Disclaimer: If I were the one who wrote Naruto, I'd be famous right now. However, I'm not the owner of this brilliant manga, so here I am, taking every review as another form of god. T.T
Chapter 3- Mission: Fail
"Konohagakure is an interesting place, don't you agree?"
Sakura looked curiously at the form sprawled out next to her. They had been silent for most of the trip, with only a few exchanges of direction. She planned to not talk too much, but a bit of a conversation wouldn't hurt.
"Yes, I suppose it is."
The darkening sky shed little light in the forest, but the twosome wouldn't be stopping for the night yet.
"You lived there all your life?"
Sakura nodded, but was drifting off in the thoughts of what Sasuke and Ino were doing right now.
Due to being occupied with trying to calm Inner-Sakura down (the images set upon the kunoichi's head weren't too Sasuke-fangirl-friendly), she didn't hear her companion calling her "name".
"Yamanaka-san? Yamanaka-san?!"
"Eh? What?"
"We should get going now, if we want to get any further," Tanaka said, as his mouth curved up slightly.
"Oh. Right." Sakura got up and continued walking along the worn path.
Silence blanketed the two again.
(Scene change)
"Oohhh, Sasuke, it's so romantic," Ino cooed, while clinging onto Sasuke's arm and
unintentionally cutting off his blood circulation. "Ino. Arm."
Said person looked at her arm blankly.
Sasuke mentally sighed, "My arm."
Ino then looked at where she was practically pressing all her weight onto his right arm.
"Oh! Ha ha, sorry Sasu-chan!"
The hold on his arm lessened by the merest bit, and the Sharingan-user wouldn't have been shocked if he looked down to see that his whole arm was purple.
Sasuke had actually discovered this spot when he was still with Orochimaru. Back then he had no love interest at all, and he only remembered that such a location existed when he accepted Ino as his girlfriend.
It seemed that times were changing, however, and Ino didn't seem to thrill him as much. As a matter a fact, it wasn't completely wrong to proclaim that Ino annoyed him to no end.
If anyone killed him, it would be Ino. It would be unintentional of course. Sasuke looked at his poor arm that was currently infected by an Ino-parasite.
Dismissing the rather disturbing thought of a leech with a face that resembled his girlfriend's, he decided that yes, he might have to avoid using his arm for the rest of the night.
How…inconvenient.
Sasuke then realized that… what the hell was he doing? He should be trying to get Ino off without hurting her feelings.
Then again, since when did he care about other people's feelings?
"Sasu-chan! Guess what?" Without bothering to wait for an answer, Ino grinned happily, "I made dinner for us!"
Sasuke half-grinned as he felt Ino's arms slip away from his arm to rummage around in the pack she had brought with her.
Ino must've mistaken the reason for Sasuke's smile, because she giggled and gave him the box she produced from her belongings.
The food that the blonde kunoichi made weren't really that bad, but he expected that Sakura's was much, much better.
Talking about Sakura, he should probably bring her here when she loved him again. If she didn't love him again…well, that wouldn't happen now, would it?
No one would disobey him.
But, maybe after tomorrow night's incident, she wouldn't want to come here anyways. Due to bad memories that he would be forming in this area soon.
He couldn't wait to feel her blood in his hands.
Sasuke moistened his lips before placing Ino's home-made…blob…into his mouth.
Before he could form his evil thoughts too much, four words flashed dangerously through his head.
Death by food poisoning….
(Scene change)
Sakura waited patiently as Tanaka went to some bushes into the distance to go to the restroom.
Supposedly they would be arriving at the beginning of the desert tomorrow morning.
'I wonder…what will we be doing in Sunagakure…maybe healing some people?'
Inner-Sakura paused her profane mutterings about a certain couple to look up at Sakura irritably, 'Doesn't matter, let's just hurry back and see if Ino didn't get caught.'
Sakura inwardly frowned. 'I shouldn't depend on you for advice when you're in your I-hate-Ino-Yamanaka mood huh?'
There was a slight rustling of bushes as Tanaka got back.
"Yamanaka-san?"
Sakura turned around. "Yes?"
"You don't have to keep the jutsu up," he said casually, as if every person who was supposed to escort him was under a jutsu of some sort.
Sakura mentally winced. Time to lie out of this one.
"I'm sorry, Tanaka-san," Sakura murmured, while trying to look bewildered, "What jutsu would you be talking about?"
The male sighed.
"Tell you what. If you remove your transformation jutsu, I'll remove mine."
The kunoichi gaped at Tanaka. "You? You're using a transformation jutsu too?"
Said person's calming smile formed into a sickening smirk that rivaled Orochimaru's.
"Indeed, I am."
Both Sakura and Inner-Sakura's eyes widened.
"Who are you," Sakura growled, while pulling out a kunai from its holster.
The form of Tanaka was gone in the sudden haze of smoke.
"You need not know my name," a voice announced from the suddenly foggy area, "Since all the knowledge you need to comprehend is that I shall be the cause of your demise."
