Forever

SasuSaku

After Sasuke came back from Orochimaru, he found a note in his apartment. From her. It was always her. But, it wasn't what he expected. After 3 years, it still wasn't what he expected her to be. Black with red clouds.

Woo, thanks for all the OCs! That really made me happy =)

Kohame is owned by CrazyGreyWolfGirl.

Don't worry, ALL OCs will have their part in this story. The three originals will show up first for the simple fact that they were in the old version.

The new ones will show up fairly soon, since I still need to figure out how to mesh them together with the storyline since I never expected so many!

PS. Sorry for such a long wait! And for those who have read this before, maybe you'll notice an old OC of mine resurfacing XD

AND. I've finally found the picture that this story is based off of. I'll put the link in my profile soon.

ANDAND. Does anyone wanna BETA this story? Please send a review or PM, thank you!

Chapter Seven

Old Friend

It didn't feel right. The room felt too cold. The air was too stuffy, so much that she felt suffocated. Even when she opened her eyes, she couldn't see anything and she couldn't sense anything: not even the slightest trace of chakra.

"You're awake." The chilly voice wasn't one she recognized. Her hands clenched into fists. She wanted to panic, but she wouldn't allow herself to. She had been in worse situations before; the only difference now was that she didn't know what was going on. She opted to remain quiet and try to pinpoint where the voice had come from.

She didn't know why her captor remained silent, and she didn't hear any movement. Her body froze up the moment she heard the sound of a door opening, and her heart pounded in her chest.

"Oi, why the hell are the lights off, yeah?" Sakura could've cried the moment she heard Deidara's voice. The lights suddenly came on, and Sakura lifted up her hand to shield her eyes. "Aa, so she is alive, yeah." He set down whatever he was carrying and walked over to Sakura. When he stood near her, he beckoned for the other person to join them. A tall male, from his voice, covered head to toe in black walked over to her other side.

"Sakura-san, Deidara-san had already healed your minor injuries, so I could focus all my chakra on your legs. Your leg was broken and there was a large gash from Deidara-san's explosion, but they have been mended. However, you will have burn scars on your calf. Miniscule, but still there." Sakura nodded at her fellow medic, attempting to move her leg up to assess her leg for herself. Her leg didn't budge. When she tried to voice her concern, no sound left her mouth. Deidara snorted.

"Dumbass! You forgot to mention that she's still paralyzed, yeah." Deidara said matter-of-factly. The man merely sighed.

"I apologize, Sakura-san. The parts of your body that the poisoned weapons touched, i.e. your leg and neck, are still paralyzed. I have given you an antidote, but it will still take a while to come into effect."

"Are you done here, yeah?" Deidara seemed impatient for the man to leave. He nodded.

"I am. And I will show myself to the door. Good day, Deidara-san, Sakura-san." He bowed respectively, before heading to the door.

"Good riddance, Karatoka." Deidara snapped none-too-friendly as the man left. Deidara looked at Sakura once with tired eyes and walked off somewhere in the room. "If you need anything, bang against something. Your arms still work, yeah."

Sakura wished for nothing more than to hiss at him, but two things stopped her: her paralysis, of course, and the fact that he seemed…distressed. Certainly, it was caused by the man, but something else could be eating him.

She stopped her thoughts in their tracks. When did she care what his problem was? 'Hmm, maybe the second you woke up? Because he took care of you? Or maybe because after you're official, you'll have to watch each other's backs?' She tried to drain out her inner's voice, because at the moment it was sickeningly right.

~kxa~

Kohame gripped the strap of her pack tighter, bright green eyes wandering the streets of Konoha. Konoha was always a second home to her, and her current village had to be her third home. She noticed how, even at noon, the streets were nearly bare.

"This is not the Konoha I remember," She mumbled to herself, trying to search for a familiar face. The only faces that she saw were those of civilians and, with a sigh, she kept walking towards the Hokage tower.

~kxa~

"I need to talk to Baa-chan about this." Naruto grumbled once he and Tenten walked back over to Neji and Sasuke. Neji simply looked at Naruto, nodded, and left with Tenten. Sasuke stood with his arms crossed against his chest, looking as if he didn't care. But he did.

"C'mon, teme," Naruto grabbed Sasuke's forearm and jerked him in the direction of the tower. Sasuke narrowed his eyes, but said nothing. He simply let the dobe drag him through the barren streets to see Tsunade.

