A/N: During the creation of this fic, I haven't really been keeping up with the latest Naruto chapters. Not until recently did I learn that one of the characters that I have mentioned in this chapter has actually died. DIED! And he's one of my favourite characters after Itachi too D: It's a cruel, cruel world…

But for the sake of the logic in this fic, he will continue to live!

Chapter 11: Size Six

The early morning chill wrapped around Sasuke's body as he travelled across rooftops. The wind rushing by was even cooler that day, so the man tugged his jacket closer to him. It wasn't long before he dropped down to his destination: the fifth floor of an apartment building.

Sasuke walked down the open hall, looking at the name plates of each door before finding the right one. The cloth bag that he held contained a number of items; all useless to him if a certain person wasn't there. Inside were a toothbrush, cup, and an orange towel that was carefully wrapped around them.

After staring at the door, debating whether or not he should knock on it, Sasuke silently hung the bag on the door knob instead and left.

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"Hey Neji," Sasuke called out to the Byakugan user. "Did you find anything on your side?"

"Not here!" Neji replied back, shouting from across the ravine. "What about you, Hinata-sama?"

From below, Sasuke could hear her soft yell in response. "Nothing here. Shikamaru and Shino didn't find anything either!"

Shit, Sasuke thought. If Sakura and the others are dead, where the hell are their bodies at least? It wasn't right. Something suspicious was definitely going on. He felt it the day of the wedding before everything collapsed, and he felt the same thing now. Nonetheless, it had already been more than four days. If there were any survivors, they needed to be found fast.

"Alright then, let's move to the next section!" yelled the dark-haired man.

Earlier when Sasuke had arrived, the Hyugas had been there already at the ravine along with Shikamaru and Shino. After they had greeted each other, they set off to cover the other portion of the ravine that they had not covered yesterday. There had been a few other shinobis that Sasuke saw skimming the cliff walls but he did not know them so well as to talk to them. So, he continued his search.

Four hours later, Sasuke and the others were still at it. The afternoon sun did not quite reach the bottom of some parts of the ravine, but it still shone and Sasuke was grateful for that at least. If it was raining, parts of the land would probably shift or flood.

It was only coincidental when Sasuke lowered his body and looked to his right. He had seen something shining at the corner of his eye where light hit the walls. His heartbeat quickly for just a second and then he rushed towards the tiny sparkle. He had seen this once, earlier on his first search before Naruto had came to the ravine, but it had been forgotten. Now it made its reappearance—whatever it was.

To get there faster, Sasuke ran alongside the walls until he reached the shiny point. He dropped to his feet and reached for it, pushing dirt and gravel away as he did so. The object came loose more quickly than he thought. Blinking at the circular metal that he now held in his palm, his eyes widened.

"This one," said the blonde putting a finger to the glass.

Sasuke watched as the shopkeeper took out the object of Naruto's choice and held the item out to him. The blonde took it into his hand and scrutinized it, holding the metal piece between his index finger and his thumb. He turned it over, brought it close to his eye, squinted, then turned it over again.

"Dobe," Sasuke said sighing. "I just needed to know what size she needed."

"Yeah, but you were about to get her silver!" Naruto said defiantly. "That's definitely made for you, but it won't suit her at all." He held out the precious metal and placed it in Sasuke's hand. "It matches her skin and brings out her eyes," the blonde grinned, "and it's a size six to boot."

Sasuke turned over the fine metalwork in his hand. He didn't have a single clue about what he should choose. All he knew was that he liked silver better than gold, and that for some reason he also trusted in the blonde's words. "Are you sure you're not the one marrying Sakura?" the man asked with a smirk.

"Wha?!" Naruto spluttered, his grin fading and his cheeks becoming flush with red. "Teme! I-I'm just here because Sakura told me she couldn't make it! You didn't know her size so she sent me over, alright?!"

Sasuke chuckled. "Alright, I get it."

"So, sirs," the shopkeeper timidly intervened. "Will you be making any purchases today?"

"Not today, no," Sasuke answered, "but I'll come back again tomorrow. If you don't mind, can you keep these two aside? Thanks."

"You're not gonna buy them right now? Then what's the point in coming here?" Naruto asked as they left.

"Hey, you might have gotten the size right but I don't know if Sakura will like it herself. You should know more than I do she can be pretty particular about things. Besides, I want an engraving done on it too."

