Past and Present

Chapter 4: Consequences

"This can't be happening!" Sakura shouted loudly.

Kakashi had just been assigned to a mission together with Konoha's team of anbus that he cannot join his students on their mission at a random village. Sakura stared wide-eyed at the scenery in front of her… Sasuke and Saya looking at her with weird faces and Saya holding to Sasuke's hand.

"What's the bid deal?" Saya asked, securing her pouch tightly to her waist.

Sakura sighed out deeply and walked ahead. She pulled out the map; Kakashi gave to her earlier that day. She looked at the cross mark just kilometers from Konoha, the place of their destination. She looked back to her teammates and her eyes began to widen. Saya was clinging on Sasuke's arm, while Sasuke pushes her away from him.

Sakura turned back to look at the road in front of her and a grin formed on her lips. "I'm so glad, he won't allow her to cling at him like that." Sakura's grin turned into a mischievous smile.

"Hey pink hair! How far is that village?" Saya shouted at Sakura.

Sakura turned to look at her and saw Saya walking behind her, her emerald eyes staring deep into her own. "Just two more hours." Sakura replied.

"Two more hours! Can we rest for a little while, maybe just a few minutes!" Saya exclaimed. She stopped her pace, but Sasuke and Sakura ignored her and continued to walk. She glared at the two of them and rushed up to them. She grabbed Sasuke's right hand and pulled him into a stop.

"What is it, Saya?" Sasuke stared at her.

"Just for five minutes!" Saya pleaded.

Sakura looked back at them and sighed. "Fine, five minutes then."

Saya gave her a sly smile and sat down on a rock standing still beside her. Sasuke leaned on a tree's trunk across her, while Sakura sits on the ground, looking at the map for a best route to the village.

"How long are you going to look at that darn map?" Saya asked, fanning herself with her hands.

Sakura looked at her with a pissed look. "When I get a better route."

Saya rolled her eyes at her and pulled something from her pouch. It was a bottled liquid, the same container she used for Naruto's poisoning. Sakura saw her opening the cork and realized what Kakashi told her that evening when he walked with her to her house.

……..

"Be careful with that Saya girl. She has some tricks on her own."

……..

Sakura stared wide-eyed at Saya and the bottle she was holding that she slapped the bottled liquid from her hands and its liquid spilled on the ground. Saya looked at Sakura with an angry face and stood up abruptly. Saya moved closer to Sakura and snatched the map from her hands and threw it to her face.

Sasuke stared at the two girls with a horrid look.

"What's your damn problem?!" Saya blurted out.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at Saya and stood up too, now standing a few inches away from her face.

"You were behind Naruto's poisoning!" Sakura confronted. "Just tell the truth!"

Sasuke walked between them and pulled Sakura from an almost hot tempered Saya. Sakura struggled to free herself from Sasuke's grip but it was useless. Saya death glared at Sakura and moved closer to Sasuke and Sakura. She pushed Sasuke's hands from Sakura and slapped her hard on her cheeks. Sakura was astonished, for it was the first time that someone had slapped her on her cheeks, even her own mother cannot do that to her.

"Don't start blaming others if you don't have a proof! If you're accusing me of your friend's poisoning, I suggest you give me a proof!" Saya exclaimed, her teeth clenched.

Sakura downcast her head. She felt embarrassed accusing Saya without a real proof. Her emotions overcome her. Sasuke touched her shoulders, but she pushed them away from her.

"Just leave me alone!" Sakura shouted and ran off to a different route leading to a mossy swamp of a forest.

"Sakura!" Sasuke called out to her. He was about to chase after her, but Saya stopped him.

"She'll come back! It's dangerous out there!" Saya begged.

Sasuke glared at Saya and shoved her hands from him. "You two! Why can't you just get along with each other?!" Sasuke exclaimed and then he rushed off inside the forest to find Sakura.

Saya was left all alone in the trail. She looked at the forest and then with a moment of thinking, decided to follow the two of them.

…….

"You're such a loser Sakura." Sakura told herself, running past dead trees on her way deep inside the heart of the forest.

She was running in a very fast speed that she didn't see a dead tree lying on the ground, and she tripped over, rolled like a ball and stopped when her back slumped hard on a big rock. Her visions blurred and she fell to unconsciousness.

…….

Sasuke stopped to look at the ground for Sakura's footprints on it. "Where could she be?" Sasuke asked himself and then he heard sounds of footsteps running towards him. He pulled out his kunai and scanned the vicinity. The footsteps were now getting closer to him, he threw his kunai at his right side direction and she heard a female scream. He knew that voice.

He walked closer behind a bush where he heard the girl's scream and his eyes widened. Saya was slumped down on the muddy ground, his kunai on her right shoulder. He abruptly rushed up to her aid and pulled the kunai from her shoulder and blood gushed out from the deep wound. He pulled out a piece of cloth from his pocket and tied it on her shoulder to stop the bleeding.

Saya was panting and she began to tremble. Sasuke then remembered… Saya was afraid of the blood. Saya stared at her own blood as it flowed down from her shoulder to her arm and down to her black colored skirt. She began to cry at the sight of this and also fell unconscious after smelling the stench of her own blood.

Sasuke carried her on his back and walked again to find Sakura for it was beginning to get dark and no one knows what wild animals roam that forest at night.

……..

"Agh." Sakura woke up from the intense pain she felt on the back of her neck. She sat up erectly and leaned on the rock at her back. Her head tilted up to the darkening skies and realized that she had fallen asleep for the entire afternoon.

Snap.

She heard a twig snapped behind her. She pulled out her kunai and stood up abruptly.

"Sasuke?' she lowered her weapon when she saw Sasuke staring at her, with an unconscious Saya on his back.

"Where did you run off to?' Sasuke's voice sounded weak. He walked closer to her and she remained motionless in her place, when Sasuke collapsed right in front of her eyes. Saya's body fell beside Sasuke's, her shoulder-bleeding non-stop.

"Sa..sa..suke…" Sakura mumbled under deep heartbeats.

"HEY!" her voice echoed in the entire dead forest. The night began to hallow now and darkness had jut surpassed the light.

"This can't be happening to me right now!"

…….

Now she's having a more difficult problem, with Sasuke fast asleep from the exhaustion of finding her and carrying Saya's body and Saya bleeding badly from her shoulder wound, what can she do? She is just plain Sakura…. Or is she not?

……..

Sorry for the late update. Please Review.

Q/A: What do you think will happen next? I need some ideas. Thanks!