Chapter 2

Naruto and Shikamaru were yanked from my grasp as we were all knocked over with the force of the explosion. I was thrown down hard, and the wind was knocked out of me for a few seconds. I winced and did a quick systems check. Nothingbroken? I asked myself. Good.ButI'mgonnahaveonehelluvabruiseonmyasstomorrowmorning…Ouch…Minorscrapes,butIthinkthat'sit.ThankGod.

Then I remembered that the boy I loved and another one of my best guy friends were blown away from me. "Oh my gosh, SHIKAMARU! NARUTO! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?"

I heard coughing nearby. "Sakura? You alright?" Shikamaru's dust-raspy voice was a teeny bit muffled by rock. I pulled a big hunk of stone away from where I thought I heard his voice, and there he was. I saw Shika's dirt- and soot-streaked face, and my eyes travelled down his slightly mangled body. A bump here, a cut there…

And then I saw his left leg. His knee was had been gashed against the rock. It looked pretty awful, streaming blood, swelling tremendously, and bent at a weird angle.

"Yeah, my leg took the brunt of the force. And now I'm not gonna be able to walk for a while…" he groaned. "What a drag…"

I winced sympathetically and got to work with my medical ninjustsu on his painful-looking injury. But after a few minutes, I faltered because I'd heard something alarming.

Shikamaru looked up at me. "Wait, why'd you—?" His eyes widened at something behind me. "Is that—?" That confirmed my suspicions. I turned on my heel, ve-ry slow-ly for the second time that day. Except this time, I didn't smile, fake or otherwise.

"I knew it was your voice I heard…"

"Sasuke."

"Well," said the boy I used to know. "If it isn't the very girl I'm looking for. Sakura Haruno."

Sasuke looked exactly like he had the last time I had seen him. Same dark hair that still stuck up in the back. Same outfit, the gray jacket-thing gaping open in the front with the Uchiha crest on the back, the huge purple rope belt, the black pants, forearm guards, and the shoes.

No,wait.I thought, as I recognized a random little tidbit of info.Hedidgetnewshoes…

But his eyes were still the same, his black, emotionless eyes. And so was his sword.

The very sword that was now delicately poised on Naruto's collarbone, as Sasuke stood back to back with the love of my life and held that stupid sword where it could kill Naruto.

He may as well have been holding that sword to my neck.

Naruto tried to say something to me, but Sasuke just angled the blade so that all he had to do was flick his wrist and Naruto would be a dead man.

This could not go on.

"Let him go, Sasuke." My voice started as a whisper, but slowly rose to a scream. "Let Naruto go, Sasuke. I said, lethimGO!"

Then Sasuke got straight to the point. "I will if you come and be with me, and only me, forever."

I froze. My head dropped as I considered my options.

"No, Sakura! What are you doing?" Shika'sstillhere?The back of my head whispered, Well,Iguessheiseitherway—abrokenlegwillkeepyoufrommovingaroundtoomuchwhetheryoulikeitornot.

My head lifted slowly of its own accord. My mouth opened and I spoke the words, "What if I say yes?"

Sasuke put his sword away and smirked. "Then you leave with me and never see these…people ever again."

"And if I say no?"

"Then everyone in this village, including you, will die. Or, at least 'disappear'." He mockingly made the little bunny-ear-quotation marks. His face was still as cold as ice.

So it all came down to my choice. Would I let hundreds, no, thousands, of innocent people die because I cared too much for one person, or would I banish myself to live in regret because I cared too much for one person? So I made up my mind and spoke the only rational answer:

"Neither."

Sasuke created another humungous explosion. Then something else blew up, and something else. And the only way I could describe Sasuke's actions was using the highly cliché phrase "space-time continuum rupturing apocalyptic occurrence".

Sadly, that was the last string of thoughts that went through my head before I went spinning through time and space, swirling, bumping, jostling, and flailing.

Then everything stopped for just a moment. I was suspended in midair, almost flying. I thought two words:

Oh shit.

And then I fell on my ass.

Again.