Disclaimer: Naruto does not own me, or vice-versa.
Notes: A couple of reviews are asking if this is a NaruSaku. At this point I'm going to have to say yes. I've changed the formatting to remove tabs, I don't think that they are necessary.
-- Chapter 2: Searching --
Sakura woke up to a loud banging on her apartment door. She went to the door to see Kakashi through the eye-hole. She opened the door and Kakashi immediately asked, "Have you seen Naruto?"
"Not for the last two days, why?"
"Shit!" And with that Kakashi dashed away. 'What was that about?' Sakura wondered. She showered and put on her usual clothes. She walked to Tsunade's office. She was puzzled by Kakashi's urgency that morning in finding Naruto.
Sakura reached the Hokage's office in the tower. Tsunade was sitting with her hands holding her head. Her index fingers were rubbing her temples. 'She looks ten years older, or ten years less young, however that works.'
"Sensei what's wrong?"
"It's Naruto, he's disappeared. Nobody is really sure where he went or why."
Sakura paled. 'Oh god,' she thought. "There needs to be a team to go get him back."
"I already have a team going to find him, but I'm not sure they'll be able to --"
"I want on that team."
"Other than the fact that you are on his team, why should you be assigned to this operation? Even though Naruto may only be a genin, it will take a team of jounin to capture him."
Sakura swallowed. "I think it's my fault that he left."
Tsunade looked up at her with an expression that showed both anger and confusion. "Explain."
Sakura paused, choosing her words carefully. 'It's not easy to explain why you acted so horribly to one of your friends.' "Well, I, uh, I'm really upset about Sasuke's death and, uh, I was hard on Naruto. He tried to apologize, and I, I," she paused again, "called him a demon."
Tsunade's eyes turned fierce. "How could you have been so stupid? You think you feel pain right now? You think you're upset? Do you have any idea what Naruto has to be going through? Can you even imagine what it feels like to be at fault for your best friend's death? When he most need someone to care for him, you call him a demon!"
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Sakura fought her urge to cry, she knew she had been a bitch. She knew it was all her fault, but she had to hold herself together.
"Under usual circumstances I would not give you the mission you wanted for your mistake, but right now you are the best chance we have of convincing Naruto to come back. Prepare to leave immediately, you will have to catch up with Kakashi."
---
It took them three days just to find out what direction Naruto went. He had employed several tricks in order to delay them and throw them off. Of course he sent clones in multiple directions. He had additionally put multiple clones in one direction, to throw off Kakashi's Ninkens' smell, at least according to Pakkun. He even left pieces of cloth from his clothing in directions that his clones went, which technically shouldn't have been possible unless he gave it to them from the start, otherwise it would have been dispelled along with the clone. Since it had taken them two days just to find out that he was missing, Naruto had gotten a five-day head start.
After nine days the group, comprised of Kakashi, Gai, Jiraiya, and Sakura, came to the first village that Naruto stopped at, Komura. The village was rather large, and it's likely that it was one of Tsunade's favorites. Mini-casinos lined the streets of the recently built village. Sakura and Kakashi were paired together to search for information about Naruto in the village. As they walked they were amazed by how clean and, for lack of a better word, shiny the place was.
Sakura was losing hope. Very few of the villagers recognized Naruto, and they said that they had seen him four days earlier. They asked if they knew where he went, but nobody knew, it was, after all, a large village. They went to the hotel that Jiraiya chose. Each pair explained their small amount of information, which agreed.
"Perhaps we should just return to Konoha for now." said Jiraiya. Sakura had a shocked look on her face, she couldn't believe what he was saying. 'How could he just give up so easily?'
"He's right," Kakashi continued for him, "We have no way of knowing what direction he went or what he plans on doing. We have a better chance of going back to Konoha, where we will be able to get better information. We can send out word to our towns and our allies asking them to be on the lookout for him, plus we can have him put in missing-nin capture status."
Sakura had a beaten look on her face. She knew he was right, but she wanted to just keep on going. 'If I give up now, will I ever get another chance to find him?' she thought. She submitted, "Alright."
"We'll rest here for tonight, and head back to Konoha in the morning."
---
Three years had passed and they were no closer to finding Naruto. Reports of sightings of him in cities had come in, but whenever they got there, he was gone. Sometimes villagers said they knew where he was going, and they followed the trail, but he was never where they said. Naruto was smart enough to ruin his trail for them. A few hunter-nins had come into contact with him, but none actually came close to catching him. She wasn't surprised, in the book his rank was genin and there was a reasonably high reward for his capture, it seemed to be quick cash. Of course none were ready for his skill level, some even said he found them before they did him, and they were knocked out before they even had a chance.
Every place he went, there were the remains of large battles. Sakura constantly worried that perhaps the Akatsuki had finally captured him, and that the destroyed land was the result of their battle, but every time she received more sighting news of him.
Now Sakura and Kakashi were in Sawason, a village that was in incredible poverty. The only time she had seen something this bad was in the Land of Waves. The homeless lined the unpaved streets. Their water source, a small stream, was brown from the dirty city. Sakura couldn't help but wonder what Naruto was doing in a place like this.
Kakashi had gone to find an inn, as the sun had already set. Sakura went around asking people if they had seen Naruto, showing them the three-year-old picture. The people made a simple deal: they would talk in exchange for money. After having paid several people she still had not come upon any useful information.
Sakura sighed, and began toward the meeting place. She noticed that two people were following her, based upon their footsteps they were male. She sighed once more, this time out of exasperation. She went to the first empty alley she could find, she did not want to cause a commotion for the villagers. 'I wonder how long it will take them to come out. It's unlucky for them that they chose a jounin to pick on,' Sakura thought. She kept on walking further into the alley until finally they showed themselves.
"Look at this pretty girl," one said to the other.
"Yes, very pretty," the other replied.
Sakura examined them closely. They wore blood-red clothes, which she couldn't help but wonder if they came that way. Their faces had piercings everywhere, which made them look rather disgusting. The most disturbing part was their eyes, which were completely black except for the pupil and iris which shined yellow. She was sick of dealing with perverted freaks like these.
"Alright," she said, "You have ten seconds to leave before I kick your ass."
They turned to each other and chuckled a short laugh. "I like it when they get angry, don't you?" The one which did not speak nodded.
"Fine," she said, "It's time for you two to die." She built enough chakra in her hand to send an elephant flying and rushed forward; she thrust her arm at one of them, neither of which had even moved. At the very last second the targeted ninja dodged to the side. Sakura looked at them. 'How did he move so fast,' she thought.
"Oh this one is fierce, and very angry. Perhaps we'll have to convince her to calm down."
Again, Sakura attacked; they both dodged, but this time they went for a counter. Sakura went to block, but their yellow eyes flashed and she could no longer move, her body had been paralyzed. One of them kicked her and she flew back, unable to dodge. Her body hit the ground, still unable to move. 'Oh god,' she thought, 'Kakashi, please find me.' They began walking towards her, both smirking something wicked.
She felt herself being surrounded chakra and grew even more worried, until she felt it's protective nature. The wind grew violent and the two men who before seemed so confident had worried looks on their faces as cuts and gashes wounded their bodies. Each were picked by tornado-like winds and slammed into the walls at incredible speeds. Neither got up.
Sakura looked up to see a figure on top of the building in front of her, standing before the moon. The only thing she had time to make out was his spiked hair before he was gone. She toward the two men and found that their bodies were gone too. A cold shiver of excitement went down her spine.