Sakura's synopsis is technically the very first paragraph i ever posted for Someday. I decided to never scrap anything that i write but instead try to rework it or rewrite it. So if you read it before, hope you like it a second time...um ...YEAH!

And two quick notes - for this fic i've pushed their ages up a year or so; rookie 9 about 17/18, team Gai 18/19 & I made a mistake in chapter three- I have both Konan and Kisame on their way to Rai, Correction: Only ms. Konan by her lonesome is headed in that direction. Moving on, this is like three updates in the space of about a month and a half. I'm doing good!

And even with no reviews-if you do i promise you virtual dollars, free to use at any imaginary shop you'd like to browse- i'll still stick with this to the very end...when ever that shall be. So here's to hoping it continues. HOORAH! lol^^-anywho-

Again, this is designed around the idea of reoccurring themes. Anywhere from repeated lines to similar experiences, situations and story elements. This is loosely a concept piece so bear with me and enjoy.

Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto.

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Summary: Cuz in the end, I thought they'd all be standing.

JadedSiren's Fighting Dreamers: Someday


Chapter 5- A Gathering

"When all hell's breakin' loose,

You'll be riding the eye of the storm!"*


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Her breathing was being to get heavy, but she didn't loose pace, making sure Naruto was never more than a step or two ahead of her. They were moving so quickly they seemed to rip through the wind. Their repeated dance atop the tree tops was almost mindless now. The effortless landing, bracing their weight before leaping off again, was normal travel for a ninja. Even still the enemy at their back was not to be taken lightly. She plucked open she side pouch and quickly swallowed a chakra pill.

"Naruto." He inclined his head to her before she flicked the second chakra pill over his head. He caught it and tossed it back smoothly. They were on high alert, he was complety focused and aware. She was shamed to think how many times she had ever doubted he could be anything other than what she thought he had been.

Now he was without a doubt, a critical part of her life. Him and Kakashi were everything to her.

Even Yamato and Sai were her family now. Factor in, Tsunade, the Hokage and her sempai, Ino and the rest of the genin of her academy class and Sakura had a whole basket of people she cared for.

She wasn't the little girl she'd once been. She now knew how to protect those she cared about.

With a near photographic memory and awesome chakra control, she was fast approaching the actual possibility of becoming the most skilled medical ninja, ever. Tsunade-sama's tutelage wasn't something to sneer at. Coupled with Sakura's wild emotions and well, she delved into the training head on. She wanted to protect her important people. She learned that from Naruto.

Naruto. There were times when he seemed completely unrecognizable from the boy he'd been. His once wild and outrageous boasting that one day he would become Hokage weren't wild outrageous boast any longer. So many people drew hope from his dream. That one day he would indeed fulfill that promise. Sakura truly believed that Naruto would guide the Hidden Leaf Village into a golden age.

Oh, she doubted he would be able to stop all the wars or missions or change the fact, that Shinobi tended to live shorter life spans. But Naruto would care. He would care and nurture and protect his village with a force of life she'd yet to see anyone come close to. He would do everything in his power to keep the village thriving and keep his family intact.

And therein that thought lay Sakura's one regret, her most painful memory, and most desperate wish, all in one.

Sasuke.

For all the people she and Naruto called theirs, they were missing the most pivotal piece.

Before Yamato and Sai and even Tsunade and Master Jaraiya, there had been that dark haired, dark eyed boy. That dark tortured lonely boy.

Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura were not whole. Teammate; brother, son, and yes for her love.

They each were missing a link. Her feelings for him had not changed. Nor did she think they ever really would. They stayed, when she was child and it had simply been a crush. They only grew and became even more complicated when she was 12 and she was only beginning to understand what they meant, she still knew. And now she was sure.

She wanted him to be happy and whole. And to come back to team 7.

He may have believed that his true purpose lay outside the villages gates but Sakura knew better. Those hurts and demons that chased him could never be healed by a killing hand. The thought of the lonely despair that awaited him at the end of his journey left her in chills, and desperate to spare him such. How much pain could a single soul bear.

She sped up taking the lead for a second or two before Naruto pushed harder. They had been going for quite a bit. Perhaps at another time such a pace would have surprised her. But again, they were not the children they had been.

This mission was about their family. They were committed to going harder and faster. To being better than before.

And they didn't give a dame who was at their back. To hell with the Akatsuki. Up ahead was Sasuke and no one was going to get in their way.

Most mornings Sakura would came wake with a start-

She lifted a hand and quickly wiped away the lone tear that tracked down her cheek, taking a breathe as her pulse picked back up from the slow humming that came with sleep.

