Chapter II
The Encounter
"Meeting you was fate,
becoming your friend was a choice,
but falling in love with you I had no control over."
~Anonymous
When she woke up, she saw the vast sea of desert, with the clear cerulean sky hovering over her. She was in a wagon with the strange, blond haired boy as her travelling companion. Perhaps it was the other way around, but either way, it didn't matter. He spooked her with his strange kindness.
"Good morning, sleepyhead," he grinned. She nodded slightly like she did back in her classes in Konoha high until she realized that the boy was right up close to her face.
"Eeekk!!!" she shrieked and punched the boy away to the other side of the wagon.
Outside, the man holding the reins of the two horses heard a huge thump inside the wagon but didn't mind to look in to see if there was any trouble. "Young couples these days have no shame," he tsked and flicked the reins a little so the horses could go a little faster.
Sakura took in deep breaths and looked around her surroundings. Through the open end of the wagon she saw the wheel trails imprinted on the sand. The moon was still perched up above as it timidly gave a splash of its whiteness out from the blue sky.
Sakura backed herself into the corner while pumping her right fist into the air as a threat to the boy. "W-who are you and where am I?" she said with small caution. The boy just sighed and crossed his arms.
She studied his looks a little bit. The boy seemed to be a little older than her – perhaps almost in his late teens or early twenties. He wore almost all black karate suit with an orange sash around his waist, and a little bit of armor on his sleeveless arms and legs. Around his head, he wore a decorative headband that had a metal plate with an odd simple swirl and a point on the middle. She wondered if he was a full-time cosplayer.
He knew that she was tentatively staring at him. A little embarrassed and flustered, he shouted, "Yeah, what are you staring at?!" A small tint of pink rose on her cheeks.
"I- nothing," she quickly said and turned her face away to save the embarrassment.
It felt hot and stuffy in the wagon, and although she didn't want to take her coat off, she decided that it was better than suffering to death from heat. She pulled all those suffocating garments off and felt the cool breeze rush by her perspiring body.
"Wow, this feels so good!" she said in delight.
While Sakura enjoyed being liberated from the heat for a while, the boy studied her too. She was wearing strange clothes: a short, black skirt with a white top that had blue with white stripe flaps. She had a red sash tied around those flaps, and wore tight, black stockings that accentuated her slender legs. Her hair was tea pink, and her eyes were the color of the rolling pastures he saw back home. She was, indeed, very pretty. Slightly he blushed, bit the corner of his lips, and turned his head away from her. Of course, she did not notice this at all, not even a little bit.
Suddenly a small clip of her memory resurfaced from the corner of her mind within a flash. "Wait a minute," she said. "Are we in Tokyo?"
The boy cocked his head in confusion. "Tokyo? Where's that?"
She thought she was just imagining the vast sea of the grains of sand against the clear blue sky. She thought that she was hallucinating about the huge moon making a small peak out from the sky. She rubbed her eyes over and over again and poked her head out of the ends of the wagon. She felt the hot desert air blow underneath her white uniform shirt.
It was real. It was all too real.
Flames of fury began to burst out from her pretty head as she grabbed the boy's top part of the suit and pulled him close to his face threateningly. "You kidnapped me?! Where is this place?"
"I didn't kidnap you, first of all," he said as he grabbed her wrist, making her let go of her grip. "Second, we're in the Suna deserts."
"What? I don't know what you're talking about!!!" Sakura panicked.
"We're going back to Konoha, got that? So just sit back and relax. We're almost there," he snapped. The word 'Konoha' rang in her mind like bells.
'So I'm going back to school? What the heck…This is way too confusing,' Sakura thought, but decided to keep quiet and wait until she went back to the familiar public building on a wagon with a strange boy in armor.
Instead, Konoha turned out to be a huge village in a country called the Land of Fire.
'What the heck…,' she sweat dropped and thought as she leaped out from the wagon. She saw hoards of villagers scurrying around the boy.
"Hey look, it's Naruto!"
"Naruto's back? Did he bring anything back?"
"Naruto, you've been gone for almost three days!" a beautiful, very voluptuous blonde woman with pigtails emerged out from the crowd with her arms crossed. She looked quite challenging with her deadly, menacing glare despite the softness depicted in her brown eyes.
While most of the villagers began to back away from her frightening temper, the boy just scratched his head casually. "Yeah, well, I finally got him, Tsunade-baa-chan." He took out a headband with a metal plate that had a music note symbol on it. The villagers suddenly started to cheer, leaving Sakura to be much more confused than before.
"Who's this pretty girl, Naruto-onii-san?" a little girl tugged on his pants and asked. He stared at her with caution, as if he was a little suspicious.
"Me? Well, I'm Sakura. Haruno Sakura," Sakura answered back hesitantly. The villagers smiled.
"Welcome Sakura, to Konoha, one of the most beautiful villages in the world," an old man greeted.
"Um, thank you?"
While people began to compliment on Sakura's beauty, the blonde woman named Tsunade leaned close to Naruto and whispered, "Are you sure that she's not some foreign spy trying to sabotage Konoha? Looks can be deceiving, you know that."
Naruto grinned. "Don't worry; she's harmless. Besides, she has nowhere to go. Just let her stay with us for a while until she can go back to her home country. To-ki-yo, or whatever it was called."
Tsunade furrowed her brows as soon as she heard him mention the unfamiliar word. But before she could question more, Naruto had already stepped into the crowd to pull Sakura away from the mass of drooling teenage boys flirting with her shamelessly.
"So this is Konoha?" Sakura said. The boy called Naruto nodded with pride.
"Yeah, isn't it great?"
