Ketsora: I don't own Naruto or anything other than my plot.

Kakashi: Now onto the story. I want to know what happens to my ex-student.

Ketsora: Okay then… Oh, by the way, this takes place a year after the last chapter.

Sakura ran down a hallway, panting heavily. She rounded a corner to meet another dead end. The stone walls seemed to shrink and cut off her air.

She was chasing a man with dark blackish-blue hair. Every once and a while he'd look back, and disappear through another barrier. She wasn't conscious of why this man was important to follow, but he was drawing her to chase him by some strange power.

Finally the man was trapped against a wall that he couldn't penetrate like the others. He placed his hands upon the cold stones and paid no mind to the kunoichi behind him. Sakura took that moment to place her hand upon his shoulder and turn him around.

She stumbled backwards. It was Sasuke, but he seemed much different. There were three people next to him. One wore glasses and had red hair, another had a sword on his back and white-ish hair. The last one was tall with messy brown hair.

"Sakura…?" was Sasuke's response. He drew a kunai so quickly that she didn't have a chance to react. He thrust the kunai knife into her neck. A gush of warm blood poured out.

"NO!" Sakura bolted up out of bed, knocking Itachi over in the process. Itachi pulled himself back up and rubbed his head. "Sorry. What were you doing in my room anyway?" Sakura asked the Uchiha.

"You were mumbling something about running and Sasuke so I came to make sure you were all right," Itachi sighed. "Well, in case you haven't noticed, I'm fine," Sakura scoffed, walking over to her window. She rubbed the left side of her neck where she got stabbed in the dream.

"What happened to your neck?" Itachi asked, sounding more concerned than he let on. "Nothing. Why're you so concerned about me all of a sudden?" Sakura asked hotly. She looked away. The dream about Sasuke really rattled her.

"Since you're fine, get your lazy ass down to the hall. Pein requested your audience," the Uchiha grumbled

After the year timeskip, Sakura grew her hair out to mid-back and changed her wardrobe from light red and pink to black and deep crimson. She wore a black tank top and dark red capris. When she exited her room, Itachi had already gone.

"Morning Sakura-dono," Tobi greeted Sakura in his normal, laid-back manner. "Yeah," Sakura replied. She opened the heavy oak doors and walked into the hallway. Pein stood in the exact center of the hall with Konan to his immediate right. Itachi hung back, but was still positioned at Pein's left.

"Sakura, we've been tracking Sasuke's progress and comparing it to yours for the past year," Pein began, "And you've progressed rapidly, but not enough to match Sasuke. One of the reasons we've concluded for this is…"

Itachi cut Pein off. "It's the Sharingan. So for the past few months, I've been experimenting on a type of Sharingan of my own. It's called the Ato Sharingan, and it has four prongs. One for copying ninjutsu, one for taijutsu, another for genjutsu, and the last for kekkei genkai," he told her.

"So? I'm not an Uchiha, so it's no use to me. Besides, it's impossible to copy kekkei genkai. You'd need to, in theory, clone their blood and genes to do that!" Sakura snapped. Itachi put his palm out and a pattern with a four-pronged Sharingan appeared. He pressed it onto her neck, where Sasuke stabbed her in the dream, and the same mark transferred to her skin.

"There. You may not be an Uchiha, but who needs to be?' Itachi said. Then he frowned, and turned to Pein, "Anything you want to say?" Pein shook his head and watched Sakura slump to her knees.

"What the hell was that?" Inner Sakura screamed. "Nothing much. It's draining my energy though," Sakura brushed her Inner off. "Isn't that something?! Lemme take over for a bit, then," Inner Sakura pushed. "That might be a good idea," Sakura replied.

So Sakura let her Inner take over.

Pein turned his head to look at Sakura. "What's that?" he asked Itachi, "Is it the Sharingan?" Itachi laughed, "No. Don't worry Pein-sama. Sakura-hime has an Inner, is all. It's nothing to worry about." But Pein had already left.

"First off, Itachi-teme, DON'T call me Sakura-hime. Second, it is a big deal! What did you do to her… me…" Sakura yelled at Itachi. "In a matter of hours, you will have a Sharingan much more powerful than Sasuke's or Kakashi's. They can copy ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu, but you can also reproduce kekkei genkai, bloodline limits," Itachi started, "And once you can, we're sure that you'll be able to overpower Sasuke."

"Eh, whatever," Sakura replied. She turned away and went back to her room.

When she got there, she saw both Deidara and Sasori waiting for her. "Any particular reason why you two guys are in my room?" Sakura asked (the outer one, she switched back). "No, none at all," the two artists answered. "Right…" Sakura turned to leave. "One second, please. How are you? Need assistance?" Sasori asked. "Yeah, un. According to Itachi, that Sharingan transfer might drain you for awhile, un," Deidara added.

"Nah, I'm fine for now. But I wonder… is this really enough to stop Sasuke and bring him back?"

"All right, we should get moving," Shikamaru told the five-man team. "Wait!" Sakura called.

"Sakura…?" Naruto asked. "Tsunade-sama told me about what happened. Sorry, but if you couldn't persuade Sasuke to stay, then we need to get him back by force. Therefore, your role in this is over," Shikamaru informed her.

Sakura felt some tears roll down her cheeks. She didn't feel like stopping them. "Please Naruto. I need you to bring Sasuke back. I couldn't do it, I couldn't stop him! The only one who can now, is you! Promise me that you will," she pleaded.

Naruto turned to face her. "Sakura, you sure do care about Sasuke. I know what you're going through now, all too well. It's okay. I'm gonna bring Sasuke back for sure! That's a promise!" he exclaimed, giving her the thumbs-up.

"Naruto… thank you…" Sakura sobbed.

"Sakura, you okay, un?" Deidara asked. "Yeah, I'm fine. I think I'm just going to go out and train," she told him. "Want to work on your puppet jutsu?" Sasori offered.

"Sure."

Ketsora: Did you like the new update?

Sakura: Well yeah.

Ketsora: There'll be more action in the next chapter.

Haru Sohma: Tha's good. This chapter was boooring.

Ketsora: …? You're in the wrong anime/manga. Go back to Fruits Basket!!!