2 years.
2 years had passed since Haruno Sakura disappeared. When a month had passed they started looking for a body because all hope was lost on her to be alive. Yes, she was a great kunoichi but no trace or lead at all led them to think the worst, it was inevitable.
Their lives changed. Hatake Kakashi blamed himself, he had failed yet again. As Hokage he was responsible to have sent her on that mission, it wasn't a dangerous one, it was only part of the mental health clinics in various places she was overseeing, there weren't supposed to be any threats, so why then? It was possible someone was after her and they didn't know? Like that Kido guy who was after Sasuke and kidnapped her to get to him but Sakura managed to get free and even take down the guy, so was there a bigger threat out there? And if so, why had nothing else happened after that? This and other questions would haunt his mind everyday and night, and the grief he was familiar with when he lost his teammates when he was younger returned.
There had to be at least something, he needed to find something to get some kind of closure. He decided then, he would step down as Hokage, something he thought he should have done a long time ago, and take the matter into own his hands. Plenty of people didn't let him as they assured him it wasn't his fault and that he was the village leader and they needed him, that shinobi were lost on action all the time and this was no different, but this was something he needed to do for himself, years of blaming himself for Obito's and Rin's death made it perfectly clear. And he wouldn't be alone, he needed them to close the cycle too.
Naruto was a mess. He had never seen him so desperate, not even when Sasuke left the village. Of course they were entirely different situations, with Sasuke he knew or had some kind of reassurance that he was alive somewhere, but with Sakura the reassurance was non existent. To think about all the possible scenarios was driving him mad, only Hinata could put him at ease but it usually didn't last long. His signature foxy smile was barely seen and with time he learnt to live with the feeling making him a little bitter.
And Sasuke... well, he was barely seen. It was not a surprise he closed himself from everyone. He came back to Konoha as ordered by Kakashi at the time, looking for her on his way with no luck. Sasuke wanted to be with Naruto and Kakashi as he understood now that as a family they needed to stick together and confront the situation, he really wanted to be better for his friends, he wanted to be involved, but as time passed it seemed that the feeling was lost. Sasuke would go on his own retrieval missions using the rinnegan in case there was a possibility she was in another dimension but to no avail. He would go as far as he could, leaving for months but returning with the hope she had come back in his absence. He went as far as asking Taka for their help, them and teams of the best ninkens and sensory ninjas were scattered all around the Land of Fire. Other countries would help too but as time passed the efforts began to diminish. Sasuke being the cold person he was started to disappear more and more with Kakashi and Naruto not knowing about him for extended periods of time and when he was in his home he was more antisocial than ever and would not talk with anyone other than Naruto and Kakashi and they couldn't really get much out of him. Sasuke's face never showed any emotion, not anger or sadness, he was as empty as when Naruto found him on Orochimaru's lair but Naruto was certain he was suffering inside. He constantly tried for the black haired man to talk about her, reminding him what dealing with everything alone led to, and also as a coping method for Naruto, but Sasuke would only say he was fine and nothing like the last time would happen.
Kakashi was worried Sasuke was dying inside. He thought that when Sasuke would return they would have the chance to make up for lost time, that Sasuke finally would return to his home to be at peace and happy with the people he cared for, and it pained him that it wasn't possible. He remembered the words Sasuke said to Sakura before departing to atone for his sins, he was so happy for Sakura knowing Sasuke would not lie to her, and even though Sasuke took his sweet time to return, he was certain it was finally the time for those two to become something else when he did. He always thought that he knew that Sasuke was not entirely indifferent to Sakura, even more so when they were genin he could notice Sasuke's fondness of her with little details in his demeanor, and when he put her under gentjutsu in the war and he doubted his feelings for a moment, when he heard him apologizing to her and later promising to come back he was certain again Sasuke would come back to finally accept Sakura's feelings. So now that this happened and seeing how his former student shut himself out, he only felt pain of what could have been, after all he truly wished his students found the love he didn't have.
