Pain was the first thing she felt, it was as if she was numb to everything else. She opened her eyes forcing them to face the harsh rays of the burning sun. She turned her head and noticed that she was in a clearing.

'We need to get up and find some cover, shannaro! We're pretty much an open target for any enemies!' Sakura knew that her Inner was right but she couldn't bring herself to care, she was so tired. It wasn't long until she passed out.

The next time she awoke she found that the sun was setting and the pain in her head had decreased slightly. She sat up and took note of how much of her chakra had replenished, she only had about half of her reserves, still that was better then it had been. She didn't appear to be on the frontlines or anywhere near the battlefield, where was she?

There were no traces of any tailed demons, nor was there the lonely air of despair and death. The air smelt fresh and healthy, a stark contrast to the lifeless air on the battlefield. Sakura could hear the songs of birds although they sounded different to the ones she remembered , then again that might just be because she hadn't heard the sound of birds for what felt like forever.

'Shannaro! Just get some cover!' Inner was beginning to get impatient. She stood up and made her way over to the forest surrounding the clearing. She kept walking for a while until the pain in her head got worse and she had to stop. Looking around she spotted a large tree and walked up it, she settled on a branch and sent healing chakra to her head to try and sooth the pain.

'Where are we? Shannaro!'

'I have no idea.'

'Hopefully we're not too far away from the battlefield.'

'Yeah, but what if it's already too late? I mean, this looks nothing like the frontlines..' Sakura's eyes widened as she gasped, "What if we're in the Tsukiyomi! This is terrible!'

'If that's true then it's worse then terrible it's.. it's.. catastrophic! Shannaro!' Sakura took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.

'Ok, let's not panic. We still aren't sure, we could have just been dropped off somewhere?' It was pathetic that she was having to make such dumb comments but she was really at a loss. Her head still felt as if it had been smash against an iron wall two thousand three hundred and thirty eight times so she wasn't in the best condition. Not to mention she had no idea where she was and that she had no idea what to do in this situation, was she supposed to return to the battlefield immediately or go get more supplies? They were running low on quite a few things..

Eventually the petal haired woman decided to check her surroundings and see if she could figure out roughly where she was. She climbed up higher on the big tree, not stopping until her head peaked over the treetop. She closed her eyes and inhaled the fresh air.

'Definitely not near the battlefield.'

'You got that right, shannaro!' Sakura sighed and opened her eyes, looking for anything that could tell her, or even give her a hint to where she was. She frowned as she started looking around more desperately, sending chakra to her eyes to enhance her vision. It was night now and a few stars had come out to greet her, rather alarmingly she didn't recognise any of the constellations. All she could see was the never ending sight of treetops and greenery, and although this was a refreshing sight it didn't fail to make more panic rise in Sakura. She hadn't seen any nature (unless it was dead) for what felt like years.

Trying to squelch her worries, Sakura swallowed before climbing back down the tree. She jumped of the tree half way and used chakra to support her landing. She stood on the ground, trying to figure out what she should do.

'Survive?'

'What?'

'We could survive?'

'Inner! We are not leaving everyone on the battlefield whilst we are just out here 'surviving'! Honestly, what possessed you to even think of that?'

'Shannaro, can't you see? We're obviously in the middle of nowhere, panicking won't help anything. Besides if you took a second to relax you would realise that we most likely aren't even in any of the Shinobi Nations anymore.'

'What?'

'Quiet! Shannaro! Close your eyes and reach out to the area around you using your chakra.' Confused, Sakura did as Inner commanded. She started by feeling her chakra steadily flowing inside her her. The cool feeling of her chakra caused the seventeen year old to relax slightly. She felt her chakra flow into the ground making her alert to her surroundings, no insect even one as small as an ant could take a single step with out her knowing. Although Sakura noticed that there was something wrong. She could feel and sense the life inside the trees and the animals but there was no chakra. She could feel every things' presence she could identify every different thing, there was just no chakra. Puzzled by this discovery the young woman sat down against the tree she had been in only moments before, trying to sort out her thoughts.

'So, what do we do?'

