Naruto 1. 1: Captured

**A/N:** I finally got this done, ha! I changed my writing style a bit but it's not something major. I hope you enjoy the story!

**Disclaimer:** Naruto© Kishimoto Masashi

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**Behind The Cold Eyes**

**Chapter 1: ****Captured**

* * *

Birds chirped as the sound of people converse back and forth with each other. Children run around, playing tag or ninjas while carrying fake plastic shuriken and kunai toys in each hand. Everything was peaceful and full of harmony as she observed what was happening around, no one would have guessed what had happened before this if they weren't here before.

That before this, there was a war.

Bloodshed, cruel war that taken the lives of many innocent people and promising Shinobi. Many families had lost their loved ones, parents had lost their children, and wives had lost their husbands. It had caused many hardship and horrifying sights to the people of every village. It's a miracle after what the war had caused, everyone has still managed to get through it and turn the village almost back to its origin.

A sigh left the young woman's mouth as she walked on the busy street of Konoha, greeting a few construction workers and volunteered Shinobi fixing the roofs and re-build the houses. Her pink hair dangling just on her shoulders as the wind blew at her. Her shining emerald eyes sparkled as she stared at the sun on the clear blue sky.

But it's over now. Madara had been defeated. Kabuto had died and everything was okay. But she still felt something was incomplete because—

"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!" a loud voice called from behind her as the girl stopped on her heels and turned around, grinning when she recognized the voice of her dear friend. Not long after, a male figure had run up to her, his blonde hair shine with the sunlight as he panted from his exhaustions.

"Hey, Naruto." She greeted as she watched her teammate finally recovered and stood on his usual height, a few inches taller than her. His lips stretched into a wide smile.

"Want to go to Ichiraku? They just finished fixing it!" he offered.

Sakura laughed at the old antics of Naruto. He couldn't last a day without Ramen, she even remembered the time that he had demanded Teuchi to fix him Ramen when they hadn't finished rebuilding Ichiraku yet. He sat on the floor in front of the broken stand as people walked by, staring at him weirdly.

"No, thanks."

Naruto scowled at her refuse, his grin turning upside down showing his displeasure. "Really? I'll pay!"

She just shook her head. "Sorry, I told you. I'm not hungry. I just want to help people out today." She said instead as the boy nodded in understanding.

"I see. See you later then." At that, the goofy teen waved and ran straight towards the street where his favorite Ramen stand was at. With a small smile, Sakura turned around and continued her way around the village, to see if anyone needed her help. She had always tried her best to help re-establish Konoha after the war had ended.

* * *

"You wanted to see me, Tsunade-shishou?" Sakura said as she stood in front of her master, who was still the sixth Hokage after what had happened. The blonde woman averted her attention from the paper works on her desk and turned to her apprentice.

"Ah, yes Sakura. I have a mission for you." She said and leaned back to her chair to open the drawer to her left and rummaged through it, looking for her wanted scroll while Sakura waited patiently for teacher to finish, tapping her foot to pass the time.

Tsunade's face brightened when she came across her desired object and pulled it out. "Are you familiar of the routes to Wave?"

"Hai."

"I want you to go to wave and deliver this message to the Mizukage and then stay there for a few days until she give you a specific scroll and take this back. Since this message is important, people will come after this so keep it safe. Do you understand?" she asked, looking at the girl straight in the eyes.

"Hai, I'll protect it with my life!" Sakura saluted playfully, although she was very serious for this. She walked closer to the desk and took the scroll that Tsunade had handed her. She put it inside her pouch.

"When will I leave, Shishou?"

"Tomorrow." At that, Sakura nodded and excused herself outside the room when she heard her master calling out to her.

"Wait, Sakura!" Confused, the pinkette halted her hand on the door knob and looked over her shoulder back to Tsunade, who was biting her lips and looking away from her.

"Shishou?"

Tsunade sighed and turned her honey colored eyes back to her emerald ones, a glint of worry in it.

"Remember, this is an A-ranked mission and it will be dangerous. If it weren't for the other Jounin were busy, I wouldn't have sent you this." Sakura was about to open her mouth but she got cut off again.

"I know that you are capable of this but I'm still worried about you. The war had just ended and there are still dangerous criminals out there. If there's anything wrong, summon Katsuyu and tell us immediately."

Sakura flashed her a big smile. "Don't worry, Tsunade-shishou. I'm just as strong as you now; I can take care of myself." She said, confidence lacing through her voice as clear as the sparkle of water sparkling in the sun. The Hokage smirked at this. Her student really had progressed after the war had ended. She was as strong as anybody now, she needn't to worry but she still felt that something was not right.

"I understand." The young Kunoichi bobbed her head and turned back to the door that led to the exit of the room.

"One more thing, Sakura…"

"Yes?"

Tsunade's calm eyes suddenly turned serious. Sakura knew that look. Her master only had that look on when something really serious was happening. She wondered what she was going to say.

"I heard Uchiha Sasuke is still out there…" her breath hitched as she mentioned the name of her former teammate. She hated herself for showing that many emotions but no matter what she did, his name was always a taboo for her.

"If you encounter him, don't let your feelings get in the way. He's not your teammate anymore, he's a rogue ninja. Fight him if you must." And then she was dismissed.

When she closed the door, she was surprised to see Tenten there, looking slightly bruised. She must have just come back from a mission, Sakura assumed. The girls gave each other hug, giggling along with one another. Sakura pulled away and look at her close friend.

"So just came back from a mission?" she asked, although she already knew the answer. Tenten was aware of this but she nodded nonetheless.

"I just came back from checking on Lee and Neji in the hospital. I'm here to give my reports to Tsunade-sama." Sakura nodded at her answer.

"You want to grab something to eat after I'm done? We haven't hung out for a long time." Tenten offered. The pink haired Kunoichi thought about it for a moment. She hadn't eaten since this morning and she declined Naruto's proposal to Ramen. Well, she still wasn't that hungry but it's Tenten, they hadn't talked much since last months because of busy schedule.

"Sure!"

* * *

"So how have you been?" Tenten asked as she pulled another dango ball into her mouth with the use of her sharp with teeth. They had settled for a small dango shop next to the Hokage tower, seeing as it was the only decent shop that was fixed.

Sakura swallowed her dango. "I'm fine." She shrugged while chewing on another ball of sweet. The flavor had a good taste on her mouth, she didn't know if it was because she hadn't eaten this for a long time or the fact that she was hungry now.

"What were you doing with Tsunade-sama earlier?"

"Oh, I got an A ranked mission to the land of Waves." Tenten looked at her with a questioning gaze as she once again swallowed another dumpling. "What mission?"

"Just delivering a scroll and back."

"How long will it take?" Sakura raised her pink brow. "Since when did you become my mom, Tenten?" she teased as the brunette across from her sent her a glare. She laughed at that. She and Tenten had gotten along with each other a lot after the war. They seemed it understand each other and was a lot alike. They just trained from time to time when their teammates were busy and then hang out later. They became the closest of friends ever.

"Just answer the question, Sakura." She gritted her teeth.

"A few days I guess. Or more if they are ninjas after me." She added and then turned to Tenten, whose eyes were filled with concern.

"Be careful." Sakura snorted at that. "I'm fine. I'm a big girl now; you don't have to worry about me." Why couldn't people get the fact that she was as strong as the toughest ninja now? She trained hard and was able to defeat Kakashi and Naruto at times and she went on dangerous mission and succeeded. They still treated her like a baby and she didn't like that, it reminded her of how she was when she was still a Genin. How weak and useless she was.

"I know, I know."

Sakura probed her elbow on the table and leaned her face on the palms of her bent hands. "Enough about me. You?"

Tenten just flipped her hand back and forth while still nibbling on her food. "Still the same. Lee and Neji just can't seem to get along even though we have worked with each other for a long time. Ugh, boys…" she rolled her eyes.

"Lee just keeps screaming 'Youth' and Neji, as usual, get annoyed and call him an idiot which lead them to argue and fight."

Sakura laughed at her friend's antic. An image of Neji and Lee arguing with each other popped into her mind as she giggled to herself. It was just too funny as she imagined Neji having Lee in a headlock, the poor guy flailing his arms in the air to pry the Hyuuga's hands off him.

And then suddenly, Lee's bowl cut hair changed to a spiky one, fading to a pale color of yellow. His green jumpsuit changed color to orange. Neji's long hair shorten up to his neck and was growing spikier at the back, the bangs on the side of his face turned shorter as it changed into a black color instead of his chocolate brown. His white eyes darken to the deep blue color she was so familiar with. They look just like...

"Sasuke-kun and Naruto…" she trailed off absentmindedly as Tenten raised her eyebrow at her in confusion. The pink haired girl didn't seem to notice she had said that, seeing as she was still deep in her thought.

Tenten gulped down her chewed dango and looked at her friend in concern. She was reminiscing about her old team again. She knew that it pained her whenever she thought of them, how goofy they were before compare to now. And she said the name that everyone knew was a taboo to her, without even realizing it. This was a bad sign.

"Sakura?" said girl blinked in surprised and then smiled weakly at Tenten when she noticed that she was spacing out and ignoring her friend.

"Sorry, I was just—"

"Thinking about Sasuke?" Tenten finished for her with a raised brow. Sakura looked at her with her eyes wide; the shock was evident on her face as the brown haired girl said this. When she didn't reply and look away, Tenten sighed.

"I know you miss him, Sakura."

Her head snapped back to look at Tenten, her pink hair flowing with her movement. "No, I'm not—"

"Don't deny it, Sakura, I know you are." She stayed silent. The bun haired ninja looked at her with a sympathetic look. Sasuke's disappearance was affecting her, even if she didn't know it.

"Sakura…"

"Huh?"

"Don't dwell on the past too much; thinking about him is affecting you. He tried to kill you and Naruto. He betrayed the village and an S-ranked criminal. Everyone is moving on, even Naruto and look at how peaceful he is. I know it's hard for you to forget about him since you still love hi—"

"I don't love him, Tenten." Sakura hissed through gritted teeth, which caused Tenten to stop her speech and let out a breath.

"I am moving on. He can do whatever he wants. After so many failed attempts of bringing him back now, I know he wants be alone. And I know that much to let him go." She finished.

_'Yeah, keep telling yourself that…first love don't die that easily…' _Tenten thought as she watched the Konoha sweetheart waved to the waiter to order another plate of dumplings.

* * *

And Sakura couldn't sleep that night. She was just tossing and turning in bed, trying but failing to get to sleep. She needed her energy to leave first thing in the morning tomorrow but here she was, staring at her open window, watching as the night breeze blow the leaves rocking back and forth outside.

The reason why she couldn't sleep was simple. Her mind told her to sleep and stopped thinking but her heart seemed to disobey. The stupid memories and images of her ex-teammate was rebellious and remained in her mind no matter how hard she tried to get rid of it.

She didn't get it, the war had ended. Everything was calm now, she didn't get why he still wasn't coming back to the village, to his team…to her. She had heard, no saw him during the war. He had helped them defeat Madara and Kabuto. That was the last time she saw him. He helped them, but after all that he didn't come back. And everyone just ignore the fact that he had assisted them in winning the war and he was still the first one to every nation's bingo book lists.

She and Naruto had never given up though; they still constantly looked for him and try to make him understand that there were people waiting for him at home. But they couldn't find him, he never left his trace and if they ever had a contact to him, it won't last long. It's like he didn't want anyone to find him. He was laying low, he never committed things that were against the law anymore, and it seemed he was just traveling throughout the world.

So now, even Naruto gave up and move on with his life. At one point she thought she was too but every time she saw something that reminded her of him, the memories that she once erased had come back. She just push it back to her the back of her mind, and each time it seemed to get easier. But now…this time, it came back and it was strong.

She couldn't get rid of him, the images of him smirking, scowling, insulting Naruto. The way he would frown whenever she came to him and ask for a date and the way he refused them. How he helped her in their first mission in the Waves and the Chunin exam, their encounter three years later in Oto.

The many times that he tried to kill her and the way she tried to kill him back to stop him. She was sad, angry and betrayed whenever she thought of this. He meant to kill her in all his attempts, not blinking nor having second thoughts every time he lifted his arms and attacked her whereas she faltered every single time. He didn't care about her at all.

She gave a bitter smile. Of course, he didn't care. He wasn't Sasuke anymore, Karin was right; he's not the quiet and kind boy that Sakura had fallen in love with. His dark blue eyes, even though they were cold, she could still see the life in them if she tried to look beyond them, but now whenever she had a chance to look at them, they were just empty hues.

And she had given now, nothing she could do to bring back the old Sasuke back. With that thought, her mind went blank as her chest heaved up and down from the air she took and fell asleep.

She couldn't feel the presence that was in the room with her after all this time, watching her.

She woke up at dawn after her needed rest last night, but she still felt tired. She took the showers and the back pack that she had prepared last night, the scroll that Tsunade had given to her inside it. Before she walked out her door, she briefly glanced back on her nightstand, where the picture of Team Kakashi was on.

She looked at her calm but happy sensei behind the three of them, his hands ruffling the boys' heads. And then she moved to Naruto, scowling unhappily to the guy on his left. Her normal cheery self was in the middle, looking as the happy girl she was with her closed hands to her chin, unaware of the hostility behind her.

And then her eyes lingered on Sasuke. The frowning boy was glaring at something but at least it wasn't the camera, otherwise it would ruin the picture that had taken a very long time to take.

With a few minutes of staring, she opened the door and stepped outside. The wind blew again, as the leaves scatter all over the atmosphere, blowing the man in the shadow of the room with it.

* * *

The harsh wind of the night hit her as she jumped from tree to tree to the direction of the Land of Waves. She was quite familiar with the route; she had gone to a mission there for a few times so she was comfortable that it wouldn't take a long time to get there. The mission wouldn't last long as a week.

A familiar pattern of Chakra appeared and Sakura stiffened, landing on the ground and looked around. Nothing was there. Sakura's face scrunched up in confusion, she could have sworn she sense someone behind her. Shrugging, she turned on her heels and was about to leap off when a voice startled her.

"You still haven't notice me?" she stopped immediately and went rigid as she recognized the unique voice. It was still as rich and deep, maybe even more, as it was since she last saw him. She turned around and looked up to the tree to see a figure standing there with his arm crossed.

"Hn, Sakura?" he finished and disappeared and then reappeared a few feet in front of her. It didn't surprise her one bit. But she was still shocked to know that he was here right now, right in front her and near reach.

She shook her head and shut her eyes. No, he was a missing ninja, she was Konoha Shinobi. Feelings mustn't get in the way. She snapped her eyes open and glare at the man in front of her, who in turn raised his brow in amusement.

She took a kunai out and stood in a fighting stance.

"Uchiha Sasuke-kun, by all the nations of Shinobi and my duty as a Kunoichi of Konoha, it's my job to take you back." She tried to control her voice to be as firm as professional as possible. She didn't want to show him her feelings. Feelings get in the way.

"Hn? You're not begging me to go back anymore?" he asked emotionlessly but Sakura could still sense the amusement in his tone. Her angry grew.

"I've don't that too many times already and I've given up now. People need to grow up and move on. I'm doing my job to take you down for my village." She still kept her voice stern and clear. Sasuke noted this, she had grown up now. Into a true Shinobi, he could tell from the amount of Chakra he sense coming from her, she must have grown stronger.

But no matter how hard she tried, Sasuke thought, she still couldn't keep her emotions in check as he observe her every movement. Sasuke took notice that she still wore the same thing like she did.

While he was in his thought, Sakura took the chance to observe him, how much he changed these last few months. He was still wearing his high collar shirt, zipped up to his mid chest but at least he wore a grey shirt underneath, everything he wore was the same, except for the missing purple rope on his waist band, replaced with a black sash.

"So, you're gonna take me down?" he asked.

"Hai!" she said confidently and once again Sasuke was amused. He needed to confirm this. This thing that he was wondering throughout the whole time he went away in order for his next plan to be achieved.

"Even after I helped you in war?" He was taunting her, Sakura had thought, he was trying to fuel the anger in her and she didn't know if he was joking with her or making her slit his head off his body. The nerve of that person.

But she couldn't help but agree with him a little. He helped them out at war, whether he wanted to or not. He did make it apparent that Madara was his enemy too and it made use of it by taking grant of the help the joint Shinobi war to get rid of the man that should have been dead for a long time. She didn't know which side he was on during the time and even now.

"Well?" she could feel the veins in her forehead making themselves known by pulsing. He's pushing her buttons. The grip on her kunai tightened, as her glare intensified.

The two of them were just staring at each other, not moving at all from their places in front of one another. It was as if they were trying to make their once in a long time reunion last. But Sakura knew better, it wasn't like that. She wasn't the girl who believed there was always a bright side to everything; she had seen the ugly side of the world after her participation in her harsh Shinobi war.

Part of her was urging her to ran to him and slash his limbs off for what he had done to her and Team 7. What he did to the village to achieve his so called revenge. Many lives had been wasted for him and he didn't seem to care. He wasn't the same anymore, he changed into the worse. A rogue Ninja and a monster that kill anything that got in his way to avenge his clan.

But half of her, her heart for the matter, understand why he did that. She had known why Uchiha Itachi had murdered his own clan alive. Naruto and Kakashi had told her that, only her and she had respected Itachi to keep it to herself. And it must have been hard for Sasuke to know that, seeing as he respected his brother since a kid and tried so hard to kill him all his life and to only realize that he did it for him and he killed Itachi with his own hands.

And the elders were still alive, living and breathing while Itachi was dead. To tell the truth, she hated them. She didn't even look at them anymore whenever they came inside Tsunade's office. She had tried so hard to stop herself from smashing their heads in the wall of the room but they didn't deserve to cover their blood on the Hokage's office.

Times seemed to fly while she was in her own world and she wondered why Sasuke hadn't bothered to interrupt her or attack while she led down her guard. What was he thinking standing and looking at her with a blank face like that? She never knew.

She sighed and stood in her usual stance and put her kunai back into her pouch behind her and she was more than aware that the Uchiha had raised his thin black brows when she did that. She knew what he was thinking.

"Go, I don't want to kill you." she took in a breath and closed her eyes, seeming to think about what she should say to him. Emerald eyes revealed themselves under her eyelids and stare at him with confidence. "If anyone who deserves to die, it's the elders."

He stayed silent as he stood in his place. Sasuke didn't seem fazed by the fact but Sakura could sense the slight flickering of his dark cold eyes. She could have sworn she had seen some emotions there.

"So you knew?" he asked with a slight surprise.

"Kakashi-sensei and Naruto told me." So they really did told her, but by the fact that all the nations still came after him and people still hating him, the two had only told Sakura about it, and he was a but thankful she didn't spread it out. She respected Itachi and Sasuke respected her for that.

"Does that mean you're letting me go? That's strange; if you know that then maybe you would try harder to get me back."

"After the times that I had tried, I knew enough that you wouldn't want come back to the village that had killed your family. And after what you had done to us, I want nothing to do with you anymore. Having you in my life only brings me pain." She turned on her heels and proceeded to walk away from him, from the pain that they were separating again. She just could get over this like she had done many times he walked away from them.

After a few steps he asked something that she didn't know she could answer.

"Do you hate me?"

The question hung in the air for a while as silence engulfed the two former teammates. She stopped her movements and just stood there, with her back to him. She could feel his eyes piercing through the back of her head but she just ignored it. She hoped that it was just a stupid question that slipped out of his lips to piss her off and that he would just forget about it.

"Don't ignore it, Sakura." Her hopes were crushed. Why couldn't he just her leave, wasn't that what he wanted. Did it please him to see her struggle? But the way he said her name, it made something in her snap and she refused to think what it was.

With as much courage as she could pull, she turned around to face him. The two Shinobi looked at each other dead in the eyes, both not wavering.

"What do you think?" she responded and broke their eye contact when he was met by her red shirt on her back again as her feet made contact to the grass below them, walking towards her original destinations.

So, she was escaping his question. He would be just fine for that but this was something that he needed to now, his instinct was telling to do things that were the opposite of this minds lately since the war ended, the moment Madara had fall onto the dirt bloody ground in front of his red eyes.

His body flickered and disappeared. Sakura could feel a cool wind brushing her sides and she wasn't surprised to see him in front of her in a flash, she didn't even blink. Instead, she glared at him, which didn't make a difference to his face at all.

"What the hell do you want from me now!? I told you to go and leave me alone! I want nothing to do with you anymore! Don't you understand!?" she yelled at him, making the anger in voice clear to him that she wasn't in the mood to deal with him.

"I understand."

"Good!" And she walked pass him. She didn't even hit her third steps until he grabbed her wrist, his grip making it apparent to her that he didn't intend to let her go anytime soon.

"But I'm afraid I can't do that." He whispered to her and even with her raising anger, she had to raise her eye brow at that.

"What do you mean?" he didn't answer. She furrowed her eyes. Now she was sure he was doing this to piss her off. The young Kunoichi wriggled her hands out of his grasp but he didn't loosened, only tightening them to a grip that threaten to crush your bone and it could, she just wondered why he didn't.

Focusing Chakra into her hands, she finally escaped his hold.

"I'm letting you go and now what, you want me to fight you?" he just smirked and it didn't ceased her raging temper one bit.

"Okay, if that's what you want." She pulled out her gloves and put it on, gripping and un-gripping them to warm up. She reached behind her to grab her previous kunai.

"Let's go!"

And with that the two ninjas dashed away to thin air, the grass underneath them scattered around by the force of power they pushed to their feet. Soft thud echoed the forest as the trees made contact with the sole of Shinobi sandals. Kunai flew out from each of their hands and wisped in the air.

A loud clang was made when the pointed sharp edge of the objects touched each other and fell down. It didn't even touched the ground until it disappeared again and was relocated in the pink haired Kunoichi and the last remaining Uchiha's hands as they landed on each tree in front of each other, just a few meters distance between them.

Sakura gritted her teeth and dashed away again, reappearing behind Sasuke and throw him her leg. Cold air made contact with her skin as he disappeared to the ground below them. She fell down and spun around to land on her heels, stood up straight to stare at him.

It didn't take long for him to do a few hand seals that she was more than familiar with and shifted her feet to get ready. Her body stood in motion when his hands stopped at the tiger seal.

"Katon: Gokakyou no Jutsu!" a huge amount of fire flew out of his mouth and headed straight to her direction at a fast pace. Her feet pushed at the ground and lifted herself up to the air, a gush of wind brushed her as Sasuke flashed behind her.

She lifted her left leg and made a round house kick behind her but he caught her leg with ease. Sakura twisted her body to the side a little as her arms reached and grabbed his head, which he was surprised at, and throw him to the ground below. A loud thud was heard when his body hit the ground, cracking from the Chakra that she had used in her move.

She cursed at the trunk of a tree that he used as a substitution when she landed on the ground.

"You think that you can beat me with that?" she snapped her head upward and looked at the smirking Sasuke on the tree branch, his arms crossed and not a scratch on him.

"You haven't seen half of me yet." She countered with a smirk of her own, which caused the Uchiha to lift his brow in amusement. With that, his eyes started changing to a red color as the Sharingan made itself appeared in his eyes.

_'Good, he thinks of me as a threat enough to use his Sharingan.'_ She leaped off the ground again the same as Sasuke hoped off the tree and dashed to her directions. She grabbed a shuriken from her hostler and threw it at him, which was countered back by another shuriken.

Kunai and Katana faced against each other as they stopped just a few inches away. Their grip on their weapons shook as their force pushed against one another.

"You're getting better." Sasuke commented bluntly and the corners of her mouths tugged up into an arrogant smirk.

"I'm not the little girl that you guys protect from years ago anymore; I'm my own woman now." He could feel himself smirking when she said this. She really did change; she was her own sixteen-year-old Shinobi. He could tell she was as strong as Naruto now. He wouldn't doubt her abilities for a second after all the training she had been doing, how he knew of this was another story.

But he still needed to rile her up some more if he wanted her to reveal her true power. She was still soft. "I couldn't actually tell the difference." She glared at him and they dashed away again, landing another few meters away, the ground screeching when they pushed their feet onto it to stop.

"Don't underestimate me!" she yelled out to him.

"Hn…" and he flickered away again and appeared behind her. A cold feeling ran up her spine again at the familiar stance and positions. He had knocked her out it this; he had tried to kill her in this too with his Chidori.

She turned around when she heard the familiar chirping of lightning from behind her but instead of a light blue hand coming at her; a hand grabbed her from the back of her neck when she turned around as the Sasuke that she turned to face disappeared in a puff of smoke.

_'Shadow Clone—'_ she rasped in her mind as the hold on her neck tightened and lifted her up to the air, her hands desperately trying to pry his fingers off. Her breath hitched as she was having difficult to breath in and out with the grip on her neck.

"What were you saying again?" he taunted. All that came out from her mouth was choking sound. He loosened his grip a bit to let her speak.

"Don't—" she said hoarsely. "Underestimate me!" and what was in his hold ended up in a cloud of smoke. His eyes widened when he felt her Chakra behind him. Fisting her hands, she lifted up as it glowed in a light green color and punched him but that didn't work because he knelt down and spun his feet under her to sweep her own feet off the ground.

She jumped and lifted her right feet as far up as she could.

"Heaven Kick of Pain!" and the ground cracked open when her feet landed on top of the man under her. Pebbles and rocks flew around from the impact. She hoped onto a tree and looked down. Her eyes flew open when she didn't see any body of Sasuke anywhere on the crater that she had created.

A hand on her left shoulder startled her and she turned around to face him, but no one was there. She quickly dashed down when she felt him rapidly approaching her.

They clashed with each other, with their hands aiming at their opponents. Her hand caught his fist as his caught hers. They stared into each other eyes, betraying no emotions what so ever.

"You can hold your own better than I thought." He said and her eyes flared with anger.

"I told you I'm not a Genin anymore!" she glared at him hard. Something in his eyes sparkled and she didn't have time to figure what he was before he leaned in and brushed his lips against the side of her left cheek, her eyes almost flew out of its socket when his lips made contact on her skin.

Sasuke pulled back with a smirk on his face as she stared wide eyes at him in disbelief. _'Did he just—'_ too bad at that slight moment of shock caused her to let down her guard and her world went black when she felt a slight pressure on the back of her neck.

Her body went limp and Sasuke caught her with his arms around her waist, the smirk never leaving his face as his eyes went back to its original color.

"You still let your feelings get in the way, Sakura…" he whispered. As expected, he received no response and he shifted. His arms went under the back of her knees and the other went around her back to carry her in a more comfortable position. Drops of water fell down from the dark sky and hit him lightly as he walked with the pinkette to his place.

"Let's go to _our_ home…"

...

* * *

_**Next Chapter:**__**New Home**_

_Cold air hit her body as the blanket that was covering her fell down to bunched up on her legs as she bent them to put the sole of her feet on the bed. The pink haired medic shivered from the chilling temperature, making her wonder where she was to be this cold with no air conditioner, fans or air in the room._

_That was until she glanced down and her big emerald eyes flew opened to a point that was not normal._

_Holy shit, she was practically naked!_

_"Kyaaaa!"_

* * *

__**A/N: **Yeah, not a great review huh? Well, this story got stuck in my mind for a long time and i needed to get it out in my head. I got stuck with the name, you know? I can't decide between 'Behind The Cold Eyes' or 'Behind The Cold Exterior'. The first option kinda sounded cooler but the later covered most of the story. Help?

Please enjoy and review on what you think. I'll update faster that way.


	2. 2: New Home

**A/N:** Fast update, I know. Just to reward you guys for being good readers and leaving reviews.

Okay, English is not my first language and I'm bound to make mistakes when I'm writing. I get confused by the words themselves and my first language and English are very different, so sometimes when the sentences i wrote made sense in my language but didn't make sense in English, and I must have not taken that into considerations and it's my fault for being careless. I'm sure my last chapter has a lot of mistakes. It's my first time to describe a battle and I can't say I'm good at it. So thanks to Reignashii for pointing that out, I appreciate your honesty and I promise to have a dictionary near the next time i write my stories.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Behind the Cold Eyes**

* * *

_The sky was dark. Fire and smoke were everywhere. The grounds were covered with blood and dead corpses. It was already beginning to rain. Kunai and various weapons were embedded on the trees and all the other places. And right in the middle of the chaos was two shinobi, the two of last remaining Uchiha._

_Uchiha Sasuke and Uchiha Obito._

_They stared at each other emotionlessly with their own trade mark Sharingan. Neither of them weren't even blinking or moving, just standing there as if waiting for the other to make a move first. After a few more moments of staring one of them finally moved. Obito's lips stretched into a smirk while Sasuke's eyes narrowed at him._

_"So, now it's time for you and me to fight each other, huh Sasuke?" he asked almost tauntingly. He didn't expect this to happen. Everything was going according to plan, he and Madara had almost successfully captured the Kyuubi and Hachibi until Sasuke suddenly showed up. He was slightly shocked when he attacked them instead of the leaf. After that, all of them had engaged in their own battle._

_Madara was handing his own against the Kyuubi container and his other comrades whereas Sasuke and him were left alone with each other. He didn't know what was happening or what was making the young Uchiha did this, but he knew that he was betraying them._

_He stopped his train of thought when he heard rustling. Sasuke had unsheathed his sword from behind him and took a fighting stance. He raised his eyebrow at the actions, the smirk still apparent on his face. Actually, half of him was angered and the other half was amused._

_"Before we begin this, mind telling me why you taking their side?" Sasuke's glare hardened. "I'm not on their side and not on yours either." He said coldly, still remaining his fighting pose as he talked. _

_"Fine. Whatever floats your mind." Obito shrugged nonchalantly with his eyes closed in a bored expression. He then opened his blood red eyes again, now being different from its previous calm glint to a serious one. "But tell me, why?"_

_"I met Orochimaru. He told me everything." He answered and it was the other Uchiha's turn to narrow his eyes. Orochimaru? Wasn't he already dead? And where was Kabuto? He hasn't got any response from the guy for a long time. His jaw tightened from clenching his teeth, something must have happened. He didn't have any idea what the 'truth' Sasuke was talking about._

_He dodged a kunai just in time as it was aiming right at him, but he wasn't fast enough to dodge it successfully and the edge of the weapon had pierced his cheeks, nothing very serious than an external wound. "Tsk." He wiped the trail of blood away with the back of his hand, smearing the skin of his face that was near the injury with a tint of red. He hadn't seen that one coming, he didn't even sense it._

_Sasuke was getting better. His new Eternal Mangekyon Sharingan was making his power stronger. He would have been happy for this, but now that the younger Uchiha had turned his back against them now, it wasn't doing him any good. And the fact that he didn't know or see what Sasuke was capable of now didn't make his worries disappear. He cursed himself for not being careful to watch the brat with cautions. He didn't know any of this would happen._

_"Okay, if that's what you want." He said calmly and shifted his feet while Sasuke did the same as the two ninjas dashed away from the ground, making the dirt under them scatter around._

_"Let's begin."_

* * *

**Chapter 2: ****New Home**

* * *

Tsunade stood in her office silently, her honey colored eyes moving as the follow the villagers' movements through the droplets of water that was dripping on the window of her room. It had been raining for hours now. The people below her were still doing their works of repairing the village to its origins, buying and selling foods and weapons. A few Shinobi was walking around the village, patrolling for any unusual actions. They couldn't have any attacks at this stage.

But having an ambush from was the least of her worries, since the war had ended the five nations had come to an understanding and had formed a bond. They were allies now and they didn't have to worry about anything, but if they chose to betray them, it was another story. It was the most unlikely to happen so Tsunade didn't need to worry about that. But there were still criminals on the loose and a bunch of few rogue ninjas out there, not mention there were still tribes that were against them.

Even so, that wasn't on Tsunade's mind either. Her eyes narrowed as the pupils shifted to look down. Her worries had gotten worse now and she couldn't help calming them down. The Hokage knew she had to believe in her warriors but she couldn't stop the worries from forming inside of her. It's natural for it to happen to Shinobi, she thought while closing her eyes. But this person was someone important to her.

"What did they say?" she opened her eyes as she heard the sound of her door being pushed open gently, as if trying not to make any noise but being trained as a Shinobi and medical ninja, Tsunade could hear even the slightest of sound of a needle hitting the floor.

The person stepped inside and closed the door, bowing to show the Hokage respect. "They said Sakura hadn't arrived there yet, Tsunade-sama." She regained her composure and looked at the back of her teacher. She couldn't see the expressions since she was facing the window, but she could feel he tense as she told her that. Silence surrounded them and the only sound was the pitter patter of the rain drops that had made on the glass window.

"Should I send a backup team?" she asked in worry but Tsunade shook her head, her tied blonde hair swaying left to right with the movement.

"There's no need, Shizune. It's normal for her to not arrive there on time seeing as it's an A-ranked mission. Besides, she had only been gone for a day." She declined but that didn't cease Shizune's worries for a bit.

"But Tsunade-sama, she didn't send any messages like she usually did whenever she crossed the exit border of Konoha. She could be in danger." The black haired medic tried to reason with her.

It's always a habit for Sakura to send her a note that she had left the border line of the village whenever she went on a mission. It was something that Tsunade had told her to do just in case something happened to her. And Sakura did just that all the time but this time there was no responds from her and she and Shizune was worried. Sure, things like this happened sometime when Sakura forgot or when she was busy or an enemy attacked her.

But this time, Shizune had a feeling something had happened and she was sure Tsunade had it too. But it was just a feeling and that couldn't be too sure of that. But they couldn't help but be worried, after all the war had just ended.

"I know, but Sakura is a very capable Shinobi and I trust her. She is strong enough to defeat Kakashi or even Naruto now and I'm sure even if it was an ambush, she will be able to handle it. We'll wait another few days and if she hadn't arrived at the Waves yet or she doesn't send any responds, we'll send the Anbus for back-up. But for the meantime," She tilted her head a little to look at the bowed head of Shizune over her shoulder, "Believe in her, Shizune."

"Yes, mam."

* * *

Sakura groaned as she shifted her body, lifting her eyelids slowly to reveal the dazed emerald eyes of hers. Her eyes were half lidded as she glanced around to observe her environment. The left side of her cheek was planted on the ground as she lay sideways with a soft thin blanket covering her. She felt like she had been gone for a week and her body had no energy in them. She could even feel the lowness of her Chakra.

Stupid Uchiha must have drained her Chakra. The memories of the last events flowing inside her mind as she recalled what happened before she fainted. She let the emotions got in her way and Sasuke must have used it to his advantage. She first expected to be killed when her visions turned black the moment he hit the back of her neck to knock her out, again. But it seemed she was not in heaven or hell for the matter. What was he thinking?

Her eyes scanned her surroundings hoping to find her former teammate and maybe, if she had any energy to, demand some answers from him. It was dark and there was no light despite the fact that she had seen a window facing her, but that was because it was closed with binds and curtains, leaving no room for the sun light, or moonlight since she couldn't tell what time of the day it was, to come into the room. The reason why she could see was the small dim of light that came from the small hole of the underside of the door. She could feel the softness under her and had guessed that it was maybe a bed or futons. But no Sasuke in the room.

With what energy was left, she tried to move her arms but found that the something was bound on her wrists. It didn't take Sakura a minute to figure it out that it was Chakra infused ropes. Even her legs were tied up too. What the hell was he trying to do? So moving her hands and feet around proved to be useless.

With a tired sigh, she shifted her bottom uncomfortably on the mattress and sat up, leaning on the headboard for support as she panted in exhaustions. What did he do to her? Even the slightest of movement made her tired.

Cold air hit her body as the blanket that was covering her fell down to bunched up on her legs as she bent them to put the sole of her feet on the bed. The pink haired medic shivered from the chilling temperature, making her wonder where she was to be this cold with no air conditioner, fans or air in the room.

That was until she glanced down and her big emerald eyes flew opened to a point that was not normal.

Holy shit, she was practically naked!

"Kyaaaa!"

She large eyes now looked over her body that was in nothing but a large shirt, that she now noticed was what Sasuke had worn earlier, zipped up to her mid chest, almost making them pop out as they restrained against the cloth, she couldn't even feel any sign of her bra. Sakura began to panic when she tried to shift her legs but that worry flew out the window when she found out she was still in her underwear.

What was happening here? Why was she in her underwear? Where was her bra? And what the hell was Sasuke thinking?!

That damn pervert! She was going to kill him, she could being bound and all, when she saw him. She would tear his limbs and skin him and throw his bones to the dogs. How dare he did this to her? Who did he think he was?

She closed her eyes to calm down her nerves and try to think this through logically. Okay, so even if she was in her underwear didn't mean that he had done anything to her. Besides, Sasuke wasn't that type of person. He wouldn't take advantage of her while she was in her comatose-like state. That type of action was physical and that was something Sasuke had avoid throughout his life.

But she was still almost naked!

He maybe the reserved and anti-social boy when he was twelve but that didn't mean he would be the same as he was back then three years later. He went with Orochimaru, Sakura was a bit thankful that it wasn't Jiraiya who trained him, and who knew what he did while in Oto. He could be a rapist or a hormonal-driven teenager now. She didn't know what he would do if she saw him.

The cold air pricked her skin again and she shivered. Being bound and this exposed felt really uncomfortable, especially in a dark room captured by a dangerous man. She groaned, somebody help her.

The sound of the door being opened brought her out of her thought and she snapped her head to the source. Despite the fact that the door was opened, there was still little light coming in. Maybe she was in a dungeon or something. Or a hotel maybe? No, then she would hear noise. But her wondering disappeared as she eyed the outline of the person that had come in, who resembled the figure of her former teammate greatly.

He closed the door and stepped toward her slowly. She unconsciously pressed herself further away until her back hit the wall. Crap, what would she do now if he decided to do something to her? Scream? That could result in her being killed by him.

She watched as he stopped a few feet away from the bed and lifted his arm to reach for something at on the wall, which was too dark for her to see what it was. A soft click was heard and the light came on, almost blinding her.

She closed her sensitive eyes from the sudden brightness, blinking them a few times to adjust to the light. So the room really did have a light. When she finally got used to the brightness, she opened them to their normal width and looked at the emotionless face of the Uchiha. He was still wearing the same thing save for his zipped up shirt, which she was currently wearing at the moment, but he still got his grey sleeveless shirt that defined his muscles, which were toned underneath the cloth—

She stopped her thinking there. She did not want to go back to her fan girl mode.

He stepped closer to her and sat down on the bed, looking at her with a blank face with his dark eyes. She couldn't really tell what he was staring at and immediately sank deeper into the cushion and tried the best as she could to cover her too exposed body with the cover, away from his roaming eyes.

He raised his eyebrow at her actions. Was she thinking that he was staring at her body? He snorted, like he would do something like that. He was not the type of person to ogle someone. He was just observing her actions in case she tried to pull something at him, ignoring the fact that her limbs were bound and that prevented her to do anything, not to mention her chakra was low.

"Why the hell am I almost naked?" she asked with a normal voice, but he could feel the demanding tone them. She was glaring at him again, the anger was evident on her face.

"It was raining and I doubted you want to catch a fever." He answered bluntly, his eyes betraying no emotions as well as his voice. He wasn't even hesitating, that proved that he was telling the truth.

"Then could you at least wait until I wake up or something?" he could have at least wait and ask for her permission for doing such a thing. Or maybe ask somebody else, preferably a girl, to change her. She forced down the blood that was threatening to come into her face when she thought of the things that he could have done to her while changing her clothes.

