Sakura couldn't see anything but darkness. She wandered around blindly, trying to find the way out of her current situation.
The pink haired kunoichi reached her arms out, trying to reach something, anything. Unfortunately for her, there was nothing. Only darkness exists in this realm.
Realizing her state and background, she only had one explanation on why she was here.
Am I dead…?
Crossing her hands on her mouth with eyes in shock, she trembled hopelessly. The kunoichi didn't know what to do at this point.
Calming down, her trembling stopped and she put on a blank face.
Sakura walked in one direction blindly, not knowing what lied ahead of her. She couldn't just stand around not doing anything.
After walking for moments, she stopped in her tracks when she saw something. It appeared to be a humanoid figure.
Squinting her eyes to get a better view, her eyes sharpened as she glared at it.
She recognized the person that popped into existence. She didn't know why he was here, but she didn't want to see him right now. Not after what he had done.
"Sasuke-kun! Why? Why did you kill Naruto?!"
Sakura ran and tried to reach for the shadowy figure. She was afraid, but her anger and sorrow overwhelmed that emotion.
She wanted to punch him so bad.
She was getting closer to Sasuke. She curled her fists in anger and pulled her arm back, getting ready to punch him out of existence. She thrusted her arm forward at full power, hoping to send him straight out of her sight. However, her arm was stopped right before her fists connected with his face.
Her eyes widened with tremor and fear. She was too afraid to continue.
Sasuke placed a hand on his forehead and began to laugh manically at Sakura's pitiful attempt at hurting him.
As Sakura watched her ex-teammate laugh crazily after killing his one and only friend, she felt defeated. Not only did Naruto die, but Sasuke was still not back. He wasn't the same person that Sakura once knew.
Stopping his laughter, Sasuke's face slowly began to distort as it began to morph into something more sinister.
Sakura couldn't process what was happening, but she knew it was bad.
Taking Sasuke's place was thousands of arms made of shadows.
Sakura ran as fast as her legs could go.
She kept running without turning back to see what was chasing after her. She was too scared.
After what felt like an eternity of running, one arm managed to reach her leg and she fell on to the hard, cold floor.
Gritting her teeth, she slowly looked back.
Before she had the chance to process what was chasing after her, she was seized with many arms. One after another, they kept crawling up to her.
She tried to fight them off, but they were too overwhelming in power and numbers.
The medic felt her entire body being dragged away into the darkness. Sakura continued to retaliate, flailing her arms and legs around. She couldn't keep this up for much longer though. She felt her strength draining every second.
She was helpless.
There was nothing that she could do. Just like how she couldn't do anything when Sasuke pierced Naruto through the chest with a chidori.
Sakura closed her eyes, and stopped resisitng, letting the darkness consume her.
Tears began to roll down her cheek as she accepted her fate.
I'm sorry Naruto… maybe in another life… I'll –
"Are you giving up, Sakura-chan?"
Before she could finish her thoughts, she was interrupted by a voice.
Sakura's eyes flew open.
She could recognize this voice.
This voice was always beside her, encouraging her to try her best. It sometimes annoyed her, but she knew that it was warm and full of love.
Something then caught her eye.
At the end of the dark corridor, a spec of light appeared.
Using all her strength, she forced an arm out of the grasps, trying to reach for the light.
The kunoichi struggled to pull herself out. The darkness was still trying to suck her into the shadowy depths.
Sakura felt like she couldn't reach the light.
But, she didn't give up and smiled. Slowly, but surely, the light was getting bigger in her vision.
She may not be getting closer to the light, but the light was getting closer to her.
Continuing to resist getting pulled away, the light was approaching nearer to her.
Sakura felt relief when an arm appeared from the light, trying to reach her.
She tried her best to grab it. Using all the strength she had left, forcing herself out of the clutches of darkness. Her fingers were a mere few centimeters away from the warm hand she would call her hope.
When she was just about to touch the light, she felt her world crumble apart. The darkness quickly eliminated and covered any presence it had
Quickly, she was dragged away in an instant into the darkness.
Sakura felt the world around her spinning. She had abruptly woken from her slumber, jolting up as fast as possible.
She crossed her hands on her chest as she clutched onto her shirt while taking rapid deep breaths.