She pushed herself out of bed and stepped into her training clothes, laid out along the back of the chair near her desk and her room's single window. It was early enough to still be dark but she was used to waking up at such hours. Just like she was used to similar dreams.

They hadn't started after Sasuke left. No, they started after Naruto did. She remembered sitting on her bed that second morning, alone. Kakashi gone, Naruto gone, Sasuke gone.

That was the first time when she hadn't just felt it but knew it with certainty. She was helpless to help them.

Slipping on her gloves, she wasted only a second running an absent hand through her hair, before she leapt out of the window. As the wind ripped past her it snatched away the moisture that managed to collect along her lashes.

This time she promised, heading off to the training fields, she wouldn't be left behind.

That night-

Sakura came awake with a start but fully aware. Her exhausted minute doze against Hinata's now rickety desk hadn't taken away her memories of the day; the shock of Pein's attack only hours before or the dulled ache of chakra exhaustion from endless healing. She paused then pressed a hand to her heart. Perhaps for someone else they would expect a faster beat but hers didn't flutter wildly. Instead it was a slow, slow heavy knocking in side her chest. And it wasn't because of the dream. Similar ones were a steady sleep companion. She'd only felt this insistent intense drumming but a few times in the last few years.

She couldn't recall the very first time that her heart had changed rhythm. But she'd remembered the very first time she became aware of it.

Her hair was scattered along the forest, and she'd been holding onto Sasuke with all her might. As the curse began to recede from his body his heart had slowed, And for several moments hers a beat in time with his.

The next time she had found her self at the village gates begging him to stay with her, take her with him, let her love him.

It would be several years later that she'd find herself standing at the bottom of a valley gazing up at a face that still and would always, always haunted her.

And the very last time not too long ago, she'd been running, hoping with everything she had to get there before the fight, so long in coming was over.

She didn't even try to regulate the pumping of her pulse but scrambled out of the chair, knocking it over, as she snatched up her pouch, fitting it back around her waist in a jerky motion. Hinata stirred lightly in her bed but Sakura had already bolted out of the room before she could even speak.

Cuz she knew this rhythm. Because for the first time in over 4 years, Sasuke Uchiha had returned to the Leaf village.

Sakura raced down through the compound and slammed through the door leading outside of the branch wing only to step back in horror.

What was left of the Hidden Leaf Village was engulfed in Fire.

Oh Kami, no...


-

This wasn't good, Shikamaru thought to himself. The lazy Nara boy had propped himself against a stone pillar that lay just outside the resting center. His mostly healed broken leg throbbed absently, the lest of his problems. He sat position with his leg stretched out was both for comfort and was provided a ideal location to look over the villagers within.

There was but a few building that were completely intact. Whatever jutsu Pein had unleashed had unleveled the entire base structure of the leaf village. The damage was frightening, the death toll daunting but there hadn't been anytime to hesitate. Tsunade was quickly seeing to the reconstruction of the Kohona hospital. Even Shikamaru had been so far impressed by the efficiency of Anbu's work. Next had been to provide a location for survivors to rest and to establish contact with family and friends that had been in other areas of the village during Pein's attack. Many had been disappointed.

Around him were hundreds of villagers that had been relocated from the rubble of their homes to several hastily erected structures that were just enough to provide shelter. This giant... hut wasn't equipped to take damage. And the steadily growing fire the had suddenly engulfed the area near them was very quickly about to do a helluva lot of damage.

Shikamaru had not for one second anticipated the remaining members of Akatsuki to use their current vulnerable state to ensure further damage. Brilliant really but as he stood slowly fist clenched, foolish.

He had barley ended his slightly awkward slide down the stone when a strong hand pressed into his back to help straighten his stance.

"Shikamaru."

A calm knowing presence. Shika turned to meet Choji's serious brown eyes and his tight mouth.

"One minute," he murmured before digging into his vest pocket for his smokes and flint. A second later he breathed deep, watching a small bit of ash build at the tip of the end. Together they waited, quiet for a small moment.

The soft flurry atop a pile of debris to the left of them made him slid his glance over. Her hair was still in motion form her leap as she straightened and walked the few steps over to them.

"Ino?"

She looked tired. The rings around her eyes heavy and her hands were the slightly swollen form over using her healing jutsu. But the icy look within her blue eyes was all they needed to see.

"Ready," she said.


-

Tenten wasn't at home. Her small but comfortable dwellings wasn't the same now. Despite Lee's quick work a few hours worth of effort wasn't the same as the years she had put into getting it all just right. Oh she could sleep in it. Tenten had built her self a new bed and she supposed the kitchen that Lee had rather efficiently would dug out would do.

