Chapter III

Back to the Present

Who forces time is pushed back by time; who yields to time finds time on his side.

~The Talmud

It was on that fatal day on mid-June in Tokyo when she spotted him from a few distance away. He was standing near the central clock tower and the convenience store, his onyx eyes wandering and examining the city with intense curiosity. He was aloof, with no one around him or wanting to go near him because of his cold, depreciating aura despite the suffocating city heat, but she knew that in her heart, she already had fallen for him.

For a few times, he stood there when she was on her way to school or back home, always between morning and noon. His hands were often in his jean pocket, and he casually leaned against the wall. It was as if he was waiting for someone. At first, she speculated that the loud-mouthed yankis who squatted down in front of the convenience store's glass door or leaned against the wall were his friends, but then realized that they weren't after seeing him a couple of times alone on Saturdays and Sundays.

She didn't know what made him so attractive to her eyes. Sure, he was a 'pretty boy,' as her mother would quote. Girls often tried to make their pass in front of him. They swooned, they flirted, and sometimes, the older single ladies made proposals to him, but they all ended up crying or run to cover their wounds from being rejected coldly.

One hot day in August, when her summer break was about to end, she decided to gather up all her courage to talk to him.

"Hi," she said. She was sweating slightly from either being under the boiling sun or nervousness.

As usual, the boy with jet black hair just stood there leaning against the wall, ignoring her presence.

Sakura wasn't sure what to do afterwards. She was sure that he would talk back to her, like most normal civilians would. Instead, she decided to play along. She leaned against the convenience store wall right next to him, tossing the casual comment, "It sure is hot, isn't it?"

Still, he was quiet. Now she was really sure that she was sweating from nervousness and intimidation.

"Um, it sure is cool being underneath the shades, right?" she said, taking a glance at the tall, dying tree right in front of them that barely had any leaves to cast a shadow.

"Go away, you're sweaty," he told her, and Sakura could feel even the flakes of her skin freeze from his coldness. He got himself off the wall and started to walk away under the sun.

This didn't mean that Sakura was about to give up. Day by day, minute by minute, she watched him, always standing near the convenience store but never going inside there.

During the last week of August, there was rain, and Sakura much doubted that the jet-black haired boy would be out there.

On Wednesday during the rain shower, Sakura's mother asked her to buy few goods from the convenience store near the central clock tower. Usually, she would grumble and her mother would chase her out, but this time it was different. She wanted to check if he was there. Her mother cocked her head, thinking that her daughter finally snapped from studying too hard, but gladly handed her the red umbrella and the grocery list.

She was in her white shorts and spaghetti top, wearing Paul Frank flip flops and blue polka-dotted ribbon worn like a headband. She crossed the street drenched in beads of water. It felt like spring again, and she liked the smell of fresh rain. She didn't care if her clothes or feet were wet.

She would've never guessed that he would still be out there in the rain, waiting for something that she may never know. She took a small, shy glance at him before pushing the glass door to enter. He was still reserved in his own space, locked in his own thoughts with his eyes closed.

She collected all the items in the grocery basket and crossed off everything written on the list. Then, she stopped by the counter, and the store clerk began to scan all the food.

"Young lady, do you know anything about that man?" the store clerk asked.

"Hm?" she turned to the place where the man was pointing. She saw the boy, still out in the rain. She sighed, and turned back to the cash register in front. "Mou, I don't even know him too well, and he does that all the time… Geez, it's not like he even cares about his own well-being."

"I've seen him stand there all the time, never missing a day," the store clerk informed. "And at least once, I've seen you there with him."

"Well, I'm not close with him or anything-"

"Here," the man handed her a paper bag containing two steamy red bean paste buns. "Take this and give one to him, and have the other one for yourself. It's free, on me."

"Ah, no, how could I possibly-"

"Don't worry, young lady. Just take it for him at least. That poor young man must be soaking wet outside. Whew, young folks like him could easily catch a cold," the store clerk grinned. "Now go on." Moved by his kindness, Sakura beamed a smile.

