Kiba, as always, was the first to react to Shikamaru's reveal.
"What the hell are they doing back here?" he shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Maybe they're coming back to the Hidden Leaf Village" Tenten stated, her voice full of hope.
As Lee, Choji and Ino started to think about Tenten's comment, their lips curled upwards in false hope of their long-lost friends coming back to them. That was until Shino interrupted their hopeful fantasies of reuniting with their old comrades.
"It's highly unlikely that they would just return to the Hidden Leaf Village after all this time has passed" he analysed.
"What if they gave up on what they were trying to do? Maybe that's it" Choji wondered.
"No Shino's probably right in this case, and it'd be pretty much impossible that Naruto and Sasuke would just give on something and come home" Shikamaru spoke up.
After he said that, Sakura could see almost everyone's faces drop after his analysis. However, the two people who had looks of anger and something else, 'excitement maybe?' Sakura thought, appeared on Kiba and Lee's face respectively.
They went on to continue with their respective announcements, Lee's full of excitement at the chance to go against Naruto and Sasuke at their full power with nothing but his taijutsu skills along with the idea of testing his ferocious fist against the Hyuga clan's gentle fist wielded masterfully by Hinata, a student of the man he never had the chance to fight at full power and his best friend, Neij Hyuga.
On the other side of the coin was Kiba's announcement filled with anger which the group could hardly understand as it came out in growls like a riled-up animal. Kiba was practically frothing at the mouth as he declared how he was going to beat Naruto and Sasuke for betraying the Hidden Leaf Village and their friends, their comrades. Kiba spoke with such ferocity that the group of shinobi realised that Kiba may end up having to take their lives if push came to shove, and if Sakura knew anything about their upcoming fight with Sasuke and Naruto it was that it would not be a walk in the park. It would be brutal, bloody and worst of all… tragic.
Sakura looked around and saw the different thoughts and feelings going through everyone's heads, almost like Ino had used her hidden ninjutsu. On her face was the clearest worry that she could lose her friends, whether it be her closest comrades in Team 10, her oldest friend Sakura or the friends she'd already lost once before in Naruto and Sasuke.
Sakura's eyes then settled on Choji's stern face, he had matured so much these last few years that, to Sakura, he had become almost as dependable and competent as Shikamaru or even Kakashi-sensei. However, there was also a look of uneasiness in the tensed muscles of Choji's face, mirroring the rest of his body, which probably had been caused by the idea of coming up against his childhood friend from the academy, Naruto.
As Sakura continued looking around, she saw Tenten's fear almost screaming to get out as she nervously darted her eyes around as if the threat of Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata was imminent, like they were in the trees around the park.
Shino was as stone cold as ever. Temari was in the middle of exchanging nervous glances with Shikamaru like they were talking telepathically.
Sakura then caught the concerned gaze of Sai, whose eyes were filled with sadness at the realisation of having to fight his first friend and the man who helped him change from the ideals brainwashed into him by Danzo and the Foundation, mixed with the anger from the idea of fighting his predecessor in Team 7. When his eyes, full of emotion, met hers the corners of his lips quickly turned upwards in what was a pitiful attempt at a fake smile which failed to hide his true feelings.
"Well anyways, we can think about all that later" Shikamaru announced.
"First we have all been summoned by Lady Tsunade to the Hokage's office immediately" he motioned to get going.
With their summons received, the group picked themselves off the floor and headed towards the bottom of the great stone faces of the Hokage where the office of the fifth Hokage, Lady Tsunade Senju resided.
The walk to the Hokage's office was pretty uneventful, aside from the large number of crowds gathering, whispering about the fact that the famous group of heroes from the fourth great ninja war were on their way to see the Hokage. They were all curiously whispering, trying to work out the reason for so many powerful shinobi to be together, even though they were always together in their time off, and as they were coming up with all their theories as to what could cause such a strong battalion of shinobi to be assembled in its urgency.
