Wow, it took a long time to get this update out. And it's tinny. Sorry, they'll get bigger as more things begin to happen.
Reveiws
Miss Chocolat: I'm sorry, I kept it at 300 for so long… you better get me now cause even I think I suck. Thanks for the not complaining thing (and I am working on another update for GG)
Tenshi-Koi: You are welcome for the Inuyasha cross over (I can never find good ones) Thanks for reviewing!
Sakura slipped in and out of a sleep as she drifted through the water, her chakra automatically keeping her head above water level and keeping the water from bloating her system. It even encased her in a warm green glow whenever danger was near or the temperature outside was too cold or hot. Her years as medical ninja was paying off in a way Sakura never would have thought.
But her mind wasn't on the miracle of her automatic chakra or on her shaky situation floating, lost at sea. She was dreaming. Dreaming about what had led her to this sea, beyond anything she had ever known. It had started with a messenger hawk.
As it flew directly to the Hokage tower, anyone who looked up and knew it for what it was, saw that there was no identifying symbol around it's torso, only a bare, brown cloth. Attached to its rough leg was a small, cylindrical container.
"Tsunade." The longhaired woman looked up at the sound of her name. She had been wallowing in her paperwork, one cheek pressed against a mission report, and her hand itching to slide her drawer open and take a long swig of her sake bottle.
Sakura repeated herself, "Tsunade, there is a messenger hawk outside of the window. It must have not reached the message tower and came here instead. It has no markings…" the sixteen year old frowned but knew that unmarked hawks weren't too rare. Villages used them when they knew that their hawk would be flying through enemy territory. This had to be one of those cases.
Tsunade glanced behind her to see the hawk patiently waiting outside the glass, flapping its wings slowly, "Do you sense anything?" Sakura shook her head. "Neither do I. Let it in already."
Sakura nodded and swiftly rose from her position on the floor, surrounded by scrolls and paperwork. In one smooth move, she unlatched a side window and pushed it open, the hawk flying in and landed gracefully on Tsunade's desk. It lifted one foot so Tsunade could remove the note.
"…." Tsunade was silent as she scanned the paper.
"What? Is it in code?" Sakura questioned after a drawn out pause.
Tsunade's eyes flicked to Sakura's face, her own filled with surprise and a trace of pity.
"Sakura…Sasuke is…coming back."
Sakura froze, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open from shock.
There was something…something on the horizon; land. It was rugged and bathed in a mist but if Sakura was conscious she would have seen the tops of trees and realized that she had never seen this coastline. It drawing closer and her body was slowly being drawn towards it by the waves. She was a couple yards when a wave lifted her up and sent her tumbling into the dark water. When she inhaled a mouthful of liquid she had been forced into consciousness, gagging, hacking, and trying to force her way to the surface.
She was disorientated and soaked to the bone. The last thing she remembered was seeing red clouds and Naruto's distraught face, his mouth opened in yell. Then a splash and nothing…. Thinking about it made her head spin.
She waded to the shore of the beach, coughing out the water in her lungs and stumbling when her weak legs gave out against a strong current. Finally, Sakura collapsed on her knees in the sand, spitting out the sharp taste of salt water. Now free to breathe, she took huge gulps of air, waves tickling her feet. Her head was pounding. It felt like the worst hangover she had ever experienced, nausea included. Sakura's muscles gave out and she managed to turn as she fell to lie on her back. Where was she?
"Are you sure that you're fine?" Naruto's worried face peered into hers, "Sakura-chan?"
"I'm fine, Naruto, you worry too much." And Sakura really was okay with it…now. The night after they received the messenger bird was when she let loose all her anger…and sadness. After being cried out (which didn't take very long) and with aching muscles (there was no longer a forest around her house), there was nothing left in Sakura but a slight twinge of happiness and a sort of detachment. She was fine.
Naruto smiled at the answer and looked to one side, studying the large gate out of Konoha.
