Light Shaded Dream

Chapter 7 – Mixing Tears

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

-:-

Sakura was awoken by sturdy hands poking her. She moaned in frustration and absentmindedly asked for five more minutes, and heard a small, nearly inaudible chuckle. She jolted awake, and was met with confused eyes.

"Did I just hear the Uchiha Sasuke...chuckle?" She asked.

Sasuke looked at her with an innocent glare, and smirked.

"No, you must have been dreaming."

"You're lying."

She smiled at him, and decided to drop the subject. It's not like the Uchiha Sasuke would ever admit that he laughed anyway. Sasuke stood up, and rolled his neck. He was sore. Very sore. After all, he did have Sakura sleeping on his shoulder all night. Sakura noticed this, and blushed.

"Ehh...I'm sorry, Uchiha..." She said.

Sasuke looked at her, and turned away. He was smiling, but she couldn't see him.

"Hn."

Sakura herself stretched out, since she was sore too. Sasuke began spreading out the leaves from her mattresses, which were unused, while she was loosening up her muscles. When everything was finished, and they were sure that their signs of existence were demolished, they set out.

-:-

Ino, Tenten, and Hinata had awoken first. They were all worried about Sakura, since she was still not back. Ino was still horrified about the possibility of Sakura with Orochimaru, but Tenten and Hinata assured her that there was no way that Sakura was there and they were still safe and sound. They were conversing amongst each other about if Sakura would ever love Sasuke again, when their chatter awoke Neji, a very, very angry Neji.

"I know it is early, but you girls gossiping and making bets is not helping out this situation," He growled.

Tenten and Ino blushed, while Hinata played with her fingers.

"S-sorry, Neji-kun...we were just trying to get our minds off of things," Tenten said.

Neji got up and walked to the bathroom. He looked at Tenten, and smirked. He closed the door behind him. Tenten, on the other hand, was pissed off. She wasn't too fond of Neji's arrogant attitude, but that's one reason on why she adored him. Tenten was hard to understand; many would think she hated Neji's guts, but deep inside, she was madly in love with him. Luckily for her, all her friends knew that she loved Neji. She heard Ino and Hinata giggle, and was about to knock them out, when she felt someone's hand on her shoulder. It was Naruto.

"Save it," He said.

Hinata blushed madly, and Ino just laughed. Who knew Naruto would stop Tenten from beating them up?

"You guys are too noisy...how am I supposed to sleep with all this noise?"

They all turned to Shikamaru, and his statement made Ino boil.

"You get enough sleep when you're slacking off during training staring at the clouds all day!"

Shikamaru's curses and whispers of 'Troublesome woman...' could be heard, and Ino was held back from killing him. Neji emerged from the shower, and Naruto went in after him. The girls admired his silky smooth hair.

"Neji-kun?" Tenten asked.

Neji looked at her, acknowledging her question, quietly asking her to continue.

"How do you keep your hair so silky and shiny?" She sheepishly asked.

Neji smirked at her, and whispered in her ear.

"Secret..."

Tenten blushed, and everyone in the room giggled helplessly.

-:-

The winter cold brought devastating effects on the couple making their way back 'home'. Sasuke was getting more annoyed by the second due to Sakura's random ranting, and he could not understand the point in any of her ranting.

"So then, I go to Ichiraku, and I see Naruto, but then, I see Tenten running away from an evil Neji, and then Lee suddenly shows up and blows me kisses of DOOOMM!" Sakura says, accompanied with the appropriate hand gestures.

Sasuke stares at her as if she was a maniac.

"Sakura, are you sure you're not on drugs or drunk?" He asks.

Sakura blinks at him, then she smiles wide as she remembers another thing to rant about.

"Oh! That reminds me of the time, when I had this patient at the hospital, who had an overdose of smuggled drugs, and they seemed like they were HAPPY! I mean, the overdose didn't even kill them yet! So I try my best to cure them, right? And they keep SQUIRMING, so I'm like...HOW THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO KEEP YOU FROM DYING IF YOU KEEP SQUIRMING LIKE THAT? Then..."

Sasuke put a hand to her mouth, and his tolerance went to negative a hundred...if that was even possible.

"Shut.your.stupid.mouth," He hissed.

Sakura got the message, and sighed. They continued their journey back to the village, when Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks. Sakura immediately understood that there was an unwanted presence very close by, and she immediately turned cold.

"Sasuke," A voice whispered.

Sasuke knew who it was. And he didn't like it...at all.

"Hn."

The speaker emerged from the shadows, and Sakura stopped herself from gasping from horror and creating an attempt to murder him for taking Sasuke away from her, even if she would lose her life trying.

"Who's this?"

They motioned to Sakura, and Sasuke looked over nonchalantly and started walking. Sakura got the message and began walking with him. She sensed the killer aura emerging from the man. She quickened her pace. Sasuke also felt it, and threw his hand in the air as if signifying a good-bye wave. The man appeared before them, and he was deathly pale.

"Sasuke...I will take over your body one of these days...your arrogant behavior isn't giving you any power is it, hmmm?"

"I've got what I needed, and now I just need to hone my skills," Sasuke hissed.

The man eyed Sakura closely.

"Who is this? I will ask again," He said.

"Hn," Sasuke said.

The man's tolerance snapped, and he made a move for Sakura. Sakura saw this, and jumped behind Sasuke, but she was caught in the man's clutches.

"This girl, you know her, don't you..." The man hissed.

Sasuke glared at him, remaining as emotionless as possible, even if his heart was exploding with panic.

"And it seems she's made quite an impact on you..." He continued.

Sakura sensed what he was going to do to her, and she tried her best to wiggle free. She concentrated chakra to the soles of her feet, and she kicked him...hard. The man winced in pain, but there was no opening for her to escape. Sasuke raised his eyebrows at the man's wincing, but kept his focus on Sakura.

"I'll just have to...take her..." He said.

The man maniacally laughed, and he and Sakura disappeared within the snow. Sasuke stared wide-eyed, and he yelled. His rage developing had just been propelled fifty fold, and now, he had an excuse to kill this man. And if he could, he would kill him a thousand more times for taking his ranting, annoying, irritating, obnoxious cherry blossom. Tears of rage fell from his eyes...and for the first time in so many years, Uchiha Sasuke cried.

-:-

Neji and Hinata bolted upwards as they sensed something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

"Sakura's missing," Naruto said.

The ninja looked at him with wonder, and he explained.

"I can feel it...Feeling Sasuke-teme's anger isn't that hard...and believe me, it's a lot of it," Naruto said.

They all understood, after all, Naruto was the victim of Sasuke's rage many, many times.

"Orochimaru," Ino whispered.

And for once, just this once, she wasn't knocked senseless for assuming that Sakura was in his clutches. Because, in truth, she was.

-:-

Ehh, not that exciting chapter. Sorry! But it shall get better :D