Disclaimer: Hello, I'm sorry it took more or less a week for me to update. I actually plan to update the story in batches of chapters so yeah, un. I was actually dead worried about my writing style patterns being discernible huhuhu so I put a lot of effort into these two chapters to distinguish them from the past three. Constructive criticism is really welcomed!

I don't own Naruto and the Uchihas but I hella wish they own me.

One.

Four long silky strings smoothly flowed through and out of the the small spaces in between the fingers of her right hand, effulgently glowing in a powerful blue saturation. The radiant threads extended from out of her gloved hand to about six meters long, heading for the the thick trunk of the tree that was in front of her.

Two.

The silk-like threads curved along the way, effectively in balance as they wrapped the tree's trunk in a glowing light, emitting a radiant blue shadow onto the tree's dull and brown barks.

Three.

Now strongly tightened around the trunk, a green halo powerfully sparked at her gloved hand, sending off waves of the same color onto the threads that are tied around the tree.

And as the threads turned from blue to green, the tree being strangled slowly transitioned, the rough and sharp edges of its barks shredding off of the surface, skinning the plant in the process. The dull brown layer discolored into a dead hue of gray until the time passed like a breeze and left the tree rotten in an ashen form.

Completely black.

Beads of sweat rolled from her hairline down to the base of her cheeks as her chest rapidly rose in and out. Gasping for a thick amount of air, she closed her other eye in tiredness.

The sky was a painting of a nonliving color, all the light blue streaks washed away by the darkest of colors. And the darkness was lighted by the small glinting stars that were outshone by the yellowish white moon in crescent form.

Over the sky, dark grey clouds lazed in its breezing as did the coolest of winds traveling against her face masked with weariness.

All of a sudden, an ignition of pain seared inside her hand.

Sakura disconnected the green chakra strings from her hand before quickly removing the black glove off. The silk-like threads slowly paled in color until they were no longer visible. A short and loud shrill escaped her parted lips, disturbing the silence being enjoyed by the creatures lurking in the forest surrounding Team 7's training grounds.

Sakura inwardly cried a long, long cry of pain. She had been trying and desperately hoping to perfect her jutsu for an hour and a half already. Her technique was inspired by the way puppeteers would control their puppet tools. Similarly, she used chakra strings that were naturally blue in color in order to strain her opponent's body but the main difference was that she uses green poison to travel from her hand to the enemy's system through the glowing strings, entering the victim's system and leaving him two days before fully decaying to death, unless given the chance to be healed but the only antidote to the substance was made and kept by the pinkette.

Where the poison came from? A very good question.

Sakura had gone through intensive trainings on her own in order to adjust her own body to the poisons she had formulated on her own. She had stored deadly green substances inside her system for half a year already now, trying her best to prevent it from deteriorating the tissues and cells in each organ.

And that was happening at the very moment.

After an attempt with her jutsu, the cells that made up the fingers in her right hand reacted to the poison, creating a painful spark inside.

Her parted mouth opened even wider to inhale heavy amounts of oxygen. Silently cursing over the disability to heal herself, what with her very low chakra left, Sakura reached for the medic pouch strapped on her right hip under her pink medic skirt for a single dose of her specialized chakra pills.

Tossing one into her mouth, her sweaty knees heavily dragged her whole body downwards, causing her to lose balance and drop to the ground of brown and leaf green.

She waited, rather, tolerated the pain from the poison for a minimum of six minutes, the duration it took for the chakra pills to take effect. Feeling a stretched potential inside of her to perform more strenuous activities, she used the given energy to cast a glow of green onto her poisoned hand, accelerating the process of cell recovery. After what seemed like a minute, relief met the rough pain inside of her body. Hell, she was not stupid enough to try another attempt for she had concluded that it would take more time for her system to adjust to the poison.

Sakura felt more and more tapped out in every walking minute, forcing her body to trust its weight on the ground. She lied down, resting her arms on both sides, feeling the cold temperature of the grass beneath her back. She had used up most of the newly gained chakra on healing herself. She would have to call it a day. More like a night.

