.
There's nothing sexier than a warrior who fights with controlled precision. Sakura grinned wryly. Only a kunoichi would think that.
Wait.
Silence.
Jade eyes finally tore away from the subjects of her interest to scan the rest of her surroundings. The battle was over. The dark haired clan had won. For now, anyway. The cycle would never truly stop until someone mustered up the guts to call for peace, Sakura knew.
Shinobi instincts had already kicked in, assessing the situation before she even realized. These men were low on chakra. Twenty left, all of the dark haired clan. They were meticulous fighters, dodge well. They were lean and fast, use strength to overpower. Their fighting form left their left flanks open to a lower attack, and they just barely flinched when anything neared their faces. A kekkei-genkai to be protected, perhaps? Her instincts were already telling her that her biggest opponents, should they sense and attack her, would be the two fighters that she had been watching.
Now Sakura assessed her own advantages. Her training was much more evolved and well-rounded than theirs. Her taijutsu was her biggest strength, both because of her physical strength and the fact that she had incorporated taijutsu from around the continent. Her ninjutsu base was well-rounded; she had learned as many as she could from her days in the Alliance, surrounded by shinobi across the globe. She could use jutus in every element (except wind, she was useless with wind jutsu). Her genjutsu was amazing –she wasn't going to be modest about it. Kurenai had taught Sakura in the ways of a genjutsu expert (ignoring all the damn Uchihas, anyway).
She really should just leave. They would never know she was here. Just slip back into the denser part of the forest and run… Sakura's body followed her thoughts, slithering quietly down the tree trunk, her dainty felt-soled boots making no sound as she slid her body around the trunk so that the tree blocked her view of the clearing and vice-versa.
Sakura felt a chakra spike.
What the hell –how did they even sense me? Damn! Sakura's body shot off through the trees like a rocket, dashing through the foliage with the agility of a deer, leaping high and low, rolling under the brush without slowly down. Years of surviving by the skin of her teeth in potentially Zetsu-filled forests had made her nimble and untraceable in through the trees. Her flexible limbs stretched and pulled with control, moving with a purpose, squeezing through impossible nooks and crannies. Behind her, Sakura heard her pursuers crashing and cursing through the underbrush, forgoing the dexterity it took to navigate the forests as she did.
Sakura tipped her head back and let loose a laugh that they most definitely heard, and the curses behind her seemed to get angrier.
She suddenly made a ninety-degree turn and hid inside a large but hollow tree trunk, once blasted by lightning and grown up around the deep crevice. She was small enough that she was completely hidden. Three men with dark hair rushed by. Not even sparing her hiding place a glance. But Sakura was not stupid enough to emerge yet.
Seconds later she hear the sounds of two pairs of feet approaching. Sakura even out her breath to blend with the sounds of the forest, with the way the wind blew and the leaves rustled, relaxing her mind and tensing her muscles. The two shinobi, male by the thud of their footfalls, stopped close enough to her hiding space that she could listen to their conversation.
"I think she gave them the slip." Someone said.
"You think the intruder was female?" Another answered.
"What male ninja in his right mind would have pink hair?"
Goddamn this pink hair! She snarled inwardly. If it wasn't for the fact that it grew too fast to be permanently shaved off, and seemed to have a freakish magical resistance to any and all hair dyes, Sakura would have gotten rid of this bane on her existence long, long ago.
"I'll double back." The second voice said.
A noise of affirmation was heard from the first speaker. "I'll start widening the search from here."
When Sakura was sure only one of the ninja remained, Sakura slowly (breath evenly, breath evenly) inched her face around the crevice in the wood, spying on the young man before her. His right side was facing her, presenting her with a tall, lean young man with pale skin and dark hair, a ponytail running down his back and tousled strands framing his face and slightly spike in odd places. Why does he have to have such pretty hair? Stupid pretty boys, perfect in everything, why couldn't they could just all be born bald or something?
His face, from what she could see, was familiar. The barest curve of an otherwise straight nose, the point of his chin, the slant of his cheekbones. His eyes were cast in shadow, and he had full lips –dammit what have I been saying about pretty boys Kami? Stop it! –but other than these details he seemed so familiar. God this was sounding like those cliché, horribly predictable romances that Ino found and shoved into her face.