All the crowds managed to succeed in doing though, was to remind Sakura of the day that they had all returned to the Hidden Leaf Village after the war, only a few days after the Allied Shinobi Forces had given up their search for Naruto, Sasuke as well as Hinata.
Time: 2 years before
When the shock from Sasuke and Naruto's combined attack hitting Kakashi's wall subsided and the dust settled, the five Kage almost immediately declared them, along with Hinata, S class rogue shinobi unanimously despite the extremely loud protests of Sakura, Kiba and Lee.
With the Infinite Tsukuyomi undone by Naruto and Sasuke, most of the ninja who were fortunate enough to still be alive, albeit without much of their chakra left, filtered towards the crater of the final battle.
The five Kage were almost the first ones to arrive, they came just after Team 10 and the remaining members of Teams 8 and Guy. Ino and Tenten had taken over from Kakashi, in regard to his care of the unconscious Sakura. Their expressions of shock were masking the anger that hid underneath, the fury directed at Sasuke for his treatment of the poor girl.
Kiba's rage, however, was pure as he started to howl at the setting moon, cursing Naruto and Sasuke. He directed his hate filled rant at the former, for betraying their friendship, a sacred bond for Kiba, along with taking Hinata away from him. Akamaru whimpered behind him as he saw his master on the verge of tears, and at the idea of not seeing one of his favourite humans in Hinata anymore.
The cool breeze of the early morning was joined by the violet sunrise in the west. The wind started to pick up, carrying all the different smells of ash, dust and the metallic scent of blood which was overwhelming at this point.
At the bottom of the crater, the scent of smoke was joined by the stench of tobacco as the stream of wind dragged with it the fumes from Shikamaru's cigarette which was almost hanging out of his mouth. His jaw-dropped expression was perhaps the furthest away from his usual demeanour. His head was aching from all his thoughts, all the different scenarios he was creating to try and find a reason, an answer to why Naruto would do something like this.
He was trying to be reassured by his best friend, Choji, who carried a grim expression. His eyes looked puffy, and his throat looked tight, like it was being constricted. He gingerly ate, picking chips out of his bag which was almost completely full. Each time he ate he had to focus on swallowing the food as each time it looked like he wanted to throw everything he had just ate, back up.
Off a ways away from them at the lip of the crater, stood Shino. He was watching the sunrise, the purple rays casting shadows on his cool, emotionless face, through the clouds. He watched as the remnants of the Allied Shinobi Forces, stumbled towards the crater to find out what had happened whilst they were under that powerful genjutsu.
Floating above the shinobi, with the Tsuchikage alongside him at the same altitude, was Gaara. Sand was streaming off the back of his cloud of sand, as he manipulated to go faster through the air, racing towards the crater to find out what happened to his friend, Naruto. He could hear the Tsuchikage next to him, chatting away in his ear, nagging him, telling the Kazekage to slow down and let him rest as his back was hurting.
From his height, he could peer into the crater and Gaara looked frantically for the signature, bright blond hair of his friend. When he had looked everywhere and found nothing he descended as fast as he could on his little mound of sand. He dropped off next to Kakashi.
The Copy Ninja was on the verge of collapse when the Kazekage grabbed him by the shoulders and shouted at him, demanding where Naruto was. Kakashi's heart ached with the thought of breaking Gaara's heart once he told him how his friend had turned his back on the shinobi world.
"He's gone now, Gaara" the Leaf ninja explained how Naruto and Hinata had left with Sasuke after Naruto had given up on his dream of becoming Hokage. The poor Kazekage looked on the verge of tears, the Tsuchikage beside him reaching up to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder, his expression stern.
The sound of Kiba's howling echoed around the walls of the crater, being the first thing that all the shinobi who crested over the top of the crater paid attention to, in their stumbling march towards their need for leadership.
Once each of the five Kage had arrived, the Mizukage using Lady Tsunade as a support, they started their meeting to discuss the aftermath of the Fourth Great Ninja War.
Both the Mizukage and the Hokage looked worse for wear, their pretty, pale cheeks tinged red and dashed with brown dirt and black soot. Their clothes were ripped to shreds, displaying more of their desired bodies to the rest than they would have liked.