Great? She really couldn't figure that out too much on her own. The village was just as strange as the boy walking right in front of her. There were large wooden fences on each side of the walls of buildings, and the whole village was somewhat reminiscent of feudal Japan mixed with modern, 70's look. Some places looked a little weary and broken down like a slump, and other places looked positively well furnished. This place wasn't her home, so she thought.
She was walking behind him a little until he made a firm stop.
"Hey, why are you-"
"Shh," he said with a grin. And then, before she knew it, he hollered to the sky, "Kakashi-sensei, I know you're looking at me up above, so just come on out!"
Sakura took a look around, but there seemed to be no one around. Suddenly, a swirl of leaves spun around in front of Naruto, and a human figure emerged out of the nowhere.
"Yo," a man with spiky, lopsided silver hair with a mask said. "How'd you know I was up there on the rooftop, Naruto? You're getting sharper than ever."
"Tch, I know that you always read your smutty books up there all the time!"
"I'm that predictable, huh…," Kakashi sighed.
The boy just grinned, and Sakura's jaws dropped nearly to the ground. How… how did he appear like that?!
Kakashi took a peak at Naruto's back. Sakura stood there, unguarded and a little nervous from the man's stare. Finally, Kakashi's right eye drew a half-moon smile.
"Ah, so you're that famous girl with weird pink hair," he said.
'Famous… weird… pink…?'
"Did the news already spread through the village?" Naruto chuckled.
"Well, of course. Don't underestimate the power of the village gossipers."
Kakashi studied Sakura a little bit, making her further self-conscious. "Wh-what? What is it about me that's so worth being stared at?"
"You're definitely not from around here," Kakashi pointed. Sakura sweat dropped. Yeah, even this blonde idiot knows that….
"So you're from Tokyo, right?"
Sakura blinked a little. "How did you know that?"
"The Hokage informed me, and sent me here to say a little something," Kakashi said, and then turning to Naruto, "You do remember the disappearance of those twelve ninjas near the Nara forest last year, right?"
"Yeah, who could forget?"
"Now we've just figured out what's been happening," Kakashi squatted down and began to draw a simple diagram. "It's Madara."
"But that's impossible… I thought he was dead…."
"You may have defeated him three years ago in the Nara forest, but actually, he's been slowly regenerating using space-time jutsu. Although Madara doesn't quite exist yet, he acts as a portal between our world," Kakashi said and pointed to Sakura, "and hers."
"Me?"
"I don't get it," Naruto squinted as he pushed his lips out in confusion. Sakura stared at Naruto, unable to believe his thick-headed side.
"To put it simply, this Madara is still regenerating but is a portal between my world and yours," Sakura said impatiently.
"Exactly, and he's been doing this to harness energy from both these worlds," Kakashi said. "Full regeneration takes in a lot of chakra and time to make it happen, and Madara has already picked out places for these portals to happen. The portals can happen randomly here in this world, but only one place has been chosen in Sakura's world."
"The central clock tower in Tokyo," Sakura said in realization. Naruto still bent his head around in confusion.
"Either way, it's up to us to destroy this portal. The task is simple. Madara is still weak, though he has collected a mass of chakra over the year. To destroy it, Naruto, you'll have to throw your Rasenshuriken into the portal. Its vortex of microscopic wind blades will surely cut through and destroy the space-time jutsu inside the portal," Kakashi explained. Sakura nodded, but had one particular question in her mind.
"Can I still go home if this portal is destroyed?"
"I… I'm afraid not," Kakashi spoke carefully. "That is, you may have to travel back home first before Naruto could destroy the portal. But finding another portal to get back to your world will be difficult. It may take a few days or weeks."
'I guess I'm going to miss out on Hinata's Christmas party,' Sakura thought, feeling sorry to leave her friend alone with people she barely knew. In the least, she promised Ino that she would console Hinata due to the fact that her kitten died last week.
While Sakura was deep in her thoughts, Kakashi asked, "Tell me, do you remember how you got here, Sakura?"
Sakura tried to recall the memories. "I remember that after Naruto killed that guy, there was a pillar of light coming down from the sky. It lifted us both off from the ground so quickly…and then somehow, when I woke up, I was in the wagon…" Sakura rubbed her forehead. Kakashi stayed quiet for a moment and then spoke again.
"Not many people can go through the portal. There's a ninety per cent chance of death for anyone who enters the portal."
"Ehh?!!" Naruto and Sakura both screamed in unison. "But we… I…?"
"You guys are one of those rare cases. I suspect that ninja whom Naruto was tracking down to assassin just barely made it through."
"So that's why he went down so easy," Naruto muttered to himself.
Easy?
"Well, I should get going now," Kakashi said as he got up from his squat position. The truth was, his legs were almost asleep from maintaining that way for a long time, and he wanted to read the last chapter of the newest Icha Icha series which was published after the death of the legendary author and shinobi.
"Wait, come on," Sakura stopped the two people from moving. "I still need a few explanations around here. Where am I and who are you people? What kind of place is this, and what's up with this get-up?"
Kakashi and Naruto both stared at each other. "You haven't told her where she was?"
"Eh, I guess I didn't get what she was saying," Naruto squinted as he scratched his head timidly. Kakashi sighed in all hopelessness and Sakura almost fell on her face to the ground from Naruto's thick-headedness.
"Alright, listen up Sakura if you want to live in this world, because it's probably far different than where you came from," Kakashi dropped his voice a little to catch her attention, and Sakura began to listen. Slowly her mouth began to draw a shape of an 'o' as the jonin told her about their world of the ninjas, nindo, a short history of other countries and their formations, chakra and its techniques….
"I still don't understand a thing or two around here. Who is this Madara anyways, and is there even Christmas or winter here?" Sakura grumbled.