But then.
This bitch.
Had.
To.
Freakin'.
Turn.
Around.
And holy fuck what does little miss Haruno Sakura see?!
There is an Uchiwa fan on this bitch's shirt.
She gasped.
..::*^*^*^*::..
Izuna reacted by instinct.
He heard a feminine gasp, and before he knew it he was in front of a large tree with a blasted trunk, one had gripping a crumbling, blackened edge of bark the other holding a kunai to her throat. As he had imagined, it was a kunoichi with pink hair, pressed as far as she could against the back of the rounded inside of the trunk. She was good, he admitted. The way this woman had practically glided through the complicated network of trees and underbrush, leaving no trails and never slowing down, told Izuna that she possessed an intimate knowledge of forest survival, with astounding deftness of movement.
So Izuna did not understand why she would make such a beginner's mistake of gasping like she had. He hadn't even sensed her presence before that. Even now, as the pink-haired kunoichi was staring at him with an unnervingly blank gaze, the barest hint of wariness in her eyes passing so quickly that he almost missed it. Here he was in this awkward position, too large to fit anything but his arm into the blasted tree, holding kunai to her throat at an angle she clearly could have tried disarming him (but Izuna didn't think she would actually succeed).
Izuna took the oddly frozen moment in time to study her aesthetics. This kunoichi was… different. Kunoichi were rare enough, since being a ninja was man's work, but her eyes shone with a fire that threatened to burn into his eyes just as effectively as a Sharingan. Mesmerizing jade green eyes that were hardened and slightly dulled from experience that made Izuna wonder what had shaped her so. And her hair. It was pink! Not to state the obvious, but was that even possible? Not even those annoyingly bright Senju had hair like that! He wondered if it was natural… Bad thoughts Izuna, focus. Her outfit was strange –a battered red Chinese-style shirt and black leggings, over which she wore the shortest pants he had ever seen (A/N: shorts would not exist in his time period), the outfit completed by knee-high boots. The outfit was rather seductive, but Izuna got the impression that this woman didn't actually realize that. Crouching in the empty tree with that wild look in her eye, Izuna actually wondered if he hadn't stumbled upon a nymph like from the folktales.
"Who are you?" He finally asked.
She regarded him with a level gaze that seemed to measure him up before speaking, "My name is Sakura."
Sakura. It was a perfectly reasonable name for a forest nymph. "No last name?"
"No." Her tone held an edge that warned not to go further.
Izuna stepped back from the crack in the tree. "Step out."
She complied, still staring at him as if he was the one with pink hair. "Well, here I am." She muttered, placing her hands on her hips that spoke a confidence bordering on haughty.
Izuna had to admit, she was extremely attractive. "Let's take a walk, shall we?"
She raised an arched, pink eyebrow at him. "Take a walk as in 'find a dark place to dump my body before you kill me', or as in 'taking me to a place where you will lock me up and throw away the key'?"
Quite the spitfire. Izuna thought amusedly, smirking as he replied, "The second option."
And then this woman had the balls to look like she was pondering his order. She seemed to come to a conclusion and shrugged. "Meh, I got nothin' better to do. Let's go."
Izuna scowled. "That wasn't a request at the behest of your decision."
This woman, Sakura, flashed him a mischievous grin. "If I didn't want to go with you, trust me, you would not stand a chance."
Izzuna narrowed his eyes.
"Oh stop that." The pink-haired creature rolled her eyes –Does she know who she is talking to? – and then said dryly, "You can point the pointy-thing away now. I don't bite."
"It's called a kunai."
"It's called sarcasm."
Touché.
Sent back two hundred years or so and the Uchiha clan still had no sense of humor. Some things never changed.
..::*^*^*^*::..