Knowing all this, seeing them hurt, his mind was set, he called for them to the Hokage's office first thing in the morning. Since Sakura's disappearance he was never late again for anything, firstly because he could never sleep well and secondly because he was always anxious to know any possible clue so he wanted to be around his office all the time. Sasuke and Naruto were there already. Both men looked as if they didn't know the word sleep but he figured he kind of looked the same. Naruto smiled a small smile when he entered the office, trying to get back to being a cheerful being but Kakashi could notice the effort this was for the blonde. Kakashi went to his desk and sat with a sigh, intertwining his fingers and resting his palms on his belly, Naruto and Sasuke looked at him intently.
"I'm stepping down as Hokage" he said with a tired voice, the men before him looked at each other briefly and then at him again.
"Kakashi-sensei, we've been through this, there is no need" Naruto sounded tired too, and Kakashi knew he didn't mean to be offensive. He looked at the blue eyes that lacked it's playful shine.
"This is not about feeling guilty or undeserving Naruto, not anymore" with this statement Naruto and Sasuke looked at him with curious eyes.
"I need to take matters into my hands. I know teams have done the search, Sasuke's been to hell and back, Gaara and the other kages gave all their support, but I need to know, I need to do it myself. I feel helpless just staying in this office doing nothing, I already let so much time go to waste, I need to do this or else I would go mad. This is a big world, there must surely be places that haven't been searched and I know that maybe it will be useless, I don't even aim to find a body, I just want to know what happened and have some kind of closure and maybe peace of mind" Kakashi said this with his usually calm tone and closed eyes.
Naruto and Sasuke remained silent, they were pondering his words. After a few minutes Kakashi opened his eyes and looked at them with tired eyes.
"So, are you coming with me?"
"Of course I will" Kakashi almost expected the blonde to say his typical catch phrase but it was long ago that he had dropped it.
"Naruto this will be a long journey. You have a wife now, and as much as I want you to come, and really that's why I called you both here, you have to be considerate to Hinata and really think about it. I don't even know how long it will take" Kakashi said with a frown.
"I know. I am sure Hinata-chan will be fine, she knows how important this is to me"
Kakashi nodded and both men turned their heads toward the dark figure looking outside the window. Sensing their silent question he turned to them.
"I don't think is worth it, there is no point. Sakura is gone and that is it" Sasuke said with a cold tone, Kakashi and Naruto frowned.
"Don't you want closure too? Don't you want to find out what happened to her?" Naruto started to get angry. Lately it was harder to keep his temper in check, but Sasuke remained impassive.
"What would it do? It won't be her we find" his black bangs covered his eyes. Almost for a moment Kakashi thought he saw emotion in his face.
"I know that Sasuke but at least we'll find truth. Truth that will make us rest our minds of countless possibilities, of sleepless nights and in time probably from nightmares. The three of us know exactly what it is to loose someone, to suffer the pain of what ifs, and I have always felt that I didn't do enough in those circumstances. I cannot do anything now either, I can't bring her back, I can't do anything for her, but I can do something for me, so I refuse to still be here wondering. Sakura always believed in the importance of mental health, so this is for my health as well as to honor that work of hers. If I don't I won't be true to myself and won't be a worthy Hokage" Sasuke was looking at Kakashi with his empty eyes while he said that.
"I would never force you to come, heck, I know I am not even capable of doing it, I never was capable of changing your mind, but I imagined that maybe you two felt the same and that this could bring some kind of certainty, what you do with it later is up to you"
Sasuke's stare turned intense, so intense for a pair of empty eyes, but then Kakashi could see the determination that gave them a glint back, he knew Sasuke would go even when he didn't said so.
"It is settled then" Kakashi said after a moments silence, getting up from the chair.
"But who is going to be Hokage now?" Naruto asked.
"I will" the door opened at that moment revealing no one but the Godaime herself.
"Tsunade-noobaachan" Naruto raised his eyebrows in surprise not expecting the woman to be there.
"I will only be covering for Kakashi while he's gone, I don't pretend to be Hokage fully again" said the blonde woman crossing her arms.
"But we don't know how long it will take, it could be months" Naruto said.
"I know. I know that it could also take more than that, but I also want to know what happened to my pupil, I too need that. To sacrifice some time of my retirement would only be me helping that goal" Tsunade said with a solem face.
"But even if its that long, Kakashi is the current Hokage and his seat will be waiting here for him. He cannot escape that easily" Kakashi sighed at this, Naruto smirked.