"If I had waited then you would have died already right now from fever." She pouted at his blunt response. But he did have a point, she was a medic and she was more than aware of the cause if she had stayed in her wet clothes for more than three hours. What if she had fainted for six hours? Then she would really die from fever or at least fall ill severely.

But then again, her bra was missing and he had seen her chest. The fact the she was in her underwear didn't make her feel relieved at all. He could possibly do something to her and cleaned up afterwards. She continued to stare at him suspiciously.

And he seemed to have known her thought so he answered, "I didn't do anything if that's what you're worried about."

"Proof?" Her glare was still present on her face as the pink haired medic still stared at him. Hell, he had taken off her bra and she was wearing almost nothing. If he wanted to lie then find a better excuse than that. Even if he didn't do anything to her, he still saw something and that something was what she didn't want anybody to see and was planning to keep it that way.

He raked his hands through his hair frustratingly and looked away from her. "Listen, I did save you from being sick and instead of thanking me; you accuse me of doing things to you?" How dumb could this woman get, he would never do that. He avoided physical contacts his whole life.

"I can't be too sure."

"What ever."

She sighed. He was right though, if it weren't for him, she would be sick right now. At least he was nice enough to let her wear his shirt. But it was still his fault for knocking her out. Her neck was still throbbing and her head began to ache.

"How long was I out?"

"Two days." Her eyes flew opened at the answer. She fainted that long?

"Where am I?" he glanced at her. She sure asked a lot of questions. "I don't need to tell you that."

"Why? Because you're afraid that I would run away?" she wriggled her hands but her wrists were still bound and the rope was getting tighter the more she tried to move. "You tied by hands and drained my chakra so you don't have to worry about that. I'm just curious."

He watched her for a moment, seemingly trying to figure out if she was sincere or not. After a few seconds he opened his mouth to answer her. "Waves."

Waves? That was where she was heading on her mission. But if she was in Waves then there must be someone that had seen her. It's not every day you would see a missing nin carrying a Konoha Kunoichi with pink hair. And from what he had told her, she was missing for two days. People in the village, especially Tsunade would get worried and had sent people after her already. Where ever she was, she had assumed that Sasuke had taken her to the far away part of the nation, where nobody recognized them.

Sasuke was smart, that she knew perfectly well. He wouldn't stay in a place that people would know who they were. That way the chances of people coming to find her would be minimal. Her eyes secretly scanned the room and the man sitting next to her, hoping to find a hint of where she was. She needed to figure this out soon, it would do her greatly when she try to escape, that is if she had any energy of course.

The stupid jerk had drained her Chakra and she hadn't eaten in two days, her body was starting to weaken physically and mentally. She couldn't think this way.

Her stomach growled and she blushed. She could see Sasuke raising his eye brow with an annoying smirk on his lips, as if he was amused. She mentally cursed her body for embarrassing her. But she couldn't actually blame it either; she was out for a couple of days, it was normal for her to be hungry.

"Here." A box of dango was thrown next to her. Her eyes blinked at the food and then moved to Sasuke, whose eyes were staring at her with a glint that she was not familiar with. "I know you would be hungry."

She lifted her bound hands up from the covers, trying not to expose her body even more. "Hello? Do you expect me to eat with my hands like this?" She asked with a look.

His dark blue eyes narrowed at her as she pouted childishly at him. "I don't trust you enough to let your hands be free." If Sakura's hands weren't tied up then she would have face palmed. "I have no Chakra!" she tried not to shout. "It's not like I can do anything." And then her lips formed into a teasing smirk. "Or are you planning on feeding me?"

He grumbled something that she couldn't quite catch and moved closer to her, tearing the rope off her wrists with ease. She rubbed her numb hands to get the feeling back and smiled at him. "Thanks." She said and proceeded to uncase the box of dumplings and put one into her mouth, letting out a groan out at the taste.

He continued to watch her eat the dango with a blank face. For someone who was kidnapped, she seemed to be easy-going. People would normally begging for freedom or trying to escape right now. She was one of a kind alright.

"What?" Sasuke snapped out of his thinking and looked at the girl on the bed, her eyes were narrowed and her cheeks were puffy from the food that was still inside her mouth. His eyebrow lifted as he observed her.

"What do you mean?"

"Why are you staring at me?" the Uchiha cursed silently. He must have let his guard down and looked at her without himself noticing when he was in his own world. He had been doing that a lot recently.

"You just looked to normal for someone who is captured." He stated. She swallowed her food and closed her eyes.

"I don't need to be worried. Tsunade-sama should be sending someone to come after me by now and besides, I need energy to think of a way to get out. Attacking blindly with no food in my stomach won't help." She said simply and used her teeth to pull another dumpling to her mouth from its stick, chewing on them while the man next to her remained silent.

"Then give up."

"Huh?"

"Give up. There's no way I will let them find you." Her eyes narrowed to a fierce glare. "And there's no way I will stay silent when I'm kidnapped either." She went back to her food.

Everything was silent after that; Sakura was eating her food while Sasuke just plainly look at her with an unreadable expression. Sometimes Sakura would glance at him, discreetly of course, and at times he would get this glint in his eyes that she was unfamiliar with. She hated the fact that she couldn't read him as much anymore. When they were young, she could figure out his actions easily, but now she's not that sure. It's like it has been reversed. She was the open book for him to read.

Sasuke would never admit that watching her eat was amusing. In fact, just watching her was interesting. It amazed him how much she had grown out of her fan girl way and into the woman she was today. He had been watching her for a long time, without her noticing of course, and seeing her development and grow made him almost proud of her.

She had turned into something that he had always wanted her to be.

"Boy, I'm stuffed." Sakura patted her stomach contently, there was a small bump on them from eating too much but not that she, or Sasuke, cared. She had stopped being embarrassed from her lack of clothes for a while already so sitting on the bed was comfortable now. She had finally assumed that Sasuke wasn't a pervert. She was thankful that he didn't bind her hands again; she could just tear the ropes on her feet off easily. She wondered if he thought of this. She inwardly slapped herself, of course he would. He knew that even if she wasn't tired up, she was still useless without her chakra.

Damn him and his brains.

The weight on her bed was decreased and her eyes turned to see Sasuke sitting up, his back facing her. Now she finally noticed that his shirt didn't have any clan insignia anymore.

"I'll be out for a while." He said simply and walked to the door.

"Hey, wait!" he stopped and looked over his shoulder, his hands on the doorknob ready to twist it open.

There was a small blush on her face and she looked away. Her fingers were fisting on her bed sheet, a sign that she was embarrassed or nervous. "Do you…" she finally looked at him, he could still see the hint of embarrassment in her emerald eyes. "Do you have any clothes that's more comfortable than this?" she gestured to the revealing clothes she was wearing. She had zipped up the shirt all the way up but her chest was still straining against the cloth and she felt uncomfortable when she moved around.

"No." she pouted. "Then how the hell am I going to go back home?" she muttered. She was being blunt about her escape because she was sure Sasuke had already known that she would try to get away so why bother being secretive?

She didn't even notice him walking over to her until a hand had gripped its fingers on her neck and a body had pressed its weight on her, making her sank further into the mattress as she looked up wide eyed at Sasuke, who had his Sharingan activated already. She resisted the urge to blush when she felt how close his body was to her and his chest pressing on her own. That was not the time to be embarrassed.

"I told you." He hissed through gritted teeth and pressed himself even harder against her, his face hovering just a few centimeters away, if Sakura was to move then they would be kissing. "To give up. You can't escape." Her wide emerald eyes soon turned into a cold stare as she looked straight at the Sharingan dead on. "Do you expect me to just be submissive and stay silent while I'm being captured and away from my family? I know what you're trying to do. You're using me as a hostage to lure Naruto out, aren't you?"

It has to be true. Sasuke was not the type to do things without any reasons. Since the war had ended he and Naruto had never had their battle that they were talking about in the Kage summit.

He closed his eyes for a moment. "That's not important anymore." He said quietly that she had to lean in to hear his words. Her mind was filled with confusions. He's giving up on that, she thought he was obsessed with his battle with the blonde and wanted to kill him, from what he had said back then to Team seven before that masked guy teleported them away.

He was truly unreadable, she couldn't think of what had triggered him to kidnap her. He wouldn't use her to trade any important information from the village; it was not how he was. He didn't want anything to do any Konoha anymore so what was his motives? Forbidden scrolls? Was he turning into Orochimaru already? She shook her head, she was thinking too much and all of that was making her head hurt.

"So you just capture innocent young lady for fun then?" she asked mockingly at him, resulting to him crushing her with his body even more, she whimpered lowly to not show any weakness when his grip on her tighten to a point that could crush her throat at any time. She took that as a no.

"Why?"

"It's none of your business." His voice was firm and serious, but that didn't faze her a bit. It instead fueled her desire to punch him in the face even more.

"I at least deserve to know the reason why since you are planning to keep me with you. After all, you can't keep me away from my home forever."

A dark chuckle came out of his mouth as he leaned his face even closer to her. There was the dark look on his face that she couldn't quite describe but it was starting to scare her. "Home? I don't think so, Sakura." Hot puffs came from his mouth and heated her sknin as he breathed. "_This_ is your home now, your _new_ home."

* * *

**A/N:** The italics part before the chapter are the side stories that will explain why Sasuke did what he did now. So remember that. It's short and rushed and I apologized. I'm very busy.

And if you see how different this story is from the original manga, please ignore it because I'm working the story by how the manga goes, with a few twists of my own.

If you have any questions, please ask them and I'll make sure to answer them. Review!


	3. 3: Mission

**A/N:** OMG, it's like almost a month and I'm sorry for this. I was busy with school and other things and I couldn't find the time to get on with my stories, you understand right? I'm almost facing writer's block and it's hard to put everything together with the story, especially Sasuke, it's hard to keep him in character. I finally got someone to draw a cover, she's in deviantart.

**Answers:**

**Lady-Rini:** I wished I know the answer to that to, I'm curious myself. Kishimoto kept messing with us. i was hoping he would revealed it in the next chapter but I guess we have to wait for it. I hate waiting and I know you hate it too.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Behind The Cold Eyes**

* * *

_Sasuke didn't know how long they had been fighting. But he had a feeling that it was a long time now judging by his tattered clothes and depleting Chakra. He panted harshly as he planted his Katana on the ground next to him to use it to balance himself from falling down to the bloodied ground from exhaustion. His bright red crimson eyes turned to a fierce glare as they stared at the still standing man in front of him. He looked unscratched at all, but with his new Sharingan, he could see the lowness of his chakra._

_Obito smirked in a sinister way. "What's wrong, Sasuke? Is that all you got?" he taunted with a mocking tone and it seemed to have worked because it had caused the younger Uchiha to growl angrily and struggled to stand up. His un-even breathing intensified as a wave of tiredness hit him, his body wobbled in its stance, but Sasuke was able to control it enough to not let it be too noticeable to the other Uchiha._

_'Dammit!' he cursed in his mind. He pointed his katana at the guy in front of him, who in turn raised his eye brow as if amused by his action. It only fueled his desire to kill him. He knew it wasn't easy to get rid of the man, he was with him for a while and knew what Obito was capable of, but the knowledge that he had gained from such a short time wasn't enough to assist him to winning his battle without getting badly injured himself. _

_The sound of kunai wisping reached his keen ears; he twisted his body to the right, just in time to dodge the deadly sharp weapon from getting contact with his already battered body. The dark haired shinobi gritted his teeth in frustration, he really needed to stop thinking while in battle, and he got a knack for letting his guard down when he's in thought. He turned his head to the Obito and pin him with a fierce look. Sasuke shifted to his normal fighting stance._

_"I thought obtaining Itachi's eyes would help you get better. But I guess you're still the same." Obito stated emotionlessly which caused Sasuke's eyes to widen in shock but narrowed themselves into a glare when a surge of anger rushed into his body. His grip on the katana tightened and a mere of seconds the two Uchiha were engaged in a clashing of weapons._

_Swing after swing of katana cut through the air as Obito dodged them with ease. He moved his body to the right when Sasuke attacked him at his front side. His lips tugged up again as he watched his younger clan member growled under his breath in anger because he missed him again. Obito jumped and landed a few meters away from him. He let out a sigh. He could feel the restraint his body was going through. He used too much energy to dodge Sasuke's blow for too long now and the Chakra in his body was depleting immensely. His stamina wasn't the best either since he just fought with two Jinchuriki just moments ago. He closed his eyes and calmed himself down, he needed to think of a better battle strategy if he wanted to win this. He underestimated the kid too much._

_"I'm not done yet." Sasuke hissed out through his tightly closed teeth, turning around to face his ancestor. "Oh? But I think you are." Obito countered with a raised brow, opening his eyes. "You didn't even scratch me but just look at yourself." He gestured to the young Uchiha's battered body. If his previous strategy didn't work then using his knowledge of the mind against him should be able to succeed. He was good with mind manipulation and Sasuke was one of the easiest people to trick._

_"It's not like I can't see your Chakra." Sasuke said with a smirk on his lips, it only broadened when he saw the slight frown upon the older Uchiha's lips. Obito knew that the teen he was facing wasn't stupid enough to fall for such tedious taunting, but it didn't hurt to try. It used to work before, Sasuke was the type of person with a lot of pride and with just a few taunting and mocking, he got the guy all riled up in anger and it wouldn't work well to let your rage blinded you especially in battle. But seeing him like this now really showed his improvement. He really needed a new tactic against him now._

_But he knew nothing that would be able to get Sasuke to be thrown off guard anymore._

_During the period of time that Obito had trained him, he knew a few things about Sasuke, who was mostly emotionless and unreadable most of the time that even someone as sharp as Obito couldn't quite knew what he was thinking most of the time. He could hide his feelings easily, which he could care less about either way. Itachi was one of the rare sensitive subjects of Sasuke's but after he stated himself that he had met his brother, there was something about him that changed. He didn't lash out at whoever degraded his brother anymore and Obito had a good feeling that it has something to do with the 'truth' that Sasuke was talking about. _

_Obito tightened his jaw as he continued to let himself lost in his thought while doing his best to avoid the assaults that Sasuke had made upon him, having a hard time to do so while thinking. He hated not knowing anything, which was why he tried to learn as much as he could in his time with Madara. And he never liked it when someone said something that he didn't know or find the answer to. The Sharingan and Rinnegan wielder couldn't figure out something that happened between Sasuke and Orochimaru and that really ticked him off to no end._

_He blocked a heavy katana swing from Sasuke with his kunai just in time before it slashed his head. They both glared at each other with their respective Kekkei Genkai. An arrogant smirk appeared on Sasuke's lips. "Looks like you underestimate me. You know nothing of my power with the eternal Sharingan." He said with a voice that was too confident for Obito's liking. But he was right though, he did know nothing of his power since he was too busy with preparations for the war against the joint shinobi and he didn't have time to observe him like he usually did after he implanted Itachi's eyes into his. He needed figure out Sasuke's weakness soon otherwise his plan would fail._

_But it seemed that the younger Uchiha has no weaknes—_

_"Shannaro!" a female voice interrupted Obito's thought, followed by the sound of ground cracking and shaking beneath them. He could feel Sasuke's body stiffened at the cry. The Akatsuki leader looked at Sasuke with a slight confusion, watching the younger man's eyes slightly widening before turning back to their previous glare, but Obito could see the slight changing of his demeanor and aura that was more tensed than before._

_With little curiosity, he glanced to the source of the voice under that seemed to come from below them and saw a few Shinobi, medic shinobi to be precise, fighting off the many white Zetsu clones and winning. He didn't even notice that he and Sasuke had gone this far, probably too engaged in their battle to notice where they were heading. They were currently above a cliff while another battle was happening right under them. _

_What caught his attention was a female shinobi, the only one since all of them were all male medics, punching right through the stomach of the parasite-like clone, her fist pushing through the skin as a satisfied smile stretched across her doll-like lips, her pink hair, covered with blood and dirt, flew behind her elegantly, her emerald eyes shining with confident. _

_Obito's eyes widened slightly when his vision blurred and the female medic nin's eyes turned to a dark rich brown and her hair went from its original pink to a darker color, almost brown. Purple rectangular symbol appeared on her cheeks as she sliced through another clone. 'Rin?!' he blinked a few times before everything went back to normal again._

_He finally recognized the pink haired girl, whose name escaped him at the moment. He saw her at the Kage summit with Sasuke and the others. Obito knew her as an old teammate of Sasuke and the apprentice of the last Hokage, but that was it. There was nothing other than that, he only cared about anything that was essential to his plan so he just ignored her. But there was something about her that made him look at her and focus on her. Probably her resemblance to Rin._

_"Haruno-san, behind you!" a fellow medic yelled out, trying to block an attack from the Zetsu clone when he saw one sneaked up behind her when she wasn't looking. Sakura turned around and her emerald eyes flew opened at the kunai that was directed at her._

_Sasuke's feet shifted unconsciously as he watched the fight, his eyes were swarming with an agitated glint. His mind swirled in confusion with his body reaction to the scene. What did he just do? Something inside him was reacting, and he didn't know what it was. He grounded his teeth together and tightened his hold to his katana, which was still holding against Obito's kunai. Whatever it was, it's distracting him from his fight and that was something that he didn't need. He didn't want to think about it otherwise it would pull his attention away and let down his guard. He hoped the man that was a mere inch in front of him didn't notice the slight changing in his stance._

_But Obito was an observant man to everything around him, even the slightest change in the atmosphere or the temperature. And he did notice Sasuke's feet moving, aiming to run to the direction of the fight. His mind was filled with confusion at his actions. He was more than aware of Sasuke's fighting style, whenever he engaged with someone in battle; he always paid his attention to his opponents, no matter what situation. Anything that was a hindrance to him in battle, he would just ignore it. Especially a fight just like that below them._

_But even so, he could see his dark red eyes darting to the fighting scene below them. He followed his gaze just in time when the Haruno girl was stabbed by a kunai. A slight, almost unnoticeable, sharp intake of breath reached his ear, but he was too into the scene than looking up, he knew who did it anyways. A puff of smoke replaced the girl, only clearing to reveal instead of the girl's body, it was a log. He could feel the force that was pushing against his kunai wavered a little, followed by a less tense aura from in front of him. The white Zetsu's eyes widened when it didn't see the target it had stabbed earlier but all of the sudden its chest was pushed through by a long sword. It looked behind itself and saw the pink haired medic holding the weapon that had pierced him, a smirk on her face. _

_She pulled the sword from its body, letting it fall to the ground with a thud. The smirk was still one her face. "Don't let anyone get behind your back in battle." She said and turned around to fight with her other allies._

_Obito averted his attention back to the teen across from him, seeing him still looking at the fight below them. The man was still confused by his younger clan mate's action. He knew Sasuke said that he didn't care about his teammates anymore; he proved that by trying to murder Naruto plenty of time without hesitation and tried to kill the girl two times. But the reactions to white Zetsu clone's attack and the unusual panicked eyes revealed enough evidence that he was worried. He was starting to confuse him more and more. _

_Sasuke was a cold man and when he cut ties with anyone, he meant it. So why was he reacting that way to the girl's trouble. He couldn't possibly care about her or anything anymore. That was impossible by the number of times Sasuke declared that he would kill everyone in Konoha. That couldn't be possible unless he—_

_Something clicked in Obito's mind as a smirk had appeared on his face, a sly one at that. _

_"Well, well." Sasuke snapped out of his trance when he heard him say that, the two of them flew away from each other a few feet. The dark haired young shinobi could see the amused look on his face. He looked as if he knew something that he didn't and Sasuke didn't like it. Obito darted his eyes back to the fight below them, with Sasuke following his gaze._

_"Are you alright? Sakura asked a wounded medic on the ground while the other watched her back. The injured shinobi opened one of his closed his eyes, which were previously shut in pain, and looked at his savior. She gathered her chakra to her hands and placed them over the wounded leg, letting her warm energy morphed into a healing jutsu. Her hands glowed with green chakra as the wound on his leg closed slowly. The guy took the time to observe Sakura's appearance. Compared to the others, she received the least injuries, because of her excellent fighting and dodging skills. But he could notice a blood stain on her left sleeved which were ripped by from what seemed to be a kunai._

_"There." She pulled a bandage from her pouch that was attached to her thigh and proceeded to wrap it around the male medic's injury. When she was done, she offered him a smile and stood up. "Be careful next time, okay?" she advised softly._

_"But your left arm…?"_

_Sakura lifted her injured arm that she didn't know she had and looked at it. It wasn't something serious. "That's okay." She said._

_"Do be careful yourself, Haruno-san." The man said with a small grin that was responded back with a larger one by Sakura, who turned around and paid her attention to her battle. _

_"Hai." With that, she dashed away and engaged in another battle with the clones._

_"Elegant, isn't she?" Obito commented, his eyes still looking at the fight. He received no response, but he didn't notice. He was still too busy staring at the girl who was fighting with the clones. Her movement was fluent and precise. With his Sharingan, he could know how well she could control her chakra and he heard a lot about Tsunade's last apprentice was an excellent medical ninja. He was so absorbed to her actions because he could feel Rin somewhere inside of her._

_"Haruno Sakura, is it?" he moved his eyes back to his opponent, finally recalling the name of the girl. Sasuke shifted his gaze from below him to the guy in front of him. Obito continued his speech, "You seemed to…" he trailed off for a moment, as if trying to find the right words that fit. "Care about her." He finished with a raised brow, watching as the younger Uchiha's eyes narrowed into a fierce glare. "I thought you cut your ties with them?"_

_"I did." Sasuke replied coldly._

_Obito only let out an inaudible chuckle. No matter how Sasuke said it, he knew what was going on. He almost found it amusing how a like he and Sasuke were. Although he didn't know if Sasuke noticed it himself what was his actions about. He wondered what would happen next._

_"Are we gonna continue?" Sasuke's sharp voice pulled his attention away from his wanderings._

_"You sure you want to?" He smirked and got into a fighting stance._

_"You haven't seen half of me yet." The cocky smirk on Sasuke's face confused him a bit but he shook it off._

_"Very well then."_

* * *

**Chapter 3: Mission**

* * *

Sasuke stood on a cliff silently with his arms crossed, wearing a white cloak with the hood over his head while looking down upon the small village below him. The people of the small village in the Waves were engaging in their usual life routines, as what he had seen during his short time here. Kids were playing around, tackling each other, and just running around like there was no care in the world while the adults were conversing with one another. Buying stuffs and selling them. A very peaceful lifestyle.

That wasn't what Sasuke was looking at; his mind was drifting off to his own actions just an hour ago when he left Sakura at the small hotel room. He knew what he was doing but it felt really…weird but strangely right. He was never one who was good at any contact at all; he had shut himself away from it for so long. But He knew very well the purpose that he had brought her here and that to achieve that goal, he needed to have some contact with Sakura. There was no doubt in his mind that he needed, wanted, and must do what he did now. He had decided that and he wasn't going to back out on that purpose.

But the feeling of pressing his body against her back then was an unknown feeling to him. Normally he didn't like physical contact of any kind, and over the years he had been away from the village he made sure no one came in contact with him and he made it obvious by the aura he was carrying around him. No one had dared touch him, not even Orochimaru and Karin knew to keep her distance. He never felt anything with Naruto or Kakashi. But when it came to Sakura, it felt really natural and was he was comfortable to a point that he was scared. He blamed it on the fact that he was used to her closeness when they were Genin as she would always clung to him and he in turn carry her a lot whenever she was injured. He was used to her.

Sure, he knew what he was feeling to her, maybe to some degree that it was acknowledgeable as more than companionship and more of how he should feel for a teammate, after the war he had learnt a lot of things while being away and his feelings regarding the pink haired medic were one of them. It took him a lot of time to realize it, more than he expected but maybe that was because it was so new to him. Although at times he knew it was there even when he was Genin, some part of him refused to let his mind wander to the topic and would just deny whatever he felt that was a nuisance to his main goal of getting revenge. But no matter how much he and his pride had refused to acknowledge them, a huge but unnoticeable part of him, that he never knew even existed anymore, knew that there had been always something between him and Sakura. It took a root since the starting of Team 7, and it grown to be something deeper over the years of being separated. He knew it now, he just hoped it wasn't too late; he would make sure of it.

Even so, his pride would never let him show any more than what he did earlier, he was a cold man and was rough, and he never knew what the word 'gentle' mean anymore since the murder of his clan and the death of his brother. That was how he was and he had been that way for a long time and couldn't possibly change from it, even for Sakura. He could only hope that she would understand how he felt and why he was doing this because there was no way that he could say it to her or show it more than he already was. But he was aware of her confusion towards his actions and he knew it would take more than that to convince her.

His head throbbed with pain as he lifted his hand up and rubbed his temple to ease them. He had been thinking too much again and his headache was appearing more and more often every time he think about something too much, especially his own emotional problem. Deciding to stop thinking, he shook his black head and glanced down at the village, his dark eyes wandering to different things.

He stopped at a clothing store just near him. Sakura's word appeared in his mind. She was right, he couldn't have her wear his shirt all the time, it was away too big for her and it wasn't doing _both_ of them any good. But he threw away all of her wet and old clothes, because he couldn't let anyone recognize her with her outfit and he never thought of getting her new ones, it never crossed his mind. He hoped down to the ground and entered the stored.

Everyone stared at him for a moment because of his strange aura and cloak but with a glare, they all resumed their own task and ignored the scary man. Satisfied, Sasuke walked slowly to a rack of clothes and proceeded to rummage through it to find something for Sakura. He stopped when he realized that he didn't know what sizes of clothes Sakura wore. He should have brought her here with him but he knew her pink hair and emerald eyes, a rare trait that only Sakura had, would gave out her identity and would put them both in danger of getting caught. And he wasn't in the mood to fight, he didn't mind killing people but it was too troublesome for him.

So relying on the his knowledge when he had changed her before she woke up while trying to control his mind not to wander too much with the image of her body on his mind, he picked out a black zipped up hoodie from the racks and a dark blue shorts. He put the clothes on the counter and pulled out his money, slammed it on the counter and took the package of his chosen clothes from the confused cashier and disappeared from the store and back to his spot on the cliff.

With a sigh, he turned around and walked over to the small cheap hotel that Sakura was currently at. He knew she wouldn't try to escape when he didn't tie her up. Sakura was smart enough to know that even if she regained her energy from eating the food he had bought for her, without her Chakra, she was powerless against him. Thinking of Sakura, the mental image of him taking her clothes off to change her never did disappeared in his mind and he groaned, trying harder to shove it away. What was wrong with him? He never had this kind of problem before; his hormones never act up even when he reached puberty. Maybe it was because of what the felt for the girl? He didn't know. His feelings for Sakura really confused him. It always made his body act up in a weird way and he didn't know what kind of reactions he was having. He shook his head and pushed the blood away from going to any part of his body and continued his way to his destination.

* * *

Naruto whistled happily as he walked his way to Sakura's house. He had just got back from a mission and he hadn't seen her in two days, he really wanted her have some ramen with her. The blonde cringed when his mind wandered back to his mission that he had gone with Ino and Hinata. They were supposed to guard a man back to his village but unfortunately the guy they were guarding was huge pervert and kept on ogling the two girls. Said females had to went behind Naruto every time and Ino kept on rambling and ranting about how the guy was undressing her with his eyes to Naruto and he got so tired of it. But the mission paid good money and was actually worth it on Hinata and Naruto's case.

The blonde actually thought it would be better to just leave Ino; he didn't mind spending time with Hinata. He and her had gotten closer since the war, but not close to his friendship with Sakura but Naruto knew it was getting there. Since Sakura had gone on more missions and was busy with training, he had no one to bother but Hinata, since everyone would just ignore him. He recalled a time when he tried to hang out with Tenten but only resulted to him getting Kunai-ed in the butt when he accidentally broke the pipes in her house and almost flooded her apartment. And when Neji found out, Naruto got more than just an injured butt. He was hospitalized for a week and his luck had to run out when Sakura went on a mission on that time and he had deal with a moody nurse who just broke-up with her boyfriend. It was pure torture for Naruto.

He stopped when he reached her apartment and knocked on the door loudly like he usually did. He waited for a few moments but didn't receive an answer and he knocked again. He raised his blonde eye brow in confusion when he got the same response. Maybe she wasn't home. He knew she lived alone since her parents died on a mission not so long ago. A pang of sadness hit him when he thought of Sakura's reaction to the news; she had cried for days and was more depressed than when Sasuke had left, it took her almost two months to get over it. She cried so much on the funeral.

He shook his head and walked away from her house. Naruto shoved his hands inside his pocket and decided to go ask Kakashi instead. While on his way there, someone bumped into him. Both of them fell to the ground from the impact. Naruto groaned as he stood up and rubbed his butt. He looked up to the person who hit him, and it turned out to be Tenten. When she recovered from her position, she glared at him.

"Watch where you're going, you pinhead!" she growled out and Naruto popped a vein. "You're the one who bumped into me!" he yelled back but then stopped when she gave him the glare that was similar to Sakura whenever she was about to pound him. Tenten spent too much time with Sakura, he decided.

"Don't make me angry. I still haven't gotten over that 'broken pipe' incident yet." She hissed through gritted voice that made Naruto gulped, fearing the weapon mistress's wrath that was as scary as Sakura's death punch.

"S-sorry!" Naruto said nervously.

Tenten sighed. "Never mind." Then her eyes lit up. "Hey, do you know where Sakura is, I wanted to ask her something!" she asked the blonde who shook his head. "I don't know, I just came from her apartment but she wasn't there. Maybe she's helping out repairing the village?" This time, Tenten was the one who shook her head. "No, I asked them but they said they didn't see her. I even went to Ino's but she wasn't there too. Strange, she said her mission only lasted a few days." Tenten wandered out loud but a voice stopped her.

"Tenten! Naruto-kun!" a female voice called out from behind her. They both turned around to find the caller and saw Shizune running towards them. When she reached their side, she panted and tried to catch her breath before speaking. "Tsunade-sama asked for you!" she said in between taking deep breath. Naruto raised his eyebrow while Tenten frowned in confusion. "Did she say why?"

"It's about Sakura." Their eyes flew opened. "And it's urgent!"

* * *

The door to the Hokage's office burst open and revealed Tenten and Naruto, who came rushing inside the room but stopped when they saw the occupants, breathing heavily while their mind was filled with confusion. In the office were Neji, who was leaning against the glass to the Hokage's right while Kakashi and Kiba were on the chair, looking at the two new arrivals who were still panting from running.

When Tenten caught her breath, she opened her mouth to ask. "What are you guys doing here?" she pointed to all of them with her pointy finger. "Tsunade-sama called us here." Neji answered and turned his head to look at the said woman at the desk, who had her eyes closed and her clasped fingers to her lips. "She said something about Sakura." Kiba finished the answer.

"What about Sakura-chan? Did something happen?" Naruto asked frantically. Tsunade opened her honey colored eyes and pinned all of them with a serious look.

"Sakura's missing." She said firmly, which caused everyone's eyes to widen in shock.

"Missing? How?" Kakashi questioned.

"Yeah, I though you sent her on a mission to the Waves." Tenten added with worry in her voice. Tsunade looked at her. "I did, but it seemed something must have happened to her on the way."

"How do you know?"

"Whenever Sakura went out on a mission outside the village, she always sent us a message by hawk when she passed the border of Konoha but she didn't."

"Maybe she forgot or something?" Kiba said unsurely while scratching his brown messy hair.

"I know but we can't risk it, I sent some Anbu to go and investigate and they reported back that just near the border line, there was evidence that there had been a fight. And it appeared that Sakura had run into an enemy. She could be either wounded or captured." Tsunade explained, watching as everyone in the room tensed.

"But Sakura-chan is strong, there's no way she would be defeated that easily." Naruto said when he recalled the many times that Sakura had defeated him in training. He knew how strong Sakura was now, she had training more and more lately, even he couldn't actually keep up with her anymore. And her progress was very amazing to say the least so the possibility of her getting captured during a mission would be unlikely.

"You're forgetting that the war just ended." Neji interrupted. "There are still many rogue ninjas out there." Naruto gritted his teeth at this. The young Hyuuga moved his eyes from Naruto and looked at Tsunade. "And I assumed you want to send us on a rescue mission?" he received a nod from the female Hokage.

"Yeah, I want you guys to leave as soon as possible. Kakashi, you're the captain." She ordered while everyone nodded to her. "Dismissed."

* * *

No longer than thirty minutes later, the five ninjas found themselves at the gates, preparing to leave on order. Kakashi turned around and watched as everyone checked their bags and weapon pouches just in case they were forgetting something. Tsunade really came up with a good party to search for Sakura.

They got Kiba and Akamaru for their nose and tracking skills, their attack and jutsu could come in handy if they ran into an enemy. The Byakugan was an essential skill to them when it came to searching. And Neji was a Jounin also; his intelligence would assist if Kakashi ran into trouble. He got Naruto for stamina. Kakashi was sure of himself of his skills as a leader and captain but he wasn't quite sure why they sent Tenten, but he didn't question Tsunade's decision or Tenten's abilities, the girl could control weapons way better than he was and he's a Jounin. Let see what she could do.

"Are we gonna go or what?" Naruto asked with a frustrated tone. He really wanted to go now and not wasted any time that would probably cost them Sakura's life, he was sure the others felt the same. Kakashi gave him a smile, which were hidden underneath his mask, and turned around.

"Let's go!"

* * *

**A/N:** Short, isn't it? It took me almost a week to come up with the chapter and it's gonna be harder in the future. Wish me luck!

If you have any questions, please ask and I'll try to answer them! Review!


	4. 4: Pursuit

**A/N:** There, i update early for you guys!

Review Corner:

**Lady Rini:** I kinda agree with you. I'm getting a little bit tired of seeing Naruto too much but since the series got his name as the title, we will seeing him a lot.

**ZeConfusedNewbie:** I'm updating so...don't die, okay?

**xXSymmetryXx:** Well, i don't plan to make him too much of a maniac. Yeah, I also think they're perfect for each other.

**Nuria Sato:** I'll be happy to say that there are going to be flash backs of Sasuke watching Sakura so stay tuned for it! You have good guess, ne?

* * *

**Behind The Cold Eyes**

* * *

_Sasuke looked down emotionlessly at the man on the ground, laying in his own pull of blood mixing with the falling rain from the sky with a katana piercing his chest, right through his heart. The young Uchiha continued to watch with his crimson red eyes as the man took in shallow breath, coughing up blood occasionally. His eyes narrowed when he saw the smirk that had appeared on his lips, covered in blood._

_"I've never thought his would happen." He whispered hoarsely, his eyes turning to look at the younger Uchiha above him. Obito had never thought that he would be defeated by anyone, let alone this mere child of the Uchiha. "You underestimated me too much." Sasuke said coldly at him, his glare still directed towards him. The older of the two closed his eyes when he felt a rush of pain coming from his chest and spread through his entire body, making it went numb and lifeless. He couldn't even find the strength to keep his eyes opened. He was dying, he knew that much._

_But he knew that Sasuke was right. He—no, the whole Uchiha men had a bad habit of belittling their opponents and that played to their disadvantage most of the time. He chuckled bitterly at his own fate. He didn't think that the young Uchiha near him would be capable of doing such things to him. He was strong, he gave him that, much stronger than he expected. The eternal Sharingan had done him wonders. He should have known better than underestimating him like that, Sasuke was an Uchiha after all. Not to mention he was the only one who could utilize the power of their blood line to the ultimate power._

_Obito was starting to lose focus on all of his surrounding but he could still hear the faint talking from below the cliff that he and Sasuke had been fighting on. One of the voices he could recognized as the pink haired team mate of the young Uchiha. It seemed they were still fighting. Using all the energy he had left in his body, he cracked open his now black eyes and looked at the scene below them, he didn't fail to notice that Sasuke was also looking at the same direction._

_"Is that all of them?" Sakura asked the other medics behind her, dropping another Zetsu clone that she had killed to the bloody ground. The blood on her hair was starting to come off with the rain soaking it, the pink strands stuck to her face and she had to use her hand to put them behind her ear to see better. "Yeah, I think." One male medic answered while pulling his sword from a clone. She let out a sigh and looked around the battle field around her. There were kunais and shurikens everywhere. The blood was everywhere, but it was wearing off from the falling rain. _

_"Let's go help the others." She gave all of the other medics a big smile, which they returned with grins of their own. They nodded and started to pick up all the fallen kunais and equipment on the ground. Sakura turned around and did the same, still unaware of the two pair of eyes that were looking down at her. When she finished putting her weapons back into her pouches, she glanced behind her. "Are you done?" she asked, taking her time to observe their appearances to check if there were any injuries but saw none. "Yes, mam!" they nodded. She smiled. "Let's go then!" they all dashed away._

_"Looks like they won." Obito said. At this rate, he knew the joint shinobi was going to win this war. Not that he cared anymore, he was dying soon anyways. Sasuke just stayed silent, still looking down at what was happening below them. The old Uchiha flinched when another wave of pain hit him; he was having more difficulty trying to breath. Sasuke finally removed his gaze from the girl and looked at the dying man on the ground. He turned on his heels and walked to the directions where Madara was currently at, probably still fighting the two Jinchuuriki. He got one down now. _

_"Sasuke." He stopped when he heard his ancestor calling out to him; his voice was so faint he could barely heard it. He could feel Obito's gaze on his back but he ignored it. "You care about her." The dying Uchiha continued, looking at the clench fists on Sasuke's side. The man on het ground knew he wasn't aware of his own actions. "Don't assume such things." He heard him said monotonously not even bothering to look at him, but he was more than aware of the inner emotional turmoil that he was going through, the confusion that Sasuke was having was obvious to him._

_"I'm just stating the truth." He said, averting his gaze from the Uchiha and back to the dark sky, feeling the droplets of rain on his face and dripping down to the ground, mixing with his blood. Sasuke turned around to face him; a glare was on his face while his Sharingan was still present. "Shut up, old man." He hissed through his closed teeth, his anger boiling when he heard him chuckle, as if mocking him._

_"Ah, the denial stage." Was all Obito said afterwards, closing his eyes with a smirk on his lips. A growl reached his ears and he knew that it came from Sasuke. "You don't even know what you're reactions mean, don't you?" Obito asked calmly, his eyes still remained closed. He couldn't see the younger man raising his eyebrow in confusion at him. _

_"What do you mean?"_

_"You'll understand someday, kid." He opened his eyes and looked directly into Sasuke's still confused orbs. He didn't know for sure what he was talking about. But Sasuke had a feeling that he was referring to the reactions that he had while watching Sakura fight, reactions that he couldn't understand what it meant. Gritting his teeth, he closed his eyes and turned around once more, leaving the dying man alone to the direction of the fight that was going on not so far away from them. He had something important to do and he couldn't let the things that Obito was saying get to him; he was probably deceiving him and messing with his mind like he had always done after all this time again._

_Obito just smirked watching Sasuke's retreating back. He knew Sasuke knew what he was talking about but he just ignored it. The young teen wasn't the type to let his mind dwell on something that was useless to him, especially things that involved his own emotion that confused him. But the dying Uchiha knew that someday he would figure it out what it meant and he had no choice but to face and accept it. _

_A chain of cough emitted from his mouth, making blood spilled all over his body. He felt all the energy leaving his body as his breath turned shallower. He closed his eyes, accepting the darkness that was clawing him for a while now. 'I'm coming, Rin.' He died with a smile on his face._

* * *

**Chapter 4: ****Pursuit**

* * *

Sakura blew a random strand of hair that fell on her face boringly, lying on the bed of the dark room that she was kept in. Sasuke left for about an hour now. She was getting bored to death. She had regained her energy but her chakra was still low so she couldn't do anything. She could try to escape but she knew the chances would be minimal. And even if she did succeed, she couldn't get far until he catch her again. She groaned and closed her eyes.