She shivered in fear.
Her hair was not the usual bright pink. It was dampened from the sweat she had produced and her shirt was soaked.
When she was calming down and taking slower breaths, she covered her face with her hands when she let out a cry. Her tears began to flow, and she couldn't stop them.
The pinkette didn't know why, but the past few days, after pain was defeated, Sakura had woken up from similar nightmares.
These nightmares consisted of Naruto, Sasuke, and herself. The dreams felt realistic to her, almost real.
In the dreams, Naruto and Sasuke would finally confront each other after such a long time. They would have an all-out battle, while she could only watch from a distance.
Somethings would play out differently, but the end outcome is always the same. She would hold onto her teammate's lifeless body as he died from the hands of the person she loved.
But could she really still call him the person she loved?
After all these years, she never got anything in return even though she cared so much for him.
She only hoped that he would be doing well without her, yet he became a criminal that the world is after.
He didn't think of her. He didn't care for her. He never opened up to her. He never even bothered to keep in contact, even if its just as friends or teammates.
But he did do one thing for her. Something really important that changed the way she looked at things.
He opened her eyes.
His selfishness and betrayal lead her to the person who truly cared for her
Protected her.
Cherished her.
Thinking about the cool teenage boy, now turned criminal, she asked herself two questions.
Did she hate him?
No.
But did she still have feelings for him?
Even she doesn't know. If she was honest to herself, she would admit that he looked handsome, truly the guy of her dreams. But that was just based on looks.
Sakura had matured over the two years she was separated from her two teammates. She was slowly growing out of her first childish crush and looking at someone in a different light. She realized that looks weren't everything.
Even if they were visually attractive, if they treated her like trash, then she would have none of it. Instead, she wanted someone that would appreciate her.
Light rays seeped through her window curtains and blinded her slightly.
Clearing her thoughts, she rubbed her eyes, raised her arms and let out a long yawn.
She looked at the clock. It was almost ten.
Sighing to no one in particular, she put her arms down.
Sakura was already running a little late. She would usually wake up at around nine and report to Tsunade by around ten, but today she decided that she would take it easier. It wasn't like Tsunade needed her at ten, but being her responsible self, she just kept going at that time.
Also, she needed time to wash her face and to hide her puffy red eyes.
She wasn't going to lie, but she knew how she looked after crying. It wasn't a pretty sight.
Getting up from her futon, she noticed the empty futon that was beside her own.
Her eyes quickly scanned the room in a panic to see if a certain blond was here.
Relieved that she didn't see any signs of him, she calmed herself down. The last thing she wanted was for him to see her pitiful state.
Sakura mentally slapped herself.
How could she forget? She had brought him to her house yesterday after the party.
A blush crept on to her face as she recalled the events that happened.
After Naruto had finished drinking with the hokage, he was drunk to the point where he could barely stand.
Notifying Sakura to take the boy home, Tsunade went back to drinking with the other guests.
Sakura questioned why she was the one taking him home. After all, she was a girl.
Asking her friends, she got irritated. They responded with ridiculous excuses.
Shikamaru said he was going to help clean after the party. The lazy Shikamaru wanted to stay and clean?! Nice try!
After her many attempts at failing to get anyone to take him home, Sakura sighed to herself.
"Well if I'm taking him home, then you guys better make sure this place is spotless!" Sakura yelled at her friends who just smirked back at her.
"DON'T WORRY! WE'LL TAKE CARE OF THE REST! YOU ENJOY YOURSELF!" Ino shouted as she waved at her friend from the other side.
Sakura gave a death glare to her best friend.
She then placed Naruto's arm around her shoulder and she placed her arm around his waist to support him. She then slowly made her exit with her friends smiling mischievously behind her back.
It wouldn't be the first time that Sakura took him home, so she didn't know why it was such a big deal right now.
When Naruto got hurt during missions, she would usually nurse him back to full health. Sometimes he would even stay at her place while she took care of him.
So why was she so flustered now?
Sakura knew why. She just didn't want to admit it.
The battle with Pain had brought new light to the blond that was currently in her arms.
The destruction of her village and the death of her loved ones decimated her. She couldn't do anything to help the village at that time.