"Thank you, Mister," she said, and went out carrying all her grocery bags and the buns. She hesitated, not knowing what to say to the boy.

'Ooh, what should I say to him?' she thought as she perched her red umbrella up above her head. She stood there, watching him, while he did nothing but pay no attention to her like always.

'Ugh, I feel so stupid. What could I possibly say to him? 'Here you go. It's a bun'? It's not like I think he's a charity case or something. Oh, but what should I do…?'

She took a glance back into the store, and the man behind the counter had his thumbs up with a smile. She quickly turned back to the boy she barely even talked to, and started to feel nerves spiraling around her brain chaotically. She closed her eyes tightly while clenching on the paper bag.

'Ughh, what should I do…!'

"What are you doing?" she heard the deep, apathetic voice say. She opened her eyes, wondering if she was dreaming. But she wasn't, and he was there, finally giving her notice. His eyes, as always, were full of curiosity and insight. She carefully walked up to him, bowed exactly ninety degrees, and stuck out the paper bag in front of him.

"Here, eat it," she said. It felt so awkward… so very awkward….

He took the bag and opened it. The sweet aroma of the buns rushed out soon. He folded the mouth of the bag and handed it back to Sakura, who was still in her bow position.

"I hate sweets," he uttered. She remained in that awkward way, slightly embarrassed and feeling sorely disappointed. He crumpled her pride and ignored her like all those other girls. But Sakura wasn't about to lose. She stood upright again and grabbed his right hand. She dug one bun out of the bag and shoved it into his palm.

"Eat it," she told him with a slightly threatening glare. She then marched away back home in the rain, vanishing before his sight.

He found this amusing, but didn't bother to take a bite. But he didn't throw it away carelessly either.

September rolled by, and Sakura was about to start her second semester with Ino and Hinata back at Konoha high. Sometimes after school, she rushed to the central clock tower to see him, but he never stood there anymore. She never saw him again until a month after, when she spotted him wearing a Senko High gakuran one day. He was staring at his watch and waiting for the bus at the bus stop. She felt never so happier to see him or anyone else for that matter in life. She approached toward him carefully, and pretended to wait for the bus too.

"Oh geez, that bus sure is late," she complained, though he didn't seem to fall for her tricks too easily.

"The bus here always comes within five minutes," he said bluntly, still looking at the other direction. Sakura never felt so embarrassed again in her life.

"Ah, ha ha, of course… I always forget," she said as she tapped herself on the forehead and made a girlish giggle. Still, nothing seemed to catch his attention towards her.

'You're not that special either, Mr. Emo-kid,' she heard her inner self quip. She tried to shake it off, and suddenly noticed his school name tag read, 'Uchiha Sasuke.'

"Is that all?" she said. Awesome….

He turned to her. "What is?"

"Um," she placed her hand over her mouth, blushing slightly. She wanted to try and get out of this situation somehow, but his eyes didn't let her escape. "Um well, it's just that… I wanted to know your name for a while and I saw your name tag…"

Her mouth twisted and turned. She fidgeted, wanting to get out of this awkward situation as soon as possible. She couldn't wait for that bus to arrive so it could cart him away from her far, far away…

For some reason, instead of making his usual nasty remarks, he said, "And yours is Haruno Sakura."

She raised her head. "Huh, how did you know that?"

"Name tag,"

"Oh,"

Then, the bus came, and a crowd of people got on and off the bus.

"Aren't you going to get on?" Sasuke said as he held onto the rail attached to the bus door.

Sakura's open palms waved back and forth to the side. "Ah, I catch the next bus," she lied, since it only took her ten minutes to walk home. He nodded twice, still with no emotion drawn on his face.

"Ah, but I'll see you next time, Sasuke-kun," she added, and the bus door soon closed and carried him away.

She waved and waved. And when she could see the bus no more, she jumped up to the sky in cute Supergirl style.

"YES!!!" she screamed in joy.

She was sure that it was him. It felt like as if an eternity had passed by as Naruto and Sakura both stared at him in shock.

