O.o...well shit! Last chapter got reviews quick! *insert happy grin* I'll thank you all again for taking the time to read this~
30,000! I've never written anything this long in my life and I owe all the credit to you guys~
DEDICATED TO sweetpinkcaramel and Ketsueki No Kuki for being my 108 and 110 reviewers! Never would have gotten this far without such kind readers~ every author needs reviewers, how else would we know if we're doing any good?
Yuti-chan-thank you~ it was so hard to write the fight scene -_-' ... I don't think he would either~
Sinister Blossom- here it is~ thanks for the review and I hope you like this chapter as well.
YawningNeko- YAY! TOBI FOREVER! I'll keep it up, don't worry~
Timea- you really do spoil me! But I love it, praise makes me work faster, I've been typing this chapter for 6 hours straight trying to work out all the kinks! But your reviews make it worth the missed sleep!
Angel897- thanks again~
2008roseelixir- thank you so much for the congrats! I hope I catch people's attention, it's nice to know people read this story~ haha, yeah, I wanted to speed up her progress and get her in the mix of things. Glad you liked it! It's nice to hear from you again and THANKS FOR THE VIRTUAL ICE CREAM~ IT'S MY FAV!
Chiryome- never was the best at spelling ** sweat drop** but I try my hardest and that's all I can do~
Glow593-I thinks possessive Madara is HOT~... But that's me *nose bleed* Here's your chapter.
Goddess of WAR1Keeper of TIME- thanks, that's a really good idea...I could possibly work it in as a factor in her perfect chakra control... ^^
HAPPY GLOWING CRYSTAL- you'll just have to wait and find out~ I really wanted to get her involved with the fights, thanks~
Humanitiesdownfall- thanks for the tip! I'll look into it before I do another fight scene, thanks for the feedback!
Ketsueki No Kuki- your facts are true! Madara should never have a shirt and be made to strip in the anime...I'm sure not too many people would complain... Thanks for the review~~~
TeenageCrisis- hehehe I know~~~ I should have added an evil kufufufufufufuuu at the end to see people's reactions! Yay's for Muruko's laugh!
Sweetpinkcaramel- thanks for the review and the congrats! Here's the chapter~
Rawrzyyz- hehehe thanks~ D: I DIDNT MEAN to scare sebby-kun *hands cat plushie* take this as a sorry~ poooor little sebby...
Lucia Tsukiyomi-hime- thanks, I'll try to get better...I just need to practice, might do a few one shots and give it a try.
Miss Chocolate- thank you~ I'll try to sort them out a little *sweat drop* I like putting twists into my stories~ especially if I've never read one like it before!
On with the show~
I don't own Naruto~
Whoever gets the review number I'm thinking of now gets next chapter dedicated to them~
UPDATED: 3/09/13
She was woken up by the feeling of the hot sun belting down onto her face.Looking around, Sakura's eyes widened.
She was standing on an elevated platform in the middle of what looked like Konoha, surrounded on all sides by crowds of cheering civilians and ninja alike. There was a commotion taking place right in front of the stage that caught her attention, Naruto struggled against a group of people similar in age that were restraining him and shouting at him to calm down, she could see the red in his tear filled eyes from where she stood.
'Is this...another dream?' she asked herself as a ringing sound started in her ears, forcing her to shake her head slightly. 'It's never seemed so real before' her awed thoughts were cut off by a loud, muffled yell.
'Naruto, what's wrong?' she thought, looking into his eyes as tears gathered in her own. Naruto was too cheerful a person to be seen that sad, something really bad must be happening. She watched as his struggles increased at the sight of her sad, tear-filled eyes, red chakra gathering lazily at his feet. His lips were moving but she just couldn't make out anything he was trying to scream at her, still fighting desperately against his companions.
It was then that she realized he was staring straight at her.
She suddenly felt someone seize her arms and roughly push her into a kneeling position from behind. 'What's going on?' Sakura thought, looking down at herself.She was shocked to see that she was in the older Sakura's body! There were shackles on her arms and legs along with a bad tasting, dirty gag in her mouth.
How could she not have noticed this earlier?
