Note: This story begins inside of Sasuke's memory. In other words, we are a few years in the past at this point, in the Land of Sky.

Oh, and thanks to Halfkyuubikat. I've never had a better review before, and I couldn't reply to it, which vexed me exceedingly! (My email didn't give me a reply URL and I really try to reply to all the good reviews!) And for those of you with questions as to the time skips, I've made them more apparent with huge lines of breakage. You'll see. Thanks so much again for reading.

Do enjoy.

ps. I've had some problems establishing a time break with no words, so for now I'm just gonna say FUCK IT and make the time breaks PAINFULLY obvious because the uploader is being a pain in my ass. SO FROM NOW ON TIME BREAKS WILL BE MENTIONED EXPLICITLY. JEZUS...

Origins of the New Uchiha

Chapter 4.

In the past, in the Land of Sky.

The mission, somehow, had gone horribly wrong.

In the night, Hana's summon of a snail appeared to Sasuke in a terribly distressed state, its counterpart that was attatched to Hana's chest under a great turmoil to keep Hana alive.

"You must hurry!" it squeaked. "She is under great duress! My counterpart is losing chakra quickly!"

Sasuke flitted through the trees, his mind somehow calm and collected. He did not let his fondness for Hana cloud his judgment. His eyes and ears were wide open as he expanded his chakra to search for enemies. Seeing none, he focused chakra to his feet and scaled the ninty degree angle of the Land of Sky's cliff face at a full speed run.

"Hurry!" the snail on his shoulder prodded again. Sasuke doubled his pace and gathered chakra to the surrounding air, slicing it with his body as he translated to the top of the plateau. The city was shrouded in darkness, small round buildings evenly spaced against the taller, more auspicious structures, but Sasuke saw absolutely no people in sight. Under his mask, he schooled his expression into blankness as the heavy wind brought the scent of death to his nostrils.

As he turned a corner, the red, dirt ground sliding under his feet, Sasuke saw the inhabitants of the city laid out on the ground, hundreds of them. They were all dead. Men, women, children caked in their own blood and staring wide-eyed up at him. They were arranged in the square at the center of the village, a trap they could not escape. All of them were stiff with rigamortis and unmoving, even when the wind blew with enough violence to nearly tear Sasuke from his feet. Though at that point Sasuke couldn't tell if it was the wind or his own troubled mind that threatened to bring him to his knees.

This was not the first massacre Sasuke had seen. Another similar incident flashed across his vision as if it were truly there, and he physically flinched at the thought. Grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins. Sasuke saw each of the faces now laid out on the dirty ground as if they were his own family. He dared not enter any of the houses, knowing he would be unable to bear the sight of figures hunched in death over each other, like how his own parents had been...

"Please!" the snail implored once again. "She is close! You-"

The snail poofed away in the next second, and Sasuke was spurred into action. The snail's abrupt disappearance meant that Hana had lost enough chakra that she was unable to uphold her own summon. He expanded his chakra range and noticed a flickering of energy close by, surrounded by other more sinister energies.

He gritted his teeth and prepared himself to alight in the directions of the chakra, but a voice stopped him.

"Taka!"

Sasuke turned, Tohru rushing up behind him. He was panting, a wound in his side which he held with a free hand while the other shakily clutched a kunai.

Sasuke grabbed Tohru by his shoulders, bringing his comrade to his knees so he could take a look at his injuries. He assessed quickly that while painful, they were nothing more than flesh wounds, looking worse than they actually were. "What happened?" he asked quickly. "Hana hasn't sent me a report in two days. Tonight I was awakened by a summon that lead me here."

"A summon?" Tohru repeated slowly, his eyes shifting quickly from behind the mask. "I see... So that's how she did it. Clever girl..."

Sasuke was growing impatient. "What?"