But the idea of all her weapons scattered in in a lumpy mess on top of dozens of crates, she couldn't bare to leave them on the floor, was just too much for her. Her weapons shelves were damaged beyond repair. When she started building them, she had but a singular shelve and a lone pair of kunai and it grew until nearly a fourth of her home were these wooden shelves built into her walls, housing hundreds of weapons. It would take years to get just right again. Depressing.

And a distraction.

Tenten had never expected to return to this. Her village was destroyed, mostly piles of broken stone and wood with bodies scattered throughout. As a leaf village Kunoichi it should have made her proud that most of the villagers were safe and not numbered among the dead. But the sheer reality that she could be one of the departed had never felt more real.

Not even her newly mended heart vessels, courtesy of the Hyuuga Prodigy during a irrational and heated fight several weeks past, made her think about death quite so intensely.

It was even more disturbing that Team Gai had found Hinata, bleeding to near death, splayed out in a giant sized crater. Tenten and her had gotten quite close over the years. She could even say that like Neji she thought of Hinata as a sister of sorts. The look on Neji's face had made her realized just how much he cared for his cousin.

Lee and Tenten didn't have families. They had team Gai. So they had no where else to be other than outside the Hyuuga compound. Hinata wasn't going to die, but Tenten couldn't leave. She supposed that she should have been aiding the reconstruction but instead waited. For Neji. If this had happened a couple of months before then there would have been no way that she would be waiting outside. She would be standing right next to him.

She was so mixed up right now. She wasn't sure how but they very nearly destroyed something that like her shelves was years in the making.

And now, she signed, They were so dame tentative around each other has driving her crazy.

She looked up as she felt his familiar energy to spy Neji flying their way. She again though the worst, but as he drew closer she recognized that look.

"The remaining Akatsuki have attacked."

And just like that shelves to cradle her precious weapons were forgotten.


-

"Come on," he growled. Kiba tightened a fist into Akamaru's fur and urged him deeper through the throngs of people, attempting to push his way through to the infirmary. He had stopped a fast moving Black -Ops and hastily retold what he'd seen at the gates. The Anbu immediately headed to warn Lady Tsunade, who was tended to the wounded, that Madara Uchiha was in the Village. The normal, and tirelessly rehearsed, protocol for village emergencies was out the window following the earlier attack, so Kiba and Akamaru were speeding through the village warning any he could.

Now those who could move were attempting to get further from the fire that was spreading. So he had to extra careful, least he barrel through those who had been lucky enough to survive Pein.

He had spied Neji jetting out on his way trying to get in. He stopped short when he saw Kiba. He had known who he was here to get.

"No." His pale eyes bore into Kiba's hard with warning but Kiba didn't care.

"This is all of our fight, Neji! She'll come no matter what."

He watched him close his eyes a moment before nodding slowly.

Kiba grinned ruefully. If anything happened to his teammate he was quite sure Neji wasn't going to hesitate before he tried to rip this Inuzuka a new one.

Someone fell in front of him and Akamaru just manged a long step over them. It had been a bad idea trying to get him through the crowd.

"You people move now!" He barked. "Ninja coming through." That got a small margin of extra space to open up in front of him.

"Kiba."

He turned to see Shino standing alongside two Anbu, the cat was small and agile looking while Bear resembled his animal name, easily dwarfing the people around him.

"Akatsuki's trying for the main Hokage tower. We believe they are after information."

Kiba gashed his teeth in anger. "These guys are really starting to piss me off."

Cat gestured to him. "Inuzuka you're with us. Tracking will be useful." He was only mildly surprised at the female voice that spoke.

Shino laid a hand on Akamaru. "Send him after her."

"At least were on the same page," he said as he slipped off his companion.

Shino murmured an agreement. "She would simply come on her own." Before holding out a hand letting a small cluster of insects latch on to Akamaru's fur.

The ground suddenly rumbled causing every one to teeter on their feet and for a second Kiba thought it was another attack like Pein's before it settled a moment later.

"We need to hurry," said Bear as he lifted a boy no more than 10 or so who had fallen over.

Kiba tiled Akamaru's big face up to his.

"Find Hinata Akamaru, quick and keep her out of trouble. "

Akamaru didn't wait to see them disappear but bounded off. Despite the dozens of people and noise, her sent lingered deep into the planes and fabrics of the large house. He moved hall through hall before pausing at a flight of stairs. She was already half way down moving slowly through the dark. Akamaru lapped at Hinata's hands and face when she reached the landing, whimpering at the dry sent of her blood.

"I'm alright," she said softly and he relaxed as her cool fingered gripped into his fur. He watched her let a few bugs on her palm before shaking her head gently. Hinata laid her head against his.