_'What the hell is taking them so long?!'_ she growled inside her mind. She knew by now that her master must have sent someone to come after her already. She had a pretty good feeling who she had sent. Naruto was undoubtly one of them, and Tenten too. But she had been missing for a long time, what was taking them so long to find her. She knew that Sasuke was the one who was keeping her and he made sure no one could find them, but this was Konoha she was talking about. There were so many skilled shinobi that would sure to find her within one day that even someone as careful as Sasuke couldn't hide from them. She still cursed the Uchiha for being so smart.

Thinking of Sasuke made her head hurt. He had been acting so strange, especially before he just left an hour ago. He was close to her; she almost faint from it. She knew he didn't like touching but he was so physical with her now and that really scared her. He was still cold and emotionless but his actions towards her were different. He even kissed her! Okay, that was probably to make her drop her guard and only on the cheek but he kissed her! She knew Sasuke had better moves than that to make her let down her guard.

But what frightened her more was the unknown reason why he did this to her. She didn't know what it was since he didn't tell her. She could only think of a few reasons why. One being the restoring his clan thing, but she scoffed at it and didn't even bother to think about that. There was no way he would choose her, he told her himself once that she was weak and annoying and it proved that she was the last person he would pick.

The other reason was he was holding her hostage and maybe planning to trade her for some important information that he needed. But if he wanted to do that, he would have done it by now and she didn't think that he thought of her being valuable enough for the village to do so. It was impossible but it could happen. The last purpose was to lure Naruto out. That sounded more convincing but when she confronted him about it, he declared that it wasn't important. And after that she was lost.

He was so confusing. Not to mention what he said to her about this being her new home and stuff and it all the more made her confused. She tried as hard as he could to think about what he said, trying to figure out what he meant with that. Looking underneath the underneath, as what Kakashi had taught her. But she couldn't decipher what he meant behind his words no matter how hard she tried.

Shaking her head, she lifted herself of the bed and decided to take actions. Whatever reason he has, she could care less about it, she needed to get out of here and get back to her home where she belonged. Although some part of her felt a bit safe and calm when she was with him and was happy that he actually kept her with him and maybe just maybe, he was finally letting her in. But she never let her mind think it was true, she knew more than that to believe such a thing would happen. The sign of belonging she felt must have been the rare traits of fan girl moment that was still inside of her.

Trying as hard as she could to get off the bed, having difficulty to since it was dark in the room and there was no light at all, she crawled all over the bed, her hands searching for the edge the bed. She ended falling down the bed with a surprise yelp when her body hit the hard floor. "Ooow~" she rubbed her sore back and pushed herself off the ground, looking around in the dark but still couldn't see anything but black.

_'Great.'_ She crawled on the floor aimlessly and tried to find something to hold onto. She smiled in success when she felt the hard cement wall, using it to pick herself up and searched for the lights. She kept moving forward with her hands, her body following her movements to look for a switch or something. She saw Sasuke turning on the light earlier but she couldn't find it.

The sound of the door knob twisting open reached her ear, and the sound was next to her but she didn't react fast enough and the door swing open, hitting her side and made her fall over to the ground with a groan. Today was not her best day. She nursed her back, which was throbbing again because she fell on the exact same sore spot, and looked up at the person who opened the door.

Sasuke stared at her with a raised brow, wondering why on earth she was on the ground like that. When the girl finally recognized the man to be Sasuke, with help from the small flickering light from the hall behind him, she got up and glare at him. "What the hell took you so long?!" she demanded, he only shrugged and walked passed her to the bed, closing the door and locking it. "None of your business." He turned on the light easily on his way, having to remember where it was.

When the light turned on, Sakura looked over to the man sitting on the bed she was laying on earlier, with a package next to him. With a raised brow, she asked, "What's that?" she pointed at it. Sasuke followed her finger for a moment before looking back at her. "It's your new clothes." He answered emotionlessly, trying not to look at her current clothing or else the images from changing her would enter his mind again. He was already having difficulty getting rid of them earlier.

"How nice you." Sakura said sarcastically and walked over to him, taking the package, opened it and looked at what was inside. Sasuke watched from the bed as the girl raised her pink eye brows, probably at the content that was inside the package. After a few seconds, she finally averted her gaze from the clothing and looked at him. "Where's the bra?" she asked bluntly.

…

Sasuke cursed himself in his mind for forgetting such a thing while Sakura just laughed. "What? Did you forget?" she asked in between laughs. The Uchiha only glared at her but she still continued her laughter. "Do you forget to buy your boxers too when you buy your own clothes?" she wiped a tear that fell from her eyes, ignoring the growl that the Uchiha made in warning. She enjoyed watching Sasuke like this. It was amusing.

But Sasuke didn't think this was amusing at all. So he forgot to buy it? What's the big deal? It's not like he had ever gone shopping for woman clothing before, he never thought about buying a bra whenever he bought his own clothes since he was a man. He waited until Sakura got over her ridiculous antics and stopped laughing. "Oh god, I hadn't laughed that much in years." She said and pulled out the clothes, throwing the package way to the ground. "Where are my old clothes?"

"Throw them away." He said without hesitation. Sakura looked at him with wide emerald eyes. "Why the hell did you throw it away?!" she yelled at him in anger. He looked at her blankly. "I think there's no need for them." He said, turning away from her. "You're lucky that I'm even buying you those." The pink haired medic twitched in annoyance, a vein popping on her forehead. "How am I going to go without a bra?!" He shrugged.

"Answer me!" she screamed at him, he groaned. "What's the big deal about it anyways?"

"Well, try being a woman and having to walk around without a bra." She growled at him. He stayed silent and looked away. Sakura sighed and slapped her forehead. "Take me to the store." She commanded. He turned around and looked at her like she was crazy. "There's no way I'm going to do that." He said seriously. The anger inside Sakura increased tenfold. "And there's no way I'm going go walking around without a bra! I could wear these things that you bought me but there's no way I'm going to wear it without a bra!" she yelled defiantly at him.

Sasuke sighed; he was getting on his nerve. "I'll go buy them for you." He offered instead. He couldn't figure out why was wearing a bra so important. It's not such a big deal was it? Sakura glared at him. "Hell no, you don't know my size!" and Sasuke snapped.

"I changed you. It's not like I don't know your size." He said without much thought. Sakura gaped at him and that was when Sasuke realized what he had said. He could feel the anger that the girl near him was releasing. "So you admit you _did_ do something to me!" she pointed her finger at him, trying not to pounce him and beat him up because she knew she was useless without her chakra. She'd just end up getting injured herself. She was already actually suspicious by how he knew what size of clothes she wore when she looked at the clothes earlier but she shook it off because she thought he had a good guess but she was wrong.

"I just changed you. I didn't do anything other than that!"

"Don't you lie to me! There's no way you would know my sizes this well unless you…unless you…" she couldn't finish her sentence without blushing at the thought of the actions that he might have done to her. But he couldn't know her size unless he touched her and… God, this was so awkward and so embarrassing. Sasuke sighed and shut his eyes from the headache that he was having. He knew what she was thinking and he couldn't help but let his mind wander to the images when he changed her. Why did he have to forget the bra of all things? "Just take me out." Sakura said finally, managing to calm down her nerves and anger.

He opened his eyes and looked at her in an almost tired way. "Fine." It's better if they both drop the subject because he was sure if they discussed the topic any longer, he didn't know what he would do to her.

* * *

"Find anything?" Kakashi asked the four other shinobi, who was trying to find any clue to what had happened to Sakura. They were currently at where Tsunade had told them Sakura had fought. They knew that the Anbu had already investigated this area but they couldn't risk being careless. They needed to make sure they didn't miss anything. The only thing they found was the scroll that she was supposed to be delivering. The old Jounin had to admit that the place was practically destroyed. The ground was ruined, no doubt from the pink haired medic's inhuman strength. Whoever Sakura had fought must have been strong.

"No." Naruto said dejectedly, hoping down from the trees that he had been on and landed near his teacher. The blonde looked up when he heard Kiba walking over to them, he looked at him expectantly but he frowned when the dog lover shook his head. "I can't find her scent anywhere." He said while Akamaru barked in agreement. "Of course, there's not gonna be any scent. The day when Sakura left and probably encountered the enemy, it rained and her scent must have worn off." Kakashi put his hand on his chin.

"I don't see anything either." Neji said from behind them, walking to their side with Tenten next to him. His Byakugan was still on. "I can't find Sakura's chakra signature." They stopped when they reached their side. Tenten sighed in disappointment. "What do we do now?" she asked. "Look for her aimlessly? We don't know where she could possibly be."

"Maybe we should go to Wave. There might be a chance that she went there, if she defeated whoever she fought that is." The masked man suggested. "Good idea. I heard there's a small village there." Neji commented while everyone nodded in agreement. "Alright then, let's go!" they dashed away.

* * *

Sakura looked at the bra that she had just pulled from the rack of clothing at the store Sasuke had gone into. She was wearing the clothes that the Uchiha had picked for her, with a cloak over it and the hood up over her head to prevent anyone from seeing her unique pink hair. She had fussed over it at first when Sasuke forced her to wear but gave up when he threatened to use his Sharingan. She sighed and walked over to the counter, calling for Sasuke to come over and pay for it.

Sasuke, who was wearing his usual white zipped up shirt that Sakura had given back to him with the same cloak, went to the counter and pulled out his money, putting in on the table. Sakura gave the cashier a big smile when he handed her the package. "You have pretty eyes." the man complimented as he looked into the emerald orbs; almost getting lost in them. He had never seen anything like it. Unlike the others, hers were bright and were shining. And the brightness in them only lit up when she smiled. "Thanks!" she said gratefully.

A growl from beside her made the girl looked at Sasuke, who was staring at her in annoyance. "Are you done?" he asked coldly and she raised her eyebrow at the sudden change of mood. She bid the cashier goodbye when the Uchiha grabbed her forearm and dragged her outside. "Hey, let go!" she hissed and looked up at him only to see him glaring behind him. She raised her eyebrow and looked over her shoulder to see he was death glaring the now scared cashier, who was cowering in fear under the counter. _'What's up with him?'_

When they got out, she finally managed to release his hold on her and glare at him. "What was that for?" she asked with her hands on her hips. Sasuke just stared at her with an unreadable gaze, different from the threatening one that he gave the man in the store. "You can't talk to him or else you'll give away your identity. People will remember you if you talk to them too long." He said. Sakura rolled her eyes. "Like I care. I'm the one who's being captured here. Having someone recognize me will actually do me a favor." She countered.

He glared at her and turned around. "Come on." He stopped walking when he didn't feel her footsteps following him. He looked over his shoulder only to see her walking the other way. He growled in frustration and walked over to her until he was close enough to yank her arm and dragged her with him. "What the hell? Let go!" she squirmed. "I told you to follow me." He hissed at her, stopping his walk but didn't let go of her arm. "And you expected me to? Hello, who wants to follow their kidnapper? Definitely not me!" she glared at him while still trying to pry his fingers off her arm with no success. God she was so useless without her chakra.

"Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way." He said in a more calm tone. Sakura looked at him with a questioning gaze. "What?" he leaned closer to her and she leaned back away from him, not feeling very comfortable with the sudden closeness. "I'll give you two options. One, shut up and follow me. Two, I use my Sharingan on you." He whispered. She looked at him with determination for a few more moments, waiting to see any wavering of his threat. She sighed in defeat when she realized he wouldn't back out on this. "Fine."

He smirked in satisfaction and turned around and walked to the direction of the hotel. He felt small fingers clawing his hand that was holding her forearm to get him to let go, he only tightened his hold on her, his smirk broadened when she growled. She was such a feisty girl. But she was very amusing indeed. "Dammit, let go of me!"

"How do I know you're not gonna run off." She twitched. "I don't have any chakra. You know I won't run and even if I do, you'll catch me anyways."

"I can't risk it." He only said and she sighed at his stubbornness. He hadn't changed at all, if he made up his mind, he wouldn't change it. He was still that prideful jerk she knew when they were genin and was still the same up until now. At least there was something that didn't change about him, but unfortunately it had to be his bad qualities.

All of the sudden he stopped, making her hit his back and rubbed her nose. "Ow, what the hell was that for?" she demanded, shaking her fist at him but he still stayed silent with a glare on his face. She raised her eyebrow at him.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes when he felt a few strong Chakra signatures coming towards the village. He closed his eyes and calmed his thought. He knew it was Konoha shinobi, he just knew it. There hadn't been anyone coming after him for a long time and there's no doubt that they were here for Sakura. He tried not to panic when his instinct kicked in, his instinct of protectiveness over Sakura and the urge to keep her away from them.

"Sasuke-kun?" his name coming out of her lips made him snap out of his thought and opened his eyes and stared at her worried face.

"Are you okay?" she asked. He was starting to act strange again and she couldn't help but become worried. She knew deep inside of her that she still thought of him as her teammate and still felt the need to care over him, no matter how wrong it was. Her heart always dominated her mind.

"We need to hurry back." He said and tugged on her arm to walk a little faster than that. She stared at him with a confused expression. "Huh? Why?" she asked. He didn't answer but only increased his speed, making Sakura stumbled at the sudden change of pace before catching up with him. Sasuke was thankful for his eternal Sharingan that had increased his sensing skill and he could sense things better than Sakura. He needed to hurry. He knew it would take them long to get here, but he didn't want them to catch up. Pulling Sakura into his chest, she squeaked in surprise, and wrapped his arms around her waist and teleported them back to the hotel.

They appeared right inside the room. Sasuke let go of the pink haired girl and quickly walked over to the closet and pulled out a backpack. Sakura stumbled dizzily on the floor, putting her hands on head and shook it to get rid of the dizziness. "Aw, man." She groaned and looked up to see Sasuke stuffing clothes and money inside the backpack. She looked at him with a questioning gaze and Sasuke was aware of that. "What are you doing?"

"We're leaving." Her eyes widened. "What?! I just woke up not so long ago and we're leaving?" He shot her a glare but she didn't flinch. She sighed in frustration and made her way over to him, standing with her hands on her hips. He didn't bother to look up at her and she twitched. "Why are we leaving?" she demanded. He only continued to stuff the things inside his bag and stood up, swinging it over his shoulder, looking at her with an unreadable gaze. "I don't need to tell you that."

"Don't give me that crap! Tell me!" she yelled at him, her anger increasing every passing seconds. She didn't understand him. Why was he acting this way so suddenly? He was really confusing her. First with his out of character closeness, then his sudden mood swing and now this. What was wrong with this guy?

Sasuke sighed and closed his eyes. "You can't know." He said calmly, discreetly gathering up his chakra. Sakura looked at him unsurely. "W-what?" he opened his eyes and she found herself getting lost in that red orbs of his, the tomoes spinning rapidly and it made her head dizzy. She lost consciousness and fell on top of his chest. He put his arms around her, turning off his blood line back to his dark eyes. The Uchiha hooked one arm under her legs while the other supported her back as he lifted her up and carried her bridal style outside the room, but not before throwing a kunai attached with a tag on the wall.

He sprinted downstairs in a hurried manner that he didn't even sense someone at a corner and bumped into him. The person turned out to be an old man, wearing what seemed to be the hidden sand head band, glaring at him. "Watch where you're—" he stopped when he recognized who he had bumped into. He gritted his teeth. "Uchiha Sasuke." He hissed.

Sasuke just stared at him with a blank face. "Move." He demanded. The sand shinobi remained in his place, not willing to comply with him. "Why should I?" he asked mockingly, preparing to fight with him. The Uchiha growled in anger, he didn't want to waste time at first, but this guy was asking for a death wish. He adjusted Sakura in one hand while the other went behind him to unsheathe his katana. The shinobi in front of him started to become alert when Sasuke pulled out his weapon but he didn't even get to react before his head was chopped off in a blink of an eye.

Blood splattered from the neck and all over the wall, as the sand ninja's severed head fell down to the ground, his body following afterwards. Sasuke dashed away after that, leaving the corpse on the ground, carrying Sakura at the speed of light away from the hotel and the village. He jumped from tree to tree, increasing his pace as fast as he could while holding his pink haired teammate close to him.

* * *

Naruto landed onto the ground with the others. He looked at the village in front of him. Everything was actually very peaceful. "Guys, come here." Kakashi said and he turned to look at the team captain gesturing for all of them to come closer. He went over to him and stood next to Kiba. "Let's split into group to search for her and meet back here in an hour and if you find anything, contact us." He turned to Neji and Tenten. "You guys will be in one group." And then he looked at Naruto and Kiba. "You two are together. I'll be fine on my own." He did a few hand signs and pressed his palm to the ground, a puff of smoke appeared along with Pakkun, his summoning dog. He stood up and looked at them. "Let's go!" he dashed away and everyone went to their own searching direction.

"Have you seen a girl with pink hair here?" Tenten asked a random man selling jewelries. He put his hand on his chin and closed his eyes to think of her qestion before shaking his head. "Sorry, not one with pink hair." He said apologetically and Tenten sighed. "Sorry to bother you." She walked over to Neji, who was standing a few feet away from her in the street. He raised his eye brow at her, as if asking her what the man told her. She shook her head. "No."

Neji scratched his head with one hand. "We're getting nowhere." He sighed and looked around him, watching the people walking by before his silver eyes landed on a clothing store. "Maybe she's not here." Tenten said dejectedly but then she realized that her long haired team mate wasn't listening to her but was looking at what was behind her. She looked over her shoulder and saw a small store. She raised her brown eye brow and turned to look at Neji.

"Maybe we should go check it." He said and walked pass her to the store, Tenten just followed him silently. When the two entered the store, they looked around them. They didn't find anything strange about it. The bun haired girl made her way over to the cashier, said guy looked at her with a bored expression and then his eyes landed on her head band and her serious face. He coughed and put on a polite facade. "Welcome, how can I help you?" he asked in a professional voice.

"Have you seen a girl with pink hair?"

"Pink hair, does that even exist?" the cashier asked curiously but stopped when Tenten glared at him. "No, sorry." He looked away from her intense gaze. The girl sighed and turned around to walk away, slumping her shoulder in defeat. "He has never seen her." Tenten whispered to him. Neji let out a tired sigh and patted her lowered head. "I'm sure Naruto and the others already have some information on her." He assured and she nodded.

Although Neji wasn't sure himself, it was the least he could do to cheer Tenten up. He knew how close she and Sakura had become and to know that her best friend went missing, it was devastating her. Even if the young Hyuuga wasn't so close to her, he still viewed Sakura as his important friend. She was a kind woman, cheerful and caring towards others. She gave good advice and a good conversation partner. He was also worried about her.

* * *

Kiba's nose twitched as he tried to gather up the scent around him while Akamaru did the same, Naruto was next to him, looking expectantly at him. The brunette sighed and shook his head in disappointment. "I can't smell her. Not even a faint one." He looked over to the blonde, who was looking on the ground with a painful expression. _'Sakura-chan…'_ he shut his eyes tight and gritted his teeth. He already lost a lot of important people close to him and he wouldn't allow her to be one of them.

"She's probably not in this village." Kiba's voice brought him out of his thought. He looked up at him and nodded. "Yeah, let's go." With that he and the dog lover walked back to the place Kakashi told them to meet up. Kiba could see that Naruto was upset. He was worried too, Sakura was also his friends and he wasn't happy to know that she was missing. A whine from Akamaru made him turned to look down at his dog, who was staring at him like he knew what he was feeling. He patted his head and lowered his head, walking with Naruto to their meeting point.

Suddenly a loud explosion caused their eyes to widen and turned their heads to look for the direction of the place where it came from. It wasn't very far from them. Smokes were coming out and covering the sky with black, they could still see the flames from here. "Let's go!" Kiba ran passed Naruto with Akamaru to the direction of the fire. The blonde blinked for a few minutes before he sprinted after his friend. "Hey, wait up!"

When they reached the place where the explosion occurred, Kakashi was already there, looking at what seemed to be a hotel on fire. His one eye narrowed as he continued to watch the flame dance in the air while people screamed and called for each other to help put out the fire but the copy ninja knew it was too late for them and there's no way to save anyone that was probably still inside the place. He looked over his shoulder and saw Kiba and Naruto approaching him. "Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled as he reached his side.

Knowing what he was about to ask, he said, "I don't know too, Naruto. I got here when I heard the explosion." He averted his gaze from the blond and back to the now ruined building. "Don't you think somebody did this?" The three turned their head to the direction of the voice and saw Neji and Tenten landing on the ground. "What do you mean?" Kakashi asked when they walked over to their side and looked down at the fire.

"An explosion that big could only be made by an explosive tag." Tenten explained, her eyes not leaving the burning hotel. She knew what type of explosive weapon it was, she had read about it somewhere. This was a high level type of explosive tag that could only be found near the Lightning country, whoever the person was; he must have a high knowledge of weapons and their usage to cause this. He must be a rogue ninja to know this much.

"Who could have done such a thing?" Kiba grimaced at the fire, wondering who on earth was so cruel to burn down a hotel full of innocent people. He stepped forward to get a better look but his foot caught on something. He stumbled but thankfully didn't fall down and whipped his head to look at the object that almost made him trip. He lifted his foot up and his eyes widened when he saw what it was. "Hey, guys!" Everyone turned to look at him.

He knelt down and picked up the object, looking at the silver plate that was attached to a red cloth. His nose twitched at the familiar scent that assaulted his nose. "Is this Sakura's head band?" he asked when everyone reached his side. Tenten gasped at what she saw in Kiba's hand. "It is!" she whispered, still looking at the head band of her dear friend. "She must have been here." Neji said, looking around.

"She must have been using this hotel before this happened." Kakashi said, his eyes hardened at the burnt edges on the cloth of Sakura's head band. The person who did this must have something to do with Sakura's disappearance. He just hoped that she was alright now. "God, I hope she's alright." Tenten prayed, the others immediately agreed with her. Naruto took the head band from Kiba and caressed the leaf symbol with his finger. Not another one. He couldn't let anything happen to Sakura. He needed to find her.

"I sense her!" Everyone's eyes widened and looked over to Kiba, who looked just as shock. Tenten was the first one to react. "Where is she?!" the dog lover closed his eyes to focus on the scent, trying to figure out where it was heading. "It's faint but I could still smell it. She's heading east and fast." He opened his animalistic eyes and looked at all of them. "We need to hurry!" he said.

"You heard what he said, let's move!" Kakashi dashed towards the direction where Kiba told them where Sakura was heading to. The others followed him not too long after. Naruto clenched his fist as he jumped to another tree, picking up his pace like the others did so they could catch up with his teammate. _'Wait for us, Sakura-chan!_' he bit his lips. Tenten was trying just as hard to keep up. They finally had a lead now, she couldn't waste it. Sakura needed them and she wasn't going to let something happen to her. _'Sakura…'_

* * *

Sasuke pushed his chakra harder to his feet, increasing his speed. He was aware of the explosion earlier. It seemed like the tag that he had bought worked like he had planned. He needed to destroy the place along with his scent; he couldn't let them know that it was him who was the one who kidnapped Sakura. Doing that was the only thing that he could think of to keep them from catching up with them. He knew there were a lot of innocent people and kids in the hotel but if doing it would make them lose his scent, he wouldn't hesitate to destroy the place. Besides, it's not like he cared about them anyways. They were just weak people.

He gritted his teeth and jumped faster from tree to tree, unconsciously pulling Sakura closer to him in a protective manner. The young Uchiha looked down at the peaceful and calm face of his pink haired team mate; her face was serene when asleep, her hair slightly tickling him as it made contact with his skin from the intense wind that blew passed them each time he jumped from one tree to the other. Feeling a familiar urge of keeping her safe from others rushed through him; he looked up and focused on what was in front of him.

_'I won't let them find you and take you away.' _He narrowed his eyes. _'I'll make sure of it.'_

_..._

* * *

**A/N:** i made this long and fast for you! Should I get a treat? Nah I'm just kidding, I love you guys for showering me with reviews and follows and favs.

So yeah, I skipped the fighting scene between Obito and Sasuke. The reasons why are because I really don't know what Sasuke's eternal sharingan do and I don't want to come up with it and turns out, his power is entirely different from what i wrote. And I know if I were to write another fight scene, there's gonna be a lot of grammar and words errors. That is if you're willing to read sentences that don't make sense and words using at the rong time.

And I'm sure some of you're aware of the fact that the great and powerful Uchiha Sasuke forget to buy a bra! XD One of you actually told me (and I wish I got your name) and no, i didn't do on purpose, I genuinely forgot -_-'...Okay, I know you're thinking 'What kind of author are you?!' I'm very sorry for that but that idea actually made me enjoy writing the conversation between Sasuke and Sakura, it's interesting! So thank you, whoever you are for telling me that! (i still wish I know your name)

If you have any questions, please ask and I'll make sure to answer them! (because I enjoy having to answer you!) Review!

**P.S:** Do you want a special Christmas chapter? It's gonna be a filler but I just wanted to know if you wanted one because I'll make sure you'll be satisfied with the chapter!


	5. 5: Scent

**A/N:** I really did remove that two chapters filler. It's a one-shot called 'A Christmas Memory' now and nothing changed. So I haven't updated this for awhile. Hope you still followed.

Remember when I used to write replies here. From now on, I'm just gonna do it with PM so as to not eat up the space and annoy people. But i will do it with guests's reviews.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Behind The Cold Eyes**

* * *

_"Ugh!" Naruto's body landed on the ground with a loud thud, he cursed himself when he failed to avoid Madara's attack. The orange clad ninja pushed himself off the ground with the help from Kakashi and looked up to throw a hateful glare towards the supposed to be dead Uchiha, who looked back at him boringly. _

_"You look tired." The Uchiha commented with an emotionless look, his Susanoo got into a fighting stance, ready to create another attack at the shinobi in front of him. _

_The blonde ninja gritted his teeth and turned to his mentor. "What do we do now, Kakashi-sensei? All of our attacks are useless against him." He said in frustration._

_The copy ninja only sighed and looked away. "I don't know to, Naruto. We're running out of ideas." He clenched his eyes tight. This was getting them nowhere. They tried everything they could think off but they didn't seem to work. All the strategies they thought off and the attack they used on him, the old ninja wasn't affected by it. The four of them didn't even landed an attack at him, let alone getting close to the guy. Not to mention, all of their chakra was low now. His eyes shifted to look at Naruto, who was panting from exhaustion; his blue eyes were half-lidded and showed his tiredness. He looked behind him and noticed that Gai and Bee were in the same condition, he didn't need to look at himself to notice what he was going through._

_Sure, even his and Gai's chakra were low, the Jinchuuriki could gain theirs back in an amount of time and time was something they didn't have. Kakashi hadn't received any information from HQ since he joined Naruto, he was worried that something must have happened but he couldn't let this distract him from his own fight and the least the Jounin could do now was to protect Naruto and Bee so Madara or Obito's plan wouldn't succeed and hurry back to assist the other divisions who were still fighting their battle with the enemies._

_In a way, he was thankful for Sasuke's sudden appearance. Kakashi had assisted them a lot for luring Obito to another place, leaving them with only Madara. Even though they still couldn't directly harm the guy yet, it was better than fighting the two of them at once. The grey haired man was still confused about why his old student was doing this, Sasuke said it himself that he was taking revenge on Konoha by killing everyone. Even so the missing nin suddenly appeared and helped them instead, okay maybe not since he told them he wasn't no anyone's side but it didn't make any difference that he had helped them. Well whatever his ex-student was thinking, Kakashi was glad the guy showed up and got Obito._

_His eyes hardened when he thought of his old comrade. He couldn't believe this was happening. The Uchiha had turned to something that Kakashi least expected him to be and it was because of him. The one who taught him the value of his friends was the one who caused this war that had taken the lives of many other people along with it. It was because of his stupid mistake and led everything to happening now, he was the one to blame. If Rin was still alive, he knew very well how disappointed she would be._

_"Kakashi." The leader of Team 7 snapped his eyes open when he felt a hand on his shoulder, spinning his head to look at his rival that was standing next to him. Guy offered him a smile and retreated his hand back to his side. _

_"Don't space out." He warned and turned to look at the Juubi and Madara, who hadn't moved for a while as if waiting for them to make a move first or just plainly mocking that no matter what they did they stood no chance against the Ten tails. Gai smirked at this. In a way, he was right and in a way he was wrong. "I have a plan." The thick eyebrow shinobi said, making Naruto and Kakashi turned to him with wide eyes._

_"Really?" the blond asked, running over to the two teachers with Bee following. Gai looked at him and then to Kakashi. "I've been thinking this for a long time and I think we can still win this." He knelt down, gesturing for the other three to do the same. He focused his gaze on Bee first. "Bee-san, do you have enough Chakra to create Tailed Beast Bombs again?" he asked while the rap-obsessed Jinchuuriki raised his eyebrow at the question. "I do but it didn't work the first time, ya fool!" he said in a failed rapping voice. _

_"I know, but I trust me I have a plan." Gai assured. "I can open the inner gates for one more time and I'm sure Kakashi can do kamui again, right?" the grey haired Jounin nodded. He grinned and then turned to Naruto. "I have a special job for you and Kurama, Naruto." He said while the blonde raised his eyebrow._

_Madara looked down at the four hunched shinobi with an amused gaze. What could they be planning now when they knew that all attack was useless against him? They were starting to get on his nerves, why couldn't they just admit defeat so he didn't have to waste his time. He was already in a bad mood when Sasuke suddenly showed up and took Obito away. The former founder of Konoha was still curious about the young Uchiha's actions but he could worry about this later when he finished his job with these clowns. _

_The long haired man tilted his chin up when the four stood up and turned to look at him. He smirked and let his Susanoo disappeared. 'This could get interesting.'_

_Gai turned to Bee as the two of them nodded to each other and dashed towards the Juubi in a fast speed, leaving Kakashi with Naruto. The teacher looked at his student. "Are you ready, Naruto?" he asked and the blonde nodded. _

_"Yeah!" and he put up his hands into his shadow clone hand sign._

_Killer Bee ran as fast as he could around the Juubi, firing one after one Bijuu Dama at the beast. It was amazing how he could do while running like that but on the inside, the jinchuuriki was more than exhausted. It's hard to perform such chakra depleting technique like this while in motion; he just hoped that Gai's plan worked. _

_In the mean, time the bushy browed teacher was doing the same. Running and running around the tailed beast, landing attack after attacks at the thing while trying to dodge its tails that were aiming towards him and Bee. He jumped to the side when another one came at him and looked behind him at Kakashi and the many Naruto. 'It's time!'_

_Kakashi nodded and sprinted to assist the others, his hand chirping as a ball of lightning appeared in his palm. 'I hope this works.' Was all he thought when he arrived at the tail beast, avoiding a tail that aimed at him and used that to climb up closer to where Madara was, with the help from Gai and Bee who assisted by blocking the attacks that was directed at the copy ninja. He reached the top and ran to the old Uchiha, his technique ready to attack him. His legs lost balanced when the Juubi moved and used its tail to smack the two shinobi away with full force._

_He looked up when he heard footsteps walking towards him and glared at the smirking man. Kakashi let out a chuckle, making Madara raised his eye brow confusingly at him before the both of them looked up and saw a bunch of Naruto clones up there with Rasen-shuriken in each of their own hands. Madara's eyes widened as the ninja next to him hoped off to a safe distance. _

_"It's time for you to die!" all of the blondes shouted as a loud cracking sound of the earth breaking open when the technique hit the beast, forcing it further to the ground._

_Everyone shielded their eyes when this happened, only opening them again and saw the tailed beast still standing with not a scratch on it, it's like the attack was nothing to it. Naruto choked when Madara tightened his grip on his neck. It seemed during the middle of the attack, he managed to grab hold of him. "Do you think such pitiful plan can stop me?" he glared at the blond shinobi in his hand, watching with murderous eyes as the sixteen-year old's hands came up and gripped his wrist. The Kyuubi container let out a chuckle and looked up at him with a smirk. _

_"It's not over yet." He said._

_Madara didn't have to guese that Kakashi had used his kamui and released Naruto that he had first transported inside behind him. The blonde in his hand disappeared in a cloud of smoke as the one behind him gathered up his Chakra to his palm, letting it form into another Rasengan. Naruto roared as he brought his jutsu up to hit the guy but the yellow haired nin didn't even get to touch him when suddenly a pruple hand grabbed him and threw him across the field, his technique dispersed into thin air as he landed on the ground with a groan of pain._

_Kakashi's eyes widened. Gai and Bee had the same reaction when they saw Susanoo appearing around Madara, who looked as bored as ever. Naruto cursed as he tried to use his hand to prop himself up but couldn't because his energy was all gone with all the attacks he used previously. The Hero didn't have time to react when he saw one tail of the Juubi came right at him from above. He dimly heard his sensei shouting his name before he closed his eyes and waited for the painful attack._

_His blue eyes flew open when someone grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him away from the ground. Kakashi and Gai gaped at the figure that had just saved Naruto from his death, watching in shock as he landed on the ground not so far away from them and released the blonde's shirt, letting him fall down with a thud. _

_Naruto shook his head and looked up at his savior, his vision slightly blurry and only he could see was black hair. Shaking his head a couple of times, he regained his normal vision and his eyes widened at the man._

_"S-sasuke?" he couldn't believe it, his old team mate had saved him. _

_The dark haired man only grunted and turned to look at Madara who glared at him. _

_The older Uchiha grinded his teeth when he saw the kid there smirking at him. He couldn't feel Obito's chakra anywhere, Sasuke couldn't have done it could he? 'No.' he shouldn't underestimated the kid, he was an Uchiha after all and he had gained his eternal Sharingan. For him to defeat Obito wasn't something impossible. His powers were more incredible than he thought it was. Obito must have made a huge mistake by belittling him too much and let his own arrogance get the better of him. Typical for an Uchiha._

_"So, you killed him?" Madara asked as Sasuke continued to smirk. _

_"He was easier than I thought." He said smugly while everyone, except for Madara, eyes widened. _

_Kakashi looked at his old student in disbelief. He defeated Obito all by himself? The four of them had so much trouble couldn't even touched the guy but Sasuke managed to kill him. He was stronger than the copy nin thought he was._

_"And your next target is me?" the young Uchiha nodded at the question, his hand pulling out his sword from behind him and stood in a fighting stance. He heard Naruto standing up but didn't bother looking at him. _

_"So you decided to join us?" the blonde threw him a smirk and took his own fighting pose. He jumped when Sasuke turned to glare coldly at him, his Sharingan blazing. _

_"Don't get the wrong idea. I only team up with you because you can assist me in defeating them. When this is over, I want nothing to do with you." He said and turned his attention back to Madara, not noticing Naruto looking shock. 'If he's saying this does this mean he doesn't want to fight me?' he thought but shook his head. He could think of this later, now he needed to finish this fight first._

_Naruto smirked at Sasuke. "Fine, let's do this."_

* * *

**Chapter 5: Scent**

* * *

Sasuke landed swiftly on the ground, trying to be gentle and as careful as possible so he wouldn't wake the sleeping Sakura in his arms. His dark eyes looked at the dark sky. It was already night time, he was too focused in escaping that he didn't notice. The young shinobi scanned his surroundings and his gaze landed on the small lake near them, just a few meters away. He could keep going but he knew that all the running he had done had exhausted him. If the two of them were to encounter any possible enemies, it wouldn't do them any good. The young man walked slowly to the water and stopped just a few inches away, settling Sakura down, letting her back leaned on the rock for support.

When he pulled his arm away, she clutched him tighter, mumbling things about falling blankets and pillows. If Sasuke wasn't who he was, he would have laughed amusingly at her sleep talk, she did tend to talk a lot when they were kids, even when she was asleep. Something about her hadn't changed at all, and some part of him was glad. The Sharingan weilder used his stronger arm and removed her own little ones away from his neck and settled them down near her side, stepping away from her cautiously, so he wouldn't step on any twigs or anything that would cause sound.

Closing his eyes, the Uchiha tried to sense the ninjas that were chasing after them a while ago. _'Good, they're far…_' His eyes opened with that thought in mind. They were still onto them but he managed to buy time and got far from them enough to rest for a while to regain his energy back. He shrugged his backpack off his arm and looked around for things that he could use. Sasuke wasn't quite hungry, although he knew that he needed to eat so catching some fish would be great. Sakura should also be hungry when she woke up. Scanning the area one last time so he didn't miss anything dangerous, the dark haired teen walked to the woods to try and find the things he needed.

A small whimper caught Sasuke's attention; he turned his head and looked over his shoulder and at the girl leaning against the stone near the lake, her body slightly shivering as she brought her hands around herself. He walked back over to her, zipping his high collared shirt open on the way. Sasuke pulled it off and draped it around Sakura's body, his dark eyes scanning her face as the small noises coming from her mouth stopped and the way she relaxed, opening her mouth to let out a sigh of contentment with the new found warmth. His lips twitched at the sides but he bit the inner side of his mouth to prevent the smile that was threatening to come across his face. He was already scaring his pride enough by showing his affections towards the girl. And that was enough for his prideful self. If he displayed anymore actions, he would feel weak. The cold man just couldn't believe he let his guard down this much for her.

But Sakura wasn't just someone to him.

That much Sasuke knew but couldn't bring himself to show it to her. The idea was so new to him he couldn't say or show it properly. It's hard for him to express it. He wasn't used to it. The last Uchiha pulled away from her and resumed this routes to the forest to look for twigs and woods for fire, and if he was lucky, some food and large leaves to make the bed for tonight. When the rogue nin felt he was far enough, but still close to keep his watch on Sakura, he stopped and bent down to pick up the dead wood on the ground before getting up and went over the trees which had huge leaves on them and plugged them off the braches with as many as he wanted to make a decent bed.

He walked back over to the lake and set his items down. Sasuke first started off with the bed, laying the leaves over each other, making sure it was wide enough and comfortable enough to sleep in. After he finished, the onyx eyed boy got up and head over to Sakura, picking her up, she slightly groaned at the sudden movement, and laid her back down on his made bed, gently so he wouldn't wake her. The leaves scrunched lightly when the girl's weight pressed onto it, but Sakura was comfortable enough to fall back to her deep slumber, rolling over to the left and curled herself to a ball, bring her fingers to her lips, which was slightly ajar to let out slow breathing. Her chest heaved up and down as she slept. She looked like a child like this. He secretly wondered if her kids would look like her and smirked, that would be great.

Sasuke turned around and set the twigs and wood, making it into a fire place. He brought his fingers to his mouth and blew a small fire ball out and onto the woods, watching as it burnt and the flames danced with the wind. Letting out a sigh, he got up. Fishes were still needed to be catch and the nearby pond might have some. God, he felt so tired and really wanted to sleep, the comfy empty spot next to Sakura felt inviting but the Uchiha shook his head furiously at the idea, cursing himself for being distracted. His former pink haired teammate of his sure was annoying.

* * *

"Guys, let's stop and rest." Kakashi stopped his jumping and planted his foot on the ground below them, looking up at his team, who stopped at his command. He saw Naruto gritted his teeth and sighed, he was not going be easy with this.