Tohru raised his head. "The city had already been taken by the rogue ninja, as Hana said. They split us up inside the palace. What they did to her, I don't know... But I noticed tonight that the guard was much less, and they seemed to be restless. I managed to escape in the confusion. She must have made a diversion of some kind..."

Sasuke nodded while his mind mulled over the facts. He had departed from Hana and Tohru over two days prior, and he hadn't received any word from Hana until he'd gotten the summon on his shoulder. But while the idea of capture was possible, there were still holes in Tohru's story...

"What happened here?"

Tohru looked around to the carnage and then turned back to Sasuke. "I don't know."

He narrowed his eyes.

A distant scream jerked the two ninja's attentions back to the present and Sasuke grit his teeth in his jaw. "Other villagers. We must save them."

"What of Hana?" Tohru asked.

"She can handle herself."

Sasuke immediately focused his chakra and translated to the point where he figured the scream had emerged, though it pained him to do so. Hana's safety weighed heavily on his mind, but he could do nothing for a ninja he could not find. The remaining villagers were first priority.

A muffled scream of surprise was heard beside him, a reaction he expected, and he quickly tore down the enemy ninja before him before the man could finish his alarmed cry. Sasuke delt the blow quickly and quietly, so that the others did not see him until it was too late. There were six of them in total. They were clothed in all black, no forehead protector or other markings to identify themselves on their clothing or skin. Before them was another group of innocent people, huddled inside a clearing in a tight circle. The ninjas approached them devilishly, and Sasuke could feel the blood lust in their stance. He felt his body go light as air as he produced his katana, letting it sizzle with the chidori's lightning before he sliced down one of the six ninja.

The other five gasped in horror as their comrade's blood flashed like fireworks on their faces and bodies. They were sprayed with the bodily fluids of one man, and though Sasuke mentally conceded that the action may have been a little bit ostentatious, he took a savage joy in the fact that he would be giving justice to the families he'd seen murdered in cold blood.

Like a wraith, Sasuke translated behind the second ninja, slicing through his midsection in one fell swoop, the chidori cracking and hissing in sheer joy at being fed the blood of a murderer. The villager's screams then reached Sasuke's ears as he cut through two more of the enemy, decapitating them in a series of sharp movements.

Behind him, Sasuke felt rather than saw Tohru's presence.

He moved quickly onto the last ninja, who did not get the chance to even retaliate as Sasuke grabbed his neck with his bare hands, snapping it like a twig between his fingers and savoring the gurgling sound the ninja made as he fell to the dirty ground below. The blood of the ninja's comrades flowed to the point where Sasuke's boots leaked red ink when he walked toward the villagers.

"Flee," he said in a hiss, the adrenaline and agression from his slaughter hot in his veins.

The villagers needed no further prompting, scurrying out of sight in an instant, grabbing their children and elderly as well.

"You're amazing," Tohru whispered behind Sasuke. The young Uchiha then heard a soft chuckle. "Though not enough, I'd say."

Before Sasuke could respond, he felt a searing pain wrench itself from his midrift up his spine like fire. A blade seared with fire and sinister chakra split Sasuke's back nearly in two and before he could even form a reply, he crumbled to the ground.

Tohru's laughter echoed through Sasuke's startled ears. He truly hadn't seen it coming. ANBU were a special type of ninja, chosen by the most elite of the village, tested and proven to be true. To be a traitor and an ANBU was impossible...

"Surprised?" Tohru whispered into Sasuke's ear as he cruelly dug a finger into Sasuke's bleeding spine. Sasuke stifled a groan by clenching his teeth. "Hana was too of course. But I really didn't think she'd figure out a way to get word to you so quick or that I was Shin...

"Shin Namura?" Sasuke coughed, blood drooling from his mouth and down the side of his cheek. Shin laughed haughtily, digging more fingers in Sasuke's wound until the Uchiha had to let out a groan of pain. "You fucking bastard!" he growled against the growing dizziness. "How did you- ughhh!" Shin had replaced his fingers with the dagger, making the wound in Sasuke's back bigger, slicing through once unmarred skin.