All she could do was scream.
Scream for the person she knew that could protect the village.
It was selfish of her.
Pain invaded the village to look for the ninetails, and everyone in the village never snitched him out, even at the cost of their own lives.
Yet… she still had hope that he would come and save everyone, even if it meant risking the end of the world.
Naruto arriving on the battlefield made her heart race against her chest.
All she could do was watch from a distance, not being able to interrupt the intense fight.
When Naruto started transforming into the ninetails, she felt terrified. She remembered how he was when he transformed during his fight against Orochimaru. But this time, there was no one to keep him in check.
She feared for his safety.
She wouldn't have known what to do if he had perished as well. She couldn't lose her best friend. The person that knew her the best. He was the person closest to her and if he had died, she would have thought about ending her own life as well.
When the battle was finally over, she cried as he came out victorious.
But she did have one regret.
She regretted not being there for him.
When she heard Hinata had confronted Pain to save Naruto, she knew that she didn't deserve him.
He was fighting for the sake of the village and her safety, yet she couldn't bring herself to stand up to the Akatsuki leader.
She felt useless.
Sakura knew that Naruto had liked her ever since the academy days, but she felt like that he was slowly drifting away from her.
After all, she didn't treat him that well. She would always punch him, yell at him, and ditch him.
Sakura didn't even know if Naruto still liked her. He didn't compliment her as much as the old days, nor was he as openly affectionate.
Before she realized, Naruto fell asleep on her while she was dragging him to his house.
Sakura glared at Naruto for a second, but then loosened up into a soft smile.
Staring at the sleeping boy, she never noticed it before because she didn't pay much attention.
The moonlight shining down from the sky lightened Naruto's face. His features were glistening and Sakura kept staring.
In her eyes right now, she thought that Naruto looked cute.
She decided that he could get away this time and didn't send him flying.
There was still a distance before they would reach Naruto's house. Deciding that she was actually getting tired herself, she walked him to her house which was nearby.
Reaching her house, she tried her best to reach for the key in her pocket and turned the door knob. Stumbling inside, she turned on the lights. There wasn't much in her house. Her old house was destroyed in the Pain battle so Yamato had built her a new one. All she had was some furniture that was created by Yamato. She didn't even have a proper bed yet.
Setting Naruto on a chair, she went to grab an extra futon and laid it beside her own.
Thinking about it as she was preparing a second sleeping spot beside hers, her face reddened.
What am I doing?!
She had just brought home a guy who was drunk as hell, and she was going to basically let him sleep right beside her.
Calm down Sakura, calm down.
She took deep breaths to steady her rapid breathing.
He's drunk, so I'm not going to let a drunk friend be alone. This is just to take care of him. Yes… just to take care of him.
Content with her excuse, she forced a smile and went over to the boy on the chair.
She then dragged him over to his futon and helped him get in. He was still in his clothes, but Sakura didn't bother changing him. First of all, there was no way in hell that she was going to strip him down. Second, she didn't have any spare clothes for him.
After he was snuggly and comfortable, she lifted the blanket over him, trying her best not to wake him up. After she was done, she went to take a quick shower, and changed into her pajamas.
Slowly creeping as to not wake her friend up, she comfortably nested into her futon as well.
Before falling asleep, she turned around to look at the face of her sleeping friend once more.
Sighing, she could only blame herself since she was the one who had brought him here. All she could think about right now was…
Where did he go?
He was nowhere to be seen in her room, and it surprised her. She would have thought that he would still be sleeping since he was never on time for anything. Yet, he already disappeared before she even woke up.
Getting into the bathroom, she turned on the sink and let the water run. Cupping her hands to form a bowl, she caught the water and splashed it on her face. She really wanted to wash away any signs of her crying.
She changed into her red top and black shorts that was underneath a grey skirt. She grabbed her forehead protector and used it like a headband.
Finally ready to tackle on the day, she left her house to greet the hokage before going to find the missing blond.
At the outskirts of Konoha, a masked man, wearing the Akatsuki cloak, was standing on a tree branch of one of the tallest trees that grew there. He was staring at the town from a distance before smirking to himself and began to head towards the direction of the village.