I was up before everyone else, I had slept better than I thought I would and when I rolled out of bed and saw Shikamaru still fast asleep I decided to make breakfast for when the others woke up. I glanced at the clock and saw that is was half four. I had enough time to prepare breakfast and get ready.
Tiptoeing out of Shikamaru's room I head to the kitchen listening for any sounds that might indicate the boys waking up. Apart from Naruto's snoring it was quiet. Lighting the stove so I could boil some water for tea, I couldn't help but let my mind wander. What would they say if I just showed up at Fairytail? Will they remember me? What do I even say to Natsu when I see him?
I shook my head, I couldn't think about that right now, I had to get focused. Just as I was pulling dishes and cups down from the cupboard I heard three distinctive sets of footsteps.
"Sakura-Chan?" Naruto's voice asked from the sitting room, "Where are you?"
"In the Kitchen, I'm just making some breakfast for you." I felt a smile tug on my lips, it was nice having him back.
"Why didn't wake me I would have helped?" I heard Shika say as he walked into the kitchen, "Sakura." I hummed in response and started to pour the boiling water into the cups, "You might want to put some pants on."
I spun on my heel and came face to face with the boys. Naruto was looking anywhere except me going so red a tomato would be jealous, Shika was smirking in amusement and Sasuke's ears were turning pink as he tried to keep his eyes trained on my face. I looked down and realised that I was in an oversized top that barley covered my knickers.
"Sorry!" I squeaked rushing passed them, "I must have wriggled out of my shorts in the night."
"Don't worry about it." Shika chuckled, and I threw a glare over my shoulder at him.
"Just grab what you want I'm going to get dressed." I hurried into my room and started to pull out the clothes I wore on missions. I had stopped wearing that dress when I started training with Tsunade, realising that it only got in the way. I had swapped it out for a short-sleeved red tank-top with a zipper up the front and some spandex shorts. If I was acting as medic on a team I would throw my medics skirt over the top but I decided against that this time as I wrapped my bindings around my chest.
There was a knock on my door as I pulled my shoes on, "Come in." I said, my voice muffled since I was bent over.
"Brought you a cup of tea." Naruto's voice said. I looked up and saw him standing awkwardly in the doorway.
"Thank you. Come in and sit down if you want." I told him, reaching for my other shoe. I saw him nod out the corner of my eye and he moved to sit on my bed.
"I'm sorry." He sounded serious which was shock for me since I had always known him as the immature goofball, "For leaving you behind and not keeping in contact. I just didn't want you to get hurt." He said when I didn't answer.
"Naruto," I started but I was cut off by the deep voice of Sasuke.
"I'm sorry too. To both of you, I was being reckless." This shocked me more than Naruto being serious had. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Sasuke asked after a minute of uncomfortable silence.
"Because you're saying sorry. And you're saying more than 'Hn'" I said and then turned to Naruto, "And you're being serious for once. It's a bit strange."
Naruto smiled his 100 megawatt smile, "I guess we've all changed. I mean your acting differently too."
"How so?" I cocked my head to the side and motioned for him to elaborate.
"Well." Sasuke said, "You're not as bubbly, you're not laughing as much as you used to."
"Yeah, and you haven't thrown yourself at Sasuke. You slapped him."
"I would have slapped all of you if Tsunade didn't need to talk to us." I said, not feeling guilty about it.
"Yeah I know, I keep wondering if you're going to take a swing for me." Naruto joked swinging an arm around me. I felt the bed dip on the other side of me and I looked over to see Sasuke.
"What made you come back?" I asked. I was genuinely curious.
"The dobe." He said and then decided it wasn't a good enough answer, "I realised that I wasn't getting anywhere with Orochimaru. I was just going through the same routine over and over. I also realised I missed the village and that I'd had a great life here. I made a mistake." He hung his head his dark hair falling into his eyes.
"Hey," I said softly trying to catching his eyes, "Everyone makes mistakes, but at least you realised that and you're trying to make it right."
"She's right." Naruto said.
"When am I not?" I asked jokingly trying to lighten the mood. It worked because Naruto laughed and Sasuke cracked a small smile.
"Where's Shika?" I asked realising the brown haired boy wasn't around.
