Chapter 11

I.

On a bright and sunny afternoon, a group of people walked on the sunlit path of Konoha to Kumogakure. Some are travelling by foot, some a travelling by horse, and two of them is travelling within a carriage.

Sakura is one of the two, and currently she's facing Neji, the man in front of her dressed in a silk white robe. He closed his eyes and was meditating, but it must be considerably difficult because Naruto often poke through the small window and whisper in a not so loud voice, "Sakura-chan, do you feel alright?"

She has carriage sickness.

Figures, a girl who came from he world of cars and airplanes, suddenly she was forced to either walk, take a horse, or a carriage, and the last two seemed to bounce the living organs out of you, she was bound to not feel well. But she knew, the fact that not everyone could sit in a carriage. Only rich people. By tradition, even she isn't allowed to sit in here, but after being half dead in the bright sun and horse back, she was allowed inside.

Now Neji is faced with a girl who is sprawling around his carriage, and making sounds whenever there was a harsh bounce.

She chewed on a piece of coconut flavoured dessert, and felt a little better, but she still has the urge to vomit, so she swallowed her pains and tried as hard as she could not to deface his fancy carriage.

"I thought..." She begin, "you are a shinobi too. Why is it that you still have to go by carriage?"

Neji replied without opening his eyes, "Because I am going as the head of the Hyuugas, not as a shinobi."

"I see." She sighed, and with a small whimper, she folded herself up in a crouching position and straddles the corner seat with endless misery.

Now it would be indeed very inhumane if Neji saw this and wouldn't do anything. Fortunately, Neji isn't inhumane, so he cleared his throat and said, "There are some snacks..."

Her eyes sparkled while looking at his robe and their inner pockets.

"...By the drawer here." He finished, tapping a small hidden drawer beneath the window. Sakura quickly pulled it open and stared at all sorts of non-perishable food with delight. There are small dried pastries, some jerky and some nuts waiting for her. She quickly grabbed and handful and carefully wrapped them within a cloth while deciding what to eat first. Before she pops one into her mouth, her gaze switched to Neji and asked, "Um, Neji-sama, do you want some?"

He uttered a, "No", and looked away.

She ate with content.

At last, Shikamaru's voice rang from outside the window, "Hyuuga-san, there's a small town up ahead. We have been travelling for a day, I suggest we rest here."

"Approved." Neji said, and the team move forwards into the town itself.

"There's a small inn here." Shikamaru's voice rang again.

Sakura is the first one to bolt out from the carriage, while Hisaki the old butler scolded, "It is customary the most important person of status enters and exits first!"

Sakura widened her eyes and turned to Neji, who waved it off, "Doesn't matter."

She then looked smugly at Hisaki and was about to enter the inn, but froze on sight.

The inn had a huge banner illustrating their title. And despite it was in Japanese, she recognize the lettering. "Time-travelling Inn". In smaller caption, "we offer food so unique and modern like you've never tasted".

"Let's go in-" Naruto begin, but Sakura suddenly yelled with an intense emotion, "Not this one! Not this one!"

Hisaki stared at her, "what the heck is wrong with you? This one is the closest-"

"Another one, another one!" Sakura insisted.

All look at Neji, who frowned, but made a decision, "Let's find another one."

So they tour around the town, and back to the original inn. Sakura found out that all the inns-including the restaurants-has the name "time travel" in it. And they are separated by number, as in, "Time-travel Inn #1", "Time-travel Inn # 2"...

Everybody ignored her protests as they entered the inn, and faced with a very powdered and very beautiful fox-like middle aged woman. She has a fan on her and dressed in bright red silk robes. She batted her eyelashes at them and asked, "I'm Komiko, should we arrange some meals? How many rooms?"

Sakura stared at her and want to look away and puke, but fortunately someone distracted her because this particular someone's voice bellowed through the inn and went super excited as he spotted Naruto.

"Naruto!"

Naruto turned around and yelled, "Killer Bee!"

Killer Bee fisted bumped him, but then turned serious as he turned to Neji, "Hyuuga-san. I apologize for not having a prior notice. But we need to discuss some issues regarding... all this, before you arrive at Kumogakure."

Neji nodded, "Of course. Shall we do it after dinner?"

"Definitely." Killer Bee said, and nods at Shikamaru and Naruto, then his gaze turned to Sakura, who edged closer to Neji.

"Uchiha-san." He said with a little coldness.

Sakura honestly didn't know how to respond to that, so she coughed and cleared her throat, "Hey."

"Haruno recently lost her memory." Neji said simply, as if that sentence could make up for everything that has happened in the past. Exactly what has happened Sakura doesn't know much either, but she look at him with gratefully.

"Shall we order?" Naruto yelled, "Let's all have dinner together!"

"Great!" Killer Bee yelled, "Let me order the famous special grilled tender chicken! I'm the sponsor of this dish, you know. I tried many times to perfect it, and I believe I did. Let's all have a taste..."

They were all brought to a small table that could only fit 6 people. Sakura wondered how was it going to host all the staff, when Hisaki dragged on her sleeve, "Let's go, they might need to talk business."

