"How much further?" Naruto asked.

"It's just up ahead." The jinchūriki said, her amber eyes scanning the forest ahead, just as Sasuke had been doing non-stop.

They'd been traveling for about twenty minutes, an astonishingly short amount of time for something such as this, and Sasuke didn't know whether to be suspicious or relieved that Sakura had seemed to be so close. But begrudgingly, he had decided to trust the jinchūriki against his better judgement, though if she had been planning to attack them, she would have by now. Unless she had something planned for them up ahead, and if that turned out to be true, he'd be ready.

The whole trip had consisted of Sasuke periodically glancing towards Naruto's direction, seeing that he and the jinchūriki had been talking in rapid, hushed voices. Sasuke even noticed that Naruto had seemed extremely intent on listening to everything that girl had to say, not that Sasuke had been listening in on their conversations. He didn't feel that he needed to, and for some reason, he had listened to the voice inside of his head that told him to keep to himself, for now. After all, how often had Naruto met others like himself? Minus the Kazekage, of course.

"My name's Fuu, by the way."

Sasuke blinked out of his scanning session and turned to his left to see the girl flying through the trees a few feet away from him, her turquoise hair whipping around in the wind. Her amber eyes were looking directly into his, and in return, he narrowed his.

"And why would I need to know that?"

Her face didn't crumple as he had expected it to, instead, she remained passive.

"You'll have to be ten times more hostile than that in order to turn me away, Sasuke-san." she said.

"Don't try me." he said, turning his gaze back to the front of the forest.

He heard her sigh. "You still don't trust me do you?"

Sasuke said nothing, and narrowed his eyes at the rapidly approaching trees in front of him in response.

"Then let me ask you," she said. "Why did you follow me?"

Sasuke's glare and silence remained intact, however his inside voice pounded through his head.

Why had he followed her? Why else would he?

"I mean, if you thought I was actually your enemy, then why follow me into your so called "trap"? Why not continue the path that the two of you had been taking before I caught up with you guys?"

"I don't need to explain myself to you." Sasuke said.

Who did she think she was, anyway? And what gave her the right to speak to him so freely as she did? Had it been her assuming attitude of trust? Or, did she have intentions on gaining his trust just so she could eventually humiliate his judgment? Well, it wasn't like him to become humiliated towards anything, it had to be extreme in order for Sasuke to feel any sort of humiliation. He hadn't felt humility since his first true mission as a genin with the others, and it had been none other than Sakura to cause the rare occurrence. He remembered looking up at her, perched up in the highest branches of the trees with a bright smile on her face, being the only one to successfully channel her chakra to allow her to make it to the top of the tree while he and Naruto had been stuck on the ground, unsuccessful. He didn't want to admit it, but she had completely shown him up, and he hadn't forgotten about it.

"You really care about her, don't you?"

Sasuke's heart pounded with each syllable of her sentence. It wasn't a question, but rather a statement.

"I can feel it, you know; the way your chakra stirs whenever you think of her, whenever her name is mentioned. In fact, I can tell a lot about you."

Sasuke turned to her and set his infamous glare back upon her amber eyes. "You know nothing about me."

She looked back at him evenly, and he broke their eye contact immediately for the umpteenth time. But when he looked ahead, his eyes caught Naruto's blue eyes. His eyes bore into Sasuke's, glimmering with judgement, as if to say to stop being an inconsiderate idiot.

"You lost something when you were younger, something that has impacted you to this day."

Sasuke's heart dropped, his blood spreading an icy dread throughout his body. His mouth became consistently dry, his throat closing up.

What had she said?

"This loss changed you, and you've behaved in ways that you never would have believed would be possible for you. You left behind everything, abandoning friendship and love to fill yourself with hatred and hostile energy. Blood was shed..too much blood. And even now you're still paying those debts, taking in the judgements of others.." she said solemnly, sending small tremors down Sasuke's spine. Her words reached a part of him that he had shut away and kept under lock and key. The only question that stood was how had she, a stranger, been able to reach him that deeply? Not even the ones close to him had been able to do so..

To Sasuke's surprise, she began to laugh sadly.

"It's funny..in a way..you're just like me..still trying to win the approval of those around you..even after what you've done..even after who you've…killed.."

Sasuke finally turned to her. slowly.

