Fated Encounter

CHAPTER 2

Sasuke had retreated to his room that the old lady had showed to him. She had brought a cup of tea and few pieces of bread for him to eat before going to bed. For a moment, she had fussed around him reminding him where the bathroom was, but not without telling him to not to over stay his welcome. She had even brought an excess cloak for him. He merely grunted at that and continued to get rid of his wet shirt, not even bothering to be civil around the woman, for last time they met he was way more under dressed.

It didn't take long for her to leave the room and leave Sasuke to his own devices. He quickly got in the shower not wasting too much time and only caring of having his blood flow properly for the prickling feeling in his fingers was getting annoying, and he wanted to get at least a few hours of sleep before heading back towards the Sound.

The squeaking of the floorboards on the other side of the door alerted Sasuke of the fact that someone had accompanied the old woman downstairs. He didn't even bother remembering her name (for what use did he have for it?), but he faintly remembered that she had a grandson living with her. They didn't provide a hospital in here, only a place for travelers to stay a few nights but taking Sakura to the village's hospital was out of the question since they didn't treat outsiders.

If the girl was to survive then this would have to do. He had no interest in find her a better place. He remembered that the lady had some experience in medical field and his grandson might have studied to become a nurse at some point. The two of them would have to do for her. She was not his responsibility. He had no interested in Sakura's welfare from now on and whatever the elder decided to do with her didn't concern him one bit. He was just grateful for the bed to sleep in and a shower to use before going to bed.

The shower had warmed his body and especially his fingers when he finally got to bed and fell asleep, but just before his mind was overcome by the fog of unconsciousness he was partially aware of the flickering of the weak chakra.

Grey light poured from the sole window of the small room. A light shatter of people walking past the building was the final straw for Sasuke to wake up. His body was relaxed on the bed as he second by second let everything come back to him. With a sigh, he got up and grabbed his now dry clothes from the small hanger in the room.

Glancing at the window he thought that it must be at least noon already if not even early evening.

Opening the door after grabbing the new cloak he was met with a sight of a young man walking down the hall towards him. The few years older boy stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of him and you could visibly see the blood drain from his face. The boy was holding a bucket of water and a few towels hanged from his arms while he stood awkwardly in the middle of the corridor.

The boy's steely grey eyes were wide and even too big for his skinny body. In a way, he looked comical for he seemed to be so uncomfortable with his own body that it almost bothered Sasuke. He had thin limbs that looked too long for the rest of his body, not to mention the fact that he was almost

Sasuke raised his eyebrow in question and the boy stuttered, his head lower to the floor.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry if I w-waked you u-up. I w-w-was just getting s-some towels f-for your friend."

"Hn." he pulled the door closed behind him and adjusting his kusanagi on the belt behind his back. The other boy looked baffled when he didn't say anything and continued his way down the corridor heading downstairs. With loud steps, he caught up to him the water swaying dangerously in the metal bucket.

"Aren't you interested whether or not she's okay?"

"No."

"N-no?!" he stopped in the stairs almost dropping the water bucket.

Sasuke turned the corner to the hallway downstairs and the old lady walked out of the kitchen at the same time. She didn't pay attention to him and just walked to the living room that Sasuke had taken Sakura when they had arrived.

"Kuro." came the old woman's strict voice and the boy scrambled his way pass Sasuke and after his grandmother.

Just out of bare boredom Sasuke stopped by the door of the living room leaning against the frame hands crossed over his chest as he too in the sight in front of him. He wasn't able to see Sakura at all for the two people were standing in front of her and covering all of her. The only part he could see were the soles of her feet that were tinted blue and covered in blood here and there.

Kuro had placed the bucket on the table next to the cot and dipped one of the towels in. Soon he was holding a limp arm in his hand and gently brushing the fabric to clean the skin from all the blood. The old woman started doing the same except on her legs.

"So when are you two leaving?" her voice piqued as she concentrated on the task at hand. She was obviously meaning him and Sakura.

"Not we, just me."

The woman's movements stopped as she turned around to look at him.

"Just you?" her brows were crunched together deepening the wrinkles on her face, "Isn't she your friend? Your responsibility?"

"No."

"Then what are we supposed to do to her?" her jaw was tense and the annoyance was clear as day on her face.

Sasuke shrugged his shoulder nonchalantly. Then a loud knock on the front door pulled the woman's annoyed eyes away from Sasuke, as she threw the towel on the table before heading towards the front door.

She opened the door and a brown haired teenage girl was standing there brushing snow off her jacket.

"I bought the supplies you asked for, Anoka-sama." her voice was high and bright when she offered a huge brown back to the elder.

