Disclaimer: There is nothing about the Anime/Manga of Naruto that I could ever hope to own. Here is chapter 8, enjoy, and remember to review. : )


Cherry Blossoms

8

Sasuke and Sakura

Sakura traveled at Sasuke's side. They lept from branch to branch. Each time he would slow for her if she was lagging for some reason. She thought of it as him being considerate and he thought of it as teamwork.

Sasuke stopped suddenly and stuck his arm out to stop Sakura from moving more. They had approached the village. The village was very silent and still. Sakura eyed the fountain they had in the center of the quarter. It was dry. Sasuke had his hand on his sword and yet Sakura felt no need to pull out a weapon.

"Sasuke," she said quietly to play along. "There's no one here."

"Are you sure?" he asked hesitantly.

"I would be able to sense their chakra if there was," she assured him. The sun was on the rise and the village had chickens in a coop near the back where they stood. Sakura had already passed Sasuke and searched the first building available.

"Is that the fountain we were supposed to meet by?" Sakura asked. She had pushed open a door and let out a surprised squeak. Sasuke was already by her side and holding his sword at a little girls neck. He removed it when he realized she was no threat. Sakura was already down to her knees cleaning the blood and healing the cuts.

"What happened?" Sasuke asked.

The girl continued to stare blankly at the wall. She wasn't crying nor was she showing any emotion really. "Little girl!" Sasuke had raised his voice. "What happened here?"

"Sasuke!" Sakura gave him a look like 'leave the poor girl be already' and he ignored it. She went back to wrapping the girl's arm when she stopped. "Sasuke where are we?"

"What do you mean?" he seemed confused by her question. Sakura stood up.

"That fountain," she pointed to it. "That's at the center of the village in front of the hospital. Wheres the hospital? How did we get to the center without going through the actual village? This is genjutsu."

"No it's not," he countered. Sakura threw him a punch and he vaporized.

"Crap. Sasuke! It's genjutsu!" She screamed. She tried to be loud as if to reach him through the air currents. She stopped and focused on a small hole in the wall.

Sasuke was in his own horror. There was this little boy that mirrored him. He looked frightened and almost like Sasuke was going to kill him, yet he had a crazed look about him like he wanted to kill Sasuke. The bodies all around him looked like his family and even with the same little Uchiha symbol on the backs.

Sasuke moved closer and the boy looked even more ready to kill him.

"Why?" the boy screamed. "Why would you do this?"

"I needed to test my capabilities," a familiar voice rang out, it was his brothers words, but they came from him. Sasuke touched his lips. He could not honestly be saying the same words as him. He looked up to really look the little Sasuke before him. In his eyes he could see the morphed image o Itachi and himself. Sasuke actually remembered something about his brother from this very experience. Something Sasuke had pushed from his mind long ago. Here a single tear had made it's way down his cheek. He turned and the boy screamed, just like he had.

He closed his eyes and tried to walk away but he was so still. He clenched his hands into fists and waited. He tried to think of anything but this.

He felt a tug on his hand and things felt less bleak. A warm hand surrounded his and a familiar voice spoke. "Sasuke. It was a genjutsu trick." Her hand was warm when it wiped away that little tear it had found. He opened his eyes to see it was true. They hadn't even entered the village yet.

"Did you get stuck too?" he tried to divert her attention.

"For a moment," she replied. "It was the fountain as we entered that sent flags off for me."

He looked at the path they had been on. The village was in sight.

"Sasuke," Sakura still had her hand holding his. He tugged to free it but she held on. "Sasuke what did you see?"

"None of your business," he said coldly. He thought it was best not to tell her. It would worry her or worse make her feel sorry for him.

"Fine," she sighed. "Let's just get going." She let go of his hand and was gone before he even knew it. "I can sense people. Lots of them. We have to hurry."

Sasuke ran to keep up with her and he could hear the sounds of fighting in the distance.

Naruto, Sai and Kakashi

"Hmm," Naruto thought out loud. "This is odd, there's no one here."

"Odd indeed," Sai agreed. He examined two matching dragon statues at their entrance to the village. "These are commonly used to ward off evil. But these are rigged to let someone know if there are visitors."

"A trap or just an alarm system?" Naruto asked.

"Just an alarm system," Sai evaluated. Before he could disarm the alarm Naruto was poking one of the statues and the eyes glowed red and his left foot was caught by a rope trap. He was left to hang from a tree hanging over the entrance.

Kakashi laughed for a moment before being serious, "Naruto we have to be serious here. This is important."

"It's not my fault Kakashi!" Naruto yelled as he cut himself down.

"Actually it is-" Kakashi stopped to dodged a giant shuriken flying towards him. Sai had his short sword held up to parry any flying weapons. Naruto held onto his kunai and Kakashi pulled out his own kunai. "Be alert."

Sai and Naruto nodded. As if the nod was a trigger a swarm of kunai and shuriken flew towards them and they had to dodge and parry to the best of their ability until it ended. Each had some wound.

"Head inwards toward the fountain!" Kakashi ordered. "We need Sakura!"

It was only a moment or so later they found their opponent.

At the heart of the village the fountain, which Sakura had saw, was dry. Standing upon it was none other than Kisame of the Akatsuki. His smirk of a smile exposed his shark teeth. His eyes bore into them. "Well well well, three little ninjas came to check on this little village."

"An Akatsuki member!" Naruto gasped. He pointed out the obvious and soon a fight ensue. Naruto had rushed into a fight and it started before anything could be asked. They all wondered where this lone Akatsuki members partner was. They all knew it would stir trouble for Sasuke if they stumbled across him.

"Where is he?" Kakashi asked in the heat of battle. He had been dodging the swings of the Samehade sword Kisame wielded.

"Who?" Kisame messed with Kakashi. He felt the need to pester him with words besides his sword until Kakashi evaded the blade once more and planted a kick to the face. Naruto and Sai were fighting Kisame's clones. Soon enough when Kakashi turned around he found his only team members were stuck in a water prison.

The sword tore through everything Kakashi threw at him. His kunai were smashed, his shuriken eaten by the sword and he didn't dare touch it. It wasn't long until he was trapped as well.

"Damn your clones sneaking behind me with that water prison technique," Naruto said. He left a trail of bubbles and no one could understand him but he said it anyway.

Sai rolled his eyes at Naruto and Kakashi tried to break free.

"Just let Itachi finish with his fun and you'll be finished easily enough," Kisame mocked.


Sorry it's taken me so long to update. Forgive me please. Here I graduated and I'm working on getting myself a job, but I got an awesome laptop which I finally have written a chapter on. I promise to finish this story. Updates won't take this long anymore I promise. Remember reviews are welcomed. I kind of rushed this chapter. Next one will be better I swear.