"Now, now," Shin said in a husky voice, experiencing some sort of demonic thrill from the pain he was inflicting on Sasuke. "Some things even the gods can not explan. Can't we leave it at that?"

Sasuke's vision was beginning to spot, the blood running from his mouth leaking upward from the angle of his face near his eyes, which was a strange feeling. He'd never been in so much pain befpre that it caused numbness. Despite his approaching death, however, Sasuke had a mind enough to think of Hana. "What," he gasped, "what did you do with Hana?"

At this Shin laughed wickedly, his voice a high cackle. "Oh, this and that, nothing serious. Though I must say, she's quite the woman, isn't she? Oh, so pretty. Lovely eyes... And smart as well. I didn't think she could kill all those guards too. And even wound me." He smiled. "We Hidden Leaf Ninja certainly are something, aren't we?"

Sasuke spat in indignation. "We?" he repeated. "You're scum!"

"Oh, come now, Taka," Shin said in that teasing voice, pulling Sasuke's mask from his head with a swift jerk on the terf of his hair. "Or should I say Sasuke Uchiha? I knew it was you the minute the Hokage talked about your seals. I'd done my research on you."

Sasuke's eyes widened.

"And you're one to talk of being a traitor," he continued. "Wasn't it you who left the village to join Orochimaru? And then the Akatsuki? I'm sure you would still be on the run if it wasn't for your... superior connections. It's interesting to think about it though, right? Being fellow traitors... You could say that you and I are just like..." He licked his teeth. "Brothers."

Sasuke flinched at the offending word, another wave of pain shattering his senses briefly, while his heart ached in his chest. Sasuke had a brother! And Itachi had been no traior, though Sasuke hadn't known it at the time. Itachi had been loyal not only to his village but to his family to the very end. Sasuke had failed Itachi... not only by losing his own soul in the path to revenge but also in losing his own mind in joining the Akatsuki, defacing Itachi's will for Sasuke's life.

And now, Sasuke's feverish mind thought blankly, he would die without ever making it up to Naruto, his brother as well. He would never even be useful to the village that had worked hard to save him.

"Well, I've had enough fun with you," Shin said, though to Sasuke his voice sounded muffled. He heard the sound of a blade being raised, the metal humming through the windy air.

Here was when Sasuke finally thought of Sakura. She was like a vision in his mind, laughing and drinking sake. Her eyes danced with a gleeful and lustful glow, and a smirk played on the corner of her mouth like a delicate kiss. Her body beneath his had been the most gratifying physical experience Sasuke had ever received from another human being, though Sasuke now admitted to himself that it wasn't the act that had been so gratifying. It'd been the person.

Sasuke could see the chain of events unravel before him as if he were at the cinema. How he'd returned and how bitter he'd felt to know Sakura no longer desired him. How his curiosity in watching her long for Naruto was merely a mask of pure jealousy. How during the wedding he'd secretly been gratified that Sakura was somehow safe from Naruto, that she couldn't have him. And then how wonderful it'd felt to claim her, draw her in, feel her.

Sasuke had refused to admit it to himself previously, but his watchful eye over Sakura during her one-sided love with Naruto had merely been a facade to Sasuke's growing admiration for the kunoichi. He watched her conquer becoming a jounin, watched her defeat the trials to ascend to ANBU, had somehow worried over whenever she would leave for a mission, and now he realized rather blatantly that he'd never lay eyes on her again.

And it pained him more than deep gash across his back.

Above him Shin's eyes peered into him as if he were an animal, longing for the blood of his prey. The blade in Shin's hands was already caked in blood, some of it dripping onto Sasuke's face and chest. Shin gave a yell of joy and adrenaline as he brought the blade down.