It was already eleven o'clock.

Sakura's eyes delved into the dark night sky in deep contemplation.

She felt lonely.

What was her team doing at the moment? Her sensei was off to Kumogakure to escort the daimyo to Konoha and it would take weeks to get to the village, especially since daimyos were rather traditionally fancy. And annoying. They always preferred seating in carriages being carried by loads of men. Stupid and useless lords.

What were Naruto, Sasuke, and Sai doing at the moment? Were they badly hurt? Should she be there for them? It was not just a medical instinct of hers to always be ready to aid them whenever they were injured or suffering greatly. It was more like a feeling of genuine love for her teammates.

Love...

Sakura trapped an intense gaze on the radiantly gleaming stars.

Her violently erupting sea of thoughts were calmed and stilled as an image of the back of a raven-haired man showed up inside her mind.

Across her weary and beaten face, a grin was sketched as she mentally heard familiar voices. She hid a loose lock of pink hair behind her left ear, listening to the infamous "hn"s and "tch"s being sang by the being from inside of her head.

The lips on her face curved oppositely as her eyes followed the path of the gloomy clouds, obscuring the light of the crescent moon.

All of a sudden, the image of another Uchiha and an extremely annoying one of that hacked into her secluded thoughts.

Inner Sakura mentally rolled her eyes as the past happenings of the day were being played. She remembered the priceless look on the Uchiha's face when she had told him that he would also have to abide by her own condition, which was to give her the freedom to decide the date of the date.

Sakura smiled at the thought. She was seventeen-years old. She was mature enough to decide for herself. Although Shisui was annoying and they had only just met, deep down, she thought that it would be exciting to experience going out on a date. Her heart belonged to Sasuke still, but it was just a date, right? If she were to be honest, she did think that Shisui was attractive and maybe they could have a shot at being friends.

Yet, she knew that she was being mean and unfair to him but then again, so was he to her. It was just a matter of mutual respect. Shisui was hell too loud for her taste, too annoying for what she could take, but then again, too puzzling for her bright mind. He could see things that she couldn't. He knew things that she didn't. But then again, Sakura was not the type of person to lose to any challenge presented, especially if she hadn't even started fighting for her own side. She was willing to give him a hard time in knowing her.

While Sakura was sure Shisui held no romantic feelings towards her whatsoever, she just about had no single idea as to why he wanted a date.

Was it to know her perhaps? But then again, what was there to know about? Sakura knew that she had nothing interesting to show. Her clan didn't have any special techniques or doujutsu. Actually, they were just a regular family with potential.

Sakura wasn't interesting. Now, why the hell would he want to know more about her?

What would giving him a hard time to know about her bring if there was nothing interesting to know about her?

The bubble-gum haired shinobi displayed a frown. While she wasn't really an intriguing mystery, on the other hand, the Uchiha was the complete opposite. He hid a lot of things from people, what with his ability to do so.

He hid the fact that he was slowly becoming visually impaired.

Why doesn't he tell anyone? Or did he actually share such to anyone without her knowing? Maybe he told Itachi? Or Itachi knew without being told? What is going to happen to him? Why isn't he doing anything about it? Or did he actually do something about it without her knowing?

What is Sakura going to do?

Her pair of eyes grew in width as a slash of lightning strongly sparked in the middle of the peaceful night sky followed by the booming sound of the thunder.

Much to her surprise, the lights from the tall buildings still visible from her location had died, darkening the whole area that was already darkened by the night.

Blackout in the village?

She sat up from the grass, deepening the frown that was already present on her face. Her eyes smoothly glided over the sight of the lightless buildings that reached for the dim heavens. Everything around her was as black as pitch, heck, it was almost impossible to not see her surroundings if it weren't for the miniature flashlight that she had fished out from her tool kit.