"I see," Naruto nodded then looked at his dark-haired friend. "So, where should we go eat?"

Sasuke pushed away his memory, turned the gold piece of metal over in his hand and read the inscribed characters on the inside. There was no doubt that this was Sakura's ring, the ring that Naruto picked out and the ring Sasuke slipped onto her finger.

…What's it doing here? The man thought looking around the ravine. And it was a good thing he did too because no sooner did he lift his head did he see a wave of sand heading straight towards him.

Without thinking, Sasuke jumped back, clutching the ring tightly in his hand. His reflex saved him just in time as the solid wave crashed down into the ground. Sand sprayed everywhere while the ravine echoed the sand's impact.

Sasuke ran up along the cliff wall, distancing himself from the flood of sand that was forming below. He scanned the area around him, but he couldn't see anyone other than his search group.

"Oi, Sasuke!" Shikamaru called out from the other side of the ravine. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah—" Sasuke began just before sand wrapped around his feet. He put his arms forward before his face could slam into the cliff at the abrupt stop. Fuck. Sasuke grit his teeth and broke himself out of the sand using Chidori. This time, he didn't run along the walls. He jumped from boulder to boulder, activating his Sharingan.

Someone was trying to kill him.

Just as he cleared the ravine, he saw the gust of wind heading towards him and narrowly avoided it by twisting his body. He slid back as he landed, his sandals scraping up dirt to slow him down. His hand flew to his waist and pulled out his thermos just in time to block a dart aimed at his face. Sasuke mentally cursed at his limitations. He didn't have his sword, kunai, shurikens, or anything resembling a physical weapon.

Still, he was just as lethal without them. Sasuke blocked the last projectile and was just about to counter when saw three bodies standing in a row five metres from him. A woman with dirty blonde hair and a fan, a man with face paint dressed in a black one piece, and a fiery red-haired man with a giant gourd slung over his back. The character for "love" was tattooed at the corner of his forehead. He was one of the few people Sasuke would never forget and the only person who could avoid his Amaterasu.

"Cheh," Kanguro scoffed. "He managed to avoid all our attacks."

"That's what expected from an Uchiha," Temari commented with a sigh.

"They should have killed you," Gaara said directly to Sasuke.

The dark-haired man frowned. That's right. He just remembered that Tsunade said Garra and a few others would be coming to the village to help with the disaster. She just didn't say when.

"You're talking about the village?" Sasuke stated rhetorically. "Well obviously they didn't."

"Gaara!" Shikamaru commanded and stopped the man from rushing forward. Right after, Hinata, Neji, and Shino dropped down evenly over the area. "I was wondering when you'd be here. Forget about Sasuke, he's not what you came here to do. Have you seen the Hokage yet?"

"I haven't," the red-haired man answered, not taking his eyes from Sasuke's. "I just wanted to see how the Uchiha was doing."

Shikamaru exhaled deeply. "You satisfied? Let's get going. Don't make this even more troublesome for us all."

"Yeah, come on," said Temari. "We came here to do what we wanted. Now we have a responsibility to uphold."

"I know," Gaara murmured. Finally he looked away from Sasuke with a slow blink, but Sasuke did not release his Sharingan until the trio plus Shikamaru left.

He could partially understand Gaara's anger. The man was one of new Naruto's good friends after all…only one of many.

Hinata looked over the dark-haired shinobi. "Sasuke-kun, are you alright?"

The man looked at her. "Yeah. More importantly, look what I found." Sasuke uncurled his fingers and let the three gathered around to see the object on his palm. "This is Sakura's ring, but there's no body with it," he said glancing at the three.

Hinata gave a little gasp while Neji and Shino looked at each other. "That's strange," Neji murmured. "I remember you putting it on her before the earthquake."

"It could have slipped off," Shino offered.

"This is a size six—it fit her perfectly," Sasuke ground out. Don't give me some bullshit about the ring slipping off, he refuted in his head, then he gave the ring a careful glance. There wasn't a single scratch on it, so it couldn't have caught somehow and pulled off, no…

"Then the only way it's here is because—" Hinata began.

"She took it off," Sasuke ended. He gripped the ring once more, "She's definitely alive," he murmured looking into the ravine. It was half covered in light; the other in darkness.