I Do Not Own Naruto


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Passing of Seasons


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"Sakura!" his voice rang through the forest, she looked up just as kunai were hurled at her head, she pulled up Isobu as she felt her tails emerge from her body, two grabbed and defend Sai as the third wrapped around her deflecting the kunai.

"Naruto!" she shouted, he appeared in a golden flame of glory then as he leapt after their attackers. There was a massive roar which had her head snapping around to the purple glowing spiritual armor of the Uchiha member of their team. Black flames erupted around them all as he obliterated the enemy and landed beside her and Sai. Sai pulled his scroll, the paper flew out as his hand moved faster than possible bringing to life two tigers which lunged forward and she pulled the tails back into her.

"Sakura, we need to leave," Sasuke said.

"Agreed," she nodded.

"On it," Sai announced as he brought three birds to life. Sakura's head turned just in time to see a kunai hurled at Sasuke's back, she unlocked her seal as she stepped in front of the blade and it slashed through her heart. She gasped for breath as she stepped back and Sasuke spun around her as he produced a chidori blade which sliced through the enemy with ease.

"Ugly? Are you alright?" Sai demanded.

"Yes," she answered as her seal retracted from her limbes and disappeared momentarily.

"Got him! Let's go!" Naruto shouted as he reappeared with Kakashi slung on his shoulders and their mission target under his arm. They all took to the skies as she took their sensei and mission target on her bird with Sasuke as look out.

"Sakura?" he asked.

"Shush," she ordered as her ears tuned onto a pitch which had her sitting up.

"Naruto?" she called out.

"I hear it too," he assured her and both of them stared out at the forest below them.

"Genjutsu," Sasuke hissed as the sound of a flute reached her ears.

"Keep going!" she ordered as she ran off the bird, Sasuke one step before her and they both rocketed to the ground, Sasuke flattened himself to slow down a moment as she soared past him with a fist ready and her chakra pulsing. She slammed into the ground, the back lash of chakra alone leveled the forest as the purple hand of Susanoo caught her and pulled her to Sasuke's protected area.

"Problem solved," she huffed out and they looked over the decimated forest before he nodded and had his Susanoo flying after their team.

Isobu grumbled a bit in exhaustion as he settled in her again, she smiled as she thanked him again for saving her and her friends as she laid down for a moment.

"Who knew saving Hinata would be so difficult," she huffed out.

"Aa," he agreed when they finally reached the clearing where their friends were waiting for them and Susanoo dissipated then as she landed and darted over to the two unconscious people to attend to. Her chakra poured from her fingertips as she worked it into her patients and healed them from the inside out.

It had been six years since she had been made a jinchūriki, six years since the Hokage had fixed the seal the Mist had used and she had gone about learning all she could about Isobu. She had been the first to befriend her Tailed Beast in the Leaf, ever. Naruto had asked her to help him out with Kurama and that had taken another three years after her two of figuring out how to get Isobu to trust her and them coming to an understanding as to how their arrangement was to work. They were friends, Isobu and her, she liked letting him out to play; especially when she was at lakes because that was his favorite place in the world.

Despite her fears of change and being ousted for the change forced upon her, her friends were actually very supportive of her. The village had been horrified to learn she was another jinchūriki but the villagers weren't the ones who had really mattered to her; after all, they thought her to be an attention seeking young girl with pink hair and a huge forehead who was taken in by Hatake Kakashi out of pity rather than love.

But her friends were very supportive of her, Ino had actually gone so far as to possess a few of the villagers and have them douse themselves in itching powder for their comments before she'd return to her body; oh she did other petty little things, but her favorite seemed to be itching powder. Itachi and Izumi still loved her, and their first, and brand new, baby loved her, so she guessed that was good. Kisame was very proud of her and her taming of her Tailed Beast, especially since Samehada and Isobu were good friends of sorts; they both liked playing together. Sasuke and Naruto were always her boys and her best friends. Sasuke had never really seemed to care that she was now a jinchūriki, so long as she was annoying and alive at least. Naruto loved having another jinchūriki, especially when Kurama got out of hand and Isobu would sit on the fox; Isubo weighed a ton and he was all shell, armor, and spikey but very sweet and cuddling; however when he sat on Kurama the point got across. Come to think of it, he would also sit on Gaara's Tailed Beast whenever they met up and Sukaku acted out. Oh, and Kakashi adored her still, loved her like she was his daughter. Yamato was like her uncle and loved her still, and Sai was more like a brother to her than anyone else and he loved her too.

However, over the course of the last six years Sakura had managed to learn about not only being a good jinchūriki but about healing. She had become and apprentice of the famed Tsunade, teaching Sakura to not only have her second nature chakra control, but how to have monster strength and the ultimate healing techniques. She was the only disciple of Tsunade to also unlock the Strength of a Hundred; though with her chakra reserves (her natural ones, not the ones for Isobu) it was more like the Strength of a Hundred Thousand according to Jiraiya; but she was on par with Sasuke and Naruto and that was all that mattered to her.