"But why?! We need to find Sakura-chan! We can't just rest and waste time!" The Jinchuuriki shouted angrily at his teacher, who still looked at him with an apathetic look.

"It maybe be true, Naruto. But look around you." The blond turned around and looked at his comrades, who were mostly panting in exhaustions, Kiba mostly. Neji managed to hide it well.

Tenten clenched her fists. "Naruto's right, though! What if we lost our trail when we sleep! Who knows what would happen to Sakura!?" she protested while Naruto nodded in agreement.

Kakashi's eyes hardened. "Do you think I don't know of this? I'm worried about her just like you do but we still need our energy. We're as good as dead if we encountered any enemies when our energy is depleted." He said, causing the two to look down in shame.

"I'm sorry." They apologized and the four of them landed on the ground next to him. "Let's set up camp." The jounin commanded while every nodded, taking off their own back packs and pulled out their sleeping bags.

Kakashi didn't fail to notice the disappointed look that Naruto and Tenten had. The silver haired nin felt bad when he had to say it to them but as a team captain, he needed to think of the welfare of all his comrades. He knew that all of them were tired, even with their protests, and he himself was also the same. This was for the best. The shinobi couldn't have his team weakened if something happened. Laying, his sleeping bag down, the masked man looked around to observe the four other people with him.

Kiba was fast asleep in his bag, snoring loudly like Akamaru who was lying near him. Well, he was a heavy sleeper. Kakashi couldn't blame him, the dog lover was the one who put the most effort today so he was tired than anyone.

Naruto was also trying to go to sleep but was having a hard time doing so. The jumpsuit wearing teen was still worried about his friend and couldn't calm down his mind enough to sleep and then he sighed. He had to no matter what, his sensei was right; he couldn't be tired when they encountered any enemies. The Konoha hero closed his blue eyes and relaxed his body to sleeping mode.

On the other hand, Neji was making a fire. The night was awfully chilly, and so he decided to make something that would keep them from being cold.

The copy ninja moved his eyes to Tenten, who was still up awake, sitting on her sleeping bag, looking down with a worried gaze. He knew that she and Sakura had gotten closer over the years and it must have been hard for her, just like it was for Naruto but the blond managed to not show it that much and controlled his own feelings.

With a sigh, he got up and went over to her. The weapon mistress lifted her gaze from her lap and locked her brown eyes with his black ones. The Jounin gave her a smile, although it was hidden underneath his mask, and sat down next to her. "Don't worry about Sakura too much." He assured in a fatherly tone. "She's strong enough to take care of herself."

"But…" Tenten looked away. "Do you think she's really captured though?" she asked doubtfully. "She might be okay and was just resting to recover her wounds and such." She tried to be optimistic.

"That can't be true though."

The two turned to look at Neji, who was using a stick to poke the woods in the fire. "If she was okay, she would have gone to the Wave and finished her mission, but instead she is heading east, to the earth country." He calculated, his white eyes narrowing. "And we all know how dedicated Sakura is to her mission. She wouldn't just abandon it for nothing."

"What if she was trailing the one that she fought with? Or the one who caused the explosion?" his teammate interrupted.

"We can't just keep playing the 'what if' game. We need to face the truth. She is kidnaped." Kakashi told her, making her hung her head down because of how right he was.

"I just hope she's okay right now." She prayed and felt someone patting her head in a parentally way. She looked at Kakashi. "Like I said, don't worry too much." He removed his hand from her brown head and got up heading over to his own sleeping bag. Even after he said that, Tenten still felt this doubt that something bad was going to happen soon.

"He's right, Tenten." Neji's calm voice made her snap her head and looked over to him. The Hyuuga gave her a small smile. "Go to sleep, I'll keep the first watch." He said to her and she couldn't help the smile from tugging at her lips. The girl nodded and shifted, lying on the bag, bringing the cover closer to her and nuzzled her head against the pillow.

"Thanks, Neji." She whispered before allowing her mind to drift off.

* * *

Sakura's eye brow twitched when she heard the slight pricking of fire against dry skin. Slowly opening her eyes and revealing her tired emerald orbs, she sat up. The medic nin stretched her limps and rubbed her eyes to get rid of the sleepiness, letting a tired but happy smile appeared on her lips. _'I haven't dreamt about that time for a while.'_ She thought, giggling quietly to herself and looked around.

The first thing she noticed was the bed made out of leaves below her body and a shirt, one she recognized belong to Sasuke, draped on her body. At least he was nice enough to be worried that she might get cold. That or the fact that the broody man wasn't in the mood to take her rant because he knew that she would make a big deal out of it when she woke up freezing to death, which Sakura would.

She looked up. The sky was dark, so it must be night and she was at a forest. Strange, the pinkette was at the hotel in the waves just a while ago. Closing her eyes to recall what had happened, the first thing she remembered was arguing with Sasuke and then after looking into his eyes, the next thing she knew she was knocked out and woke up here.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously and looked around for her former team mate, seeing him sitting in front of the fire, with his back to her. Carefully, Sakura reached over to him, trying to be as quiet as she could while doing so. She crawled until she was right next to him, leaning over to look at his face. He had his eyes closed; his posture was slack but relaxed, his chest heaving up and down in a calm manner. _'The great Uchiha is dozing off.'_ She resisted the urge to snicker. The pink haired medic continued to look at his face and out of curiosity; raised her hand up to poke his cheek. Before her finger made contact with his skin, his eyes snapped open and looked directly at her, she jumped a little at this.

"Don't even think about it."

Sakura pouted and looked away from his face and at the fire, watching as the flames burnt the skin of the fishes that were hung over the fire with sticks through them. So he wasn't sleeping. She snorted at this, of course he wasn't. He was the great Uchiha Sasuke after all; he wouldn't let his guard down that easily. "So why did we leave?" she asked him, still avoiding to look at him as he did the same.

"I already told you." His eyes hardened. "You can't know."

The girl made a noise that sounded like a scoff. "Bah, again with that crap. Just tell me!" she pressed, now looking straight into his eyes.

Sasuke turned to her, his gaze turning to his usual unreadable state. "I felt like it." Sakura hung her head down and resisted the urge to bang it on the ground, she still felt a little bit dizzy after she woke up. Thinking of which, "But you still didn't have to use your Sharingan. I can walk you know." She said.

"I had no choice. I wouldn't have to use it if you were more obedient and followed my orders."

Sakura looked at him like he was crazy. "You're telling me to be _obedient_ to my _kidnapper_? Who in their right mind would do something like that!" she glared at him, looking away from his eyes again, mumbling things to herself. _'Geez, I only woke up for only half a day and he had to go and knock me out again. What a bastard.' _She hissed in her mind.

Sasuke sighed and looked at the side of her head since she was facing away from him. He could tell what she was thinking in her head. It was kinda obvious. The nuke-nin could always read her easily; she was an expressive person after all.

Turning his attention back to the fishes he had caught, the young Uchiha reached over and grabbed one. He looked at it to see if it was cooked enough and handed it to Sakura, who turned her head to look at him questioningly.

Her emerald eyes went from the cooked fish to his face and then to the fish again. "You're giving it to me?" she asked almost disbelievingly. He rolled his eyes at her reaction and nodded. With caution, Sakura took the fish from his hand and examined it. "It's not poisoned." He said with irritation. Did she really think that he would kill her? He couldn't believe this woman.

"I'm not worried about that." She retorted, still looking at the fish she had in her hand, rolling it around to have a better look at the sides. "It's not that cooked through." she pointed out, looking at him boringly.

The man next to her raised his eyebrow, his eyes never left her from as she used her finger and poked the fish skin childishly, making squashy noise coming out of it. It's still a bit raw. The girl hung the fish over the fire again, to get it to be cooked right. "You're not such a good cook." She informed him bluntly.

He held back a smirk. "And you're better than me?" he mocked.

Sakura averted her eyes from the fish and looked at him with uninterested gaze. "I've gotten much better over the years, thank you very much." She frowned and turned attention back to her task.

"And who in their right mind told you that?" he snorted.

"My parents." From the corners of the Uchiha's eyes, he could see the trace of sadness that crossed her emerald eyes before it disappeared. Of course he was aware of the fact that her parents were dead, he had been watching her after all.

"Tenten, Neji, Naruto and the others." She listed. "You would have known if you had stayed." She added the last one in a very jokey manner, although inside she was saying it to get back at him and to make him regret leaving. The kidnapped shinobi was still angry that her former teammate hadn't come home but she could easily push it to the back of her mind like she would always do.

After that everything went silent, Sakura was comfortable with that as she cooked her fish, flipping it around to let it cook through equally on each side.

If she looked at Sasuke, she would have been surprised or shocked. He was gritting his teeth so hard that they would've been broken. His eyes were downcast. The teen knew that why she said that, and he had a feeling that it was working. Part of him wished that he had stayed, because after all he had done and abandoned just to kill his brother, who turned out to be a good guy, and tried to kill everyone to take his revenge, it all turned out to be the biggest mistakes he had done. Orochimaru had shown him that. But like every one of his clansmen, the dark haired nin was too proud to admit his fault; he couldn't still go back to the village. The Uchiha immediately scoffed at the idea, every nation was still after him, he might be asking for a death wish if he had gone back.

What made him even angrier was the fact that she had mentioned _Naruto_ and the _others._ Sasuke still remembered dimly that Tenten, or whatever her name was, was a team mate of the Hyuuga and she was a _girl_, so no competition there. When it came to Naruto though, he felt the urge to kill him again, but this time for another reason. He already dismissed the want to kill him but if he got too close to her, he wouldn't think twice about murdering him. Yes, he was possessive of this girl, even if he or she weren't aware of it. This wasn't the first time the Sharinga weilder felt this way, he always had this feeling over the _entire_ time watching over her.

Sasuke hissed, feeling his skin sting when it came in contact with something hot. Raising up his hand quickly from the source of heat and glared at the girl, who was the one that put the hot fish on his hand, his eyes narrowed even more when she blinked innocently like she didn't know what she had done.

"Fish?" she offered with a smile but the former leaf shinobi could still see the trace of mischief in her eyes and the slight tugging at the edge of her lips, as if she was holding down a smirk or a laugh. Damn this girl, she did it on purpose. Grudgingly, he took the fish swiftly from her and grumbled something under his breath.

Sakura only smiled and took a bite at her now cooked fish, and from the corner of her eyes, she secretly waited for the dark haired boy's reactions to her food. The young Uchiha brought the stick to his mouth and bit off a small proportion of the food, his mouth chewing it carefully. It was very well cooked, seemed like she really did get better at cooking. The Konoha Sweetheart hid a grin when she saw the slight changing in his expression, praising herself in her mind for having the ability to impress him with her food. The medical ninja didn't know how, but she felt more comfortable with him now. She didn't actually felt like she was being captured, sure he treated her like one with all the sealing her chakra and binding her and stuff but at least he stopped tying her up with ropes now, he only drained her chakra. And somehow, Sasuke made it seemed like he just wanted her to travel with him. The thought was quickly dismissed from her head though.

They continued eating in silence until they finished. Sakura yawned again and rubbed her eyes. It was strange, she woke up not so long ago but she felt tired again.

Sasuke glanced at her briefly. "Go to sleep, Sakura." He said but the tone in his voice made her think that he was ordering her and she got mad.

"You don't have the right to tell what I have to do." She countered defiantly. She hated taking orders from people, with the excepting of her teachers and depending on the situations. And she wasn't going to listen to her kidnapper, especially him. "I want to take a bath." The pink haired girl said instead. "Go away." She shooed him because the medic really wanted to clean herself, she hadn't done so since leaving the hotel, and there's no way in hell she would do it with him near her. Well, he already have seen her half naked, Sakura pushed down her blood from coming to her face when she thought of this, but she wasn't going to let it happen with her knowing.

"No." he simply said, his voice leaving no room for argument.

Her mouth hung open. "What?! I'm a woman, I need to keep track of my hygiene!" she tried to reason with him but his face was still firm.

"Tomorrow." He closed his eyes. "When we reach the next town and find a decent place to stay where they have a proper bathroom." He said. It was for the better for both of them. Because it would be easier for her that way, and there's no way he would leave her alone for her to take a clean herself in the lake for public display. Sasuke knew that even if he agreed to let her take a bath in the water and leave, he wouldn't actually did left, he would just stayed somewhere near, masked his chakra and watch over her in case something happened or she tried to run away. And if he saw her naked, the male ninja tried to dismiss the memory from back at the hotel, he wasn't sure himself what would happened.

Sakura seemed to agree with him. "Fine," she said with a huff and got up, her arms keeping Sasuke's shirt from falling off her body while walking to her bed. Before she laid down, she stuck her tongue out at him. When he didn't respond, the kunoichi just shrugged and closed her eyes, relaxing her body. The girl pulled the shirt around her tighter; it was colder than she thought. At the back of her mind, she secretly wished he would come here and sleep next to her, she needed the extra warmth.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was focusing on sensing his enemies. The people who were chasing them had stopped just moments ago, obviously to rest for the next pursuit to come after Sakura tomorrow. His eyes unconsciously narrowed dangerously when he felt his instinct kicked it again. He shouldn't be worried. They were too far away and enough for him and Sakura to rest their bodies for the night. Though the quiet young man was more concern about his scent. He knew everyone's smell was unique and sooner or later they would recognize his and figure out that he was the one who was responsible for the girl's disappearance. The Uchiha needed to do something to erase his scent. But how?

An outrageous idea popped inside his head and his eyes widened. Sasuke turned around to glance at Sakura for a moment, watching as she tossed and turned, probably still awake. Would he really do this? He was aware that he was confusing her enough with his unusual physical contact with her and without explanations of why the dark haired nin was behaving like so, knowing that if he continued this, she would lose her comfort around him and keep her distance, which wouldn't do any good with his plan with her in the future. But he had no choice.

Again he sighed and got up, stripping down his grey shirt and threw it in the fire, watching as it increase the intensity with the cloth in it. After making sure it burnt to ashes, Sasuke walked over to Sakura slowly and quietly. She just had to try and understand his actions. When he arrived by her side, he pulled the rope of his waist band, setting down next to her legs and crawled over to her.

The pink haired girl's eyes widened in alarm when she felt someone stepping on the bed next to her, she could tell by the scrunching sound of the leaves being crushed with his weight. Sakura didn't have time to react when strong and muscular arms, she didn't have to guess that it was Sasuke's, wrapped themselves around her waist and pulled her closer this his hard chest. Feeling that he wasn't wearing his undershirt and his abs was solid and hard against her, she gulped before putting on an angry face. "What the hell are you doing!?" the teenaged girl demanded, thrashing around to get his arms removed.

Sasuke only grunted and pulled her even closer, increasing his hold around her. "Stop it." He said coldly. She didn't listen and only struggled even more, combining it with kicking around. "No! Go away!" she hissed but still didn't manage to get him off her. Sakura wanted her chakra back.

Growling, Sasuke snapped his eye shut to calm his nerves. Why couldn't she just stay still and listen to him? He really needed her to stop fussing around in his arms because it was annoying and also by doing so, she was making her body touch his continuously and for her and his welfare, she needed to stop. "Just go to sleep before I use my Sharingan on you." The remaining Uchiha hoped that the struggling girl could feel the threat in his voice.

And it worked when Sakura suddenly stiffened and stopped her actions. She narrowed her eyes, if she had her chakra he would have been forty feet away from her right now. She hated when someone come this close to her, especially if it was a male species, except for her close friends. No one survived whenever he came too close to Sakura. But she didn't have the strength to go through Sasuke's jutsu again, the Konoha Kunoichi still a bit dizzy after he last used it on her, which was just half a day ago. Knowing that her mind and body couldn't withstand, she let him pull her to him and let out a huff of defeat.

Sasuke was glad that she stopped struggling, he didn't want to use it on her but if he had to, he would. It would be better than something else happening. So he just brought her closer to him, his leg throwing over her body to make sure they were close enough to her as possible. The dark haired shinobi buried his face into her bubble gum pink hair and secretly sighed, trying to not let his blood run around to the un-needed part of his body. It seemed like he was cuddling her but he did it for different reason. The missing ninja needed to get rid of his scent. He was being this close to her because by doing so, he could replace it with her smell, that way those shinobi who came after him wouldn't know that Sasuke was the one who kidnapped her because all they could sense was Sakura's scent. All that was left to do after this was to mask his chakra, which was an easy task for him.

Though her lemony scent was slowly lulling him to sleep, even if he tried to stop himself from taking her smell in, he still needed to breath and his nose was in her hair, so the former avenger couldn't prevent her scent from filling his nose. It really calmed his nerves and mind, making his body relax. His eyes drooped to a half lidded gaze, feeling a strong need to sleep. Strange, Sasuke hadn't felt this sleepy and relaxed for a long time. Maybe it's the fact that Sakura was with him, in his arms and so close in his reach. He didn't try to think about it more before letting himself fall asleep right next to her.

Sakura was close to fainting. She didn't know why Sasuke was doing this right now. He was cold just a minute ago and then now he was cuddling her! Yes, the great Uchiha Sasuke was _cuddling_ her. And she would be lying if she said she wasn't frightened by it. The Sasuke she knew, or the one she knew now because the old one didn't mind her friendly hug once in a while, didn't like touching. And now the boy who everyone thought was cold and anti-social was this close to her, pulling her tighter to him even when she moved just a bit. The emerald eyed girl groaned and closed her shining orbs. This was very confusing. What was with this guy? Sakura didn't know what's going through his head right now. He wouldn't tell her the reason why he's keeping her, he was hugging her without explanation, and her head was going to explode with all the questions she had.

With a sigh, she relaxed her muscle. She still needed to sleep for tomorrow's traveling and she couldn't do it with her thinking too much. So she stopped her questioning for now, letting his presence and scent calmed her to sleep. The pinkette didn't know that his heart beat was a great lullaby for her, maybe because she never had the opportunity to be this close to him before. Right now, she just wanted to sleep with him holding her like this, his arms around her waist, maybe just a bit higher than that and just a mere inch from the underside of her boobs. And they were actually cuddling with each other. She wanted to forget today's event for now. With that thought in mind, Sakura closed her emerald eyes and breathed in his unique earthy scent, snuggling herself closer to him.

That was until she realized she still had no bra and he was shirtless.

Holy

Shit.

Sakura bit the insides of her mouth to prevent herself from screaming which would wake the man near her. What should she do now? Usually her first reactions to this was to yell her head off and push Sasuke away from her, crossed her arms around her chest to prevent wandering eyes, although she knew that the young Uchiha wasn't that type of person but hey, she couldn't be too careful. She was still a girl and he was still a guy. And guy had hormones of course.

Though right now that option wasn't a choice for her because she knew that if she did it that would lead to embarrassing conversation. And Sakura was not comfortable discussing such things with Sasuke of all people. She knew what he wouldn't want to talk about things like that either. So to prevent both of their discomfort, the medic decided just to keep her mouth shut and lay still until morning and not mention anything. That would be the best decisions for now.

She tried her best to shift a little bit away from him, making effort not to cause as much noise as possible. Controlling her body to be too tense, since Sasuke would notice even the slightest change in anything, Sakura crawled away from the warmth that the man offered slightly, though there was part of her that protested and urged her to go back and wrapped herself in that needed and tempting warmth she desperately wanted. The pink haired medic let out a quiet yelp when she felt the two arms around her tightened, probably unconsciously, and pulled her closer to the owner's chest.

_'Shit!'_ Sakura cursed in her mind when she found herself in the same position as before, except only more suffocated because of her and Sasuke's closer proximity. A small, almost sounding contented, sigh reached her ear, making her shudder a little at it. She felt him skim his nose into her hair, burying his face even deeper in her mass of locks. Did he just bring her closer to him? Like how a husband would to his lover at night? The pink haired beauty shook her head furiously at the thought. Yeah, right, like Sasuke would do something like that. It's human instinct to look for warmth when they're asleep. It's normal and the fact that he's still in his slumber proved it.

_'It's better just to stop thinking and go to sleep.' _She thought to herself and closed her eyes, ignoring the slumbering man behind her and the arms that were mere inches from pressing her boobs. Sakura shut her mind from everything around her with the exception of the comforting quiet sound of flowing water of the lake near them and the soft beating heart beat of the man so close next to her. All of that was pulling her to sleep and she slowly closed her eyes, letting her mind drift away with the blackness.

Her eyes immediately snapped open again when she felt something pressing against her breasts. With wide eyes, the kunoichi slowly looked down to see arms, Sasuke's arms, instead of encircling themselves around her waist like they were supposed to, it was around her female body parts that shouldn't be touched by anyone. Sakura took in a sharp intake of breath and clamped her eyes shut. _'Don't scream Sakura. Don't scream! Calm down!' _she kept chanting in her minds. _'He's not aware of it, he's asleep so just calm down and go to sleep!' _she breathed in and out silently. After a few minutes of calming herself down, she relaxed her mind in a calm state and sleep.

…

_'This is gonna be harder than I thought.' _Sakura groaned.

* * *

Kiba yawned loudly as he stretched his limbs, his tired and still sleepy eyes scanned his surrounding, watching as everyone got up and picked up their sleeping bags and putting them back inside their packs. Suddenly, a fist connected with his head, sending a sharp pain to his brain, causing him to grab his head and smoothed the injury by rubbing them with his fingers. The brown haired tracker nin looked up and glared at Tenten, who was looking down at him with a glare. "What the hell was that for, woman?" he growled annoyingly, still rubbing at his aching head.

Tenten closed her eyes and crossed her arms. "It's morning, we should hurry up and get back to finding Sakura." She said sternly. Kiba grumbled something under his breath before standing up and did as she said. It's not like he didn't like her. The bun haried girl was one of his close friends, her and Sakura, so he knew that he needed to hurry if they wanted to find the pink haired girl that every one cared about. Kiba would stop at nothing to rescue her from this man or whoever that was holding her captive now.

"Are you ready, Kiba?" Naruto asked the boy, swinging his backpack on his back. The dog lover nodded and along with Akamaru, gathered the scent around them, finding Sakura's and which direction it was. He hoped that they didn't waste too much time napping. When her smell assaulted his nose, he looked to the east. "Let's go, I sense her! She's not so close so we should hurry before we completely lost her. The scent is already faint." He warned, looking back to his fellow comrades.

Kakashi turned around and sprinted to the direction where Kiba told them. "Your heard the man, let's move!" he called out to them. It didn't take more than a second for the others to catch up with him. _'We're coming, Sakura.'_

* * *

Emerald eyes wandered curiously at the sight before her. Sakura didn't actually get much sleep last night but she did rest her body enough to move around if needed. She thanked the god that she had woken up before Sasuke. The rest made her feel more refreshing than before; despite the few hours she got to sleep. The captured medic actually felt nice waking up like this. The warmth that surrounded her felt very soothing and she was too comfortable to move anywhere so she just stayed there, staring at Sasuke's slumbering face. If it was hours already she didn't notice. Sakura was too distracted by the peacefulness that was on the Uchiha's face.

It looked so calm and endearing, something that she had never seen on his face. When they were still Genin on missions that required for them to camp overnight, the girl always took chances to look at his sleeping face when she's on watch duty. She tried not to blush in embarrassment at her own actions when she was twelve. The looks on his face were either angry or strained. His eye brows were always drew together and his mouth always twisted into a frown or tightly closed from him clenching his jaw.

But right now was so different.

Maybe it's the fact that he didn't need to take revenge anymore and so he had less worries and burden on his shoulder so he could sleep without nightmares now. Sakura liked the expression on his face. It looked better with it. Her hands itched to touch and run her hands across that face of his but restrained herself from doing so. She did not want to go back to her past. Her eyes widened when she saw his eye brow twitched and his eyes lids slightly opening up to reveal his deep dark eyes that held nothing, but also held everything. Her pink brows furrowed when she saw something flickered in his eyes when it landed on her face.

"Stop staring." He grumbled, causing her to tense and looked to the side. "Hump!" she shoved him away and stood up. "Great, you're awake. Can we leave now?" she asked in an annoyed voice, facing the river with her back to him.

Sasuke raised his eye brow at her. _'So, she's not asking me about my behavior last night?'_ he thought while standing up, picking up his shirt and zipping them on. Well it didn't matter, it was better that way. He's not in the mood to explain things.

The Uchiha swung the backpack on his back and picked up the leaves, throwing them into the still burning fire from last night. After watching them burnt to nothing, he turned around to look at Sakura, who merely raised her eye brow at him, her arms unconsciously shielding her chest from him, which he didn't notice. He walked over and hunched down to pick her up, only for her to slip away from her. He growled at her.

"I can walk." She stated as a matter of fact-ly.

"But you're slow." He protested, making her snapped her head and glare at him heatedly.

"Excuse me, you sealed my chakra. If you hadn't, I'd be way faster than you!" she pointed at him childishly.

"And I'm not gonna unseal it so just shut up and come on." He said through clenched teeth. She was testing his temper again.

"No!" she crossed her arms defiantly.

Sasuke sighed and glared at her with his Sharingan. Sakura looked at him, locking them into a staring contest for a moment before giving up.

"You're using that to your advantage, you know?" she pouted and let him carry her bridal style, jumping onto the trees and preceded their travel to the next village. Her emerald eyes narrowed when she looked up at him. "But don't think I forget about last night. We need to talk when we arrive at wherever you're taking me." She said. _'Especially the fact that you forgot about my bra…again…'_

"Hn…"

* * *

"Hm?" a bewildered look took over Kiba's face when he smelt something strange.

Naruto raised his eye brow. "What's up, Kiba?" he asked. The brunette narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

"Did something happen to Sakura?" Tenten asked worriedly.

Kiba shook his head. "No, but the thing is, no matter how long we've been chasing her, all I can sense was her smell." He wondered. Neji looked over his shoulder and at the tracking ninja before looking at Kakashi, who seemed unaffected by the conversation seeing as he was still looking at the road.

"Do you think that she's not captured and maybe it's like Tenten said?" The Hyuuga asked but received a shook of a grey head.

"No. The one who kidnapped her is smart. He or she knows how to get rid of their scent greatly that even Kiba can't sense it. And we already know that he is skilled by how good he can mask his chakra." He narrowed his eyes. "He's a tough one." He concluded.

"Don't you think she'll be alright?" Tenten voice reached his ear. The Jounin sighed. "I honestly don't know. But all I know is that we need to hurry so we can catch up with them."

"Right!"

* * *

A smirk stretched across Sasuke's face when he felt the slight shifting in Chakra belonging to the shinobi after him and Sakura. He could tell that they had already noticed his plan and no doubt were frustrated by it. Like the intelligent man was gonna let them know that it was him who took Sakura. Even if they managed to keep track of Sakura's scent, didn't mean that they would catch up to them. No, he had more things in stored for them if they kept on insisting on stopping him from his goals.

_'I win this round though.'_

_..._

_.._

_._

* * *

**A/N:** I've been hyper since I saw Samurai Sakura on the manga cover so I'm writing this longer than usual. And forgive me for the lame fighting I wrote, I'm not that good at it. I've been neglecting my other stories for awhile now so I really need to work on them.

If you have any questions, please ask and I'll try to answer them! Review! (okay, i know some of you can't review on this chapter or chapter 6 because you guys already have when these chapters were still the filler chapters, but now since I reupload it, you can't review two times a chapter. But if you really wanna review just PM me about it.)

**Important**: I have a poll at my profile concerning one of hte main plots in this story. It's called 'What gender(s) should Sakura and Sasuke's child/children be?' the story depends on you so go vote while you can. For guests, just put them in the review and I'll count them in too!

Bye!


	6. 6: Message

**A/N:** It's almost a month again. Hehe, sorry about that. I was too busy with Chinese new year.

Okay, first off, I wanted to clear things about the characters (since I know some of you don't get it and sometimes I'm confused about the characters myself and I'm the writer!) So I decided to clear everything so that no one will be confused and for me to easier write and maintain the characters consistency.

About **Sasuke**, he knows what he's feeling towards Sakura. But you know him, he spend his entire life focusing on revenge and never taken the chance to explore his feeling further so when he finally accepted them, everything was new to him and he was clueless to how to react. He can't say what he feels properly and since he was clueless when it comes to girls wasn't helping. Not to mention, he 's prideful and it prevented him to fully express himself to Sakura and kinda relied on her to try and understand him. The big question is whether she was willing to or not.

And next is **Sakura**. She was also confused through out this whole thing. She was actually moving on with her life until Sasuke came and kidnapped her. And in the whole journey, it triggered her past feelings for him but she was torn between staying with him and the fear of getting hurt again by him. And his actions towards her scared her even more. She was just used to the distant Sasuke and when he was suddenly touchy-freely with her, anyone would be scared. Let's see how it goes.

the story kinda focused a lot about their journey to discover each other and to understand one another.

But anyways, I don't want to ramble.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Behind The Cold Eyes**

* * *

_"Sakura-senpai!" The pink haired medic whipped her head around at the sound of her name, her emerald eyes searching for the person calling for her. The fellow medic finally reached her, Sakura could not recall the woman's name, but knows that she was not as skilled in the medical field as herself. The knowledge that Sakura holds, is one of the many reasons that medics all over the shinobi world look up to her._

_"Is there something wrong?" Sakura asked, seeing the worried look that adorned the other girls features. The other woman lowered her head and looked away with a sad expression, making Sakura furrow her eyebrows in concern. "We're losing another one." The girl uttered quietly. The Hokage's apprentice is startled at the news but not surprised. Her eyes widened in response to the horrible news, as emerald shone sadly. 'Not another one!' Sakura thought worriedly to herself. ._

_The pinkette looked down at the shinobi was in the process of healing. He was a sand ninja, maybe a Jounin or a Chunin, she didn't know. She only focused on mending his injury, that happened to be a very long and deep gash on his side, caused by a katana. Sweat dripped down her forehead, some landed on the ground and on the wounded man before her. "You go and heal the others, I'll take a look when I'm done!" Sakura ordered, receiving a "Hai!" from the girl, before she turned to tend to the other injured people. Her emerald eyes droop slightly when she saw the wound starting to heal and the blood stop flowing dangerously like it had been not too long ago. 'Good, I should be able to finish this quickly.' The girls mind echoed, viewing the progress before her. _

_When she was done and the man completely healed, she grabbed the gauze from her medic pouch and wrapped it around the wound._

_"T-thank you." The man managed to choke out, his voice quiet because of the dizziness he had from blood loss. Sakura gave him a small smile. "It's okay. It's my job to heal you." The sand shinobi grinned weakly at her in more silent thanks. With a silent sight, the pinkette got up from her place on the earth. Her legs were beginning to tingle from being stationary before turning numb from the constant kneeling. Quickly, Sakura rushed towards the direction that the previous medic had told her they had lost a fellow shinobi. Her eyes widened when she arrived at the scene, seeing a bleeding female medical ninja on the ground, with a few other shinobi clustered around her for support. Sakura was not sure if the people know the woman, but in war, everyone is a friend. The people stared on with looks of sadness covering their dirt ridden forms. Then Sakura realised...The woman wasn't breathing. _

_"Step aside!" The pinkette told them with authority. Without hesitation, the supporting shinobi stepped back quickly. The medic knelt down close to the woman and put her head on the injured girl's chest, listening for a heartbeat. Her eyes startle a fraction when she could hear a faint 'badump' echoing throughout her ears. Looking up at the ninja watching on with worried glances and silent awe at the pink haired saviour covering their faces, Sakura quickly asks, "What happened to her?" _

_The sooner she could find the cause of the injury, the sooner the girl could be healed. _

_"I'm not sure." One shinobi spoke up sadly. "We were fighting and defending her while she healed. With our backs to her, we didn't see the blow. By the time we heard her scream, she was already on the ground." He finished, hoping that it would help Sakura with the poor dying girl._

_Sakura cursed when she realised that was all the information there was. She needed more than that to figure out a way to save her. The pinkette turned to the girl and searched for an injury, sighing when she found nothing but a shallow stab wound near to her stomach, caused by a kunai. It wasn't deep though, and it appeared to not have touched any vital organs... So what was the cause? She gently pulled out the weapon, placing her hand over the wound for pressure. The weapon caused this to happen...but how? The medic examined it as carefully as she could, trying to find any trace of poison or anything at all. There was a small little red dot on the handle but it seemed to be nothing suspicious. In the end, she surmised that there was nothing. It was just a regular kunai._

_Gazing around the immediate area, Sakura tries to spot something else that she hadn't seen. Maybe it wasn't the kunai that had caused the dying medic to be in this state. She reached over and took the girl's hand, squeezing and hoped that it could be some kind of comfort towards her. She could feel the fading pulse of her wrist. Sakura needed to do something, now!_

_"Maybe it's too late, Sakura-senpai. We should just let her go." She faintly heard someone speak from behind, causing her to snap._

_"Don't!" She didn't mean it to come out that cold, but she couldn't stop the venom from entering her words as she responded to the offending person. "Don't, ever say something like that." Sakura spoke softer this time, not bothering to turn around. Still, she could imagine the shock that covered each of their faces at her words. "There is still a chance that we could save her and I refuse to let it slip." Her eyes narrowed into a fierce glare, but it wasn't directed to something in particular. "We're medical ninjas. We carry the most important role in winning this war. As a medical ninja, I shouldn't give up on someone's life that easily. You people should have known this."_

_Everyone was silent after their pink haired superior finished speaking. Meanwhile, Sakura closed her eyes and tried her hardest to recall anything similar to this situation. Her eyes snapped open when she heard footsteps running towards her. Perking her head up at the sound, the pinkette saw Tenten stopping just a few feet away. She panted before regaining her breath. "Sakura! I need your help! Neji's hurt!" Her friend managed to gasp between uneven breaths._

_Sakura looked between her friend and the dying girl beside her, contemplating whether to go save her friend or save this girl. She should think this through logically. The medic was taught to never let personal feelings mix with her job. With a deep sigh the woman turns back to the girl upon the ground. "I'm sorry, Tenten. I need to help this girl." She continued to gaze down at the still form, whose pulse was getting fainter and fainter by the minute. "You should go look for Shizune-senpai. She can help him." She said apologetically._

_The brunette looked down and nodded in understanding. She used her hand and gestured for the others behind her to go look for Shizune so they could go and help with her injured comrade. "I'll join you later." TenTen said after a pause. It was times like this that Tenten wished she had studied medical jutsu so she could help the others. She thought of trying once, but she couldn't find the right person to learn it from. Her first choice was Tsunade-sama but she knew that the Godaime was busy and the weapons specialist didn't want to bother her._

_After seeing her underlings take off, she knelt down next to Sakura, seeing her desperately trying to find a way to help the poor girl that was on the ground. _

_"What happened?" She asked softly. _

_"I don't know. I can't find any serious injuries that could have caused this reaction. All I see is a kunai wound." Sakura answered, not tearing her gaze away from her patient. Tenten knitted her brows together in thought and took the kunai, that she assumed was the one that Sakura was talking about. Just as her friend did before, TenTen scanned it for any possible poison._

_It looked like a normal kunai, aside from the red dot on—Tenten's brown eyes flew open at the realisation. "This is a poisoned Kunai!" She exclaimed, causing her emerald eyed friend to look at her in wonder. _

_"Poisoned? I already examined it, there's nothing on it." She stopped when she saw her brunette friend shake her head. _

_"No. This is a different type of kunai. They made the metal by hand, poison was added in to the mixture of the steel during the process of making it so you can't see it with the human eye. In a way, the metal is the poison itself." She explained professionally. Sakura stared in awe at the weapons specialist before shaking her head. "Have any idea what kind of poison they used?"_

_Tenten crossed her arm and closed her eyes in deep thought. After a moment she opened them again. She recalled reading from a scroll she found in the Konoha Library, that just might be helpful. "I don't know. They did say that that poison usually goes for the brain instead of the heart." She scratched her head unsurely but it was enough of information to make Sakura's face brighten. _

_"I got it!" The pinkette exclaimed, before she proceeded to put her fingers on each side of the girl's temple and focused her chakra to the area._

_Green chakra appeared as she bit her lower lip in concentration. Tenten, as well as the others, watched with her mouths agape as a strange purple liquid slowly poured out of the girl's ear. After a few minutes, the poisoned girl opened her hazel eyes and looked dazedly at Sakura's smiling face as she brought her fingers away from her head. "Welcome back. " The medic said as she moved away. Quickly, everyone helped the girl sit up and let her drink some much needed water._

_The weapons mistress finally averted her gaze from the poison that was on the ground to her friend. "How do you do that?" She asked in disbelief, causing Sakura to giggle at her expression. "Practice I guess." She replied easily. As TenTen opened her mouth to respond, a huge explosion occurred miles away from them. The earth in their area still rumbled from the blow and the sky is filled with smoke as debris scatters in the immediate area of the explosion. Sakura and Tenten turned around with surprised eyes. _

_"What was that?" The brunette asked, eyes narrowing. _

_Sakura shook her head. "I don't know, but I'll check it out. Someone might be hurt." She said, taking off in the direction of the blast. _

_"I'll go with you!" Tenten from behind her. The pink haired Kunoichi only glanced over her shoulder, not stopping her movements. "No, you stay and watch the others."_

_"At least bring some medics with you!"_

_"I'll be fine. They're needed here." Sakura refused bravely and turned her gaze ahead of her. Her eyes narrow with determination. The woman's body was screaming from over use but she wasn't giving up now. Puffs of breath escaped her mouth as she panted from exhaustion. She needed some rest, but as a medic, she needed value other people before herself. _

_After a while of running, she finally reached the clearing. Her eyes turned to saucers at the scene before her._

* * *

**Chapter 6: Message**

* * *

Kakashi stared down at the ashes on the forest floor, that he could only assume had been a fire place. They were heading towards the earth country but something had caught their attention - The fire and bed made of leaves to be precise. It seemed like the kidnapper left with Sakura in a hurry and forgot about cleaning this place up. Perhaps, it was he or she was mocking them, taunting the konoha nin with their mind games. It clearly said, 'Even if I left you clues, you still can't find me.'

Kakashi's one visible eye narrowed dangerously at the supposed message.

"Can you sense her, Kiba?" He heard Neji ask from behind him, standing near the bed of leaves with the others. The copy ninja looked over his shoulder at them. Kiba scattered the leaves away with his foot, his nose twitching at the scent belonging to his friend. "Yeah, she was here alright. Her smell is everywhere." He said. Naruto raised his blonde eye brow. "And the one who captured her?" The kyuubi container questioned.

The tracker ninja just shook his head in defeat. "No, just her."

"But come on! There's no way he could have erased all his scent!" The blonde whined, secretly telling Kiba to track down the scent again and be more careful this time. Tenten rolled her eyes and whacked Naruto's head with her fist, causing him to screech in pain and rubbed the quickly forming bump. "Owwie~!" He turned to the brunette with a few tears in the edge of his eyes. "That hurt, Tenten." He muttered. The weapon mistress huffed. "Don't be an idiot, Naruto. Kakashi-sensei already said that whoever this person is, he's a high-level ninja. He's not stupid enough to leave his scent." She crossed her arms over her chest.

"Then why did he didn't erase Sakura's scent too?" Tenten didn't answer this time, most likely because she didn't know the answer.

"He's toying with us." They all turned to Neji, who was leaning against the tree with closed eyes. "He didn't want to get rid of her scent because he wanted us to follow him."

Naruto pouted and scratched his head in bewilderment. "I don't get it." He admitted.