But before steel could touch flesh again, the swift sound of a kunai thudding into a blunt object hit Sasuke's ears. Shin froze in position, his sword over Sasuke's head, his eyes wide and unbelieving. "You were here... and you... hid from me?" Shin said in a unbelieveing whisper before he fell to his side, drawing his last breaths with painful hisses. In his back Sasuke saw six well-placed kunai, each of them striking a vital organ so accurately that the blood coating the ground began to mingle with Sasuke's.

"Taka!"

The voice was cool and sweet in Sasuke's ears, muffled by the feeling of losing consciousness. But Sasuke began to realize slowly that Hana was not calling Taka's name but his own.

"Sasuke!" she said fiercely, and shooting pain brought him back to full awareness.

"H-Hana," he panted, his arms scrambling upward to meet with her soft, pale skin. He could see her mask, the fox painted in vicious red blood and dripping slightly in places, hovering over him like a ghost.

"Relax," she ordered him sternly. "Don't breathe too heavily. He cut you very deeply."

He started to feel the waves of pain slowly subside under a warm and chakra-filled touch. A soft green light errupted from his skin and her fingers, mingling like water.

"Hana," he whispered, clutching her arms while she worked on him. "How...?"

"Tohru, that bastard, was fucking Shin Namura, the very fucking bastard we were sent to kill!" she hissed in pure rage. "I don't know how he did it, but he sullied everything it means to be ANBU and betrayed us to the Land of Sky's rogues. He delivered me straight to their hands... I was," here she hesitated, "indisposed for a few days. I won't apologize for my weakness." She said this with a stiff mouth. "I'll only say that I am not in the best condition for a fight. My summon must have told you that I was fading, but I managed to escape the prison they put me in."

Sasuke could feel his muscles and organs slowly stitching themselves together, an experience that was both comforting and painful in tiny pulsing movements. As she healed the nerves, he could feel the pain, but he also could feel the comfort she offered him as well. He'd been healed enough in his time to recognize what a surge of pain-relieving chakra was.

"Shin knew who were were," he heard her say, her voice fading in and out as if she were far away then suddenly close. "But he didn't think I'd be strong enough to blast through the concrete walls. Hah, serves him right for not digging enough about me."

Shin knew who Hana was, Sasuke thought. It was the only thing he had gleaned from what she had said. He could hear her voice, feel her touch, but he didn't know her real name or even what she looked like. In his hazy, warped brain, that somehow meant a great deal to him. Slowly, very slowly, his fingers snaked up her arm to her chin then to where her chin met her neck and where the mask was clasped together.

She stopped moving and put a hand over his. "No."

"You know me. Shin knows you," he said in a whisper. " You know my name."

"You're famous." She briskly pushed him back. "Everyone knows you."

"You know me." He leaned upwards, his hands clasped behind her head and neck. He could feel the gentle locks of soft hair under her mask. He panted as his fingers worked quickly, loosening the ties before she could protest. The face of a fox gave way to a shimmering stream of pink hair, flowing out of the ties of her hood in a pool that spread to his chest. Her green eyes were filled with surprise and a naked intensity that sent a jolt strait through his heart.

"Sakura," he whispered.

She shoved a hand roughly against his chest, forcing him to lay flat on his back. "You need to stay calm."

"You're Hana," he breathed, his eyes lolling to and fro over her figure as if he couldn't believe it. "You knew who I was..."

"You're an idiot... And I couldn't help it. Your marks..."

Just like how Shin had found out his identity. His hands trembled, the seals easily seen on his forearms as her chakra began to mingle with his. "How did you know I had them? Hana would know, but I never showed them-"

"Seals like that are easily seen when you're body is in a heightened state," she said quickly, not meeting him in the eyes. "Of course I've seen them."

Heightened state, Sasuke thought dimly before his mind registered what exactly she was saying. When they'd been together... that was certainly a heightened state. He hadn't noticed it at the time but of course she had. She'd seen his unclothes body just as he'd seen her. He warmed slightly as well when he also realized that this was the first they had talked about that night since it'd happened.