"Yeah, my training is going to be on hold too but I definitely want to get back to it once we finish this mission-datte... yeah" for a moment excitement returned to Naruto about going on a mission but when he remember what it was about, it disappeared.
"Ok so, we'll get going as soon as you are ready" Kakashi said. Both Naruto and Sasuke left the Hokage tower to gather their traveling stuff.
"For a moment there I thought Uchiha was not going to go" Tsunade said to Kakashi once they were alone.
"Yeah. I wasn't surprised, Sasuke is very tired, we all are, but this is harder especially for him. So I gambled on the need he has to know as everyone else and for peace, and that that knowledge marks the path he needs to follow next, so he stops being lost" Tsunade gave a significant look at Kakashi, he knew his students well and wanted their wellbeing, she just wished that whatever they found didn't altered that well being to a breaking point. The emotional burden on the Uchiha put her on edge, after all, a war was fought over another Uchiha loosing the one he loved.
A week passed since they left Konoha. They retraced the path Sakura took on her last mission. They asked every person they encountered if they remember seeing a particular pink haired girl two years ago around the area, Kakashi summoned his ninken which separated to cover more land, Naruto and Sasuke went with one of the dogs each. The ninken tried to smell any remain of chakra but a long time had passed. It was a slow job and a difficult one as it could be considered a cold case and the efforts were already made before, but this time they will not stop, they will gather as much information and continue without interruption. They took with them all the reports of the search, trying to go to places that might have been left out, and retracing the ones already searched in hopes there was something the searching forces could have missed.
They were currently in a forest, Sasuke knew it very well, he had been there before a few times while looking for her. The place was dense and big, the perfect place for anybody to get lost, but Sakura was not anybody, she was a kunoichi, he was certain she couldn't have gotten lost there but it was necessary to search the whole place until the last tree to discard it. When he thought about Sakura's disappearance his darks thoughts always went to someone having hurt her, someone kidnapping her, he just couldn't wrap his mind around the thought of her just getting lost in the woods, that's why part of him wanted to finish with that part of the search already and go to more populated areas to look for missing nin or criminal groups, but also, those woods were the perfect place to hide a body. If he was honest with himself the other reason he didn't like being there was because it was easier to direct his anger towards somebody and take meassures agaisnt them than to find something he would regret seeing. Even though that is why they were there and the point of it all was to end the torturing questions, he knew that finding a remaining of what used to be Sakura would be damaging to his mind, and was afraid of how he could react, in part this was another reason for him to doubt when Kakashi told them about this idea, but ultimately he agreed just to have something to grasp onto rather than just building up theories.
It had been some hours since they were searching in that place, and Kakashi and Naruto started to call him to go back and have a break, they were already together and he could see them from afar, the ninkens dissapeared in a puff of smoke. He started walking in their direction when something caught his eye. The woods were changing, he could see a path that was not there some minutes before, was he dreaming? Did he imagine it? One of his best qualities were his eyes, and he trusted that what he was seeing was not an illusion, he activated the sharingan and confirmed that a genjutsu was not being casted, so how and why did that path appeared out of the blue? Where did it lead to? And how could he not sense anything before?
Naruto and Kakashi were calling him again since they noticed that he stopped and when he didn't make movement towards them they looked at each other with a confused glance, and started walking to where he was.
"Why did you ignore us teme?" Naruto asked with irritation. Sasuke didn't answer or looked at him.
"What is it Sasuke? What did you find?" Kakashi asked looking in the same direction as Sasuke.
"This path, it appeared out of nowhere. I don't remember it from the other times I've been here, and I am certain it wasn't here just a few minutes ago" the three of them looked at it and after some minutes started walking onto it without a word. A common feeling of awareness and expectation filled them, their senses completely sharp.
The minutes passed and they found nothing, they started to get tired and hungry.
"I suggest we take our break here and keep on going after we eat something" Kakashi said, Naruto and Sasuke nodded.
They started to set everything and take out the supplies they had when the earth shook.
"Was that an earthquake?" Naruto asked.
They stood still waiting for an aftershock but none came. The air was filled with tension, they could feel something was near, they were all on guard awaiting for something to happen.
"I can feel a chakra signature but it is from a civilian" Sasuke said.
"Maybe someone chopping trees?" Naruto asked.