"I never thought he would enter these gates again. After we got the news that he joined Akatsuki (A/C: I almost spelled that Atatsucki) I had almost given up on seeing Sasuke as our comrade again. But now…" Naruto grinned full force, "I'm gonna kick his ass until even the thought of leaving us again is pounded out of his head!"
Sakura smiled at him and slowly reached out to grip his hand, "We'll face him together." Naruto stared wide-eyed at their intertwined hands, a light blush coating his cheeks and Sakura continued, "But…remember…he already has another team. He won't leave them just to join the already crowded team seven."
Naruto nodded absently, still staring at their hands. Sakura held back a sigh; so much for her progress in slowly detaching herself from Naruto and getting him and Hinata to date. She gripped his hand tighter. But she would need Naruto's strength now to remain standing.
"Sak-"
"There he is." Sakura interrupted, tilting her head forward at the dark shapes on the road, "Kakashi would've killed to see this day in person."
Naruto nodded slowly, "Given up Icha Icha."
"Don't exaggerate Naruto." Sakura chided, grinning, controlling her emotions as the four shapes drew closer. She could make them out clearly now.
Sasuke's teammates, Karin, Juugo, and Suigetsu. Karin was a red head, glasses, dressed in barely anything and her hair was cut in an odd way, one side short and spiky and the other long. The look on her face when she looked at Sasuke was nostalgic of the looks Sakura used to give him. Juugo was large with brown hair and a bland face. He looked pretty gentle but from the reports he was prone to losing control. Suigetsu was pretty cute for a missing nin, with his white hair and yellow eyes -not that missing nins weren't cute- (Itachi was proof of that), and he reminded her of a Kiba and Shikamaru mix, just the way he held himself. The overlarge sword on his back brought back memories, bad or good, Sakura wasn't sure.
"Here he comes." Naruto said, grinning from elation.
Sakura smiled thinly and braced herself for the meeting she had been hoping for, ever since he had left her crying on that damn bench. She was hoping for this, wasn't she?
"Naruto." He said, no 'Sakura', no 'glad to see you', only Naruto.
"Sasuke-teme, it's nice to see you back." Naruto smiled, obviously trying to hold his emotions in check. Naruto had matured.
"You must be Karin-san, Juugo-san, and Suigetsu-san, members of team 'Hawk'. It's a pleasure to meet you finally." Sakura greeted politely, entirely ignoring her former teammate.
Karin grunted in response, sizing her up and Juugo let out a 'nice to meet you'. Suigetsu grinned devilishly, "You're Haruno, Sakura, right? Sasuke only told us that you were a former teammate, he talked about Naruto mostly. Which were what, three sentences? As you probably know, Sasuke isn't one to interact with others."
Sakura nodded in agreement; hiding her hurt that Sasuke hadn't remembered her enough to even mention something besides her name.
"So Sasuke-teme are you going to stay here for real or are you going to leave again?" Naruto teased, not so playfully punching Sasuke in the arm.
"I have no other choice but to remain in alliance with Konoha; team Hawk will be made to sign a chakra binding scroll." Sasuke answered blandly, "We can catch up later, I have to meet up with Tsunade."
Naruto frowned as Sasuke began to walk away, "I'm coming with!" he ran to catch up.
Sasuke's team went to follow when Sasuke said, "Stay with Sakura-san, I'll meet up with you later."
"But Sasuke-kun!" Karin whined, stomping her foot, "I want to stay with you!"
Sasuke ignored her, walking away with Naruto at his side.
"He's always ordering us around." Suigetsu growled.
Karin turned to him, fuming, "Don't go against Sasuke-kun!"
Sakura hid a warm smile at their antics, "If you'll follow me, I'll show you around Konoha."
Karin turned her anger to her, "Hey, Haruno, is your hair color even real? Or do you dye it like some fake bitch. Don't think Sasuke-kun will notice you because of it; it'll only disgust him."
