Author's Note: The story will get more eventful from now on, so don't blink, or you'll miss it xx

He felt her more strongly now, their bodies now synchronized to perfection. He felt his chakra flow with hers, creating a special form of hybrid chakra. He felt the strength she possessed, which was utterly surprising for a girl her age. She could shatter mountains, even create canyons with the brute force of her fist. Even more so, he detected a source of her own pure chakra untouched by his, being stored in one specific area of her body. He didn't know the reason, but he would make sure to disband that chakra later.

It was almost complete, he could see what she saw more clearly now, making out distinct shapes and colors. He could even hear whole worded phrases in and out, but only few sentences. But that would only be true for the moment. After the jutsu, he would have her completely.

"No, No way!" he heard briefly through his ears, the words slipping through her head and into his.

Perfect. Everything was going smoothly, and it would continue to be so.

He only needed a few more seconds..

The leaves in the trees rustled violently in the early morning breeze, some disconnecting from their twisted branches only to swirl and land between the two Konoha shinobi who were kneeling on the grass, an emotional turmoil spinning around them like a tornado.

"Naruto, please." Sakura almost begged, her eyes slightly wet with tears that threatened to sprout and spill down her flushed cheeks to water the green grass with despair.

Naruto's blue eyes were ice cold, a drastic anomaly from their usual spark and glow. His mouth was set in a straight line, the way that he had always done it whenever he was trapped in a bad situation. Sakura's heart hurt from his stare, that her request for him had triggered this reaction out of him. She had expected it really, she knew he wouldn't agree to her right away, otherwise he wouldn't be the Naruto she knew and loved. But, he was also the Naruto who was too stubborn and rash to consider anything that would include completing the mission. But she was persistent. It had to be done, if it came to that situation..

"Naruto, you have to promise me."

"No, no way! There's no way that I'd do anything like that! Never!" he exclaimed, clenching his fists.

"Naruto-"

"No, Sakura-chan! Why would you even ask me to do this?!" he cut her off, grabbing her arm.

Sakura looked down sadly at Naruto's hand grasping onto her arm. She never wanted any of this, never wanted to be in such a situation that she would have to block out a conversation from reaching Sasuke, a conversation that could quite possibly determine the fate of their lives. It hurt her even more that she had to ask such a crude favor of Naruto, to plead to him to comply to her wishes. A few weeks ago, she wouldn't have imagined that she would have been in a situation such as this one. Back then, before any of the havoc of this mission, she was back in the village with her teammates, laughing over a steaming bowl of ramen and remembering their ridiculous task of trying to see Kakashi's true face that he always kept concealed underneath that black mask. She would have walked between the two boys, looping her arms through theirs, dragging them off to some unknown destination. Naruto would have been confused and tripping over himself with her tugging, and Sasuke would have had his eyes shut in annoyance at her insistence of him following her. They would be together, like they always had been..

And now, Sakura found herself in a life threatening situation that would break each of them away from each other. But, she was determined to never let that happen.

"I mean, why ask me? Why not Sasuke?" Naruto asked quietly, looking into Sakura's eyes.

Sakura looked at Naruto for a few more seconds before she glanced over at Sasuke, who was stirring slightly in his sitting up-sleeping position. Sakura knew that he would wake up soon, she was surprised that he was still asleep since he was such a light sleeper. She glanced at her ring of chakra surrounding him, blocking away the sound of her and Naruto's voices. It wouldn't be long before it evaporated and became weak, letting sound penetrate its barrier.

Sakura found herself lost while looking at Sasuke's peaceful face. Sleep was a funny concept, being able to escape the world for hours, in a blissful state of unawareness of the burdens of life. Sakura would give anything to sleep normally again, or just to escape her life and create a better one.

Sakura felt her eyes wetten more as she looked at Sasuke, thinking of his sweet words he had told her last night right before she fell asleep in his arms.

"You're strong Sakura, you're strong.."

Sakura had a specific reason for confiding in Naruto and not Sasuke. Sasuke was protective, wanting to accompany Sakura everywhere she went to protect her from any foreign attackers that would try to hurt her again. That was the reason she did not confide in him.

Sakura turned back to Naruto, and answered his question truthfully.

"Because I know that Sasuke wouldn't be able to do it."

Naruto's eyes widened, loosing their icy lustre. He slowly let go of Sakura's arm, and let it fall to his side defeated.

