Meltdown

I really do hate re-reading my stories, but I always have to do it. I re-read them so many times sometimes I forget what I was even trying to convey in the first place. So, after re-reading Meltdown I give you this. I really should probably re-read LGA... ugh maybe later. Enjoy.

Jumping back into this is going to be harder than I thought. Feel free to tell me any important tidbits in the Naruto series you think should sway the timeline of this fiction.

Random thought, it would be really awesome if I could get some fan art, see my words come to life. I'd really appreciate it if you support this fic enough, inspire me some more.

"I feel it's much too late
Can't keep the wolves at bay
There's nothing left to lose
If you can't take it with you
I fear there's nothing left
The world's gone blind and deaf
We're given what we choose
Give me unconsciousness."

- As Tall As Lions "You Can't Take It With You"

"Naruto!" Sakura, a little over four months along in her pregnancy called out to her dear orange clad friend, she lightly jogged over to him which was becoming a chore now days. Her ankles felt like they swelled up every time she took a step.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto's eyes widened at the view, she looked like she would trip over herself at any moment onto the dirt below them. The boy teloported to her side and held her from running any further to him, worried about the baby.

"Hey Baka, I wanted to hang out with you today. Are you free for the day?" Sakura panted and straightened out her yellow dress, she had taken a picture for Tsunade, she claimed that it was to show her child later on how much of a loving mother she was, and for her to remember that precious moment in her life. Sakura didn't want to protest that last part even though she knew there was valid evidence that it was not the case, she let her take a few photos to start and album for her budding family.

She felt beautiful for once, and enjoyed that she could still retain such an emotion during dark times of war. Sakura wanted to spend the day with her friend, look nice, and enjoy the day while she could, reap the benefits her good mood held.

"Yeah I'm free, what were you interested in doing?" Naruto opened his wallet and looked inside. "Don't worry about the expenses, I've got it covered."

"Oh there's no need for that, I have some money stashed away, and when I was away for all the time I was technically getting paid because I was on the job but MIA, I'm set financially for a while." Sakura took his hand and started to walk the streets with him.

"I still want to treat you Sakura, you haven't been treated nice by most and you need a little TLC sometimes, so let me Sakura." Naruto looked at her with serious eyes, he truly wanted to lavish her as much as he could.

"Alright, fine but I get to pay for the food. Ichiraku is on me." She smiled and led him into the stand for lunch. She tucked in her dress below her legs as she got onto a stool, Naruto felt the need to help her with that much to her protest. They ordered a few bowls to start out, Naruto always eating more than his weight in noodles quickly asked for more food. Sakura felt a little more than famished and nearly ate as much as him with no shame. Their bill rung up was pretty high an hour later, but they didn't care.

The duo paid the bill and left off into the sunny day, taking a walk through the forest near their childhood training grounds. Nostalgia warmed their hearts, now with Sasuke back with them they would no longer look upon the area with sadness and despair. Their team was back, repaired. It once again felt like home.

They had come a long way from when they first started out, Sakura an ordinary fangirl, Naruto the dimwitted knucklehead, and Sasuke the angsty pre-teen, directed by a mysterious pervert. She was now an all-star medic, Naruto a Hokage to be, and Sasuke the leader of his clan- rebuilding it to it's former glory, still directed by a mysterious pervert. Sakura giggled for once in a very long time, it was good to be back in Konoha.

"Hey nii-chan, can.. can I be the godfather?" Naruto hesitantly rested his hand on her now protruding stomach. She reminded herself later after the birth she would be undergoing rigorous training to get her lean muscled body back.

"Hah," Sakura smiled and put her hand over his on her belly. "I was kinda hoping for you and Sasuke to be my son's godfathers. It's going to be a tough job taking care of him.. I'll need the both of you."

"Alright!" Naruto exclaimed and jumped into the air in excitement. "I'll be the best godfather there ever was!"

"I'm sure you will be.. I'm sure." She smiled at him, the sun began to set and hit her in a most magnificent light. She beamed with her friend while the sun danced upon her face in a molten amber color, her eye obtaining a gold tinge in them, she looked heavenly and in that moment nothing else mattered but her baby boy and his wonderful future she would provide for him.

Screams filled the dead of the night, blood spattered the ground beneath his scuffed boots. Itachi wiped a trickle of his own blood from his mouth, a frown permanently graced his features. Sharingan ablaze, he searched for any survivors. Piles of rubble were all that were left in the building him and his team resided in. Others had stayed within the shelter as well before a ball of fire crashed into the building. He heard people scream out in agony, begging to be helped or be put out of their misery. It made his ears ache, and the man strained his ears to hear anything from his team, just a peep to let him know that they were alive like the rest of these suffering people or dead underneath tons of concrete of an abandoned library.

"Itachiiiiii!" A female screamed, it was Hoshi. The Anbu ran in the direction of her voice, finding her covered in large amounts of boulders.

"Stay still." He hushed her, slowly lifting the debris off of her and also inspecting her for injuries. She looked so helpless there, tears in her eyes from the amount of pain she was in. For a moment he almost saw green in those sapphire eyes.

"Have.. have you seen Jun?" She shook out, Itachi helped her onto her feet and noted she could barely stand for the boulders damaged her legs the most.