"Karin shut up, you're the bitch here." Suigetsu growled, walking forward, Juugo following close behind. He was suddenly sent flying with a kick to the back. Sakura, reacting on instinct, moved to catch him before he flew into the crowded market street (who, as the gossip mongers as they were, were watching the scene closely), gently setting him back on his feet.
"You okay?" She asked, answered by an annoyed nod, "And you, Karin, I can't fight you right now because the situation is tense, but if you piss me off again later I won't hesitate to smash your face in. And, yes, my hair color is natural." Sakura turned her back, walking into the crowd, "Follow me."
Suigetsu grinned at the raging Karin, "I like her, don't you?"
"Shut up!" Suigetsu avoided a punch as Juugo calmly walked past to follow Sakura.
It was so cold. It had taken awhile for Sakura to fall out of her doze and to realize that she was completely numb. Shivering, Sakura pushed herself to her feet, swaying unsteadily. She blinked to clear her vision and took a couple of steps forward, her feet shuffling in the now dry sand. She was lucky in the fact that she had literally washed up to the shore at high tide. Now the edge of the water was yards down the beach.
As her sight cleared, Sakura was able to see that the beach was bathed in a new moon's light and not to far from where she stood was a forest. Even in her slightly delusional state Sakura recognized that none of her surroundings looked familiar. Even the plants looked foreign. As yet another shiver ran through her frame Sakura began to run chakra through her pathways to create friction and warmth. Steam began to rise from her damp clothes and hair as Sakura tried to get her bearings.
North…was…up the beach, south, down, east into the forest, west the ocean. Sakura always had a good grip on her directions. Even in the dark she was able to sense which way North was. Now…which way to go…the beach offered no options, so into the forest it was. Besides, Sakura realized as her stomach let out a ravenous growl, she could find some food.
Testing out her weak muscles, Sakura took a hesitant jump, smiling triumphantly when she realized they could handle the run…er…jumps. Without a further pause, Sakura took off into the trees, spreading her senses to see if she could find anyone near.
…There, a ways in and to the right was a small cluster of undeveloped chakra points, a village or a family farm maybe. Sakura almost stumbled in her next jump when she sensed something or several somethings pass above her head. What the… She jumped to the top of the tree and sailed into the air to get a better look. They were…birds, or snakes actually. They swam through the air like they did but no snake could fly in the air like that. A summons maybe? No, there was too many, no one could summon hundreds of birds like that. And in the middle of the procession was a woman perched on a large, flying feather. Sakura fell back to the trees just as the snakes noticed her and turned toward her with an animalist cry.
Sakura soundlessly landed on a branch just when she sensed a few of the snakes come flying after her. She swore and slid to the underside of the branch, crouched and pressed up against the truck of the tree. Just as the snakes burst through the treetop, Sakura suppressed her chakra until it was non-existent and stopped her breathing, becoming as still as the tree she was hanging from.
As a minute passed and the only sound Sakura could hear was heavy breathing and the growls of the demonic snakes.
Then a voice, a woman's, sounded out, "It was nothing, probably Naraku just checking up on me, as always damn him."
Then there was a rustle of movement and Sakura knew that the snakes had moved on. She waited for a solid amount of time before dropping from the tree branch, landing smoothly on the ground.
"Naraku?" Sakura voiced, frowning.
She shrugged, thinking that it wasn't her problem, and continued on, following a ways behind the cluster of snakes. Little did Sakura know that that would not be her last encounter with the name 'Naraku'.
Not much of an update…as I said, but it lays some groundwork for the story.
And expect more flashback things in the next update. And I'm not totally abandoning the Naruto world; after all, they are in a world of 'pain' right now (Ah! Pun! I hate puns!)
Oh, and I'm not really sure if Kakashi is dead or what cause in the recent updates he was only labeled as 'stolen', not dead…so…
Zesty
