Chapter 6: Calamity

It seemed as though they had been in the air for hours, the ink birds from the rest of the team following Naruto and Hinata's bird as she scanned the last location Hanabi had been spotted. Hours had passed before Hinata was finally able to spot something that had her younger sister's chakra connected. She quickly leapt from the bird to the ground and picked up the item, her expression growing solemn. The group quickly followed suit to gather around her.

"This is Hanabi's," she said as she used a delicate hand to hold the kunai with a small pink doll attached to the end. Her Byakugan quickly followed a small trail of chakra that led to a cave further ahead from where the group was located.

"There's a deep cave that continues underground, Hanabi's chakra leads there." She says as she blinks away her Byakugan.

"Let's go, wherever Hanabi might be, so might Toneri," Shikamaru said as he jumped back onto his ink bird.

Darkness quickly consumed the team as they traveled deeper into the cave, no source of lighting could be seen until they reached an enormous limestone cavern, characters etched at the top of it.

"Beginning?" Sai wondered aloud as he read the shinobi character.

Upon looking anywhere else, they noticed the cave ended, but the spring was so deep, even Hinata's Byakugan became distorted when looking into it.

"Come on, I guess we have to head in there," Shikamaru said as he approached the water.

Naruto visibly blanched at the idea and quickly removed his scarf.

"Scared of a little water on your clothes Naruto?" Sakura teased.

"No way! I just don't want my scarf to get ruined!" Naruto said as he folded his scarf neatly and tucked it into his pack.

"I wouldn't worry about that too much." Sai called out as he scooped up water in his hand, "This water doesn't seem to wet anything."

They quickly entered the water and swam, the particles surrounding them appeared as delicate as snow as they continued to swim deeper into the spring. As they traveled deeper still, they noticed a rippling effect begin to take form as though they were reaching a surface. Unsure but having nowhere else to go, they proceeded to swim deeper into the water, plunging into a darkness that appeared to be even darker than the one that had greeted them at the entrance of the spring.

Sakura waved her hands around, reaching for anything and quickly grasped onto the nearest hands she could feel from opposite directions, the larger hand quickly grasping hers and the smaller one holding on as well.

She looked down and noticed a large ball of light approaching. Truth be told, she had no idea if they were falling toward it or if it was floating toward them, feeling no sense of direction in the void that seemed to consume them. Within the next instant, the ball of light burst open, and they all closed their eyes.

What's going on?

Naruto looked around as he was met with his classroom. His hands were smaller, he was smaller. As he looked around, he realized everyone else had turned smaller as well.

"Who would you want to spend your last day with if the world were to end tomorrow?" Iruka asked the classroom.

"Yeah right, like that'll ever happen!" One of Naruto's old classmates called out.

As though manifested from a spell, a moon could be seen from outside the window appearing closer and closer still. As soon as it landed, the building collapsed, Naruto quickly shielded himself, coughing at the dust that had surrounded him.

"Alright Naruto, prepare yourself!"

Naruto quickly looked up to see Kiba, only he looked a bit older then. He looked around yet again, completely dumbfounded.

The chunin exams?

He heard Kiba approach quickly with a charge and quickly turned to face him.

"K-Kiba wait!"

"You don't wait in an actual fight, idiot! Gijuu ninpou: shikyaku no jutsu!"

Naruto was thrown to a wall, as he squeezed his eyes shut, he waited for an impact that never came.

Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut even tighter as he felt a piercing pain go through his hands. He opened his eyes, cerulean meeting Pein's Rinnegan once again. Naruto's heart rate began to accelerate, it was then that Hinata had jumped in front of Naruto.

"Hinata no! Get out of the way!" Naruto called out.

"I'm not afraid to die, if it means I can protect you, Naruto-kun because… I love you"

Sakura looked around with heavy eyes, she could see that everyone was fast asleep.

This is someone's jutsu! We have to wake up… we have to…

Her eyes began to close...

She was so tired…

Sakura woke up with a gasp, her voice almost an echo in the vast emptiness before her. The only thing becoming visible was a figure standing in the distance.

"Sasuke-kun?"

He wore a warm smile, waiting for her to approach.

Sakura shook her head lightly.

This isn't Sasuke-kun, he's…

Sakura blinked, another form had appeared before her only much closer.

Naruto…

He was bruised and beaten, as he usually was, he wore the same clothes he had worn when they had won the war, his jacket torn open to reveal the torn mesh shirt underneath, he looked tired, even as he held his smile. He held his hand out to her, the hand that had been destroyed by the impact from the Chidori and Rasengan colliding. She took it with slight hesitancy, and she quickly realized she was wearing the uniform she wore during the war as well, her clothes covered in dirt and torn from battle. Her seafoam green eyes stared into his cerulean ones, she suddenly felt a fear creep into her stomach. She felt sick, as though her heart had plummeted, and she watched as Naruto's smile faded, his eyes growing weary until they closed. Sakura's breath caught in her throat as she watched him fall. She quickly went to his side on her knees and checked for a heart beat, but there wasn't one. She quickly realized that the ground had begun to move beneath her and Naruto's limp form.

"Hold on, we're moving faster," she heard someone say, she looked up and saw Gaara to her side, his sand quickly enveloping her and Naruto. She was afraid to turn her head again, her breathing speeding up as she felt something warm in her hand. She quickly looked down and found her hand in Naruto's chest cavity, as it forced Naruto's heart to keep beating. Her breathing continued to speed up, she squeezed her eyes shut and beckoned herself to stop feeling this panic.