"Kuu-ri-su-ma-su? What's that? And it is winter here right now," Naruto bent his head over to the side. Sakura crumpled her forehead and stared at the wide sky with barely any clouds. The sun was burning bright in her eyes. Hardly the winter that she imagined.
"Ne- never mind," she sighed.
"Madara was a strange one," Naruto answered at least one question. "He's the one who controlled an illegal organization called Akatsuki to rule the world by harnessing the power from the jinchurikis. I defeated him years ago, and yet he's still here. Heh, that bastard wants to live so much. I guess it can't be helped."
"You seem really calm about it," Sakura replied. It almost sounded like sarcasm, even though she didn't mean it. "Anyways, I want to see this Tsunade, the Hokage woman."
Naruto raised one brow. "Why her?"
Naruto's rude tone of voice and brashness started to irritate her. She didn't like him in the beginning, although he turned out to be an okay guy once she interacted with him.
"She seems to know about where I came from, and what Tokyo is like, according to Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said with a serious expression. "Besides, I can't just lie around here. I have to find a way to get home."
Naruto raised his chin, but kept his eyes on her. He stopped walking, and Sakura, at her own pace, was suddenly a few steps ahead. Noticing this, she stopped too and looked behind.
"Ne, why did you stop?"
"Y-you know," he hesitated while scratching the back of his head. "S-since you have no place to go, and since we don't know when the next portal will open up, why don't you stay over at my place?"
Sakura's pasture green eyes pierced through his nerves of steel, leaving a huge crack on it.
"Ah, ah, well, it's nothing perverted, really. I'm just trying to be nice, you know?" Naruto started to chuckle and fidget. "Ah, um, I'll give you plenty of space. Anything you want. At my house, I got foot massage and…Ugh, I'm such an idiot… that just came out all wrong…"
"Alright, fine," she replied, holding her head up high with a smile. "It's not like anyone knows me around here anyways."
Naruto's nervous expression had suddenly lightened, but fell after she said, "And don't try to do anything funny."
"Yeah, sure," he said flatly, protruding his lips and quickly turning his head away. He was a funny guy, and somehow, that made her giggle as she turned back toward the front to walk again. Of course, he saw none of this, as he was only grumbling about how stupid he looked in front of her.
For few days, Sakura and Naruto travelled around and out the village, looking for any pillar of light or clues of where the last sighting of the portal may have been. So far, they had no luck, and they often came back to Naruto's place after the sun set. Often when they were on their way home, they both stopped by the market place to eat at a restaurant called Ichiraku Ramen Bar. It was just a small place, tucked away between houses after another, and seemed quite as plain as the ramen stands that Sakura saw back in Tokyo. But that place always seemed to be Naruto's number one favorite, and not knowing any other place, she was dragged into the restaurant to eat ramen. To be honest, she didn't like ramen much, although it was okay to eat it a couple of times.
"I'm already sick of ramen, Naruto," Sakura began to complain. She leaned over the small shack's table and fiddled around with her chopsticks. "Can't we just go some place else?"
"Are you kidding? Ramen's the best thing that I've ever eaten in my life!" Naruto said. He gulped down all the ramen soup and ingredients down.
"That's right, no one can resist the power of my ramen," the old man called Teuchi roared as he emerged from the white curtains. Sakura bent her head down and rolled her eyes halfway.
"Thanks, old man. It was great!" Naruto said as he put the bowl down whole-heartedly.
"Oh, why do you always treat this girl ramen, Naruto? She never touches her share," the daughter of the old man, Ayame, poked her head out from the curtains.
"Are you two always on a date?"
Naruto and Sakura both stared at each other in unison. Their cheeks were burning red hot, and then Naruto yelled, "No way, come on! Get real you guys!" He tried to laugh it off. "Right, Sakura-chan?"
"Hm?" Sakura was completely caught off guard. It was the first time that anyone would call her with '-chan' at the end of her name. "Oh, right, right."
The old man and his daughter both stared at the duo silently with suspicion, and then shrugged with smug look on their faces.
Well, most of the times, when they walked through the town, they heard the word 'couple' added to them no matter where they went. The next day, when they travelled through the market place to buy vegetables (for Sakura was already sick of ramen), an old merchant woman kindly greeted them and said, "What wonderful couples you two make." Another example would come from the fisherman who sold them a trout in the next hour. And then, there would be a train of examples who called deemed them as couples with a grin on their faces.
Sakura was already sick of their words about love, and Naruto often pushed the comments aside and tried to laugh it off.
"Aw, Sakura-chan, I don't want any vegetables," Naruto complained as Sakura grabbed few cabbages and put it in a small basket she found in his apartment room.
"Shut up, Naruto, and you know you need them," Sakura growled. Naruto then stayed quiet without knowing what to say.
"Aw, what a cute couple," the middle-aged man who sold vegetables commented. Naruto and Sakura blushed.
"He's not my boyfriend!"
"She's not my girlfriend!"
"Sure, sure," the man said as he gave them back the change.
It had already been a few days, and it felt as if Sakura knew Naruto for ages.
That night, when they returned home, Sakura made a stretch and dropped the goods on the floor. "Ah, maybe I'll cook later. I really want a break." She flopped herself on his bed.
It wasn't like as if he slept there anymore. After Sakura moved in, he gave her his bed, bought her new utilities to use, so on and so forth. Life somehow seemed to peacefully flow that way, and Naruto didn't mind having a houseguest, even if it was a girl he never met before.
"I sure wish I could take a shower," Sakura blurted out, staring at the wearing down ceiling. Naruto did not miss that comment a bit.
"You can just use the bathroom, you know?"
"Yeah, but I'm kind of worried…"
"About what? Don't worry, Sakura-chan. The tub isn't rat or cockroach infested," he reassured her with his usual thick-headed part of the brain.