"BAA-CHAN!" Naruto slammed the door to Tsunade's office open. The blonde stood up angrily.

"NARUTO! DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF KNOCKING?" She hissed, before the girl in front of her hastily calmed her down. Naruto blinked.

"Kohame?" The brunette twirled around, the twin katana on her back clinking together. She gave him a wide smile before rushing over and hugging him.

"Naruto! Long time no see!" She chirped. When she pulled away, Naruto noticed that she looked both drained and old, even though she was his age. It reminded him of Tsunade. Before he could ask her anything, Tsunade cleared her throat.

"Since Naruto thought he'd pop in, I'll make my speech short Kohame. While you're training here, you follow the same rules as our own shinobi, as well as the rules for staying in a foreign country. You may not leave Konoha unless you are supervised by at least one jounin level shinobi. Are we clear?"

"Hai," Kohame nodded, before bowing to Tsunade and slipping past Naruto to the door. Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow at the girl, not only wondering how she knew the dobe but why she would be training in Konoha. She already was a shinobi, judging by her hitai-ate.

"Now, why the hell are you in my office?" Naruto smiled at Tsunade, as she seemed to sound more like herself. Naruto looked to his feet, remembering what he wanted to ask her.

"What are you going to do about Danzo?" Naruto knew what he should do, what Tsunade should do, but they were dealing with politics. And no matter how hard he wanted to crush Danzo's skull in at the moment, he just couldn't.

"What do you mean what am I going to do? It's already been done!" Tsunade rubbed her temples, looking at the two blankly. Naruto let out a sigh of relief.

"Danzo is going to be pretty pissed then, ne?" Naruto grinned.

Tsunade shook her head at Naruto, before lifting up the piece of paper with a bright red replica of Konoha's insignia on the bottom, over Danzo's signature.

"It's been approved, Naruto." Tsunade's voice was quiet, and the blonde's entire expression fell. Even though Sasuke had no clue as to what was going on, he could tell that whatever it was…it wasn't pleasant. Naruto felt himself begin to shake, his eyes going wide.

"Nani…" He slammed his fists onto Tsunade's desk, immediately breaking the thing, crushing it into pieces. Tsunade didn't have time to be mad at Naruto, as his arms were thrown around her neck and his head was resting on her shoulder, so Sasuke wouldn't be able to see the tears pricking at his eyes. "I just got one teammate back, and I lose the other one." Tsunade comfortingly raked her fingers through his hair, albeit a little scared. She didn't want him to get angry enough to form into the Kyuubi.

"And Sakura…she won't be coming back." Sasuke blinked at Naruto's words. He was trying to piece the clues of what he had only overheard together, trying to figure out just what the hell was going on. He furrowed his brow, everything flashing through his mind.

"Because now, she is a target of Konoha." Tsunade glared at Sasuke because Naruto dug his nails into her shoulder. But she couldn't help but be saddened herself that this was the fate of her pupil. To work so hard…only to become an enemy of her home.

Outside Tsunade's door, Kohame was leaning against the wall, able to hear everything that was going on. Tears slipped down her cheek from narrowed green eyes. Her fist clenched over her heart, nails slightly raking against her armor tank top as she did so.

As soon as she heard barely-there footsteps coming her way from another hallway, she began her tread to the apartment complex where she was staying. She'd talk to everyone tomorrow and finally figure out everything that was going on here, but now…now she needed to meditate. She could definitely hold her anger better than Naruto, but like the blonde, she was very quick to anger when her friends were in danger. Her eyes flicked amber for a second before returning to their natural color.

She came here to get stronger, right? Protecting her best friend would definitely make her stronger, seeing as every uninformed Konoha shinobi – including the ANBU – will have the order to kill Sakura on the spot, if she was ever found. "Don't worry Sak, they won't lay a finger on you." As she was walking, she slowly disappeared into nothing more than a cloud of smoke.

Tbc

YES, FINALLY UPDATED! Again, I'm so sorry for it being late. I've been so swamped lately and, quite frankly, I forgot about this story :O Anyway, once the story will start picking up in the next few chapters. And for those that feel that I'm revealing too much in such a little time…don't worry, I have so much more planned, from what I wanted to do in the original and what this new plot is bringing. Plus with the OCs…yes, this story will be so much fun to write. =)

Akura OUT!