Blossoms & Ashes


Chapter 2: One and Only


In the morning as promised Danzo would let Sakura go outside, and she couldn't be more excited about her trip. She was anxious already, but she had to be patient as she was led through a series of corridors to Danzo who was waiting for her. A young man came to pick her up in her room; he was pale and had black short hair with rather weird clothing showing his stomach. His name appeared to be Sai. They had barely talked on the way aside him telling her his name.

He had gone to visit her along Kakashi and Naruto a few times, but he'd never said anything to her not even his name. He just watched from afar as if he was studying her.

Suddenly he stopped walking and turned to face her, staring right at her. She felt slightly uncomfortable and looked away, noticing that the hallway in which they were walking was deserted unlike most of the ones they've went through. "Sakura." He spoke as if asking for her attention, and so she looked at him once again. "Don't I remind you of anyone?" He asked watching her closely as if waiting for a reaction.

"Uhh…no." She replied after a moment with a frown. But the expression on his face when she answered made her feel that she had given him the wrong answer.

"I see." He simply said and smiled at her. The smile seemed forced more than anything else. "Let's keep going" He said then and just turned to keep on walking and she silently followed.

They walked the rest of the way in silence and she wondered why had he asked her that question but no explanation came to mind. They turned a corner and then they were in a huge room where young people close to their age were fighting, talking, and even laughing. She could recognize some of them, they were the ones who used to come to visit her at times, but all eventually stopped going. All of them were immersed in their talk so none noticed her except for one. It was a girl, if she remembered correctly she was called Ino. She started at Sakura with a strange expression on her face, that Sakura could not recognize and then she looked away.

She then noticed Sai come to a stop again turning to her. "Here we are." He said and opened the door for her. As she entered she noticed him enter too and closed the door behind him. The room they were in now was practically as big as her room, but instead of a bed there was a desk and a chair in which Danzo was sitting, probably waiting for her.

"Good morning Sakura." He said smiling at Sakura, then turned his attention to Sai. "Thank you for being her escort, you can go now." With that she felt Sai behind her leave the room without saying another word.

She then noticed two young men standing at Danzo's side. One of them had long brown hair and white pearl eyes; she remembered he was called Neji. The other one had somewhat long brown hair pulled up in a ponytail with black eyes; she thought his name was Shikamaru. She remembered them visiting her along with others a few times and she wondered what they were doing here.

"I'm letting you go outside today, but these two: Neji and Shikamaru which you've probably already met; will take you. Bodyguards, if you will." He then turned to Neji and Shikamaru beside him and said, "You two know what to do."

Sakura saw Shikamaru's eyes widen slightly in shock, but she didn't know why. Neji walked toward her and reached for a black bandana from his pocket. "I'm going to cover your eyes with this until we get outside, turn around." She was confused as to why she wasn't allowed to see but she didn't question it and did as she was told. She turned around as he tied the bandana around her eyes and everything went black.

"I'm going to take your hand and lead you, alright?" Shikamaru asked and she nodded as he took hold of her hand leading her outside the room.

After a few steps she heard a voice close to them. "Where are you taking her?" A girl said suddenly.

"That's not your problem Ino." Shikamaru said to the girl, she was the one staring at her earlier with the strange expression.

"Like hell! Answer me, where are you taking her? And why is she blindfolded?" She asked with a worried voice, Sakura felt Shikamaru suddenly move backwards a bit so she guessed the girl had pushed him.

"Troublesome." He muttered under his breath loud enough for her to hear.

"Get lost Yamanaka. We're just doing what we were told. Shikamaru, let's get going." Neji said annoyed at the girl's outburst and she heard him start to walk away.

"I'm sorry Ino, we'll talk later." Shikamaru told the girl before following Neji and dragging Sakura with him.

She wondered what that was all about, she wanted to ask, but thought better of it; she knew it wasn't her business.

She wanted to take the blindfold off and see where they were going, she saw no reason as to why she shouldn't be allowed to see, it unnerved her quite a bit to be honest. The only reason she hadn't taken it off was because she trusted both Shikamaru and Neji although she had no idea why.

They had been walking for a while, and Sakura was starting to get tired; after all she wasn't really used to walking so much, but she wouldn't say anything. They finally stopped walking and she noticed that she could hear birds and feel the wind, though she couldn't yet see she enjoyed being like this.

Suddenly Neji said, "Take care of yourself." She was sure she heard regret in his voice, but she was having trouble guessing why.

"We're sorry Sakura, we really are." Shikamaru said and she heard his voice break, letting go of her hand. And just like that she couldn't feel their presences anymore, she knew she was alone.

The only sounds around her came from the wind and birds, there were no footsteps no voices. She knew both Shikamaru and Neji were long gone.

She fell to the grass then, wondering why they had left her there. She wanted to come outside, but she didn't ever imagine it like this. She had been left outside with not even the slightest idea of how to get back.