"Ugh, no you idiot! I just… don't want to," Sakura slightly curled her legs to her chest. Yes, of course she did want to take a shower. She was wearing the same uniform for days and hadn't washed her hair. It all felt icky, and she definitely wanted to wash all the sweat, dirt, and grime off her body. However, it also felt uncomfortable to take a shower in someone else's bathroom, especially Naruto's. It gave her this strange sensation.
"Don't worry, I don't mind at all if you use it," Naruto cheerfully told her with one thumb up. She sighed.
"Fine," she said with caution. "But no peeping!"
"Yeah, yeah," he waves his hands away in the air, which somehow reassured her. She quickly ran into the bathroom and stripped all her clothes off. Then, she turned the tap, letting the water run above her head. She waited until the water was warm enough. She was about to step into the tub…
"Ne, Sakura-chan, do you cut the radishes thinly?"
The sound of his roaring, energetic voice almost made her slip on the wet tiles of the bathroom floor. After finding her balance, she gritted her teeth and said, "Yeah, sure, whatever," and stepped into the tub.
"Whew, finally," she said, feeling the warm water rinse off all the grime away. She was enjoying her moment of relaxation when suddenly, Naruto called her again. This time, it was a much softer voice, yet still strong and pure as before.
"Ne, Sakura-chan, do you really want to go back home?" he asked.
Sakura grabbed the shampoo bottle which sat at the edge of the tub and squeezed the last remaining bits on her hair. She lathered and rinsed, and repeated the procedure until all the soap scum were gone.
But still, she wasn't at least one bit hesitant in answering him. "Of course I do," she said. "That's where I live, duh."
She now took a slab of conditioner and patted it through her hair while letting the water run through her body.
"Do you really want to go back?" he asked her again. Slightly annoyed and impatient by birth, Sakura raised her voice in fine temper and shouted, "Yeah, Naruto, I really want to go back home! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
She heard only the water coming down like the gentle spring rain, and there was only silence. But then realizing the harsh tone that she used, she felt guilty. He was at least kind and hospitable enough to her- why couldn't she be the same?
She sighed in agitation and guilt, trying to rinse the conditioner out of her hair.
But then, she heard his whisper, even through the sound of the water pouring down. The bathroom walls were thin enough for her to understand even the smallest sound made outside.
"I wish you wouldn't…."
She stopped rinsing and bit her lips. Why did he want her to stay? All she did was scowl and lounge at his place like a freeloader. Slowly, she felt the feeling of uselessness creep into her heart. She just felt so low….
After finishing her shower, Sakura came out back in her uniform, though she left out her stockings off. She dried her hair with a towel, when her eyes came across the kitchen table set up with all kinds of small side dishes and a hot pot in the middle. The aroma of food made a slight pass near her nose, and her mouth started to water.
"Uh, hey," the blond boy chuckled as he stood beside the table. "Let's eat."
"Huh, what?" Sakura blurted out. She took small steps toward the table.
It wasn't any candle-lit dinner, and it wasn't anything like from the movies depicting romance between a gentleman and a lady in a beautiful restaurant with flowing wine and eloquent conversations. So why did her heart pound so much when she approached near the table? She couldn't understand anything in her chaotic, frazzled mind. Everything was just too confusing.
'It's okay, just calm down…,' she thought as she took her seat. "So did you make all this? I thought you didn't know how to cook since we always went to that ramen bar."
Oh crap, my mouth, Sakura thought as she nearly flicked her right hand slightly up to her mouth out of habit.
Somehow, Naruto didn't seem to catch a clue to her small rudeness.
"Well, I know how. It's just that ramen makes me feel happy," he grinned. "But it's been a while since I cooked, so I hope my skills didn't go too rusty."
She didn't hear much of his words. Hunger was controlling her every movement. She raised her spoon and drank the hot miso soup right next to her. Naruto bit his lips and crossed his fingers behind his back,
She took a sip and then froze, keeping his anticipation running high.
"Well, how is it?" he nudged.
"It's… good, really good!" she said in surprise. Wow, so this idiot knows how to cook too…
Naruto sighed in relief, and then picked up his own spoon. "Okay, let's dig in then!"
For a moment, there was brief silence. The two people ate in awkward silence, trying to keep their eyes on the food and not each other. Sakura tried hard to concentrate on eating, but she often caught a few glimpse of his eyes watching her. She finally put down her spoon and spoke.
"What, is something on my face?!"
"No, nothing," Naruto said and began to pick up his pace on eating his share of oden. "Ne, Sakura-chan, you really want to go home?"
"You've been asking me that for like a thousand time already, and the answer is yes," Sakura said as she munched her fried rice bitterly.
"Well I've been thinking," he said. "And I don't think we'll find the portal at this rate…"
The spoon in her hands suddenly dropped to the ground. "What?"
"I mean, in any case, why don't you stay with me a little bit longer? Just a little bit. I kind of have this plan-"
"You want me to stay here, with you?" she raised her voice slightly. It was all too unbelievable. "More, with you?" Somehow, he was irritating her. Did he think that she was just some charity case? Why was he so clingy, so annoying?!
"Ye-yeah, but…"
"No 'but' Naruto! I've had it with you. You know, you're the most annoying, idiotic guy that I've ever met in my life! Do you think that I'm some kind of a hopeless case in your eyes? I have my own pride, you know! And believe me- I will go back home, so you can stop being so nice to me! I have my own feelings too, so why can't you just simply understand that?! And why do you always have that stupid grin on your face? It's so annoying. Can't you ever stop smiling for once? Are you ever serious?! You're an idiot, a joke!"
This left Naruto speechless, his pool blue eyes growing wide like the ocean. She couldn't bear to see his eyes, to see right through him, knowing that she had already said things that she shouldn't have said.