It was chilling to look him in the face. The Uchiha that walked next to her was the reincarnation of Sasuke –or, er, Sasuke was the reincarnation of this particular ancestor. They were exact replicas of the other, except this Uchiha has plump lips as opposed to the thinned and eternally-frowning lips of Sasuke. Not that Sakura cared to notice Sasuke's lips before. Stupid fangirl days…
But seriously, it was unnerving to walk beside a man that looked and acted like Sasuke, save for the homicidal-fratricidal tendencies (although it was probably only a matter of time). The last time Sakura had seen her ex-teammate he had tried to electrocute her and gut out her heart at the same time. However, this Uchiha had an aura of calmness that Sasuke lacked. His eyes were not filled with hate, and his words and actions to her showed a mutual respect. This was not Sasuke. Not to mention his hair was really pretty. Goddammit.
She walked effortlessly through the forest, unconscious of how her feet naturally placed themselves around sticks and stones and how her arms and torso twisted to dodge branches and outcrops as her gaze set itself five paces ahead and her mind hovered on the Uchiha behind her. Amusingly, said Uchiha was breaking his neck as he looked up and down up and down between the ground and the girl. He was trying to keep his eyes on her, however he was also preoccupied trying not to trip or snap the brush underfoot on the forest floor. Sakura knew she moved fast through the trees, even among ninja standards, and kept her ears trained on the sounds of his hastened steps.
"This is the person we were searching for?" One of the Uchihas asked incredulously as Sakura was guided to their meeting place.
"It's got pink hair. What do you think?" Someone answered him.
Sakura growled under her breath, "The 'it' you are referring to is a female, morons." The Uchiha who had guided her here (from henceforth to be referred to as 'The Sasuke Clone' until otherwise stated), had heard Sakura's mutter and snorted at her dry wit.
"I'm sure they'll notice one day." He chuckled into her ear before pulling away to go speak with a man Sakura recognized as his partner in battle. She watched the two of them carefully, ignoring the questions and remarks the other Uchihas aimed her way.
The lead Uchiha reminded her of someone as well, but in a bad way. Her shinobi instincts were restless at the sight of him, in red armor, a black and wild mane of hair that fell down his back unevenly, and the slight stress lines that reminded her of Itachi.
Then, it clicked.
An icy feeling swept over her body like a wave, her muscles slowly but steadily tensing as the shiver ran from head to toe. Her hands at her sides fisted before relaxing, her right hand resting in false leisure on her kunai holster while the other placed itself on her hip, ready to grab the scroll attached next to her medic pouch.
Madara and his partner, The Sasuke Clone, turned and approached her, both no doubt seeing through her bored stance and noting her coiled muscles. The Sasuke Clone's eyes flashed with measurement –You are right to be wary –but Madara, being the chauvinistic bastard that he is (was?), gazes at her with dismissal, obviously never fearing a woman in his life. Sakura would have loved to lock him in a room with a drunk and rampaging Tsunade.
"Am I your prisoner now?" Sakura drawled when they stopped in front of her.
Madara raised an eyebrow at her attitude. "Not necessarily, however we are curious as to why you were watching our battle."
"I was curious." Sakura shrugged.
Beside him, The Sasuke Clone spoke up, looking skeptical. "Well you don't seem to be working with those Senju dogs; that's a plus. But what is a girl like you doing alone in the middle of a forest during a war?"
Sakura scoffed. "I am capable of defending myself, thank you very much!"
The gleam in Madara's eye was her only warning before he disappeared, but Sakura had already leapt out of his range as a sword stabbed into the earth where she had been standing. She landed daintily on the ground, feet tapping softly as they made contact, knees bending slightly. She stood up and smirked in their direction in defiance.
Suddenly several kunai and shuriken were launched her way, but Sakura didn't even need to flinch as she blocked every one of them with chakra-protected fingertips. The Sasuke Clone was watching her with narrowed eyes while Madara smirked, the other Uchiha members watching with interest.
"Well she's no pushover." Madara commented to The Sasuke Clone as he turned his head in that direction. "I vote we take it home."
"I am a 'her'! I'm not some stray that you can just take home!" She screeched indignantly.
Madara waved off Sakura's protests.
"Madara," The Sasuke Clone sighed exasperated, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm always up for pissing off Father and the Elders, but this is too far. We can't just bring random women home!"