She touched the grass, remembering she was outside, this was what she's been wanting for so long. Her hands came to her face and touched the blindfold still covering her eyes. She pulled it off with her eyes closed; it was loose enough that the blindfold came off without much of a fight. She let the hood of her black cloak to fall down so she could feel the wind on her face.

The brightness bothered her eyes and she decided to open them, when she did the light was unbearable for a moment until her eyes finally adjusted. It's beautiful, she thought as she admired her surroundings. It was a sunny day; there were barely any clouds in the sky. There were many trees around her and for a moment she felt kind of lost yet it made her feel safe, the wind moved the branches of the trees making it all look even more beautiful.

She decided to get up and walk around; there wasn't any use in staying there since she had a feeling that Shikamaru and Neji weren't coming back for her. She went through the trees until she found a streaming river. She went near it and sat down at the edge, looking at the crystal clear water; she could even see the fish swimming. The sun started bothering her a bit and she put the hood of her cloak over her head, shielding herself from the sun.


"We did as requested Lord Danzo." Neji said a bit uncomfortable for what he had done to Sakura. Even though they were never in the same team, they had fought together and she was a trusted team mate. He felt as if he'd somehow betrayed a friend by doing what Danzo ordered, because even though neither he nor Shikamaru knew what intentions he had with Sakura; he was sure they weren't any good.

Neji noticed Shikamaru throwing a glare his way; Shikamaru felt all the more horrible about doing this to Sakura since he had teamed up with Sakura more often. He was also still hurt from what Naruto had said to him.

"Pardon the curiosity my Lord, but why are you doing this?" Neji asked hoping to figure out his real intentions since to him it didn't seem to make much sense. He felt that even though he had already betrayed Sakura he should still watch out to see what Danzo had planned for her, maybe there would be a way to redeem himself.

"All in due time, but stay loyal to me and you two will be the first ones to find out." He smirked at them knowing that he was leaving them no other choice than to keep following his orders. "You've already given me your report and I would like some alone time to my thoughts."

It was a sign for them to get out of his sight; they had grown out their usefulness for the moment. Both Neji and Shikamaru understood and left immediately walking out of his office and closing the door behind them. Somehow they were both glad to be out of Danzo's sight. Neji felt like a dog trying to kiss up to his master while Shikamaru felt he was betraying everyone he was close to, especially Ino since Sakura had been her best friend.

They both decided to walk over their group of trusted friends, team mates, and even loved ones. Though none of them were happy with their decision of doing Danzo's bidding they tried understanding and knew that in the end they were in no position to judge them, because they really had no choice.

Lately no one had a choice when it came to what they did.

"Where were you Neji? I've been looking all over for you, I asked Ino and she told me you had left with Shikamaru, but wouldn't tell me anything more." Tenten finished frowning, her hands crossed against her chest waiting for an answer. Neji was thankful at Ino for not telling Tenten the truth, he knew she wouldn't approve of what he was doing, but he had to tell her eventually though. He still wasn't prepared to.

"I was on a mission with Shikamaru, it was a simple mission and we finished it quickly." He said trying to dismiss the subject. He looked around and noticed that Ino, Lee, and Hinata weren't there and he could probably guess why. Ino wasn't happy of what they were doing to Sakura, Lee was probably training since that was all he did since Guy died, and Hinata had probably found out what had happened to Naruto.

"Well I'm glad you're okay Neji. You know, I miss going on missions; since Danzo became leader us girls aren't good enough for missions." She said smiling sadly. He knew how she loved going on missions and even though he knew it was stupid to prohibit girls from missions he could do nothing about it.

"Oh! I forgot to tell you Shikamaru, Ino said she wanted to see you when you came back. You should probably go look for her." She said turning her attention at said boy, who was at the mention of Ino's name rather scared.

Shikamaru nodded at Tenten turning and walking away muttering "What a drag." under his breath. She was probably going to give him hell.


After a while of being outside with her feet submerged in the water she was starting to miss being back in her room. Not because she didn't like being outside, but because it was something new to her, something she wasn't used to. She was starting to get scared; all the times Danzo said "It's a dangerous place." kept going through her mind. In a way she was sure he just said it to keep her from going outside, but the more she thought about it the more it worried her. This was an unknown place to her after all.

"What's the worst that can happen?" Sakura's last words to Tsunade filled her thoughts, repeating themselves over and over as if it were a warning she still couldn't grasp.

"I wonder…" Sakura said in response, thinking only that the wind could hear her out there.

Suddenly she felt someone close, but she didn't have to look back to know it wasn't Neji or Shikamaru, it felt somehow different. She could feel the presence closer now until the person came to a halt a few feet's away from her. She turned around and looked up to find herself staring into deep onyx eyes and for a moment her heart stopped. As she opened her mouth to say something, nothing came out.

"Sakura…" He said slowly, his wide eyes staring right back at hers in shock.