Her eyes shone with sadness. "Even after I killed my teammates…even after I had their blood on my hands…I still wanted to be accepted by everyone.."

An image flashed briefly in front of Sasuke's eyes, an image of himself squeezing Sakura's neck tightly, a kunai drenched with a poisonous substance in his other hand. He watched himself bring the kunai down..

The image changed to his younger self, his hand submerged into Naruto's still chest, blood pouring down his arm, lightning crackling around his body.

Both of the attempted murders of his teammates, his mind poisoned by revenge.

And as he looked at the girl beside him, or Fuu as she had pointed out earlier, he felt something close to trust stir inside of him.

They had both experienced loss.

As Fuu turned to him, he was surprised to see a smile spread on her face, her eyes shimmering. "You don't have to worry by the way…the two of you have the same identical sheen to your chakra that indicates what you hope to be true."

A small frown positioned itself on Sasuke's lips, and his eyes narrowed. "Sheen?"

Fuu nodded. "It shines just as bright in her chakra as it does in yours."

Sasuke could only assume that "she" was Sakura. But "sheen"?

"And what would that be?" he asked.

Fuu's eyes warmed. "Love."

Ten thousand sharp heart pounds later, Sasuke's dry mouth and throat finally gave him the ability to speak.

"What?"

Fuu smiled. "Don't bother denying it. Your chakra doesn't lie. You love her."

Sasuke's mind spun. Love? His chakra spoke of love? The one emotion that Sasuke had never thought he would feel again after he lost his entire family? Love was a foreign chemical that had been banished from his heart and soul since that dreadful day when he came home to his father and mother's blood smeared on the polished floors of his home. Love was something he never dwindled upon, never thought about, never felt…was it even possible for him?

"Don't worry, Sasuke-san." Fuu said, winking. "I won't say a word. Your secret's safe with me. But just between you and me…I'm keeping someone else's secret too..and it's of great similarity to yours."

Sasuke heard a muffled laugh, and narrowed his eyes at Naruto's lightly shaking orange shoulders, stifling his obvious laughter.

But his annoyance was immediately shed for an icy rush of dread that travelled down his spine, the dangerously familiar chakra signature becoming apparent to his senses.

"Be alert now." Fuu said, her eyes narrowing with intensity. "It's just up ahead."

How could she not have seen it? How could she have been so stupid? So ignorant?

It had all fit…everything had been aligned for her the entire time, and she was too caught up to examine the bigger picture. It was all in front of her.

The icy chakra…the adept taijutsu skills..

Koichi…Hanako…

It was a perfect fit, he'd been using their stolen chakra the entire time, manipulating it to add his very own "special effects" to his techniques. And it sickened her.

The only question that posed - something that Sakura definitely wanted answered - was, what exactly was Joryoku's true form? What face and body had that bastard been born with?

Hopefully, she would find out.

Her first punch had been stopped instantly by "fake" Sasuke's hand, flesh lashing out rapidly to cover her black-gloved fist. His fingers dug into the fabric, trying to keep her fist in place. But, just before he anchored his hold on her completely, she rotated her wrist and pulled her fist out of his hold, which then landed successfully onto his cheek, sending him flying into the rocky walls.

Sakura watched as his body began to glow once more, violently flashing into her eyes, sending her brain into a frenzy. Now that he had received access to her brain, he was able to take the forms of everyone that Sakura was close to, everyone that she ever knew.

Who would it be this time?

Kiba? Sai? Temari?

Any of them…all of them…they all had stamina and abilities that were lethal, abilities that were exclusive to their chakra.

But, so did she.

If he had the unfair advantage in the fight, there was only one way that she would be able to beat him, and it would require tons of chakra..chakra that Sakura wasn't one-hundred precent certain that she had at the moment. She'd used it back at the cave to escape, hoping to avoid a situation such as this one on the first place.

Chakra she'd been saving for that justu.

Had it really been three years? Three whole years of meditation and precise control would lead her to her ultimate goal..and she had almost had full capacity.

The temperature of the area suddenly dropped, pieces of ice spiking Sakura's skin and embedding themselves into her pink hair. She felt herself begin to shiver, the icy cold traveling up her spine.

So he's decided to use Koichi, huh? Sakura thought to herself.

And as the cold penetrated her skin, an idea struck her, her eyes widening in realization.