This couldn't be real, she wasn't holding Naruto's heart in her hand, she wasn't forcing it to pump as the cold wind bit at her face as Gaara's sand raced toward his only chance for survival. This couldn't be happening… not again.

This isn't real… I have to wake up… I have to wake up…

Focus…

Focus…

Sakura clamped her mouth shut, forcing her shaky breathing to calm down, taking deep breaths as she focused on her chakra. She had to stop the flow of chakra that had been invading her body in order to replace it with her own.

She had to ground herself, but for the life of her she wouldn't stop pumping the heart she held in one hand, she couldn't, even if it were just a genjutsu.

She could feel everything fade away around her, the wind stopped blowing, the heart in her hand had disappeared as she made a soft fist only to capture air. The ground had stopped moving.

A new image formed, her friends had surrounded her, holding her as though they didn't want her to leave. Only they too were in the gear they had worn during the war. Sakura squeezed her eyes shut and focused harder.

Sakura gasped awake, looking around frantically at everyone inside the giant bubble that had encased them. She could still feel her tears as they fell, she quickly wiped them away.

"Everyone! Please wake up! This is a genjutsu!" She said as she made her way to Shikamaru.

Naruto had made his way back to the classroom, only this time he was still himself. He was viewing from the outside this time.

"Alright everyone, please write!" Iruka said as he walked the classroom, the students writing intently.

Naruto walked to where his child self was and watched as he made a paper plane and threw it out of the nearest window, Iruka scolding him. He chuckled as he recalled the memory and watched as Sakura blushed while writing Sasuke's name on her paper, a faint smile on his face. He peered over at his other classmates and saw that Hinata had written his name in her paper, and smiled as she watched Naruto's younger self.

Naruto smiled at this, his hands in his pockets.

The scene faded again, this time he was back in the field, watching as Hinata was defeated by Pain.

"Because… I love you…"

Naruto's eyes widened as he heard those words said again.

The scene had faded again, then he was surrounded by nothing, only a voice somewhere in the distance, and there was a heaviness in his chest. But he suddenly heard the voice a bit clearer, he knew he had heard it many many times… but whose voice was it?

I'm sorry Naruto, your dream may be crazy, but I don't want to see it crushed.

All I did was cry out and cling to you…

We have to be strong… you and me together.

Thank you…

I promised Naruto… I said this time… we'd be together

NARUTO! This… that's enough! I'll save Sasuke for you! So Naruto, It's enough! You don't need-

I'm the one who caused him the most pain… I've done nothing but make mistakes. I don't want to make another one…

What I said… is that I love you!

So please stop…

Who would I save?

Naruto clutched at his chest, a fear so immense that he had never felt before overcoming him, his heart hurt too much, he wanted to scream in anguish, there was an anxious feeling that had his heart racing along with a feeling of helplessness because he couldn't reach what he wanted to. A desperation of wanting to hold onto something, of what? He didn't know. He wanted to grasp onto anything to catch himself, he couldn't imagine living with this pain. He couldn't imagine a world without something, and he was desperate to hang on, he wanted to claw his heart out from the pain. He was sinking…

Hold on! You can't lose… you're strong! You'll definitely survive!

That ridiculous dream of yours… just look now… you're not dying on me, you hear me?!

No matter the cost, there's no way that I will let you die! Just look now… that dream is right in front of your eyes!

Sinking…

Naruto…

Naruto…

"NARUTO!"

His eyes opened drowsily and he was suddenly met with Sakura's seafoam green eyes. He looked down and saw that she had her palm on his chest, her chakra flowing into him. He winced at the stinging pain in his cheek.

"Did you… did you slap me?" Naruto asked as he touched a heavy hand to his stinging cheek.

"Yes well, how else was I going to wake you up? Geez you could snore." Sakura said as she rolled her eyes, the redness in them going unnoticed.

Naruto looked over at everyone else's concerned expressions.

"Thank goodness you're finally awake." Sakura said in relief. Beneath her hand, his heart beat a strong and steady song and her own heart had finally, finally calmed.

TBC

A/N: SURPRISE! I couldn't wait to upload for a whole other week so I decided to just upload it now! When I tell you I was CRYING writing out this chapter because it took me back to the actual scenes of the series along with personal emotions of grieving someone and I went back to those feelings to capture what Sakura would have felt during the shinobi war and in that moment where she had to save Naruto. I wanted to give you guys (and myself) those brief Naruto moments, the REAL moments, that happened because they matter more than any plot that I could have made up for this story. The connection between Naruto and Sakura was there and I know it because of the little scenes I added on here. Feel free to search the quotes to look at the manga panels! This moment was the one I really wanted to get out asap because it means a lot to me! I literally had to LOOK for an opening in The Last book and when I found it I knew I had to type up this chapter before I forgot (I have the memory span of a goldfish). I hope you guys enjoyed your bonus chapter. I'll be uploading next week (Lord willing). I know we're a dying community but I will continue to make content as often as I can! Ratings will vary and I will try to focus on one story at a time so you may not see another one, besides this one and a Rated M one I have up (until it gets taken down apparently, not for kids), for a little while! If you guys have any questions feel free to ask! Thank you so much for your support! Please be warned! However you think this part of the story will go, it's probably not going to go that way, NaruSaku will be in development, I cannot stress this enough!