The Raikage's right arm, the only arm he had left, had ended up broken by the end of the war. It took on a bruised purple shade against his bronze skin; his elbow was slightly misshapen and the white of his bones were threatening to pop out. Luckily for him, however, he was joined by the legendary medical kunoichi, Tsunade Senju, so his arm was being attended to and her face didn't carry much concern for its condition so he was sure that it would be healed in no time at all.
The Mizukage was in the midst of comforting the brooding Kazekage, whilst the Tsuchikage retold the events that Kakashi had explained to the five Kage. Once he had finished, and Kakashi had confirmed the missing details, the Raikage's face was scrunched up in anger as he thought about what he would do to Naruto for breaking his promise.
"We have to find them immediately!" he commanded, everyone's heads within the crater turning towards the bellowing Kage.
"They're probably long gone by now, Raikage" the Mizukage voicing her sense of reason, "We need to focus on recovering our forces"
The Tsuchikage turned to the Hokage and asked "And what do you think we should do, Princess? Since we are talking about the Hidden Leaf's shinobi after all"
She thought about the problems at hand for a few moments, which quickly started to come to a whole minute, until her pensive expression hardened.
"We'll split our forces in two, those who need to recover will stay here and help or protect others in critical condition, myself and the Raikage will take command here. Tsuchikage, Mizukage and Kazekage, you'll take every shinobi who is able and spread out to search for Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke. Aim to take them back alive! However, if you must, eliminate them" She spoke that last part with an audible gulp, almost like her Adam's apple was trying to bust out of her throat.
The split Allied Shinobi Forces went on with their respective assignments, both halves struggling to make much progress.
The first half were barely able to manage staying alive, with thousands of allied shinobi in life threatening conditions. Men and women were dragging their comrades towards the crater where the medical corps had set up a temporary first aid station for the wounded. The Hokage had taken her place in the main medical tent, dealing with the most severe cases and delegating the others to Shizune and the other medical ninja.
The Allied Shinobi Forces' medical corps struggled tirelessly but couldn't manage to save everyone. Their numbers dwindled, some medical ninja even breaking down after they had lost a patient due to lack of chakra. With every loss, the tension around the makeshift camp multiplied, each tent filled with nervous murmuring and eerie sobbing.
The other half of the remaining forces were fairing arguably worse, their widespread search parties not being able to find any scrap of evidence pointing to Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke's whereabouts.
Shikamaru was in a daze trying to direct Choji and Ino along with the other allied shinobi who were counting on him to take command. He was barely able to hold on to his usual cool, calm and nonchalant demeanour.
Ino was half-heartedly searching, with her mind occupied by thoughts of Sakura and her condition. Choji, however, had gotten over his shock and was looking for tracks with a new invigorated look of determination.
For the meantime, Tenten and Lee had joined up with Kiba, Shino and Akamaru, seeing as both their teams were made up of two shinobi each now. However, they struggled to act coherently with Lee rushing off excitedly like his usual self and forcing Tenten to chase after him, trying to reel him back in from his overexcitement. Kiba had ran off as well in his tunnelled sense of anger, scouring every little branch and patch of grass in the forest their search party was sent to. Akamaru chased after him, worried about his best friend and handler.
With two overly passionate shinobi, a worried kunoichi and a ninja hound on his squad, Shino looked carefully through the forest brush to find any tracks or other indicators of their targets' whereabouts, wondering how a literal dog could be the most dependable member on his team.
In the skies above them, Sai had been given the task of surveying the largest stretch of land using his Super Beast Scroll, only to be disappointed in his lack of finding anything. Being at this high altitude made it all to easy for Sai to fall into the trap of his own thoughts, thinking of Naruto and what he had done for him, saving him from the mindset that Danzo had brainwashed into him. Now that he was gone, what would Sai do now?