"It doesn't make any sense. Why does he want us to chase after him if he's just gonna run away? After all the trouble, I doubt he would just kidnap Sakura for the sake of getting a good chase." Tenten analysed.

"You're right, that's the biggest question." The long haired man rubbed his chin in thought, his white eyes looking over to Kakashi, who was still gazing at the make shift fire place.

He raised a brow thoughtfully. "What do you think, Kakashi?" He asked the teacher.

Kakashi crossed his arms over his chest. "He's probably planning to get us with the big one." He could sense everyone's confused look and felt the need to explain more clearly. "He wanted us to follow him so that he can lure us to his trap, that probably could lead us to our deaths." He turned to face them. "I doubt this is a game to him. Yes, he's toying with us, but I don't think he's planning to return Sakura. He already left his message."

"What is it?" Kiba asked while Tenten and Naruto waited eagerly for the answer.

"If you don't want to die, leave us be.'" Neji said without a second thought. Kakashi nodded, agreeing with what the Hyuga surmised.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Naruto pulled his hair in frustration. All this confusing stuff was getting more and more complicated. He didn't care about that. All he wanted to do was to get Sakura back to the village safely. Who knows what that bastard could be doing to her while they're here, trying to solve this stupid message he left for them. What the fuck was this guy's intention?

"That's for him to know and for us to find out." His sensei quoted, turning around again to look at the ashes.

"Kiba, come here." He called. The man with keen senses raised his brow before walking over to the silver haired nin.

"Take a look at this." Kakashi gestured to the place, where the fire had burnt out. The dog lover knelt down and looked closely at the ground the older nin pointing was talking of. Beside him, Akamaru walked over and sniffed the ashes, causing them to enter his nose, tickling his skin. The dog let out a big sneeze that made the ashes fly around the air. Everyone coughed when the dusty remains reached their noses.

"Ugh, Akamaru!" Naruto sneezed.

"Er, what am I supposed to be looking at?" Kiba stood up, rubbing his nose from the tickling feeling .

"What did you smell?" The tall man asked curiously, earning a shrug from Kiba.

"Burnt wood, I guess." He answered before his nose twitched when he sensed another smell. "And burnt clothes?" his eye brows rose at this.

Kakashi put his finger to his chin, his eyes looking distant with thought. It was just like he had guessed. The shinobi must have erased his scent by burning his clothes. He didn't know how he covered Sakura's scent all over him though, but he had a slight idea. Although, he decided to keep to himself, knowing that if he voiced it out loud, Naruto and Tenten would freak out and madly look for the kidnapper so they could kill him slowly for possibly harassing Sakura.

"Well, we're already wasting time here. There's nothing in this place that can help us." Neji stepped in, picking his body up from the tree. "Let's go!" Everyone, except Kakashi, leapt off from the ground and into the trees, heading in the direction of the earth country. The lone ninja stood there, glaring at nothing in particular, his gaze was off in the distance as his mind ran through each possibility. He had an idea who is to blame for this, but he wasn't too sure. _'It couldn't be him, could it?'_ He wondered, before Naruto's call snapped him out of his own mind.

"Kakashi-sensei!" With a deep sigh, the copy ninja took off, following his comrades. His obsidian did not lose the worried flicker in its depths and his shoulders remained slightly tense.

If his guess was right, then they needed to hurry.

* * *

"Kyaaaaah!" Sakura screamed. Tightening her hold on Sasuke's shirt, the dark haired missing nin resisted the urge to wince at her loud voice. It didn't help that she was next to his ear either.

"Stop screaming." He hissed, clenching his jaw tightly. The pink haired girl in his arms turned to glare at him, her shining orbs brimming with silent tears.

"Well, don't jump so high, dammit!" Sasuke could only roll his eyes at her words. She was a shinobi and she was afraid of heights? It was amusing but after she almost yelled his ears off, he didn't think so any more.

As if to scare her, he jumped up to a higher level, almost near the top of the trees. It earned him a squeak from Sakura as she tightened her hold around his neck. The girl clutched him tighter bringing her body closer to his, afraid that she might fall down.

"Stop it!" Tears escaped her eyes as she shut them tight, afraid to look down. Normally, she wasn't afraid of high places but she wasn't used to be someone carrying her at such a height. The fact that Sasuke was going at a fast pace wasn't helping her at all.

Sakura cracked one eye open when she received no response from the Uchiha. His lips was turned up a bit at the sides, it looked like he was smirking. She glared at him. He was doing this on purpose! That bastard!

"Just hold on, we're almost there." He said to her tonelessly, slowing his pace to something a little more bearable. The medic ninja secretly thanked him for that. He wasn't too bad after all.

During the journey to whatever secret place he was taking her to, Sakura took the time to observe his face. Looking at the slight differences from his younger self that she remembers clearly. The girl had met him a few times before, at Orochimaru's hideout and at the Kage Summit, but it was all during battle and she didn't have the time peruse him properly. The pinkette was too pissed off when they were sleeping last night to look at him. Denying to herself that she was embarrassed by last nights events. Not to mention, she didn't have much time to see his face and how it looked this morning before he woke up. Taking the rare chance this travel has given to her, Sakura took her time observing him.

His face had grown longer, like most boys did when they passed puberty. He lost the baby fat that previously covered his cheeks, and instead, high regal cheek bones were left in its wake. When they were twelve, the fuller cheeks suited him and did not stop him from looking more mature than any of the other kids their age. His jaw had squared out with lovely pointed chin. His eyes were a darker shade of onyx too. Sakura could see his emotionless depths more clearly now with the sunlight shining down on them. She didn't have to guess that he was more masculine, she already knew that it was a fact when she first saw him wearing that open neck shirt so sinfully. She briefly wondered if he had any normal unrevealing clothes, but surmised that free movement was more important to the missing nin. Still, the earlier high collared shirt was more appropriate and less alluring.

She looked down at the ground unconsciously before cursing and snapping her eyes upward quickly when she noticed how high they were travelling. This kinda reminded her of one of the situations that fell upon them when they were still in Team 7. They had encountered some forest thieves while travelling to water country, and Sakura twisted her ankle during battle. Naruto had argued and insisted that he should be the one who carried her, but in the end Sasuke's insistence won out.

_"Sakura-chan, are you sure you can walk by yourself?" Naruto asked her, leaning down and putting his hands on his bent knees, staring at her with worried blue eyes. Kakashi was beside him, with his usual orange book in hand, but his eye was on her. In the background, Sasuke was busy tying up the thieves with ropes, so that they wouldn't try to escape while the messenger bird they sent to water the nation asked them to come over and retrieve the thieves and put them away for good. Though he was doing his job, his deep coloured eyes watched his three team mates from the corner of his eyes._

_Sakura shook her head with a small smile. "Yeah, I'm fine." She tried to push their worry away. Glancing down at her ankle, she inwardly winced when she tried to get up. When she did finally stand, it was okay at first since she was leaning her weight on her good foot, but when she shifted on the other to walk, the pain overwhelmed her and making girl give a small yelp of pain before falling down. Naruto quickly caught her though, and helped her straightened up. _

_"Are you sure you're okay with walking by yourself?" He asked again, still not letting go of her, fearing that she might fall again._

_The pink haired Kunoichi tucked a strand of hair that had fallen behind her ear and huffed in frustration, not at Naruto but at her clumsy self. She should have been more careful than that, and then maybe none of this would have happened. "I told you, I'm okay!" She said through clenched teeth. _

_"I think Naruto's right, Sakura." Kakashi piped in. "You can't walk on your own like that. Or else it will make your injury even worse." Sakura sighed before nodding. She knew she couldn't win against her own sensei, he could always find the loopholes to her arguments._

_"I'll carry her!" Naruto volunteered enthusiastically with his hand raised up, careful not to take all of his hand off Sakura so that she didn't fall to the ground, just in time as Sasuke finished tying the thieves up and walking over to them. At Naruto's words, something cold ran through Sakura's spine. It's not like she didn't like him, it was just that he could be careless at times and she didn't want to fall down from tress if they were to jump through them._

_"I don't think it's a good idea." Another voice entered the conversation. Sakura thanked the person who had spoke in her mind, that was until she realised that it was Sasuke. Naruto popped a vein and pointed at him, almost dropping Sakura but he managed to stop himself from doing so. _

_"You're just jealous because I get to carry Sakura-chan!" He yelled at him, causing the injured girl to blush at his accusation. Sasuke? Jealous? Like that would ever happened._

_Sasuke in turn glared at him dangerously. "Don't assume such things. I simply stated the truth because you're clumsy. If you dropped her, what will happen, hm?" Sasuke denied his friends accusation quickly. Kakashi raised his eyebrow at the boys statement. Did he mean that he was afraid that Naruto might drop Sakura? He didn't know, but his eyes did say it all. _

_"I can be careful. Right, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto turned to his teacher for help. The silver haired man shook his head. "You should ask Sakura." He replied easily._

_The blonde turned to the girl. "Sakura-chan, what do you think?" He asked. She was about to open her mouth before Kakashi turned his attention to the pink haired girl. "Don't you dare think about saying that you're alright, because you're not." _

_Sakura closed her mouth and sighed. "Okay, fi—" She didn't get to finish her sentence when someone pulled her away from Naruto, careful not to hurt her. She turned to Sasuke with her eyes wide. "It's better if I carry you." He insisted calmly, watching her face for her reaction._

_Sakura swallowed and pushed the blood away from her face. "Hey, no fair!" Naruto yelled childishly at them. Kakashi patted his blonde head. "Sasuke has a point, Naruto. He's more careful than you are. He's the only one that can take care of Sakura." He said while the blonde fumed, huffing and crossing his arms. This successfully brought the blush to Sakura's face when she figured out the double meaning that Kakashi had implied. She didn't know if Sasuke noticed it though._

_"Come on, let's go." Sakura looked up at the black haired ninja hesitantly, before slowly nodding. After receiving her permission, Sasuke put his arms under the back of her knees and around her back, pulling her up to his chest. The pink haired girl squeaked and grabbed onto his shirt so she didn't fall, the blush on her cheeks increasing by the minute. She could hear Naruto hissing in the background as Kakashi held him with his hand around his collar easily so that he wouldn't lash out at them. _

_Gently, Sasuke jumped up to the tree, careful about his actions so he wouldn't drop her and glanced down at the two on the ground. "Let's go already." He told him emotionlessly, jumping to the other tree after that._

_Kakashi and Naruto, who grumbled something under his breath, got off the ground and followed them._

"_Put your arms around my neck." Sakura's eyes widened at Sasuke's voice. "It's easier that way." He explained afterwards. Hesitantly, she released her grip on his shirt and wound her arms around his strong neck. The action made her face rise even closer to his and she had to look away in embarrassment. The girl was too embarrassed to even look at his face. The way he carried her seemed to surprise her, it was tight. Her brain told her that he was being careful not to let her fall. Her heart told her that he was finally letting his feelings out, which she scoffed at. How narrow minded could her heart be?_

_Still, during her time in his arms, Sakura wondered why he didn't just give her piggy back, like other times. It would certainly be more convenient for him._

"We're here." Sasuke's voice brought her out of her own world. The pinkette felt the wind hitting her body harshly as he jumped down to the ground. On instinct, she clutched the young man's neck tighter. She was a little bit surprised that he didn't complain about her actions, until they landed safely on the ground. She opened her eyes then closed them from fear. She could not bring herself to look at his face. Slowly she scanned the area around her. It looked like a normal small village, with gambling houses, hotels and different kinds of shops and vendors.

She felt herself being lowered and planted her feet on the ground wordlessly. Her balance was wobbly at first, since she hadn't used her feet for so long because of being carried, but with Sasuke's help she managed to stop herself from falling. Dusting the dirt that landed on her shirt during the landing, she looked over at her ex-teammate.

"Where are we?" She asked curiously, making the Uchiha glance at her with a raised brow.

"I'm your kidnapper. And you expect me to tell you, my captive, where we are?" He asked incredulously, though his tone remained emotionlessly. Sakura could clearly sense the smirk on the inside of his mouth.

He was taunting her with her own words and the girl was half shocked, half frightened by it. With a huff, she walked a head of him, despite having no idea where she was going since she didn't know where she was. The Kunoichi was a bit familiar with this place but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Where ever she was, she needed to find the way and escape from Sasuke. She highly doubted that was possible with how well he kept his eyes on her. She blinked when the dark haired man passed by her and walked straight ahead.

He turned his head and looked at her over his shoulder. "Come on." He ordered. Sakura glared at him before complying. She had no choice, she didn't want him to use his spooky eyes powers on her. After confirming that she was indeed following him, he continued his way through the village, making sure that his and Sakura's hoods were over their heads so people wouldn't recognise them. The reason he had brought her here was because this area wasn't well-known like the others and was the closest town around. He had been here a couple of times was sure that the people didn't know much about ninjas, so they were safe for now. Besides, he had something he would needed to settle.

Sasuke stopped when he reached the hotel that he was planning to stay in, he reached over and took Sakura's hand in his, ignoring her protests and constant trying to open his hold, and went inside. The man at the counter looked up at him when he saw the shadow that was cast on the desk and book that he had been writing customers information in. He gulped when he saw the fierce gaze directed at him, causing him to look down in fear. "M-may I help you?" The owner stuttered, hoping that his customer wasn't some thug that would try to rob him of all his money.

"Get me a room, _now_." The unknown man annunciated the last word dangerously, almost making the owner cower in fear. As quickly as he could, he scribbled down the information and handed him the key that he needed. "Y-your room is on the third floor, three rooms away from the stairs." He tried to keep his voice as professional as possible but the hooded man's intense presence wasn't helping. Sasuke took it and quickly dragged Sakura upstairs, looking for the number of their room.

"Stop dragging me!" she hissed, and as curious as he was, the man at the counter couldn't help but look for the owner of the words, wondering who had such a beautiful voice despite it being used in an angry tone.

He saw the girl, who was being dragged upstairs by the scary man from earlier, stumbling her steps while climbing up, but she didn't fall due to the man's grip on her hand. His eyebrow rose when he saw a strand of pink hair falling from underneath her hood. He blinked and rubbed his eyes. Pink hair? No way.

"My eyes must be playing tricks on me." He mumbled to himself before greeting another customer coming his way.

* * *

"Geez." Sakura muttered as she rubbed her sore wrist, the one that Sasuke had been clutching. "You don't have to drag me." She glared at the man, who was setting his pack down on the bed. He only glanced at her briefly and continued to open the bag and begin to rummage through it.

"You were too slow. People might remember you." It was the same response he had used when she was spending time chatting with the guy she was buying her bra at—

The kunoichi's anger increased when she finally remembered. The girl walked over to Sasuke and stopped at the edge of the bed, putting her hands on her hips. "Where the hell is my bra again?" She asked in an annoyed tone. Sasuke visibly stiffened at her harsh words. Bra? He thought they bought them over near the Wave country already, what was she talking abo—Realisation struck him like a pile of bricks and he resisted the temptation to face palm. He left in a hurry when he found out that Konoha had sent people coming after them. They must have dropped it on the ground or in the hotel. Well, too late now.

"I'll buy you another one." He sighed, sitting on the bed in the small hotel room he rented.

"Then go buy it. I'm going to take a shower." The pinkette said finally. Grabbing the towel that hung over the racks near the bathroom, she opened the door and closed it with a 'click'. Sakura wanted to clean herself first before having the going-to-be-awkward conversation. The sound of the faucet running reverberated throughout the small room from outside the closed door. Sasuke let out another tired breath and got up slowly. Heading over to the entrance, the nin ripped the door open angrily and went out to get what Sakura needed.

* * *

Sasuke walked along the street in the direction he remembered vaguely was a clothing store. It didn't take long for him to reach it, as it was only a few houses away from the hotel. Walking inside the store confidently, the covered figure ignored the stares sent his way because of his dark cloak. He attempted to ignore the strange look he received when he made his way to the women's undergarment's racks. Sasuke steeled himself, willing his hand not to shake when he reached over and skimmed through the bras, finding the right size as fast as he could so he could leave this place.

He could bring Sakura here and let her do it herself, but he was already taking a risk coming here himself. The last thing they need is being found out because of a stupid bra, like the other village they were in. He couldn't do it again. Sasuke fought the blood that was rushing to his cheeks. Never in his entire life did the great Uchiha imagine that he would be here, buying woman's under clothes. He was fine buying his own, and wondered briefly if this was something that a husband would for his wife. After finding what he remembered was the correct size, he walked fast paced to the counter and slammed his money upon the hard surface, not even minding to get the change before leaving the store hurriedly.

The dark haired ninja put the clothes on the inside pocket of his cloak so that no one could see it. He breathed out a sigh of relief, mostly because he had finished what he considered to be one of the most difficult tasks of his life. He couldn't imagine buying something else more embarrassing than this. Sasuke suddenly stopped dead in his track when he realised another important thing.

If Sakura didn't have any bra on last night then…

He groaned quietly and hung his head. He was holding her last night and she didn't have any bra on. Not to mention the fact that he was shirtless. It must have been terrible. He was actually trying to bring her close to him too, he even wrapped his arms around her, and Sasuke secretly hoped that he didn't do anything more than that while he was a sleep. No wonder Sakura was so uncomfortable. She must have kept her mouth shut about the matter so that there wouldn't be any awkwardness between them.

_'Sakura must think I'm a pervert now._' He sighed again, trying to hide the blush on his cheeks with the use of his bangs.

He remembered wondering absent-mindedly what the squishy things against his arms were before he fell asleep last night. How stupid of him!

* * *

Sakura sat on the bed of the hotel with her legs crossed, still wearing the clothes that Sasuke had brought for her to wear, but still missing her chest support. She hoped he got the right size. The pink haired girl blushed at this. She had never sent any one to get her personal stuff before, let alone a man! She didn't expect that Uchiha Sasuke would have to be the one to buy it for her too. Hey, it was his fault anyway. She dried her hair faster with her towel. The pinkette really felt refreshed after taking a much needed shower. It was relaxing considering all that happened the hours before.

Her actions halted when she realised that it she has been missing for quite awhile already. Yet, she didn't sense anyone coming after her. The medic knew that Tsunade thought of her like her own daughter and would no doubt send someone to look for her, but it was taking an awfully long time. She hoped briefly that they don't abandon her like this. Sakura didn't want to be near Sasuke for too long. She tried hard enough already to repress her affections for him and she didn't want her hard work to come crumbling down once he showed up again.

Not to mention the fact that he was acting weird. The medic was already confused about his actions from when they first fought. His words had confused her and she remembers his deep voice all too clearly. 'This is your new home, now' He said to her back then. Had the stress got to him and made him mad? Perhaps, he was just bored and decided pick her as the target of whatever game he was playing. Nevertheless, his behaviour from last night confused her even more! The raven haired nin was too close to her for comfort and was cuddling her! Anyone in her situation would be freaked out. Sakura had no idea what his intentions were.

The soft click of the door being opened alerted the girl of Sasuke's arrival. He moved inside the room swiftly and locked the door behind him. Sakura caught the bra just in time when he threw it to her. She raised her pink brow and looked at the piece of material in her grasp. He actually got it right. She looked up and saw him leaning against the wall, his cloak already discarded. His coal eyes were looking at anywhere but her. Gazing with a keener eyes, Sakura squinted her eyes. Why were his ears red? It must have been pretty hot outside.

Sakura took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. Okay, now was the time to get some answers. No matter how awkward and embarrassing the conversation would be, she was determined to get something out of him.

"So, about last night…"

...

..

.

* * *

**A/N: **So what do you think Sakura was at in the flash back? Who does Kakashi think is behind all of this? What kind of conversation will go on between Sasuke and Sakura? And when will I stop ask you stupid questions?

Now!

If you have any questions, please ask and I'll try to answer them! Review! (okay, i know some of you can't review on this chapter or chapter 6 because you guys already have when these chapters were still the filler chapters, but now since I reupload it, you can't review two times a chapter. But if you really wanna review just PM me about it.)

**Important**: I have a poll at my profile concerning one of hte main plots in this story. It's called 'What gender(s) should Sakura and Sasuke's child/children be?' the story depends on you so go vote while you can. For guests, just put them in the review and I'll count them in too!

Bye!

**P.S:** Do you want lemons? (you know where this is heading right? *wink wink*

Edited March 14th: Beta read by: MerinXD


	7. 7: Time

A/N: I'm back! Well, this chapter took a long time (because i was lazy as usual) I actually wanted to finish this before next week when my exams start. I also would like to introduce you guys to someone at the end! XD

* * *

**Behind The Cold Eyes**

* * *

_Wide emerald eyes looked at the scene before her. Everything was almost destroyed. The trees were burnt and there were craters and deep cavities covering the ground. There was blood...everywhere. Sakura swallowed hard and covered her mouth with her hands as if she was about to vomit from the mere sight._

_Her medic instincts kicked in as her eyes scanned the area for any injured people. Thankfully, she found no one. Her feet carried her further through the horrifying battlefield. _

_Then something familiar caught her attention, just to the right. The colours of green and silver...Only one person came to her mind._

_'Kakashi-sensei!' She sprinted to her fallen teacher laying on the ground. The pink haired Kunoichi knelt down next to him. Panic filled her mind and heart when she saw his closed eyes and several seeping wounds and gashes that he must have received before she arrived. Her fingers felt for a pulse and her eyes flew opened. It was faint, but still there...meaning that he was still alive. There was still a chance to save him, if she could act quick! Gathering chakra to the palms of her hands, the medic began to heal the large severe wounds first. Sweat dripped down from her forehead as she tried to control her laboured breathing. She was exhausted from all the running and healing from previous hours but she could not allow herself to rest just yet. Her teacher and father figure was dying before her eyes and the girl refused to let death take him away from her!_

_'Come on!' Sakura chanted in her mind desperately. She continued to repair her sensei, having already finished with the most fatal injuries covering his form, she decided to leave the small wounds heal by themselves. The girl still needed her chakra for any unknown enemies she may encounter._

_A cough caught her attention as her worried emerald orbs snap to Kakashi's face. Watching with rapt attention, his non-Sharingan eye slowly opened half way to gaze blurrilyaround. Sakura sighed in relief. From the looks of his face, she could tell that he was a bit dizzy and needed time to recall everything that happened. _

_Sitting back, the pinkette waited patiently for him until he finally realised what was going on._

_The silver haired Jounin shot up abruptly, almost causing Sakura to fall back on the ground in surprise. His wide eye looked at his surroundings before the pain overwhelmed his entire being. _

_He hissed but continued to sit carefully, panting from the feeling of excruciating pain. Sakura moved closer to the injured shinobi and helped him straighten up. The girl gave her teacher a warm and tired smile when he finally decided to look at her. _

_"Sakura?" he asked in a hoarse voice. The medic nin nodded and inspected his body once more. _

_"Are you feeling alright now, sensei?" She stared at him._

_Kakashi nodded and gripped his left arm, where he remembered having a deep gash before he fainted. It was healed now, but he could still feel the slight throb of pain. The silver haired nin tried to open his other eye that held the Sharingan, only to close it again when he felt undeniable pain. It hurt to even move his left eye the slightest._

_"Easy, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura said softly. "You over-used it. You shouldn't use it for a while and rest." The medic finishes._

_The copy-ninja sighed and nodded, closing his eyes and trying to recall what happened. All he could remember was Sasuke coming here to help them. The missing nin and Naruto helped each other and fought with Madara and the ten tails while he, Gai and Killer Bee assisted them. Then Madara threw them Bijuu-dama and everything went black. He couldn't find Naruto or the others. They were probably somewhere else._

_"What happened, Kakashi-sensei?" His only female student's gentle voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He glanced at her face that was filled with worry and curiosity. She was covered in dirt and blood, a sight that he wasn't used to. Usually, whenever he and Team 7 went on missions, Sakura always made it out the cleanest of all of them. He and Naruto would make sure nothing happened to her. Looking at her right now made him realize that Sakura was more than he thought she was. She had grown without him even noticing it. Kakashi opened his mouth to answer but another huge explosion cut him off._

_Both of them looked over to the direction that it erupted from, seeing smoke and flames - dark flames, coming up into the sky._

_'It must have been another Bijuu Dama.' He thought. _

_Sakura stood up as Kakashi looked at her confusedly. "I'm going." She stated and prepared to leap off but he gripped at her ankles. The girl looked down at her mentor, seeing him staring at her with a hard gaze. _

_"It's too dangerous, don't." He said sternly. _

_Sakura only narrowed her eyes. "I've grown, Kakashi-sensei. I'm not weak any more. I can handle it." She averted her hard viridian gaze from him and looked to where the smoke was coming from. "There's nothing you can do to stop me sensei."_

_Kakashi sighed at this. In his condition, he couldn't make her change her mind. Everyone knew Sakura was as stubborn as hell. Once she made up her mind, she wouldn't change it. It really reminded him of Rin. He chuckled wryly and saw a look of confusion cross the younger womans face. He smiled behind his mask at her. "Take me with you." Her eyes widened at his request. _

_"You can't go, sensei! You're in no condition to move and besides I can handle—"_

_"I can teleport us there." He cut her off. Sakura clamped her mouth shut into a straight line. "I have enough Chakra left to teleport the both of us there. It can save time and your energy." He tried to stand up, almost falling back down if it weren't for Sakura's support. _

_The pinkette sighed. "Fine...But after that, you're going to hide somewhere and rest, got it?" She ordered in her professional doctor voice she used whenever she was talking to a patient. _

_Kakashi's eyes crinkled as a smile stretched across his lips. "Yes, Sakura-sensei." He teased._

_Sakura rolled her eyes and put his arms around her neck. Kakashi closed his eyes for a moment and in a matter of seconds, they were in another place. The only female member of team 7 blinked couple of times to clear her blurry vision. When she finally regained her normal sight, she looked around. Almost immediately, she noticed her friend...Naruto. It wasn't hard to distinguish him from others, even in battle or when he's covered in blood. His bright yellow hair and orange jumpsuit had always been the center of attention._

_Her limping teacher beside her furrowed his silver eye brows as he caught sight of his fallen comrades. He could still see Naruto, helping Gai with Killer Bee next to them. He felt Sakura walk up to the three shinobi while helping him there. Kakashi could tell that the girl next to him was tired, judging by her posture and harsh panting. He couldn't blame her though, she had been fighting and healing for so many days without breaks since the war started._

_Naruto's head perked up when he heard footsteps coming his way. The blonde ninja carefully laid Gai, (who had injured his left leg), to the ground and looked up at the new comers. His sapphire eyes widened at the sight that befell him. "S-sakura-chan?" Slowly standing up, he walked over to the two, not hesitating to take Kakashi off Sakura so she could have a break. After laying the wounded ninja down, Naruto stared at his teacher, silently watching as he breathed heavily. _

_"You okay, sensei?" he asked. Kakashi gave a nod and the Kyuubi vessel turned his attention to Sakura, who had already fallen to the ground._

_Quickly rushing to her, Naruto laid his palm on Sakura's back as a sign of comfort, waiting for her to regain her composure before asking, "What are you doing here?" _

_The pinkette glanced at him with a serious look. "Helping you, duh!" She answered, a little bit out of breath. The blonde gritted his teeth when she said this. "What are you thinking?! This is the battlefield! It's dangerous! You can get hurt and—" He shut his mouth when he saw Sakura throwing him a hard glare, one that he knew she used only when she was really pissed off or serious. He was guessing it was the former._

_"Are you saying that I'm weak?" She hissed out. The goofy ninja gulped but remained determined. "I'm not trying to say you're weak! I just don't want you to get hurt! Do you know what would happen if you did?" He was trying to keep his eyes hard but it was difficult with the look that Sakura was giving him. _

_"So what? You suggest me to hide while you guys fight to death like I always do? I'm stronger now, Naruto. You of all people should know this."_

_"But—"_

_"I'm not changing my mind. I refuse to sit back and let you guys do all the work." She cut him off before he could protest. Naruto sighed and looked over at Kakashi, silently asking him for help but the copy ninja only shrugged with a smile behind his dirty mask. _

_"What a feisty woman." Killer Bee smirked, throwing a suggestive look towards Sakura, who raised her brow at him. _

_"Her youth is simply dazzling. She should fight a long side us!" Gai tried to encourage, ignoring the painful wound he had. The medic smiled at him in gratitude, which he responded with a thumbs up._

_"Okay, fine!" Naruto threw his hands to the air in resignation. "Just make sure to stay near me and don't die, Sakura-chan!" He turned to his crush. _

_She gave him a smirk. "You too, Naruto. I'd like to see your face when you see me in battle this time." The two team-mates stood and glanced down at the teachers on the ground. _

_"Kakashi-sensei and Gai-sensei should stay here." Sakura suggested. Naruto looked over to the Hachibi container. "Bee-jichan, can you watch over them?"_

_"You can count on me!" Bee grinned. After hearing that, Naruto ran towards the location he knew Madara was at, with Sakura following him closely. _

_"Naruto?" Said person grunted. "What happened? Gai-sensei and Kakashi-sensei look so jacked up." She asked. There was a moment of silence. Naruto bit his lips, contemplating whether to tell her or not. Well, she was going to find out anyway. _

_"We were fighting Madara." He paused, trying to think of a way to summarise the whole story. "He revived the Juubi."_

_Sakura's eyes widened. "The Juubi?" The girl repeated repeated. She knew what it was. After years of studying under Tsunade she had access to a lot of information, including things that people wouldn't have the liberty to know. _

_Naruto nodded. "We tried to fight him but he threw us Bijuu-dama." He stopped, purposely leaving the part where Sasuke come and saved them. The Jinchuuriki knew Sakura would be smart enough to figure everything out from here. Confused by the lack of response, Naruto glanced at Sakura, seeing her looking down, seemingly in thought._

_The Haruno clenched her fists after hearing everything Naruto said. Part of her was scared at how strong he seemed to describe Madara as. Could she really help Naruto defeat him? She knew she shouldn't be feeling this way. Sakura had sworn to herself that she wasn't going to be the sitting duck this time and would be strong enough for everything that would happen. She was determined not to give up hope so easily like she had done many times before. Sakura didn't want to let Naruto carry the entire burden this time. As a ninja and his friend, she was going to protect him and win this battle...No matter how hard it would be._

_Sakura gasped in surprise and stopped just time to avoid a large boulder that flew at them. She looked to where it was coming from and her breath hitched when she saw a giant creature that she assumed was the Juubi. There was a man standing atop the beast with purple chakra surrounding him. 'Madara.' She thought with venom. Sakura and Naruto jumped to where it was. Madara looked at them with unreadable eyes. His orbs focused on the girl who he hadn't seen before, absent mindedly wondering who she was._

_Naruto looked around in panic when he couldn't find Sasuke anywhere. Where was he? He thought he was here fighting Madara. Sasuke couldn't have possibly died, could he? His eyes widened when he felt himself being carried over up to a tree by Sakura. He blinked and stared at the place where they were standing previously, seeing a huge crater there. _

_"Don't space out!" Sakura shouted at him. Naruto shook his head. He didn't have time to be distracted any more. If it weren't for Sakura, he would have been nailed by another tailed beast bomb again. "Thanks, Sakura-chan." He smiled at her and stood up._

_The pink haired ninja smirked at him. "You realize how different I am now?" Her team-mate only chuckled and turned to the direction of Juubi. _

_"So, you just don't give up, do you?" Madara asked in an emotionless tone as his eyes looked over to the two shinobi. He was getting a bit bored fighting them, but he could feel a twinge of excitement rushing through him when he saw the new pinkette. He could feel something interesting in her Chakra. Something hit him. "Hey girl, you're Tsunade's apprentice right?" he stared intensely at her._

_Sakura raised her eye brow at him. "How do you know?" She whispered but Madara could hear her. "You're quite popular; I heard a few ninja talking about you on my way here. Saying how strong similar you are to the Hokage." His tone was a bit amused. The thought of fighting with her excited him a little. He was curious as to how much potential this little girl had, seeing as she was the fifth Hokage's student and all._

_"I feel honored that a legendary shinobi like you acknowledges me." Sakura smiled falling into a fighting stance. "But it's a shame that we are going to defeat you afterwards." _

_Naruto looked back and forth between Sakura and Madara, utterly confused by their interactions. The pinkette gritted her teeth and leapt off the tree, heading towards the Juubi and the once dead Uchiha. Naruto's eyes widened at her actions. "Sakura-chan! Wait!"_

_She dodged the blows that the Juubi used easily. Madara watched in slight interest at how fluid and precise her movement was. "You're better than I expected." He said. The sides of Sakura's mouth lifted as she slammed her fist at one of the tails that aimed at her. She used it as a way to climb over to where Madara was while avoiding the objects that came into her path. When she was close enough to Madara, she aimed her fist at his face, only for it to be caught in his hand. He smirked at her. She clenched her jaw and moved her leg to throw him off balance but he jumped away from her._

_Sakura panted as she looked at the smirking man in front of her. Her body was screaming for a break but she couldn't. She needed to finish this._

_"You're strong but your strength is not enough to even scratch me." She glared at Madara, who was looking smugly at her. "Weakling." Something inside of Sakura snapped. If there was one thing Sakura hated most, it was being called 'weak'. Without thought, she sprinted towards the enemy, ignoring the Susanoo that he summoned. The only goal in her mind was killing him, with everything around her just a blur._

_Naruto was trying to get to Sakura to assist her but with all the attacks the Juubi was throwing at him, he couldn't reach her. He wasn't as good as his pink haired team-mate when it came to dodging. He looked to where Madara and Sakura were and his eyes flew opened at the giant purple hand that was aiming towards his team-mate. He couldn't reach her on time in this state. _

_"It's over, girl." Madara smirked._

_SLAM!_

_"Sakura-chan!"_

* * *

**Chapter 7: Time**

* * *

Sasuke's muscles tensed for a minute when he heard her mention it. His eyes moved from the floor to view her face for a moment, noting that she didn't show any sign of embarrassment or nervousness. How could she be so calm when he _accidentally _almost molested her last night? Sakura cleared her throat loudly and looked at the silent man in front of her. With a sigh, she patted the mattress softly with her palms.

"Sit here, it'll be easier for me to talk to you that way." He scowled at her, although there were still red hues covering his ears in embarrassment.

"I'm fine standing here."

Sakura could only roll her eyes at his stubbornness. She was just being considerate and didn't want the man to have sore feet later from standing too long. She had a hunch that their conversation was going to last for a long time.

"Just stop being an idiot and sit next to me...or on the floor for all I care, I just want to save you from the possibility of getting tired feet." She told him with an annoyed look. Was it wrong to be nice to your kidnapper? If it was, Sakura must have gone crazy. But he was still her ex-teammate and she couldn't deny the fact that she still somehow cared for him, even if she didn't want to.

The young Uchiha grumbled something under his breath before walking over to the bed and sat himself near Sakura, making sure to keep a healthy distance from her.

The pinkette flashed him a smile. "There, that wasn't so bad now was it?" A glare answered her question. "Jeez, stop being so uptight about this. You should be lucky that I'm even letting you near me after what you did last night." Sasuke thanks the gods when the girl beside him doesn't notice the slight wave of emotion running through his eyes when she spoke of his activities the night before.

He turned away from her. "Get on with it." He just wanted to get things over as fast as possible. He did not feel comfortable discussing this.

"Maybe _you're_ the one who should start explaining yourself about last night." Sakura stated calmly, much to his dismay. Why was she the one who was cool headed when he was the flustered one? Had their role completely switched?

"I don't have to explain myself to _you_." He tried to make his tone as angry as possible but it didn't come out that way with all the emotions he was feeling right now. Sakura blinked a few times and then a furious expression came to her face.

"What did you say?! You're the one who was practically sexually touching me last night!"

Sasuke inwardly grimaced at the word sexual. "Don't be ridiculous, I only hugged you last night because I was cold." He hoped that Sakura would buy his reason and leave him alone. He couldn't tell her that he did it to cover himself with her scent, which would cause suspicion. He hoped that he really did just hug her last night and not like what she accused.

Sakura sneered at his response. "Oh believe me. You did more than just hug me last night!" Her eyes stared into his emotionless depths with something akin to anger in her eyes. "I want to know the real reason, and I doubt you would hug me because you're cold! I know you enough to notice that you're not the type to seek other people's warmth just because of the cold weather!"

Her chest heaved up and down in anger. Sasuke narrowed his eyes and looked away from her face that was moving closer and closer to his during her outburst. He knew this was going to happen, she was smart, almost as smart as him. There's no way she would have fallen for a pathetic excuse like that. He understood why she was angry. She was braless and he was shirtless last night, and the fact that he was holding her close to him against her will added the fuel. It's true though, he was just hugging her last night. But he was also curious as to what he exactly did that led her to be this mad.

Sakura on the other hand, felt a bit guilty that she was blaming him like this. It wasn't entirely his fault. He was asleep and had no idea what he did the previous night. Sasuke didn't mean to do it and it didn't cause any harm to her other than the embarrassment and the lack of sleep that she faced because of how uncomfortable she was with his arms so close to touching her breasts. Then again, it was his fault in the first place that she lost her bra and besides, he should have remembered she was missing that article of clothing since he was the one that was in a rush to leave, which caused her to drop the undergarment back at the last village. Though, that wasn't the entire reason for the conversation. Sakura was also doing this because she wanted the answer that he still hadn't provided her since the beginning of his kidnapping.

The Uchiha next to her clenched his hands and gritted his teeth. "I told you before that I can't answer that." He felt her shifting off the bed but didn't look up to check.

"Quit it with that bullshit! I want answers! Now!" Sakura stood up and glared at him. "Why are you doing this?! What's the reason that you're keeping me like this?! I don't get it!" She snapped, but didn't get any reaction from him. Not even a grunt. "You're confusing me…" she added with a whisper.

Sasuke shifted, causing Sakura's anger to disappear slightly. She watched cautiously as he stepped closer and closer to her slowly, his head hung low so she was unable to see his eyes. Each step he took forward caused her to reflexively take a step back. The process was repeated until Sakura felt the hard cement of the wall hit her back. Cornered between the wall and Sasuke, she tried to control her breathing and the blood from rushing to her face. That however, proved to be useless when the missing nin lifted his arms and caged her head, leaning his bang covered face closer to her.

Sakura watched as his eyes revealed themselves, gasping silently when she saw something different in them, something that she didn't expect to see. The girl wasn't exactly sure what it was, but she felt something hot run through her body when she saw them. These eyes were familiar, not like the ones that she had seen on the Sasuke of the present. It was similar to the ones that she rarely saw during their Genin days...When he was still good and still the one she learnt to call her first love. Still, there was also a certain emotion that she couldn't quite decipher within his onyx depths. She felt like she had seen that look before, but couldn't recall when. The way he stared at her made the woman want to crawl away from him. The gaze was too intense, like it was piercing right through her, and she felt uncomfortable under their assault.

His mouth parted slightly to speak, but closed them in an instant. He was hesitating. _'I can't tell you. I don't know how.'_ He wanted to say. _'It's hard for me to say so just please, understand me and the reason why I'm doing this. I just don't want them to take you away.' _

Though all it came out was, "Just give me time, Sakura." He whispered and in a matter of seconds, he disappeared in cloud of smoke. Everything went silent in the room.

Sakura stared at the spot where Sasuke was standing not too long ago. Slowly, she slid down to the floor, a dazed look covering her face. Her mind was swirling in confusion.