She wasn't out of chakra, she'd been given chakra back at the forest, back in the cave.

Icy chakra.

And it had been delivered to her in the same spot, her forehead.

Sakura brought her hands together, and formed one single hand sign that she'd made everyday for the past three years, a nod to her shishou. It had to work, and even if her chances were slim, she couldn't give up a golden opportunity such as this.

She began the preparations immediately, drawing chakra from every inch of her body along with the foreign chakra she'd been given, chakra that had belonged to Koichi.

And as Sakura felt his chakra melt into hers successfully, she swore that she felt her heart warm for a millisecond.

She closed her eyes, and smiled. "Thank you, Koichi-san.."

When she opened her eyes, she saw Koichi's form struggling to rise from the ground, his entire body shaking with anger. Blood dripped down from his mouth as he coughed and hacked violently.

Of course, that wasn't really Koichi's blood.

Sakura smiled tauntingly at him.

"You..bitch!" Koichi's voice spat, more blood pouring out of his mouth.

The temperature dropped once more, doubling the amount of ice crystals dancing around in the room. Sakura felt her body shiver violently, her breath escaping her lips in light puffs. If it were any colder, she would have sworn that her gloves would freeze together, binding her hands into the hand sign that she continued to make, her chakra stirring rapidly.

Then, her hands were thrown apart as she felt a blinding pain enter her left shoulder, and her eyes took in the sight of a sharpened icicle tearing into her arm, blood spurting from her arm and dripping eerily down the ice, the warmth of her blood melting the liquids into a light red. With a painful grunt, she tore the ice out of her arm, only for her right leg to meet the same fate, ice tearing into her skin.

Her attention diverted, she never noticed him until he had appeared in front of her, and she turned her head to meet his blazing eyes. Her own eyes barely had time to register the situation, and she felt herself getting punched in her stomach, sending her flying backwards. However, she shifted her weight in the air and threw her palms down to the floor and pushed, flipping once and landing safely on her feet, her left arm screaming with pain and her stomach throbbing.

He ran up to her once more, but this time, she had been ready. She dodged his punches and kicked him directly in the stomach, rewarding her with a painful grunt and more blood.

"I was going to keep you.." he spat out, sending more icicles that were the size of giant needles into her skin, blood dripping down her arms and legs in steady streams. She responded with jabbing him in his throat, making him gasp for air.

"You're not going to keep anything!"

Despite the chilling temperature, Sakura felt her body grow hot, her chakra stirring violently.

Just..a bit..more..

"You don't know what I'm capable of, my dear." he said threateningly, stopping her fist in mid punch, while she stopped his, their hands struggling for dominance. "After I kill you, I'll make sure to add the jinchūriki to my collection, why the two of them would consider it an honor for their chakra to be taken by me!"

He leaned closer to Sakura.

"And as for the other one..what was his name? Sasuke-kun?"

He began to laugh as he inched closer to Sakura, whose body began to shake with livid fury.

"I'll be sure to take his chakra slowly, so that he can feel the agony of leaving this world, of leaving you."

Sakura's pupils closed with fury, her body reacting on its own.

"I'll make his death a spectacle."

And with those final words, Sakura's world had become filled to the brim with stars and incoherent visions as she rammed her head violently into his, sending deep and excruciating vibrations through his skull. The force sent him flying backwards, and Sakura followed him, her eyes burning with green electricity, thirsting for his end.

He stared back at her with something close to surprise.

Sakura heard a voice screech out in the cave, and it took her seconds to realize that it was her own.

"DIE!"

A/N: Wow..twenty chapters already...that's insane, and it's thanks to you guys!

There you go! The Cherry Blossom Rescue Squad gets on the scene and Sakura kicks some serious ass. The next chapter will be from Sasuke's p.o.v, yupp, the whole chapter.

And have you guys seen the recent episode in Shippuden? I swear that I was going to write a story about Sakura making a team with Chouji and Ino for the chunin exams, not even lying! And Fuu is in this filler arc, which made me so happy! Now we can see some of her true behaviors!

But now, unfortunately, we've reached the dreaded point of midterms..so the next chapter will be posted in February..unless I get time to write and post..which I doubt..so hope you'll all be patient with me!

Thanks for reading! See you guys next chapter! xx