Her eyes widened as the gag was roughly pulled out of her mouth, saliva and tears sticking her dirty pink hair to her dirt covered cheeks and face. Her arms were forced further behind her back as some of her now rag like clothing tore slightly.
"Any last words traitor?" the cruel voice of the person restraining her said from behind as the sound of a katana being drawn slowly filled the now quiet village centre.
She suddenly lost control of her own body as her head turned to face Naruto and trembling, anger filled words started spilling from her mouth.
What was happening?
"This is your entire fault. I blame you for the pain I endured, the humiliation I suffered this last month, for the loss of my best friend..." she said, her voice trembling horribly at the mention of the masked man. "I blame you for it all, I'll never forgive you! Not in this life or the next! I won't let you kill him again, even if it takes me eternity and destroys my soul soon after, I'll find a way to make you pay and save him! I won't let this happen again!" and with that she let out a slightly insane sounding laugh, eventually being cut off by the unknown man behind her.
Control of her body was gained again and tears started freely running down her face as a short flash back played for her eyes only...
"We killed him Sakura." The tired, grime covered Naruto said as he took a step closer to the equally ragged looking pinkette and watched as she suddenly halted her retreating steps, jerking her head around to face him instead of the surrounding forest.
"W-what did you just say?" she forced out, body turning to face him once more as her eyes suddenly clouded over.
"He's dead. Me, Sasuke, and Kakashi killed the bastard, now you can come home again Sakura, he can't poison your mind anymore." he repeated as he slowly walked closer and grabbed both of her dirty arms, clasping them tightly as he shook her slightly. "We can be a team again now, I can be your best friend again and you can get with teme if you really want to, Kakashi even said he would forgive you for almost cutting his arm off last time! We did it for your own good Sakura, he was a. VERY. Bad. Man!" he added whilst speaking to her shaking form as one would to a lost child, watching as he pulled her now unresponsive form against himself and gave her a hug, Sakura caught sight of her eyes.
And saw the fire in them suddenly die and the vivid green turn lifeless.
She too, shared the same sort of feeling as her other self muttered a simple name.
"Tobi"
'Naruto, Kakashi, and Sasuke...killed Tobi?' her tear streaked face looked at Naruto's form once more and she felt something she had never before experienced in her short life. Bloodlust, the desire to kill and maim, it felt so foreign yet familiar to the pinkette, she just couldn't grasp as to why. 'They...killed Tobi...'
"Enough of this nonsense;just kill her already." the man ordered as he took a step away from the kneeling form of the pinkette and motioned for the ANBU next to him to finish the job.
As the sword pierced the unsuspecting pinkette's heart from behind, she could only manage one last pain filled cry directed at Naruto.
"Why?!"
With a pained gasp escaping her lips Sakura flung herself into a sitting position, paying no heed to her now bandaged form or her short hair. She curled up into a ball and began rocking back and forth slowly, hoping to calm her shakes even a little as her door burst open revealing the alert figure of her sensei. Raising her head a little, she watched with tear filled eyes as he slowly surveyed the room and put his kunai away. She was shocked again by the foreign feeling that sprung up in her chest at the sight of him.
Contempt
Reaching up with shaking hands, she whipped the back of her hands across her stinging cheeks and turned her bright green eyes towards the door just in time to see Sasuke's retreating form. At the sight of him, her chest tightened once more and she let out another sob at the rush of emotions that followed.
Anger, loathing, fear, misery.
All followed by a familiar sharp pain in the left side of her chest.
'Was Sasuke...the one that killed me?' she questioned herself frantically, before turning her attention to Kakashi as he sat on the edge of her bed and ruffled her hair slightly with an awkwardly relieved air surrounding him.
"Are you ok?" he questioned "Did you have a nightmare?" at this she nodded slightly before replying in a slightly cracking voice, hiding her face in her bandaged arms.
"Yeah...thank you for checking on me ...but could you please leave? I don't want to talk about it right now." she said while shifting in the bed slightly, pulling the blankets a little higher to fight off the chilly night air. She saw Kakashi give a slightly relieved sigh and nod, before patting her head one more time and leaving her room.