"Gone to round up the others." Naruto said, "Hey! Look at all those pictures!" he pointed a tanned finger at the wall that had all the photos on it. "You've got loads! Oh, I remember that mission."
He was pointing to the picture of a young team 7, I was clutching a cat in my arms a large grin on my face that matched Naruto's who was sat in front of me covered in scratches, Sasuke was stood to the side a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
"Yeah, we chased that cat all over." I giggled, "Oh and in that one you and Sasuke had fallen into that poison Ivy bush." Little Sasuke and Naruto glared at us from the photo, large welts covering all visible skin.
"What are those ones?" Sasuke asked pointing to a group of photos that had Shika and Me in them.
"Oh they're from the last mission we did together, we had to pretend to be these dancers at one point. I had to teach him, he couldn't dance to save his life."
"Could the dress be any shorter?" Naruto asked poking me in the sides.
"We were distracting the targets while our other teammate snuck some poison into his drink. I had to look eye catching."
"Your eye catching anyway." Sasuke said and then he quickly added, "I mean how often is it you see a girl with pink hair?"
"Great save." Naruto joked, earning a glare of the Uchiha.
"We better get ready to go." I said casting a pointed look at the clock.
XxXxXxX
"No traps, inside or out. It's too easy." TenTen said, we had arrived at the temple outside of Kohona and spent the last hour checking for traps. The brunette was right. It was too easy.
"Maybe whoever came through has already triggered them." Naruto said coming to stand next to me.
"Why leave their way home unprotected though? It doesn't make sense." Hinata said casting a curious glance at the temple in front of us.
"You used Byakugan to check for traps inside right?" Kakashi asked the Hyugas
"Hai. There were none that we could see." Neji said his face serious.
"What if they're using some kind of magic?" Shika asked his eyes narrowed in thinking. Everyone looked at me.
"Can you sense it?" Kiba asked cocking his head, "Magic I mean."
"No. I can't sense magic, but I can go in and see if Shikas theory is correct." I said almost apologetically.
"You're not going in there without knowing if there are traps or not." Sasuke said raising an eyebrow. In my younger days I would have blushed and done as he'd said. But not anymore, I'm older and I can take care of myself.
"With all due respect, if there is a trap in there that's running off magic then I might be able to disarm it." I said, my voice hard. I could see that my cold tone had shocked everyone including Shika, I never used that tone with anybody except enemies.
"She's right. She has a better grasp on magic than any of us." Shikamaru said looking up at the sky. He was reluctant to let me go in there.
"I've done more dangerous things than this." I smiled at him trying to lighten the mood.
"Don't remind me." Shika growled.
"Alright make it quick. I want you in and out of there as fast as you can." Kakashi said his tone saying it was not open to discussion.
"On it." I said and hurried towards the broken door.
The temple looked like it would fall down if I poked it and I had to edge myself around large stones that had fallen to the ground. Sun shine through the gaps in the ceiling and I winced as a wooden beam creaked ominously. Why did I agree to this? I asked myself.
I moved as quickly as I could through the hallway and found myself standing in a large rounded room. It looked relatively untouched, apart from that crumbling wall over there and half the roof missing, I mean.
"So what now?" A voice asked from the other side of the room. Three men stood facing away from me and quickly used a genjutsu to camouflage myself.
"I've already been over this." The tallest of the three growled, his voice was low and menacing.
"Yeah Len. He's been over this." The figure who spoke turned and lent against the wall. I could see his face now, choppy brown hair with a single streak of bright orange flopped over his green eyes. I gave him a quick once over, he didn't look to threatening; he was skinny and not very tall. He moved his head to look at the man who was obviously the leader and said, "We just need the girl right?"
"We get the girl and deliver her to him and then we take over this world. There's no Magic Council here. We'd be able to do as we please without the consequences.
The one who had been identified as Len said, "Why not just take over now? Who needs that guy?" Whoever they were talking about scared them, if you weren't paying attention you wouldn't hear the waver in their voice.
"You're forgetting your place, boy." The leader said pulling the hood of the cloak he was wearing down. My hand flew up to my mouth to hide the gasp, he was one of the ones who took me from Fairytail.
"Did you hear something?" Len asked turning to look in my direction, I noticed he looked exactly like the other one, except instead of orange a light blue streak stood out against his dull brown hair.