Sakura glared at him while almost drooling at the though of tender and juice grilled chicken. She swallowed and tugged on Neji's robes again, who tossed out a "it's fine, let her stay here."

Hisaki and the rest of the staff left, while Sakura saw among Shikamaru, Naruto, Killer Bee, and Neji. The dishes were bought out one by one, and each of them extremely colorful and delicious. There was some stir fry mushroom, some sticky rice with pork, large oiled prawns, fish fillets, stewed strip meat, and of course the tender grilled chicken. It is indeed drilled to perfection, as it is brown and crisp on the outside, while white and juicy on the inside. Sakura imagined rows of chicken skewered on a large bonfire and slowly turning at the kitchen. She stared at the chicken without shame, and watched in delight as Neji cut her a large piece.

To prove her gratefulness, she peeled a large prawn and lay the meat within Neji's bowl.

Hyuugas are known for their curtsey. So he cleared his throat and said, "Thank you."

Sakura dug into her food without any regards for the guests, and also everybody on this table other than the two dark haired shinobi-does not care much for manners. They ate as they like and it was quite fun for a while-until they heard a conversation next to their table.

"Didn't you here? This happened like almost two month ago!"

"I wasn't here! Aw, man, I missed this!?"

That was two people on the next table, gossiping. They are men in their thirties, and dressed in coarse clothing. One look could tell they are not from a higher class in the hierarchy of things. They look like they make honest living out of various trades.

"Yeah, the most prominent family, Hyuugas, the head actually was about to get married!"

And at this point Sakura whipped her head around so hard that she glared at Neji-who actually leaned back a little.

And the gossip came again: "But the weirdest thing that has happened-the bride is of a incredibly rich family too-the Taira-rumour has it that they were descendants of royalty!"

"Of course I know that!"

"But the strangest thing! When the youngest daughter of that clan was travelling to our fire country, she was attacked!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

Sakura darted her eyes amusingly at Neji, who frowned his eyebrows together.

"That's just the saddest thing!"

By this time everybody at Neji's table stopped eating and looked sadly at Neji.

And the gossip continued.

"The weirdest thing then-the marriage group did not get attacked by bandits!"

"Oh?"

"They were attacked by assassins!"

"Wow!"

"Yes! Hyuuga Neji heard the news and immediately went to rescue his fiancee-but it was too late-"

"She was killed!?"

"No!"

"Then what the heck!?"

"Everyone was either killed or burnt-and the corpse of his fiancee was burnt to such a crisp that nobody was able to recognize her-expect from a jade pendent that she wore when she was little!"

Sakura lift her eyelid to stare at Neji again. Looks like this dude didn't even get to enjoy a first night with his bride before she's burnt to a crisp. Huh.

"This is just tragic!"

"I agree! But this is not the weirdest part!"

"Pray tell, what IS the weirdest part!?"

"It's-when they cleaned up after the incident, everyone did not escape the wrath of death. Well, everyone except for the bride's maid."

"Bridesmaid?"

"Not bridesmaid! Bride's maid! She's a girl that serves the bride of course, her personal servant. Everyone identified -except for that maid! They traced her back to the Taira family and they claimed that young girl was hired like a year ago, and she just -vanished! Out of thin air!"

"That Hyuuga Neji must be devastated!"

"Well, sort of. And you know, the Taira has another daughter..."

"I see what you mean, hehehehehe..."

Sakura slapped the table and yelled. "What the hell is this!? I want more shrimps!"

Everyone in the diner quiet and stared at her. They weren't scared of her per se, but looking at a group of shinobis at the table, none of them would dare to cause a ruckus.

And so a plate of shrimps was bought to their table. Sakura dragged it over and start peeling furiously. All of the fresh meat ended up in Neji's bow.

Nobody said anything as Neji ate them all.

II.

"So the hot springs is just that way, walk about five hundred meters, and when you get there, make sure to flip the sigh from "Available" to "In Use"." Komiko instructed Sakura.

Sakura nodded and asked, "out of curiosity, why is it that you named your inn Time Travelling?"

"Hahahaha!" She batted her eyelashes and whispered. "I can tell you, but you can't tell anyone."

Sakura nodded.

"Because we secretly run a brothel, and when you're in a brothel, you have no sense of time!"

Ok, that was it. Sakura gave her a very cold glare and then turned around and stomped to the hot spring.

She has never been to a natural one, and frankly she had some doubts over it's sanitary cleanliness. But she haven't properly had a bath in a long time, so she didn't gave it a second thought as she peeled off her clothes and jumped into the pool. She was quiet a good swimmer back in twenty-first century, and even though this place was tiny, at least she could play around in the waters. It was extremely comfortable, and she knows how wonderful the healing property of natural hot spring water is.

But this did not last long, since there was a shuffling among the bushes.

Sakura quickly threw a rock in there, "Who's there!? Who's peeking!?"

And Hyuuga Neji walked out in awkwardness.