He opened his mouth to speak, but she placed a hand over his lips. "Stay silent. I don't want to hear about past mistakes."

He winced at the words.

She ignored it. "Stay relaxed."

He had no intention of calmly laying back and obeying her, but a noise in the distance startled them both.

Sakura swore viciously under her breath. "The other rogues. Dammit, I thought we could escape in time..."

Of course she hadn't forseen that he'd be wounded at their comrade, Tohru's hand.

Sasuke thought very quickly despite his bleeding back and chest, which was slowly yet surely being healed at her capable hands. "Leave me."

"Bull shit!"

He was startled by the vulgar language coming out of Sakura's mouth once more. "You have no choice. You can either leave me and live, or stay and die. You think the Hokage will accept a complete failure? You think Naruto would want you dead?"

Sakura flinched as if she had been slapped at the sound of the blonde ninja's name, and she closed her eyes in pain. "Don't act like you know what you're talking about," she hissed. Grabbing Sasuke by the collar of his torn shirt she bellowed in his face, "You listen to me! I am the captain of this team, and I'll see that both you and I make it through this just to spite you!"

She threw him back down on the ground, his back hitting the cold eath with a painful jolt that sent stars into his eyes. By the time he could focus once more, he could hardly recognize the seals she began forming with her fingers. Her hands moved at lightning speeds and she was murmuring the names of the seals under her breath. He could feel the chakra gathering inside her, waiting to be expelled in a poweful justu.

"With this, you will heal right away," she said in a low voice, "but I will be left defenseless. You must kill all of them. They are many, but you're you. I believe in you."

The words were like small daggers to his heart.

He could abruptly feel the energies of uncountable ninjas, who were going to be upon them in seconds like a wave.

Sakura looked him deeply in the eyes. "I always did believe in you..."

"Sakura," he gasped, trying to reach out for her, but with a low cry she forced her hands onto his chest with a smacking sound, and everything in his heart, soul, mind, and body cried out all at once in an expansive void of agony. Every nerve was set ablaze, every rational thought was scattered to the wind, and there was only a blatant and feral rush of energy. There was no longer right or wrong, love or hope, good and evil. The acceptance of such a passionately hungry chakra sent Sasuke into a feral state, and though his body moved and his sword swung over his head in a deadly hissing arc of blue and green energy, he could not feel as if he were attatched to it. He was a void, a mere bystander to his body's display of awesome power and carnage.

When he was done, when his high had finally descended into a semblence of sanity, there was nothing left. The forest had been reduced to rubble and sticks, the villagers long gone but the remains of the rogue ninjas decimated and stretched out in the rays of the rising sun. The whole Land of Sky had been brought to its knees by one man's fury.

Sasuke panted and leaned heavily on his sword before colapsing to his knees. His throat was parched, and he coughed dust and air to vacate his dry lungs.

He blinked and finally realized that he saw no Sakura. In a panic, he quickly, though painfully, rose to his feet and clamored around the wasteland, searching with fevered eyes amongst dust and debris. For a moment, a sheer blind moment of fear, he thought he might have killed her and somehow dissolved her body into bits, but a small movement to his right caught his eye.

Sakura coughed and emerged from under the shelter of a fallen tree, her ANBU mask hanging off her neck and on the side of her shoulder. Her clothes, once pristine and black as midnight, were tattered around her shoulders and knees and white from the earth and dust coating her body. On her hands and face was the red spatter of fresh blood, though Sasuke could not tell if it was hers or someone else's.

He limped toward her as she gained her feet, swaying slightly. "You're back," she said, her words slurring. "Good. We can move on to the settlements."

Sasuke grabbed Sakura by her shoulders, finding himself shaking. She gasped at first he thought in surprise, but as he got a better look, he realized that the sharp intake of breath was of pain. And the blood on her hands and face was hers.

"Sakura!" he breathed, catching her as she fell back to her knees. When he pulled his hand away from her back, he saw blood coating his skin.

