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Sakura was standing in the middle of the forest wrapped in the night haze. It was completely dark and she couldn't see anything. All she saw was the red moon in the sky and the feeling of being observed from everywhere. She felt a presence in the tree, behind the rocks and in the wind that was whispering like a ghost.

From the depths of the dark, she heard some heavy footsteps coming close. She tried to flee but her legs had sunk into the ground and couldn't move. She threw a kunai to defend herself. The moment it was pierced, the body in the dark turned into countless crows that were carried away by the wind and then disappeared.

As the glow of the full moon started to shine brighter, she was suddenly inside a dark room. There Itachi stood, stained with his father and mother's blood. He looked at her with his Sharingan. She turned around and saw a little boy on the ground. Itachi was tormenting his little brother with visions of his parent's and the clan's death.

On the verge of breaking, Sakura crouched unto the ground and held her ears with eyes closed. She didn't want to see it anymore. She didn't want to hear it anymore. Suddenly she felt a stab from behind, along with lightning coursing through her body. She coughed out blood and collapsed on the ground.

Just when her head hit the ground, Sakura jerked up from her bed, gasping for air. She looked around and saw she was neither in the dark forest or in the dark room with bodies and blood on the ground. Instead, she was in a safe place. A room she had rented while she was on a journey with Sasuke.

xxxx

It had been a week ever since Sasuke had come to know the truth behind Itachi's action. Itachi had warned her that she would face some side effects of the Tsukuyomi and right after, a near death experience. And he was right, she had been having nightmares where she is stuck in the Genjutsu and right after, received a near fatal wound. However, whenever she wakes up, she feels the pain right where she received the wound from her dream.

Sakura wasn't the only one who had nightmares ever since that day. Itachi had given Sasuke some space to let him process everything alone and make a decision without him being manipulated, but Sasuke was also having nightmares. Not that he would admit it, at first. Sakura had noticed something was bothering him and kept asking him to tell her and after a long time, he finally confessed. He wasn't only having difficulty to process everything he had learned, but also had a slight irritation with his eyes.

Sakura had told Sasuke that she had bought some eye drops for him at a special shop. But they had soon run out of it and the shop did too. The shopkeeper had given her a piece of paper with the location and the name of the shop he had originally bought the eye drop from.

She had requested Sasuke to join her to get the eye drops he needed. She even pleaded for him to join and eventually succeeded too.

And so they went on their own to get the eye drops. Karin was really furious after hearing that Sasuke was going to be alone with Sakura. They left a day earlier than they were supposed to, before Karin could sneak out and follow them, and headed towards a village called the village of the Wolf's Cry.

Once they left, they headed south. After walking for eight days, they got to the sea. Due to Sasuke's condition, they had decided to stay for the night again before continuing.

His head was still hurting and the pain in his eyes took a turn for the worse. Once in a while, his sight blurred and suddenly saw white. To prevent it from getting worse, they frequently rented a nearby inn to rest before continuing traveling.

Sakura looked herself in the mirror. She wished her nightmares would stop soon. How long did she have to go through this? She didn't have time for this. She wanted to focus all of her attention towards Sasuke, but with her nightmares in the way, she always felt tired and couldn't concentrate at all.

After checking out of the inn, they continued making their way alongside the beach. They hopped into a boat and made their way towards their destination: the Three Wolves mountain range.

Sakura remembered that several years ago, the village had issued a statement of neutrality. She remembered Tsunade telling her about the village, because they contain many medical herbs. However, according to the ferryman of the boat, there was more to it.

"Why do the names of every mountain contain the word 'wolf'?" Sakura asked.

"According to legend, in ancient times a monstrous creature named Roen lived there. It was about fifty feet tall and its back was covered with silver fur. It had the head of a wolf, the body of a tiger and it walked on two legs. A long time ago it attacked the village and it ate up men and cattle. They say that the forefathers of the Kodon clan were the ones who defeated it. I thought it was only a legend, but ten years ago it appeared for real."

"What happened then?" Sasuke asked this time, also curious about the story of the Village they were going to.

"The Village of the Wolf's Cry took great damage. Since the blue explosive powder had just been created at that time, the villagers tried to use it to shoot Roen down, but in vain. The great Tenma, head of the Koden at that time, was able to chase away the monster in the end by using the hypnotic Genjutsu. However, nobody remembers what happened. The great Tenma's hypnotic illusory medicine didn't restrict itself to Roen, but it affected the villagers as well. I heard that when they woke up, the creature was gone without a trace and the great Tenma laid dead."

"What's the hypnotic illusory medicine?" Sakura asked curiously. She had never heard of it from neither Kabuto nor Tsunade.

"It's the drug the members of the Kodon clan makes use of when they use hypnotic Genjutsu."

