Its been two-and-a-half years since Sasuke left the village and Naruto was reported as KIA. The weather today reminded Sakura of that day perfectly as she stalked through the shadows in the woods, kunai in hand. Rain poured down hard and matted her chin-length hair against her forehead and made her grip on the throwing knife slippery as dark storm clouds raged overhead.
She saw a person's shape pass by ahead of her and knew for a fact, without an inkling of doubt in her mind, who it was, Sasuke Uchiha. She crept slowly from tree to tree, emerald eyes now locked on the figure she'd come to loathe ever since that day he abandoned the village, taking the life of their teammate and friend with him when he left. She gripped the kunai tighter as she waited on one side of a particularly thick tree as she heard him pass right by her before she sprung.
She had to roll out of the way immediately as a sword cut deeply into the wood of the tree where she would have been if she hadn't moved, right at eye level. Her hand shot out and gripped the one that held his sword and her other hand, the one gripping the kunai, shot out and tried to slice his arm from wrist to elbow. His own free hand shot out and stopped the kunai inches from cutting into his skin, incapacitating her.
Sakura brought her leg up and slammed her knee into their interlocked arms, bringing their locked limbs up above their heads as she put her boot on his stomach and kicked off. Sasuke would've been sent flying by that, but had focused his chakra into his feet and skidded along the ground. Sakura used all of her strength to hurl her kunai at him with as much force as possible, the piece of metal flying at subsonic speeds right on target.
Sasuke raised his sword to block as he finally skidded to a stop right into a tree, the impact jarring him enough to throw off his aim and the ninja weapon to bury itself in his sternum. Sakura didn't give him any time to react as she spun around using the torque from her throw and sunk into a runner's crouch before shooting forward. Her hand closed into a fist so hard that her knuckles popped and she ducked low under his weak swing before punching the ring end of her kunai, pushing through his sternum, the tree, and out the back.
Sakura gasped for breath as she held her hand against the hole she'd made in Sasuke's chest as he slumped forward, dying slowly. "S-Sakura."
Whatever part of her that hadn't gone numb from the rain went cold right then, that wasn't Sasuke's voice. Her eyes slowly traveled to the unmoving head of the person as it rested on her shoulder, blood slowly leaking from the mouth. A bolt of lightning illuminated the person's face, but it wasn't Sasuke. Naruto's cold, unblinking eyes stared right at her, blood dripping down onto her face as she stared in horror.
Sakura woke up screaming, looking around wildly as she tried to focus. It took several minutes before she calmed down enough to realize that she was in her room. One hand came up to her face and rested against her forehead as she layed back down. "Just another dream," she muttered as she closed her eyes for a moment.
She was up, showered, and all clean a half-hour later as she finished up her morning rituals before starting her day. She took one last glance at herself in the mirror, thinking about that dream again, before smashing the mirror. She walked out and locked the door to her apartment and looked up for a moment. The sky was sunny and clear today. "Yeah, just a dream."
Sakura walked down the hall to the Hokage's office to hear about something from Tsunade-sama, probably a mission where a medic was needed. She couldn't think of any other reason as she quietly opened the door to Lady Tsunade's office and stepped into the room.
Tsunade Senju, Shizune, and Kakashi Hatake all turned to look at her as Sakura closed the door behind her and walked to the center of the room. "Is there something you wanted to see me about, Tsunade-sama?" Sakura asked in a formal-tone. "Yes, Sakura, there is," Tsunade affirmed as she shuffled some papers into a folder and slid them to the side before folding her fingers together.
Several moments of silence passed as everyone in the room simply stared at her before she couldn't wait anymore, "What?" "You don't look well, Sakura," Kakashi spoke up before falling silent again. "You seem a bit unhealthy," Shizune put in.
"I'm fine," Sakura ground through her teeth. And she was! She was eating right, trained frequently, and the last time she'd been sick was with a 24-hour cold. And that was four months ago! Was it her appearance? She glanced down at herself and cast that thought aside, she looked perfectly fine. What was the problem? "How have you been sleeping, Sakura?" Tsunade asked, blindsiding her with the one question she didn't want to be asked.
"Why am I here, Tsunade-sama?" Trembling in contained rage, "I doubt my sleeping habits are of that much concern." Tsunade sighed in annoyance, "No, they are not." She pulled the folder she previously set aside to herself and reached out for Sakura to take it. The girl took it from the older woman's hand and opened it, greeted by several files and a photo.
"According to records, Naruto Uzumaki was reported KIA while on the mission to bring back Sasuke Uchiha, is that right?" Tsunade asked. "Yes, that's correct." Sakura whispered quietly, eyes glued on the contents of the folder. "Well, it doesn't look he's KIA anymore."
Sakura barely heard a word, her eyes were glued on the photo. The photo of Naruto Uzumaki, what he would've looked like if he were still alive.