"You know which way to go."

He crouched down so she could climb onto his back easier. Waited until he was sure she had settled before bounding off again.

Following the sent of smoke.


-

She eyed the blood drenched interior with wild eyes, erratic breathing, and denial clogging her pores.
No.

"Don't look," he said kindly. "There's nothing you can do."

His poor body had been attacked savagely. She knew torture, knew death. This boy had suffered.

"Why, look at all this. Seems like they were having fun, hmm." The other spoke.

Her vision tunneled and she wished fervently that she would never wake. She had no desire to garb herself in black and etch yet another name on that dammed monument.

His name though?
His name was ment to decorate history books and to last through the ages. Tsunade had foolishly thought that he would last forever. His dream had been that bright.
How did you bury a brother? Tasking someone with such seemed like the most frighteningly cruel thing you could ask. Let this darkness take her then because this hurt far too much.

His blood was all over her face, soaked into her clothes and hands until it seemed to penetrate her skin and mingle and mix with her own. Please dear Kami never let it fade. If she left this life, turned away and never bleed again then maybe the bits of him in her, would flow forever...

...

...Right Dom?

When the tiny, but wise Papa toad suddenly appeared on her desk, no warning, she didn't need the sight of blood or smell of death to again know that deep hollow hurt that time never knew how to deal with.
This time though it shocked her to the core. She hadn't realized til then how far she had come from the young talented kunoichi who gotten her first permanent scar with the death of her brother or the earnest medical ninja that had forgotten, on that rainy night, how to heal. She had started to reclaim her old self, that secret nurturing part that she'd been certain had died out.

She had been practical in her decision though, when she abandoned her past. Though hurt and in many ways broken she still loved her village. And simply put-

She knew shit other ninjas didn't.

Every ounce of studying and training had revealed to her secrets and details and complex concepts of the human body and of the chakra network that she was sure no one had yet discovered.

So she enticed little Shizune along, hardly with drawn enough to leave the girl to fend for herself and designed to disappear off, train her 'niece' to greatness and fade away in a glimmering trail of dept and sake. Content to close herself off emotionally and abandon the fight that her Grand-da and brother, Sensai, fiance and teammate had all been fighting towards.

Even before the little green sage spoke she had thought fleetingly that maybe she should hate Naruto. He had made her care and feel again. He made her believe. Jariaya had been her last link to the memories of her younger self so far removed from the role of the Godaime Hokage. Knowing that a mission she's assigned him ended his life broke another little piece of herself off. The pervy old bastard, so maybe she had loved him a little.

But this time she felt like someone had made a mistake. This had pushed her too far and she decided to made a different decision than the ones of her past.

She decided to fight back.

Sakura would be greater than a God and Naruto would not be allowed to die and abandoned the dream, forsake the fight. That damed Uchiha boy, poor soul, would gain some sense and she even privately made a mental note to personally see to it that the bits of Ocroochimaru that were laying in wait inside the fool Kabuto would be stomped out and ground beneath the heal of her well worn sandals. Rotten ass faithless teammate.

So when Anbu raced towards the hardly stable Hokage tower and informed her that Madara Uchiha had decided to infiltrate her village she simply stood up. The pendant along her forehead that had disappeared when she flooded all of her energy into Katsuyu, to ensure the villagers safety came fluttering back. Impossible really since it had only been several hours but this seal was different. This one was connected to her life lines. But she didn't care.

Rooster looked at her critically, eyes widened when her body started to shake and her rather compelling whiskey gaze darkened with purpose. Her flawless features grew even more stunning and her body glowed. Her clothes billowed around her and when she smirked Rooster was quite sure he had never seen anything more spectacularly terrifying. The office exploded as Tsunade disappeared in a flash of light.


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*The Touch - Stan Bush

I love that song! It was like my personal soundtrack for the summer before I turned 17^^ I'm so cheesy, you'll probably see some of the lyrics popping up every few chapters. I happen to really like me some stan bush. if you've read the intro to my x-men fic then you are definably aware of that,

haha I'm not too complicated.

Give me all of those 80, early 90 rock/love ballads, add in Ms Mary J. or old school Gladys Knight, a bit of Nas., a dash of Nickelback, some Whitney and a little smooth jazz and i'll be one happy chick, yes indeed. And Thriving Ivory. I'm just getting into them but I have to say those guys are Good! Their sound, combined with the lyrics...they are just waiting to blow up.

Anywho- This song is all about standing strong & fighting back and knowing exactly when you're the right guy (or Gal) for the job.

Chow for Now:)