Both Sasuke and Sakura were curious about this Genjutsu that made use of a drug. Both knew Genjutsu really well and knew that this was entirely different. It wasn't like a typical Genjutsu that when the user of the Genjutsu dies, the Genjutsu breaks. No, with what the ferryman had told them, this Genjutsu only dissolved when the caster himself undoes it. Since it was made of drugs, it was a lot stronger than a hypnotic technique.

They got out of the boat and once they crossed the dock, they found themselves in front of the mountain of the Wolf's Cry. They continued walking uphill and passed through a tori. Sakura raised her eyes up to the first tori. There was a plate on the lintel between the pillars: 'The eighty-eight tori of the Wolfs Cry.'

Those red-varnished structures succeeded one another going up the green mountainside. She remembered the ferryman telling them to pass through those tori and that way they'll reach the village of the Wolfs Cry.

"Let's go," said Sasuke and they began to go through the shrine's entrance road. Before passing under the tenth tori, Sakura realized that Tsunade was right: a lot of flowers and herbs were assembled on the mountain and it painted its surface with lots of different colors.

There weren't only medical herbs. Sakura could easily recognize some purple flowers on the side of the road were poisonous herbs named aconite.

With pleading eyes she stared at Sasuke, hoping he could give her a few minutes to gather some medical herbs and poisonous herbs, as much as possible. She is the medic ninja among their team and she wants to have as much herbs as possible to help her team as much as possible.

"Sure, whatever. My head was hurting anyway." Said Sasuke and laid down under a tree. With that, Sakura happily started to gather herbs, as many as she could. She looked over her shoulder and noticed Sasuke with his eyes closed. He must have been tired and couldn't rest well with constant eye irritation along with headaches and nightmares.

After gathering the herbs, she quietly sat on a tree branch above where Sasuke was resting and waited for him to wake up on his own. It was rude to wake him up. She stared at the mountain and the herbs.

Butterflies were fluttering above the flowers and squirrels were running among the branches of the huge tree right across from her. As she watched the scene in front of her, she wondered how long Sasuke had to suffer. Not only Sasuke, but Itachi too.

Sakura had thought back how she was raised by her parents and how spoiled she was. She didn't take being a ninja seriously, even though it was a serious thing. She was just stuck with her looks and going after Sasuke whom she didn't know that well back then. She hadn't noticed the darkness he had faced….how lonely he was. Everything he went through when he was just a child.

She acted like she knew everything back when she was still at the academy. Acted like she was one of the smartest. She did get good grades, but that wasn't enough. All she saw was an illusion.

Leaving the village with Sasuke was just the beginning of her seeing and understanding things in a completely different manner. And after hearing Itachi's story, her jar finally opened. Illusion about Sasuke, his clan and his brother. Illusion about Naruto and the biggest Illusion was the Leaf Village.

The Uchiha Clan had to suffer because of distrust. Just because one bad person had controlled the Nine tails. If the Uchiha clan wasn't forced to live in a corner of the village, they wouldn't have planned the Coup. If Danzo hadn't gotten in the way of Itachi and his best friend Shizui, the innocent people would still be alive. Itachi wouldn't have to take such a drastic path and kill every one of his clan.

There were so many ifs involved along with adults making mistakes that children had to suffer the consequences. She wondered how Itachi and Sasuke would have been if their parents were still alive. Would the clan and the village finally be at peace with each other? Would Itachi actually have been the first Uchiha Hokage like his father had told her?

That was not the only thing the village had done wrong. Naruto….

Naruto was indeed an idiot, but he didn't deserve to be treated badly. She hadn't truly noticed it, until Tsunade told her about Naruto being one of the jinchuriki. But back then that was all she knew and all she understood.

But now, it was different. Thinking back, she had noticed people were treating Naruto badly and acted as if he didn't exist. Every parent even forbade their children to play with Naruto and warned them to stay away from Naruto. Apparently it was a secret among the adults and didn't want the children to know.

And once again it was the adults their mistake, and Naruto had to face the consequences and be all alone. They hated the Nine Tailed that lived inside Naruto for not only destroying the village but also killing their loved ones. They took it out on Naruto who didn't wish to be born like this and hadn't done anything wrong.

'The village I once knew is completely different…' thought Sakura, 'It looked so bright, but it was hiding so many dark shadows…'

After noticing movements coming from below her, she looked down and saw Sasuke waking up. He looks around and then up at her. He looked somewhat annoyed as he got up.

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

"I just wanted you to rest a bit," she answered and jumped down, "Besides, someone doesn't like to be woken up, remember?"

"Hn," was all he said and continued going uphill towards the village. With a smile she followed him.

xxxx

When they finally arrived, right before entering the main gate of the village, they asked a few people where they could find the Hypericum's Shrine. That was the only thing Sakura knew about their destination.

