Summary- In the natural scheme of things, the dead stay dead. But in the world of ninjas, nothing's for certain anymore. Sasu/Saku.
&don't sue me! I don't own Naruto, I swear!
Covering itself in the shadows, a cloaked figure stole through one hall after another in the labyrinth of an underground hideout. Dying embers of the hallway torches made a feeble attempt to shatter the thick darkness that choked the area. One quick turn after another, the man expertly weaved through the cement and stone halls, head down in thought with his lips moving but no sound protruding through the silence.
Running his hard fingers over the walls, he effortlessly guided himself through the maze. He focused his chakra into the area, sensing the amount of chakra signatures he could spot within the room nearing on his right. Two surged and receded in waves, flowing intensely through their chakra network and registering directly into his rapid memory bank.
Moving cautiously, the figure's footsteps were inaudible. The first sound to break the stilled hush was a single, sharp knock impacted on a brass door. His knuckles lingered against the cold metal for a second, testing the echo resounding in the room, the reflection of the sound waves off the members inside.
A moment later, the door opened and the figure strode into the center of the unearthly dark room. His eyes adjusting to the light, shapes and hidden faces appeared inside the shadows, two pairs of eyes dimly shining against the back wall. He tilted his head upwards to let the cool air run under the heavy lip of his hood, and waited for the other to speak.
"Yes?"
Methodically, he answered, ready to be busied by some other task. "They've agreed. Everything is going as planned." His tone was demeaning and low, drawled out in disinterest and clipped in boredom.
"Good. Now all that's left is to inform the third party, of course. Will you deliver the message?"
Already spinning around, he threw up a hand and called out over the thumping of his boots against the rock floor, "Consider it done."
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chapter
two!
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September 23
Location- Konoha
Ayame sighed; her white apron, somewhat covered in splotches of ramen broth, was itchy and uncomfortable in the beating sun's warmth. Her fingers twitched for something cool and she found herself more and more often checking the clock, but it seemed as if five o' clock was getting fartheraway. She sighed louder this time, hoping to attract some polite person into listening to her gripe. But when no one spared her any attention, Ayame turned and leaned on the old, weathered wood counter of the ramen shop to face her grandfather, grumbling, "It sure is hot today," stressing the word hot with every ounce of irritation and boredom she'd felt within the past hour.
He merely shook his head, the lines on his face remaining the same in his concentration while making the hearty soup. Drumming her fingers against the counter for a moment, she contemplated whether or not she'd be able to get any conversation while he was working. She tried again anyway. "Isn't that weird? It's fall."
"Weather's been acting out of sorts a lot, recently." His rough hands continued in circular motion over the boiling pot of noodles, and she wondered how anyone could stand the steam from the food andthe almost blistering heat outside. And who would eat hot ramen on a day like this?
Without much thought into the action, she found herself retying her hair and clasping the chocolate brown locks together neatly with her purple clip. Knocking some sand off her shoes, she elaborated on her grandpa's statement with, "Yeah well, it needs to stop." She continued, "Do you think-"
Distracted, she switched her focus to a certain loud blond making a racket by the street corner. The bobbing yellow mop of hair went up and down and up and down over the random food stands as she watched him animatedly question an innocent passerby. Ayame, delighted by some entertainment, the downright startled look on the face of the villager, and the change to the monotonous scenery around her, probed her grandpa for any details.
"What's Naruto doing?"
Luckily, he answered. "Saw him at the hospital earlier, too. Looking for Sakura, he said." He had shortly looked up from his pot to glance at the blob of orange and black, a laughing smile creeping onto his cracked lips.
"Wow." Ayame chuckled, watching the scene in front of her with interest. "He's officially brought stubborn to a new level. Shouting on a street corner? He's desperate."
"SAKURA!"
"SAKURAAAA!"
The people in the general vicinity grimaced. Saying that Naruto was loud was an understatement. His voice literally boomed through walls, buildings, you name it. His hands cupped to his mouth for added effectiveness, Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs,
"SAKURA! WHERE ARE YOU? I WANNA GET RAMEN!"
One foot in front of the other, he repeated his search, yelling every other second, determined to find his target. Sand caught in between his fingers and on his knuckles, inside his shoes and on his eyebrows, but he hardly even noticed as he hollered this way and that, despite the scorching weather.
