Naruto Uzumaki could be found these days lounging around his well kept apartment, a cloud of gloom and doom that hung around him. He was miserable knowing that his friend and teammate had left the village. In the end it was reported that there had been no traces of a struggle and when her bank accounts had been seized… she'd paid for his and the Uchiha's place for the next six months before draining the rest. Even to Naruto that didn't seem like a normal thing for Sakura.
Naruto had also learned that not only had she paid for his apartment for the next six months, Sakura had been maintaining it for the past few years while he was away training.
There was a knock at the door and Naruto groaned, grudgingly getting to his feet he muttered, "Go away Kakashi, I don't want to do whatever it is…"
Swinging the door open more forcefully than he'd intended, Naruto was startled to see not the silver-haired copy-nin, it was Hinata Hyūga. Her large opal eyes had widened and her face flushed the second the door opened.
"Oh, hi Hinata," greeted Naruto, trying his best to sound happy to see her. It clearly wasn't enough because he saw her face fall just a bit.
"Hello Naruto," she smiled kindly at him. "I heard you weren't feeling well – and I know how much you love Ichiaraku – so I thought…"
She trailed off timidly. Naruto lowered his gaze to her hands and saw that she was holding a large bowl of the steaming delicious food that Naruto loved.
"Why would you do this for me?"
Hinata turned even redder, if that was possible, and stuttered, "Y-you were sad… I wanted to m-make you ha-happy."
An odd feeling prickled at the back of Naruto's neck and finally he stepped aside to let Hinata into the apartment. She carefully placed the bowl down and made to leave when Naruto reached out and grabbed her arm.
Opal eyes moved from his hand holding her to his sad cerulean eyes. She could see how broken he was inside. She didn't like that look in his eyes at all. To her, this young man was supposed to be the life of Konoha, but instead he was broken inside.
"Please, stay a little?"
Carefully Hinata removed his hand from her arm and did something that shocked both of them. She hugged Naruto. It was awkward at first, Naruto was very hesitant. And then, all at once, he pulled her so close and held her to him. She felt him shaking, Hinata could feel the tears soak through her shirt.
"Sshh, it's okay," she cooed, stroking his back.
"… first Sasuke… now Sakura…"
Hinata felt the pain from just saying her name. Naruto had now lost both of his teammates. Both had just left without a word, the worst part was he didn't know why she had left. At least with Sasuke he knew what Sasuke was up to.
"Just take a deep breathe, you know she had a reason," began Hinata softly, "She had to keep moving forward too. She spent all her days wondering about you both. Whatever her reasons are, you have to remember that deep down, Sakura loved her teammates. More than anything in the world."
Finally Naruto looked up and though his eyes were bloodshot from crying, the cerulean looked much brighter than probably had in days.
"Do ya really think she loved us?"
Hinata nodded, "She spent her free time doing what little she could, so when you came home, you had a home still."
He looked thoughtful for a second and finally released Hinata.
"Thank you."
A little flushed himself, Naruto took a seat at the small table and motioned for Hinata to join him. She did so a little uncertainly. In truth, Hinata had not intended to stay and assumed Naruto would still like to be left alone.
"Please, have some," he said, handing out an extra pair of chopsticks.
Accepting them both broke their sticks apart and together they began to share a meal.
Grass Country was Sasuke Uchiha's absolutely last place he wanted to be. After the incedent with Sakura he had found that more questions than answers were popping into his mind. Why was Kabuto hunting her down, why had she been so far away from Konoha?
Another thing that had been annoying him was that Sasuke could not ask either Orochimaru or Kabuto any of these questions. One reason was then he would be admitting to making contact with her. The second was much more personal and he didn't really want to admit it, Sasuke still didn't want to see her get hurt. Even as genin it was a deep rooted concern of his.
"Sasuke!"
Easily he sidestepped Karin and watched as she fell to the floor. Like always she quickly recovered and bounced back to her feet. She was grinning up at him with a loving look that Sasuke despised. He hated when she looked at him like that.
"What is it?" he asked coldly.
"Orochimaru-sama would like to see you."
Onyx eyes narrowed at this.
"Hn."
Resting his arm on his sword Kusanagi Sasuke made way through the many tunnels of Orochimaru's lair until he reached the very heart. Just before entering he activated his Sharingan, he never did trust the snake sannin.
"Aah yess, Sassssuke."
Orochimaru was grinning at him, his snakelike eyes were taking in that he had activated his kekkei genkai and that he was resting his arm on his katana.
"You wanted to see me."
"Yess, I have a little mission for you," he tossed Sasuke a small scroll, "I need you to go to the Land of Swamps. There is a Leader there who has a package for me."
Sasuke glanced over at Kabuto, "Why aren't you sending him?"
"I have something else to do," replied Kabuto, not looking up from his microscope.
He could hear the gloating in the medic-nin's voice. Sasuke remembered the last time he had visited the Land of Swamps, he couldn't wash the smell out of his clothes and ended up burning everything.
"I'll leave in a couple of hours, when just before sundown."
