The story starts to unfold now...Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine
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There it was, the River Country. It was like base for Sakura, a safe place where no one will drag her back to Konoha. She stood on the cliff, admiring the view for a few minutes. The sun was setting over the River Country and it looked absolutely dazzling. The fiery red and pale orange reflected in the water, the soft fluffy pink clouds, and everything seemed so peaceful. Sakura sighed. This was the perfect place to think things over without interruptions, most of the previous ones were caused by a certain loud, blonde ninja who wears orange.
'Told you this was a good idea'
Sakura sighed. Her inner loved to ruin the peace. She also never failed to notice when she was right. She decided to camp there for the night. Entering a village at night would not be a good idea at this point. She curled up in her sleeping bag. ' I should've done this a long time ago. I already feel at peace and I haven't done anything yet.' She thought happily.
'And this is why you should listen to me.' Inner Sakura said in a pompous tone.
With a smile on her face, Sakura fell asleep, much to her inner's annoyance.
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Sakura woke up to see a bright, sunny day. "Mmmmm," she murmured, "Even the day is happy for me." Once she had gotten up and had breakfast, she prepared to enter the village. She made she it looked like she had never been there by smoothing over dirt in some places and such. She then completed the cover up.
"Henge!"
Once the puff cloud of smoke had dissipated it revealed a girl that looked very similar to Sakura. She had the same facial features, other than a slightly smaller forehead. Her hair, though, instead of being light pink was black. Uchiha black to be precise.
'Awe, so you do still think about him.' Inner Sakura teased.
'I'm choosing to ignore that or you'd be getting a chakra filled mental slap.'
'Ok, sheesh!'
Her outfit was similar to the one she wore in her genin days. Only this time the shorts were dark red and went to a bit below the mid-thigh. The dress had thick straps, no sleeves and was jet black. She replaced the white circles with red swirls. She kept her black boots on, seeing as she couldn't bother transforming her shoes. She admired herself in her reflection off of the stream nearby. She nodded, assured that this was enough of a disguise, seeing as she wasn't really trying that hard. Just enough to be looked over in a crowd, really. As for her name, she had one ready, Nara Mikoto. Nara because Shikamaru was a good friend of hers and is clan wasn't all that well known. Mikoto because that was Sasuke's mother's name and she wanted to honor her in a way.
With that, she started walking towards the village, without a care in the world.
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"You can't be serious Tsunade-baachan!" Exclaimed Naruto.
Tsunade sighed. She hated going back on her word, but this was an emergency. She was sending Naruto and Sasuke to go to the nearby villages and ask for any information they had on Sakura. It wasn't a D-rank, like what Sasuke should be doing, but a C-rank. This way of gathering information always took awhile and with Naruto…If she wasn't out of other ninja to do this, Naruto and Sasuke would be out of the question.
"Sadly, I am Naruto. If the current situation were better, you'd be walking dogs with Sasuke." She said with a slight smirk.
"How far should we go?" Sasuke asked.
"You are not leaving the Fire Country. Naruto would normally be able to, but since he's with you he can't leave either." She said.
"Teme! You ruin everything!" Naruto yelled.
"Well? Get going already! Time is not on your side!" Tsunade shouted.
"Hai." Answered Sasuke with a small nod. With that he walked out the door, dragging Naruto by the collar with the blond wailing all the way.
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Sakura was sitting on a large, flat rock outside of the village. She had had no problems entering. No one even gave her a second glance, but she had the eerie feeling that she was being watched. It didn't feel like ANBU or anyone who wanted to drag her back to Konoha, but it still made her suspicious. She had bought a room at the local hotel and had unpacked. Afterwards, she left to go on a walk to help sort out her thoughts, which lead her to a meadow.
'That's not what she really looks like. She used a transformation jutsu on herself.'
Sakura suddenly saw a figure approaching her. She was about to go into a fighting stance when Inner Sakura stopped her.
'Baka! You're not Sakura remember? Don't fight everyone that walks towards you!' Inner Sakura yelled.
'Samimasen, I guess I'm a bit jumpy.' Sakura apologized.
'So that's what you call it…'
Sakura immediately went back to what she was doing, while watching the figure out of the corner of her eye. It kept walking until she could finally see who it was. If the black cloak with red clouds wasn't a dead giveaway, the eyes were.
'Uchiha Itachi!?'
'Umm… you know despite me being the smarter one here, I'm just as confused as you are.'
'You really must want to be slapped.' Sakura threatened.
Itachi stopped right in front of her. Sakura looked up, as though she just realized he was there. Well, she'd have to think of a new name since Itachi is from Konoha and would immediately know that she was lying.
"Can I help you?" She asked sweetly.
He wasn't expecting that. He could see right through her jutsu and knew she was Haruno Sakura. The fact that she wasn't attacking him was earth-shattering but being nice? 'She is…odd.' He thought.