"Must have been the wind." The other twin said.
"No, Cam, I heard something." Ah so orange-peel is called Cam. I thought as I backed out of the room, as soon as I had cleared the doorway I turned and ran. Not letting the genjutsu go until I was outside.
"Forehead!" Ino screeched as I ploughed into her, "You just appeared out of nowhere. Wait, what's wrong."
"Where are the others?" I asked looking around.
"Hiding in the tree line, I was sent to come and find you. You were in there for too long." Her blue eyes searched my face, "Seriously what's wrong?"
"We need to get away from here, there's people in there. Could be dangerous." My mind was racing, there was no mistaking him. The leader of the trio inside the temple was one of my kidnappers. I remembered he had been the cruellest, he had pulled my along and hit me when I hadn't complied with what they wanted straight away. He had sounded scared though, it made me wonder who they were working for. I tensed a memory slinked its way into my mind.
"Let go of me!" I clawed at the hand that was gripping my wrist.
"She's a feisty one." A man with dark purple eyes and hair to match grinned at me, "I like 'em feisty."
"Juno." The woman, who had introduced herself as Larsa, snapped. I had quickly learnt that she was the one in charge and that Juno and Zaffe (the one tugging me along by the wrist) did anything she said. Zaffe seemed annoyed by this and seemed to be taking it out on me.
"The quicker we get the brat to Onyx the better. I'm fed up of you ordering me around." Zaffe said, his gold eyes flashing with annoyance
"I said let me go!" my voice was getting shriller by the moment. For some reason I couldn't use my fire magic.
"Zaffe, you're hurting her!" Larsa said, her black hair fanning behind her as twirled to confront her brother. It wasn't hard to see they were related, same hair and eyes.
"And?" Zaffe scoffed, he tightened his grip and I let out a shout. Larsa moved quickly her hand closing around her brother's throat.
"Onyx wants her unharmed. I will not be punished for you pig-headedness." She snarled, her pretty features contorting.
"You take care of her then." Zaffe let go of my wrist and shoved me away, I fell to my knees before I tried to scramble away.
"Can I look after her?" Juno asked his voice becoming childish as he caught me round the waist.
"Get off me!" I screamed. My arms and legs flailing around.
"Put her down you moron. I'll look after her. You men don't know how to treat a child." Larsa said taking me from the lunatic, "I'm sorry about these two idiots," she ignored the sounds of protests the other two made, "But once I get you to our master and my husband, everything will be better. I promise."
"Why do want me?" I asked my eyes getting heavy. This time I could tell she was using magic, a simple sleep charm.
"My husband wants a test subject and I want a daughter. You're perfect for both." She cooed as I drifted to sleep.
Something warm and soothing flowed through my temples, it was chakra. Hinatas to be precise.
"What?" I asked sitting up and letter her hands fall from my forehead.
"Geez Forehead. Way to scare me, you just fainted out there." Ino said her tone was joking but her eyes were worried.
"You okay Sakura?" Kakashi asked.
"Yeah, I don't know what happened." I told him. I could feel everyone's eyes on me, the light from the fire flickering across their faces.
Hang on fire?
"What time is it?" I asked alarmed, I looked around and saw that they had set up camp. Roll mats and sleeping bags were scattered around a small clearing.
"A few hours. We saw you faint and decided to find a place to set up camp. A few of us went back to the Temple. We saw three men leave but didn't interact, we wanted to hear what you found."
"Not much. I stumbled across those men talking. They were on about finding a girl and taking her to someone, probably their boss. Then they said something about taking over our world."
"How original." Shino said dryly, "I sent some of my bugs to follow them, just in case." He added as an afterthought.
"By the way, you have some explaining to do." Ino said poking my cheek.
"Yeah," Naruto's voice said from the other side of the fire, "How do you know so much about magic, Sakura-Chan?"
This is going to be a long night I groaned mentally, preparing myself to tell them my story. It was only right that they know, I mean any information we could gather from my past would be a big help.
(A/N sorry it's taken so long for me to upload, I've been busy and haven't had time to write. Thank you so much for the comments by the way, I'm so glad you like it JIt won't be long until the gang crosses into Earth Land Jsee you soon)