"Thank you, Nea. I'll bring some kenchinjiru for you and your mother later."

"It's okay, we're just glad to help." she smiled happily swaying on her feet.

"Can I serve you some tea then?" Anoka continued to insist and backed away from the door to let the girl in, "Okay, but then I really have to go. I still need to help grandpa to clean the attic."

"I won't hold you for long." she closed the door and disappeared into the kitchen. A sound of metal clinging indicated that she had taken a tea pot and was filling it with water.

The girl - Nea - finally realized that Sasuke was standing in the hallway with her and curiosity filled her eyes as she took in the impressive sight of the young Uchiha. First her eyes looked unsure with a light blush on her cheeks, before she completely turned her face away, her cheeks red as tomatoes.

"What about you, young man?" Anako returned to the hall looking expectant, "Do you want some?"

Sasuke just nodded, not bothering with words and she retreated into the small kitchen, while the girl standing next to the door started to look uncomfortable.

"So, for what did you need so many medical supplies?" she asked pulling her mittens off and taking steps towards the kitchen doorway.

"Look in the living room." came a simple reply from Anako, and the girl complied.

"Oh my!" the girl looked shocked at the sight of the bruised and broken girl.

"Is she even alive?" Nea she asked Kuro and carefully walked closer as if she could break something by going too fast. The boy was now cleaning Sakura's upper arm and still covering her upper body and face from Sasuke's eyes.

"Barely." he replied not once taking his eyes away from the task.

"I can't even see her chest moving." she said her voice barely audible for Sasuke to hear.

Sasuke could still feel the faint chakra Sakura's body created. It was as weak as it was last night and he didn't doubt the fact that she might die. There was no certain possibility that she would survive, because the amount of injuries Sasuke saw on her was extensive. He would be lying if he said that she would recover fully without any consequences. At one point, he could have sworn that she had died in his arms.

Suddenly the girl turned to Sasuke, "What happened to her?"

He looked at her impassively not showing any signs of telling her anything making the girl looking at him look confused.

"If she's your friend then-"

"She's not my friend. I found her from the forest."

"And still you decided to bring her here." the old woman butted in to the conversation while carrying a tray. "Sometimes I can't understand your actions."

He went to pick his tea and as he reached the table he had a perfect view of Sakura. His body stopped moving as his eyes laid on the bruised girl laying completely still. She was still covered in blood, but you could see the huge gash on the right side of her face just next to the hair line. And her lips were cracked open and swollen and burned just like the lower part of her right cheek. The whole right side of her face was swollen and looked disfigured.

That was the only thing he could see along with her right arm and leg, otherwise she was covered with a brown cover. The sight was much gruesome than last night. His hand tightened into a fist involuntarily and he turned his attention back to picking the mug up.

"She looks really pretty." the girl suddenly said taking a sip from her tea.

I wasn't long after Sasuke had drank his tea he finally left. He was well rested and ready to take the scroll to Orochimaru so that he can continue his training. He's already wasted too many hours so he had decided to just head straight back to the Sound without any stops. Kuro had tried to turn his head around and wait for the injured girl to wake up before leaving but Sakura wasn't his responsibility any longer.

All three tried prying her name but Sasuke figured it wasn't his position to tell so he bluntly ignored the questions. Nea's face was beet red because, apparently, he was too ignorant and she ignored him for the rest of his stay and stayed by Kuro helping to clean Sakura. But none of that bothered him one bit.

The only thing that bothered him in Sakura's situation was that why was she wondering around the forest alone? It wasn't normal for a young kunoichi to do missions alone especially if the kunoichi was from Konoha,. Konoha valued teamwork more than anything, so where were Sakura's teammates? Had something happened to them that had caused them to die when Sakura just barely lived through the experience?

Everything so far was odd and confusing. Sasuke wasn't completely sure what to made of this situation, but somehow he had a feeling that there was something bigger going on. However, it didn't concern him any more since he's no longer a citizen of the Hidden Leaf Village. The best for his situation right now was to completely detach himself of everything that happened in the past twenty-four hours and focus on his training.

It wasn't an easy task to leave the old lady's house since she was appalled with the fact that he wasn't taking Sakura with him. She had glared at him and even gave a small rant concerning priorities, but he zoned her out. He wasn't going to get any more involved with his former teammate's life than he already had.

The old lady Anako looked sour when Sasuke finally took his leave, for she was left to care for the half-dead girl, but she wasn't his problem anymore and he couldn't let her to distract him. He's got more important things to do and if he wants to get rid of all his bonds than he would have to start somewhere and this is the time for that.