He wasn't in his usual normal jeans and tees, the ones that she usually saw him wear back in Tokyo. Instead, he wore loose black pants and tee, along with a coat that resembled uwagi. It had navy wave patterns flowing against the white backdrop. Around his waist he had a dark purple obi belt tied around with a sheathed sword slung on it at the back, and had a twisted dark strip of cloth tied around his head. Still, it was Uchiha Sasuke.

"Sakura-chan, what do you mean by that? He couldn't have been in Tokyo- he was killed by Madara two years ago!" Naruto shouted. "I was sure of it. I saw Madara absorbing him!"

"Eh? But I met him before in Tokyo! What are you talking about, Naruto?" Sakura claimed, overwhelmed by this strange situation.

Sasuke smirked. "You two are both correct, except you're missing out on a little detail. You may have seen me being absorbed into Madara's hands during our last fight, Naruto, but in truth, I was sent to her world."

"But why would Madara do that? He said he took your powers and even claimed that you were dead!"

"You stupid bastard," Sasuke said, dropping the tone in his voice. "How many years will pass before you gain at least an ounce of brain in that useless head of yours? Madara's toying with you, you moron. He saved me because I would serve some kind of purpose in the future.

I gave him all my power and strength by joining hands of Team Hawk with Akatsuki and even following their plans to get at least one step closer to my true goal – to destroy Konoha at all cost. But I played right into his trap, and he used me for his own devious plans to conquer the world of ninja."

"What are you talking about Sasuke-kun-"

"The night before I faced you, Madara gave me this chakra crystal containing a bit of his chakra. It was to know if he was still alive or not," Sasuke continued, holding out the translucent crystal between his thumb and index finger. "It was black before, but that faded away after he was destroyed by you, Naruto."

"But Madara's not dead, Sasuke!"

"Ah, so you know it too then. I guess I won't have to explain that boring detail. That shriveled up old bastard is intelligent, I have to say. He modified his own body like a space-time container to teleport around. He thought I would fall for his blatant trap again by giving me this crystal and by thinking that he was dead, I would drop my guard. Ha, what a fool…"

Naruto and Sakura stood in confusion. The lively sound of nature that once filled the forest was dying quietly.

"He wanted you to kill him you fool, although that was his alternate plan and would've loved to harness your power to rule the world. No, Madara discovered another amazing secret. Since he knew these tricks of space-time jutsu, he decided to conquer this universe and the universe that he sent me to. The bastard had only a small amount of power to transport me to one place, and that was where Sakura lived. Heh, but small is just an exaggeration since he still had the power of all those other eight tailed beasts left in his system. Once he died and became a portal, he began to harness mass amount of chakra in his system by absorbing all kinds of ninjas from different countries."

"Why are you telling us all this, Sasuke? Why now?"

Sasuke stayed silent.

"Why?" Sakura insisted.

Sasuke began to chuckle, but that became menacing, depreciating- almost with the attempt to cut down any soul who dared to foolishly question his methods.

"Why, you ask?" he said, keeping a twisted, sinister smile upon his face. "Why? I'm just giving you two a heads up before I kill you and allow the portal to gain your powers. I found a way to kill Madara and I'll absorb his powers like I did with Orochimaru and become the most powerful, immortal shinobi of all time!" And with that, Sasuke crushed the crystal in his hands and let the sparkling dust blow away by the wind. With tremendous speed, he charged toward Naruto, pulling out his sword slung on his belt.

Naruto pushed Sakura aside and pulled out his kunai to counter Sasuke's attack. Tiny sparks flew as the sword clashed heavily with the kunai.

"Sasuke-kun, stop! This is insane!" Sakura yelled, but Sasuke paid no attention. Instead, he kept wielding his sword against Naruto's kunai until he finally managed to fling the weapon away out of the defensive boy's hands.

"Not bad, Sasuke," Naruto remarked.

"Don't get so cocky," Sasuke pointed his sword at Naruto with an evil glare. He twisted his sword around in his hands and tried to strike. Naruto dodged swiftly, and threw a kunai at Sasuke.