Sakura looked at Naruto sadly, and placed her hand on his arm. "I'm not saying that it will definitely happen, but I need to know that you're on my side, that I can trust you to help me. I don't know what I would do with myself if you were hurt, or even worse, killed."

Naruto said nothing, continuing to look down at his lap with a frustrated face.

"Naruto, please. I-" Sakura began to say, when her speech abruptly stopped. A sudden pounding began in her head, a painful shot hitting her skull. She gasped very quietly, and her hand flew up to grasp her head tightly. She squeezed eyes tightly shut, and gritted her teeth. What was happening to her? A moment ago she felt fine, and now she felt as though her head would explode from a thousand paper bombs. She tried to open her eyes, but her blurred vision and dizziness forced her eyes shut once more.

"Sakura-chan, I can't-" She heard Naruto begin to say, then noticed his voice stopped. "Hey, Sakura-chan? What's wrong?" she heard him ask, concern filling his voice.

Sakura raised her free hand to wave him off. "I'm fine, just a migraine." she managed to get out before the splitting pain returned, this time causing her to cry out a little louder. She felt a pair of hands fall onto her shoulders, and shake her slightly.

"Sakura-chan! Are you okay? Sakura-chan!"

Then pain began to subside, but only slightly. Her body began to shake and she felt extremely cold. Her eyes fluttered open, this time without dizziness and with clearer vision. Naruto's face slowly came into focus, his worried face making her heart sink.

"I'm okay.." she said, taking her hand off of her head and putting on the brightest smile she could muster.

Naruto got up with her, narrowing his eyes with concern. "Are..are you sure? You looked like you were in a lot of pain.."

Sakura waved him off. "No, I'm fine. I'm probably just a little dehydrated that's all. I'm f-"

Walk away.

Sakura instantly choked on her words, a drop as deep as an abyss came upon her stomach as her heart began to palpitate. Her eyes widened enough to pop out of their sockets, and she fought the urge to allow her hand to fly up and cover her slightly gaped mouth.

No…it couldn't be.. She was free from that jutsu, Sasuke had released it from her...

But evidently, Sakura had been right, he was back..

His voice..his piercing, soul shattering voice was vibrating throughout her damaged mind like a caged animal, ready to be released and take control of its environment.

The worst part of her fears had come true, reality sinking into her body as realization became her emotion. She remembered hearing the girl's voice in her mind right before she had woken up, calm and light suddenly changing to panicked and scared. Sakura distastefully heard Her plead to someone to leave them alone, them being Her and Sakura.

And that someone was him, the same shinobi who was a hanging threat to Sakura and her teammates. He was a danger, subconsciously holding a kunai up against Sakura's throat, ready to plunge it into her flesh whenever he pleased. He had found his way back into her head, but she hadn't suspected that he would have done it so quickly, so discreetly..

She wasn't prepared..

"Sakura-chan?"

Sakura instanstly remembered that Naruto was watching her, looking at her with a confused stare. She swiftly turned on the heel of her shoe so that he would be looking at her back, rendering him unable to see the scared look on her face.

I said, walk away. Now.

His knife-stabbing voice entered her mind once more, making her cringe.

Damn it! Why was this happening?! How was he able to get into her mind? Hadn't Sasuke released the jutsu properly? Was the power of this jutsu too strong to overcome?

"No." she mentally replied, making her inner voice sharp as a knife.

"Sakura-chan, are you-"

"I'm fine, Naruto. Really, I am." she replied evenly. "Like I said, I'm probably just a little dehydrated, that's all." she said, utterly surprised at how convincing she sounded.

Naruto blinked, and the two just stared at each other, not uttering a single word or phrase. After a minute, Naruto slowly kneeled down onto his sleeping bag, and reached over to his black backpack that had been resting near his feet. He tugged the zipper and it slid smoothly down its metal track. He rummaged through it for a few seconds, and when his hand emerged from the backpack it contained a shining metal bottle full of water. He got back up onto his feet and handed Sakura the bottle, who accepted it with a slight shaking hand.

"Arigatō." she said, unscrewing the black lid to reveal the sloshing clear liquid inside. Naruto nodded to her, and bent back down to begin to roll up his sleeping bag and stuff it into his backpack.

Sakura frowned, she hated lying to him, hated to give him false hope that everything was fine when in reality it wasn't. Releasing her lower lip from the clutches of her teeth, she slowly began to raise the bottle up to her lips-

I said, NOW!