Sakura was packing a bag for her new mission as she turned to look at the photo of Naruto that Tsunade gave her from the folder and went back to packing. The photo had been taken by a member of the Anbu black-ops who had recognized Naruto while on a mission abroad. Only half of his face was shown, but it was definitely him.
The whisker marks were less noticeable now, the hair was a mess, and he was wearing a thick brown coat. He had frown on his face and he wasn't wearing his headband either. Other than those few arbitrary wardrobe changes he still looked the same as when she last saw him in person, so much the same it was scary.
Sakura zipped up the bag and slung it over her shoulder as she walked out and locked her door behind her, holding onto the photo tight. She turned around and headed to the village gates to meet up with Kakashi-sensei. She arrived to also find someone she hadn't expected to see and was actually hoping wouldn't be there.
Kakashi and the mystery person turned towards Sakura as she approached. Kakashi smiled at her as she arrived, "Ah, hello there, Sakura." Sakura stopped when she reached the group, "Hello, Kakashi-sensei... Um, what is she doing here?" Kakashi seemed as if any vitality he had just seconds before was gone in an instant. "She is going to be our teammate on this mission, Sakura."
'Crap,' the girl thought as the third group-member took a step forward. "So, this isn't some sick joke after all, he is alive." Sakura nodded, "Yeah, and we have to bring him back." Hinata Hyuuga looked at her a second longer before turning around and they walked to Kakashi's side before leaving the village.
"Run!" A small group of people were inside of a dark tunnel and were making a frantic dash for the exit, running with ninja-swiftness as they narrowly avoided falling rocks and stone as the roof collapsed. Despite the fact that a single one of the big rocks could crush them into paste, or even brained to death by a small one, the many falling tons of stone were not what they ran from. What they were running from was right behind them, hot on their heels. They managed to reach the end of the cave mere seconds before their enemy and leapt through to safety. Two of the shinobi had the presence of mind to turn in midair and launch a massive fireball, enhanced even further by a fierce gust of wind, at the roof of the cave. Massive rocks came down right on top of their adversary before crashing, hopefully crushing him, but at least cutting them off from the ninja.
Several moments of tension passed as the sound of falling rocks faded before the shinobi began to relax, several more before they began to breathe easy. "Whoo," exclaimed one of the ninja loudly, "that was a close one." A kunoichi several feet away glanced at the small mountain of rock and stone nervously, "Think he's dead?" "Duh," the noisy shinobi retorted, "he had, like, 200 tons of dirt dropped on his head. I guarantee he's dead!" The ninja walked up and slapped the large pile of rubble, as if to prove a point, and grinned widely as he leaned against it. "Looks like we won't be seeing him again."
The rather loud ninja was not smiling for long when suddenly, through stone and flesh, a hand ripped right through his chest. Blood poured out of the wound and out of his mouth as the hand was followed by the whole arm, holding the wounded man tight as it yanked him back through the small hole. The remaining ninja stood and scrambled away in terror, but it was pointless. The rock wall exploded outward, so loud and so strong that the massive boulders were pulverized into dust and the shinobi were temporarily deaf.
A figure stepped through the thick cloud, unnoticed by the shinobi team as they stumbled about, coated in the blood of his victim and dust from the cloud. The figure's presence could not be heard, not by the deaf, and could not be seen, not through the dust. The unknown killer casually walked up to each ninja and they all fell, one by one.
As the dust settled, only one of the group was left, hearing only just returning, surrounded by the dead. The terrified ninja drew a kunai shakedly, "S-stay away." The figure, standing mere feet away, turned to the cowering shinobi and strode towards her. A kunai sailed towards him, hitting him right in the center of the chest, a fatal wound. The figure stumbled back several steps before looking down at the kunai, then at the kunoichi in slight irritation, before walking towards her again.
The young woman shook her head in disbelief, petrified. " Why are you doing this?" she whispered before shouting out, "What did we do to you?!" She slammed her mouth shut and didn't make a sound as the figure stood over her, then she saw nothing.
The unknown person shook his hand as he stood over the unconscious kunoichi, "You didn't do anything to me." He bent down and took a large bag, looking through its contents. "But you did take something you weren't supposed to." Finding what he was looking for, the figure ripped off a sleeve from one of the less bloody corpses and wiped his face off before slinging the bag strap over his shoulder. His heterochromia eyes, one light blue and one dark blue, glanced back at the pile of defeated ninja with passing interest before walking off. He paused briefly to look down at the kunai still embedded in his chest, a look a surprise crossing his face like he'd forgotten it was there.
He gripped the handle tightly and yanked the throwing knife out and tossing it over his shoulder, landing at the kunoichi's feet. He continued walking as the hole in his chest, from flesh to bone, closed up as he whistled a little tune.
And so the second chapter is over. Read again, comment, eat a shoe. Do whatever you like. Hope ya keep reading! This is SitD, and I'm gonzo.