ARC1: The Beginning


CHAPTER 2 - Awakening

"Monitors check," I said, seeings the screens from my helmet in front of my eyes. I was flying on my Air Bike. "All areas clear in America," I recorded into my helmet's database.

The year now, was 2160. Who knew, that within the time of ten years, the world would go as far as this...

"Display next destination," I said, now flying over oceans. I could hear my cloak and hood flying in the wind behind me as I speed up. The geological image of Tokyo, Japan appeared in front of my left eye on my helmet's monitor.

The earth right now was in a post-nuclear war state at the moment. It all began from the 2156 Harubia Wipe Out.... the start of all things disastrous....

And the worst part was... no one knew who started the war.

"Tokyo, eh?" I said out loud, remembering so many years previous what happened in that city. Sasuke, Naruto. "Looks like I have no choice then," I said, flying towards Asia.

I was a traveler now, helping camps throughout the earth at 15-years old. Due to all the nuclear war, just about everything nature was gone. You never see blue skies, you never see green grass, and you never see clear pure waters.

"I can only hope," I started to myself, "that Tokyo isn't as bad as everywhere else.... not like Harubia."

Nothing was the same anymore..... No more joy. No more happiness.... Those were only two of the things I was striving for at the moment. So many lives were lost in this war. Half the earth's population; more even. I spend my time as a medical specialist curing those ill from the war and helping those in desperate need.

I'm like a..... futuristic nomad, if you please.

"Tokyo... here I come," I said, going off in light speed.

--

"Are they almost done in there?" Kiba asked with crossed arms. Akamaru's voice whined at Kiba's feet, bored.

"How should I know?" muttered the blond haired boy we all know and love. Naruto. "Konohamaru can you hear anything?"

A smaller brown haired boy had a glass cup against the door to the other room pressed against it. "I can't hear a thing. It's so intense."

"Duh you can't hear anything. The rooms down here are supposed to be soundproof, moron," Hanabi said with a look and crossed arms.

"Shut up!" Konohamaru retorted as both pre-teens glarred lightning bolts at each other's eyes.

Kiba smiled at the two children. "Almost reminds ya of the old days."

Naruto nodded. "Hard to believe there ever were days like the old days."

"Are they done yet?" Hinata asked, coming from the door beside Kiba. She was in her wheelchair.

"Not yet," Kiba sighed out. "It's been hours."

"And you guys have been waiting here all this time?" Hinata asked with her worried eyes.

"There's not really much to do down here when it's only us," Naruto noted. "Makes you wish for something to happen." A confident smirk appeared upon the blond's face. "But just you wait. Once Neji and Shikamaru come out of that room, we'll have Sasuke back."

Everyone in the room smiled and nodded in agreement. They all had total faith in Neji and Shikamaru, their group's geniuses.

"How is it even possible to bring Sasuke back?" Konohamaru asked curiously.

Kiba laughed. "Do you really wanna know?"

"We should tell them. It'll take time away from all this waiting," Naruto said energetically, stretching his arms and legs.

Hinata giggled from Naruto's sudden burst of energy. "Same old Naruto."

"So what happened?" Konohamaru asked, Hanabi grabbing the glass cup from his hand by surprise.

"A couple years ago, just exactly before the war started, Sasuke's body was still present. He was in a coma at the time."

"Oh all this time I thought he was dead," Konohamaru said, only for Hanabi to give him a look she'd only give to an idiot.

"Of course he's not dead!" Hanabi scolded.

Kiba laughed, pushing Hinata's wheelchair. "But like Naruto said, it was just before the war started, and Sasuke was linked to life support. Somehow Naruto heard that Sasuke's family was going to discharge Sasuke from the machine after so many years of him being in a coma."

"And no way were we gonna let that happen!" Naruto jumped in, as if this story was a good one.

"So what did ya do?" Konohamaru asked eagerly.

"We kidnapped Sasuke and snuck him out of the hospital!" Naruto shouted, only to be tackled by little Akamaru and knocked over.

"You idiot that's not what happened," Kiba said with a face. Hinata watched amusingly and quite peacefully. "Back then Naruto, me, Shikamaru, and Neji all decided we were going to save Sasuke's life, no matter what. And thanks to Neji's genious at our age, we were able to come up with a foolproof plan."

"Inspired by yours truely," Naruto spoke up, suddenly popping up from the dirt floor.

Kiba scoffed. "Like you told Neji we should download his mind into a computer program."

"No! I suggested we shouted take out his brain and freeze it! Thus inspiring Neji with the computer whatamawhosit idea!" Naruto said, only for Kiba to sigh.

"Oh Naruto," Konohamaru said with a sweatdrop as Naruto continued arguing with Kiba.