Sakura's hand jolted up to her head, releasing the water bottle from her grasp and sending water everywhere, splashing onto her skirt and dousing the green grass.

Naruto's head shot up, and he looked incredulously at her, his eyes widened with surprise.

Sakura's mouth was opened, incredulously shocked at her immediate reflexes. But even more so, his voice was becoming louder and more threatening, making her head pound harder and more painfully. It was becoming harder and harder to ignore his voice in front of Naruto, but even worse, it was becoming harder to control her actions.

"S..Sorry.." Sakura said shakily, leaning down to pick up the smooth black lid and slowly place it back onto the water bottle.

Go now, or else.

"In your dreams." she shot back shrewdly, feeling another shot of intense pain in her head from her defiance.

No, not yet. Don't acknowledge him, just a little longer..

"Sakura-chan, something's wrong." she faintly heard behind her clouding hearing.

The next three words came into her mind so suddenly that she was unable to stop herself from forming a single, unfamiliar sign with her right hand and watching herself swiftly jab a chakra point on Naruto's forehead before he could even react. Sakura's eyes widened and her heart beat rapidly as she blinked back tears of fear watching her friend's eyes dilate as he fell to the ground. She had tried to stop herself, but her limbs would not obey her commands. It was as if she was a puppet, being controlled by the invading voice in her mind. She began to feel the same iciness in her forehead as before when he first attacked her, and she slowly began to see black.

Very well then.

Everything was silent, calm and serene like the world was revolving around a sound barrier. He felt relaxed and strangely calm in his world of darkness.

But, then everything changed.

He couldn't feel her warmth next to him, couldn't smell the light scent of vanilla and cherry blossoms that greeted him whenever he was inches away from her. She had been there when he fell asleep, protected by the comfort of his arms from any danger that threatened to come their way and take her away from him.

The sounds were faint, but he began to hear the sounds of the forest, a crescendo of birds forcing him to ascend halfway from his slumber. Then the whooshing of the breeze met his ears, bringing him farther up into consciousness.

"….mething's wrong." his ears faintly registered, not being able to fully catch the entire phrase spoken.

He felt a rising sensation in his chest, the feeling that anyone would receive before opening their eyes to the world once more, to face its joys and challenges. The black behind his eyelids began to lighten, and he opened his eyes calmly to the morning sky.

He blinked, allowing himself to adjust to his new lighting situation. He watched a bird hop from a branch up ahead, circling in the air like a wind up toy. Sasuke frowned, because unfortunately, that was what his day's agenda would consist of, flying through the endless trees with Naruto and Sakura beside him.

Sakura.

He turned to his right and saw nothing, her body vanished from his side as if she had never been there in the first place. He felt his stomach drop, an immediate uneasiness passed through his body for the few seconds that he was unable to locate her.

What if she had been attacked again while he and Naruto were sleeping, blissfully unaware of the danger their friend was in? What if she was gone again, her glittering mind invaded causing her spring green eyes to darken to the evergreen that caused Sasuke to feel her slipping through his hands? No, he promised himself he wouldn't let her go again.

It wasn't until he leaped off of the ground and looked straight up ahead that he saw her, unharmed and standing still.

A feeling of relief flooded his body as his eyes searched the area around her, sensing nothing dangerous or anything relatively harmful. His eyes moved to Sakura's right, glancing at the ground where Naruto was.

He's still asleep, Sasuke thought, inwardly shaking his head at his lazy teammate. He'd have to wake up soon, they couldn't spend anymore time sitting around when they had a mission to complete.

Sasuke began to walk over to Naruto to wake him, until his pace slowed. He noticed that the ground was wet around Sakura's feet, the grass glittering and soaked. Sasuke noticed that a metal water bottle was tangled in the grass by Naruto's head, probably being the source of the water. He assumed that Sakura had dropped it, and dismissed it from his mind completely.

Sakura hadn't turned to face him when he approached her, continuing to stand still with her back to him.

"Sakura." he said out loud, getting her attention.

Slowly, her feet began to move and pivot to her right, along with her torso. Sasuke stood still as she finally turned to him, green eyes sparkling into his.

She smiled. "Good morning Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke only nodded at her, quietly noticing how bright and cheery her voice sounded, a drastic difference from her behavior last night. Last night, her tears had soaked her blushing cheeks, dulling her bright eyes. But now, Sasuke was seeing a different Sakura, a completely changed girl who was smiling brightly.