"Not yet, climb on my back." He motioned her behind him and lifted her onto himself. "We need to find him and make it to another village or better yet a country, our area is no longer safe and the inhabitants in the rubble are doomed anyways. We need to leave now." He ran as quickly as he could, considering he had been hit pretty bad from the wreckage and had the niggling feeling he was suffering from a concussion.

"I bet he's fighting whoever threw that ball of.. whatever that was.. that couldn't have been a jutsu, it was too powerful to just be fire." Hoshi sounded scared from not understanding what had attacked them, Madara may have a leg up on them in techniques and that just meant another reason Konoha could fall, another reason why they could die. She was terrified of death.

"We'll discuss it later." Itachi silenced her a second time, looking through his sharingan eyes he detected a familiar chakra presence. It must have been Jun, it flared uncontrollably in every direction like a beacon to him.

It was his teammate like he expected but something was different about him, he wasn't just the bloodthirsty mist ninja but he had a certain.. demonic presence about him as he was cutting down enemy ninja and dodging every ball of fire that was fire at him from afar. He looked inhuman, grinning like a Cheshire cat, laughing like this was all a game he knew he could win. If Itachi didn't know any better he would have thought he had gone insane, but that wasn't the case, he made a deal with the devil and became more than what any man could be. The only comfort in that was that he sold his services to the highest bidder and Konoha happened to be that bidder.

Skirting around the battle field, Itachi found a safe place to put Hoshi before going after Jun. He hushed her and made her stay there, putting up a small ward to keep minor enemies away. If she needed to protect herself further than that, he knew she could, and she always could scream- that would get the attention of both of them to come to her aid.

The Uchiha darted back onto the pulverized ground, next to his teammate's side, Jun acknowledged him momentarily before grabbing his hand to lunge him into the air- back where the cannon fired to dismantle it. Flying through the air didn't bother Itachi as he threw kunai into people's throats on his journey to the other side, dodging fireballs and sending a few of his own around the cannon. He landed gracefully, already bashing heads in and slitting throats moments after his heels hit the ground.

The ninja weren't powerful separately but proved difficult to face in numbers, making it tedious to get near the cannon and shut it down. How had they even moved that massive structure that close to them without any ninja noticing? They had patrols every hour of the day. Someone must have dozed off, letting them have ample time to take out most of their little army they had left in the Mist.

Itachi cursed Madara's name aloud and used his mangekyo sharingan on the group before him, they fell to the dirt dead. The Uchiha climbed to the top of the cannon and completed a few hand signs before an inscription was placed on the surface he rested his hands on, he jumped back before blinking- igniting the seal and blowing the cannon to smithereens. Itachi looked back to see Jun finishing off the rest of the shinobi who were apart of the attack. They met eyes and raced back to Hoshi who just happened to scream.

The kunoichi was held up by the length of her hair into a large shinobi's hands. He grinned at the two men who twitched to get at him with all their might, Jun seemed to he shaking in anger.

"I have something you want, you have something I want. Care to make a deal?" He laughed and grabbed Hoshi higher, she whimpered out in pain and clambered onto his arm to relieve some of the pressure on her scalp, any more and her hair would be ripped from her head.

"No." Jun growled out. "Give us back Hoshi now!" He gripped his large sword tighter and his body became angled to strike.

"Jun." Itachi spoke calmly, looking at Hoshi nearly cry, helpless in her position, those emerald eyes staring back at him, begging him.

"Alright." Jun stood where he was, waiting for orders.

"You have a scroll I want, where is it?" He lowered Hoshi slightly, giving her a moment to think of a way to escape.

"This?" Itachi unsheathed an elaborate scroll from his back pouch, the one they had been trying to preserve but had been burned to a crisp due to Jun's carelessness. But the enemy didn't know that.

"Yes, hand it over!" He tried to get closer to Itachi but Jun growled viciously at him.

"Give us Hoshi first." Itachi willed himself to not look back at the girl, either he was going mad or he was hit too hard on the head for he saw more of Sakura in each glance. Pink hair was in the mans hands instead of ebony.

"Fine, just throw me the scroll while you're at it and I'll be on my way." He tossed the girl on the ground and caught the scroll Itachi immediately threw at him.

"No scroll is worth one's life." He told the ninja, knowing he didn't care, too dense to realize it was too easy for him to obtain the scroll.

"You fool." He laughed and ran off into the unknown.

Jun ran to Hoshi's side immediately, inspecting her all over. Itachi watched the surrounding area, having his eyes anywhere but on her. The ninja decided that since Mist was a lost cause, they needed to get to the closest area possible. The Fire Nation was just right next to them, in arms reach. They would find the nearest boat and infuse all of their chakra into getting to the main land as quickly as possible. They wouldn't make it to Konoha in time but a small village off the coast would suffice.

"Lets go." Itachi led the way, with Jun carrying Hoshi on his back.

It's not much I know but, here's something to wet your appetite as I try to get this thing back into full swing.

Please leave a review, anyone can do it, and it only takes a minute out of your time. If I never got any reviews, I wouldn't be writing all this for you. So help me help you guys. Alright, thanks so much.

Much love. ~ LadyMarrowind.