She didn't approve of the idea of being alone in the darkness. It rose the hairs on the surface of her skin and sent a freezing cold chill to snake its way down through her spinal cord. And that was understating the horrible feeling.

After a long and grueling day, Sakura was determined that the time had come for her to go to her apartment, lay on her fluffy single bed, and put herself into the deepest of slumbers for all eternity. Her chakra levels were reaching the core of the Earth at this very hour and the only activity left that her body could tolerate was walking to her home. Mentally cursing for exhausting herself over stressful activities like paperwork and training, her sandaled feet automatically began to saunter in the path to her very much deserved sleep.

The rays of light emitted by the tool she was holding onto, and quite frankly, desperately depending on, were flickering on and off for a short moment.

She was still in the middle of the forest, surrounded by the tallest of trees, and she felt as if there was something watching her. She had always been fixated on the little belief she had instilled within her back when she was a little girl, the belief that trees were like silent, watching creatures.

The flashlight did it again. All the sudden transitions between light and darkness reminded her of a certain twenty-one-year old man.

Shisui was just like the flickering light.

With his Body Flicker Technique, Sakura couldn't help but muse over the interesting analogy she had just thought of. There was more to that, though.

It also represented how the Uchiha would be an easygoing loudmouth at first, then become the serious and cool man over the next minute (although she would never admit it).

Reaching the main street of the Hidden Village of Leaves, she noticed that the flashlight was now dead before stuffing it back inside her tool kit. Then a memory was blown into her circulating thoughts. She remembered that Naruto had overused it the last time their team had attempted another "Operation See What Kakashi-sensei Looks Like Under His Stupid Mask." That baka, she inwardly sighed.

Now that the tool could no longer be depended on for its purpose, the kunoichi continued to walk on the path to her apartment complex. She couldn't see a thing. The dim silhouettes of the tall and short buildings of which Konoha was made up of were what her functioning eyes could only capture.

All of a sudden, a realization hit her like a lightning bolt.

Her two lazing feet instantly stopped in its tracks, deepening the shallow hole from the footprints being stepped on, and did a complete three hundred and sixty degree turn, turning her whole body to the opposite direction. Her lifeless legs started to walk, as if there were propellers churning actively to make her move faster by the minute.

Time seemed to crawl as she ran and ran to wherever her sandaled feet were taking her. It was as if her feet were controlling her whole body and mind, not the other way around. Nonetheless, it was not against her will.

The dead sky was brought to life by the blinding strikes of lightning, simultaneously flashing. As the pinkette ran and ran and ran, she reminded her ears for what was expected to come: a loud bang of thunder.

Sakura ran through the dark streets of Konoha, passing by the confused looks present on the faces of the villagers. She hadn't guessed that there were still a number of people were out especially since it was close to midnight. Maybe it was because of the sudden blackout. After all, it had been about two years since the last.

Why is there no rain?

Rainy occurrences were unusual in the village of Konoha, how much more unusual was it for thunderstorms? Maybe it was a village attack? Maybe that was why Tsunade had been so busy? Maybe that was also the reason as to why her shishou had asked her if she wanted a mission? Although not impossible, the security system of the village had been enhanced to the maximum due to past village attacks like the appearance of the nine-tailed demon fox and the assassination of the Sandaime Hokage.

Her pregnant thoughts came to a full stop as soon as she had reached the front of the tall black gates.

Sakura had arrived at the Uchiha compound.

Hesitation crept up from her rising chest to her impassive eyes. Even in their own district, there were still several people out of their houses, probably with the same thoughts and intentions as the number of villagers she had passed by earlier, wondering about the cause behind the sudden blackout.

She landed a step beyond the entrance line.

It took the wandering kunoichi ten minutes before she had finally gained and owned the heavy audacity weighing down her whole will and body. She allowed her eyelids to cover her weary eyes that were the main ink of the word "weariness" written on her face. Occasionally, her left knee would wobble, challenging the balance of her body. Exhaling a small amount of air, she opened her eyes and readied herself.