They've asked a few people about the location, but everyone had the same reaction. They would immediately ask why they wanted to go there and would just glare at them before leaving without telling them anything about the shop.

"It's better not to name that place," one whispered.

"Why?" Sakura asked worriedly.

"Mind your own business!" The man yelled and pushed Sakura away as if she was infected. Startled, she backed away from the guy and he quickly left.

"Are you okay?" Sasuke asked without breaking eye contact from the man that was walking away.

"Y-yeah," she stuttered, "That just surprised me…"

They made their way to the main gate and saw a guard post. An officer was standing at the entrance and after noticing Sasuke and Sakura, he stood in front of them to stop them from entering the village.

"You can't bring that sword with you. Leave it here," he ordered. Sakura looked at her Kantana first and then at Sasuke's. Before she could either do or say something, Sasuke already began and it was just as she predicted he would say;

"I have no intention of leaving it. If you insist, take it from me by force."

"What?! Are you refusing my orders?!"

"I go where I want and as I want. I don't take orders from anyone." Sasuke replied, "If you are strong enough to disarm me, then there's nothing to fear from this weapon. If on the contrary you're not capable to take my sword away from me, I'll show you how my companion and I can destroy this village with our bare hands, without needing this weapon at all."

"What's the purpose of your visit?" the officer drew back ashamed and asked. Sakura was surprised that it actually worked…but on the other hand, Sasuke wasn't lying.

"We need some medicine," Sakura answered.

"Which shop are you headed to?"

"The Hypericum's Shrine."

"You too?" the officer stared at both of them from head to toe, "No wonder you don't want to leave your weapons. When you have to do hypnotic illusory medicine, there's no lack of problems."

"I'm not interested in that," Sasuke replied.

"The hypnotic illusory medicine is an illegal drug that caused that malfunction of sight, hearing and the three semicircular canals. If you ingest it wrong without due precautions, you're a dead man," the officer explained,

"Look, it's your own risk. The Kodon shrine is located on the west of the village and the Hypericum's Shrine is behind it."

Sakura thanked the officers and they entered the village on their way towards the shop. As they made their way, Sakura looked around the path and observed every shop they passed. She wished she could just take her time and go by each shop. This village was almost basically like heaven for her.

One thing was for sure, some day she will come back to this village if she ever needs something. She could use this village as a supplier whenever she had run out of herbs.

At nightfall they had arrived in front of a large river. On the silvergrass-covered riverside they could catch a glimpse of the sparkle of fireflies. Amazed by the scene, Sakura ran forward to stand in between the fireflies. She twirled around and couldn't help but smile as the fireflies flew around her.

She looked at Sasuke who was just staring at her. It almost felt like he was smiling for a sec. She couldn't help but blush. Somehow it felt different as he heart started to beat fast for no reason.

"Sakura…" he called out her name but he couldn't say anything else, he was interrupted by a noise up ahead from them. They jerked to the side and noticed some lanterns waving in the dark. Sasuke couldn't read what was written on them until it gotten a little closer; 'Police'

Before Sakura could ask what it was, Sasuke dashed towards her and picked her up and sped up his space. Startled by what happened, she almost squalled but was quick enough to place one hand on her mouth while the other clenched to his shirt. It had been a long time since he had held her like this.

"W-what's going on?"

"Police…" he answered, "I want to avoid dealing with them….no matter its form."

Somewhere a bit far from them, Sasuke stood still on a tree branch and carefully put Sakura down. She leaned against the tree and watched how the crowd looked down to the riverside.

Nearby the river there were two corpses lying covered by a straw mat. The policemen hadn't noticed yet, but there was another a few meters away from them. Out of horror, she placed one of her hands over her mouth. She could tell that the corpses their chakra had been completely sucked away.

Sasuke tapped on her shoulder to signal her that they should leave. With a nod she jumped down and followed Sasuke as he crossed the bridge.

xxxx

After passing under the wonky tori, they found themselves before a small sanctuary dedicated to prayer, missing half of the roof. The Kodon Shrine looked abandoned and fallen apart.

When they went to the back of the shrine, they saw a stone stairway and had managed to catch sight of the roof of a house further below. The lights were off, but Sasuke nonetheless went down the stairs. Hesitantly Sakura followed him and they stopped in front of the building. There was an almost erased sign that was written; Hypericum's Shrine.

"Now what?" Sakura asked as she kept looking at the abandoned place. She has no clue what to do anymore. Where are the people of the shrine? The people who were making the medicine? What exactly was going on? She looked up at the sky and could tell from the moon's position that it was almost midnight. Maybe they are asleep? But this place looks abandoned.

Without answering, Sasuke walked back to the shrine. He broke through the door of the small shrine with a kick and went inside. The moonlight was spreading through the shabby floorboards.

"We should rest for now," he finally answered as he lay on the ground, crossed his arms behind his head and raised his eyes up to the crescent moon that shined beyond the torn roof.