Slowly, she backed away from the table and reached her hands toward the door. And then, she quickly ran out of his apartment with guilt reeling over her heart.
"Sakura-chan…."
She reflected on the past few days she had spent in Konoha. She saw those familiar faces, the ones that she saw back in Tokyo. She saw Ino wearing a somewhat revealing purple garment that seemed to suit her looks like a teenage pop star. She saw Hinata, still shy and reserved as ever, all covered up in a thin, light violet coat and navy pants that nearly went up to her ankle. Then, there were more, like Shikamaru, Kiba, Tenten, Rock Lee, Choji, and so on and so forth. Of course, she didn't realize it before, but Kakashi-sensei in this world looked somewhat similar to the one back at home. It was so obvious but it didn't hit her till afterwards. She was somewhere in an alternate universe. But somehow, no matter where she looked or went, she couldn't find her 'other self.'
The sun was already saying its goodbye over the hills, and darkness was falling upon Konoha. Lights flickered on in each household, and she could see the warmth inside each of them. She could hear the familiar laughter of happiness, the conversations which never seemed to stop. Their love, their happiness… they made her feel smaller.
'I really shouldn't have said that,' she thought as she gathered her knees to her chest. She was on top of a rooftop of some abandoned warehouse, empty and dark as usual. Trees swayed rhythmically by the gentle breeze, tricking her into thinking that it was still summer. But in fact, it was winter, and seasons never seemed to change in the strange village called Konoha.
"Whew, I can't believe this," Sakura sighed.
"Believe what?" A tall male figure plopped out behind the oak tree next to her. He stood on one of the branches casually with a tiny orange book with a red stop sign on the front.
"Kakashi-sensei," she said. He jumped over to where she was sitting.
"Why aren't you over at Naruto's house? Did you have a fight with him?" he asked.
"No, of course not," Sakura lied through her teeth. There was a small pause, and then she began to talk again. "That idiot just doesn't understand how I feel sometimes! All he does is bother and irritate me to the bone. He has that stupid goofy grin on his face, and seems to enjoy being a doormat to some people. He just loves smiling all the time and saying, "Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan" to me. It's just… so annoying!"
Sakura let out all the fume of exasperation out from her head and crossed her arms. Kakashi's eyes widened, and then he sat right next to her.
"Sakura, remember the talk that we had about this world?"
"Yes, but what about it?"
"Well, you do remember the talk about the jinchurikis, right?" Sakura nodded. "Naruto just happens to be one of them. The very last one, I should say. The other eights all died in a battle."
Sakura turned her face toward Kakashi, slightly in confusion. What…?
"Those who are jinchurikis are born to live a life of solitude and abandonment," he continued. "He probably didn't mention this to you. Maybe he was scared to tell you the truth. But he lived a harsh life. He had no family, no friends from the start. He was always chased down by the Akatsuki because they wanted his kyubi, and no one could understand his pain."
Sakura's expression changed from confusion to slight realization.
"He may seem stupid and goofy to you, but he understands other people's pain. He understands your loneliness of being further apart from your world.
"One day, he just got sick and tired of moping around and crying because it didn't help at all. So he's trying to smile it off. He wants to live life like others. He probably wants to show you his share of life in Konoha too, so you won't be so lonely. I understand how you must feel too, but don't you think you should understand a bit of Naruto's feelings as well?"
Sakura nodded slightly, and Kakashi smiled. "Good. Now let's get down from this place. How did you get up here anyways?"
'The ladder,' Sakura wanted to point it out, but decided to keep that thought in her mind. Kakashi carried her in princess style and jumped off the tall warehouse.
"Now go home safely," he told her and disappeared under a cloud of smoke.
Sakura began to walk. She felt guiltier than ever after that talk with Kakashi. But it did help her understand a little bit of Naruto.
She was almost close to his apartment, when she saw a blonde-haired boy far away from her, calling out her name. She watched him tentatively, cocking her head slightly, wondering again why he cared about her so much like this.
"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!"
'Mou, that idiot. Stop calling my name so much like that! You'll bother the neighbors,' she thought as she took slow steps toward him.
"Sakura-chan? Sakura-chan!"
'Do you like me that much?'
"Sakura-chan!!"
"Stop calling my name, you idiot! I'm right here!" Sakura shouted, and then he turned toward her. His grim face was suddenly lightened, and it was the first time that she had ever seen his expression change, even though it was under the dimly lit streetlights.
"Sakura-chan, you're okay!" he grinned. His gentle eyes met hers, and surprisingly, her heart thumped a little. She was blushing, and she could feel that. Not wanting him to see her, she turned away from him.
'Why am I like this? He's not my type,' she tried to reassure herself. Her guilty conscious was evaporating away from her heart, though a part of it still remained in her mind. His kindness, his smiles looped over and over again in her mind.
She bit her lips and stared at her shoes. She did not want to see him.
"Sakura-chan? Are you okay?"
"You're such an idiot," she whispered in a low voice.
"Ah, sorry, I couldn't hear you. Can you say that again?"
"I said you're such an idiot!" she raised head up quickly and shouted. "Idiot, idiot, idiot! You shouldn't care for an idiot like me! All I did was scowl at you, be mean to you! Why are you so kind to me?!"
And then, Sakura began to weep and put her head against his chest. Naruto was confused at first, not knowing what to do. But in the end, he raised one hand over to her back and held her gently.
He was so warm. His scent… she liked his scent.
That night, it didn't take long for Sakura to figure out about Naruto's plan. Apparently, it was all a misunderstanding. Sakura ran out from his house before he could explain thoroughly to her.