As these thoughts floated around his head, Sai barely noticed the splatter of raindrops on the giant ink wings of his bird he had drawn. With the lack of tracks they had found so far and now the rain starting to come down harder, Sai wasn't surprised when he glanced down to the forest floor below and saw the signal to pack up the search, since the rain would wash away any footprints they hadn't found already, if they had actually found any.
And so, the Allied Shinobi Forces, as battered and bruised as they were, split back into its separate shinobi armies and they all returned to their respective nations.
The Hidden Leaf shinobi's return was mixed. They were greeted with the huge crowds of villagers celebrating their return from war. Once they saw all the sullen, drooping faces of most of the returning shinobi however, the loud cheering started to subside.
Each of the shinobi drudged home to recover, Kiba having to be dragged home by his mom and sister. Sakura, finally conscious, said her goodbyes to the others, Ino and Tenten looked at her worryingly, asking her to let them come over and look after her. She shrugged them off, telling them that she'd be fine after she recovered for a little while and they should focus on their debriefings. She went home feeling almost as bad as she did when Sasuke used his Tsukuyomi on her. That dream was weird.
Time: Present Day
"Sakura!"
Sakura's eyes snapped open.
"Are you even paying attention!" The Hokage asked, a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"I'm sorry milady, I'll do better"
"You should be completely focused! This issue centres around your team, Sakura!"
Sakura shoulders sagged as she tried to hide herself. All of a sudden, she felt a firm hand rest on her shoulder.
"Come on, Lady Fifth, I'm sure Sakura is doing her best! And besides it was my team too" the silver-haired Kakashi gave the Hokage a wink. Lady Tsunade glared at him, before turning her attention to the rest of the shinobi gathered.
"As you may have heard already, Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke have been spotted nearby the Hidden Leaf Village" Tsunade announced. "Shikamaru Nara! Step forward!"
"Yes ma'am!" Shikamaru took a step forward out of the line of shinobi.
"I'm assigning you as the leader of this mission" the Hokage declared. "You'll be in charge of each of the shinobi stood here in this office, understood?"
"Yes ma'am, does that include Kakashi as well ma'am?"
"Unfortunately not, Kakashi will be directing the ANBU Black Ops to try and spread out the search area, they'll set up ambushes for the rogue ninja, if they manage to escape from your team"
"I'll need additional information for this mission, if you don't mind?" The hardworking slacker asked.
"That's fair" Lady Tsunade complied with his request, taking a deep breath, her enormous breasts bouncing when she exhaled. "They were spotted to east of the Hidden Leaf Village, heading that same direction, presumably towards the border with the Land of Steam, you'll leave soon, and you should catch up to them in a day or two"
"Then we'll get going immediately ma'am" Shikamaru assured her.
"Be careful guys, you all know how powerful they are now" Kakashi warned as they all started to leave.
Once the ten shinobi left the Hokage's office, they decided to meet up at the front gate after they went to go prepare for their impossible mission.
The mood at the front gate was heavy, each of the young adults gathered around Shikamaru, nervously shifting from one foot to the other.
"Ok guys!" Shikamaru exclaimed "Lets get this over with! We all know how difficult this mission may seem, so remember to not go easy on them just because they used to be our friends! Now they are threatening the Hidden Leaf Village, our home, so we must do whatever is necessary to protect it and if that means eliminating them then do not hesitate!" he spoke in a stoic tone.
The listening shinobi shivered with his orders, hoping that they wouldn't be forced to kill their old friends. Sakura managed to regain control over her hunched shoulders, relaxing them to focus on the coming mission.
"So how do we go about doing this Shikamaru?" the pink haired kunoichi asked the mission leader, her voice steady.
The genius shinobi gave her a small smile, grateful that she was ready and willing to go up against her former comrades. "We'll split into 3 teams" he described his plan "Ino, Choji, Temari and myself will head towards the north east and search for them in that direction, in case they turn and head for the Hidden Sound Village or the Land of Frost. Tenten, Lee and Shino, you guys head towards the direction of south east and aim to cut them off if they try to head towards the Land of Tea or the Land of Water. If they do head towards the Hidden Mist then you three should receive aid in your mission from the Hidden Mist's ninja so don't worry. Finally, Sakura, you'll lead a team composed of yourself, Sai, Kiba and Akamaru directly towards Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata in the direction of east. If anyone spots them, be sure to send up a signal and the rest of us will do our best to get to you as soon as possible. Is that understood?" Shikamaru told his subordinates.