"Relax," she spat back in his face. "This is nothing. Merely half of what you had. It was required to heal you."

"You had to take my injury on yourself... to heal me?"

She nodded slowly. "Though only half of it. Or I'd be dead. And this," She raised a hand from her stomach, revealing where a good majority of the blood was pooling, "was from Shin. Bastard... It was how he revealed himself: with a smile and a stab to the gut." She released another pained curse through gritted teeth.

Sasuke could hardly believe the kunoichi before him was formerly a girl who used to cry from being too tired. Such a transformation from that girl to the hardened warrior cursing before him was dramatic to say the least.

"What are you staring at?" she growled, her eyes blazing brightly despite her weakened condition. Sasuke then realized that Sakura was still in Hana mode. She was still the leader of the mission and still his superior, despite all their previous connection. And she was not willing to grant him any quarter simply because he knew who she was.

He inclined his head to look down to her knees, a sign of respect for his commander. "Orders?"

She straitened herself, applying a strong hand to her own wound. With her other hand she fixated her mask on her face again. "The villagers. We must get to them first."

Sasuke nodded and followed her at a slow walk while she regained her bearings on the place. She turned back to him. "I cannot go on. I can wait for you here while you meet with the villagers and arrange a message for the Hokage with a summon."

"With what chakra?" he asked mockingly.

She was on him in a second, a firm hand around his throat. "Was that back talk?" she hissed. "Am I to report that I had to kill two traitors, Taka?"

In a moment and with those words, he understood completely. Sakura would no longer be recognized as Sakura. She would be Hana from now until the mission was over. There would be no contesting this. She would make sure of it.

He also placed his mask, which had somehow been hanging on the clasp in his belt, over his head. "Understood. Though," here he chose his words carefully, "I can carry you rather than leave you. It's the fastest and best solution."

She did not move nor speak for a few moments, seeming to size him up. He allowed himself to look over her, to study her. She had such a proud stance, agressive and intimidating. She had replaced her hair with her hood again, covering her long locks so that she looked once again more ghost than human. Her body, a body which he had enjoyed and seen in its most sensuous form, was rock solid and without flaw. Surely this was the body of a warrior, one who he could deem as his equal though not in strength. She certainly outmatched him in sheer cunning.

"Fine," she bit, and she relaxed her posture enough to allow him to approach. He scooped up her legs in one arm while his other supported her torso, enjoying the feeling of her body, though he didn't allow himself to think that for more than a milisecond. Through his clothes he could feel her heart beat which was erratic and uneven. He could also feel the blood pool through her clothes and his, touching his skin. Both sensations worried him greatly, though Sakura seemed unwilling to give any sign she was in pain. He decided early on to move quickly to where the villagers were hiding. He flexed slightly and attempted to activate his sharingan, which, though with great effort, finally powered up. He breathed a sigh of relief, finally able to use his true blood-line, an ability which had been restricted from him the moment he'd returned to the Hidden Leaf years ago.

He could feel rather than hear Sakura's grunt of disdain. "I had to give the Sharingan back to you. It was the only way to save us. I released that part of your seal, though know that the rest of it is still in tact. If the Hokage chooses, when you return to the village, she'll place another seal on your eyes."

He looked down to her, only her chakra visible to him. He was surprised not only to find it a silver-green color but also it was dangerously small, branching out of her chest in tiny flares and not even reaching the extent of her extremities, such as her legs and fingers. He knew she must be completely numb in these areas. She needed a healer and rest as soon as possible, though he had no idea how to get her either...

"Head toward... toward the villagers," she said in between gasps.

He paused to ask if she was alright, but she hit him soundly on the chest to emphasize her unwillingness to be trifled with. He thought it redundant to say anything in response and took off through the trees.

He hated how much energy he had, how spectacular his body felt running through the trees and holding Sakura like she was lighter than air. He had energy he could easily give back to her if he had her skills. He'd never desired the ability of a healer previously, even to heal himself, but now it seemed almost a waste to him that he had only taught himself to end life, rather than save it.

