It was no secret to those who knew her well that Sakura loved her rocket launcher. She loved every aspect of it, from its incandescent colour, to the soothing sound the missile would make as it unleashed a fiery hell on her opponent. Its handle was smooth from use, making it just that much easier to slip into her palm. There was something about the way it fit on her shoulder as she pulled the trigger that made her smile with delight. The ensuing 'BOOM' wasn't that bad either.

She found that each of her opponents gave a particular noise as they were ripped apart by the flames; from squeals to grunts to 'splat'. (The latter was her favourite).

She wondered what sound Sasuke would make.

Well, that is if they could find him.

She and Naruto had been scouring the wasteland for any trace of the raven-haired boy, but so far all they had to show for it was an empty magazine (from an overly-curious Oni scout), two sun-burnt faces and four very tired feet. They had returned to where Itachi had been taken a few days prior, and had found a symbol pointing north. Other than that, there had been no trail, no trace, no anything, that might have indicated the whereabouts of Naruto's troubled, but gorgeous, teammate. Sakura sighed, plopping herself down on an abandoned car.

She glared at Naruto who was roving on ahead of her.

"That is it! I'm not walking any further until you calm down and we come up with a plan!!"

Naruto turned his head towards her and began to protest.

"But Sakura-chan!! Sasuke is out there and every moment we waste he could be getting farther away and the less likely we are to find him! Plus-"

She held up her hand, effectively silencing the flustered blonde.

"No, what we are doing right now is a waste of time. We don't even know where to start!!!"

Naruto opened his mouth to protest, but having nothing to say, promptly shut it in the presence of Sakura's glare. Sighing, he dropped down beside Sakura and leaned his head back to rest against the rusted car.

" I'm sorry Sakura-chan, it's just that...well... without this sounding too weird... I'm....I'm...worried about him."

Sakura turned her head to look at the put-out blond. His shoulders were slumped and, much to her surprise, and he looked uncharacteristically defeated. In the short span of time she had spent in the company of the fiery blond, she had never seen him looked so upset. When she had first met him, he seemed to radiate enthusiasm and optimism, which had never ceased to amaze her. He was even able to convince her to help him find Sasuke, much to her chagrin. As cute as Sasuke was, he seemed more trouble than it was worth. But obviously he was worth something to Naruto, and the least she could do was help.

She smiled softly.

"I get it Naruto. I know Sasuke would have done the same thing if he were in your position. He would be just as worried"

Naruto's body began to convulse. In alarm, Sakura leapt to her feet, expecting the worse.

"Naruto, what's wrong!!"

All that met her ears was the sudden outpour of raucous laughter exiting Naruto's mouth.

Between fits of laughter, Naruto managed to get out a response.

"Are you KIDDING ME!!!? He would probably be praying that I step on a landmine or fall down a manhole."

Sakura's nostrils flared in annoyance.

"Then why are we out here looking for him!!?"

Wiping tears of laughter from the corner of his eyes and letting a few more chuckles pass his lips, he let a slight sliver of seriousness slip into his voice.

"Despite him being emotionally constipated, an asshole and quite probably a sociopath- " Sakura's scowl deepened "-he was my first friend-"

Sakura's scowl lessened slightly at Naruto's words.

Eyes still downcast, Naruto lips slowly formed a sad smile "-He was the only one to see through what I was to see who I was. As you probably guessed, I'm not the most normal guy, I mean, how many people have you met with these kind of marks?" he said, indicating to the six marks across his cheeks.

Sakura replied softly "I have to admit, I've never seen anything like it…"

Naruto nodded his head. "You see, when I first arrived at Elysium, I was really young. I had no memory of my past, and I didn't I have anyone to help me. People distrusted me because of it, which I guess makes sense in these times, but it was the level at which they hated me that made my life miserable. Itachi and Sasuke took me in and treated me like I was a long-lost brother of theirs. And without them, I don't think I'd be here today."

Sakura chewed on her lip in discomfort and put a hand on his shoulder. "Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore Naruto."

He lifted his head to look at the smiling girl and a feeling of happiness spread through his body. She smiled even brighter as she began to speak.

"If we ever make our way back to Elysium, anyone that gives you a funny look will regret it." She said, eyes twinkling in delight. The corners of Naruto's mouth twitched at the look on her face, but despite it being slightly creepy, Naruto understood what she meant and gave her a smile to match her own.