Sakura listened and went inside. After she sat on the ground, she finally felt how tensed and tired her body was.

"Sakura…" he called out her name without removing his sight from the moon, "Why am I here?"

"I-I told you, we needed more eye drops," she stuttered nervously, "The shop where I bought the eye drops didn't have any supply anymore and told me where he originally bought it."

"Why am I here?" he repeated his question, knowing full well she didn't answer his question.

"Maybe being here will give you answers…." She starts, but before he could say anything back, she quickly continued,

"I-I mean, the eye drops are for you. Maybe they can check to see what's wrong and give you the right dozes. Who knows maybe they can tell you what's wrong with your eyes."

With that, Sasuke hadn't said anything else. She sighed relieved as she placed her hoodie over her head and took the same position Sasuke had taken and looked at the crescent moon. Not minutes after that she started to doze off.

Suddenly a threatening presence dragged both Sasuke and Sakura out of their light sleep. Beyond the opening on the roof, the moon had disappeared.

In its place, Sasuke saw three shadows passing through the night sky. Sasuke raised both his legs and pushed himself up from the floor with a thrust of his shoulder and leapt up. Sakura quickly got up and together they jumped through the opening on the roof and hid.

They saw three shadows jumping on the tree branches, whirling in the sky and disappeared behind the back of the small shrine. Right after that lightning flashed by and the moment after that, a deafening noise shook the night sky.

Boom!

Sasuke and Sakura glanced at each other before immediately leaping from the shrine's roof and dashed towards the place of the explosion. They jumped down the stairway and heard someone screaming. Immediately they saw high flames coming from the Hypericum's Shrine.

The fire had already enveloped the gate and nourished by the wind. It was quickly moving towards the main building. They jumped up again and from above they saw two people running back and forth in the garden. They were filling a bucket with water and were trying to put out the fire.

Sakura saw a light coming from Sasuke. She looked to her left and saw him discharging his energy from his hands.

"Sasu-"

"Chidori!" he hurled his technique to the garden's ground. His Chidori uplifted the ground and with a powerful burst of wind it wiped the flames away in one shot. Not only the fire was swept away, but the two people who were trying to put out the fire were assailed by the air stream and hurled against the wall. From first to last, the windows of the main building broke in a thousand pieces and the gate fell violently to the ground. The garden was covered in black smoke and dust.

Sakura felt a threatening presence behind her back and quickly turned around. She had managed to avoid an attack.

"Do you belong to the Sendo clan too?" the attacker asked. It was a boy who was holding a kunai. He was wearing his hair straight upward and he was staring intently in front of him. At the back of his head he wore a mask.

"You've come to steal the Kotaro?" He threw the kunai against Sasuke, but he easily deflected the kunai.

"Damn it!" the boy cursed, "Why aren't you guys running for your lives?!"

Sakura looked at Sasuke and asked what they should do. She didn't want to hurt this boy, but she has a feeling that he wouldn't listen to them. This boy kind of reminded her how Naruto used to be in the past.

"I'll handle it," he answered and with that Sakura lowered her guard and backed away. A few branches to the left of them, she sat on a tree branch to watch.

"It wasn't us who set the fire," Sasuke replied, "I only put out the flames."

'yeah….in your own sort of generous way,' Sakura thought.

"Liar!" The boys yelled, "You'll never know where the Kotaro is!"

The boy gathered his energies on his hips and hurled himself towards Sasuke. Sasuke avoided the attack and dashed towards him and poked the rage-filled forehead of the boy with his finger. Sakura couldn't help but laugh after seeing that. It somewhat reminded her of when she stuck in Itachi's Tsukuyomi, how Itachi had always poked Sasuke's forehead.

"Ouch!" the boy yelled as he jumped backwards and rubbed his forehead. He kept glaring angrily at Sasuke, but also at Sakura who was laughing at him. Sakura stopped laughing when she suddenly heard a voice coming from nearby;

"That's enough, Kina! He has nothing to do with the Sendo Clan!" A young man, with his long hair tied in a ponytail and a yellow kimono appeared.

"How do you know?!" the boy shouted back, "I'll get them and make them spit out the truth!"

"If they were from the Sendo Clan, they would have killed you already. Instead they aren't taking you seriously, that's why the young man poked your forehead and the young lady is just sitting" the man replied, "Besides, didn't you see the crest on his back?"

"Crest?"

"Yeah, the Uchiha clan's."

"Really?" the boys widened his eyes, "Then you must be Itachi's younger brother!"

"What?" Sasuke stared at the boy intently and then looked at Sakura. Sakura looked to her side, clearly trying to avoid his gaze but she could literally feel his eyes filled with anger daggering her.

'yeah…I'm dead…' she thought.

~To Be Continued~

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