"Ehh?! You mean…"
"Well, we can't just stay in the village for long, Sakura-chan. If we want to find the portal, I think we'll have to do some travelling around this country for a bit."
"That was your plan?!" Sakura screamed. She felt so stupid to run out like that. I jumped to conclusion….Her shoulders and head drooped toward the floor from realizing her rashness and stupidity. Her mother did always tell her to fix that nasty habit.
"Okay then," she drearily said, trying to pass it off casually. "Let's start packing."
Somehow, Naruto felt chills crawl up his spine from the sudden change in the atmosphere.
It was early in the morning, when the sun was about to rise in the east. Sakura and Naruto both carried knapsacks full of any useful utilities. They were heading toward the gigantic viridian gate, when they saw her leaning against the stone walls.
"Ah, Tsunade-baa-chan?" Naruto said, caught in surprise.
'So that's Tsunade-san,' Sakura thought.
"Where do you think you're going, Naruto?" Tsunade singled him out, not minding the girl for a minute. "A ninja shouldn't leave the village without any permission, even if he is the Hokage."
"Ex-Hokage," he reminded her. Sakura was again, caught in another surprise. Ehh?! He's the Hokage of Konoha..? She remembered the rankings that Kakashi had talked about in the ninja world. When the Hokage talk came up, Kakashi slightly rolled his eyes toward Naruto who seemed to not pay too much attention to that particular subject.
"Whatever. Retired or not, you should still inform me, Naruto, and you know that," Tsunade roared.
Naruto pretended to groan in pain, though he was fine about the woman still looking after him like his very own grandmother. "How did you even know that I was going to go out?"
"I got a few tricks up my sleeves," said Tsunade, and then turning toward Sakura, "Ah, so you'll be escorting him too?"
"We're just going out for a walk," Sakura informed her, telling only half the truth. Tsunade half-heartedly nodded, playing along with the little games that the young ones were making.
"Uh huh, well, just remember to be careful," the blonde woman crossed her arms with a cocky smile and a wink at the boy. "And Naruto, try not to get so carried away."
"Um, okay," the clueless Naruto said, while Sakura's jaws dropped abruptly. "Right, we should get going now…"
"You go out first; I want to talk to Tsunade-san alone," Sakura said as she started pushing him out of the gate. When Naruto was finally out and grumbling in the distance, Sakura turned to the woman.
"What is it that you want to talk to me about?" Tsunade asked, now keeping a serious look upon her face like Sakura.
"You seem to know a lot about Tokyo,"
"I only know what I do know," Tsunade replied with sudden mysterious smile rising. "I've seen it only once as a little girl. I was there before."
"But how, and can you tell me a way to get back home? Will I get there anyhow?" Sakura insisted. Still, Tsunade kept her silence and smile.
The sun rose above the plane, and a gust of wind rushed by the two women, one with age old secrets, and the other, just learning.
"You'll soon figure it out on your own, Sakura. Those who had an experience of time travelling are not allowed to talk about it a lot. You will go home soon, I believe, by Christmas."
"Christmas? But it's been almost a week since I've been here, and Christmas passed. How is that possible?"
"You'll soon find out, Sakura. You'll soon find out."
"That Tsunade woman is so strange," Sakura grumbled as she ran out of the gate. Naruto was waiting for her nearby. She ran up to him. "Sorry to keep you waiting."
"That's alright. Baa-chan's fun to talk with once you get to know her," he said, and then he leaned close to her ears. "And just so you know, she's over fifty years old."
"Fifty years old?!" Sakura shrieked. "How is that possible? She looks so… so…"
"Young, I know. It's some special medical jutsu to make her appearance look young," he grinned. Sakura made a weird look, as if Naruto was pulling a prank on her. But his smile seemed so genuine and innocent enough to believe. Her heart almost melted but then quickly, she cleared her throat and changed the subject.
"Say, why didn't you tell me that you're the Hokage?"
"Ex-Hokage," he pressed in. "And that's all ancient history. It's nothing special."
"But it's still part of you," she told him. "So why did you quit being a Hokage?"
He had a serious expression drawn upon his face, and Sakura stopped to see all the burdens and pain in the past suddenly coming back to life in his eyes of deep, blue ocean. "How can I… when I can't even save one life?"
Sakura's mouth parted. She had a tinge of pain in her heart as she unexpectedly pitied the boy in her heart, though she didn't know the full reason why.
Noticing this, he said gleefully, "Ah, well, I like my life like this. It's nice and quiet; who wants to live under pressure anyways? He he, let's go Sakura-chan!"
He slowly began to pick up his pace again, and Sakura sensed all his ancient sorrow left clinging in the air like a bittersweet perfume.
"Naruto… just who are you really?" she painted those words into the wind quietly.
They had walked many hours away from the village. They went further, and there seemed to be no sign of any portals, let alone an inn. The night was closing in, and Sakura was feeling a little tired from all the walking. They had also been silence too, and though there wasn't much talk, she still enjoyed his company. It was the same with him. She didn't complain, not even once, even though she had sore legs and feet that felt like they were being crushed underneath a boulder. Seeing her hobble a little and the sun set over the mountains, Naruto stopped.
"Okay, I think we need to settle down for tonight," he told her. She nodded eagerly, as if this was what she was waiting for the whole time.
"I'm going to scope the land a little to see if there's any place suitable enough for us to camp out. Just wait here for a while," Naruto said, and with that, he leaped into the air and away to the distance in the forest.
When he was gone, she plopped down on the ground and took off her shoes. Her feet were aching, and she rubbed them with her hands. She took the heavy knapsack away from her shoulders and started to move them around a little.
It was getting quite dark, and Naruto hadn't come back to her.
"Geez, where could that idiot have run off too? It's getting a little cool too," Sakura began to complain. "I hope he's alright… that Naruto."
