Disclaimer: I do not own Nauto.
5 Years Later
It's almost funny, Sakura surmised, that I would be in this position without any of those I called my comrades with me. Sakura lay bruised and broken as she lay facedown in the dirt next to the small river that ran through Akamatsu forest, having dragged herself as much as she could from the river after she had fallen in during the horrific battle she had only escaped from by the skin of her teeth. We all went our different ways I suppose, I to the medical brigade, Kakashi-sensei returned to lead the ANBU, Sasuke to Orochimaru, and Naruto…. Maybe Naruto suffered the least out of all of us. She remembered when Kakashi-sensei had gave her the two boy's headbands; Naruto's still glossy from his frequent polishing, Sasuke's scratched down the center.
Three years after Sasuke had left Konohagakure village, Sakura had been accepted into the medical brigade of the Konoha shinobi after undergoing Tsunade's training from hell. She was accepted into the brigade at the age of fifteen, a prestigious honor for one so young. Shortly after she joined the medical brigade however, war had broken out with the Iwagakure ninja village. War had broken out when Danzou, the leader of the ANBU ROOT squads was brutally murdered while attempting a negotiation and his corpse put on display at the borders of the Fire and Rock countries. Almost as soon as they had begun, peace negotiations had disintegrated and shinobi from both countries had begun throwing themselves at each other. While the Hidden Grass village supported Konoha, the Hidden Waterfall village sided with Iwagakure. Kumogakure remained neutral, but because of past conflicts and assassination attempts, the border was watched extremely carefully by Konoha.
Kakashi had been drafted into the ANBU at the very beginning because of a need for experienced commando leaders and because he was an ex-ANBU captain. Two years later, Kakashi was appointed as the head of all ANBU units, answerable only to the Hokage herself. The name "Copy Ninja Kakashi", already feared and respected had garnered an even more incredible amount of prestige amongst enemies and allies alike.
Akatsuki had been thriving since the war began. The members of Akatsuki, under cover of war, had been able to move relatively unhindered and unopposed. The lack of a united front by the shinobi countries against them allowed them to successfully capture four jinchurikki, the 2-tails and 3 tails among them. They had made an attempt to capture the new Kazekage, Gaara of the Desert, but they failed only because of the Kazekage being retrieved by his siblings at the last second. Sakura was amongst those sent to ascertain the situation of the Kazekage. Sakura helped with Gaara's medical treatment, but Gaara had been soundly beaten, due to his protection of the citizenry. All shinobi of the Sand took this to heart in one way or another. Some were reassured that their Kazekage was a kind individual who loved his citizens. Other were worried that he had not enough strength to defend the country from Akatsuki, let alone other hostile shinobi villages. Overall, the Kazekage's power base did not wane, and Gaara remained in power, training heavily for his next encounter with Akatsuki. The only positive effects of this encounter were a strengthening of the ties between Konoha and Suna, due to Sakura's ministrations.
However, the real bombshell came a year into the war. Jiraiya of the Sannin reported that Uchiha Itachi had been killed on the Fire Country border by an unknown assailant or assailants. Konoha operatives had found what was left of Hoshigaki Kisame at the site of some massive explosion that fried the trees and foliage for fifty meters in all directions. They had found small pieces of Kisame and clothes soaked with Itachi's blood. The explosion, whatever it was, vaporized all other evidence. When Itachi and Kisame both did not reemerge and two new members joined Akatsuki, replacing them, the duo was taken off the bingo book. How Sasuke took the news of his brother's death no one knew, until word came that he had fought Orochimaru to a standstill and left for parts unknown. Sakura had maintained a faint hope that he would return to Konoha, but when he did not, she had sworn that if she found him she would make him answer for his betrayal of Naruto.