She was standing now in front of Uchiha Shisui's house.

The ten minutes that it took for her to reach his own home had been used for asking several wandering elders the directions to his house, running with determination, and stopping with hesitation.

Goddamned medic morals.

She was here to confirm her suspicion. No, it couldn't be classified as a mere suspicion. It was a hypothesis that produced sense and contained very high chances of being turned into a reality, a brutal one. Shisui was turning blind, the main reason as to why he had quit from the ANBU. After all, the pieces to the bizarre puzzle did fit together. But what Sakura couldn't also have mistaken for was the fact that if he was in the process of becoming visually impaired, then his eyesight was supposed to be getting worse, which means that since it was an inherited doujutsu, the times that his vision would be dimming or blurring would although be irregular but... unpredictable.

In the blackout currently occurring in the powerful village, it was highly possible for his eyesight to lack the ability to adjust to the sudden darkness of the surroundings, making him experience difficulty in seeing.

He's a former ANBU and even an Uchiha. Of course, he can use his other senses, Inner Sakura lectured her. But then again, the activeness in coming to helpless people's aids was a trait that her shishou had instilled within her when she was training under her to learn medical ninjutsu.

Hell, she really had them goddamned medic morals.

Sakura roamed outside the two-story house, using her analytical ability to sense any living signatures. Much to her dismay, there was none. It was nearly midnight, where was that loudmouthed idiot? What could be the possible activities that he would be doing at this ungodly hour of the night? His eyesight was getting worse, he should have known that, right? He should be aware of the consequences of roaming around the streets of Konoha during a blackout! He would be a total jerk if he made her go all out of her way to his house and just not show up (although it was her decision without his knowledge). Silently, she preferred that he would just suddenly show up behind her using his teleportation techniques.

"Sakura?"

And the hell he did.

Once again, her body awkwardly jerked at the sound of his voice that had popped out of nowhere. With two circling eyes increasing in diameter, her pair of lips repelled from each other in such a way Naruto would if Sai would creepily rest an arm around him due to misguidance from emotion and relationship centered books.

Turning around to his direction, she altered her expression from surprise to exasperation. Lifting her right arm to tightly squeeze her blessed fists, she exclaimed, "Where the hell did you come from?!"

Shisui slit his eyes at her in mild annoyance from being greeted with a yell in an instant but his expression was quickly surfaced by curiosity. And by curiosity, he was itching, rather, dying to know why the girl who seemed like it was a habit of hers to be severely aching at his presence would appear outside his house (although he was sure that she had just recently known about his address) in the literal middle of the night.

"Never mind that. What are you doing here?" Using his left hand, Shisui ran through his ebony hair, disheveling it in the process.

Sakura couldn't help but lock her thoughts on his small act. He had run his hand through his hair before and he had done it again right now. She wasn't entirely certain if it was a mannerism of his but then again, that wasn't the problem. Inner Sakura was pulling out the blood from ears to tell him how he looked so damn sexy with his sable hair pushed back.

Ripping the thought from her occupied thinking room and inwardly welcoming the building panic, she came to realize the situation that was exhibited before her sense of judgment. The twenty-one-year old prodigy had just magnetized her attention to his simple question regarding her purpose for visiting him in the middle of the night.

And it wasn't hard for her, it really wasn't. Kami just didn't love to place the pink-haired shogi piece in positions that would make it suffer from the absence of comfort.

At the rather conspicuous image of the shadowed man being darkened along with the terrorizing shadows had her sense of sight mused over. It was hardly possible for her to see his eyes, for his eyes were the same as the shadows blending in the ground, in terms of color, that is. The only thing she could quite catch up with is the metal protector covering his forehead, being emphasized by the small glint of light on the leaf symbol carved onto it.

Then it struck her, he was still in his daily shinobi attire at this late of the night?

All the questions regarding his activities and whereabouts were bubbling on the boiling surface. It was killing her to refrain herself from permitting the questions from leaving her mouth and hand him a very much earned lecture after doing so.