With their strategy set, the ten shinobi and ninja hound set off easterly to track down their oldest friends and former comrades.
The large group of Hidden Leaf ninja headed deeper into the east of the Land of Fire. Eventually, they came to the point that they had decided would be their rendezvous point if each of the teams end up not finding anything at all.
Each of the team leaders gave each other a curt nod before they lead their teams away.
Sakura's team spent over half a day, nonstop running through the forest, following after Kiba and Akamaru who had taken up their position at the front of the pack, using their keen sense of smell to look for Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata's tracks.
Even though she couldn't see his face, Sakura could tell Kiba's face was all scrunched up with his brows furrowed in a wolf-like snarl. Akamaru followed behind him closely, rubbing his body against Kiba's legs in worry.
"Hey Kiba! The sun's gone down, let's set up camp and rest" Sakura shouted ahead.
"What! We have to keep going if we want to find Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke!" he growled back.
"We haven't found any tracks yet Kiba! We need to rest so tomorrow we can look just as hard as we have today" Sakura pleaded.
They finally managed to find a spot to rest in the forest brush. Their fire glowed, its ember flames licking the air. Kiba sat leaning back against a tree trunk watching Akamaru, who had set himself between the fire and Kiba, sleeping comfortably, his back rising and falling with every breath. Sai had set himself a few metres away from the fire, in order to gain a wider view of the scene he was attempting to draw. He focused his brush strokes on Sakura's pensive face as she watched the stars above with her emerald orbs.
"So, what will happen if we do find them?" Kiba asked out loud, he was clearly confused and needed someone else to give him direction.
"I guess we'll just have to fight them if it comes to it" Sakura looked towards him, his hands restlessly grasping each other.
"Good! I can't wait to smack Naruto around for corrupting poor Hinata!" he grinned at the thought.
"You'll have to get in line" Sakura laughed "After I pound Naruto, I'll go get Sasuke and drag them back to the village!"
Sakura and Kiba's giggling came to an end when she looked around and saw Sai's paintbrush stop in the middle of a stroke. His face had dropped into a genuine sad smile, a smile that Sakura had become all too familiar with these last two years.
"Sai please don't worry, we're just joking!" Sakura tried to reassure him "We're going to get the three of them back, it may mean we have to fight them but I'm one of the best medical ninja in the village! If they get hurt, I'm sure I can help"
He tried his best to erect a better smile, still unsure that he could fight Naruto.
All of a sudden, the wind picked up blowing out the steady fire. In the pitch black of the cool night, Sakura looked around the trees, seeing all the different shapes flit past.
One of these shapes caught her eye, a cloud. And not just any cloud, it was a red cloud.
When she saw this, she immediately followed through the dark forest, going off on instinct as she jumped from branch to branch throughout the trees, chasing this shadowy figure.
She chased for hours, until the few beams of sunlight from the early rising sun shone through the trees. The figures straw hat hid their significant features, so Sakura had no clue who she was chasing but she was sure of one thing, they were Akatsuki.
Once the figure stopped in an unknown clearing, they turned towards her, taking off the straw hat, throwing it in the air behind them.
Sakura gasped. What met her in the clearing was the bright blond hair of Naruto Uzumaki, with his trademark mischievous grin.
A/N – So how was it? I hope you enjoyed it! Most of the chapters will probably end up being around 4k words, apart from a select few which will end up being longer than the others, it just depends on if I think the chapter can continue. Spoiler Alert! But I'm thinking of having the first proper lemon in this story be an mmf threesome. Let me know how you feel about that because I'll probably change it if no one likes the idea. Anyways thanks for reading.
Yours truly,
Signing off.