"Is Naruto-" Sasuke began, but was cut off.

"Still sleeping." Sakura finished for him, looking down at their sleeping teammate, his face half covered by a blanket. "I was just about to wake him."

Sasuke nodded at her. "We should get going."

"Hai."

Sakura walked away from Naruto, heading to her backpack which was resting up against a nearby tree. As she began to rummage through her bag, her voice met Sasuke's ears once more.

"Could you wake him? He never gets up for me, regardless of the situation."

Sasuke didn't move, not immediately complying to Sakura's request. He only watched her, seeing her sleeping tear streaked face in his mind.

Sasuke hadn't expected her to bring up their so called event that night, he didn't even plan on bringing it up. But for some reason, he had hoped she would. But, maybe it was better to leave that talk aside until their mission was complete.

Finally Sasuke moved, walking a few steps over to Naruto's sleeping form and lightly tapping him back with his foot.

"Dobe, wake-up."

Naruto remained still, not even stirring slightly.

"Naruto." he tried again, kicking him harder this time.

Naruto continued to remain still, and Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

He should have at least felt that….

Sasuke knelt down on one knee, and shook Naruto more violently.

Still, no results.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed further, becoming even more frustrated at his friend. With a quick swipe, Sasuke grabbed the blanket that covered Naruto's face and whipped it off.

As soon as the fabric was free, Sasuke's eyes widened as he saw Naruto's face.

His eyes were open, unblinking and out of focus. His pupils were dilated, black overtaking his ice blue eyes. His breathing was stagnant, but oxygen continued to flow into his lungs.

Sasuke dropped the blanket and shot up from the ground, his eyes widened and his stomach dropping. His mind flew rapidly, and his body began to move when he realized what had happened to Naruto.

It was, however, too late.

As soon as Sasuke began to move, he felt a sharp jab in the back of his neck, sending a current of paralyzing electricity down his spine.

"Damn it!" he cursed himself as he felt his knees drop hopelessly to the ground, a strange and effective force causing his body to become limp. He had been thrown off guard, ambushed.

He heard footsteps approach him, swishing against the green grass. Sasuke was unable to move his head, forced to stare straight ahead. He gritted his teeth as he felt a familiar dark chakra signature approach him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her begin to walk in front of him. His head began to droop slightly, rendering Sasuke unable to look up at her face. He was only able to stare at her black gloved hands clenched into fists near her knees. He heard a small laugh.

"So upsetting. I didn't think that you would make it that easy, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke grunted in frustration, struggling to move. Her laughter flooded his ears once more as she began to kneel to his level.

"After all, it's like what Kakashi-sensei taught us.."

Her knee made contact with the grass, making her torso visible to his eyes. He saw her hand reach out to his face and cup his chin, tilting Sasuke's face up to meet hers.

She smiled. "A ninja must see through deception."

Sasuke's eyes widened for the umpteenth time that morning as he saw Sakura's full face. Dark evergreen eyes stared back at his, sending a quick jolt of fear through Sasuke; not for him, but for Sakura.

She had been taken again, taken by the darkness of their unknown enemy, her eyes proved that fact.

"Sakura..don't.." Sasuke tried, but felt his energy become weaker by the second.

Sakura only smiled at him, tilting his head further upwards. "Goodbye, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke's heart pounded, waiting for her to form hand signs or take out a kunai and end his life like she had wanted to do before. HIs body was still paralyzed, it was useless. He closed his eyes, pain shooting through his heart as he waited for her to make it stop.

Sasuke had not anticipated for what happened next.

Instead of a weapon making contact with his body, he felt a pair of lips touch his forehead, kissing it softly.

His eyes flew open in shock as her felt her hair fall into his eyes and the scent of vanilla and cherry blossoms enter his nose. A great warmth spread throughout his forehead at the contact of her lips on his skin, sinking Sasuke's body into further paralysis.

She slowly removed her lips, leaning forward to place them near his right ear.

"Thanks for keeping me company last night.." she whispered mockingly.

Sasuke felt his heart snap in two as she grabbed the back of his head and threw him to the ground, his cheek smashing into the dirt. The metallic taste of blood overtook his mouth as his vision began to blacken. The last thing he saw was evergreen.

Cue the Naruto anime trouble music guys. On the brighter side, a new character will be introduced next chapter, so look out!