"We're getting close," she said in a low, tired voice.

She was right. He could see the blue energy sources of the villagers through the dark shadows he knew to be trees. There looked to be hundreds if not thousands of them, and he assumed they were approaching a once minor part of the village that now had become a shelter to all the refugees. Sure enough, the Land of Sky's traditional architecture soon loomed out of the forest, small and large domes popping up in the distance.

He landed before the main gates of the city, which were the same design as the Hidden Leaf's main gate though infinitely smaller and more defenseless. However, to support diplomacy, he stopped and waited.

Within half a minute the gates opened with a long creaking noise and three men approached Sasuke. They were taller than Sasuke by over a head, thin, with irregular faces that seemed to be fixed in a scowl. Their clothes were a vibrant and clean, cream and red, with bronze trimmings, and their skins were all tan, more than likely from being so close to the sun. Sasuke did not bow to either of them, as was custom of ANBU.

"Put me down," Sakura instructed in a whisper, "but hold my back so I do not waver. I'll have to talk with them. They don't know who we are."

"I could-"

"No you can't," she snapped with finality.

Sasuke did as told without another word, putting her very gently down and placing an arm on the small of her back, discreetly so as not to reveal her weakened condition.

She inclined her head toward the men as they stopped almost ten feet away. The one man in the middle, who appeared to be slightly larger than the rest though very thin the same, stepped forward. "Hidden Leaf Ninja?"

"Yes," Sakura replied in a strong voice, but she leaned heavily on Sasuke's arm. "Are you the man in charge here?"

He did not answer immediately, looking to his companions and licking his lips. They nodded slowly and he turned back to the ANBU. "So it would seem. I am Hiro, the temporary village leader, though we have no Hokage like you."

"We are ANBU Black Ops from the Hidden Leaf," Sakura introduced. "Your Hidden Sky Village has been destroyed by rogue ninja, but my partner and I have eliminated them. Your lands, for now at least, are safe. The Hidden Leaf offers you a hand of protection in these unstable times as you piece your elite back together. When you have ample protection, we will leave you to yourselves, but for now we wish to stay with you and offer you our services in exchange for asylum."

The older man smirked. "Yes, lady. For all your pride, I can see very well your need for asylum. Your injuries are extensive."

Sakura stiffened slightly.

"But," the man continued, "you plan to offer my people the protection of the Hidden Leaf? At what cost?"

"None," Sakura said firmly. "The Hidden Leaf's sixth Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki, as well as the current Fifth, want to change the way Hidden Villages interact. The new Hokage wishes to extend friendship in the time of need for any who require it. We are servants to his wishes."

Sasuke noted the shivers of despair that shook his heart as he heard the evident warmth in her voice as she spoke of Naruto. Naruto who she still loved...

Hiro raised his eyebrows and looked both Sasuke and Sakura up and down for a good minute. Sasuke could tell he was no simpleton and that Sakura's claim, though honest and sincerely spoken, must seem like a load of hogwash to a man who has more than likely been through a majority of the great ninja wars.

"Very well," he said at last. Sakura breathed a sigh of relief. "But know this: I do not allow you into my home because I believe the promises of a young and eager Hokage. I do it because you are wounded, and the man behind you who is holding you up cares for you greatly. In his posture and stance, he is tensed and longs for your wounds to be tended. I have seen many a ninja, especially the elite, kill wounded comrades to cut off dead weight. You Leaf ninja impress me."

He bowed his head and extended his arms.

"Welcome to the Land of Sky."

To the Present.

Naruto's jutsu would release Sasuke's seals, but without fainting, the process would be extremely painful.

