Soft and strong.

Holding her until she felt she would overflow with emotion.

Finally, he gave her what she wanted, as their lips met and drank eachother in.

"You know he will come for me", he said as they parted. She looked up at his eyes, so different from her own.

"Consider this our last hurrah, then."

They joined together, knowing that it would not be this way ever again.

At least, in this world.


The sun awoke Sakura from her dream, and she rubbed her eyes in fatigue. Was it morning already? she though, and rolled out of bed, slowly making her way to the bathroom, rubbing her lips thoughtfully. That dream...it seemed so real. She shook the images from her mind. It hurt to think of those times, since they were gone and everything. Closing the bathroom door behind her, she took off her pajamas and folded them up into a neat pile on the sink, then her underwear. Stepping into the shower, she let the hot water wash the dream's aftereffects off of her skin and her mind.


"This IS an interesting town, you know."

Ao stood in front of the Hokage, shifting from leg to leg casually while being looked over suspiciously by the Kyuubi host. Naruto was not alone in his office. Gaara was there, accompanied by Sakura, who had been asked to perform a physical on the strange newcomer. Feeling frustrated, Ao spoke, ending the silence.

"Are you done yet? I have some business to attend to and you are obstructing those tasks from being done."

Sakura gasped. "How dare you talk to the Hokage like that, when he was gracious enough to let you come here in the first place!"

Gaara narrowed his eyes in disgust at Ao's tone of voice. "If we were in Hidden-In-Sand--"

"But we aren't, are we?" Ao suddenly took on a cold tone, as if the subject ofthe Windvillagewas delicate grounds to be trodding on. Gaara's eyes widened with this disrespect, and he clenched his fists in anger. Naruto, on the other hand, ignored it. He peered at Ao, who glared back.

"Your name, please."
"Hatake Ao, jounin from Hidden-In-Mist. And I swear, if I see one grain of sand come towards me, Kazekage, I will not hesitate to kill you right here and now."

Naruto looked over at Gaara, shocked. The latter had been taking out the cork of his gourd, but his hand stopped in midair. Ao wheeled around, his eyes like daggers. Gaara returned the look back. Sakura was just standing back, watching this masculine tension intensify.

They stared eachother down. Amber upon emerald. Mist upon sand.

Finally, Gaara looked away. "Sakura-chan, just perform the goddamn physical so he can get out of my sight."

Sakura willingly obliged and walked over to Ao, who was still glaring at Gaara with pure hatred. Only when Sakura asked for him to take off his shirt did he break his view to appease to themed-nin's demandings. Taking off his layered shirts, he rotated for Sakura as she examined him with some chakura. When she was finished, he replaced his shirts as Sakura gave her report.

"Well, he's fit, nothing wrong with him. A bit of resistance when it came to his arms, but I suppose that's just his tense attitude. He's not carrying anything dangerous as far as I can tell."

They are so wrong, Ao thought. They have no idea what I am carrying.

Naruto nodded his approval. "You have done a great job, Sakura-chan,"causing Sakura to blush. "Don't forget, lunch at the ramen stand, as usual," Sakura said, and Naruto nodded. The med-nin walked out the door, and her footsteps faded quickly.

Ao broke the silence once again. "Can I PLEASE leave now?"

Gaara glared at him, then at Naruto, who had been oddly quiet for some time now. He looked back at Gaara, then nodded at Ao, who promptly disappeared in a flash.

When Ao departed, Gaara slammed his fist down on the Hokage's desk most out of character. "Dammit, Naruto! Are you going to let him get away with those threats! Against your visitor! If this was Hidden-In-Sand, you KNOW I would do that for you! I would have him killed for even throwing you a look!" Rage was only one of the emotions visible on the Kazekage's face as he glared at his contemporary of the Fire land.

Naruto sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Hatake-san is right. We aren't in Hidden-In-Sand, but please forgive me for my lack of action while you were being verbally attacked." This sincere apology was topped off with an apologetic look towards Gaara, who immediately softened.

"Fine, Naruto-kun, but this runt needs to be watched. I don't like the looks of him, especially his eyes. They remind me of Sasori's..." The mention of the deceased Akatsuki member caused a new tension in the air since Ao's departure. Naruto looked at the ground, then back up at the Tanuki host. He recalled the amber fierceness in his eyes, which caused a entirely new memory to wash over him...


The chidori pierced his flesh, right where his heart would be. He tried to block it, but it drilled a hole through his Akatsuki robes and flesh, sending a burning sensation across his skin. His body spun violently away and plummeted to the ground, where it lay motionless. Sasuke's hand was caked in blood, but it was not his own. Other assorted wounds covered his body, including a long gash across his chest, but whatever the younger suffered, the elder Uchiha took twofold.

Landing next to his target, he grabbed the collar of the robes and hissed in his dying brother's face. "Now we are even." he spat, and the elder just glared. He glared until there was no motion in his mind and chest. And thenthose beautiful but so deadly redeyes faded to black, and then closed forever.

The fight against Akatsuki was over. Kisame's body was dismembered violently, and Neji sat nursing his wounds. A motionless Ino was propped up against a tree, a glittering of red around her neck showing where a shuriken had ripped her a new mouth across her delicate skin. Other Akatsuki and jounin bodies littered the small clearing, but it was over finally.

Sakura's sobs broke the silence. Her eyes were frozen on the sight of Itachi's mangled body and Sasuke's blood-covered hands. But for which she lamented was unknown.

A scream erupted from the corner of the field. An Akatsuki member was standing there, his eyes wide and glistening with tears. The amber shone hard through the locks of dirty black hair. Falling to his knees, he held his head in his hands and sobbed. "No..." he said, over and over again. "No, no, no, no..." His tattered robe fell from his thin frame, revealing a black teeshirt with black shorts with fishnet sleeves poking out.

Neji made to lunge at the mysterious newcomer, but suddenly the latter snapped up, his eyes wide but his pupils small. With one swipe, Neji fell away, covered in his own blood. The cause was not a shuriken, but the Akatsuki's claws, similar to Naruto's when the kyuubi shone through in him. He stood up, grabbing his robes.

"Hidden-In-Leaf, you will never catch me." The Hidden-In-Sand headband hung loosely around his neck, the scratch through the middle catching the light and reflecting it around him. "Gansaku Shimei, Fake Name, will never be caught by the likes of you." With that, he vanished, but his voice echoed around them.

"My tsytsu says this is to be so."


"Naruto?"

The Hokage started, turning back to the questioning Tanuki host. They both smiled at eachother.

"Lunch?" Naruto offered.

Green eyes with black rims contemplated this, and then nodded.

"Lunch," he said.