_"Just give me time, Sakura."_

The pink haired medic closed her eyes and brought her knees to her chest. What did he mean by that? What was that emotion he had in his eyes? What the hell was happening? A million questions came into her mind as she gritted her teeth. The way he said her name back then...the tone of his voice.

It wasn't the monotonous thing he always used, there was _something_ in them. He sounded _desperate_. Desperate for what? She pulled her pink hair in frustration.

"Sasuke-kun…"

* * *

A curse slipped from Sasuke's mouth as he slumped down on the grass, leaning his back against the tree behind him. Things were getting more and more complicated by the day. He didn't know what he was going to do when he faced Sakura after what he did back then. He should have just left.

Just give me time? Yeah. What a great excuse, Sasuke. His mind thought bitterly, as he clamped his eyes shut tightly and let out a long breath, trying in vain to calm himself. Now was not the time to be thinking about this. He could feel the chakra of his pursuers coming at a fast speed.

He stood up and opened his eyes, his mind now in a more calm state. He walked to the destination he was planning to go to since the moment he stepped his foot here. He needed to do something to get rid of the annoying leaf ninjas chasing after him. Thankfully, he knew just the right person for the job. He kept walking until he reached a deep forest. Activating his Sharingan and slowly, a house appeared in front of him. Without hesitating, he stepped to the door and opened it. He never bothered to knock.

Sasuke pulled out his katana and blocked the many Senbon coming his way just in time. His face remained impassive an evil chuckle echoed throughout the hide out.

"Well, well. If it isn't the famous, Uchiha Sasuke." A deep voice reached his ear as someone approached him from the shadows. A man stepped forward with a smirk. His dark green hair swayed with his movement as his brown eyes crinkled in amusement. "Long time no see." He looked up and down at the young man in front him. "What brings you here?"

The Uchiha narrowed his eyes. "I want you to do something for me, Rokusho." He said coldly. He didn't like the guy. He never did. Sasuke was here because he owed him a favor and the Uchiha knew he had the ability to do the things he needed him to.

Aoi raised his eye brow at him. "What's that?" he asked with fake interest.

"There's a group of Konoha Shinobi coming after me. I want you to get rid of them." The missing nin of Amagakure chuckled at this.

"I thought you weren't involved with Konoha any more. Why are they after you?" That earned him a cold glare from the man.

Aoi knew he was pressing matters that didn't concern him and knowing Sasuke, he could be asking for a death wish. The former ninja of both Konoha and Amegakure had been found by one of Orochimaru's men. He was kept in prison and became one of the test subjects that the snake experimented on. But after Sasuke killed Orochimaru, he was released and part of him was thankful to the spiky haired missing nin for sparing him. He was residing near the earth country now, where no one recognized him, working as a hired mercenary.

"That's none of your business. Just do what I want you to." Sasuke scowled. "You owe me."

The brown eyed Nukenin raised his hands up in defence. "Alright, alright." He laughed.

Sasuke snarled and sheathed his sword. Aoi watched as the dark haired man exited his home, the door swinging shut behind him. He couldn't stop the amusing smirk from coming to his face. Not from his behavior, but it was the scent that covered the Uchiha when he entered. A very feminine aroma assaulted his senses the moment Sasuke stepped inside his home.

Now that was strange. He knew Sasuke had never been the type to fool around with women. It was fact that everyone knew. Though now, he was thinking otherwise. Strangely enough, he was familiar with the odor that was all over Sasuke. He had sensed it somewhere before but couldn't quite put his finger on it. No matter, he had a job to do. Rokusho Aoi was always dedicated to his job.

It is one of the reasons why Sasuke put him up to this.

* * *

Naruto panted as he jumped to another tree. They had been sprinting for hours non-stop and still hadn't reached the village where Kiba had told him Sakura was currently held. His feet were aching from all the activity and there was no doubt in his mind that others were in the same condition.

"Are we there yet, Kiba?" He asked the tracker ninja in front of him.

The brunette looked over his shoulder at his friend. "Almost there!" He answered.

The blonde groaned. "You said that an hour ago!"

Kakashi couldn't help but smirk at his student. "What's the matter, Naruto? Are you tired?" He teased. The Jinchuuriki responded with a glare. "No, I'm not!" He protested.

Neji stared at him emotionlessly. "Your eyes say otherwise." He stated.

"Fuck you, Neji!" Naruto yelled, causing everyone to laugh. Tenten smiled at her comrades. It was times like this that helped reduce the stress they were feeling. Sure, she was worried about Sakura but they needed some relief so the pressure of mission wouldn't get to them. It would clear up their minds.

Suddenly, Kakashi stopped in his tracks. The others followed suit and halted their jumping. The copy ninja drew his eye brows together and looked around as if searching for something. He could have sworn he sensed a unique chakra signature here. He closed his eyes for a moment to concentrate. After a while, he opened them again and focused his lone eye in front of him, where he could feel not just one but many other presences heading towards them. He glanced at Neji, who had a glare on his face, his hand hovering over his weapons pouch. He must have noticed this too.

"Can you feel that?" The Hyuuga asked him watching as the older nin nods slowly.

Naruto, as well as Kiba and Tenten, looked curiously at the two.

"Feel what?" Kiba scratched his head, before a wave of different scents reached his keen nose. Turning around fiercely towards the direction, he growled. "We got company." As soon as his words left his mouth, an explosive kunai embedded itself on the ground, causing each of their eyes to widen.

Naruto cursed as he jumped away, just in time to avoid the explosion. Smoke covered the forest as he coughed and tried to look for his other comrades. His blue eyes caught sight of Neji perched upon a tree next to him, with Tenten kneeling by his side. The blonde felt a pat to his shoulder and glanced behind him to see Kakashi, already uncovering his Sharingan with a serious expression covering his features.

"Kakashi-sensei?" He called questioningly. His teacher only responded by squeezing his shoulder, signalling him to get ready. Naruto got what he was trying to say and fell into a fighting stance.

"I didn't expect to see you here, Naruto." The Kyuubi container tensed at the voice, he recognized it. Naruto knew who he was! The Konoha hero clenched his jaw and looked around for the owner of the voice, the smoke hadn't cleared yet and he couldn't tell where he was. "I thought you were dead!" He yelled, his blue eyes still scanning the area.

A deep chuckle was heard. "It'd take more than your pathetic jutsu to finish me off, kid."

Naruto jumped down from the tree he had been standing on when he sensed senbon coming for him. He drew the kunai from his pouch. Kakashi and Naruto dodged the tiny weapons with ease.

"Keep your guard up, Naruto. He's strong. I can tell by his chakra." His teacher warned him as they fell into a defensive position, back to back, eyes alert for any attack. Naruto knew his opponent was strong. He had faced him before, but his chakra now was different somehow. It was darker than three years ago and Naruto wasn't sure if he could defeat him or not. Off in the distance, behind his foe, sit many other chakra signatures ready for battle. Naruto's eyes narrow seriously at his senses. He must have brought allies...and each of them was strong.

Finally, the smoke disappeared and he could see clearly now. His eyes widened when someone appeared before him in a flash. Aoi still looked exactly the same, only older. Even his outfit didn't change. Behind him were ten other people, who Naruto could tell were all missing nins judging by how powerful their Chakra was.

He didn't have time for this. They still needed to go and find Sakura. Fighting him now would be wasting time!

Sets of footsteps reached their ears as Naruto turned around to see Kiba, Neji and Tenten approaching them. "What's going on?" Tenten asked when she reached them, her eyes falling on the missing ninjas in front of her.

"Looks like they won't leave us until we fight them." Kakashi said calmly, although the look on his face was different. He was also frustrated by this. He needed to finish this quickly. The silver haired teacher knew that Sakura's kidnapper was going to send someone after them. He didn't want to come himself, which was obvious by how secretive he was with his identity. If his guess was correct, he might be using this time to escape while they were busy fighting this Aoi.

"Why are you here?!" Naruto hissed out, staring heatedly at his opponent.

"Let just say someone sent me here to kill you." Aoi smirked and brought out his umbrella. His brown eyes looked from one Konoha ninja to the other and raised his eye brow when he noticed something. "Where's that pink haired team-mate of yours?" He asked him. Naruto snarled but didn't answer him.

That was enough for Aoi to know what happened to her. No wonder the smell on Sasuke was so familiar. He was smart and now, he knew exactly what was going on. He didn't know what the hell Sasuke was thinking, but he sure found it amusing. He wondered what would happen after this.

Right now though, he needed to finish his job. "Now." He started.

"Let's begin shall we?"

...

..

.

* * *

**A/N:** I know I asked you guys if wanted lemons or not but putting it in here now would be rushing the whole plot. It'll take a few more chapters until we can get there. Though I will promise you, there will be lemons!

Remember that special someone i talked about! She's my beta-reader! I mean, seriously, she's like my savior who's been sent to me from heaven! She also writes a good Sasusaku story, which I'm sure some of you know!

Her name is MerinXD! Check her out guys!

**Important**: I have a poll at my profile concerning one of hte main plots in this story. It's called 'What gender(s) should Sakura and Sasuke's child/children be?' the story depends on you so go vote while you can. For guests, just put them in the review and I'll count them in too!

Bye!


	8. 8: Worries

**A/N: **I know i haven't been answering reviews since the last two or three chapters, I'm sorry for that. From now on, i'll try to respond as much as i can.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Behind The Cold Eyes**

* * *

_Sakura wasn't sure what happened after she heard Naruto shout her name. All she could see, was red. The only thing that crossed her mind, was killing Madara, especially when he said the taboo word. She was mere inches away from the man everyone once assumed to be dead, but she felt somebody pulling her away. The person moved so fast that she couldn't see anything but a blur of images and colour around her. Whoever he was, he had a really strong built body, judging by how solid the muscles of his arms were when they encircled themselves around her waist and whisked her away from her target._

_Feeling her feet touching the ground, the medic wordlessly pulled away, but almost fell over from the dizziness caused by the effect of the sudden movement. The man didn't fully remove his arms from her, leaving them loosely linked around her body to prevent her from falling. Shaking her head a couple of times and opening her eyes, Sakura faintly registered Madara cursing and Naruto's quiet murmur, "Sasuke…"_

_Emerald eyes flew open widely when she heard it, looking up quickly to search for the owner of the name, the one that she hadn't seen in a very long time. Her emerald eyes increased in size when she saw him, gazing down at her with those red eyes she was so familiar with. His face was a picture of passivity and despite his intense blank look, his gaze was unreadable._

_"Sasuke-kun…" His name left her lips in a whisper. She was still shocked at this. Why was he here? Why did he save her? He was supposed to be with the enemy. It's his goal to destroy Konoha. He said it himself, that he was going to kill anyone who resided in the village...but why did he save her from Madara?_

_"Sakura…" He murmured in slight acknowledgement, his eyes leaving her form when he heard approaching footsteps, that he assumed belonged to Naruto._

_When the blonde ninja landed near them, he immediately ran over to his still shocked female team mate. "Sakura-chan!" He reached her side, watching the girl with astonished eyes staring at the Uchiha in front of them. His blue orbs observed how she slowly turned towards him with a look of confusion._

_"Naruto. What—what is he—" She turned to glare at Sasuke. "What are _you_ doing here?" she asked him instead. Sasuke only stayed quiet and looked away._

_"He's here to help, Sakura-chan." Naruto answered for him. The medic ninja's mouth hung open at what she heard; the once angered look on her face was replaced by a disbelieving expression. "W-why?" her gaze moved from Naruto and to her ex-teammate, who she noticed was still avoiding looking at her._

_"That doesn't matter. At least he won't be destroying Konoha any more." The Kyuubi container laughed cheerfully. Sakura's eyes narrowed. "You trust him?" She gritted her teeth. How could Naruto be so naive? He should have known better than to trust the enemy, especially if it's Sasuke. She could feel the dark haired shinobi turning his head and looking at her when she said this, but she didn't care. She couldn't trust him as much as Naruto was. Who could blame her? He tried to kill her, and her friends too many times. It would take more than a few words to earn her trust again._

_"I don't care if you trust me or not." Sasuke hissed, closing his Sharingan eyes. "I'm only here to defeat Madara. With or without your help." He stated in a calmer voice._

_Sakura seemed to be hesitant, but strangely after she saw that smirk appearing on his face and hearing his next words, "You annoying little girl." Suddenly, she knew she could trust him, even just a little. Maybe, just maybe he was turning back into the Sasuke they all knew. To the person that she could call a friend. Team seven might have a happy ending after all._

_"I don't mean to interrupt your reunion, but I have unfinished business with the girl." Madara's monotonous voice caught their attention. Sasuke's calm expression turned to a menacing one when he turned to gaze at the old Uchiha standing on the Jubi. The fight was taking too long and he needed to finish this now. Madara is too dangerous to be left living in this world. Sasuke owed it to his clan and himself to kill him._

_"Alright, let's do this!" Naruto shouted, pumping his fist to the air enthusiastically._

_"Together…" He glanced over at Sakura when she whispered this. The kunoichi had a very gentle smile on her face as well as a happy sparkle in her eyes. "Let's do this. T_ogether_ this time." She corrected softly. It completely melted Naruto's heart. He could feel warmth entering his body all over. The blonde felt like he was twelve again, when he was still on Team Kakashi and fighting together with his two best friends. Much like right now._

_Sakura's emerald eyes landed on Sasuke afterwards. He caught her gaze with his own dark red eyes. She didn't say anything but her eyes seemed to be telling him the exact same thing she told Naruto. Sasuke bobbed his head up and down slightly in understanding. Sakura couldn't resist the smile that was threatening to come to her face. She had always pictured this - The three of them fighting together. Even though Sakura wasn't so sure what side Sasuke was fighting on, she still felt that the three of them were connected somehow. Their bonds hadn't been completely broken, at least._

_With perfect timing and team work, the three of them leapt skyward towards Madara, with new found strength of their own._

* * *

Kakashi felt something rush through his spine with a shiver. He gazed to where Naruto and Sakura sprinted to not so long ago. It was strange. He hadn't felt something like this since three years ago. Something happened. He just knew it.

_"Something wrong, Kakashi?" Gai asked his rival, who seemed to be deep in thought. The gray haired Jōnin shook his head and sighed, "It's nothing." He answered, before standing up, earning looks of confusion from Bee and the spandex wearing ninja._

_"Where d'ya think ya' goin', ya' fool?" Bee asked when he saw the ninja walking (or more like limping), over in the direction that he remembered the little blonde kid and that feisty pink haired Kunoichi had gone to._

_"I'm going to check on them. They might need help." Kakashi said, still having trouble walking with his injured body. He was still recovering, but he could see that out of the three of them, he was in a better condition._

_"We can come with you." Gai suggested. He was preparing to get up but Kakashi held up his hand in protest. "No Gai, you stay here." He turned his eyes to the bigger man. "You too Bee-san, you're needed here in case somebody attacks Gai."_

_"Do I look like I'm fucking helpless?!" The bowl hair cut shinobi shouted at him, his angry veins were visible on his forehead. Kakashi let out a gentle chuckle at his friend's childish outburst. "Well, yes." That earned him a huff and crossed arms. How Gai could do something so childlike during war was beyond him, but it was funny nonetheless._

_"I'll be going." Kakashi informed them one last time before taking off in the direction of the Juubi. His pace wasn't fast, but it was enough to get him there on time. He hoped. The copy nin didn't want to be late, like how he always was. It was partly because of his tardiness that caused everything in his team to crumble. He knew that Naruto and Sasuke were strong and were perfectly capable of protecting themselves. He was still a little bit worried about Sakura, but didn't voice his concern in fear of the young woman's wrath. She was strong, but his protective instinct still prevented him from fully letting her go out and fight all alone._

_The copy ninja landed on a huge boulder and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the Jubi a distance away. He couldn't fully see what was going on from this far, but he could still make out the pink and orange blur moving at a rapid pace around Madara. It didn't take him long to recognize them as his own students._

_Moving a little bit closer, he could finally see Sasuke. It seemed that the four of them were so engaged in their own fight that they didn't even notice his presence. Not that it mattered. It would be easier this way. Their sensei was in a good condition but not enough to fight alongside them, no matter how much he wanted to. Kakashi knew he would just be a burden out there. So he had no choice but to leave all the work to his three ninjas, who had all become his precious students. Even though one was a knuckle head, one was a traitor and the last one was a stubborn little girl. Even if all of them were broken puzzle pieces, together they fit each other perfectly._

_Right now as he watched the three of them move in sync (he wasn't actually sure if they noticed it themselves), he knew that they had grown up to be strong shinobi._

_A proud smile made its way to his lips. Kakashi couldn't have asked for better students._

* * *

**Chapter 8: Worries**

* * *

Tsunade sighed for the ninth time today. She still hadn't received any information from the troops she sent to retrieve Sakura. The woman wondered if something happened to them. No, that was impossible. She perfectly picked the right team by hand for the mission. Each of them was strong on their own merit. If anything were to happen, they could handle it. She was thinking too much. Sakura's disappearance was starting to affect her.

"Tsunade-sama?" the young looking woman looked up from her papers and glanced at Shizune, who was at the door looking at her with a slightly worried gaze. Even the dark haired woman agreed that she was worrying too much.

"What is it?" She asked, her brown eyes returning back to the previous papers she was tending to just minutes ago.

"Yamanaka Ino wishes to see you." Tsunade's eye brows lifted. "Really? Let her in." Shizune moved to the side, making space for Ino to come inside the Hokage's room. The dark haired medic bowed her head before exiting the area, leaving the two blonds alone.

When Shizune finally disappeared, Tsunade leant back in her chair and stared at Ino boringly. "What do you want, Yamanaka?" She asked in a tired tone, which Ino guessed was the cause of working overtime and the sudden kidnapping of her friend. "If you want a mission, there's nothing available now. There's only D-rank left but that's for the Genins." Her eyes scanned the mission scrolls as she said this.

Ino shook her head. "No, that's not it, Tsunade-sama." She looked down. If Tsunade looked closer, she would have seen the sadness that was swirling through her blue eyes. "I'm just wondering…" The girl trailed off for a bit before continuing. "Have you received any information about Sakura?" She asked. "It's been almost a week and I'm worried that something happened to them."

"Ah, that." Tsunade sighed and gave her a small grin. "You don't need to worry about that, Ino. All of them are strong." She seemed like she was trying to convince herself about this rather than the beautifully young lady standing before her. "Especially Sakura...I'm sure she'll be fine." She assured. It was normal for Ino to be worrying about her friends, but she couldn't tell her the truth either. That she had not received even the littlest of information from the retrieval team. As Hokage, it's her job to make sure that her ninjas were happy, so they could work properly. Worrying was her job.

Ino smiled brightly, Tsunade felt slightly guilty for lying to her. "Thank you, Tsunade-sama!"

"It's fine. If anything happens, I'll make sure to tell you first." After hearing the busty woman say that, the blue eyed girl bowed her head and moved to the entrance. Ino thanked her one last time before closing the door behind her, missing the tired sigh that Tsunade let out right after she left.

The Hokage had been doing that a lot lately.

She needed Sake…

* * *

Ino stared thoughtfully at the wooden door, her fingers never left the knob, only tightened around the metal. She was a little bit relieved when the Hokage reassured her of her best friend's well-being, as well as the others who were sent to rescue her. The village already lost a lot of skilled shinobi, it would be bad if they lost any more. Although, Tsunade said so herself - That there was nothing to be concerned about. The Yamanaka still felt something lurking deep inside of her, telling her that something bad was going to happen.

"Yamanaka Ino…?" The blonde kunoichi was startled from her reverie at the almost hesitant voice. She jumped, swivelling around to face the person that snuck up on her without her knowledge. Her yellowish eyebrow was lifted as she recognized the girl, who happened to be one of the prisoners in Konoha. She only remembered her because the girl tried to escape the prison once, while they were still in war, but they managed to catch her.

"Karin…is it?" The red head nodded, having a little bit difficulty being polite. She wasn't used to being so nice growing up, but she was in their village now. It's best not to anger or get into any trouble.

Ino gave her a soft smile. "H-how long have you been standing there?" The question came out a little bit hesitant and Karin could sense the embarrassment in her voice. She was ashamed of herself for spacing out too easily.

"About a few minutes." The girl answered and paused for a moment. "Can you step aside? I need to go see Hokage-sama." Karin tried to control her tone to be less rude, although it was coming out too forced. Inwardly, she hoped that the blonde in front of her didn't notice that, but even if she did, she would just wave it off.

Ino blushed and rushed away from the door immediately, walking passed Karin to the stairs that led her out of the Hokage tower. She could feel her red eyes boring into her back, probably confused about her behaviour. She decided to ignore it and walked even faster. Suddenly, Ino felt a little weird. She assumed that it was because she was just worried about Sakura.

Karin watched as Ino exited the tower hurriedly. The former member of Team Taka was a little bit bewildered by what just happened. The Yamanaka girl was acting strange. She only knew this because of the many times the girl went to visit her father at the interrogation center, where they would bring Karin to ask for information. She shrugged afterwards. It wasn't her part to care anyways. She was here to talk to the Hokage about her release from prison…and about a certain someone.

With a sigh, the red head lifted her hands and pounded her knuckles against the wooden frame, waiting for a few seconds for a response. A muffled 'Come in!' came and Karin turned the door knob swiftly. Stepping inside the room gracefully, her eyes focused on the blonde busty woman sitting in the chair. The older woman's honey colored eyes were concentrated on the words written upon the paper she was looking at. The Hokage only raised her head and paid attention to her when she closed the door.

"And who might you be?"

Karin bowed as a sign of respect. "Karin…" She bit her lower lip, thinking of a better description of herself. "Former member of Taka." She added after a pause, in a whisper. It was hard for her to admit that she used to be part of that bastard's team. She felt ashamed for ever swooning over him, now that she thought about it. It was stupid and she should have known better. That she wouldn't be getting anything from that ice cube of a man. Karin hated his guts for it, for wasting her energy on helping his goal that could have caused her to lose her life.

"Ah, I remember now." Tsunade laid the paper she was reading earlier down on the desk and pulled out a book, that Karin assumed contained the list of names and back grounds of the prisoners in Konoha. "You were released today." The blonde woman read, averting her eyes from the book and onto the glasses wearing ninja. "What we usually do to prisoners who have been released, you are given the choice of leaving the village, or live here as a normal civilian." She stated. "But knowing your skills and the talents you have that are rare to find in many people, you could choose to help us. To be a part of our shinobi army."

Ruby eyes turned wide as she heard this. Were they really accepting her as part of the village? Even after she almost helped others destroy it? Were they crazy, or just stupid? The questions that appeared in her mind stopped when Tsunade smiled at her.

"I know you're confused. But we really need someone like you in the village. We've lost a lot of sensory type shinobi during war." The Hokage closed her eyes and leaned her elbows on the table, lacing her fingers together. "What is your choice?" She asked one last time, reopening her eyes.

Suddenly, Karin felt a little bit nervous under her gaze. That usually happened whenever she was facing dilemmas, such as this one. She should leave the village. It would be easier that way. A new life sounded refreshing for her and she needed that. On the other hand, it would be pretty boring. Although, being a shinobi was hard work and troublesome. She could lose her life any time. Karin was too selfish to help other people. She wasn't kind or generous. She wasn't the type of person to throw away her life for other people like the pink haired girl—

Karin narrowed her eyes when she remembered one of the reasons she was here. "I'll join you…" She said. She could tell the woman was surprised at her sudden decision by the widening of the blonde's eyes. She would join, but not because of the village, nor the people. She was doing this for herself. Karin didn't want to lose her life, but she didn't want to live a boring one either. Besides, she enjoyed the thrill of being a shinobi throughout the years and didn't have any other place to go to. She knew she wouldn't be getting used to saving people's lives, but she would try to adjust.

She was doing this because she owed someone something, the one who saved her life. The girl who gave her a second chance of living, so it would only be right of her to repay her kindness. Karin had to admit that the pink haired girl caught her interest, not in a romantic way or anything. She just admired how much of a good person she was. Even when she was with the enemy, she didn't think twice about helping her. Karin felt bad when the Uchiha bastard tried to kill her, which was why she warned her about it. That girl was naive and too soft for her own good. People like that wouldn't last long in this world. The red head couldn't help but feel the need to help her. She did save her life after all.

"Alright then." By now Tsunade had recovered from her shock. Usually people would ask for time when they were given their choices but this girl answered straight away. "I'll prepare the paper work and your shinobi registration. It will be done by the evening." She offered the girl a small grin. "In the meantime, you can go stroll around if you want."

The kunoichi bowed. "Thank you."

After a few minutes, Tsunade grew confused when the red haired girl made no move to leave. "Is there anything else?"

"Do you know…" Karin trailed off, trying to recall the name of the person who healed her. "Sakura?" She finished when she remembered what Sasuke called her back then. A look of sadness flashed through Tsunade's eyes for a moment, that Karin noticed.

"Yes…why do you ask?"

"Well, you see…She saved my life once, and I wanted to thank her in person." She responded.

The Hokage looked away. "I'm sorry but she's not here at the moment." A look of confusion appeared on Karin's face. "Where is she then?" Silently, the girl scolded herself for asking too many questions. Now she would grow suspicious of her.

A long sigh left Tsuande's mouth. "Sakura's MIA." Karin's eyes widened. The pink haired kunoichi was missing?! The former sound shinobi was able to stop herself from asking another question. She knew this was none of her business, but she couldn't help but feel a little bit worried about her savior's well-being. One of the reasons the bloody haired woman had stayed was because she wanted to get to know the girl better, and to know now that the person she wanted to see was missing, kidnapped even, was disappointing.

"I-I see."

"No need to worry though, I sent my trusted men after her. They'll be back and maybe then you can thank her. She will be happy." Tsunade chuckled a little. "Maybe she can teach you a thing or two about medical healing. You seemed to have a bit of talent in that."

Karin smiled. "Maybe she could." She whispered and headed to the door. "I'll be going." She informed, earning a nod from Tsunade. After closing the door, Karin's eyes turned to a glare. By what Tsunade said, it would be most likely that Sakura was kidnapped. Which was reasonable seeing as the pinkette was one of the most talented medics and shinobi. Though it's strange also, she was strong, so the chance of her getting captured was minimal unless the kidnapper knew her weakness very well. Even then she was still smart and would no doubt figure something out and find a counter attack. Whoever the person was, he or she knew a lot about Sakura. Karin didn't know why, but someone flashed in her mind.

"Don't tell me it's you…" The chakra user hissed with venom.

* * *

"Fuck!" Naruto cursed as he tried to dodge another barrage of needles coming his way. Some of it pieced his clothes and skin. The blond moved until he was safe behind a tree. His head frantically looked around in search of his fellow comrades but couldn't find any one. 'I hope they're okay…' The thought was cut short when another set of weapons aimed for him. The orange clad shinobi was able to dodge them, but it was only because he was in his Sennin Mode.

"You've gotten slow, Naruto." The teen heard Aoi's voice coming from a distance. The Sennin couldn't tell where the Nuke-nin was, but he could still feel the enemie's Chakra near him. It's not a genjutsu, was it? Naruto didn't have time to ponder that since he could feel a large amount of water coming right at him. The ninja jumped up to a tree and then another when the water followed him. Repeating the actions until he landed on the top of the tree, the aspiring Hokage looked up to see Aoi just a few trees away.

Aoi smirked at his exhausted form. He had heard about this 'Sennin Mode' from other people whenever he was out for food. It was said to be pretty strong and only a selected few were able to obtain the stage. From the looks of things though, it seemed like Naruto was almost at his limit, judging by his tired breaths and the slight disappearing of the mark around his eyes.

"I'll tell you what, kid." Naruto's head perked up. "I can let you live if you just give up and go back to your village." He offered. Aoi knew that he was asking for a death wish from Sasuke but it's not like he would know. The kid was probably too engaged with his goal to even bother with him.

"There's no fucking way I would do that!" The Jinchuuriki yelled, enraged by his offer. He would never ever abandon a friend, even if he ended up dead in the process. Naruto slowly stood up from his crouching position and looked at the missing nin. He could still use the Kyuubi's chakra, although he had been avoiding doing that since the war ended, but this was important. Sakura's life was probably at stake. Closing his eyes, the orange markings around them disappeared as Naruto put his hands into a knowing seal.

The missing nin narrowed his eyes at the red chakra appearing around the person in front of him._ 'So this is the 'Tailed Beast Mode''_ He thought excitedly. He was thankful when Orochimaru experimented on him, some of the snake's chemicals had helped him become strong in many ways than he was years before. He could handle this.

"I have plenty of chakra left to defeat you!"

"I'm sure you have, but I can't say the same about your friends." Naruto's eyes widened at what he said. The boy glanced down and spotted Kakashi and Neji, who both looked beaten up and exhausted. They looked like they wouldn't be able to stand any more, especially Kakashi with his visible deep gash on his leg.

By the time Naruto turned to look at Aoi, he was missing. Not wanting to waste time, the blonde ninja jumped down and landed next to Kakashi and Neji, who have just finished defeating some of their enemies. He immediately rushed to his teacher first, helping him stand up with his injured leg.

"Why does it have to be the leg all the time?" He heard the Jōnin murmur as he aided him.

"Are you guys okay?" He asked, deactivating his tailed beast chakra. Neji nodded briefly, sliding down on the ground while panting in exhaustion. He looked fine, just needed a little rest to regain his energy. Naruto turned his attention back to the guy next to him and then his legs. "Fuck, that's deep." He whispered.

Kakashi chuckled. "I sure wish Sakura was here." He said in a joking manner, though Naruto didn't find it amusing. "It's nothing serious, Naruto. I can walk just fine." He tried to assure, which earned him a glare from the blonde and Neji. "What?"

"I think we at least need to patch the skin up to stop the bleeding." The Hyuuga suggested, walking over to the two of them when he finally recovered a little from his previous state. Just then, they sensed three presences coming towards their direction. Naruto and Kakashi took a stance but halted when Neji raised his hand to stop them.

"It's alright, just Tenten and Kiba." The two shinobi sprinted to them, with Akamaru in tow. When they reached their sides, Tenten's eyes widened at the wound upon Kakashi's leg. Recalling a few things she learnt, she ran over to him and took the silver haired ninja from Naruto, who was confused and was a little bit hesitant about handing his sensei over to her, afraid that the heavy weight might crush her.

"It's okay. I know what I'm doing." She said, laying Kakashi down on the ground, inspecting his injured leg. Blood was flowing from it like a river. The bun haired girl bit her lip and reached inside her back pouch, where she packed her first aid kit. Cleaning the blood away first so the wound was clearer for her to see, the only female member of the group hid a smile as the boys watched on in awe. A few hand seals were made as glowing green chakra appeared around her palms.

"Er, Tenten…" Kakashi said as the brunette laid her warm healing hands on his injury, feeling his skin stinging a little bit but it was closing up nonetheless. "How did you learn how to do that?" Neji finished for him, his face still showed his shock. Naruto and Kiba were the same as he was.

Tenten smiled widely. "Sakura taught me." She beamed as she recalled her training days with her friend, when the pinkette would help her practice her chakra control and in turn she helped the girl with her aiming. At one point, Tenten pointed out that she would love to learn how to heal and Sakura immediately taught her. It turned out, Tenten had an acceptable chakra control.

"So you're as good as Sakura-chan now?" Naruto scratched his head. The girl shook her head. "No, I only learned the basics. I can heal these types of injuries and a few poisoned wounds. When it comes to big surgeries or any life threatening stuff, I can't say I can do it." She said.

"It's still helpful though." Kiba laughed, while Kakashi nodded in agreement. _'So that's why Tsunade-sama sent her here…'_ The masked man thought with a smirk. She may not reach the level of Sakura, but it was good enough.

The weapons mistress wrapped the gauze around Kakashi's leg after she finished, putting back all her supplies inside her pouch. "There, all done!" she smiled at the Jounin, who responded with the same action. He got up and stood on his legs.

"Whoa, it feels as good as new!"

"Right, now if that's done, let's get on to business." Neji stated seriously, earning everyone's attention. Kakashi cleared his throat. "Neji's right. We should focus on our enemy." He said, his Sharingan eye looking around for Aoi and his minions.

"I can't sense him though." Kiba shrugged. "He's gone perhaps."

"That's stupid." Tenten glared at him. "There's no way he would do that." She pulled her finger to her chin in a thoughtful way. "He's still here. But I think he wanted us to let down our guard first until he attacks again."

"Yeah, he's probably recovering. He lost plenty of chakra while fighting me." Naruto said proudly, earning him a whack on the head from Neji. The blonde hissed and glared at the Hyuga but he ignored him, making Naruto even angrier

"We should recover too." Kakashi sat down and sighed. "But keep our guard up. He might attack at any time." He commanded. Everyone nodded. "Let's take turns on watch duty."

"I'll go first." Kiba said. "I'm not that exhausted anyway." The copy ninja bobbed his head at him, covering up his red eye. Though he was relaxing his body, his senses were sharp as a razor. Kakashi still needed to look out for the missing ninja. He looked dangerous. There was something about his chakra that ticked him off. It was dark, similar to Orochimaru's subordinates. If that is at all true, they had to be careful.

Kakashi just hoped they wouldn't be too late to catch up with Sakura after this.

* * *

Sasuke opened the hotel room door. He wasn't surprised to see Sakura asleep, curling herself into a ball under the cheap sheets that the place offered. The Uchiha shut the wood silently and walked over to the girl, quietly, so as to not wake her up. Stopping when he reached the bed, he leaned down and observed her, trying to see if she was sleeping or just pretending.

By the even rise and fall of her chest, the slight gap of her mouth to let out small snores, Sasuke assumed she was asleep. It was better this way. The two of them weren't ready to face each other after what happened today. Maybe that was why Sakura slept so early. She was once again saving them both from the uncomfortable situation.

Letting out a sigh, Sasuke stepped away from the bed and walked over to the closet, where they kept spare blankets and futons. He pulled one out and laid it out on the floor, smoothening the cloth and took off his shoes and weapons. There was no way he was sleeping near Sakura, not again after what happened last time. They already faced enough problems already, and they certainly didn't need any more.

A whimper caught his attention. The dark haired shinobi crawled closer to the bed, staring at the slight furrow of his former team mate's eyebrows, as she let out another whimper. Sakura was having a bad dream, he could tell. Seeing the blanket falling off her shoulders, he absent mindedly covered her until it reached her chin. His eyes widened slightly when she turned around and faced him, but was relieved when she had her eyes closed. Such a heavy sleeper she was.

Sasuke resisted the urge to tuck the annoying strand of pink hair that had fallen over her face away. It was clearly blocking her features, although she seemed unbothered by it. He shook his head and turned away. Any more actions and she would wake up for sure and he wouldn't know what to do if that happened.

He pulled the blankets over himself as he laid down on the thick futon. Eyes still opened as he tried one last time to sense his enemy. They were still in the same place where he had first checked them earlier, which proved to him that Aoi had somehow managed to stop their actions. He didn't kill them yet, that much he knew. Though, as long as they stayed away from him and Sakura, he was fine with it. Closing his eyes, Sasuke relaxed his mind to a sleeping state. He needed his energy for tomorrow, since they were going to travel again.

_'And if they still insist on coming, I'll face them myself.' _That was his last thought before falling asleep.

...

..

.

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**A/N:** There's not much Sasusaku, that much i know though i promised next chapter there's gonna be a lot of it (i hope)

Yes, i decided to bring Karin out. I felt like using her in the story, but don't worry she's not the bad guy.

Beta-read by the awesome **MerinXD**. She's like the goddess of English language! I recommend you check her out.

**Important**: I have a poll at my profile concerning one of hte main plots in this story. It's called 'What gender(s) should Sakura and Sasuke's child/children be?' the story depends on you so go vote while you can. For guests, just put them in the review and I'll count them in too! You can send the votes through PMs or my email if you want.

**More important:** I think most of you know about this news but a young girl was raped but she didn't get any justice because the rapists were the town star athletes. And so there's a petition going on. I really need you guys to sign that and help her, she needs that. I'm begging you right now to go and sign it or share them on any social websites. There's more information about it on my profile, the link to the petition is also there.

Bye!


	9. 9: Plans

**A/N:** The beta'd one.

**Review Corner:**

**crazymel2008:** Glad you liked the flashback. Of course Ino cares for Sakura. Well personally, I think she's better in character if she stops her infatuation with Sasuke. She and Sakura will get a long just fine (i think) I don't know about team Taka or Hebi. I might bring them in. And well, for how long Sasuke's been in love with Sakura, wait for it! It'll come soon!

**Guest #2** (numbers depending on who reviews first to last): They're sixteen to seventeen.

**Chiisana:** Nope, she doesn't. i don't mind reading Karin like that most of the time but i wanna try something different. Let see if i can pull it off this way.