"Oh no, you just looked like you needed cheered up is all." He answered innocently.
That caught her completely off guard. The fact that the Itachi was in front of her was strange enough but trying to cheer up a random stranger? 'What is going on? Why would a mass murderer try to cheer up a stranger?' She thought. 'He is obviously up to something. I'll play his little game in order to find out.'
Inner Sakura said boastfully, 'Glad I thought of it.'
"You read my mind." She smiled appreciatively.
"Mind telling me about it?" He asked, genuinely intrigued that a girl like her would be unhappy. As far as he could tell, she usually seemed to be pretty cheerful. He sat down beside her on the boulder and faced her, looking slightly worried.
"Not at all." She said gladly, "Let me know if I'm boring you."
"Will do." He said jokingly while having no intention of doing so. Sakura then proceeded to tell him everything. She didn't use any names, for her friend's sakes, and she did not mention Sasuke. Mentioning Sasuke would not be a good idea, seeing as she didn't know his personality was like, but she did tell him how no one had come looking for her. How she had been alone with no one to comfort her. How she had a wound that refused to be healed. How she was slowly fading out of existence. He listened silently, nodding occasionally at appropriate moments. When she finished her tale, he looked at her, eyes full of concern.
"You wanna grab something to eat and talk?" He asked suddenly.
Once again, she was caught off guard. 'That's been happening a lot lately.' Inner Sakura commented. What was with his sudden interest in her? She didn't have a horn sprouting out of her forehead did she? She couldn't possibly be that interesting. But, Sakura's stomach got the better of her. After all, being on the run does make one hungry.
"That would be…nice." She said slightly shyly.
"I know of the perfect place to go!" He replied brightly.
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"People won't tell ya anything!" said a tired Naruto. The two of them had been asking and showing people a picture of Sakura all day. No one had seen or heard anything. Most people weren't even willing to tell the two shinobi that much. The two were currently in an inn, resting. Sasuke was massaging his temples with his fingers while thinking hard.
"Did something happen to make Sakura want to leave?" Sasuke questioned Naruto.
"Not that I can think of. I haven't seen much of Sakura-chan lately, I've been with Hinata-chan." Naruto replied, "She did seem kinda down, but I have no idea what about."
"What has she been doing since I've been away?"
"Well, at first, a lot of crying. (Sasuke winced almost invisibly at this) Then she started training under Tsunade-baachan. When I was with Ero-sennin, she said she had also trained with Kurenai-sensei and Gejunmaiyou-sensei to improve her genjutsu and taijutsu. Her personality changed a tiny bit to more like Kurenai-sensei's. Luckily, she didn't start acting like Gejunmaiyou-sensei. She might be stronger than you dattebayo!"
Sasuke ignored that last bit while he was trying to piece this all together. Something was missing. There were blank spots, major blank spots. Even Sasuke's keen and penetrating mind had come to no conclusion. Heck, Shikamaru probably couldn't do it. The only thing he could come up with was that she might have been lonely, but that really didn't make much sense, because she had Ino. Sakura never seemed the type to just pick up and leave over nothing. Ugh, all this thinking was giving him a headache.
"What's with the sudden interest in Sakura-chan?" Naruto said carefully. Extracting this information out of Sasuke was going to be hard. Naruto would probably have more luck finding out Kakashi's darkest secret. Naruto, being, well, Naruto had to try. 'Sasuke's gonna have to say it sometime.' He thought. 'Might as well be now.'
"It isn't that sudden and she's my friend and team mate. I should be concerned." Sasuke stated simply.
'Ok, so spilled more than he intended. He's cared about her for a while and admits he's concerned. That's a start.' Naruto thought happily. He was actually pretty smart if he put his mind to something. Having gotten what he wanted, he didn't press the subject.
"Sasuke-teme, where should we check next?" Naruto asked. Out of the two of them, Sasuke would know.
"My guess is that she doesn't want to be found because she is covering her tracks. She is probably headed towards the border of the River Country. We should check villages near the border." Sasuke answered wisely. 'Now why would she not want to be found?' he thought. 'I doubt she hates her birthday that much.' It was true. In one week was Sakura's birthday, March 28th. Secretly, Sasuke had bought her a gift. The Sakura he remembered loved her birthday. Something major must have happened to her.
"Did something major happen to her?"
Naruto thought for a moment before replying. "Other than you leaving and her parents dying, no."
Aa, so it was his fault. It was his fault Sakura had vanished. She probably waited 2 years to make sure she was strong enough to fend for herself. That made sense. Surely, there must be something he could do?
Sasuke suddenly got up and went up the stairs to his room. Naruto was slightly surprised but didn't do anything. Annoying an Uchiha with a headache was never a good idea. It took Sasuke hours to fall asleep. He could practically hear Naruto's snoring through the wall. When Sasuke had finally fallen asleep it was full of dreams of Sakura dying and it being his fault. He woke about five times in a cold sweat.