"Stop it, both of you," Sakura said, but her voice remained as a background noise while the two warriors fought with equal strength.

Naruto made his hand signal and called out five of his shadow clones to the battle field. They all charged at their target, and in return, Sasuke disappeared in the blink of an eye. All the clones stopped and looked around their surroundings. Suddenly, the real Naruto realized where he was and saw Sasuke up above him, summoning tremendous amout of lightning in the blade, ready to slice him in half. He quickly dodged, but his opponent was able to at least inflict a deep, wide cut on his right arm.

"Naruto!" Sakura screamed as she began to run to him. Naruto gasped in pain, but yelled, "Stay back, Sakura!"

Applying chakra to his feet, Sasuke landed on the side of the tree and used it to jump toward Naruto. He plunged the electrical sword into the blond boy's chest in less than a second, delightfully watching the blood spill out as he pulled the weapon out. Sakura watched in horror, wanting to do something, but not knowing what.

But then, it all ended out as trickery as Naruto suddenly became a cloud of smoke.

"Damn his clones," Sasuke muttered, but before he could finish his sentence, Naruto emerged out from the ground and punched Sasuke's face with his right fist. From the impact, his body flung, crashing into trees until he made a back spin in the air and landed on the ground safely.

Blood trickled down Sasuke's mouth and sides of his head while Naruto held on to his bloody, now useless, limp arm.

"Heh, I shouldn't have used my righty," Naruto smirked. Sasuke casually wiped the blood off the side of his mouth with one flick of his thumb.

"Reckless and stupid as usual," Sasuke quipped. "But I have to admit: you got pretty fast, being able to switch with your clone at such situation…"

"Since when did you get so chatty, Sasuke?" Naruto grinned, and charged towards Sasuke.

Sakura just watched them, dazed and confused. They were having a duel to death, and yet, were fighting as if it was all just a simple, childish competition and nothing more. It was as if they fought with all their soul and memories, the times when they used to share dreams and share the same rivalry. The time when they were petty, the times when they grew out of loneliness and pain with the village….

The time when they were once friends, Sakura realized.

With a sudden flash, she snapped back into reality as she saw Naruto holding out his kunai in his fist.

"How can I be anything when I can't even save one life, Sasuke?" he said with a kind, anachronistic smile.

Sasuke's sword halted in the air, but the expression on his face remained cold and unscrupulous as usual.

Friends, they were once friends. And now, they were fighting. Sasuke wanted Naruto dead. She saw Naruto somewhat shaking from the tremendous amount of blood he lost due to his right arm.

Naruto noticed that his vision was blurry, and though he tried to retain his defensive position, it was fruitless. Sasuke was charging toward him with kirin at an enormous speed.

Friends…

Who were friends before…

But no longer are….

"Stop!!!" Sakura screamed as she ran toward the middle of the fight.

Just then, a pillar of light descended down to the ground, carrying the three away from the almost inevitable result of the battle.

Sakura opened her eyes, and all she could see was darkness. There was no light, although she could still see herself, the color of her uniform and alike. Naruto was lying a few inches away from her, breathing heavily as he held his injured arm.

"Naruto!" she cried, and held him close to her chest. "Where are we?"

"Probably trapped between the spaces of the two universes," Sasuke replied. Sakura held Naruto closer to her body.

"I won't let you kill him," she whispered with a threat of death hinted. That, however, didn't seem to be his concern for now.

"We should be at Tokyo by now," Sasuke said, letting his eyes wander around the dark, vacant space. "Why are we here?"

Then suddenly, both of them heard the deep, menacing voice creep from the shadows.

"You're caught in my body…."

"Who's there?! Who said that?" Sakura shouted, her voice becoming a disappearing echo.

Sasuke knew the familiar sound of the voice. "Madara."

"You were always the clever one, Sasuke," the voice answered.

"Let us out! And let me go back home!" Sakura demanded. The sinister voice cackled under the dark, always lurking for more fear and panic from the girl. Sasuke and Sakura both tried to look for an exit or some kind of light, but to no avail.

