Phantom of the Ninjas
Chapter 1
A loud-mouthed blond ninja walked across Konoha to a run-down apartment building. He barged in the front door and walked up the stairs and stopped before the door marked number 13. He started pounding on the door. He took a deep breath then started to yell.
"SAKURA! SAKURA, WAKE UP! IT'S ALREADY PAST NOON!"
Inside the small apartment on a rickety old bed, a pink-haired kunoichi groaned as she fell off the bed.
"I'm going to kill you Naruto." She said as she crawled of the floor. Eyes still closed, she made her way to the front door. On the way, she passed the living room, with only a TV, and an old couch, the small bathroom, and the small kitchen with only a sink, refrigerator, and an old oven. On the other side of the door, Naruto had his fist raised in the air and took a giant breath, prepared for round two of telling and pounding on the door. That is until the door opened and a not-very-happy looking Sakura stood on the other side.
"Naruto," She said in a low, dangerous hiss. "What the hell possessed you to come pounding on my door, waking me up when I was up late last night training?" Naruto gulped and took a step back from the murderous aura that Sakura was emitting.
"W-Well um." Naruto stuttered. "Well the gang and I were going to see the new movie that's out and Hinata wanted to know if you wanted to come." Sakura sighed.
"What time?" Naruto laughed nervously.
"Um the movie starts in 10 minutes." Sakura sent a growl and a glare at Naruto before she turned and ran back into her apartment. Eight minutes later, she emerged, pink hair still wet. She closed the door behind her ad locked it. She then placed the key in her kunai holder and turned to Naruto.
"Let's go." He said already running down the stairs. "We're late." Sakura frowned and ran after him.
The two reached the movie theater with 30 seconds to look for seats before the movie started. They looked through the darkness and found all of their friends sitting in the same row. Naruto instantly sat in between Hinata and Neji. He gave Hinata a kiss on the cheek which earned him a glare from Neji. He did not approve of them dating and had been playing babysitter for the past two weeks.
Sakura looked for her spot and scowled when she saw that the only seat left was next to him on the end. Sakura hadn't forgiven him since he left to go with Orochimaru. Her six year grudge was as strong today as an 18 year old as it was when she was 12.
The movie started so Sakura regretfully took her seat. The opening credits started and she was surprised to find that the movie they had come to see was "The Phantom of the Opera". What surprised her the most was that the boys came to see it.
About halfway through the movie, when Christine and Raoul were singing on the opera house roof, Sakura felt an arm snake around her shoulders. With a speed faster than the eye could see, Sakura had removed the offending appendage and had smacked Sasuke upside the head.
"Sakura,I…" Sasuke started, but he was stopped when Sakura held up her hand. He decided to leave it alone.
After the movie, everybody was talking about the parts of the movie they liked the best. The boys all agreed they liked the swordfight the best. Typical.
"My favorite part was when Christine and Raoul were singing on the roof." Said Ino, leaning into Sai. They had been dating ever since he replaced Sasuke on Team 7 when he had left. When Sasuke came back, Sai stuck around to help Ino at her family's flower shop. Tenten and Hinata agreed. Naruto noticed that Sakura hadn't agreed.
"What about you Sakura?" He asked. Sasuke used this to try and get closer to her again.
"Yeah Sakura," He said wrapping his arm around her waist. "Did you like the romance between Christine and Raoul?" An anger mark suddenly popped up on Sakura's forehead. Without even batting an eyelash, Sakura had Sasuke's arm twisted painfully behind his back with his face in the dirt. She let go and turned towards Naruto's shocked face.
"Well Naruto," She said calmly as if nothing happened. "I liked the romance between Christine and the Phantom. I think that the pretty boy ruined what could have been a very happy ending between Christine and Phantom." Sakura sent a glare towards Sasuke before she turned to Hinata. "Hinata, thank you for inviting me, I really appreciated it."
"Hey!"
"Oh yeah. Thanks Naruto, for coming to get me. I'm going to go train. I'll see you all later." Sakura turned on heel and started walking towards her secret training grounds.
Sasuke stood up and tried to follow Sakura, but Ino and Naruto had grabbed onto each of his arms.
"Uh-uh" Naruto said shaking his head.
"Come on, everybody knows not to follow Sakura when she trains by herself." Ino added.
Sasuke gave up and instead grabbed Naruto's arm and started to drag him towards Team 7's old training grounds.
"Come on, we're going to train."
On the other side of the forest, Sakura was stepping through the brush and walked into a beautiful scene. When Sakura had been sparring with her mentor, they had stumbled into the area. It was a large clearing surrounded by trees. To the left of where Sakura entered, there was a rock cliff and a beautiful waterfall cascading from it, leading into a large clear pool of water. Around the rocks by the pool were gorgeous exotic flowers.
Sakura closed her eyes and performed a few quick hand seals. When she was done, she slammed a fist into the ground. With her monstrous strength she created a very large, deep crater. After a minute, the earth shifted and the crater disappeared and showed no signs that it was ever there. Sakura smirked with satisfaction. She created three identical clones of herself and started to spar with them, completely unaware of her approaching visitor.
Gaara was a bit surprised to see four identical pink-haired kunoichis fighting each other 3 on 1. He watched a while before he realized who it was in front of him.
'It's her. The one who tried to protect the Uchiha. It looks as though she has finally grown mentally and physically. It seems she has stopped following the Uchiha, but then again he did leave. Maybe her opinion of him changed.'
Gaara watched Sakura awhile longer before he went into meditation.