An old man, apparently having quite enough yelling for the morning, scolded him in frustration. "Why don't you just check the hospital?!" His cane stomped the ground in his irritation. Setting his face into a grim, weary expression, he poked his stick out to prod Naruto's broad chest in utter exasperation.
Naruto backed away from the cane with his arms lifted up behind his head, slight pout intact. Shuffling from one foot to the other, he defended himself loudly.
"Hey, take it easy, old man; I've already checked there! I just got back from a mission and me and my friend, you know, Sakura Haruno, probably the one who helps you with your joint swelling, geezer, are supposed to be eating ramen right now."
The old man ignored the "geezer" comment, distracted by the fact that she wasn't at the hospital. How were they going to get him to leave? Hoping for someone –anyone- to have an idea so Naruto wouldn't start "looking for Sakura" again, the old man helplessly searched the crowd, gaze running over equally distressed villagers.
"H-H-How 'bout her house?" yelled one, his shirt swaying as he raised his hand to get Naruto's attention over the high pile of ladders from the local construction site.
Naruto huffed as if he was insulted. "Don't you think I've thought of that already? I've been there. She's not at home!" He looked doubtfully at the crowd that had gathered, sure no one could think of anything he hadn't already.
A lady carrying a bouquet of white lilies peaked behind one of the carpenters with her four year old son grasping her other hand. "Um, I know! The farm with all the herbs?"
"Nope, not there either," he noted, eyes closed and leaning backwards on one foot.
"The…the…the flower shop Ino works at?!" another woman suggested, leaning out a window a block away.
Craning his neck around, Naruto stared at the woman strangely, wondering why she cared when she was all the way over there. "Been there already."
The whole crowd slumped in unison. Had he been all over the village? Everyone desperately exchanged glances at each other for other ideas. The wind picked and hushed some of the awkward mutterings buzzing among the crowd.
A little boy finally spoke up, his voice soft and wondering. "Um, how 'bout the Hokage's Office?"
With wide eyes, Naruto looked down at the boy hugging a stuffed animal. "HEY! That's a great idea; I haven't been there! Thanks, kid!" He leaned over and patted the kid's head before sprinting off into the other direction, bouncing off rooftops as he went.
Watching the springing, orange and black figure quickly receding, the old man glanced down at the young boy standing near him. Chuckling, he sighed in relief before hobbling back into his apartment.
The Hokage's Tower was the pinnacle of all of Konoha's construction. Dome-shaped, over looking the village, and right beside the Hokage Mountain- it was a sight to see. The red and white building was a symbol of the strong leadership of the village's Hokage and a beautiful centerpiece to all of Konoha's houses.
And it was a given that the Hokage's Tower was kept fairly quiet. It went along with prestigious impression the place practically radiated. The guards monitoring the place walked with a kind of reverence to the historical significance of the structure; the people who worked there talked in a slightly hushed voice most of the time (even if their Hokage didn't share the same convictions).
Which is why, all the guards there tried -in vain- to calm down the determined and driven Naruto from barging in the way he would in a grand total of about seven seconds.
-Seven seconds later-
The doors to the Hokage's Office were slammed open, revealing an accomplished looking Naruto stepping into the room. Tsunade's face held swelling anger as he expectedly waltzed into the room. After hearing an elephant pound down the hallway and guards yelling louder than ever, it wasn't difficult to deduct a reasonable conclusion to the ruckus.
Naruto.
"Sakura! What, were you hiding from me? I was looking everywhere for-"
He gawked at his surroundings, beyond the point of confusion. The room looked like it always did –desk, Tsunade, Shizune, pig- but no Sakura! His mouth froze in its open state as he repeatedly studied the room, eyes blinking rapidly, not believing the lack of blinding pink hair and rolling sea green eyes.
His voice reached a whine. "Grandma Tsunade, I can't find Sakura; I thought she'd be here. I just got back from the mission and we're supposed to have ramen!" His foot made a low stomp on the carpeted portion of the office.
She opened her mouth to speak, but Naruto cut her off, eyes pleading and desperate. "Ramen, Grandma Tsunade. R-A-M-E-N, this is important!" His arms flailed up and down haphazardly.
Tsunade simply groaned before raising her hands to massage her throbbing temples, her honey gold hair falling over her shoulders in pigtails and pooling on top of her growing pile of untouched paperwork. The scrolls and papers crumbling barely at the light weight, Naruto quirked an eyebrow at her unusual appearance; the wrinkles on her forehead were deeply set in and darkening circles rimmed the hazel of her eyes.