Note: the answers above are only focused on the guests' reviews. To people who already have their accounts here, i'll answer it via PM.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Behind The Cold Eyes**

* * *

_It was a masterpiece, seeing them work together so perfectly. The three of them moving with each other was like a painting created by a legendary artist. Pink, blue and orange were everywhere, blending with each other so artistically. Kakashi couldn't remember a time when he had been so proud of his students like this. Something had changed about how they fought, unlike three years ago when they were still genin and were still getting on each other's nerves._

_The silver haired Jonin was always observant, whenever he wasn't reading his infamous book or wasn't talking. Most of the time, his main target of observation was usually his own students. It had always been the little kids Kakashi held dearly to his heart._

_Sasuke and Naruto weren't trying to outshine the other like they did before. Both boys were finally starting to understand what teamwork truly meant. The copy ninja could tell by how they were aiding one another throughout the whole battle, giving signals and forming plans together._

_His blond student wasn't jumping in front of anybody and claimed one-sided fights like he used to. Naruto was maturing, like how Kakashi pictured he would. From the little class clown who always picked fights and did stupid stuff to get attention, he had grown into a respectful hero that everyone loved. No matter how hard life had been for him, he was always willing to stand up and asked for more. It's the reason he grew up to be so strong, and it's going to be the reason that would pushed him to become Hokage._

_Sasuke wasn't working all by himself either. He was learning to trust people more, mainly his teammates in team seven (even though he made it seem like he didn't, he couldn't fool Kakashi). Three years ago, he would always stay in the front and did everything by himself. Kakashi assumed the reason was because the young Uchiha thought of his other two companions as weak. Although that was far from true. Perhaps, years of being away had taught him something; That it's impossible to work all by yourself. He was stepping back from his usual position on point, standing next to Naruto in the middle of the road they called life._

_Out of all of them though, Sakura was the one who had grown the most. The first time Kakashi met her, his first impression screamed innocent, _too _innocent to be sent to the battle and kill. The reason why she even pursued ninja career and made it this far was probably Sasuke. Even so, he couldn't deny the fact that she was incredibly intelligent and amazing at controlling her chakra, even better than the Jonin himself. The pink haired girl was always standing in the back ground during missions. Someone would always stand in front of her and waited to protect her from harm. Because of that, she was outshone by her teammates. Despite this, it has always been a medics job to stay out of battle to heal the injured. What would Team Kakashi do if their medic was injured in battle?_

_Now that Kakashi thought about it, somewhere during the period of three years, Sakura had grown so much he could barely recognize her. An excellent healer with a golden heart who is a genjutsu expert to boot. She would willingly sacrifice her life for others in need, the number one being Naruto. Sasuke's departure and Naruto's absence changed her drastically. Gone was the fragile and innocent girl of the past. In her place formed a stubborn woman whose will was as strong as her team mates. Still, she retained that pureness that had always been present in her warm soul. It made Kakashi wonder. Sakura wasn't weak because she was unable to do anything useful, she only looked weak because Sasuke, Naruto and he were always protecting her, preventing the hidden kunoichi inside from showing._

_Looking at her now when she's shining, it was truly a beautiful sight. Her radiance was blinding and Kakashi was sure even Sasuke and Naruto noticed it (though they tended to forget this every time she was attacked, they would always flicker to her aid in an instant). Old habits really do die hard. The pink haired medic was stepping forward from the shadows toward the position she was meant to be from the beginning - Standing between her boys, all three of them accepting one other as equals._

_It almost brought tears to Kakashi's eyes._

_The injured ninja continued to watch as Madara tried to aim another attack toward Sakura. He seemed to be attacking her more than others, the copy ninja noticed. She was saved by Sasuke as he pulled her by her forearms to a safe place beside him. Kakashi's eyes twinkled in amusement when he saw the pink haired girl everyone adored lash out angrily at her savior, screaming that she was capable of dodging that attack and he didn't have to save her all the time. That only caused Sasuke to roll his eyes._

_"Annoying…" The missing nin muttered. Sakura huffed in frustration while Naruto watched on with interest. The blond didn't have time to though, as Madara called their attention once again with another deathly blow. _

_"This is getting boring again…" The old Uchiha sighed, his deadened eyes looking down at the three ninjas below him. "Give me all of you." He glared._

_Then it happened._

_Kakashi wasn't sure what, but something happened._

_Sakura threw Naruto and Sasuke a look, one that the silver haired man couldn't decipher but by the looks of the two boys, they seemed to understand what she was trying to tell them. The blond ninja and the missing dark haired nin stepped aside and jumped to a distance as Sakura closed her emerald eyes. Her hands combined themselves into a knowing seal as green chakra floated around her body, swirling around her like mystical powers._

_The teacher of team seven was confused, and by the look on Madara's face, he was too. After a few precious seconds passed by, her beautiful eyes snapped open and she sprinted at an inhuman speed towards the enemy. Her speed and pace was incredible that it left a great amount of dust behind every step she took._

_Kakashi's eyes widened considerably as he watched his only female student moved with so much energy that he didn't know she possessed, then again, he didn't actually know what she was capable of. Naruto and Sasuke was surprised by this too, though the copy ninja could see a trace of pride in their eyes as Sakura continued to move closer and closer to the ex-leader of the Uchiha._

_Madara wasn't quite sure what happened when a blur of pink came at his way. The villain almost failed to block her punch due to her unknown speed. This Sakura girl must have used her chakra to help her move faster, which was no surprise since she was so good at Chakra usage, making her faster than any other he had known throughout his years as a shinobi._

_Each punch and kick was precise and full of energy, even when Madara managed to dodge them, he could still feel the raw power that emitted from her limbs piercing his skin. He was sure if he got caught in any of those attacks, it would cause immense damage. By how fast her movements were, the Uchiha didn't even have the time to focus his powers and summoned Susanoo. Right now, Madara was just avoiding every attack he could, not noticing that she was slowly leading him further and further back to the edge on the Jubi's head. By the time he noticed it was too late._

_Sakura managed to get him off guard by landing a punch to her enemy's stomach, causing him to cough out blood and fell off the Jubi. The pinkette didn't waste any more time and jumped after him, lifting her legs up high until it passed her head, her mouth opening to yell out the name of the technique her master taught her so long ago._

_"Heaven Kick of Pain!"_

_Her feet came in contact with Madara's chest, the impact of the jutsu caused both of them to fall faster until they hit the ground with a loud cracking sound. The earth shattered from Sakura's technique in a fearsome rumble. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Sasuke and Naruto summoning their own signature techniques to the palms of their hands and the girl couldn't help but smirk._

_The Jubi turned around instinctually, moving towards Sakura. Panic filled Kakashi's chest as the monster came closer and closer to his student. However, a blinding light shining in the sky caught his attention. He averted his eyes and looked at the sky, his black and red orbs widening when Naruto and Sasuke came down at the creature, Rasengan and Chidori ready to strike._

_When they came down on the Jubi, the combination of their attacks was like a blinding light, that made the masked Jonin cover his eyes from the brightness. It seemed like eternity until the light faded. Kakashi regained his sight and all he could see was the Juubi laying on the ground, unmoving as his two students stood upon it. _

_Naruto grinned widely at his work. "We did it!" He yelled in victory. It was cut short when his blue orbs rolled to the back of his head and he collapsed to the ground. Sasuke, who looked as tired as the blond, stared at him with disinterest, like he predicted this would happen. They had used a lot of chakra in their last attack, it would be understandable if they passed out due to chakra exhaustion._

_The young Uchiha's Sharingan eyes moved to land upon his other former teammate __seeing her sitting on top of Madara. She was also exhausted, judging by how dull her usually bright green eyes looked. Her breathing was harsh but the glare on her face was even fiercer._

_Madara cracked open his eyes and looked warily at the woman above him, ignoring the immense pain he felt in his chest and body. He underestimated her._

_"I should thank you." Sakura whispered. That almost made Madara raise his eyebrows in confusion. Sasuke didn't say anything, he only watched quietly._

_"Thank you for creating Konoha." She said once again, taking in a deep breath. "You may have destroyed half of it already and almost all of the nations, but I have to admit, if it wasn't for you in the first place, I would have never have a home, never have a place I can protect, never have a place I can return to." The pinkette gave a soft smile. "I would never have met my teammates and became this strong."_

_Madara was silent during the entire speech, but he was listening. Unknown to the two, Sasuke was hiding as smirk as he walked towards them._

_"But right now…" Sakura lifted her fist. "It's over."_

_Her fist punched him further to the ground, ending his life finally._

* * *

**Chapter 9: Plans**

* * *

Sakura never expected to wake up so early, considering what happened yesterday, but her dream was too intense. The moment she opened her tired orbs, the girl pushed herself up by her elbows and glanced around the room, her eyes still containing the sleepiness she possessed. _'I can't believe I dreamt about that again.'_ Her eyes blinked when the bright morning sunlight shining through the window landed upon her. Like her usual routine after waking up, the pinkette stretched her limbs and yawned widely. Then her gaze finally focused upon the man sleeping beside her bed.

Sleeping peacefully (as peaceful as an ex-avenger could get anyway), under the cover of the futon, was none other than her captor, Uchiha Sasuke. The expression on his face was a bit more disgruntled than when they were resting in the forest, which Sakura guessed was because of what happened between the two of them yesterday.

Slowly crawling until she reached the edge of the bed, the kunoichi leaned down just enough to look at her former teammate, briefly wondering if he was comfortable sleeping on a thin sheet like that. In a way, the medic was glad that he chose to slumber in a separate place, and not on the bed next to her. Sakura quietly sneered to herself, of course he would. There's no way the Uchiha would sleep next to her after what transpired the day before. She didn't actually know what she would do if she had to face him last night.

A grunt emitted from his slightly opened mouth, causing Sakura to squeak and crawl back under her covers, throwing it over herself and closing her eyes in panic. _'Why the hell did I do this for?'_ She chided in her mind. _'I didn't do anything wrong!'_ The pink haired girl had no idea why she was hiding beneath her thick blanket, pretending to sleep like a frightened child who got caught peeping, which she wasn't…at least she thought she wasn't. Maybe the medic was afraid of confronting him.

In the back of her mind, Sakura could feel Sasuke's eyes boring into her. Suddenly her body felt hot. The girl hoped he didn't notice the barely visible shaking coming from her. _'Just go away.'_ She pleaded inwardly. The rustling sound of the futon being moved reached her ears. A sigh of relief escaped from her mouth, which she made sure the man next to her didn't notice that.

Sasuke neatly folded the sheet and put it in the place where it belonged. Turning around, the dark haired shinobi stared blankly at the girl behind the covers of the bed. Looked like she hadn't woken up yet, yesterday's events must have taken a toll on her. That's good. He didn't think he had the guts to confront her anyway. The young man smirked at himself bitterly, not believing that he admitted the slight fear he had for the pink haired woman, mainly because she had always asked questions he couldn't answer.

Closing his eyes, the missing nin summoned his ocular jutsu and focused them to find his pursuers location. Their chakra was still wavering in the same location, which was something he was happy about. He didn't need to rush anymore. Though Sasuke still needed to get away, the further the distance, the better.

He combed his fingers through his hair, making it messier than it already was. The last Uchiha walked his way to the bathroom, closing it behind him softly so as to not wake the girl, that he still hadn't noticed was already awake.

The moment the lock clicked, Sakura shot up from the bed, breathing out another sigh. She thanked her master for teaching her how to control her chakra and breathing so well, otherwise Sasuke would have noticed her chakra running wildly in her body. The pink haired kunoichi glanced silently around the room, her eyes landing on things randomly. She stopped at the door and grinned inwardly. _'Now's my chance to escape!'_

The woman stepped to the door soundlessly and grabbed the knob, twisting it gently.

It was locked.

_'Fuck my life!'_ she cursed angrily. Sakura should have known it was locked! Sasuke wasn't stupid. It was comical for a high level medic and kunoichi like her to actually believe her capturer would miraculously forgot to lock the door last night. That was too much of an easy escape that she was sure even academy children wouldn't fall for such a lame possibility. Perhaps the Konoha kunoichi was too desperate for an escape that she would try anything.

With a huff of frustration, the girl retreated back to her bed, sitting on it with her slender legs crossed, waiting for Sasuke to come out and maybe spit out whatever plan he had with her. Sakura didn't have to wait long when the door of the bathroom swung open, revealing her ex-teammate. If she wasn't so pissed off, she would have noticed him shirtless, but not right now. The pinkette was blinded by rage.

Sasuke looked at her blankly as Sakura got up from the bed, hastily walking passed him and to the bathroom. The door slammed shut loudly but the young Uchiha didn't cringe at the noise like other normal people would. What was up with her? He knew by experience that the girl wasn't a morning person but she couldn't possibly be this moody. The dark haired nin secretly hoped she wouldn't lash out at him later since he wasn't ready to face her anger at the moment.

Shrugging, he walked over to his pack and brought out another shirt he brought. He put his dirty old clothes inside and closed the top lid. Sasuke zipped up his shirt and sat on the bed, his brain wandering over to what Aoi was doing. He knew he had picked the right person for the job. The pursuers must have been dead by now. A frown appeared on the young man's face. No, he couldn't underestimate them.

After all, they were Konoha shinobi.

* * *

A sigh emitted from Kakashi's lips as he watched his teammates get ready from his place on the tree. They rested peacefully last night, _too_ peacefully. The copy ninja expected Aoi to ambush them during their slumber but he didn't; Which confused the old man all the more. Resting his finger to his chin, the Jonin quietly thought about some plans before facing the group of missing nins. It wouldn't be long until they decided to attack again.

Naruto looked up at his teacher, who seemed to be deep in thought. The blond finished packing up his sleeping bag he used last night and was waiting for everyone to finish. He was a little bit paranoid last night so he didn't get much sleep; The black lines under his eyes proved that. The Jichuuriki knew Kakashi ordered them to rest as much as possible for their upcoming fight, but he couldn't help it. Who wouldn't be cautious if they knew their enemy would attack them anytime?

"We should start moving." Neji's deep voice broke the student and teacher from their reverie. "We're already wasting enough time."

Kakashi nodded and hopped down from the tree, landing right next to Tenten. "I agree. But we should form a plan first. It's better than going in blind." He motioned for Kiba and Naruto to come closer to them. When they were by his side, the copy nin started to explain his plan, "There's not much time we had so I can't come up with a good plan but this will probably work." He whispered.

The four ninjas leant closer and continued to listen to their captain attentively.

"Our opponents are strong and by my calculation if we were to face off again, it would cause us too much time. Sakura would be out of our reach by then." Naruto narrowed his blue eyes at this.

"So, Kiba," the silver haired man pointed to the tracker ninja. "If you sense Sakura moving, I want you to tell me immediately. After that, me, Neji and Tenten will distract Aoi and his team so you and Naruto have an opening to escape. Run as fast as you can once you get out. That way, we don't waste too much time." He finished, waiting for their reactions. Kakashi knew it wasn't much of a good plan compared to his other brilliant ones, he wasn't Shikamaru who could make plans even if given a short time but this should be good enough.

Naruto blinked before confusion rose up in his mind. "B-but, what about you? And Neji? And Tenten?! Are you sure you're going to be okay?!"

His teacher chuckled softly and ruffled his sun-kissed hair. "Don't worry. Neji and I can handle this. Thankfully, we have Tenten who is close enough to be normal medic. We'll catch up to you in no time."

"But I can stay—"

"No, Naruto." The Kyuubi container was slightly surprised by his mentor's harsh tone. "You need Kiba to lead you to Sakura and I'm sure you alone can handle whoever has captured Sakura, if you catch up with her." The blond nin kept his mouth shut and nodded. He didn't like it but there was not much choice. They needed as much time as they could steal.

Satisfied with his response, Kakashi stepped back and turned around. "Let's go."

They continued to travel through the forest at a normal pace to save their energy. Kiba hadn't sensed Sakura moving yet so the team was thankful. It wasn't long when they had to stop due to an explosive Kunai landing in front of them, just like last time.

"Going somewhere?" Aoi appeared on a tree, looking at them with the same menacing stare. His followers were behind him, weapons and techniques ready in hand to attack.

Kakashi cautiously took a step back, turning his gaze to his team. "Remember the plan. For now, let's fight."

All of them nodded as the battle began again.

* * *

Sakura hummed contently while stepping out from the shower, drying her hair with a towel. Her feet padded against the wet floor as she made her way to the sink. The girl took a minute gazing at her naked self in the mirror, noticing the slight change to her body since she was kidnapped. No doubt she had lost a little weight, probably from lack of nutrients, though Sasuke had fed her enough. If she was with someone else, she would be skin and bones by now.

At least he treated her better than a normal kidnapper would.

Her eyes narrowed. _'But that doesn't change the fact that he is still holding me captive!'_ Sitting on the toilet, Sakura allowed her mind to think back to yesterday's event. She didn't have time to think about it much last night due to the throbbing in her head. From their conversation, the pink haired medic noticed that the missing nin was still avoiding her question. No matter how much she pressed, he wouldn't budge. Not only that, but he said something else that baffled the woman even more!

_"Just give me time, Sakura."_

The thing that caught her attention the most was the desperate tone of his words. It was the first time she heard so much emotion coming from his voice, which was monotonous most of the time. Sakura knew there was more behind why he was acting so strange towards her, she could tell by his eyes.

Her emerald orbs widened in consideration.

His eyes…

Now that she thought about it, there's something different about them to before. They were not the same as when he attempted to kill her. Instead, his eyes were similar to when they were genin, only more intense. There seemed to be a new life within those unreadable depths. Sakura tilted her head to the side in confusion. Was he changing back to the old Sasuke?

She shook her head. "Nah…" Her shoulders shook when she laughed quietly to herself. "If that were true, then he wouldn't have captured me! Haha, silly me!" Her light laughter continued until it died down gradually. Her eyes became unfocused as the image of Sasuke's deep depths entered her mind. His face close to hers and those pools of black full of new emotion. Which was strange, considering Sasuke is usually a closed book. He has been cold since childhood, why would that change now?

"What _was _he trying to tell me? _Time_?" The medic ran a hand through her hair and groaned. Time? He was asking her for one thing that she didn't think she could give. What did Sasuke need time for? Sakura had already been away from her family and friends long enough as it was, she couldn't give him any more time. The girl didn't want to remain captured while the Uchiha tried to think over whatever emotional problem he was struggling with.

Her fingers gripped the hard edge of the sink strongly. It didn't matter. He used to hurt her and she refused to suffer that pain again. The girl didn't know why he kept her hidden from people and even when she asked about it, the missing nin always changed the topic and looked like he wasn't going to answer her anytime soon. The pinkette could think of no conceivable reason as to why she should be kept here. Sakura needed to get away as soon as possible, and she was willing do anything. Even to go so far as pretending to earn his trust.

Exhaling a deep breath, she opened her eyes full determination. Right, time to get her plan in motion. First, starting by…

"Ignoring what happened yesterday…" Sakura hung her head down.

* * *

Sasuke waited on the bed in the hotel he and Sakura stayed in, when his pink haired prisoner stepped out of the bathroom, still wearing the clothes from last night (he made a mental note to buy her another new set later). Thankfully, she looked a little bit calmer than her temperament this morning. Somewhere in his mind, the Uchiha was a bit relieved. At least he didn't have to deal with her rage.

His onyx eyes stayed fixed on her form as she combed her hair with the brush the hotel offered. He quickly averted his gaze when she turned to look at him with an unreadable look. It was a bit uncomfortable under her stare. With a cough, he stood up from the hard bed and picked up his pack, ignoring Sakura's questioning eyes on him.

"We'll get something to eat first and then we'll leave." Sasuke decided, silently waiting for the usual outburst of protests from his ex-teammate.

He never got them.

"Fine…" Sakura sighed and beamed him a smile. The young Uchiha didn't know if the girl across from him hit her head while in the shower, but he was having trouble believing that she was acting so casual as if their conversation yesterday never happened. He watched as the kunoichi bounced to the place beside him, her grin never ceased from her face. What's going on? They weren't even glancing at each other just moments ago and now she was this happy little girl again. She was up to something…or she just get what he was trying to tell her, which he doubt.

"Come on." He turned around and walked to the door. Well, at least now he didn't have to explain himself again. _'Coward'.'_ His subconscious whispered inside his mind like many times before, but Sasuke pushed it to the back of his head. Something told him he needed to make her understand soon or else he would regret it in the end. Tch, stupid annoying voice…

When he closed the door behind him, the missing nin discreetly throw a piece of paper with Kanji writing inside the room, making sure that Sakura didn't notice.

* * *

Kiba's nose twitched wildly as he sensed Sakura's smell moving. The tracking ninja turned around and looked for Kakashi, finding him facing off with one of the missing ninjas. "Sakura's moving!" He shouted while avoiding a set of senbons coming his way.

The silver haired Jonin's eyes flew open at the information. "Naruto!" He called.

The blond gazed down at him from his place on a tree. "What's wrong, Kakashi-sensei!?" He asked in alarm, afraid that something had happened from the tone of his teacher's voice. Naruto landed a kick to his enemy's stomach before hopping down and landed next to the copy ninja.

"I need you and Kiba to go. _Now_, hurry!" Kakashi commanded in a hasty manner. His student blinked in a confusion a couple of times letting the information sink it.

"What?!" The Jichuuriki turned to Kiba, who was already sprinting towards the destination he smelt Sakura was heading in, with Akamaru by his side. "Hey, wait up!" He yelled, dashing after his friend and avoiding tons of weapons on the way.

Aoi growled and was about to chase after him but halted just in time when sets of kunai landed in front of him. He looked up and met a pair of brown eyes, glaring at him intensely. "Move." The sound of his voice was threatening, though that didn't seem to frighten the girl seeing as she was still standing there whirling two shuriken between her fingers, a smirk present on her cheeky face. "I said move!" the ex-Konoha nin repeated. If he let them escape, Sasuke would have his head.

Tenten smiled. "Nope!"

The green haired shinobi grunted and launched towards her.

* * *

Sasuke decided to eat breakfast at a small food stand near the village he stayed in earlier. Sakura as usual ordered a plate of sweet dumplings while he asked for some onigiri. The girl sitting across from him rolled her eyes and scolded him for eating too many tomatoes and rice balls, saying that he needed some sweets inside his body.

"Really, sugar gives you energy." She said proudly. "You should eat a lot of it or else your hands and feet will shake!" The pink haired girl bit another ball of dango, chewing it carefully. "Try some!" She urged, offering a stick of the sweet food. The Uchiha only shook his head, returning his attention back to his unfinished onigiri.

"Right, I forgot you hate sweets." Sakura nodded to herself.

The dark haired ninja wondered how she could be so calm and relaxed after what happened between them. The normal Sakura he knew would have asked him until she got her answers but now she didn't even show any sign of remembering it. It's not like the medic had amnesia. It was the only reason, or she was just plainly ignoring it. If it was the latter then maybe, Sasuke's face brightened up a bit, she was giving him time to compose himself until he felt ready?

Maybe she was starting to understand him after all…

That thought flew out the window when she ordered another three plate of dumplings. So much for being understanding, didn't she know he was lacking money? _'Guess not…'_ He bit down on his food begrudgingly.

He didn't notice Sakura's eyes on him when she was eating her dango, observing his every move and smirked to herself. Good, Sasuke didn't question her behavior, like she hoped he wouldn't. Her plan was starting to work pretty fine and soon she would get back to her village safe and sound.

* * *

"Hey, Kaichi!" The cleaner, who was also known as Kaichi, walked over to the counter, where the person that called him sat at. "Yes sir?"

The lazy hotel owner yawned. "Go up and clean the room on the third floor will ya? It's three rooms away from the stairs." He ordered, handing his staff the key to the room that he remembered renting to a scary man with frightening eyes with who he assumed to be the man's girlfriend judging from the possessiveness the scary customer showed to his female companion. Yup, she had to be his girlfriend.

Kaichi took the keys from his master's hand and wasted no time to head upstairs to the room he was ordered to clean. He didn't even reach the second floor when the whole building exploded, fire and smoke erupting from the destroyed hotel, taking many people's lives along with it.

* * *

Naruto's eyes widened in alert when he saw smoke in the air. "What's going on?!" He hollered.

Kiba gritted his teeth, the smell of burnt bodies and ashes assaulted his nose wildly while Akamaru barked loudly beside him. "It's coming from in front of us!" The brunette shouted back, earning himself a nod from Naruto as they both increased their pace and continued their path, following the direction that pointed out the origin of the smoke.

Not long after, the two friends arrived in a small village. The blond ninja glanced around, seeing people running and screaming in the aftermath of the explosion. Kiba managed to stop a young boy, who was about five or six.

"What happened?" He questioned softly. The boy's face had tears of fear running down his chubby cheeks.

"There was an explosion!" he told them, his arms opening widely as if to express how big it was. "It was so huge and I'm scared! Many people were inside it and everyone's still trying to put out the fire!" His little body was shaking from what he had seen. Naruto stepped beside him and knelt down, putting his hands on the boys shoulder to calm him down.

"Where is it?"

The young lad pointed to the east side of town, where he saw the explosion was. Kiba growled and ran without wasting time while his blond friend remained with the kid. "Everything's gonna be okay." Naruto reassured with a smile. "So don't worry. Me and my friends are ninjas, we're going to save the villagers, alright?"

The little boy nodded as the Konoha shibobi patted his head. Then he stood up and sprinted after Kiba. By the time he got there though, he saw his friend and Akamaru standing a few meters away from a large crater, that Naruto assumed was caused by the explosion. It looked like the villagers had already managed to stop the fire, but the damage was done already.

"It's the same person as before, isn't it?" The Kyuubi container whispered.

"Yeah…" Kiba's eyes hardened. "We need to stop him."

With a growl of anger, Naruto punched the wall next to him. "I'm going after that fucking bastard and I will Sakura-chan back!" His tracker friend was quiet, but he agreed wholly with the statement.

If only they knew who they were dealing with…

...

..

.

* * *

**A/N:** Is this enough Sasusaku for you? If it's not, starting from the next chapter, i'm gonna be focusing on Sasuke and Sakura and how they develop their relationship.

I'm glad the manga and my story isn't so different with the whole Sasuke changed his mind and is saving the village thing. I dunno what to come up with if he's still gonna destroy Konoha in the real manga. Could it be that what i wrote really happens? *gasps excitedly*

Pfft, yeah right like that will happen. THough i still hope it really does happen (minus the kidnapping part cuz i think Sasuke's gonna go back to the village...or not depending on Kishimoto. I just want him and Sakura to get together.)

And well, Karin's back!...in a bad way. I thought she had changed after what happened but guess not. She broke my heart when she decided to go back to her fangirl mode which is more obnoxious than Sakura's in her genin days. Too bad...i was starting to like Karin if she gave up on Sasuke. But it makes me wonder though, what would she do when she meets Sakura again? She did save her sorry ass so i doubt she'll hate Sakura...that or Karin's gonna be a bitch and treat her bad like most fic depicted.

And the look on Sasuke's face when Karin was clinging to him? It was priceless! I dunno about you guys but i think he has a look similar to being mortified or uncomfortable. (you don't see him like that when Sakura hugged him, do you? :D)

This is beta'd by the lovely** MerinXD**. She writes good stories too! (Sasusaku, Kakasaku, Itasaku) If you're interested, go check them out.

**Important**: I have a poll at my profile concerning one of the main plots in this story. It's called 'What gender(s) should Sakura and Sasuke's child/children be?' the story depends on you so go vote while you can. For guests, just put them in the review and I'll count them in too! You can send the votes through PMs or my email if you want.

Bye and don't you dare forget to review!


	10. 10: Lead

**A/N: ****_NOPE, NOT THE BETA'D VERSION_****.** Seriously guys, stop sending me pms about updating. I'm flattered you want to read the story but if i rush it, it won't come out as good as it should be. But you don't mind as long as you get your update right? Just expect grammatical and words errors, okay?

**Review Corner:**

**SasuSaku lover:** You want fun? I'll give you fun! XD

**pinkypinkypinky:** I wished Karin changed too. Kishi is such a cold heated author! Change her dammit! at least make her back off when she sees the awesomeness of Sasusaku in battle!

**Guest #2** (number depending on who reviewed first to last): I really wished the things i wrote to happen. at least some of it does.

**Guest #5:** They would...just not now. Keep reading and you'll find out! :D

Enjoy!

* * *

**Behind The Cold Eyes**

* * *

_Sakura panted heavily as she stared down at the dead man below her. Her eyes were half-lidded, showing her tiredness. The pinkette heaved a sigh and looked up at the sky, closing her orbs. It's over, it's finally over. She let out a soft laugh, shaking her body lightly with her action. They had won and Sasuke helped them succeed. _

_Sasuke…_

_The medic turned around and looked for her former teammate, seeing him standing just behind her. His dark orbs gazing down at Madara with a blank stare. A large grin crossed her lips. Not being able to stop herself, Sakura got up and ran over to the Uchiha, throwing her skinny, blood stained arms around him. Exhaling his scent, she felt him tensed little but ignored it. The girl was too happy to think about that._

_A few seconds passed away until she felt his arms leisurely returning her embrace, pulling her a little bit closer. The grin on the kunoichi's face grew even bigger. She pulled away and looked up at him since he was still taller than her over the years they were separated. "Thanks!" she whispered before burying her face into the crook of his neck again. Sakura briefly wondered why he didn't push her away, not that she was complaining though._

_"Hn…"_

_Closing her eyes again, she squeezed him tighter. "If it wasn't for you, we would have never won!" The medical ninja giggled into his skin, her voice slightly muffled. "I'm glad you decided to help us!"_

_Sasuke said nothing, just stood there and let her hugged him as much as she want. He wasn't actually sure how to feel about this. This was different from what he felt. It wasn't like when Karin was clinging to him, that feeling was weird and…he didn't know what to say. The Uchiha was uncomfortable with the red head near him, it wasn't right. The reason why he even didn't push her away was because Sasuke knew she would sulk and not help him and that was bad since he still needed her to lead him and the Hokage to the battle field._

_This though, it felt like home. Warmth was spreading throughout his entire body, generating from where her skin was touching his. It made him a bit dazed. Sasuke hadn't felt this way for a very long time due to him distancing himself from others. He didn't want to do anything but to stay this way, even it's just a short time._

_"Say…" Sakura's soft voice brought his attention to her. "What makes you change your mind in the first place?" she asked, her lips moving against his neck as she mouthed out her words. Sasuke stiffened a bit at the question before relaxing._

_"The Hokages…" the young man gulped down his saliva for a second and continued. "…made me realize something. My brother tried his hardest to protect this village…and me." Sakura's emerald eyes flew opened at what he said. She made a mental note to ask her teacher about it later concerning Itachi because she knew Sasuke wasn't in the mood to relive whatever his brother had done for him._

_"So it's only reasonable for me to take up his unfinished job." He finished. The dark haired nin felt her moving against him but didn't pulled away._

_"That's good." Sakura smiled. "Since you helped us and all, you'll be coming back right?" Her giddiness couldn't help but show in her voice. Sasuke was coming back. All of her and Naruto's efforts had paid off. Their goals came true. Team Kakashi was getting back together again. Thinking back to how happy they used to be made her want to squeal. She couldn't wait to experience it again with her crush coming back._

_When he didn't answer for a long time, she frowned. Suddenly, Sakura felt it again, that feeling when Sasuke was leaving the village. Panicking, she pulled away quickly but didn't react in time when his fingers came up to her neck and pressed against a knowing joint, sending her to darkness. The only thing she heard before completely losing consciousness was a soft "Sorry…"_

_Sasuke caught the limb body from falling, remembering the similar situation that happened three years ago. He pulled her body against him closer, staying like that for a few minutes, relishing the feeling of warmth she emitted even while being knocked out cold. Sighing, the missing nin laid her down against the fallen body of the Juubi._

_After pulling back, he stared at her, his eyes softer than he would have liked. Not that he noticed though. Sakura looked just like before, when he put her down on the cold hard bench. This time, her eyes were free of tears. Sasuke thought it was because she didn't have time to shed it yet, she didn't even have time to notice what was going on._

_A smirk appeared on his face. She looked better with no tears streaming down her cheeks. At least now it wasn't so hard to leave her like how he did years ago. Subconsciously, Sasuke let his fingers wander to her face, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, his handlingered there for a second before pulling back and stood up fully._

_The last Uchiha glanced around, finally noticing what chaos their battle had done to the forest. It was over now; they didn't have to endure it again. Without another word, he walked off to another direction, away from Konoha. Sasuke didn't want to go back, the place held too much painful memories. Besides, he knew he couldn't escape the trials so why bother? The dark haired teen didn't want anything to do with the village anymore._

_In the back of his mind, Sakura's words from that night crossed his mind._

"If you stayed here, we would be happy!"_ he remembered her teary face as she pleaded. _"Because everything we do will be something fun! I swear!"

_Sasuke knew he should be staying with Sakura and Naruto but he couldn't. Something was stopping him and he didn't know what. The man knew he couldn't go back to the village and those two were too loyal to Konoha to abandon it just to follow him, now that he saw how much they would go just to protect it. The village was much more important than he was now. It's better not to make them choose and just forget about everything._

_With a bitter smirk, the ex-member of team 7 continued to walk away, anywhere away from here._

_He didn't notice a pair of eyes watching him the whole time._

* * *

_A gasp was emitted from Sakura's dry mouth as she shot up from the bed, the hospital bed. The girl cursed when her visions blurred, touching her temple with her fingers. She couldn't feel any energy left inside her. Momentarily forgetting what happened, the medic closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to recall the events happened before she lost consciousness._

_It made her eyes snapped open. "Sasuke-kun…" she found herself saying quietly. Not wasting any more precious moments, the Kunoichi threw the covers away and got up from the bed, running to the exit of the medical tent, ignoring the pain coursing through out her entire body. If she hurried, she might still make it in time to stop him from leaving again._

_In her haste, Sakura didn't notice the presence that was coming over to her place, making her bump into that person and fell back. Even as she fell down, all her mind could think about was Sasuke. The pinkette was about to get up and sprint away again but a hand caught her wrist, which probably belonged to the person who she ran to._

_"Sakura-chan, stop!" Naruto said as his grip became tighter. Sakura glanced over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes._

_"Let go, Naruto! I have to stop him!" she glared._

_"He's gone!"_

_"B-but if I just hurry then—"_

_"Sakura-chan, you've been in coma for two days." Her blond friend sighed, silencing her completely. Two days? Was she knocked out cold that long? It was normal considering the amount of Chakra she had used in the battlefield, not to mention the fact that she had been fighting straight without sleeps for days._

_"B-but that means…that…" Tears started to appear in her eyes, slowly crawling down her cheeks freely. "He's gone…" she whispered helplessly, feeling herself being pulled into an embrace. Sakura could only sob desperately as she clung to Naruto, wrapping her arms around him tightly and he didn't seem to mind. He also needed the comfort._

_"Shh, Sakura-chan. Everything's gonna be alright…" the Jichuuriki tried to assure her, although he wasn't convinced himself. When the girl in his arms began to cry harder, her sobs rocking both of their bodies, Naruto just laid his head upon her pink one, closing his eyes. Why did Sasuke leave again? They helped them win the war and he just left like that. The blond didn't know what the hell his ex-rival was thinking. If this was how it turned out, he would rather fight his former teammate than having him leave them, Sakura especially._

_The pink haired medic fisted his orange fabric, her teeth gnashing together. "Why? Why?" hiccups erupted from her mouth, which caused her to stop her helpless questions and stayed silent, not even bothering to try and hold back her tears like how she used to. Sakura hated crying but she couldn't stop the trails of warm water running down her face. The situation was too much for her._

_She thought Sasuke was going back with them so the team would be together again. He had helped them in war after all. What was the reason that made him turn away from them again? The girl didn't get it. The Uchiha wasn't the type to leave without explanation. Last time, he left because he wanted power. Now he got his revenge and wasn't against the village anymore so why?_

_Sakura's eyes widened in realization. Yes, there had to be a reason why. She wasn't going to let him turn his back on her like years ago. The pinkette was determined to get answers from him and convinced him to come back to where he belonged, with Naruto and her._

_"Hey, Naruto…?"_

_"Yeah?"_

_She pulled away and looked into his blue orbs with a serious face. "After we recover, we're going to ask Tsunade-shishou for mission to get him back okay?" she said._

_Naruto only smiled, understanding her determination. "Right!"_

* * *

_Sasuke watched the pair silently from above the cliff of the mountain, noticing the bandages that was wrapping around Sakura's forehead and other injured parts of her body. From how she was walking, he assumed she was recovering well. That's good. He didn't know what was keeping him from leaving them, not until the dark haired man know for sure that they were fine after the battle. He never bothered to think about what it was that drive him to do this, he believed that it would only bring questions he didn't know the answers to._

_Without a word, the missing nin disappeared without a trace._

* * *

**Chapter 10: Lead**

* * *

Puffs of breath left Neji's mouth. The veins that appeared around his eyes from using the Byakugan started to throb as pain ran through his head. He was using too much chakra. The long haired Jounin turned around swiftly and punctured the approaching enemy's chakra points his two finger tips, paralyzing him from moving. The missing ninja fell to the ground, coughing blood.

The Hyuuga heir glanced around the forest and scanned for his teammates, seeing Tenten fighting off their enemies with her weapons successfully. Kakashi on the other hand was facing off with Aoi, both of them looked tired and out of breath.

The two strong ninjas head against each other fiercely, weapons and techniques going everywhere. They dashed towards one another, creating a clash of kunai and senbon. Even their hands shook from the power they used.

Kakashi, even though was panting pretty harshly, managed to bring out a chuckle. "I see you're out of Chakra." He grinned behind his ripped mask.

"Don't get too cocky, you're out of breath yourself." Aoi countered, his glare directed to his opponent.

The silver haired nin's expression turned from one of easy-going to a serious one. "Just give it up." He advised. Turning his gaze slightly away from Aoi and towards what's going on behind him, the man smirked. "Your allies are all defeated now." He looked back at the green haired shinobi. "I'm sure you'll turn up the same." Kakashi jumped away from him, landing next to Neji in a crouching position.

The missing nin in front of them cursed, his hand holding onto his stomach that was bleeding like waterfalls. He felt the energy leaving his body so he had to use the umbrella to support himself. It wasn't supposed to end up like this, he had underestimated them. Aoi was sure Sasuke's going to kill him for failing. Damn those leaf ninjas, they were stronger than expected.

Wordlessly, he got up and jumped to a tree before disappearing out of their sight.

"Good, he's gone now." Tenten muttered breathlessly, walking over to her male team members. "Come here, guys." She gestured for them to sit down as she brought out her medical kit. The men didn't say any words, just letting her do whatever she could to heal all the wounds they had received during the battle. It took less than half an hour before the weapon master completely patched up all their injuries.

Standing up, the bun haired girl put her supplies back insider her pouch. "Let's go." She walked over to the forest, where she remembered Naruto and Kiba had gone to.

"Wait, Tenten. We should rest first." She heard Kakashi grunted. He was still a bit tired from his battle. Tenten gritted her teeth and glared down at him.

"What are you saying?! We're already wasting enough time! Sakura's probably far away by now!"

"Naruto and Kiba went after her. We shouldn't worry too much." Neji stated calmly, looking away from the narrowed eyes that's being sent his way by his teammate.

"B-but, what if they need help! We should go—"

"Do you think you can go in your condition?" Tenten abruptly shut her mouth at the harsh tone Kakashi used. "Just look at yourself, Tenten." The girl did as she was told and observed her body, covered with bandage and tattered clothes. "With our chakra, we'll only get in the way. We should rest first and send help."

"Kakashi's right." Neji chipped in. The brunette woman said nothing and nodded.

* * *

Naruto sighed as he walked around the small village with Kiba and Akamaru by his side. After helping out the villagers clearing the damaged caused by the explosion, they had no luck finding Sakura and her kidnapper. The man, whoever he was, was still trying to hide his scent so the tracker ninja couldn't tell his identity. Narrowing his blue eyes, he stopped and looked up at the sky. _'When will I catch up with you, Sakura-chan?'_

Kiba tugged his sleeves, catching his attention. "Let's go ask that guy." He pointed to an old man, who was selling pork buns near the exit of the village. The two made their way over there, making sure not to bump into the many people on the streets.

The man at the small food stand looked up from his counter and at the two males standing in front of him. By their outfits and headbands, he guessed they were ninjas. Nonetheless, he put up a smile he always showed his customer. "Welcome, what can I do for you?" the old man asked in a polite manner.

"Have you seen a girl passing by here?" Naruto asked. "She's about this height." The blond used his hand to indicate how tall Sakura was. "She's probably wearing a cloak or some kind." He added just in case. If she was captured then the kidnapper would try to conceal her under some clothes, he was hoping it was a cloak.

The old seller rubbed his stubble in thought. "Hm…" When he finally remembered something that's a use to the two young men, he snapped his fingers. "Yeah, I saw her!"

Kiba and Naruto's face instantly brightened at this. "Really?"

"Yup!" the man nodded. "I think she was traveling with this tall man. They're heading west."

"What does he look like?"

"I don't know. He's wearing a cloak. But by the way they talk; I think they know each other."

The blond ninja bobbed his head up and down at the information. "Is that all?" when the man in front of him said yes, he and his friends thanked him and walked away to the direction of where the old man pointed to. Finally they found a lead.

* * *

"Boy, I'm stuffed!" Sakura patted her full belly and grinned at the man sitting across from her. The glare on his face was a little bit amusing than scary. "C'mon! Don't look like that!" she frowned.

"You know," Sasuke started, closing his eyes. "You eat like a pig." The man was surprised that there was money to spare after all the food his former teammate had ordered. She must have been pretty hungry. It was strange since back in the days when he was still in Konoha, she never eaten anything and was always on a diet.

The pinkette gasped dramatically. "Are you saying that I'm fat?!" she slammed her hands on the table; earning looks of surprise from the other customers as well as the waitress who was walking pass them.

