(A/N: Thanks for the reviews & f&f guys :] again I apologize for any typos or grammar problems. Also I know some people may be confused about the setting cause I'm stupid and forgot to mention, this takes place around the time Sasuke recruits Karin, Suigetsu , etc. all members of the Akatsuki are alive instead of Orochimaru of course. )

Sakura

She had been lying on this bird for a while now, occasionally asking questions trying to make sense of what was going and also trying to kill time. Her attempts at conversation usually fell flat by only receiving short answers or one worded replies or the occasional 'Hn' from one of them. How far could they get in a cave anyways?

They stopped walking suddenly interrupting her thoughts; Sakura sat up to see what the reason was.

She saw they were facing another cave wall which contained a large seal.

"What is that?" she questioned expecting no answer.

"You could say it's basically a Gen-Jutsu technique" the man with the crimson eyes answered sounding annoyed. It was the first question of hers he decided to answer, ignoring the pointless ones like what his name was or where they were going. He then disabled the technique revealing a longer cave pathway before them

'Gen-Jutsu huh… Then this must be so no one can find wherever it is we're going'She thought before lying her head back down.

They continued walking for what seemed like an hour to her.

"We're almost there you might want to get up and walk the rest of the way –un "Deidara called looking back at her.

That's right; if she were to meet the 'others' she didn't want to look so helpless. One thing she couldn't forget was her pride.

Sakura was helped off Deidara's bird with the help of Sasori's puppet technique before she even make her attempt to get up, though they didn't act as kind to her as they did from the start they still had to show her they cared.

'There goes half of my pride.'

"I'll walk the rest of the way myself, Sasori" He then withdrew the threads from her body and gave the girl her way.

Sakura gained her composure and clenched her fists focusing the pain on her hand rather than her whole body; they allowed her to pass by, surprised by how she was managing on her own.

Smiling to herself she thought 'How familiar… I always wanted others to watch my back, watch how strong I've grown to prove to Naru-'She froze at the sudden memory then remembered she was told to sever ties between her former team since they had already done so to her. Her head spun around the thought of forgetting those she couldn't even fully remember and found herself on the verge of hyperventilation, she felt her body shiver before feeling a cold palm press against her forehead.

"She's pretty warm but what do I know –un"

Sasori attempted to walk up to her as well before an arm signaled him to stop.

"Give her space, let Deidara take care of it."

Deidara flicked her forehead trying to snap her out of it and shrugged at his partners, he didn't know how to 'take care of it'.

Her eyes looked distant and trying to get through to her failed.

She found it hard to breathe; only taking shallow breaths trying to ignore the voices around her, before feeling a flick on her forehead which only triggered more memories.

'You know hiding your forehead like that only makes it stand out more, Sakura'a familiar female voice filled her head.

She reached up and placed her touch on the hand that still remained on her forehead and glanced up at whose it was, 'No way…' she couldn't believe it, the face she saw was one from her childhood. The long blonde hair that was always tied up and always covered half her face was standing before her.

'Ino…'

She tightly embraced the figure she thought was her best friend who came back for her and that everything that happened was just a dream.

"What's wrong with her–un" the voice that came out of Ino was completely wrong, she looked up while releasing the embrace as her vision refocused into who she now saw was only Deidara who clearly looked disturbed at her previous actions.

"I'm sorry I thought you were…" How could she explain that she saw a resemblance between him and her friend who was a girl, without offending him?

"Never mind" she added, "Let's go" she turned and started walking away in hopes of making it seem like nothing.

"I thought told you to cut the ties you have with your old friends"

She stopped, she didn't know his name but that voice obviously could only come from him. That stern yet comforting way of talking

"They just somehow keep making their way into my mind, I can't help but feel like they still care for me because-"the words that came out of her mouth shook, they held no confidence

"Because why? Because someone who cares about you would leave you dying? They never even came back to look for you… because you see people live their lives bound by what they accept as correct or true, that's how they define 'reality' but the reality you might have once accepted turned out to be a mirage. You can't truly change unless you're set free from the bonds you once called your reality."

Sasori and Deidara decided to continue on ahead of the two, not feeling the need to get involved with whatever would happen next

Sakura didn't need to look at him to understand what he was saying it was like he saw through her thoughts and answered every question that remained in her head.

"Those who leave their comrades are worse than scum, that means something you right?" He added walking by her before ending the conversation, "You shouldn't withhold the hatred you have against scum, reciprocate their hatred with yours, you're better with us"

There was no doubt he somehow read her mind, she never even remembered those lost words until he had said it.

His words allowed her to remember the names of people she was struggling to remember just a moment earlier. Names of people she thought were important: Kakashi – Sensei, Naruto, Sasuke, Tsunade, everyone from Team 10, 8 and Team Guy. Names she remembered she held so closely to her, only ending up being names that betrayed her.

'They don't care about me, they left me, they didn't come back for me'Anger was slowly taking control of her mind and she began walking again. This time she didn't feel pain in her injuries, 'This was the result of their betrayal, this arm is because of them'she thought before grabbing her severely broken arm and gritted her teeth. The anticipated pain disappeared into her thoughts and turned into anger while she pictured the faces of those who betrayed her. 'I don't care about them.'

She couldn't believe her own thoughts.

"This must be hatred…" She thought aloud before taking her headband off.

She stared at the symbol that tied her to what was once her reality before scraping a line through it against the rocks of the cave wall.