"So they seriously saved a person's mind into data?" Hanabi asked her big sister Hinata.

Hinata nodded to the two children. "As strange as it sounded yes." The three looked towards the locked door behind them. "After so long Neji and Shikamaru were able to rebuild an artificial robotic body for Sasuke. And with his mind already safe in their hands, bringing Sasuke back should be no problem."

"What a miracle," Hanabi said.

"More like insane," Konoahmaru said, finally understanding the whole concept of bringing a supposed dead Sasuke back. "As crazy as this idea sounds, couldn't they just have actually taken Sasuke's real body and, freeze it or something?"

"Ugh, you think so much like you're in the 21st century," Hanabi muttered.

Hinata shook her head no as she leaned back in her wheelchair. "If only they could. It would have made things a whole lot easier," she said, catching Hanabi's and Konohamaru's attention. "Both Naruto and Kiba said that this story occurred right before the war started.... They were right."

She looked at the two 15-year olds across the small main room. Both Kiba and Naruto, plus Akamaru, were in a dog fight with each other. Of course it was normal with the two.

"Just after they escaped the hospital, one of the miniturized nuclear bombs exploded in the hospital. It burned the building down to rubble."

Konohamaru and Hanabi starred at Hinata as she reminisced the beginning of the war.

"That's awful," Hanabi spoke up.

"So in the end they wouldn't have been able to rescue Sasuke's body afterall," Konohamaru concluded.

Hinata nodded her head. "They were lucky they got out alive with what they came there to do." She looked at Naruto and Kiba fighting right now. "It's only been four years of war. So much damage in such little time." Hinata squeezed her first. "It's time we prove we can bring back what was once lost."

Suddenly the sound of a creaking metal door opened, making all present go silent, even Kiba, Naruto, and Akamaru.

At the door was Tenten, exhausted and wiping sweat from her forehead. She had been assisting Shikamaru and Neji in the soundproof lab room.

"So?" Naruto asked, midway in Kiba's headlock. "What happened? ACK!" he shouted, being dropped by Kiba's grip and onto the floor with a thud.

Tenten smiled after letting out a breath. "They've done it," she said. "Sasuke."

--

After many hours of rest, it was the dawn of daylight, sunrise, whatever. Those in the caves, or rather the 'Shelter' as Naruto had named it four years ago, were asleep.

Except for one person.

A raven haired boy opened his eyes slowly. His hand twitched with slight movement, and his lungs started the process of breathing in and out.

"What...." he said, only for his eyes to widen. He didn't remember his voice being that deep. He sat up quickly and found he was in a bed, and shirtless. "I'm alive," he said. "I'm... where am I...."

Many thoughts processed through the teenager's mind. He clearly didn't remember being as old as a teenager, that's for sure. Last thing he remembered was a car accident.

After thinking the mystery through, the boy eventually found clothes that were for him presumably and found his way out of the room. Outside was another cave-like room, but with a ladder, and a circular door in the ceiling. He climbed it and out.

"Agh." Small amounts of sunlight glittered towards his eyes. He found he was in some barren wasteland. Like in the middle of some desert but... not a desert somehow. "Where the heck am I?"

Again, he did not remember his voice being as deep as it was now.

He climbed out and tried to get used to walking again. Wasn't very fond of it. No choice though, right?

--

I was now past Japan's borders. All of the large cities were now rubble, if any were left standing at all. My cloak still violently flew through the fast breeze.

"Show any signs of life forms in the perimeter," I said, my helmet showing me the directions. I neared a more empty area and in a distance I saw somebody.

"What," I began to myself. "Who'd be out at this time?"

I lowered my air bike near the person who appeared to be a boy. He noticed me, obviously. Who wouldn't notice a flying stranger in the middle of no where?

My air bike landed on the dusty dirt ground and I hopped off. My black leather gloves softened my landing and the cape of my cloak landed on my back, the hood resting under and behind my neck.

"Who are you," announced the stranger. Definitly a male.

I stood up straight and removed my helmet, revealing my short cut pink hair. "What are you doing out here in the first place-" I asked curiously until my head jumped. My eyes widened at the sight.

'That boy.'

'Hell yeah it's that boy!! It's the one from Japan all those years ago!'

'He's dead.'

From what I saw, he looked and felt the exact same way I did. Confused and, yeah just confused.

"Sasuke," my voice whispered in the wind.

Apparently the raven-head caught word of the wind and heard me say his name. "Sas...ke.... It's my name," he said, recognizing more thoughts of the past. He remembered a little pink-haired girl in a kimono. A scared, vulnerable sweet little girl. Who he saw now.... was it really her? "Sakura?"