"Stop it, woman. People are staring." He responded coldly, looking away from her flushed face. The dark haired nin ignored how close her face was to him and how much her large collar was showing off her breasts. Why did his body felt hot all of the sudden?

Sakura was about to open her mouth to say something back but stopped immediately when she felt something. Something wet between her legs. Panic filled her at first but she managed to control herself and thought about what was going on. Blood drained from her face when she finally realized why this was happening.

"Er…" Sasuke looked at her expectantly. The pink haired kunoichi blushed. "Can we…er…go to the bathroom?" she asked in a quiet voice, praying that he wasn't going to question her and agreed to her request.

"Why?"

She resisted the temptation to slam her head against the table. "Just…" Sakura croaked out. "Just _please_ can we go to the bathroom!?"

The last remaining Uchiha raised his brow at how strange she was acting. The look on her face was weird and her voice was desperate and serious. Was something wrong with her? Sighing, he got up and motioned for her to follow him to the bathroom. He was shocked when a pink blur ran passed him in a fast pace. The next thing he knew was the door of the restroom slamming shut.

Blinking, Sasuke stepped closer to the door and leant against the wall next to it. He could feel the stare people sending his way, wondering why a cloaked man would be standing next to the bathroom like that but the young man didn't care. He couldn't risk Sakura playing tricks on him and tried to escape.

"Fucking hell!" he heard from the other side of the door, the voice of Sakura was slightly muffled. Another minute of absolute silent came after the curse, making him slightly worried about how she was doing in there. He suddenly felt the need to knock on the wooden door and ask what was wrong.

"Sasuke-kun?" she called, in an almost hesitant voice. There was pause as Sasuke waited for her to finish. "Can you…er…go to the store…" A sharp intake of breath was heard. "Buy me some tampons…?"

Silence…

"What? Why!?" Sasuke's eyes widened.

"Don't ask me 'what', you asshole! You perfectly know _why_ I need it!" Sakura yelled angrily, obviously pissed off at his response. "Just go and buy me some! And a new pair of underwear while you're at it!"

The Uchiha furrowed his eye brows. "There's no way I'm leaving you here!" he shouted back. "Besides, why don't you buy yourself?! I don't fucking know what the hell it looks like!"

"There's no fucking way I'm going out there with blood stain on my pants!" Sasuke shut his mouth and looked away. She had a point but he couldn't just go and leave her here. Something might happen. She had no Chakra, if someone was to attack, she'd be dead and—

"You fucking bastard, don't just stand there and do nothing! Hurry the fuck up and go!" With a sigh, the missing ninja turned on his heel and headed to where he thought the store was. Things couldn't get any worse today.

When he reached the store, the feeling back when he was buying undergarments returned. This would be embarrassing, it's better to get it fast and over it. Walking around the store, his eyes scanned the labels and searched for his needed item, fully aware of the eyes that were on him. Sasuke twitched as he found them. There were too many brands and types! Which one did Sakura used?!

He wanted to yell out in frustration but decided not to. The ex-Konoha shinobi was already glad he wore a cloak and nobody could recognize him. He couldn't live through the humiliation if people found out about this. Snatching one package quickly, Sasuke made his way over to the cashier, picking out new woman underwear while doing so.

The man on the counter eyed him funnily as he handed out the items but with a frightening growl, the scared cashier put the goods in a bag as fast as he could and gave it to him. The Uchiha threw the many on the table and dashed out the door, leaving a trail of dusts and winds behind. That was one of the most horrifying experiences in his life.

Meanwhile, Sakura was tapping her fingers together impatiently as she waited for Sasuke to arrive with the things she told him to get. Why oh why did she have to have her period now? It was so embarrassing having to ask a guy to buy tampons for her, especially if the person was her former teammate who also happened to be a missing ninja. She couldn't hold the snicker when an image of him buying her woman product entered her mind. Poor guy. It's his fault anyways.

The hard knock brought her attention away from her thought. _'Finally!'_ she sighed in relief, opening the door only a small bit, just enough to pull the package Sasuke handed her through the small hole. It took her a few minutes until she changed. Sakura felt a little but more refreshed than before now. Opening the door, she stepped out and looked at the broody dark haired teen next to her. The girl grinned, a small blush on her face.

"Sorry about that." She scratched her head sheepishly. He said nothing and walked away, expecting her to follow. The medical ninja just giggled at how flustered his face was and ran after him.

* * *

Tsunade blinked warily at the paper in front of her. Her visions were getting all blurry with all the reading and paper work she had been doing today. Leaning back against the seat, she sighed and rubbed her temples, closing her honey colored eyes, trying to clear her mind. Even though she hated working, it's only thing the female Hokage could to distract her mind from her missing apprentice.

It's been so long since she had sent her rescue unit and she received nothing in return. No response, no nothing. Her worries had gotten worse that she couldn't even sleep at night, which was a bad thing because Tsunade was the protector of the village. Lack of sleep made her slack off. Shizune was doing as much as she could to keep her master in check.

Sitting up, the blonde woman stepped over to the glass window and looked upon the village. Throughout the whole years she had been here, nothing had changed about the Konoha. People were still the same, the shinobi were still loyal to them. Right now they were helping each other rebuild the destroyed houses after the war.

Thinking about the war, Tsunade was glad that it was finally over. It had been going around for so long and now everything's been solved. All of the nations were allies now and she had nothing to worry about. Maybe the after the math of the war wasn't so bad after all, people had come to understand one another, just like Jiraiya said.

A frantic knock on the door reached her ears. Without turning around, she uttered a soft "Come in." The door flew opened, revealing her first apprentice, Shizune, looking very scared. Tsunade raised her eyebrow slightly at the frightened look on her face.

"Tsunade-sama!" The black haired woman wheezed out. "We need to send back-up to help Kakashi's team!" Honey colored eyes flew opened at this. The worries she had been trying to push away came back tenfold.

"Why? What happened?!" the Hokage quickly asked.

Shizune panted, still trying to recover her normal breathing. "He sent a message, asking for help."

Tsunade bit her lips. She had sent the strongest ninjas on this mission. How long they were taking to accomplish this was already a bad sign, the woman had no idea it was this bad. Looking up at her apprentice, she narrowed her eyes. "Shizune, I want you to call some people for me."

* * *

"Are you still mad?" Sakura asked her kidnapper (or more like traveling companion) as they tried to make their way out of the forest. It's been almost an hour since the whole bathroom moment and he still hadn't talked to her. At first, the pink haired girl brushed it off, thinking that it was normal for a prideful person like Sasuke to feel this angry because of buying woman stuff like that. It was taking a bit too long now.

"Hn…" he grunted. An angry vein popped on her forehead at the lack of response. So much for trying to cheer him up. Giving up, she decided to take the time and looked around at the scenery, which was nothing but trees and grasses but it was better than facing the tense atmosphere. Too engaged in her own world, she didn't notice Sasuke stopping. Sakura bumped into him.

She rubbed her head and glared at the man in front of her. "Hey! If you gonna stop, tell me!" she hissed, soothing the pain in her throbbing forehead. It was already big enough as it was, the girl didn't need it to grow any bigger with all the bumps and accidents she had, which always had to injure some part of her head.

Sasuke stood there like a statue, his brows furrowing at the sudden movement he felt coming from his pursuers. They were catching up to them. Even though the distance was still long, the Uchiha couldn't risk anything involving Sakura. He turned to her and said, "Come on, let's walk faster."

Sakura blinked a couple of times until the information sunk it. "H-hey! Stop walking too fast, dammit!"

...

..

.

* * *

**A/N:** Yeah, i embarrass Sasuke on purpose. I just want to make things as realistic as possible and things like that are gonna happen if you're traveling with a girl. A girl whose bag that is full of needed materials you threw away. Let that be lesson to you, Sasuke. A girl's bags are always important. Hmm who do you think Tsunade will send?

On a different side note, did you read the latest chapter of Naruto? (of course you did) It's fucking amazing. I'm sure you all agree with me. Sasuke's back! Sakura's gonna kick some ass, like i always wanted her to! Team 7 is back together again! Yay! I'm sure you noticed the sasusaku interactions in the manga, right? Right!

Every sasusaku fans out there must be screaming their heads off right now! Because i was the moment i saw it. Such feelings~! I'm drown by it!

Like i told you, this isn't beta'd.

**Important**: I have a poll at my profile concerning one of the main plots in this story. It's called 'What gender(s) should Sakura and Sasuke's child/children be?' the story depends on you so go vote while you can. For guests, just put them in the review and I'll count them in too! You can send the votes through PMs or my email if you want.

Bye!


	11. 11: Gone

**A/N:** I'm drown in my Sasusaku feels!

Enjoy!

* * *

**Behind The Cold Eyes**

* * *

_The first time Sakura and Naruto went out on a mission to find Sasuke was near the land of the Wind. It took a very long time, but they managed to find his whereabouts. Surprisingly, when they discussed about this with the Hokage, Tsunade, she easily agreed after finding out that the Uchiha lend a helping hand during the war. Of course, even though the current leader of the village approved, it wasn't so easy to convince the elders._

_"We disapprove." The two elder shinobi stated with a stern look. Sakura remembered how disappointed her and Naruto's faces were when they said this. "Uchiha Sasuke has committed crimes not only against Konoha, but all of the nations in the world. People still holds countless grudges against him. We're already doing enough favors for him already by letting him off the hook." Homura sneered, looking away from the two members of Team seven and the blonde Hokage._

_"But he helped us! If it wasn't for him, all of us would be dead right now!" Naruto protested heatedly, slamming his hands on the tables that separated him and the elders. The Hokage advisers weren't intimidated by his outburst. The looks inside their eyes were getting even bitterer by the seconds. Sakura clenched her fists, trying her hardest not to do the same thing her teammate was doing right now._

_"That doesn't make up for the countless of lives that's been lost by his dirty Uchiha hands." The Kyuubi container breathed out heavily. It was a wonder steams weren't coming out from his ears by how red his face was. Koharu coughed and glanced at the three ninjas in front of her. "Homura's right. He joined forces with the Akatsuki, captured the Tailed Beasts and even plotted to destroy Konoha."_

_"And he changed his mind in the end." Tsunade interrupted with a hard tone of voice. "It's true that he did all of those things but what matters the most is that he chose our sides in the end."_

_The grey haired adviser snorted at her reasoning. "He only did because we're of use to his revenge. Madara was also his enemy and he took your powers for granted to make it easier for him to kill that man."_

_"That's not true! He did it because he wanted to help this village! He told Sakura-chan that by himself!" Naruto pointed to the unusually quiet pink haired girl by his side, who hadn't said a word since this whole argument started._

_"And you believed him?" The distastefulness inside their voice made Sakura sick. Her teeth grinded against each other, her knuckles already turned white by how tight she clenched her fists._

_"I do!"_

_The elders looked away. "Che. Preposterous. The Uchiha clan is a cursed clan, filled with no one but power hungry creatures."_

_That's when Sakura couldn't take it anymore._

_The pink haired girl stood up from the chair, the abrupt action caused the seat to fall down to the ground with an echoing clang. Everyone in the room looked up in shock at the medic, whose chest was heaving up and down in rage. Her emerald eyes were vicious as she glared at the two elder people in the office._

_"You…" she hissed. "Have no right to say things like that! Especially after all the things they did for this village!" the anger was evident in her voice. 'Especially after all that Itachi did.' These words were left as an afterthought. Kakashi had already told her about the whole massacre story. Even Tsunade and Naruto were surprised at how different she was being. They knew the only female member of team seven was short tempered but they had never seen her this way._

_"How disrespectful!" Homura narrowed his eyes at her through his glasses._

_"Is this how you trained your apprentice Tsunade?" Koharu averted her eyes to the Hokage._

_Sakura sighed in frustration. "You know what? Screw this! Screw all of this!" turning around, the small heels attached to bottom of her boots clacked loudly as she stomped her way to the door. "I don't fucking care what you think! Let's just go, Naruto!" the blond got up from his seat and chased after his teammate, who was already out the room._

_The Kunoichi was shocked when her master approached her fifteen minutes afterwards as she was about to walk out the exit of Konoha. Imagine her surprise when the Hokage said that the elders approved of the missions._

_"Well, technically, they didn't." Tsunade let out a soft chuckle. "You two should have stayed and look at their wrinkled faces. They looked like deer in headlights. I guess they're a bit scared of you and told me you can do whatever you want as long as it doesn't involve them and the village." She smiled._

_And here they were, jumping through countless trees as they head to the village they were informed of. Sakura was glad that some of the Konoha 11 agreed to come along with Kakashi as captain. Tenten, Shino, Hinata and Kiba were just jumping a few trees behind them. The others were either on a mission or still held a bit of bitterness against Sasuke._

_Once they stepped foot inside the small village near Suna, the leader of the mission turned towards his team. "Okay, first let's split up and look for Sasuke." The Jounin pulled at his communicator attached to neck. "When we find him, inform the team immediately." After receiving nods from his co-workers, the copy ninja threw his arm in the air. "Let's move!" they scattered to different places as assigned in the plan they made before leaving Konoha._

_Kiba was on his own, as well as Kakashi since each of them a tracking dog of their own. Hinata, Shino and Naruto were told to cover the east and north side of the village. Tenten and Sakura were asking information in the west and south._

_They continued seeking for the whereabouts for the missing ninja until sunset, with no luck of finding anything. Sakura sighed and slumped down on the lump of tree behind her. She didn't know how they got to the forest outside the village but it was better to cover all of the places than some parts. Tenten craned her neck and sat near her friend._

_"God, my legs are killing me." The weapon mistress groaned as she messaged her sore feet. All the walking they'd done made her want to just give up and went back home but she knew how important this mission was to Sakura and Naruto, and she wasn't going to be selfish about it. The brunette didn't know what she would do if any of her teammates went missing either._

_"Do you think he's really here?" She heard Sakura asked in a soft voice. The bun haired girl turned to look at the pinkette, only to see her bangs covering half of her face as she looked down. Shrugging, Tenten continued her actions on her feet. "I don't know. But we have to have faith. Isn't that what you always say?" She nudged the girl beside her, earning a laugh._

_"Yeah, you're right." Sakura smiled and looked up at the dark sky, noticing the lack of stars above her. She just hoped that Sasuke was out there, still near their reach after all that happened. The movement next to her caught her attention. The pink haired medic glanced at her friend, seeing her standing up and scanning the area cautiously._

_"Did you hear that?" she asked. Sakura got up, standing back to back against Tenten, her emerald orbs moving from places to places in alert._

_Whoosh!_

_Her pink head perked up at the sudden rustling coming from the trees on her right side. "I am now." She whispered. Her gloved hands maneuvered themselves to the weapon pouch, ready to pull out a kunai and attacked. The rustling came closer and closer towards them. The two girls kept their guards up for the enemy, eyes darting everywhere._

_Tenten gulped down her saliva unconsciously, her grip on the Kunai tightened. Sweats dripped down her forehead. She felt a little bit suffocated in this situation. The brunette hadn't been in this type of combat for a long while, she's afraid she might be losing her touch. Leaves falling from above her caught her gaze. A gasp escaped the young woman's mouth as she felt herself being pushed to the side._

_Hitting the ground, the bun haired girl used her palms to keep her face from hitting the soil. Something warm hit her back, something like liquid. When she turned around, her brown eyes widened in horror._

_"Sakura!"_

* * *

_Sasuke sat quietly in his seat on the stool, gulping down the water occasionally as the people behind conversed back and forth about the current news. He wasn't interested in that, the ninja was only here to eat something since he hadn't had anything since this morning. It was already dawn now. The young man made a mental note to rent a room once he left._

_"Hey, didn't you hear?" someone from his side asked his friend. His body reeked of alcohol, which made Sasuke crunched his nose in disgust. He hated Sake. The missing ninja had no idea why people favored it so much. The smell was awful. Being raised by his mother and her precious teachings, he was taught to stay away from anything addictive as much as possible. Even though Mikoto died early, she managed to convince Sasuke enough to stay away from drinking._

_"Hear what?" Came the other man's response. After emptying another bottle of Sake, the man who started the question chuckled. "I heard from the people in Suna that Uchiha Sasuke was part of the reason why they won the war."_

_"Uchiha Sasuke?" the drunken said his name like a plague. "That traitor? No way!"_

_"It's true! The Kazekage even said it himself!"_

_"Che. Yeah right. Even if that's true, that fucking bastard and his clan can just die for all I care!"_

_The two men jumped when Sasuke slammed his money on the table, walking away with a killing aura around him. The dark haired nin wasn't mad when they badmouthed him, but when they said something about his family, his bloodlust came back but he didn't act on it. After weeks of calming that side of him down, the teen was able to control himself not to lash out at anyone if it's not necessary. Right now, Sasuke just wanted to lay low._

_The last Uchiha stepped out from the stand and walked through the forest, hoping to find a nearby village so he could rent a room. He didn't know why he left the previous village so soon, which was near Suna, but something was telling him not to. Shrugging, the man continued his way to the exit of the forest when a scream was heard._

_"SAKURA!"_

_Sasuke stiffened; the feeling from when he was fighting Obito came to his mind. The voice didn't belong to ex-teammate but the Nukenin couldn't help but become worried. It sounded horrified and frightened; he actually believed that something was happening to Sakura. His instinct kicked in and without thinking, he rushed towards the direction of the words. Even though he knew there would be hundreds of Sakuras out there and the girl might not be his teammate. There was only one thing on his mind._

* * *

_Blood leaked out of Sakura's mouth as her hand went behind her to pull out the sword that was struck to her body by the attacker. Tenten quickly aided her by helping her to her feet, looking up at the enemy with her fierce brown eyes. He smirked and launched at the two Kunoichi again but stopped abruptly when something punctured his neck. Coughing up blood, the man fell down on the ground, his breathing stopped in seconds._

_Tenten blinked, staring at the dead man across from her. She squinted her eyes and saw a small needle attached to his neck, which she concluded was the weapon that ended his life. 'Who did that?' The chain of cough coming from her friend alerted her of the pinkette's health. She moved Sakura so she could inspect the wound on her back. It was deep and looked like it was affected by poison, judging by the purple skin around the injury._

_'Shit!' the weapon mistress had little knowledge about medical ninja but this was beyond her level. She needed to get Sakura to the hospital and fast. When she felt something whisked just right near her ear, Tenten gripped her weapon and was about to turn around and attack but once she recognized who the person was, her jaws dropped._

_"S-sasuke?" the Uchiha didn't even glance at her as he made his way to Sakura, kneeling down next to his former friend. She had already fainted through the pain. Cursing, Sasuke carried her up with his hand under her knee and his other one supporting her back, walking towards the small village where he just left, remembering there was a small hospital there. The doctors weren't skilled, but they were trained enough to get the poison out._

_Tenten finally snapped out of her reveries and recalled what she was told to do when she encountered the Uchiha. Reaching her hand up to her neck and pushed the small button on it, her eyes flew opened when she realized it was gone. The girl looked around frantically and saw it on the ground, cut to small pieces from the use of a sword. The missing ninja knew she would try to inform the others of his presence._

_"Coming?" Sasuke called out in an annoyed tone. The brunette nodded and stood up. Whatever he was planning, she didn't care. All she knew about was Sasuke wasn't going to let Sakura die._

* * *

_When Sakura woke up on the hospital bed of Konoha with her teammates waiting in the room for her, two words entered her mind._

_"I failed."_

* * *

**Chapter 11: Gone**

* * *

"I'm tired." Sakura said, trying to get Sasuke's attention. When she assumed he didn't hear (or ignore) her, she tried again. "I'm tired." No response, as she expected. Annoyed, the pink haired girl walked past the cold man and stepped in front of him. The rogue ninja raised his brow at her. The action caused a vein to pop out on her big forehead. "I'm tired." She fumed. "Let's rest."

Sasuke glared at her but it didn't faze her like when they kids anymore to his dismay. "The next village is just a couple of miles away. We're already wasting time. Stop complaining." He uttered.

Sakura finally snapped. "I'm a woman, dammit! A woman who's on her period! You don't fucking know what's it like having blood rush down your body twenty four hours a day for the duration of almost a fucking week!" Her outburst almost, _almost _made Sasuke want to cover his ears with his hands. She didn't have to tell him, his mother had taught him enough everyday whenever she complained on her time of the month.

"I get cramps sometimes and it's fucking painful! Do you have any idea how hard it is to be a woman? No! I guess you don't because you're the great Uchiha! You're the manliest man and always believed that woman is the weakest sex! Well, I'd like to see you fucking say that again when you're giving birth! I'll bet you'll just faint during the whole process and die! And then—"

"Alright! We'll rest, just shut up!" Sasuke ground out, obviously his ears were going to bleed if she kept going on and on about how hard life was being a female. Of course he knew this, the man had Uchiha Mikoto for a mother after all. She had always taught him about to respect woman and the equal of sex thing. Now since the dark haired teen was a good boy, he took his mother's teaching to heart and did as she was told.

He did respect woman…who _deserves_ to be respected, which was a few in his life (by a few, Sasuke meant there were only two females who's like that). There's no way he's going to respect fangirls or slutty woman. That would be awful.

"Great!" Sakura beamed, her face was bright as sunlight. Glancing around, her smile stretched wider when she caught sight of a small hot spring hotel nearby. What a great coincidence! Skipping, the medic turned around and flashed him a big grin. "Come on, let's go!" she then returned to her happy world full of great foods and hot spring, running even more faster to the place.

Sasuke sighed and walked after her, trying to ignore the money that were slowly slipping away from his fingers every day. He needed to get some more soon.

* * *

Naruto was furious. He thought he was having a good lead that's going help him find Sakura but this _lead_ seemed to lead him to a forest, where there's nothing but trees and grasses. There were the occasional teahouse and hotel but they didn't find any clues and the people kept saying that had never seen a girl with pink hair passed by. Of course they wouldn't, she wore a fucking cloak after all!

"I'm done for, let's take a break." Kiba slumped to the ground, sighing tiredly as he panted. They already walked a good distance away from their last stop and he was dying for a break. His stomach growled, causing the poor hungry tracker ninja to groan. "Naruto, let's eat at the next teahouse we see." He suggested, pushing himself back up from the dirty road.

The blond sighed and nodded. "Alright." Finding Sakura was the priority of this mission. They need to keep track of her sense of smell so they wouldn't lose any lead, but doing that with an empty stomach wouldn't help much. Soldier pills weren't one hundred percent good for your health either, as he recalled what his pink haired missing friend told him whenever they're on missions. Sakura hadn't been missing for a month and Naruto already missed her terribly already.

The two continued their search for a teahouse, and Sakura, and successfully found one. To Naruto's delight, they sold Ramen. The friends sat down on one table and ordered their desired food.

"So, Kiba. Where's Sakura heading now?" the Jichuuriki asked as they waited for their order. Kiba sniffed a good three seconds before answering him.

"She stopped."

"Stop?"

"Yeah, seems to be resting or something."

Naruto nodded. "Oh…"

A couple of minutes ticked by as Kiba bit his lips. Something was bothering him for a while but he chose to not say this to Naruto seeing as he was too engaged in finding his precious teammate. "Hey, Naruto?" he called. The Kyuubi container grunted, showing him he was listening as his blue eyes watched the people around them.

"When that old man told us about Sakura's interaction with her kidnapper, do you think it's strange?" The Konoha hero turned his gaze back to his friend attentively.

"What do you mean?"

Kiba rest his finger to his chin in thought. "Well, when we asked him what that man looks like, do you remember what he said?"

Naruto stared in space for a moment, trying to recall what happened a while ago.

_"What does he look like?"_

_"I don't know. He's wearing a cloak. But by the way they talk; I think they know each other."_

By the way they talk, they know each other.

His eyes flew opened at what Kiba was trying to tell him. "D-do you mean the one who's been keeping Sakura-chan hidden is someone she knows?"

The brunette shrugged. "Probably." His animalistic eyes then narrowed. "But if they know each other, he wouldn't keep Sakura away like that. Except maybe they're old friends and are just catching up with each other?"

Naruto shook his blond head. "No, Sakura-chan's not the type to abandon her mission for something like that. She would have sent a message to Tsunade-baachan if she did. And she's not the type to leave without properly telling all of us about it too. Remember what Kakashi-sensei said Kiba, she's kidnapped. It's the only reasonable thing; otherwise she would have already delivered the scroll and came back home right now. Whether he's friends with her or not, she's still in danger."

"Well, if she's kidnapped, why is she acting so calmly about it and probably talked to her capturer like they're really friends?"

"Sakura-chan always surprises us with new things."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm thinking too much." Kiba sighed, putting his head on the table. "But still, I can't get this icky feeling in my stomach. This whole thing just confuses me!"

The blond ninja looked down at his lap. "I know what you mean. Let's wait for Kakashi-sensei and the others to discuss about this first."

If anything Kiba said was true, then there's only one person Naruto could think of that's close to Sakura other than her friends who's not in the village…

He shook his head. _'Nah, it couldn't be him…'_

* * *

Tenten tapped her feet impatiently on the ground, standing with her hands on her hips, eyes closed and brows furrowed. Kakashi and Neji watched the slightly fuming girl with mild interest as the two Jounin rested against the tree, the three of them waiting for their reinforcement to arrive though it was taking a little bit too long for the weapon master's liking.

"They're late!" she stomped her sandals to the grassy ground, finally had enough. It's taking awfully along time, those back up should be here right now. Anymore waiting and Sakura would be gone from their reach. The brunette was hoping that Naruto and Kiba had caught up to her, even it's just a little.

Kakashi sighed at the brown haired young woman. She's hanging around Sakura too much, he thought, the pinkette's short temper was rubbing off on her. "Tenten, calm down. It's only a while ago since we sent the message to the Hokage. It will take a long time for them to get here." Her rush and worries were clouding her mind.

The only female of the three huffed and sat down next to Neji, crossing her arms, mumbling things to herself. Neji heard something along the lines of 'tardiness' and 'stupid perverted sensei for acting too calm'. The Hyuuga man nodded to himself, yes, she was turning into the second Sakura, just minus the super inhuman strength part. It was something he was thankful of.

"I wonder how Kiba and Naruto are doing." The silver haired ninja asked out loud, staring at the setting sun. Tenten glanced at him for a few seconds before turning away.

"Hopefully getting closer to finding Sakura." She said. The sensei chuckled. "I hope so."

"Well, you're awfully calm." Neji smirked, staring at the man sitting across from him and his teammate.

The copy ninja only let out a small laugh. "I've been in this situation where a teammate had gone missing a lot of times. This doesn't frighten me." He turned his face away from them. The two young teens didn't notice the slight narrowing of his one visible eye. _'But if my guess is correct and he's the one who took Sakura, I don't know if I should be worried or happy.'_

The set of footsteps approaching them made the three shinobi turned cautious, thinking that they were enemies pulling another ambush or Aoi coming back with new allies. They were too tired and weren't properly healed yet so they weren't ready for another battle. All of them heaved a sigh of relief once familiar faces appeared from the bushes.

"Tenten! Neji-kun!" Lee ran over to his teammates and hugged them, tightening his hold even when they protested and tried to struggle away from his dead like hug. The jumpsuit wearing shinobi had missed his friends dearly, even though it was only a few days since they left. When the Hokage had called for him to assist Kakashi's team on a mission to find Sakura, the bowl-cut teen didn't hesitate to go.

"Lee…" Tenten chocked out. "I can't breathe."

"Lee! You're killing them!" Ino yelled, walking over to the Taijutsu master and his almost out of breath teammates. Pulling his Chunin vest, the blonde girl pulled until his grip on the two released, ignoring the waterfall tears that were running down from his round eyes. _'What a weirdo.'_ She thought.

"You must be the ones Tsunade-sama sent to help us right?" Kakashi's eyes moved from the Yamanaka girl to his rival's favorite pupils and onto the two last people behind them. He could recognize one to be Sai and the other one was Hinata.

Sai nodded. "We're here to help you. I never realized that Ugly had gone missing." The nick name that he had given Sakura had never disappeared, even when he was turning to a normal person who had emotions, well almost.

"I was told Naruto-kun and Kiba-kun were with you." Hinata's soft spoken voice was heard. "Where are they now?"

Tenten, who was finally catching her breath after her teammate's death grip, decided to explain their situation. "Well, we were ambushed and decided to let those two go first so we don't have to waste any more time."

Ino's blue orbs flew opened. "Ambushed?"

"Yeah. Probably that guy who's captured Sakura was the one who sent them." The brunette growled, feeling her anger coming back as soon as she thought about that bastard.

"Well, if so, does this mean that we're also wasting precious time to save dear Sakura-san?" Lee boomed, clenching his fists as he pumped them towards the sky. "Let us go!"

Everyone nodded, agreeing to the spandex clad ninja's statement, except for Ino, who was twitching at his attitude. _'I'm stuck with weirdoes!'_

* * *

"Whoa." Sakura's jaw dropped as she opened the shoji door that led to her and Sasuke's room. It was freaking huge and beautiful. It's better than any hot spring resort she had ever been to. Sure, the beds were simple Japanese futons like any other traditional hotel offer but the designs on the cover were so enticing. They looked comfortable enough to sleep for twelve hours without waking up. There were a few ancient ornaments on display in the room but the only thing that captured her attention was the balcony.

Dropping the backpack Sasuke ordered her to carry, the medic sprinted to look at the scenery outside. It was a good thing they were staying on the fourth floor, which gave them a good view of the nature. She would have been fooled by how small and simple this hotel looked on the outside but it turned out, it was this great! How much money did her former teammate need to spend for this room anyways? Not that she cared much, the girl just wanted to have a good time here.

The Uchiha had rent it for them to stay in for a while, until her period decided to go away for her and his sake. He told her to come here first, saying that he had something to do. The pink haired girl only shrugged in response and took the bags from his shoulder and the key. Once she stepped into the room, any plan of running away escaped her mind. All that was left in her head was enjoying this as much as possible.

The sound of the shoji door sliding opened caught her attention as she glanced over her shoulder and saw Sasuke approaching her, carrying what seemed to be a wooden bowl filled with hot water. Her nostril wrinkled as she smelt the scent of herbs, probably coming from what was in the missing ninja's hand.

"What's that?" Sakura pointed to the bowl of water as he was near her.

"It's for you to shower." Sasuke replied monotonously. A pink brow was raised.

"What?"

The dark haired teen sighed. "This water is from the hot spring. The herbal ingredients in here will help the cramps you're complaining about." If the Haruno girl looked closely, she would have seen the small red tint on the Uchiha's ears, but the Kunoichi was too touched by how caring he was than notice something like that.

"Wait, you did this…for me?" she pointed to herself, feeling her face heated up a little. Was he listening to all of her complaints during the whole walk?

Sasuke looked away and pushed the bowl into her hands. "Just shut up and take it." When he assumed her hands had enough strength to hold it, the young man let go and walked back inside the room, sitting in front of the table, leaving a dazed Sakura on the balcony alone.

Blinking her emerald eyes rapidly, an enormous grin appeared on the pink haired girl's face. She had an idea that Sasuke still cared for her a bit after the whole confrontation back at the previous village, but this was touching. The medical ninja didn't seem to know that the thought of faking to earn his trust and escaping weren't on her mind; it was replaced by great warmth she hadn't felt for years.

Still smiling to herself, Sakura stepped in, walking passed the silent Uchiha sitting on the floor and into the bathroom.

The water felt good on her skin more that it should have.

* * *

When Kakashi thought about who Tsunade would send to help them, he actually had an idea who she'd pick. Sai and Lee had unique skills of their own and he didn't doubt their experiences in battle. Hinata would be great to have since Neji was a little bit drained after his battle with Aoi, and from what Ino and Tenten said, he couldn't use his blood line trait for at least a day or so. They were young but these groups of ninjas were more powerful than anyone gave them credit for. Someday they would surpass their mentors and became the better generations of warriors.

"Hey, look!" Lee's loud voice yelled, pointing at the direction in front of them. The others followed his finger and onto the small teahouse located just a few meters away and immediately recognized the two sitting in one of the tables were Naruto and Kiba. The yellow hair and bright orange jumpsuit couldn't be mistaken as someone else. After confirming that it was indeed their two friends, the seven ninjas walked at a normal pace towards them.

Sensing multiple presences approaching them, the blond Jinchuuriki and the tracker ninja averted their attention from the finished food and at the people coming their way. Naruto's face brightened when he recognized all of them. Sitting up from the table, he stumbled over to them.

"Guys! You're alright!" the Kyuubi container let out a sigh of relief, glad that his sensei and the rest of the team were okay after fighting with the missing ninjas. Tenten and Kakashi smiled at him as Neji grumbled something incoherently to himself. "What happened to Aoi?"

"Ran away." Tenten replied quickly. Her eyes widened once she realized something. Naruto and Kiba turned confused at how fast her smile was wiped off from her face, a very angry expression replacing it. She was about to open her mouth to snap at them but someone beat her to it.

"You idiots! I thought you're going after Sakura!" Ino screeched, stomping over to the two and whacked them on their heads, not paying attention to the painful groan they made. The blonde girl grabbed their collars and brought them closer to her face. "Why are you eating here like there's nothing wrong when Sakura could be dead right now, huh?"

Naruto brought his hands up and shook them in front of his face in defense. "W-we were! But Kiba complained too much about his feet and I had no choice but to rest and wait for you guys!"

"Don't blame this on me! You're the one who said we should wait for the others before going alone!"

"Shut the fuck up! It's both of your faults!" The Yamanaka woman hissed, silencing the two bickering shinobi.

Kakashi coughed loudly, catching all of their attentions. "This isn't the time to argue, I suggest we go after Sakura now before it's too late. You two can tell us about your progress along the way." He decided. Ino let go of Naruto and Kiba, nodding politely at the captain as Hinata rushed over to her crush and teammate, helping them getting up from the ground.

"Now, Kiba, where's Sakura heading now?" Tenten asked. The dog lover shut his eyes and tried to seek for Sakura's scent using his nose again. His blood ran cold.

"Guys…" Everyone tensed, feeling something bad was going to happen. Naruto pushed his way towards Kiba and shook his friend's slumped shoulder frantically.

"What?! Did something happen to Sakura-chan?!"

"Her smell is gone…"

* * *

The sound of the water stopping coming from the hotel bathroom alerted Sasuke of Sakura stepping out. His dark eyes stared at the door blankly as it slid open, out came the pink haired girl wearing a robes with a towel drying her hair. She gave him a big smile when she looked at him, which he responded with nothing but turning his gaze away.

Sasuke's nose twitched slightly at the scent of herbs surrounded the room, taking notice that the floral scent his former teammate always carried was replaced. The young Uchiha smirked inwardly at this. His plan worked. Bathing with the hot spring water did cover Sakura's natural scent completely. It wouldn't last forever but at least he got another few days or so until the mineral smell fade away and he had to resort to running away again.

"The water felt so good!" Sakura hummed contently as she stretched, missing the heated look on Sasuke's face as she pushed her breasts forward. She may not know it but the medical ninja could easily seduced men unintentional with the littlest innocent things she did. When her eyes finally landed on the young man, his face was turned away from her. His messy black hair covered the blush on his ears.

"I wished I saved some for you." She said afterwards, crossing her legs under her body and looked at the dark sky through the balcony window. "You need it after traveling for so long." A grin made its way to her mouth. "And for putting up with all my mood swings." Her fingers fiddled with the fabric of her robe, something she always did whenever she was bored. Sasuke said nothing.

The silence in the room wasn't tensed, but it was nice. It's almost comforting as they finally stayed together without fighting. The two ex-teammates enjoyed the quiet atmosphere as Sakura continued to gaze at the stars outside while Sasuke sat, thinking to himself. The moment was ruined when someone knocked on the door.

"Your dinner is here!" A friendly male voice said from the other side of the room. The dark haired missing ninja got up from his place and stepped over to the door. Sliding the door opened, the young face of the servant greeted him with a polite smile and a tray of delicious and expensive food. Sakura's mouth watered as the enticing scent of smell reached her nostrils.

Sasuke took the tray from the young lad and turned around to set the food on the table, having the servant close the shoji door for him. He could barely stop the smirk from coming when he felt huge familiar emerald eyes followed his every move. Before the Uchiha knew it, a pink haired girl had sat herself in front of him in less than a second since he set the tray down.

"Holy crap, this is unreal!" Sakura awed, staring at the many type of things in front of her. The girl hadn't had a proper meal since she was captured other than dango, which she admit that she was getting a little bit tired of. This meal must have cost a fortune. "How do you afford all this stuff anyways?" her curiosity made Sasuke tensed, but the Kunoichi was too engaged with the food to see.

"Don't ask too many questions and just eat." He growled. The Haruno girl wasted no time picking up the chopsticks and went for the fried lobsters. "This is so fucking good!" She couldn't help moaned with how great it tasted in her mouth. This was better than anything she had tasted in all the hotels she stayed. The pinkette reminded herself to ask for the name of this place so she could come back later (if she could).

Dark pair of eyes watched her every actions as Sasuke drank the tea he poured himself just now. This was like how she ate at the teahouse just hours ago. How big was her stomach? He sometimes wondered where she stored all of the food she ate. Sakura was lucky since her kidnapper was him, otherwise she would die from starvation by now.

"Say, how long are we gonna stay?"

"When you decide your time of the month ends." He answered bluntly, almost causing Sakura to blow the water she drank from her mouth. Coughing repeatedly, the girl managed to choke out a few words. "Hey! Don't blame me! It's mother nature's fault!" the blush covered her cheeks as she looked away.

Sasuke chuckled lightly at how easily flustered she became. She had always been amusing since the academy days. Her caring side and compassionate personality was something that attracted people to her. Sakura wasn't beautiful but still cute in her own way. That scary temper of hers was frightening but interesting at the same time. Although naive, the medic always tried to understand people and help them even when they pushed her away. It's not a wonder Sasuke always felt at ease with her.

"Don't you fucking laugh at me!" she shouted when she noticed the smirk was still on his face. "How I wished you were born a girl!"

"I think we can establish it's not gonna happen."

"Gaah!" Sakura groaned in frustration at his comeback. The only thing that was heard from their room was the sound of the pink haired girl lecturing Sasuke about how to respect a woman and what not to say to them when they're on edge if he didn't want to die. He was slightly listening, just nodded occasionally so as not to awoke her wrath.

The plans that were constantly stuck to their minds flew out the window, replaced by the sound of laughter and warm moments and not even one of them noticed.

...

..

.

* * *

**A/N:** Everyone is starting to get an idea of who's capturing Sakura. So who was right guessing the people Tsunade's sent? Didn't expect Tenten to see Sasuke in flashback, did you? I love my plot twist!

So yeah, a little spoiler. The lemon is just a few chapters away. Be patient and keep reading, kay?

After watching the last few chapters of Naruto, i think i degraded Sakura in my story. She has the Baykugou now, and even has the summoning jutsu and all i gave her was the 'heaven kick of pain' technique. That's why i hated writing fight scenes because i don't know what powers they hold yet.

This isn't beta'd. I think my beta is busy and i don't wanna bother her.

**Important:** I have a poll at my profile concerning one of the main plots in this story. It's called 'What gender(s) should Sakura and Sasuke's child/children be?' the story depends on you so go vote while you can. For guests, just put them in the review and I'll count them in too! You can send the votes through PMs or my email if you want.

Bye! Don't forget to keep inspire me with your reviews. Most of the time when i'm facing writer's block, an idea or two from you reviews gave me ideas so don't be afraid to send them.


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