His legs continued to move him forward with a quick pace and for a moment he was glad that the storm had calmed down during the night he had spent resting. It was now much easier to move and see forward as the sun shone through the clouds as a small wind blew through the forest every once in a while. But, even though the storm had ended it didn't mean the weather was any less cold. It might even have been colder than the night before because of the current clear weather.

Sasuke's cheeks were red and prickling when he finally reached the border of the Sound, and he instinctively slowed his pace. He didn't need to hurry for the hideout wasn't too long away only mere few minutes until he reached the hidden opening. A rocky snake statue flashed on his right marking the place and he landed on the ground to receive a full view of the tunnel leading underground with double doors locking the place few meters inside the caves opening.

It took him a whole day to reach back the hideout, and Ororchimaru looked pleased as ever when he threw the scroll on his lap not bothering to walk too closer.

"You were faster than before, Sasuke-kun." he rubbed his chin with a grin on his face.

"Maybe we should make you train harder? What do you say?"

"I want to start as soon as possible."

"Impatient are we." Orochimaru's eyes ventured down Sasuke's body landing on his sleeve. "Are you injured?" He crocked his eyebrow in amusement. It wasn't like Sasuke to get injured easily, for Orochimaru could openly admit that he's not seen anyone with such talent as the young Uchiha standing in front of him. Even the way he hides every emotion seemed extraordinary.

He couldn't wait to get his hands on his young and ripe body. His current one was getting weaker and weaker every day and time was running out. However, he was still unable to perform the jutsu to transfer bodies. It would still take a few months but then he wouldn't waste any time. Sasuke was already well trained and every session they continued to have were increasing his powers.

Of course, if Sasuke decided to fight against the body switch he would have to use force, but luckily Orochimaru's been slowly down Sasuke training. He doesn't want anything to go wrong when the time comes to claim Sasuke's body.

"It's not mine," Sasuke answered sparing a small look at the spot of blood. He had come straight to Orochimaru when he arrived at the hideout. He hadn't check on his clothes at all so he hadn't noticed that Sakura's blood was covering them. It didn't bother him much since clothes were easily rid of and it was just blood.

A curious look flashed across Orochimaru's face, "It's not like you to dirt yourself with the blood of others."

"Accidents happen."

The long-haired male smiled a lopsided grin and shook his head seemingly content with Sasuke's answer.

A light knock on the door alerted both men and Kabuto walked in giving a nod to Sasuke before walking to his master.

"Orochimaru-sama," he bowed and offered a stack of papers to Orochimaru, who gladly took them.

"Sasuke-kun, I'll see you in the training room in fifteen minutes." Orochimaru said with a grin and Sasuke took his leave. He didn't even bow in front of him, for her wasn't one for formalities, especially with the man that was currently teaching him.

Tsunade was tapping his fingers on the table impatiently. The three-member crew she had sent on a mission almost two weeks ago was still yet to return, even though their mission was a C-rank mission. They were supposed to go to the Land of Earth and give medical supplies to a small town near the border. It wasn't nothing dangerous for no ANBU had detected anything suspicious in the area.

It was supposed to be an easy mission considering she sent Sakura there with two experienced chūnin. The mission was supposed to take a mere few days for they were meant to drop the supplies to their local medical center and then leave the area to return to Konoha. However, no one in their three-man team had returned and neither had any message come to inform their situation.

This was very unusual since it was a protocol to inform the Hokage if a mission took the minimum of two days longer than originally anticipated. And the message should have arrived already for it's been over three days.

She was getting more anxious because Sakura was one to follow orders. She was her student and always made sure to do her best in every situation. It wasn't like her to ignore the normal procedures like this.

The nagging sound in her head increased and finally she snapped yelling loudly, "Shizune!"

She yelled so loudly that her own voice ringed in her ears for a moment as the room settled back into its silent state. It was almost an eerie feeling for there was only complete darkness behind her in the village.

The said woman run into the room after a moment leaning against her knees while trying to regain her breath.

"Y-you called me, Tsunade-sama?" she panted heavily looking tired. There's been so much paper work the past week that Tsunade's been sharing her load with Shizune causing both of them, to not to sleep almost at all, and the Sakura situation was also another stress factor. The Hokage was sure that she too had bag under her eyes, similar with the woman's. However cosmetic problems were least of her worries.

"Is something wrong?"

"Call team 8 here, right now."

Shizune looked baffled, and Tsunade didn't even wonder why for it was already almost midnight, "Why do you want to call them at this hour? Can't it wait till morning?"

"Absolutely not. I need a team to go look for Sakura's team, right now, and team 8 is our best chance since they specialize in tracking."