'What is happening to me?'
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The past six nights Sakura had been going out to dinner with Itachi. He was really quite the gentleman. He was always polite, interested in what she said and told her a bit about himself (not the whole murdering his clan thing, he assumed she knew that). This time, he had said it was a formal dinner and that she need to dress formally. Sakura had gone out and bought a dress that afternoon. It was a dark red dress with thin spaghetti-straps. It had a cocktail dress hemline that ended a little below the knee. She also bought some strappy black stilettos and some simple black jewellery to wear with it. She put her transfigured hair into an elegant updo with two chopsticks holding it up. She also applied some black eyeliner and mascara to make her light green eyes really pop. After deciding she looked acceptable, she left her room to go meet Itachi. Sakura was walking towards the restaurant he had told her to go to tonight when she saw him outside. He was wearing a standard tuxedo and looked very handsome. She walked up to him and greeted him cheerfully when he leaned forward and whispered, "You don't need to use that jutsu anymore." directly in her ear. Sakura let out a gasp.
"How long have you known?" she asked quietly.
"Since the first time I saw you," he admitted, "I wondered whether you'd tell me or not."
"I was going to tell you when the time was right." She said defensively.
'Liar.'
"You don't need to use jutsu to hide your appearance. You're beautiful as you are and I will make sure no one will take you away. That's a promise." He said, meaning every word.
Sakura was speechless. Inner Sakura was speechless. After about half a minute of silence, Sakura bowed her head and let the jutsu stop. Her forehead went back to its usual size and her hair went back to its light pink. 'She looks in more beautiful without the jutsu.' Itachi thought awestruck. Itachi then offered her his arm. She looked up at him before smiling and taking his arm and walking into the restaurant.
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Naruto awoke to being whipped by a pillow. "Shemata, just five more minutes." The sleepy blond muttered. The response he got was being splashed with water by Sasuke. Naruto ignored him, and rolled over. Sasuke was starting to get annoyed and simply punched him while saying that Hinata started kissing Chouji. That did the trick.
"Where is Chouji? I'm gonna kill him, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled furiously jumping out of bed, ready to attack.
"Dobe. Well now that you're finally up we can leave." said Sasuke.
Naruto began to pack angrily. How dare that teme!? Sasuke was going to pay dearly for this. Naruto suddenly had a sneaky little idea pop into his head and like many of his prank ideas, it just wouldn't go away.
Oh the joys of two shinobi in a bad mood. Sasuke, from lack of sleep and thinking he has gone insane. Naruto, from being tricked so easily by Sasuke. The two walked in silence, fuming. This lasted for a while until they neared the border. If possible, Sasuke got even more annoyed. He felt that, for some reason, Sakura had crossed the border. He couldn't explain the feeling. He just sensed it.
"Naruto? Do you feel like Sakura is in the River Country?" Sasuke asked.
"You too, huh? Yeah. But we can't cross the border on Tsunade-baachan's orders." Naruto replied sadly.
"Then why don't we go to the nearest village this side of the border and see if Sakura's been there?" Sasuke suggested.
Naruto sighed. This mission was taking way too long and they were getting nowhere fast. Luckily for them, the village was only about twenty minutes away. They went the rest of the distance in silence. When they arrived, they spent the rest of the day asking whether anyone had see Sakura. Late that evening, they finally had success. A farmer had seen her passing through his field near the edge. He said she was headed toward the border, but didn't do anything odd. Seeing as this only confirmed their suspicions, they decided to head back to Konoha and report to the Hokage.
When they had set up camp for the night, Naruto decided to ask again.
"Sasuke?" He started slowly.
"Mm?" Sasuke was lying on his back with his head on his hands, gazing up at the stars.
"What do you think about Sakura-chan?" He asked carefully.
Sasuke sat up and rested his head on his knees. "What I think about her?" He questioned.
"Yeah, like she's funny, she's powerful, just what you think." The blond explained, practically dying to hear Sasuke's answer.
Sasuke looked up at the stars again. "She's smart, kind-hearted, from what you tell me, strong, hilarious, caring, beautiful, and just amazing." He said with a dreamy look on his face. Then he realized, too late, what he had done. He had a look of horror on his face. Naruto appeared to have fallen asleep, much to Sasuke's relief. 'I can't believe the dobe almost heard that.' He thought frantically. Satisfied that Naruto heard nothing, he fell asleep.
What Sasuke didn't know was that Naruto heard every word and was too speechless to say anything. 'I knew it. I so knew it. He loved her all along and she has no idea.' Naruto smiled and also feel asleep. He had pleasant pink and blue wedding filled dreams.
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Yay got Itachi in there and some romance! Poor Sasuke! PLease review! Reviewing isn't that hard!! Still have plenty of cookies!