When war broke out, Sakura was assigned as a medic ninja to two squads who went on missions together. She would travel with them as the 9th member of the teams. Because of the nature of her position as an add-on and because of her past experiences with teammates she was not able to connect as deeply with her new squad mates as she had with team 7. Sakura held a deep respect for her team's leader, an older jounin named Mikawa Tanimoto, but her abilities and attitude set her apart from the other shinobi. Also, her position as the Godaime Hokage's apprentice gave her a certain celebrity that set her at a distance from the members of her group. She was determined to protect them and them her, but they did not fit together as perfectly as team 7 seemed to have. Since the beginning of the war, Sakura and her teammates had been in constant combat action against enemy forces, but because of Sakura's excellent medical prowess they had never lost a shinobi in their group. Because of their lack of fatalities, their group had been comically called "Lucky Fortune". Their "Fortune" had run out at Owari Bridge.
Sakura's team has been assigned the mission of recapturing and destroying Owari Bridge so that Rock forces could not move their supplies into the Waterfall Country via that route. Owari Bridge was located on the border of the Country of Rock and the Country of Waterfall. Though in enemy territory, the mission had been assumed to be doable, with only one four-man team of Rock shinobi guarding the bridge. What Konoha Intelligence failed to detect was that this one team of Rock shinobi was handpicked and commanded by Obata Hiro, chosen successor to the current Tsuchikage, a legendary shinobi in his own right, and as deadly and vicious as any Akatsuki member. Tanimoto did not recognize Obata until he had already charged the bridge throwing shurikens as a distraction so the other eight members of his team could surround and eliminate the enemy team. Tanimoto had only recognized the famous Rock ninja for a split second before two giant hands of earth and stone came out of the ground, wrapped around him, and tore him into two pieces at the waist. There wasn't even time to call out a warning to his subordinates, who on plan, had attacked simultaneously from all directions with explosive tags attached to shurikens. Instantly the three members of Obata's team moved in tandem, creating a formation around their leader, their hands rapidly forming hand seals. As they surrounded their leader facing outward, a dome of stone, created by their jutsu, emerged from the ground and deflected all the explosive shuriken from hitting them. Less than a split second later, before any members of the Leaf shinobi team could react, what seemed to be great spears of crystal several meters in length emerged from the earth and impaled five of Sakura's teammates.
Sakura then knew who she was fighting. Morbid tales were told of Obata Hiro and his crystal jutsu that few survived against. In an act of desperation, Sakura threw a kunai with a rope attached to it into a nearby tree and pulled herself to safety in midair. It barely saved her life. Two crystal spears flashed into the position she had just occupied. Had she not pulled her desperate midair maneuver she would have been run through by the spear. As it was, she escaped the impalement, but the spears left intermediate cuts on both her thigh and arm. Her comrades who had been skewered fared less well. They groped the spike that had pierced their now convulsing chests in shock, but shortly their hands fell to their sides as if the strings that had held them up were suddenly cut by some deranged puppeteer of fate.
Sakura's two surviving companions landed near the crystal-studded dome of stone, but before they could find a way to assault the wall, the stone barrier burst with tremendous force, sending stone masses outward at something approaching terminal velocity. Sakura remembered seeing one of her comrades being hit it the face. The small boulder crushed his face to a pulp, killing him instantly by driving bone splinters into his brain even as it deformed his face. Sakura looked to see the fate of her last comrade, but she, suspended in midair, was not able to dodge the mass of stone that suddenly slammed into her solar plexus. The blow made her let go of her lifeline that had saved her and she fell into the raging river below. Sakura fell unconscious as she hit the water, stunned.
Hours later Sakura had come awake, miraculously finding herself alive she tried to drag herself out of the river, whose flow had slowed and had allowed her to be caught on a rock. She succeeded in dragging herself out of the river's flow, but could not stand or even sit. Checking herself, she believed she had broken her arm, as well as broken or fractured at least five ribs, she couldn't tell. Soon she passed out from exhaustion and the pain. Not long after, a tall figure came by the riverbank and bent over the unconscious girl…..
Sakura woke face up. She lay on a futon in the middle of a room. It was early morning, just after dawn. "Where am I?" she asked to the air.
"You are safe." a voice replied.
Thank you to all of those who reviewed. Please continue to do so in the future. Special thanks to Advent Greiver and HotaruZala.
Midterms consume my life, will update in two weeks.
-Commedia
