The night was becoming darker and deeper....

Streetlights were brightly lit everywhere in the village. It was in every corner of the streets, emitting that warm, bright glow. The streets were less busy than usual, but still, there were people hustling around. Each house windows seemed to paint a vivid picture of families laughing and talking to each other. The stars were shining in the sky so wonderfully that Naruto had already forgotten he was sitting on a bench outside, breathing in that cool night air. He was too busy staring at the sky.

"Hey, hey…."

No answer.

Conk!

"Ow, what the hell was that for?!" Naruto winced in pain as he held his head. He could feel the bump rising.

"You know," the girl who sat next to him said. "Do you think that our destinies are written in the stars?"

He briefly paused for a moment. He never thought of it like that before. He never knew that she was so deep. He watched her glare at the stars stiffly, her arms still crossed. The night air was chilly.

"Are you cold or something?" he asked.

"Just answer the damn question already…!"

"Yeah, whatever…,"

"Don't "yeah, whatever" me!!!"

Another conk….

Naruto heaved in pain, trying to hold himself down. He growled and glared at her, but she shot a glare back. He rolled his eyes and looked away, resting his chin on his elbow. More stars were shining through the pitch darkness.

"Hey you…"

"It's Haruka," she growled. He sighed. He was exasperated with this shenanigan already.

"You know what," he abruptly stood up in a small fit of rage. "Why don't you just quit it?"

"Quit what?"

"Quit being Haruka and just go back to Sakura already!" he shouted. She sniffed and sneered at him.

"Yeah? Do you think that I can quit bein' who I am, you dumb shit? Who do you think I am, huh? Who?"

He kept the sulky silence. Noticing this, she tried to comfort him.

"Look, Sakura or whatever that wimpy bitch's name is… she's safe, alright? She's someone that I'll protect. After all, this is my body too…."

"Where did you come from?"

"Where did you come from what? Did you already forget the rules, kid?" she said, reminding him those painful lessons. He gulped with strands of his hairs sticking up.

"Where did you come from…., Haruka….sama?" he gritted painfully. She sneered again.

"That's better. I'm not sure where I really came from. I think I've always been here. Anyways, ever since three months ago or so…. I was bored, so I decided to loosen up a bit. Tell you what; I'm already gettin' kinda bored. Why don't you go an' buy me some cigs, won't ya?"

Shocked, Naruto started to wave his hands in panic.

"But what about Sakura-chan…!"

"Get some or I'll go an' get some myself. Who knows, I'll meet up some hot guys on the way…"

"I'll go!" he shouted, trying to suppress his feelings. He marched off to the nearest store. Watching him go slowly, she clicked her tongue and tapped on one foot. She was that impatient.

"Hurry up, you damn freak!" she yelled, and quickly threw her shoe to his head. Her aim was so perfect; in less than a second, there was a wham.

"Grr, one of these days….," Naruto growled as he began to jog away while rubbing his sore head. Behind him, Haruka jeered and cackled.

"So this is the place that the hokage-sama mentioned, huh?"

"Let's split up and look around."

The ANBU ninjas wandered around carefully through the barren field. It was a wasteland, heavy with thick fog that could be sliced with a sword. There was barely any vegetation around, or any signs of living creatures. They carefully searched around the land, examining the rubbles and the ruined soil.

"Hey, come over here!"

The rest of the ninjas quickly ran to the sound of this voice. It was hard to distinguish where the voices were coming from since it echoed everywhere through the empty field. However not so far away, they saw two ninjas gathered around.

"What's going on?"

"Come take a look at this." One ninja picked up a small frail piece of paper off the ground. It was hard to make out what it said since the paper seemed to be a part of a letter. Also, the ink was somewhat smudged, possibly because it was written on the paper too quickly and didn't have enough time to dry.

Though the written subscribtions were hardly readable, they were able to recognize one simple sign on the useless looking paper- a perfectly small smudged circle.

Grinding his teeth, Naruto came back to the bench with a pack of cigarette. The silent light shone down upon the lonely wooden bench beside a tree. The stars were still twinkling, but there was no sign of Haruka.

"Damn, now where did she go…," Naruto muttered as he pushed the cigarette pack into his pocket. In panic, he ran to the left and shouted her name out loud to the sky.

About a few feet away from where he once stood, cusses and shouts were about to be exchanged in an ally.

"Kneel down, idiots! You guys owe me tons of stuff!"

She was holding a beer bottle in one hand, and made a fist with the other. Haruka angrily stared at the two teenage boys who sneered back at her.

"We don't owe you anything, girl," one teenage boy shouted. The other one trilled.

"Just run back to wherever you came from, bitch," the other boy said. They both burst out a laugh. Haruka was steamed. Her face was becoming ripe red, and she tightened her grip on the bottle. Finally, in a burst of rage, she smashed the bottle on the brick wall and pointed the broken ends to the two boys. She grinded her teeth and glared at them with her piercing jade colored eyes.