"So there still hasn't come any word from her group." the brunette looked worried her brows furrowed.

"No, and it's already been three days, so the only and best thing to do right now is to send another team to the Earth Country to look for them. This is very unusual for Sakura's team consisted of two highly talented ninjas, Nigaro Yuu and Dani Reina. And Nigaro is famous for his water techniques, so I'm sure they've ran into trouble."

"I'll send someone for Hyūga Hinta, Aburame Shino and Inuzuka Kiba right away." Shizune said while quickly making her way out of the door and not even focusing enough to close it. Tsunade sighed in annoyance, but what can you do if you're the one making her sleep too little nowadays. She rubbed her temple for a few times allowing shooting chakra to calm down the small headache making its way to the surface. She didn't have time for petty things like aches, she needed to put all her effort in finding the supply team.

After a moment, Shizune came back in to the office holding a book in her arms. She squeezed the hard covers while looking troubled. Tsunade was about to confront her about it but Shizune was faster, "I have a really bad feeling."

Tsunade's features softened with sympathy, "Me too."

Anako was sitting on her couch in the living room with Kuro sound asleep next to her. She was sipping her tea that she had made for her and her grandson not too long ago to relieve the tension in both of their bodies. It has been exhausting few days and she doubted it would chance for a while, for the moment that Sasuke had returned to their small village everything had taken a turn to a hectic whirlpool.

Sustaining the girls' vitals was a hard task since she was growing a little weaker by the hours and there haven't been any signs of her waking up or even getting stronger at all. Anako would be lying if she said she wasn't worried for her because indeed she was. It was just her nature to seem aloof of everything around her especially when it came to people from the Hidden Villages. But she had a good reason to. Her husband was killed in a fight between a group of ninjas ten years ago. He was an innocent bystander and had nothing to do with the fight, but he was very unlucky for he was in a way of one of the ninja's jutsu which caused him to die.

Not many people in the village are ready to welcome shinobi with open arms for many have experienced loss because of them. However, there are few that are ready to help anyone they can. Unfortunately, Anako was the only reliable person Sasuke knew when he had headed for the village Sakura half dead in his arms. It was a shame since now Anako and Kuro were to take care of her.

Anako rubbed her head in frustration. She thought she had made it clear for the boy not to come back again when they had first departed. She wanted as little as possible to do with people like him, but something just seems to pull people like him to her. Only a week ago another shinobi had needed a place to stay and he had come for her for shelter. It was funny how against she was everyone and everything and still she allowed them in.

She was getting softer, as the years went by. She could easily recall how she had cursed and yelled at every ninja coming her way the first few years after her husband had died. It was easy back then, but she guessed everything got easier when she found out that the person behind her husband's death had died in battle. It gave her a feeling of satisfaction that soon numbed into indifference.

That was the turning moment when he only thought of ninjas as a small annoyance. Like a bee that was constantly buzzing around your ear and driving you nuts.

A sudden gurgling noise roused her from her thoughts drawing her attention to the girl laying on the cot. Quickly she placed the cup on the coffee table in front of her and slowly got up. Her back was hurting more and more every year and no wonder since she was already about 80 years old. Rubbing her back, she made her way to the girl.

The girl's chest was moving a little more and the muscles in her throat were constricting, for a moment it looked like she was suffocating on something, but then a cough like sound gave from her throat and a blood coagulate fell out of her mouth leaving another trail of blood on the side of her mouth.

Anako quickly grabbed a towel and soaked it in water to clean off the blood from her face. The touch of the towel on the side of Sakura's face caused her body to flinch under the unfamiliar feeling. The older woman almost jumped off her skin because she wasn't expecting any kind of reaction. Her heart was racing in her chest as she took deep breaths to control her breathing.

She closed her eyes thinking that this was a good sign. She showed some signs of waking up and gaining strength. It was already five days ago when Sasuke left the village, and this is the first good thing in those five dreadful days. They were going low on medical supplies for they had to change her bandages at least two times a day. Kuro had to go ask around the village of anyone had any supplies to spare. Luckily a couple townsfolk gave some of their own.

It was a battle against death but it seemed for now that they were winning.

So what do you think so far? Is it good and worth reading? I would really like your thoughts on this and by the way I don't own Naruto. Just a small disclaimer.

Also wanted to remind everyone to go check my profile every once in a while for I have this weekly news thing going on, so that you're able to know what's going on.

Thanks for reviewers:

Meemy-Chan

ElevatedJewel

AmyKpd

vero1092

Huge thanks also for everyone who have followed and favorited story. It means a lot to me.

- Jakura