Sakura stared, and even caught as a peeping tom, he still is tall and handsome.

He spoke, "You didn't flip the sign."

She cursed herself silently. And suddenly she felt a little devilish, so she acted cross and slowly standing up, "what are you doing here, why don't you leave?"

Neji glared at her, and his eyes widened as she begin to show her shoulders, then collar, then che-

"Hurry up!" Neji scolded before turning and walking off."

"Hahahaha!" Sakura laughed menacingly.

But soon she couldn't laugh anymore. Because she discovered-she didn't bring a change of clothes, and her current cloths were just soaked into the hotspring, and they are very wet.

Wearing wet clothes are better than no clothes.

So she shivered and shuddered out of the hotsprings while sprinting towards back into the inn.

On the way, she saw a young chunin walking on this path. She quickly ran up to him and yelled, "Can you take off all your clothes!?"

Her lips quivered and her teeth bared, which created such a disturbing image for that young chunin that he screamed and rolled his eyes-fainted.

Sakura widened her eyes, then decided it was not her fault, so she peeled his large jacket robe off and put it on herself and sprinted back to the inn.

III.

Sakura didn't sleep all night. For one, she's plotting on how she will survive in this world in the future. There is no hope for her since she really lack any skills whatsoever, and she can't defend herself against anybody. Even the weakest shinobi here can squish her into a pulp if he chooses to. Then she must have something else in her body-something else on her that ensures her survival.

What would that be? Other than her association with Uchiha Sasuke-which she deemed as more dangerous than beneficial-she has no other connection. Immediately she is faced with a dilemma, which is to whether betray Sasuke or not.

As harsh as Neji is, he does not seem to be the type which would kill innocence. But Sasuke is a complete different story. When Sakura is near him, she shivers all over and wanted to puke her guts out. Other than his pretty face which she appreciates a little, her memory of her past life linked together with his behaviour and she really... really... doesn't like him.

However, she believed that if she chooses, she will have the edge over Sasuke. Since the reason why Sasuke forced her to do this deed-and forced poison down her throat-is none other than the fact that he's desperate. He is so desperate that he must have a defenceless yet vital girl to help him retrieve it. From the information she gathered by observing various people around her, she gathered that they trust her immensely-but not to the point where they do so blindly. They are still weary of her, she knows. But at least they don't automatically put up their defences up when she's around, especially when she's proven time and time again that she is unable to muster up any chakra up at all.

Then this book-this manual of some kind-will gave the user immortality. From what she has gathered, everybody in the world wants it. She asked Naruto in secret what it does specifically, and he answered that it's a book that record the methods of how to elongate one's life-if that person is over the seventy-five years of age. If that person is quite young, practicing the jutsu in the book will definitely gave him eternal youth.

"Eternal youth?" Sakura was eating a bowl of white rice porridge when she asked skeptically. She has doubts on the issue of immortality in the beginning, and this sounds like a hoax-if it happened in the 21st century. "Why is it that everybody believe in shit like that?"

Naruto stared at her with a worried tone, "But Sakura-chan, it's true."

"Say what?" Sakura blinked at him.

"Well, before you lost your memory..." Naruto muttered, "Like, 5, 6 years ago, there was a war that lasted for a long time. And in shinobi's standards, it's a long time. Especially the damage was so immense, and our primary enemy was someone that used that book-the Uchiha book-to force fear into our hearts. He was supposed to be dead a long time ago, but we have no choice but to believe it really is him that created all the catastrophe."

Sakura was curious, "Who was that person and what did he do?"

Naruto replied, "His name was Uchiha Madara, and he demolished villages, killed thousands, and ultimately he murdered most of the Kages..."

Sakura went into deep thought.

So the concept of evil and immortality has taken in a literal meaning over here. There has been battles like this happened over at her world, but they ended when she was very young and she has yet to experience the hardship of war before she was bathed in peace and luxury. In her world everything was so modernized that people battled with minds-not physical bodies. Then it makes everything so much harder to deal with. She has no physical defence and she doubt her brain will actually amount to anything in this shinobi world. Thinking of this, she has decided the best way to survive is to root herself on something-something strong.

But the problem is here then. She can either choose Uchiha Sasuke, who has complete power over her-or Hyuuga Neji, who seemed to be nice enough. She doesn't know which one is stronger though, and she has an ill feeling that perhaps Sasuke is.

She was pulled out of her memory by the Hyuuga family butler Hisaki, who said to Neji, "Master, yesterday Aki-kun fainted on the side of the road with all his clothes gone. He woke up later with a cold and told us it was a female ghost with long and pink hair..."

Then Hisaki turned his head and stared right at Sakura. She glared back, "It wasn't me."

"Be as it may..." Hisaki decided to ignore her, and turned back to talking to Neji, "Master, we should be aware, some perverts are females too, and they chooses young and healthy males such as yourself to take advantage of."

Everyone else looked at Sakura funnily after that incident.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

A/N: Long time no see! I am ashamed of myself for not updating anything. But here is the next chapter. Hopefully this story will continue updating on a regular basis!