As time seemed to snore, Shisui eyed her expectantly and mentally conducting experiments that tested his curiosity to whether a puzzle piece would fit to where it was being placed, searching through her puzzled display of emotions for at least a single clue but Sakura showed nothing but the nervousness building up inside of her from the rapid movements of her green orbs.

It was never her intention to let him enjoy the sight of her true intentions, her ultimate purpose. That option would be the same as bringing back her childishness when she was still a genin who would pass out from seeing a beaten Sasuke-kun even though awareness of such a case's origin could be justified by Sakura herself.

And that was it, conclusion stated that her bright of a mind had its own limits.

"It's kinda late. I'm going home," she replied as she slightly lowered her head and directed her body to the right side.

As quick as a flash, a warm hand grasped her left wrist.

"Sakura," Shisui spoke through the dead silence as his face transitioned into a different expression. Nothing was proved excluding the sincerity by his half-opened eyes and his lips looked like it was parted already in case she still had not any intention to answer.

Determination enlightened Sakura enough to voluntarily face him. She was not going to let him know. She was up to his challenge and there she was, fighting for a small victory, as trivial as it may seem.

"Why are you here?"

The blackness in his eyes blended along with the lurking shadows around their bodies. A high wave of onyx danced around his eyes that were as dead as the night sky hovering over their heads.

Desperately in search for her awaited words were his opening orbs, offering an intent gaze of which its sole purpose was to be concentrated at her rested lips with an intense level of desire, so badly, so strongly wanting to know why the hell she had come now to the man who was always chasing her.

At that moment, the only sound that could be heard was the wind's sighs and snores.

That was until the sound of the pitter and patter of rain came.

Which was followed by the sound of heavy rain crashing.

Which was followed by the sound of raging thunders in the sky.

The night sky's cries came slithering down her face in tiny beads, forcing her skin to absorb the coldness. Pink tresses had been watered down into a darker shade, emphasizing the redness of the ends of her short hair. Her lips separated to let out the light sound of shivering. Her green eyes, dulled by the surrounding darkness, laid on the only source of warmth of her body, Shisui's hand.

Shisui's lifeless yet serious expression had been washed away by the drops of rain flowing through his face from the wet strands of black hair sticking to his temples and eyes. His usual high-collared black top shrouded his body like it was his second skin, accentuating his formed shoulders and chest.

His dark eyebrows were knitted together, curving in frustration. His eyes were widening and his lips were parted again as if he had a lot of things to say to her, to make her know. The surfacing emotion on his face was now genuine concern which caused Sakura's wheel of thoughts to churn. It left her helplessly not knowing what to feel and how to react.

"Stay for a bit until the rain stops. Don't worry, I live alone," he spoke, letting go of her wrist.

The other party wasn't so certain about feeling at ease at the fact that she was going to stay in his house. The two of them together, alone.

He immediately acted, seizing out the keys to his porchless house from the pocket of his black pants and inserted one through the keyhole on the door.

Lifting both of her arms, Sakura opened her mouth for a moment to collect the right words in response before she managed to reply to him, "Ah, I'll be fine in my home. No need for that, thanks."

"Your apartment is at the other end of the village," he protested as he opened the door for her.

He was right and she knew that it was too inconvenient on her part to travel to her apartment complex through such a heavy rain. After a day of poisoning herself, working like a damned Hokage, and running to the Uchiha's house like some kind of idiot, her chakra levels were extremely low while her stress levels were extremely high. It didn't help that the whole village was going through a rare blackout either.

She moved her face to the left direction and then to the right before turning to him. "Can I just borrow an umbrella then?"

Despite the fact that the door to his house had already been opened, Shisui was still standing outside, looking at her expectantly. Before he could respond to her question, Sakura's eyelids grew heavier by the passing second until her eyes were lifelessly shut down as her knees twisted against each other unsteadily.

Sakura had blacked out.

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