"Well at least you don't have much of an ego," Sakura said sarcastically to the figure as the smoke cleared away.
The person kneeling on the ground was what appeared to be a man in his late teens, but even that couldn't be accurate information, because he was wearing an Anbu mask.
"Who are you," Sakura repeated impatiently, "and where did you get that mask?"
The male got up slowly, and leaned against a tree, acting as if Sakura was no threat to him.
"I already told you that you shan't know my name, and I got the mask from the Anbu squad I slaughtered before I got to Konohagakure. Sadly enough, this was the best mask that they had…all the rest were so unattractive. There was even a bunny one. I believe that the person that owned that one was a female though, but one can't be too sure. I'm not really into raping."
The kunoichi frowned while readying her battle stance. "Where's Tanaka-san?"
A deep, masculine laughter echoed around the field.
"My dear, there was no Tanaka-san. I am he."
"Why did you do this?"
The mysterious character lifted himself off of the tree to scratch the top of his head.
"Good point. Most people don't even ask, they just attack. You earn a less painful death because of that."
'Great, I really appreciate that,' Inner-Sakura muttered.
Sakura mentally patted Inner-Sakura for her bravery. They were about to face someone who could kill a squad of Anbu by himself. Might as well start her mental will now. Not as if it would be of any use, of course.
The person that would be her 'demise' (which Sakura had to admit, was more then likely) didn't notice the slight smirk on her face as he plowed on," Well, you see, I got rather bored of defeating everyone there was to fight…and so I decided to get a high class ninja from Konohagakure to battle me, in hopes of having some actual fun. However, sending out a female on an A-class mission, and a young female at that…is Konoha getting weaker? Oh dear, I'm sorry, I'm rambling. Let's get on with it now."
The sudden halting of conversation didn't startle Sakura too much, since the male seemed like someone who loved being unexpected.
With a clash of metal, both Sakura and her opponent jumped to opposite sides of the clearing.
"Oooh! Not as bad as I thought! I might actually have to be serious in this battle!"
Sakura quickly tried to devise a plan against the egotistical male, but due to her panic, she couldn't make her brain function properly.
The kunoichi jumped onto a tree, but didn't manage to avoid getting a large gash on her leg, due to several shuriken being thrown at her.
She winced and was about to do a quick healing process, but she was forced to bound away from that particular tree again.
His stupid speed was pissing her off.
Right when Sakura landed, he was behind her again.
A blow at her stomach caused the female to cough out some blood.
Now getting enraged, she jumped to a tree and punched the air behind her while throwing shuriken to her left and right at the same time.
Sakura smirked as both shuriken hit his shadow clones and her fist connected with his chest.
No matter how much she didn't want to admit it, she was starting to tire, and her mind was also wandering on its own path.
Come to think of it….
There were so many things she'd never achieved in life. For example, she never got a chance to try the new and improved miso ramen from Ichiraku. Well, new and improved according to Naruto. Supposedly all they did was add in some more herbs and more miso.
Naruto…that reminded her, she'd never be able to whack her friend on the head again for being a Mini-Jiraiya. It seemed that ever since Naruto's training with the pervert, he'd been giving more lecherous comments.
And Sasuke…blah, screw him ('Literally,' Inner-Sakura commented dreamily, much to Sakura's annoyance.) "Stop dazing off, kunoichi," a voice murmured from near her ear.
'He recovered already?' Inner-Sakura frowned.
'That was a chakra-infused punch….'
Almost automatically Sakura jumped away from the source of noise, and turned around to see no one there.
Sakura concentrated on seeking her rival's chakra, but she didn't find a presence anywhere near the meadow.
"This is stupid. I hate it how people start to panic whenever they realize how powerful I am. I might as well finish you now…I'm getting bored."
True to what the male said, Sakura started to panic, and as she quickly scouted the area to find the male, she noticed that he was standing behind her.
Turning around, she quickly scooted backwards, only to trip on someone's leg.
Apparently she'd forgotten that he used clones, much like Naruto.
Sakura struggled to stand up, only to find that her body wouldn't move.
"I give you one hint. The Uchiha knows of my name. I had fun battling you, and I hope you end up in heaven."
How had an A-rank mission ended up like this?
The kunoichi watched as her life started flowing right by her eyes.
Sakura closed her eyes. She was accepting death. She would surely be back, even is she died.
At least her ghost would return…she hadn't managed to make that sorry little Uchiha brat respect her yet. Black started to shroud her vision. Was she going to die before his attack even grazed her?
Everything from that point on was a blur.
All she recalled was someone calmly saying "Desert coffin", a pale figure with fiery red hair, and jade eyes staring blankly into hers… and then darkness.
End Chapter 3
Say hi to cliffy-chan, you'll be seeing it a lot more throughout this story, cause I love being evil like that. :D
Much love to people who read my fanfic, put this story in their favs, and last but definitely NOT the least, to all my lovely reviewers. You have managed to brighten up my day so easily!
Anyhow, Thank you for reading chapter 3 of my fanfic, hope you enjoyed, and SEE YOU NEXT TIME!!!
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