Even now as she worked to heal both Hinata and Kakashi, it was all that mattered to her as she kept them alive and let her chakra heal them on a cellular level.


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Sasuke stood guard over his team with Naruto and Sai as Sakura healed Kakashi and Hinata before they'd move out again, he knew the enemy was near as his eyes whirled to live and he watched the entire forest for a hint of the very Sound-nin who had taken Hinata and Kakashi when they had been on their tracking mission. Sakura hadn't even asked permission to leave when it was known Kakashi was missing, he and Naruto had just met her at the Gates, and Sai appeared saying they were a full squad and they moved out before the Hokage could stop them.

It was joked in the village that they were a four men army, capable of decimating armies. Which wasn't a lie, he knew because they had decimated the second Cloud attack when they had been sixteen, they destroyed the forces coming for Gaara at the time. It wasn't intentional on their part, Gaara had been kidnapped, and that infuriated his other two jinchūriki friends and that had led to them being a country they didn't belong, destroying an entire army surround a sacred place as the Cloud attempted to extract Shukaku from Gaara. To say Sakura and Naruto had been greatly offended and out raged was the understatement of the century; he had also been infuriated that they'd dare to attack another he dared to call his friend.

Naruto, Sai, Sakura and himself had gone with Temari to go get her brother back, and it had sealed an alliance between Suna and the Leaf in the process.

It had also made them the four most feared shinobi since the Legendary Sannin.

If the Leaf had a problem with an army force there was no need to send out their entire force, the Leaf just sent them. It had made everyone fearful of them in the process because the four of them could and had been known to annihilate anything in their paths.

However, for stealth, for spying, for the smaller missions they'd be broken up in their ANBU ranks.

Not all missions required mountain ranges being reformed and reshaped.

"Sakura, we have to move," Sasuke Said as he stared at the coming forces of the Cursed Marked Sound. The monsters were coming for them all.

"We're ready to go, Tsunade will have no problems with them," Sakura said then as she stood up.

"Hn," he nodded. Sai brought birds to life then as they all got on and flew off before they were attacked again and did what they always did; which was destroy their enemies.

"Let me see your Sharingan," Sakura ordered when he turned his eyes off as they flew too high up to be attacked and to quickly to be stopped.

"They are fine," he snapped at her.

"No pain from the exchange?" she asked as she grabbed his face and turned his head to her with her fingers resting beside his eyes as he felt her chakra softly invade his eyes again to look for damage he knew was not there this time.

"They are fine," he assured her as she looked anyway. About four years ago he and his brother had 'exchanged eyes' in a manner of speaking when Sasuke unlocked his Mangekyō Sharingan. Sakura and Tsunade had overseen the experiment and he knew that four years later Sakura still worried about his eyes, she had panicked the first time he confided in her he was going to go blind using the Mangekyō Sharingan if he wasn't careful. Even Itachi had told her the same thing when she demanded to know if it was true. She had asked for the cure to keep them from going blind and when they had told her she had started making plans behind their backs and doing research on everything she knew about healing at the time. it was because of that research she had attracted the attention of Tsunade who had helped her out and then taken her on as an apprentice.

However this little experiment of theirs' had had him and Itachi both ending up with something the Uchiha family scripts called the 'Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan'. Which they tried to understand, but since the Cloud's first attack had lost much information for.

"I'm allowed to worry," she argued.

"Tch, annoying," he informed her when she pulled away and sat there with him in silence as they flew back to the village.

"Think they will notice we're gone?" she asked.

"Itachi and Izumi knew when I left, Kisame probably figured it out, and Minato is ot as oblivious as the dobe, also, our training field will have been silent for three days," he stated flatly. She huffed indignantly as she fell back on the bird and sighed.

"Damn it," she grumbled.

"Hn," he shrugged. At worst they'd be lectured, he sincerely doubted they'd be having any real punishment because they had just gone about saving the Hyūga heiress from the clutches of Orochimaru and destroyed his labs and whatever samples that would've entailed. Sasuke had a feeling that they'd just be yelled at, told never to do it again and good job. Like last time.

"Thanks for coming with me to get him again," Sakura said.

"Aa," he nodded his head and she smiled her pretty smile which had him softening slightly as her short pink hair fanned around her head.

"You really are too good for me," she mused, he poked the seal on the center of her brow as they sat there in silence while the cold air sliced through them. He felt content with her beside him as he stared at the sky and enjoyed a moment of peace beside her. Sakura was sleeping when they landed and he carefully lifted her up as they walked to the village where his retired ANBU brother was awaiting them.


That's all for now folks!

Enjoy Blooming in Darkness! =)