The laughs were gone, and only silence crept in the darkness.

"Last time, you guys said that you'd give me money for a full out buffet if I helped you beat up some guys. I did that! Now, cough up the dough or else! That's all I'll take."

"Look, ugly. We don't owe you anything at all. You could've refused the offer, but instead, you decided to beat them up. Let me recap- we said that you can 'beat them up if you want to….'"

"Fuck you and your fucking recaps! This wasn't the first time since you did this! Now you're gunna pay!!!" And with that, Haruka leaped into the air and swiftly kicked one boy down. She started to pummel him.

"Now say your pathetic prayers. I'm gonna cut up this ugly face of yours," she whispered, and was about to thrash the broken bottle onto the boy's head. The other free boy in panic, slowly reached out to a trash can lid that leaned next to the brick wall. Getting a grip, he abruptly smashed the heavy metal lid onto her head.

Wham!!!

The broken glass soon dropped out of her hand….

Tink! Tink….

"Damn, where the hell is she?!" Naruto shouted. Even if he didn't want to admit it, he was worried about Haruka. That violent girl was tough and could beat up a hundred men –or more- if she wanted to. Still, it was quite odd to see that she was nowhere out of his sight. He couldn't hear her boisterous, brash voice yelling out from the distance. Her light pink hair, which stood out from the distance and can be distinguished from the darkness and crowd, wasn't anywhere. He bit his lips and ruffled his hair. He did search a lot of places where he suspected that she would go, but she wasn't there. Still unable to find her, he decided to return back to the bench. Perhaps she was there waiting for her pack of smoke…

"Run for it, and don't tell anyone what happened!" he heard a boy shout. There were two teenage boys, running. One was covered in bruises, and the other one was splattered in blood. The scene was too strange, and by intuition, Naruto stopped them by grabbing them quickly by the collar.

"What the hell are you guys running from?" he growled. They cowered in fear and began to shake. Naruto tightened his grip. It nearly choked them.

"I… I… please don't kill me! I swear that I didn't do anything wrong! I just smashed her head with a metal lid and the bitch….!"

"Who was it?!"

"… The pink haired bitch!" the other blood soaked boy began to cry. "It… it wasn't me! It was him, right here! He did it!"

"What do you mean by that?! I didn't do anything, I swear! I got beaten up by her! You liar…! You hit her so many times with that metal lid! You dirty son of a…!"

"Where is she?!" he growled. "I can beat you guys up a thousand times worse than she can. You better show me the way or else….!"

Still cowering in fear, the two boys sobbed and pointed to the direction. Dragging them by the collars, their feet creating a trail of hot dust, Naruto ran towards the ally.

"So what do you think the circle means…?"

"Don't you think it reminds you of the sharingan or the Uchiha crest…?"

"You think that this has anything to do with his disappearance?"

"It could… I mean, they've fought here before, didn't they?"

"…?!"

She was lying on the cold asphalt ground right next to the dumpster in the ally. The frail ends of the plastered posters made annoying flapping noises as the wind passed by. The brick walls were solemn and formidable as ever, using their shadows as a blanket to cover the blood soaked ground. The timid moon that hid itself behind the swirls of coal colored clouds finally made its appearance. It shone its light down upon the two boys and Naruto, staring at the pink haired girl's back.

"Sakura…chan…," he whispered. Still, there was no answer. He slowly walked to her, his lips tight as ever. The two boys began to cry louder.

The moon quickly shrouded itself in the black clouds.

He picked her head up gently. Her blood was still warm, and her eyes were closed so that he couldn't see her menacing green eyes. She lived as Sakura, but died as Haruka….

He hated that idea.

"Hey, Sakura-chan…! Wake up," he said to her gently. He began to shake her. Still, no response came out.

"It's my fault," the two boys heard him say. His back was facing them, so they couldn't see how his reactions were like. They could never know how he had his eyes closed, or how he gritted his teeth and grabbed onto her hands tighter and tighter….

The moon appeared again brighter than ever.

"Uhh….," he heard a weak groan. The two boys stopped crying, and their eyes widened.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto whispered. Her eyelids reluctantly began to rise. He could see the pretty shades of green again.

"Sakura-chan…!" he shouted.

"I can't feel my hand….," she weakly whispered.

"Huh..?"

"My hand… you're holding on to it too tight." Realizing this, he quickly let go of the grip. She rose up and rubbed her head.

"What just happened?" she asked as she looked around the surroundings, dazed and confused.

"No-nothing, girl, so please don't hurt us!!!" the two boys yelled in unison, and with that, they made their dash.

She cocked her head slightly.

"Who were they?"

"Eh, Don't you remember anything about them?"

She shook her head silently. The wind blew again, dancing with the rustling leaves and scrap pieces of paper.

Just like the moon, she beamed at him, smiling sweetly.

"Hi, I'm Airi," she said as she timidly played with her hair and gathered her knees together.