"I'll go too. That way you don't break your teacher's orders.." The bridge builder said grabbing Sakura's hand.

Almost to tears, Sakura quickly began leading the way to Sasuke. She ran past Naruto, paying him no mind, her heart racing.

This can't be happening. Sakura blinked back tears at the thought.

Finally at Sasuke's side, Sakura looks down at her teammate and cringes. He is covered in senbon and blood. As tears begin to surface from her eyes, that's when it happened.

The foggy, gray-blue sky turns to crimson. The fog becomes black. Sakura turns to see what is happening between Zabuza and Kakashi.

Is this the extent of Zabuza's power?

Looking behind her, she sees no one. Sakura becomes panicked she tries to return her attention to Sasuke — no one. The absence of the bridge builder at her side dawns on Sakura as she stands up.

"Naruto?" She chokes out.

"Hn."

Sakura turns around to the source of the response. Although she wasn't sure if it were friend or foe, she jumps at the familiar response usually given by her beloved. Standing in front of her is a tall man, mostly concealed by a black cloak with red clouds. His onyx black bangs peek over the cloak in heavy contrast with crimson eyes.

The man begins advancing towards Sakura. Scared, but not completely immobile, Sakura begins to step back. Every step forward he takes, she takes one back. It was a good plan, until she feels something hard against her back. She stretches her neck to look behind her to see the cause of her abrupt stop.

A cross? What?

Her thought process was interrupted by warm breath on the exposed side of her neck. Sakura freezes.

"Sasuke-kun?" She whispers softly.

"Not quite." The baritone voice replies, spinning her around.

He looked so much like Sasuke. Aside from the strange eyes and the face lines on either side of his nose, their facial structure was strikingly similar. He even wore his Leaf headband in the same way. He couldn't be a foe, he was from Konoha. Sakura's eyes grew wide, realizing how true she was.

Was from Konoha.

She noticed the deep slash through the symbol of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Her mind was reeling. She knew this man, but she didn't.. know him.

"How about you? Last one." Kakashi nodded his head in Sasuke's direction.

"My name.. is Sasuke Uchiha," The black haired boy in the middle began. "I hate a lot of things and I don't particularly like anything."

Sasuke-kun, why are you so unhappy? Sakura frowned at her new teammate.

Sasuke began again. "What I have is not a dream because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan. And destroy a certain someone." He finished darkly.

She turned the memory over in her head as she looked into crimson eyes. Fear filled her entire being as another memory began to surface.

"Yeah, that's the boy."

Sakura looked up from her desk to the boys sitting in front of her. They were looking at Sasuke.

"I heard he was the one that found them. His entire family was gone. I can't imagine what that's like." The one on the left said, shaking his head.

The boy on the right leaned over to his friend, "I see why he's such a jerk now. To come home and find his entire clan murdered. Did they find out who it was?" He now returned to his original posture, looking curiously into his friend's eyes.

His friend leaned in.

"My mom and dad were talking about it last night. My dad said it was the strongest guy in the clan, Sasuke's brother. Itachi Uchiha."

Tears finally fell from Sakura's eyes.

"I k-know who you are.." She said in a muffled voice.

Itachi stared.

"I-It-tachi U-" A hand came crashing onto her mouth to cut her off and then moved back to her cheeks roughly, causing her face to resemble a fish's.

Itachi leaned down to where he was eye to eye with the pinkette, looking into child-like emerald orbs.

"That surname has no purpose to me. Uchiha has no meaning to me if you plaster the same name onto the end of my foolish little brother's name and I ask you not to use it." He said, harshly releasing her face causing her to slide to the ground.

She lay there, crying tears of shock. He didn't grab her face too hard, just hard enough to remind her who she was dealing with.

Sakura looked up at the elder Uchiha. "What do you want from me?"

Itachi stared into tear stained eyes and paused, as if not wanting to give away more than he had to. He finally found the perfect amount of words.

"You will see in due time. You will not speak of this encounter to anyone, although.." He thought for a moment. "They probably wouldn't believe you anyway."

"But.. I've been gone for so long...somebody has to have noticed.. Naruto or Sasuke-kun or—"

A hand was wrapped around her throat pulling her up to his level and a voice leaned in to speak directly in her ear.

"The Kyuubi is not any of my worry, nor is my weak little brother." Itachi stated, letting her crumble back to the ground, turning his back on her and beginning to walk away.

"T-they're stronger than you think!" Aside from the initial stuttering, Sakura was pleased with how strong her tone sounded.

Itachi stopped.

"Well. As interesting as that may sound, nobody has noticed your absence. While I can hold you in this universe for 72 hours, no time passes in reality." He began walking again and abruptly stopped again.

"Until next time, little girl.." Sakura heard him say as the crimson faded back to original gray-blue and the fog reappeared.

Author's Note:

Hey guys! This is just a teaser to what I'm wanting to make a pretty lengthy story. I'm going to probably end 12 year old Sakura here & have the story pick up in around Shippuden times. Sorry for any literary errors, I didn't edit it very closely. So R&R & tell me what you think, any plot twists you would like to see (Can't promise I'll throw them in, but perhaps your suggestions may inspire a new story!), and any predictions you may have! I know it's early on, but just humor me!

Until next time, which will be VERY soon.

ERVictson.

xoxo