'It is him.'

"You're alive.....?" I asked, taking a chance and asking that straight out.

Sasuke had no response, and still wore a confused expression. He looked down at his cold hand and flexed it open and closed. "I don't know," he finally replied.

--

"So I really was run over by a car," Sasuke said.

I nodded. "You must have gotten into some coma or something."

"That'd explain a lot," Sasuke said, some relief returning to him. Though he still felt he was missing something else. The boy glanced at me, seeing how much I've grown. "You don't look like the same little girl I met."

I glanced at Sasuke. "Who was I then?"

Sasuke tried to remember. "You were so lost... so oblivious... So vulnerable."

"Do I look like that now?" Sakura asked in a serious voice.

Sasuke was almost afraid to look at Sakura in the eye, but he did. And he answered, "No."

Sakura looked forward towards the slow rising sun at the horizon. "I'm 15 now, Sasuke. To be technical you're only five or six."

"Like it's in my control," Sasuke said with a roll of his eyes, finding the adult-like Sakura quite.... adult like, the kind he figured she always hated when she was little. "but... I do have questions."

"I'm not surprised," I replied to Sasuke. "I'll answer them as best I can," I said kindly.

Sasuke tried to think of what to ask first. So many, yet only little by little can he ask. "What's happened.... the past ten years I was gone....?"

I narrowed my eyes. How am I supposed to answer that? "Do you know about the war?"

"A war," Sasuke repeated. "Is that the reason why that city there is in ruin?" Sasuke asked.

'He doesn't know.'

"That city is Tokyo," I said, feeling Sasuke's head jump in surprise. "It all started with the 2156 Harubian Wipeout."

"Harubian," Sasuke said, processing the familiar word through his head. "Your country?" he remembered. "Wipeout?"

I nodded sadly. "My country was the first victim of the war," I told. "A huge atomic bomb was dropped onto Harubia in 2156. I was 11 at the time. Destroyed my island, destroyed my people.... everyone."

"And you?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't know how, by I was able to escape before it happened. I don't know why," I said. "But as far as I know, everyone on this planet thinks that Princess Sakushei is dead. And I intent to keep it that way." I glanced at him at the cornner of my eye. "No use of people knowing now I'm alive. That's why I go by Sakura now. I also cut my hair."

"Looks the same to me," Sasuke replied. But of course it'd look the same. He never saw Sakura with long hair. "But... what are you doing here? In the middle of no where?"

"I travel this planet helping other groups of people in hiding," I answered. "With this world in post-state of nuclear war, almost everything nature-grown is gone. Plants, fresh water, supplies. It's all almost primitive if it weren't for the hope some miracle will happen."

"And that's what you're hoping for," Sasuke assumed.

"What everyone's hoping for," I nodded. "The only thing different about me is that I'm the only thing traveling. I'm trained myself to be a medic so I can help those ill." I smiled. "But seeing you here when I thought you were dead..... Maybe there are miracles."

Sasuke smiled. "It's good to know you're not all adult."

I rolled my eyes. "You're such a child."

"Well I am," Sasuke said, making me laugh. A mature-looking and sounding Sasuke agreeing he is a child. The funny thing was, that he really was just a child.

"You know, you're very mature for one," I said. I'll give him credit for that. "So let me ask you this. What are you doing here?"

Sasuke was about to answer until he realized he didn't know that either. ".... I don't know."

"That's so informative compared to what I've told you," I said sarcastically.

"Hey I just woke up as of just ten minutes ago," Sasuke said in his defence, totally calm cool and collected about the matter.

"From where, dare I ask." I sure hope not out here in this wasteland.

Sasuke lifted his hand and pointed at a manhole, making me sweatdrop.

"A sewer, yeah, much better," I said with more sarcasm.

"If anything I know of the present that is not a sewer," Sasuke argued.

"Sasuke where are you!?!" shouted a head that suddenly popped out of the manhole. It was a blond boy with blue eyes who starred wide eyed at Sasuke and me. He looked back and forth at us.

'It's Naruto, too,' I thought.

"I'm, dreaming aren't I...." he said in a total daze, actually thinking he was dreaming. "I'm gonna go back to sleep now," he said, lowing the manhole from his head and back underground.

Sasuke and I both exchanged confused glances until Naurto burst back up from the manhole, making it fly up into the air. "WAIT SEC TO HELL WITH DREAMING IT'S REALLY YOU GUYS!!!" he shouted at the loudest volume until the manhole that was thrown into the air came back down and hit Naruto on the head, making him fall down the hole.

Sasuke and I both blinked our eyes at the scene.

"You woke up..... down there....," I repeated

"Apparently," Sasuke said with a sigh.