Orochimaru gave him an appraising look.
"I would also like for you to go alone," he smiled slyly at Sasuke, "That won't be a problem, will it?"
"Hn."
Sasuke closed the door behind him and inwardly groaned. It wasn't so much that he would have wanted to go with say: Karin or Suigetsu, but Jugo had become a good traveling companion. They worked well together and Jugo never seemed to have any ulterior motives.
#
Moving as quietly as possible Sasuke managed to make it about an hour out from the Land of Swamps before the sun had begun to rise. Much to his displeasure there didn't seem to be any good spots of making a camp, so Sasuke instead leapt up onto one of the thickest branches that he could find and leaned back against the trunk of the tree.
He would rest here for a couple of hours before continuing, if there were any shinobi in the area Sasuke didn't want to be recognized. As much shinobi in his profession preferred to work during the night when it was easiest to hide, he knew that he would still be okay to walk the village, provided he kept the hood of his cloak up to hide his face.
"– I don't understand, why the Godaime wants us delivering this to Swamp again?"
Sasuke woke with a start, he hadn't realized he'd truly fallen asleep. Masking his chakra he hoped that whomever was walking below him hadn't noticed.
"She's got her reasons," said a male voice.
Sasuke stared down at a dark haired girl and boy that looked oddly familiar to him. She wore her dark hair in two Chinese-style buns with short fringe bangs that framed her face. Beside her was a long haired male with opal eyes.
An alarm sounded off in Sasuke's head and he stayed as still as possible.
"Tenten," he held out his arm and she stopped abruptly, "Do you sense anything?"
Frowning slightly, the woman seemed to be concentrating. After a minute she nodded. "Yeah, two coming from northwest in our direction, think its from Konoha?"
He gave her a look that clearly said 'no.' He activeated his kekkei genkai and Sasuke felt the urge to leap even higher.
"I – I don't believe it!"
The man seemed to grow pale.
"What? Neji what is it?" asked Tenten, shock on her face.
He met her gaze evenly, "Akatsuki."
Sasuke's stopmach felt like it had bottomed out.
Activating his own Sharingan Sasuke tried to look in the direction that he guessed they were, but he had nowhere near the abilities that the Hyūga clan did when it came to range. All the while he listened to their decision to not persue. Instead they would send scouts out to scour the Land of Swamps and maybe they'd find where the Headquarters was.
"That just leaves us with one problem…"
Neji looked straight up and stared unsurprised at Sasuke with a look of absolute indifference. Tenten made a shocked squeak and drew out a kunai from her pack.
"Sasuke Uchiha, did you really think that I wouldn't notice you sitting up there?"
"Hn. Don't you have better things to do than hang around in swamp country?"
Tenten was eyeing him just below his eyes, unlike her partner she would not just strare directly into the Sharingan unless forced too. Perhaps seeing what had happened to Kakashi Hatake during the chuunin exams was the cause for that.
"Why are you here?" she asked boldly.
Sasuke glanced at her before dropping down from the branch. He inwardly smirked when Neji took a protective stance before her.
"Can your own team not take care of themselves?"
Neji growled at the implication, stating, "We're doing a much better job thant he former Team Seven. One goes rogue, another sits around moping and the third goes missing."
Now Sasuke was the one to glower.
"Naruto doesn't just go missing."
Tenten placed a hand on Neji's arm and moved beside him. Her brown eyes searching Sasuke's uncertainly.
"Haven't you heard?" her voice became laced with concern, "Sakura… she's gone. She left Konoha."
Sasuke felt like his blood had run cold. He kept his face stoic as ever but everything inside him was screaming that that was a lie. That she was lieing to him. There was no way that Sakura, devoted kunoichi to the leaf, would just up and leave without saying a word.
"Sasuke, I know why you left, I won't say I understand your reasons but…" Neji was giving his partner a look that clearly said 'stop' but she continued, "Please look for her. At least so we can know she's okay. I want my friend back…"
"Hn."
Sasuke leapt up into the branches and began to run. He knew without a doubt that Neji would be watching him for as far as his kekkei genkai would allow.
'Sakura.'
Deidara stood with Sakura outside the large doors of a huge industrial type building. Since neither of them had an umbrella and it was almost always raining in Amegakure, both were shaking and ringing out their hair and clothes to try and not catch colds.
"This is where your Headquarters are?" asked Sakura, running a hand through her hair damp hair.
"Un, the main one," he replied, "But we can't go in until Sasori-donno is done talking to Leader-sama."
Biting her lip Sakura began to fidget with the hem of her shirt. Deidara watched her curiously. This was her decision, yet she was clearly nervous.
"This was your decision, we could just as easily killed you instead."
She huffed annoyed, "The leader of Akatsuki is a formidable shinobi, I am not foolish enough to think that the second I walk in here I will not be changed for the rest of my life."
She looked up to meet Deidara's eyes.
"You should always be careful hunting monsters, lest you become one yourself, for when you stare into the Abyss, the Abyss also stares into you."