"Thanks Sakura."

She winked at him. "Anytime."

For a few moments, silence reined between the two.

Suddenly, Naruto's ears twitched and he tilted his head to the side. Sakura looked at him with a questioning glance to which Naruto replied by putting a finger to his lips. Sakura nodded in understanding and slowly positioned her rocket launcher on her shoulder, heart rate increasing. She scanned the area herself for any sign of life, but could find none. She turned her attention to Naruto, who currently had his ear pressed against the ground, in the hopes that he might be able to tell her what was happening. His face scrunched up in confusion. He turned to her with puzzlement painted across his features. Sakura could feel her heart rate increasing and her breathing speed up as Naruto's face grew more confused. He furrowed his brow in concentration.

His head jerked slightly, hearing another noise.

Signalling with his hand, he pointed the direction of the unknown thing that was closing in on their position. Sakura strained to hear Naruto's hushed whisper.

"Whatever it is, it is small and fast. Get ready."

Nodding her head she turned a scrutinizing eye towards the target's estimated path. She took a deep breath, trying to stem her heart beat thumping in her ears. Blood pounded through her head as she grew more anxious while the agonizingly slow seconds passed by. She gripped that handle of her rocket launcher tightly while her anxiety grew, hearing it creak in protest. The one thing she hated when she was in a fight was the calm before the storm. The landscape her and Naruto were standing in was silent, except for the now apparent clicking of the approaching entity.

Why can't it just jump out and get it over with?

Suddenly the sound stopped. Sakura risked a glance at Naruto, who was currently sniffing the air. Sakura raised an eyebrow at his behaviour, wondering just what he was doing. Deciding that she would file it away in her mind and ask him later, she turned her gaze back to where the noise had stopped. Her palms began to slip on her weapon and she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end while heart beat increased in her ears.

What is it doing?

A few more moments of silence reigned over the area, then Sakura spotted a scruffy looking head of fur, two droopy ears and a pointed snout peeking at them from around a concrete divider. She almost slapped her forehead in frustration and annoyance. Here she was, freaking out that this dog was going to spell the end for her. She snorted out loud and stowed her weapon onto her back once more. She began walking towards the creature, which was currently sitting next to the divider; tail wagging and she began ignoring Naruto's words of caution.

"Hey, Sakura, stay away from it! It might be dangerous! Sakura-chan! Hey, wait-"

She looked over her shoulder at the flustered blond and heaved a sigh.

"Naruto, if it was vicious, it would have run at us barking and snarling, not sit there wagging its tail"

Naruto crossed his arms in annoyance and made a frustrated whine as she continued forward. Realizing she wasn't listening anymore, he slowly followed her over to the mutt, which currently trotting out to meet Sakura, and stood protectively over her.

She crouched down to get eye-to-eye with the creature, eyes lighting up in delight as the scruffy dog rubbed its head against her hands and gave a soft 'woof'. She smiled.

"Hello there! Aren't you a precious little doggy! Where did you come from?"

As if understanding her words, the little dog turned and trotted forwards a few meters, then turned back to face them, giving another soft 'woof'. Sakura clapped her hands together in delight.

"I think it wants us to follow it!!! Naruto, isn't this awesome!"

Naruto grumbled something out under his breath and looked at his feet. Sakura's eyes narrowed.

"What was that?"

"Nothing…"

"Hey, this dog could at least lead us to other humans, and they might have seen Sasuke! At least if we follow the dog, we'd actually be doing something productive, instead of blindly wandering north."

Naruto gazed down at Sakura, his arms still crossed in frustration and let out a sigh

"I know that Sakura-chan, but don't you think it is a little weird that someone would let their dog wander around on these wastelands? I mean, it obviously has an owner or something, because it's really nice, but what if the owner wants it to lead people back to them?"

Sakura smiled menacingly. Naruto felt a shiver travel up his spine.

"Well-"she said, cracking her knuckles. "If their intent is sinister, we'll have to dissuade them from that, won't we?"

Naruto gulped. Sakura was particularly scary when she used that voice. Smiling at Naruto, Sakura's sweet voice returned.

"We've got nothing to lose from this. Come on, it could be worth it" she said, nudging the poor boy in the side. Naruto frowned.

"Fine, well follow the mutt, but at least we should be cautious"

Sakura nodded. "Fair enough, you ready?"