His lips turning downwards, he glanced at Shizune, but she had shifted her eyes away, looking uncomfortably toward TonTon, who was seated sympathetically at Tsunade's foot.
Deftly easing into a question for once, Naruto took into consideration her current state and started off slowly with, "Grandma… Tsunade, are you okay? What's going on?" Worry stained the previous cheer in his voice.
"It's been a long day and the hospital is flooded, Naruto. I'm sure she's just worn out by now," Shizune replied rather quickly. Her usual light tone would've worked if it had've matched her expression, which was now withdrawn and tired in the face and posture.
Umm, okay...? Naruto's eyebrows twisted lowly as he wondered why they were acting the way they were. His ninja sandals echoed faintly on the glossy floors as he swung from one foot to the other in thought.
"U-h, well, I guess I'll just-" he faltered, hands still behind his spiky blond hair, his whole face paling and his lips drying up as an unpleasant idea struck his disordered mind. "Is…something wrong with Sakura?" he managed to choke out. Disbelief and tenseness tugged uneasily at the corners of his lips at the pause in her answer.
Lady Tsunade's silence wasn't met well, and Naruto felt the beating lump in his throat pulse higher and a dizzy feeling settle into his head. His clammy hands clenched because of unwanted thoughts sprouting up in his mind, sounding less and less like Sakura and more and more like someone else.
Lady Tsunade calmly glanced up at him, unfolding her clasped hands from in front of her and setting them on her paper-covered desk with robotic coolness. "I'm only preoccupied with paying off the village's debts. I'm fine. And you can't find Sakura because she's on a mission in the Sand."
Naruto unconsciously let out a sigh; he hadn't noticed he was holding his breath. "Oh, you could've told me that before! But what kind of mission? …It's not dangerous, is it?" he stepped toward her, prodding her for every possible detail.
"No, just a teaching assignment for medical-"
A series of timed knocks resounded on the re-enforced doors, cutting off the conversation.
Tsunade sighed. "Come in."
In came an ANBU member, his black cloak skimming across the floor as he bowed respectfully to the Hokage. "The team has been dispatched, Lady Hokage. They should be arriving in Sand by tonight."
"Thank you."
With a nod, he disappeared through the doorway, leaving Naruto to stare after his quickly departing figure.
Wait, an entire ANBU team…in Sand? His head snapped back towards Tsunade. "Grandma Tsunade, why are you sending out an ANBU team to where Sakura is? Something's wrong with…Sakura, isn't there?"
"Naruto, calm down." Her relaxed posture seemed natural, but had he looked longer, he would've noticed the rigid muscles in her neck and temples twitching under pressure. "She's two days late getting back. I'm only taking precaution. Had I stalled any longer and had you find out about it, I knew you'd barge in here. Looks like that happened anyway."
Naruto fisted his hands tightly and took the information with suspicion, eyes full to the brim with anxiety. "There's nothing wrong? She's okay?"
"I'm sure she's fine, Naruto," Tsunade retorted, staring him the eye soothingly until she dismissed him by resuming her paperwork once again. Her reassuring look was enough to let him leave, but as soon he reluctantly made his way pass the doorframe, shutting the doors with uncharacteristic subtleness, Shizune felt her blood pressure rise. Half-sitting on the desktop, Shizune studied her lady's reaction. "Why'd you do that? You might've just gotten his hopes up." Pleading and strained, her voice broke and halted.
The sound of her pen moving swiftly across the smooth parchment of the scrolls with practiced ease, Tsunade kept her head down, answering decidedly, "But if there's nothing wrong, I'm saving him from worrying."
Shizune stared hard at Tsunade's face, softly taking the pen away from her. "But…what if there is, Lady Tsunade?"
Tsunade sat utterly still for a moment. Then her shoulders drooped, and she put her head in her hands. Falling scrolls rolled across the floor and crinkled under the impact as she replied with a thick, watery voice, "Then I don't know what I or Naruto are going to do."
The sounds of the village filtered through the walls of the office, dimly reaching their ears. Shizune laid her arm around Tsunade's shoulders, but couldn't think of anything to say.
"What if Tsunade finds out? You know she'll have us executed."
"She won't; she's too worried with finding her precious apprentice. And by the time she does, Konoha will be destroyed and Sakura will be dead."
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a/n.
voila. chapter two revised. leave a review. :P
revised 11.19.08 (chapters have been about twice as long as the original. woo. …next target: chapter 3)