"I can't let you have it your way, Sakura dear,"

Sakura's eyes widened.

"What…How do you know my name?!"

"For years, I've been keeping my eyes on you, and I have very good eyes. You see, my dear, you hold a special kind of power – something that I very do much so desire to complete my regeneration."

"What the heck are you talking about? I have no powers, you jerk!" Sakura yelled, holding onto Naruto's hand while wanting his protection desperately.

"Haruno Sakura, don't joke with me. You have the power in your hands to save your world, or destroy it. Ah, my mistake. Tokyo was never your home anywise, so it wouldn't matter to you if it was gone."

Both Sakura and Sasuke's brows crumpled. "What do you mean by that?" she asked.

"Foolish girl, don't you remember the day when you went flower picking outside your home when you saw a tunnel of light in a nearby forest cave? You crept into it and landed right in the heart of Shinjuku Gyoen, Tokyo. You're no ordinary girl, Sakura. You have the power of time travelling sleeping within your soul."

"Liar, that's impossible!" Sakura shouted, but that scene which Madara had told her really weren't. They were creeping out of her old memory box which locked away all her childhood past. She had a mother and a father, and they lived in a quiet village with a large, leaf green gate that could be spotted from miles apart. Then, there were two other couples, her mother and father, who took her in to their apartment. She had just turned seven at that time, and that was over ten years ago. Those two couples, their images produced in her mind looked so vivid and clear. They looked almost identical to each other, minus the clothes and hairstyle.

"Now, it's your destiny to join me. Together, we shall conquer these two pathetic universes together and harness the ultimate power! Ha ha ha!!!" Madara's voice grew louder, ringing sharply in her ears. She wanted to block him out. She wanted out.

"Join you?" she said, covering her ears. "I don't want to! Screw yourself and go to hell because I'm not giving even a slice of my finger to you!" Sasuke stood beside her in shock.

"Now, I shall absorb you, the nine tails, and Sasuke. By the way, thanks for all your help, Sasuke. It was a pleasure."

Sasuke gritted his teeth in sheer rage, not being able to believe that he was duped badly by a man who seemed so easy to be used on his own whim. Sakura helplessly watched shadows move closer towards them, inch my inch. They were crawling like snakes with a full intent on swallowing them alive, enjoying every moment of squirms made pathetically by those humans.

'Naruto,' Sakura thought as she cringed and shed a few drop of tears, which suddenly glowed in the dark and became pure lights surrounding them with all warmth miraculously. The shadows backed away in fear, and the light grew brighter, becoming a circular disk that in one instance, took the trio away in brilliant flash.

When they opened their eyes again, Sakura and Sasuke saw the dazzling neon signs and Christmas ornament lights all around. They heard the sound of cars honking in the busy, snow carpeted, asphalt road. They were in the park, surrounded by trees. The tall central clock tower was hovering over them, with the big and small hand striking twelve o' clock, midnight.

The bell started to ring and echo through the hollow, empty park. Sakura's emerald eyes travelled across the large TV screens mounted onto the walls of the tall, silver skyscrapers. She saw the date.

December 25th- Christmas. Tsunade's predictions came true.

A/N: Woohoo, I'm almost done!!! Just one more chapter to go, I think, he he. Yes, this was a fairly short chapter compared to the last one, sorry to disappoint you. Ah, not really. I'm just going to keep the suspense going and going till the last chapter!!

Well, I'm happy. My holidays went by fine. I really hate those scented air sprays. They make my head hurt like right now.... . Dang, I can't believe I sprayed too much of that stuff. It's making me feel really sick, bleh.

Okay, a few terms to know. I'm just going to write it fast and simple. Gakuran is those uniforms that Japanese boys in middle and high school wear. Uwagi is a Japanese jacket that's similar to kimono, except it's the top part that people wear for martial arts. Uh, yeah, I think that's about it. Oh, and Shinjuku Gyoen is one of the most important gardens in Japan, and is very beautiful. See you soon!!!