Naruto gave her a curt nod while she smiled back at him. Turning, she skipped towards the waiting dog and gave it a pat on the head, earning a 'woof' of appreciation. The dog moved forwards again, much to Sakura's delight, and Sakura skipped after it, obviously on cloud nine. Naruto shook his head.

This is a bad idea

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"So, I-I guess this is good-bye, Sasuke-san?"

Sasuke turned to face the red-faced girl behind him. Hinata stood there, blushing, eyes glued to the floor, fiddling with her fingers. Sasuke almost let out an exasperated sigh. There was one thing he could not stand, and that was socially-inept people. Although Hinata had shown him nothing but kindness during the short amount of time he spent in her team's shelter, he found that her painful shyness was beginning to grate on his nerves. She barely made eye contact and she stuttered whenever she addressed him. After a five minute conversation with her, he felt like tearing his hair out and stepping on a landmine. And if there was one thing Sasuke loved, it was his hair.

He took a step towards the flustered girl and he noticed her face darkened into a deeper shade of red. He ground his teeth together to stop himself from saying something nasty.

"Yes it is, thank you for all you've done for me. I'll be sure to come back and visit."

Hinata raised her head nervously to meet his eyes, and quickly dropped it again.

"That's ok. We-I-I'm glad that we had the chance to meet. A-And thank you for telling us about what happened to the other recombinants. Kiba and Shino have always been protective of me, although they should really be m-more concerned about themselves, being normal and all…" she said quietly, trying to stop her stutter.

Despite himself, Sasuke rolled his eyes, glad that Hinata wasn't looking at him. But someone else was, much to Sasuke's annoyance.

"Don't roll your eyes at her, you douche-bag-" Sasuke glanced around Hinata to spot Kiba approaching the pair, cheeks red from anger. Sasuke almost rolled his eyes again. Trust the dog-boy to be listening in.

"Are you constantly stuck being like an asshole to people? Is that the only way you're able to talk to someone?" the brown-haired boy seethed out.

Normally, Sasuke would have replied, but the shorter boy seemed to have no intention of stopping. And Sasuke unfocused his eyes and tuned out when the boy started to raise his voice. Saying anything would probably put fuel to the flames.

So he waited for Kiba to finish.

The moment Sasuke had stepped into the shelter, the idiotic mutt had been on his back. Constantly watching him, distrusting him, Hell, the idiot even set his dog on him once. Of course the brown-haired freak had said that his mongrel, Akamaru, or something equally as stupid, could sense evil in people, or some other bull-shit answer. The fucking dog was lucky that Sasuke felt bad injuring animals; otherwise Sasuke would have kicked it outside and left it there to get devoured by some Oni. Apparently Kiba and the stupid dog "understood" each other, or something just as brainless. Which still didn't begin to explain the tattoos on Kiba's face. Sasuke often wondered to himself:

How much of a tool do you have to be to have purple triangles on your face?

But Sasuke decided that he would never be able to understand how idiots worked, so he left that question for someone else to deal with.

Coming back to reality, he realized that the idiot in front of him had finally drawn to the end of his rant. Spluttering one last insult in Sasuke's face, Kiba turned around and stalked back to a very red Hinata and stood beside her. Sasuke raised an eyebrow

"I take that as a sign that you've finished?" Sasuke said calmly, watching as Kiba's face turned back into another ugly snarl. Before the boy could reply, Hinata placed a hand on Kiba's shoulder and whispered something in his ear. The snarl on his face slowly disappeared and he let out a 'huff' while crossing his arms. Sasuke decided he'd use this chance to leave. Giving Hinata a quick bow he turned to face the door and gripped the handle. The gears in the door grinded slowly and Sasuke felt the door shudder open as he pushed. Standing in the open doorway, he said one final good-bye to his hosts.

"Thank you for helping me. Good luck with everything."

With that he turned and began to close the door, when he was interrupted by Hinata's face appearing around the door. With a nervous smile on her face she spoke

"Um, if y-y-you aren't too busy, could you do m-me a favour?"

Sasuke let his shoulders slump. And he thought his nightmare with the socially-incompetent was surely over.

So close.

"What." he snapped without meaning to.

Hinata jumped slightly, then set a determined look on her face.

"W-Well, in your travels, i-i-if you happen to come across a boy with the s-same eyes as me and long brown hair, c-c-could you give this to him?" she said, holding out a small letter in her outstretched hand.