She made a little arm stretch, when suddenly, a sharp object swished by, making a small scrape along her cheeks. Sakura slowly touched the side of her face and saw blood. She looked back and saw a kunai knife plunged into the ground deeply from the speed.
Sakura gasped and tried to make a run for it, but before she could even scream for help, someone held her arm and twisted it to her back with tremendous strength. She was thrown flat on the ground and saw two ninjas, dressed almost alike in dark, leaf green jumpsuit, flak jacket, and thick, black masks.
"Wh-who are you guys?!"
"Did you just say Naruto? The Uzumaki Naruto who killed our brother?" one of the ninjas growled.
"Wh-what?" Sakura whimpered, and then caught a glimpse of the metal plate with a music note imprinted on it. It immediately hit her.
'So they're the brothers of that guy who Naruto killed..?' she thought as she groaned in pain from the painful grip on her arm.
One of the ninjas squat down to raise Sakura's chin. "Where is Naruto, that bastard? We'll kill him off for the crime he's done to us for good!"
"Heh, heh, I can't wait to cut his throat in one slice," the other one who was holding her arm growled.
Sakura looked at the ninja directly in his eyes and screamed, "I don't know where he is and even if I knew that, I won't tell!!!"
Her refusal made both ninjas' bloods boil, and the one holding her chin produced a kunai out of his sleeves. "What a shame to have this pretty face go to waste. Oh well, if you won't talk, I'll just have to slice that useless mouth of yours!"
Sakura closed her eyes to look away. She tried to squirm and wiggle her way out from their grasp, but the more she resisted, the more their grips became tighter.
"Naruto! Naruto!!!" she screamed.
"Sakura-chan!" the sudden familiar voice called out her name, and the blonde-haired boy emerged from the shadows of the trees. With one quick motion, he cut the two ninjas' hands and arms with a kunai. The enemies screamed in pain as they backed away to save the rest of their limbs.
"Sakura-chan, are you alright?" Naruto stooped down to pick her up. She nodded slightly as she got off the ground and dusted her uniform.
"Uzumaki Naruto, we finally meet," the enemies growled in unison.
"Ah, so you're the two of the three famous Sound Ninja brothers. You saved me a lot of time hunting you down," Naruto grinned.
"You killed our brother, you bastard!"
"I can't wait to cut your head off to collect the bounties held on you for doing such evil deeds!"
"Hey, hey, listen," Naruto shrugged casually. "I don't really want to hurt you two, and to tell you the truth, all of the five Kages already agreed to put you guys to death for slaughtering innocent villagers, looting, causing havoc among the civilians, and so on. I just happened to be the unlucky bastard to get this dirty job, that's all."
"You snake! Don't lie to us! The Kages would never…"
"Oh well, they did, and now," Naruto clenched on his kunai and held it up to their chest level. "You guys are next."
"Lies!" one of the Sound nins finally made his move as he jumped into the air to attack. Naruto grabbed Sakura by her waist and dodged the full blow which made a huge impact on the ground.
"Stay here," Naruto said as he dropped off Sakura near the bushes. Somehow Sakura looked worried about him. He stood up with a cocky grin on his face and made 'the nice guy' pose, all while turning his back on her.
"Heh, don't worry, Sakura-chan," he whispered. "I'll protect you- it's a promise."
She caught a glimpse of his eyes and before she knew it, he stepped into the battlefield, only to be caught in sharp edged chains.
"Say your prayers," the enemy smirked, and the two ninjas pulled onto each sides of the chain to tear his body to shreds.
"Naruto!!!" Sakura cried, but then there was a sudden cloud of smoke, and Naruto became a log.
"Kawarimi no jutsu!"
"We fell for it," one of the ninjas panicked, and then suddenly noticed the presence of the young boy behind him.
"Maybe you should say your prayers," Naruto said and slit the enemy's throat. He fell to the ground, forming a pool of blood.
"Kyaa, Naruto!" he heard her scream, and saw the last surviving Sound nin holding Sakura with a kunai knife to her neck.
"I'm going to kill her if you don't do what I say!" he threatened him and pulled her closer toward the knife. Naruto bit his lips, not knowing what to do.
"Run, Naruto… just leave without me," Sakura said, trying to fight of the grip of the enemy. "Just run!"
"So you got some guts, eh?" the Sound nin grabbed Sakura by her neck and started to choke her. Just then, a mass of Naruto's shadow clones flew down from the trees to kick the enemy.
"Gahh!!" the Sound nin was forced to let go of Sakura to dodge the full blow of the clones. He threw her away, and the real Naruto caught her in his arms. Sakura gasped for air and began to cough.
"Sakura-chan…," he said, dropping his head in shame. He set her down to the ground, biting his lips.
"Hold him down you guys," Naruto shouted as his clones who were shamelessly pummeling the Sound nin with the Uzumaki rendan. He held his palm out to the side, and cool air started to seep to the middle of his hand. Together, those wisps of cool air formed a blue sphere that contained a tornado inside. His eyes screamed for murder, and nothing more.
Naruto charged at the enemy, and shouted, "Rasengan!"
That was the last thing Sakura heard before she fell unconscious, before she could see the battle end shortly after.
When she woke up, she heard the sound of water rushing down. She had a grey blanket over her body. Sakura rose from the ground and rubbed her eyes. Right next to her, there was a gigantic waterfall and trees surrounding the whole area. She was sleeping on the soft grassy grounds this whole time, with a warm fire made in the middle. On the far left side, Naruto was sleeping while sitting in a slumped position.
She could barely see the sky from the trees, but caught a glimpse of blue, and knew it was morning.
She watched Naruto again, snoozing and almost falling, and then snapping back up to his sitting position. She couldn't help but curl her lips upwards at the sight of this.