Despite this, Sasuke did not faint. He refused to, hands grasping Naruto's forearms like a vice. They were his landline to the world and he held them until the last ripples of the mind-numbing pain left his senses clear and powerful. Like how it had been years ago when Sakura had released his seal, he felt a surge of adrenaline and chakra boil through him like a current of lava in his veins. He straitened, activated his Sharingan and inclined his head to Naruto in a wordless thanks.

Naruto's blue eyes narrowed, flecks of dangerous red crawling from the pupils into the irises. "You bring her back and kill those sons of bitches that took her."

Sasuke nodded and allowed a venemous anger along with intent to kill consume him. "Yes."

And he was gone, translated out of the room and indeed out of the villager borders into the forests of the Hidden Leaf, the area blazing past him.

Finally he arrived at the exact place he had fainted the night before, grimacing in sheer rage at the memory of it. How he'd been unable to help his wife and unborn child out of the hands of a mad man. For the upteenth time since he'd returned to the Hidden Leaf, he cursed his own stupidity in betraying the place of his birth. He seemed to be paying for his betrayal over and over again, and now it was even in the process of killing the one thing he couldn't stand to lose. If he lost Sakura now...

No, he wouldn't think of it. At this point, he was able to admit that there was no life without Sakura. There was no point in attempting to comprehend it.

He placed a hand in the earth, feeling the moist ground where not more than twelve hours ago, Sakura had knelt. In his fingers he soon held a long stand of glistening pink hair. He surveyed the strand, lacing it around his hand as he looked ahead. Not a meter before him another strand lay on a pile of leaves, dancing in the sun like fire.

Sasuke thought deeply back to the night before, about Sakura's wide vacant stare and the blood on the side of her head, her swollen, weak body-

Stop, he commanded himself. He had to look at this objectively no matter how hard it might be for him. He had to look at Sakura as a ninja. He thought back again, to her eyes. They were wide yes, startled yes, but vacant?

He thought deeply.

No, not vacant. The last time she had opened her eyes, they had met his. He recalled how her hair had mulled over her face, disconnecting their locking eyes for a milisecond before she had found him again. She wanted him to see her hair, to know she was in her right mind. She was thinking, calculating even then. She knew she was out of his reach, and she left, however discreet, a trail for him to follow strait to her.

Another few meters in that direction and another strand of hair lay on a tree in his path, and he knew that Sakura was leading him.

He allowed himself a single moment of blind prayer to whatever god or diety was out there, begging for Sakura's safe return. If he could have her back and tell her how clever she was for finding a way to lead him, he would be satisfied for the rest of his life.

For now, he continued on the path she'd marked for him.

Chapter 4 end.

Well, I hope that perhaps things were a bit clearer with the time jumps... It's kind of hard I suppose with installments coming out every few days. See, I wrote this as one massive work, rather than a few chapters. Reading the last few paragraphs of a previous story might help... Though I'm not sure.

Anyway, yes, Hana was Sakura (I'm sure no one saw that coming, though I thought Tohru's betrayal might have been a little less expected...) and they are both in the Land of Sky's last village, which is considerably smaller than the first one (the one with the massacre in it) but it will grow quickly as the new capital of the Land of Sky (since the other was practically destroyed).

Oh, and I wanted to explain (while I'm explaining things) why Sakura was healing Sasuke's chest rather than his back, because he was laying on it to look up at her. In the anime and manga, I notice that Sakura usually focuses her chakra on the wound itself if it is small, but also she puts the chakra in the chest to heal much larger wounds (Naruto healing from being in 7-tail Kyubi form, etc.) So to justify myself, I claim that Sasuke's wound to his back was so large (and just awful) that by her putting chakra into his chest (which is the center of all chakra, where the soul is said to reside) Sakura can heal Sasuke faster, which is what she was aiming for. Also the final jutsu she performed on him (the giant flash of chakra that simultaneously healed Sasuke and released his seal) was a kind of massive chakra transfer that requires the user to take on the receiver's wounds as payment for giving them the gift of life and power as well. I made it up because it was dramatic and handy! XD

Well, thanks to all for reading.