"His name is Neji."

Sasuke took the letter without thinking and placed it in an inner pocket of his jacket. He nodded his head. Hinata let out a radiant smile he didn't think she had in her.

"Thank you! Good luck!"

With that, she slipped back inside and Sasuke slide the door shut with a small 'bang'. He heard the gears creaking into position on the other side. He heard Kiba mumble something about 'Akamaru' and 'run-away again'.

Inhaling deeply, it took all his will power not to do a victory dance now he was out of that place and the chance that Akamaru could be some Oni scouts dinner.

Deciding perhaps standing out in the open was not the best place to dance around; he began moving forwards again, hopefully towards his brother. He had talked to Hinata and her team about anything to do with a music note, and apparently there was a city further north that used one as their symbol. They warned him it was not a pleasant place, but it wasn't like that ever stopped Sasuke before.

Shifting the weight on his back, he scrambled over the pile of rumble covering the entrance to the shelter and peeked over the small embankment to see if anything was around.

Nothing.

He hopped over the side and slide all the way down, enjoying the feeling of the wind rushing past his face and his boots sliding across the rough concrete. Landing gracefully at the bottom he remained crouching, looking to see if anything had poked his head up now he was moving.

Still nothing.

Sasuke smiled to himself.

This had the makings of a very good day.

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"This has to be the worst day ever", Naruto thought himself, still trudging on behind Sakura and the mutt she had so adamantly insisted on following. They had been following it for the better part of an hour, but Sakura had insisted on no breaks until they got to where the dog was headed. Naruto felt like he was going to splatter his breakfast all over the concrete if they didn't stop soon. He was about to inform Sakura of his crisis, when she suddenly stopped in front of him and Naruto bumped into her back.

"What the hell Sakura-chan! You could have-"

Naruto instantly hushed himself when Sakura quickly shot her hand up to silence him.

Something was up.

He slowly moved his head to look around Sakura and to see what she was looking at. The dog that they had been following had stopped moving, instead it had its back raised in anger and was snarling at something Sakura and himself could not see. Naruto furrowed his brow together in confusion. Normally he could sense things before anything else could, and right now, he could sense nothing.

Probably a mouse or something

Naruto was about to tell Sakura that the dog was defective when he heard what the dog had been alerting them about.

Footsteps.

Quickly as he could, he grabbed Sakura's arm and dragged her protesting form behind a burnt-out car. He saw that she was about to object, but he quickly shoved a hand over her mouth, effectively silencing her protests. She gazed at him with wide, emerald eyes, silently questioning him. He indicated that he had heard footsteps. She nodded and signalled that they should trade places, carefully pulling her weapon off her back and placing it on her shoulder. Naruto closed his eyes and began to concentrate on the sound.

Placing his hands on the ground, he felt the vibration of one individual, moving quickly. Taking a deep inhalation, he could smell the being: sweat, dirt and guns. Taking another sniff of the air, he smelt something else, but couldn't quite put his finger, or nose, on it. Something familiar. He wracked his brain, trying to come up with why it was so familiar.

Meanwhile, Sakura had been readying her rocket launcher with much zeal. She had been waiting so long to fire one her babies at something, and finally, she was going to have her chance. She almost giggled out loud in joy. She peeked around the car to see the little dog still snarling at the hill in front of it. Sakura let out a small 'hey' to the little creature, hopefully getting it to come back to them, but it relented. Suddenly, she saw movement at the crest of the hill. She squinted at the form, but couldn't make anything out. She was facing the sun after all. She turned back to Naruto, who seemed to be preoccupied with something else, since his brow was bunched up and he had a scowl on his face. So she turned back to wait for the individual to move down the hill.

While Sakura was preparing herself, Naruto was still trying to think about why the smell was so familiar. For some reason, every time he inhaled, he got a mixed feeling of joy and anger, which puzzled him to no end. He heard Sakura whisper to him that she was going to take out the target and felt her shift out of cover.

Suddenly, his eyes flew open

He remembered

OH SHI-

Sakura's finger curled around the trigger and Naruto's world slowed down as he lunged at her.

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A/N- First of all, I really want to apologize for the scarcity of updates. Freakin' writer's block. Also, I just want to add that I don't hate Hinata, she is in fact one of my favourite characters. Sasuke is a tool and that is all there is to it.

Anyway, thanks for all your reviews and support, it is mucho appreciated!