"Hey! Who said I was going home with any of you!?"
Madara winked at him. "Oh come on, I do it all the time."
"Let me rephrase that then: no bringing home random kunoichi." The Sasuke Clone scowled, then muttered, "Let's not bring you sex life into this."
"Helloooo? I have a say in this as well!"
"Calm yourself darling, do you know how many girls would kill for the chance to be invited and escorted into the Uchiha estate?" Madara smiled at her.
"Then I'm part of the one percent that doesn't actually care." Sakura crossed her arms. "I refuse to go."
The Uchiha stared at her. Never had a woman denied the Uchiha so blatantly.
This was too much! She had had enough of the Uchiha Clan. Hell! They had practically brought doomsday down on the world a hundred years from now! There hadn't been a person in the world that wasn't affected by the mistakes of their clan. She was too confused for this shit. Turning around, Sakura began walking away. "Good. Bye." She muttered.
Madara whirled around to his brother. "Go get her!"
"Why me!?" His brother scowled.
"Because she listens to you!"
"You're the one who pissed her off!"
"Pleeeeeeeeeeease?"
"…You're such a child." Madara's brother muttered and relented.
Sakura paused in her walking as The Sasuke Clone flickered in front of her, locking his eyes with hers. Much to Sakura's confusion, she felt her breath catch at the sight. His eyes were just like the other Uchihas, charcoal black and smoldering in a way that should be illegal. He was standing a respectful two feet from her while still within reaching distance.
"What?" Sakura sighed.
The Sasuke Clone smiled softly at her –Fuck why is my heart fluttering?! Stop that! Stop that right now you useless organ! –and held out his hand to shake. "I never introduced myself."
"Oh." Sakura said lamely, staring at the offered hand. Slowly, her arm rose, halting once in hesitation before she closed the distance and shook it. "Well I am Haruno Sakura."
The Uchiha dipped his head in acknowledgment, his ponytail slipping past his shoulder and down the right side of his chest, silken strands curling at the ends. The way his bangs fell into his face gave him a shy look, although Sakura knew he was a beast on the battlefield. He cleared his throat.
"I am Uchiha Izuna." He told her. Their hands had stopped shaking but continued to hold the other, although neither noticed.
"That's… That's a nice name." Sakura smiled softly, remembering the history books briefly mentioning the brother of Madara.
The Sasuke Clone (from henceforth to be referred to as 'Izuna') rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly with his other hand. "Sorry about my brother. He… overbearing, and is hopelessly unaware of it half the time. He really just doesn't know how not to be arrogant."
"I get the impression that most Uchiha are like that." Sakura smirked at the mock-offended look on Izuna's face.
Then he laughed, and she was fascinated. Seriously, how many people in the history of ever have actually witnessed an Uchiha laugh? Izuna's laugh was light, shaking his shoulders slightly and sounding more like 'hehehe' rather than 'hahaha', but Sakura couldn't help but think it was a good laugh. It was genuine and revealed a side to the Uchiha that she doubted many saw.
"Would you… Would you accompany us home?" Izuna then asked, looking quite nervous for an all-powerful Uchiha. "Er… please? Girls like 'please', right?"
Sakura snickered at that. They were all adult here, but this conversation suddenly sounded like something that belonged in the academy where boys and girls were completely different species. "Yes we like please." She teased. "And on one condition."
Izuna nodded warily.
"I get to tell Madara that he is a bastard and if anyone's going to be assigned to watch me, it will be you." She said.
"That's two conditions." Izuna pointed out.
"I changed my mind. Girls do that."
..::*^*^*^*::..
The Uchiha compound went into chaos the moment Sakura stepped into the room. Madara had tried to bring up the news of Sakura to his father and the Elders carefully, unfortunately Madara was about as careful as an elephant in a china shop. Clan members stared at her, the Elders yelled, and children tried to grab at Sakura's hair (much to her annoyance and Izuna's amusement).