'Naruto,' she called his name out in her mind, and crawled over to him with the blanket wrapped around her. She peered at his face quietly. He seemed to be in peace, like an infant. She thought that he was only simple and one-sided, but being with him for the last few days made her realize that there was more to the boy than she could ever imagine. He had so much potential, and yet he threw it all away to live a simple life in a simple village as a normal civilian. Why, she wondered, struggling to figure out the mystery.
Her eyes studied his face, until it came across his lips. She remembered when she kissed him by accident on that day of Christmas Eve, when she was pulled away from her world to this strange universe full of ninjas. Without much thought, Sakura touched her own lips with her fingers while taking a deep gazing at his, and then realizing what she was doing, she shook her head fast and tried to think of other thoughts instead.
She stood up and pulled the blanket off her shoulders and passed it on to him. She gently laid it on his back and walked away toward the majestic waterfall.
"It sure is such a lovely sight to see," she said to herself and took off her shoes and stockings to dip her feet into the water. It felt cool – washing away all the pain and stress that she had put on since the long walk away from Konoha. She dipped her fingers into the shallow ends of the pool, and paused for a minute. She turned around to see Naruto, still sleeping like a baby.
She smiled. 'I guess it won't hurt to take a bath by myself… before Naruto wakes up.' She took all her clothes off, folded them and placed them on a rock right next to her. Then, without any second thought, she jumped into the water and swam freely around the deep ends.
A few minutes after Sakura went taking her bath, the fire near Naruto started to break down the last remains of the burning wood. By the crackling sound of fire, he woke up a little startled.
"What the," he mumbled, still half-asleep, as he pulled out the kunai under his sleeves. He rubbed his eyes and noticed that the fire was dying out, and it was day break. He yawned and stretched, but saw that there was the blanket slung over him, the one that he gave Sakura last night.
He quickly stood up, ignoring the fact that he almost pulled a muscle in his left leg and started to look for her.
"Sakura-chan? Sakura-chan," he called her. And then, he noticed something splashing underneath the waterfall. He cautiously stepped over to take a closer look, and his eyes grew wide as he saw Sakura cleansing her body under the waterfall.
"Wow, this is so nice," Sakura said to no one in particular as she combed her hair with her hands. Strangely, she felt as if she was being watched. She slightly opened her eyes, and saw Naruto gawking at her stupidly.
He wanted to move. He wanted to walk away, pretending as if he had never seen that glorious sight. But he was frozen, as if the ground had swallowed his two feet. He felt his cheeks burning, and his eyes twitched as he sensed danger from her.
There was an awkward silence between the boy and the girl, and then in three, two, one….
"Kyaaaa, Narutooo!!!!!!!" Sakura screamed as she grabbed a bunch of pebbles underneath the water. She started to throw them at him.
"W-wait, Sakura-chan, I didn't mean to!!" he tried to reason with her, but knew that he was being an idiot. He was already labeled as a pervert in her mind, and there was no way to pull a few strings out of these kinds of situation.
One pebble went straight to Naruto's forehead.
Conk!
The sound echoed through the forest.
"Unbelievable," Sakura grumbled hotly as she poured herself a cup of tea. She took a sip, and then glared at Naruto with fire in her eyes. He tried to keep his eyes away from hers cautiously, keeping a distance from their walk. They were travelling again by foot, and Sakura was in no mood to talk. Dead leaves scrunched underneath their feet as they passed by, and all sorts of small creatures of the forest made their occasional debut out and about their ways. Only few strings of ray of light passed through the tiny corners of the trees, and sparrows, unseen before their eyes, chirped along with cicadas.
"Come on, Sakura-chan. I said I'm sorry, didn't I?" Naruto tried to turn her anger away from her. Somehow, that attempt seemed to make it worse.
"What?!"
"Besides, it sure was such a lovely sight to see. How could I possibly turn away from your beautiful figure?" he kept on babbling like an idiot, caught in his own perverted thoughts. Sakura clenched her fists and raised her voice.
"Shut up Naruto, before you get it!"
"The cool, transparent water caressing against your smooth, soft, milky skin…."
"THAT'S IT!!" Sakura charged towards him and pulled on his cheeks.
"Ow, ow, I regret nothing!" Naruto yelled, pumping his fists in the air victoriously, and Sakura pinched his cheeks harder out of disgust.
"What a fun sight to see," they both heard a deep voice echoing through the dark forest. Quickly, Naruto pulled out his kunai and held Sakura close to his body.
"Who's there?!"
A figure hiding from the shadows emerged out from the trees. Both Sakura and Naruto were suddenly faced another unexpected surprise in their lifetime.
"Sa-Sasuke!" Naruto shouted. A small bead of sweat rolled down from the side of his face. "But… I thought you were dead! Is this a genjutsu?!"
'Sasuke? Why does that name sound so familiar?' Sakura thought as she glared at the boy with jet black hair spiking up. His onyx eyes were piercing through her soft, emerald ones.
Then it hit her.
"Sa-Sasuke-kun?!" she shouted. "But… how…, I thought you were in Tok…!"
Somewhere in the corner of her mind, a memory that had been buried and forgotten for almost a year resurfaced again.
Also, she remembered everything, all the way back to the beginning when she first saw him.
A/N: Possibly the longest chapter I've ever written in my life xp. I never want to do that again, but it was fun staying up late to write while everyone was asleep. It made me feel like I was on a secret mission, heh...
I kind of freaked out because my internet started blocking me out, and I had loads of other works to do on it. Eep! Luckily, the problem was fixed with just one simple trick of pulling the cord out and then plugging it back in. -_-;;;
I know it's long, but I hope you enjoyed it!