"I see you've accepted hatred." A new voice called out

Being preoccupied with her thoughts she hadn't noticed she was finally here to meet the others.

Facing her were what seemed to be new faces along with the familiar robe with red clouds, she was now facing her new comrades, her new reality.

Konoha

Yawns and feet being dragged on concrete could be heard for miles coming from Konoha, they were all told to meet at the entrance of the village as planned, today was the start of their new mission. Sunrise was just approaching and considering the team had been up majority of the night preparing since they had consent from the Hokage for this mission, they were lucky enough to grab 4 hours of sleep before departure.

It was easier than expected for Kakashi to convince the Hokage; He even played the 'She's both our student' card for good measure. He promised that all they needed was one chance to try and get her back, a promise he felt guilt about. Tsunade eventually gave in seeing as Kakashi countered every argument that she had

Resulting in defeat, she and Shizune came up with conditions for the mission:

1. Retreat and use common sense, a little mistake like this could cause a repeat of the current situation.

2. They had 4 days total, and if the mission were to end in failure it would be closed and they were to return.

3. Keep an eye on your teammate

4. Guy was to accompany the mission as well, as he and the other two Jonin (Kakashi and Yamato) would be leaders.

She instructed for her conditions to be met, and trusted that they would.

…

Team 10 met up with Team 8 and Team Guy on the way and continued as a group, they haven't been up this early since they attended the Academy not to mention it's been a while since all teams took action together at once.

"How about that… two S rank missions back to back, I'm just ready to do the damn thing and bring her back." Kiba spat out

Shino looked over at his teammate, his obnoxiousness was nothing new to him but yet he feels the need to remind him every time, "Now's not the time to self-indulge, Kiba."

"But he's right! I say we get the Jonin to treat us to Barbeque to celebrate her return!" Choji suggested. His team was accustomed to being treated to a meal when a mission had been successful, his stomach growled before he reached for a bag of chips he had packed.

Tenten sighed, "You guys it's great that you're all so confident but this isn't going to be easy….right Neji?"

He nodded, "We should save the plans to celebrate for after the mission, prioritize and focus on what's important for-"

"HE'S ALREADY THERE; I CAN'T LET MY LOSS TO MY RIVAL GO IN VAIN! STARTING NOW I MUST DO TEN PUSHUPS FOR EACH STEP I TAKE WHEN I GET THERE AS A PERSONAL PUNISHMENT."

Nobody knew what caused Lee's random burst of energy, they watched as he took bigger strides while walking, giving him another challenge of making the number of pushups he had to do decrease.

"Can't his punishment be for him to just shut up? What's he talking about anyway?" Ino was clearly not a morning person, or a person who could tolerate Lee's ridiculous energy.

"It's N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata murmured, "He's already there alone I saw him". She regretfully wished she had arrived earlier so she could have waited with him.

Shikamaru looked and made out the familiar blonde hair as well as an obnoxious orange jacket and smiled. "Naruto's early? Who would have thought?"

That answer was obvious, he thought. This was Sakura after all, there was no doubt in his mind that Naruto would take this mission to its fullest extent and would refuse to return without her. The thought had its good and bad sides; he just hoped the mission wouldn't cause too much trouble; it was his plan and strategy after all.

…

Naruto saw the team approaching and waved; he used to hate being early until he found out that Sakura was always early before setting off on missions a long time ago. He would wake up and even skip brushing his teeth or washing his face to gamble his luck on getting some alone time with her.

Everyone gathered around, now to only wait for the Jonin to arrive.

"Jeez, you would expect the Jonin to have been the first ones here instead of Naruto."

Shikamaru stopped complaining and looked over at Naruto expecting him to start an argument about what he had just said; but it was obvious what Naruto had done… what an idiot

Rock lee began his pushups or his 'punishment' and Yamato and Guy had arrived, and Yamato concluded that there was one person who had yet to arrive.

Finally breaking his silence to whine, "Man, Kakashi-Sensei's always late but this is an important mission even I was the first one here, you'd expect him to atleast-"

"Youwere the first one here Naruto?" Kakashi said in disbelief , he arrived in the middle of his student's sulking before apologizing for being a bit late.

Hinata answered for him with admiration, "He was here way before all of us…"

"It's obvious it's because he didn't sleep"

Everyone turned to Shikamaru, "I understand you were anxious but it's important to rest up before a big mission. We only have four days"

The Jonin looked at Naruto to confirm then back at each other with disappointment.

"Well it's too late to rest up now, eat these you'll feel as youthful as you need for today" Guy sang before handing Naruto a handful of Soldier pills while displaying a thumbs up

He ate all of them without hesitation having skipped breakfast along with sleep.

"Sleep was the last thing on my mind" He explained with his mouth full, "I was busy reminding myself I won't lose another member of Team 7, or any of my comrades. I promise on my life that I won't lose any of you either". Naruto was back to his normal self

He jumped up standing on top of the gate looking down at his team

"Let's do this!" he cried, almost loud enough to wake the whole village.

"Did those pills really give him that much energy in one minute?" Kakashi questioned with a sweat drop.

"It weren't those pills, it's his determination and feelings that are driving him no matter how tired he is" Sai walked forward to stand beside Naruto and smiled, "It's how we all feel, we just don't have the same effect yet"

Someone knowing only very little about emotions he was surprisingly able to speak for them all once again.

Naruto looked over at Sai; the timing of that smile couldn't be any more perfect, before it caught on with the rest of the team.

"We'll definitely bring her home"