Izuna could see that it was overwhelming their guest. His hand slowly reached for hers, his eyes looking around to make sure no one was looking before his hand grabbed hers and yanked Sakura backwards into an empty corridor. She managed not to yelped, and looked up in surprise to see him walking ahead of her, his hand firmly grasping hers. Thankfully she did not protest, not wanting the Uchiha Elders to realize that the subject of controversy was no longer in the room.
Izuna slid a door open to reveal a garden, and they walked briskly along a porch that connected to a bigger building. This building was the main house, the only place Sakura was guaranteed safety and peace until all the fuss died down. Honestly, he warned Madara this would cause a ruckus!
"They won't bother you here. The guards don't dare enter the main house." Izuna told her, leading her to his sitting room. Izuna's personal quarters consisted of three rooms: a sitting room, a training room, and his bedroom. The sitting room was for relaxation, with comfortable furniture, bookshelves filled with stories and scrolls, paintings hung upon the walls, and a fireplace built into one of the walls. His training room had a mat floor for sparring, with various practice weapons lined up on the walls, punching dummies pushed to the side, and a side door that led to a part of the garden reserved for target practice. His bedroom was lavish, as befitting a son of the Clan Leader. The bed was low to the ground donned with the highest quality sheets, the roof above it arched and was made from strengthened rice paper so that sunlight could shine directly down on the bed and cast the room in a gentle glow. Red paper lanterns with the Uchiha crest hung in each corner of the room, and there were murals of dragons and trees and oceans and mountains sprawled across the walls. One wall was actually two large sliding doors that opened up to Izuna's own private garden, where a small koi pond resided and beautiful flowers bloomed.
He let Sakura explore his living quarters, smiling proudly at her exclamations of wonder.
"You have a private sitting and training room!"
"You bedroom is so clean! What kind of man keeps his bedroom clean? I'm impressed."
"Oh my! Your garden is gorgeous! Look a koi pond!"
Izuna chuckled as he joined the pink-haired kunoichi standing on the porch of his room, gazing at his garden.
"Everything is so splendorous." She sighed, dropping lazily to sit on the edge of the porch, her legs dangling an inch or two off the ground.
Izuna smiled and sat down next to her. He studied her clothing and was surprised to note the quality of the fabric and the large white circle on her back. She was trained in ways of ninja but she did not seem to be from a ninja clan. Was she from a wealthy civilian clan? And what kind of civilian clan let their children into the shinobi business?
"May I ask you something?" Izuna spoke up.
Sakura nodded, her gaze not leaving the darting fish in the koi pond. "I will answer what I can."
That sparked Izuna's curiosity, she was hiding something obviously. But he would only pry as much as she allowed him. He didn't like the thought of upsetting her.
"Where did you come from?"
His fascination with her seemed to spark with each new reaction. First the pinkette had frozen, before carefully placing her tea cup down and folding her hands in her lap, sadness in her eyes.
"I come from far away. I was on a mission for a monk; I was to deliver a scroll but… it was strange. Something must have activated whatever was within the scroll and I ended up next to your battle." She sighed. "I have no idea how to get back home so… I guess I'm stuck here."
Smooth move. Izuna berated himself. Now she was sad.
"Well…" Izuna hesitated, kicking himself for how cheesy this was going to sound, "I'm glad you are here."
Her head snapped in his direction, staring incredulously.
"If it wasn't for that scroll, we would have never met." Izuna went on before he lost his nerve. "There aren't many kunoichi here in Fire Country, and I never thought much of them before you –" Stop rambling! – "What I'm trying to say is, I'm thankful that we met."
She was shocked into silence for a minute before speaking.
"If it wasn't for you I'd be wandering alone in this strange land with nowhere to go." Her stare bore into his soul, dark and unreadable. He was getting uncomfortable before she finally smiled. "I'm glad I met you too."
And then, she kissed him.
It was a friendly peck, but before she pulled away Izuna cupped her face and deepened the kiss.
"I guess I don't mind staying here…" She murmured before returning to their lip lock.
Izuna laughed and put his arm around her shoulders.
Yeah I know the ending seemed a little rushed, but what can I say? It's a oneshot. Maybe I'll start a series for this one in the future.
Review!
~Lilithia