'You're asking me? That's a rare occurrence. Shannaro!' Sakura sighed, this was why she almost never listened to the second being in her head Inner was just too.. Inner. The pink haired female liked to think that that was why she was chosen as the 'host' ,as Inner liked to call it, she was just more responsible. 'Anyway, I'm exhausted, while you were sleeping all day long I've been awake keeping an eye out for any potential dangers. Shannaro!'

'Did you find anything?' Sakura asked.

'Yup, there's someone South-East from us, I'd say they're about a mile and a half away. Shannaro!' Inner said, "Anyway, as I said before I am absolutely shattered so I'm going to go to sleep now. Hope you don't die!' With one last roar of 'Shannaro!' Inner retreated to the back of Sakura's mind. The pink haired beauty blinked, before rage set in.

'There was someone that close and she didn't mention it until now! Then disappears into the back of my mind to sleep with a jolly call of 'Hope you don't die!'. She is so infuriating!' Sakura screamed in her mind. She took some deep breathes to calm herself down and then decided to head in the direction of the person Inner had sensed.

She leaped onto a sturdy looking branch and continued to jump from tree to tree, conserving all the chakra she could. Sakura couldn't help but compare the trees to the ones back in the Shinobi Nations, the ones back home were taller and were full of chakra and humming with life. In comparison these trees weren't as tall as the ones surrounding Konoha, they didn't have chakra running through them and although they were very much alive there was something about them that was different, something Sakura couldn't explain.

The ninja continued to travel silently through the trees towards whoever Inner had sensed. Thanks to her chakra numbing the pain in her head she could travel at a reasonable place without having a migraine. Although if the pain didn't go away within the next twenty four hours she'll have to run more diagnostic chakra into her head to see if there's a problem. When Sakura had done it earlier there didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary. Sakura wondered if this could be a result of Inner exhausting herself, she'd have to have a discussion with her later.

The kunoichi sucked in a breath as another tree branch scraped her forearm, yet another difference between the trees here and the ones back home. Theses trees' branches were so close together Sakura had to keep an extra eye out to avoid the reaching branches taking out one of her eyes. As yet another branch scraped her shoulder the seventeen year old couldn't help but suspect that the trees were plotting against her.

'The trees back home aren't evil.' She couldn't help but think. Shaking her head in exasperation at where her line of thought was going, the girl focused on where she was jumping.

It wasn't long until she sensed a presence. Concealing her chakra out of habit, Sakura hopped forward a couple of trees and spotted a figure sitting down, back against the tree. The person was sharpening a long sword whilst the fire in front of him was cooking what appeared to be the person's dinner. The person's travelling pack was resting against the tree at his side. The kunoichi observed the person more closely, they were wearing a dark cloak with the hood up so she couldn't see their face, they had broad shoulders from what she could see. The person shifted slightly as they put down their sword and the woman spotted the face of a middle aged man. The kunoichi's emerald orbs greedily absorbed his features and she stored the image in her mind. The man had shaggy, brown hair that rested on his shoulders. She could just about see his grey eyes, the man's expression was peculiarly stern and Sakura recognised his expression as a mask. His posture was stiff and on guard as if he was ready for an attack at any time.

Sakura analysed everything she could about the stranger and deduced he was some sort of warrior in this foreign land. She watched as the man stood up and took his dinner off the fire and started eating. Suddenly Sakura was reminded that she hadn't eaten in days and had to send some of her chakra into her stomach in hopes of muffling the rumble she knew was coming.

The pinkette watched enviously as the man started to eat. 'Stop being so childish Sakura!' She told herself. 'I'm jealous of someone I don't even know!' She groaned inside her mind as she tried to distract herself without making too much noise.

Eventually the man finished his meal and put out the fire before laying down to sleep. She silently jumped back a few trees and opened her medical pouch, if Sakura remembered correctly she had a few ration bars inside. Taking one out, Sakura unwrapped the bar and started to eat it. Savoring the last few crumbs the pinkette tucked the wrapper back into her pouch and climbed up the tree, settling on a branch and falling into a meditative state.

A/N: I really enjoyed writing this chapter! I apologise for any mistakes. Hope you enjoyed!