"That didn't feel like a tree falling. As Sasuke said, I don't feel a threat to the chakra but still..." Kakashi looked everywhere he could.
Suddenly a gigantic centipede appeared in front of them, it moved fast and attacked them, it looked like a monster. They quickly jumped out of the creature's claws that aimed at them.
"Are you both ok?" Kakashi shouted from where he landed.
"Damn friggin big that bug is!" Naruto was on top of a branch looking down to the insect. The centipede moved around trying to fetch them. Sasuke took kusanagi out and tried to cut it but was surprised when the blade of the sword didn't do anything to the thing.
"I have never seen anything like it before" Kakashi was admiring and evading the monsters claws.
"It's skin is super hard, I couldn't cut it with my sword" Sasuke said while also jumping to evade the attacks.
Then they heard the sound of something approaching, like something was cutting through the air. A gigant boomerang smashed the creature cutting it's head, the three men looked surprised at the uncommon weapon. Then a huge weird cat with two tails and big teeth appeared, it bit the body of the centipede that was still moving trying to stop it from moving, Sasuke, Kakashi and Naruto had to still dodge the movement that the creature made even without a head. The boomerang made it's way back to where it came from and the silhouette of someone catching it came into view. The person jumped high and realeased the thing one more time towards the insect.
"Hiraikotsu" the person shouted.
This time the boomerang cut the centipede in half and it stopped moving. The three men looked amazed at all that was happening in front of them, and then to the boomerang going back to it's owner. The person stood on a tree higher than where they were making it hard to distinguish them because the sun was directly in their eyes.
"Are you ok? Was someone hurt?" The voice of a girl was heard.
"We are fine, thanks for that" Kakashi shouted in the direction of the girl.
"What the hell was that?" Naruto asked looking above as well.
"A demon centipede, a creature that could not be killed easily with a sword. I saw that you tried to" the girl said in Sasuke's direction, he narrowed his eyes.
"Thanks for saving us, could you get down to properly meet you?" Kakashi asked.
"Actually what are you doing here? No one is supposed to be here, there are demons all around and it's dangerous" the girl sounded annoyed.
"Demons? Like that creature?" Naruto thought of Kurama which was a very different kind of demon.
"Yeah like that creature and worse ones. You really have to leave if you don't want to get killed" the girl said.
"Listen, we are shinobi, we can take care of ourselves, but more importantly how were we supposed to know that this place was plagued with a centipede infestation and that we shouldn't be here?" Naruto said with an annoyed tone, Kakashi sent a look or reprimand his way.
"Shinobi? You sure didn't look like you could take care of yourselves" the girl mocked them.
Naruto was about to reply but Kakashi was suddenly at his side, put a hand on his mouth and wrapped his other arm around him to hold him still, Naruto started moving to get free.
"Yeah again thanks for saving us. Could you come down then? It would be nice to meet our saviour" Kakashi said with what seemed to be a grin that made his eyes close, Naruto got out of his hold.
"What was that for?" he angrily asked Kakashi .
"This person might have information" Kakashi told him in a whisper.
"Oh" Naruto said.
The girl jumped from the tree as well as them from where they were standing and walked towards her to get a closer look. They gasped when they did.
The girl had a metal mask that hid the lower part of her face, nevertheless her eyes and hair were distinctive. The three men looked in shock to the green eyes and pink hair of the girl, it was like seeing a ghost. She pulled her mask off and there was no doubt.
"My name is Sango, nice to meet you"
Authors Note: I apologize because I suck at writing action scenes, and they are harder in a language that isn't my own. Things probably happen fast in this chapter but that is just how I conceived it because I don't want this to be a super long fic and didn't want to deviate in other details. I know all of them may seem out of character, especially Sasuke, because he is really hard to write, but I hope the plot is entertaining enough so you want to keep reading. I also know that them not attacking the centipede immediately with their god like powers is ilogic, but again necessary for the plot, so just think about them being very surprised and analyzing what was happening and what they were seeing.
Finally this crossover is more of a Naruto fanfiction with some concepts from Inuyasha. No characters except for two from that anime will appear and it has nothing to do with its story.
So, are you intrigued? Hope you are. In the next chapter you won't answers but I promise it will be interesting. Please if you can leave a review.
See ya!