She was relieved to finally be alone as she lay back onto her pillows. Staring straight up at the ceiling, she knew without a doubt that there wouldn't be getting any more sleep tonight.
'They aren't just dreams; they seem more like...memories?'
Madara's P.O.V.
He hated being out of the loop.
And that's why he was currently beating a new clearing into the forest near Zabuza's old hideout.
Imagining the trees were actually the male members of team 7.
With another feral sounding growl he loped his kusarigama (chain-sickle) at another tree, his hair flying around his face wildly as he jumped back and gave a sharp yank, watching in contempt as it splintered and broke in half. Leaping out of the way he walked back over to his discarded mask and sat next to it with a sigh. Running a hand roughly through his hair and muttering angrily under his breath, Madara leant back against one of the still remaining trees and turned his red glare at the sky.
He was really starting to despise the male members of team 7.
'I wonder how the blossom's doing.'
It had been 2 days since he had been forced to save his tool from Zabuza's clutches, maybe not save, but it was close enough in his books. He had wanted to check on the blossom to see if he could continue with his plan, only to find that damn Hatake staked out in the corner of her room and twitching at any chakra signal in the area, good thing he knew how to hide his properly then. That damned man was acting like an over protective mother hen, doting on her unconscious form and tucking her in every five minutes. The only information he could find from his little visits was that she had yet to wake up, which was just fine with him, it meant that her team had yet to have a chance to comfort her.
All he had to do was wait for that damned Kakashi to leave for awhile, and then Tobi could finally visit the little pinkette.
Honestly, he could say that he had gotten slightly used to her presence. It was getting boring again without her around, and he was shocked that it had taken a day to figure out how to occupy himself with her team. Tormenting the blond by stealing his things and hiding them with little Sasuke's bag had gone over well for him. He didn't know the blond's voice could reach such a high pitch.
With another glare he stood from the ground, taking his beloved orange mask along with him, and started towards the bridge builder's house. Jumping onto a high branch he fastened his mask back in place and sprang forward slowly, taking time to cast a quick katon at the old hideout on his way past.
It didn't matter that he was dead; Madara still felt like the bastard owed him for damaging his little blossom. But he could put that aside for now because he felt the slight weight that had been settled in his chest for the past two days suddenly lighten at the thought of finally seeing the pinkette.
This would be his only chance to speak to her until she arrived back in Konoha.
Kakashi and the brats were helping to finish the bridge tody.
Sakura's P.O.V.
She was right.
She couldn't even rest without seeing HER OWN dead green eyes staring back into her bright ones.
She sat up from the bed and looked out the window at the rising sun. With a tired sigh, she gave a slight stretch and winced. She had forgotten about the healing cuts and bruises that littered her body, kind of stupid when her body was covered in enough bandages to make her look like a mummy. Kakashi had stopped by just before to inform her that Tazuna and her team were going to work on the bridge while Tsunami and Inari went shopping.
She was alone again.
And she really didn't like it.
The silence that filled the house once they all left was deafening, and it scared Sakura to no end.
It did nothing but remind her of the time she spent with the demon of the mist, when he had threatened her, the way he taunted and tested her, the way he accused her of lying. Everything about the silence made her antsy and tense, like the room would suddenly fill with mist and his haunting laugh would follow. With a sigh, she ran a hand through her hair, opened the bathroom door and entered slowly. Walking over to the sink she looked into the mirror and took in her battered appearance, muttering in disbelief at the state of her hair.
Focusing so much at the task at hand, she failed to take note of the chakra entering the house through her room and enter in the bathroom.
She was glad that the short hair suited her; she pondered as she grabbed a kunai from her holster and raised it in front of her face to inspect it. Deeming it sharp enough, she moved it to the left side of her throat and was just about to start trimming her hair when the kunai was roughly snatched from her hand and thrown across the room.
"What the FUCK do you think you're doing Cherry?!"
Thanks for reading~
You should know the drill by now, but just for those who don't- please leave a review, I would really appreciate it~ no flames or just telling me everything you think is wrong with this fic.
Sakura-hime-sama