2,570A/N: The first half of this chapter is dedicated to rehashing the battle between Kakashi and Sasuke and then Naruto and Sasuke (with some alterations due to Sakura's sudden disappearance). A bit tedious but luckily the only instance of it in this story.
Kakashi rushed through the trees, intent on finding Sakura before she faced Sasuke. Sai's ink clone, which the dark haired man had used to alert Kakashi of her intent to kill Sasuke by herself, had long since disappeared with a burst of black ink and a warning to hurry.
The jonin emerged from the forest to the sight of a completely decimated bridge. He recognized Sakura's handiwork immediately with half of the bridge already collapsed. A massive, perfectly concentric hole enveloped the opposite side of the bridge as well, as if some kind of an explosion had destroyed a flawless sphere of brick.
Kakashi immediately noticed Sasuke at the other end of the bridge, standing over the prone form of a red-haired woman.
"Sasuke!" he yelled out across the field in fury, already leaping over the chasm.
Sasuke barely acknowledged him, simply looking over his shoulder to watch as Kakashi landed on his side of the bridge.
"What do you want?" he demanded coldly, his eyes narrowing in warning as the copy ninja took a menacing step forward.
"Where is Sakura?"
"She's gone," Sasuke replied, slowly turning to face his old sensei.
Rage immediately flooded Kakashi's body. His old student had fallen so much farther than he had thought if he had truly killed Sakura.
"You killed your own teammate?!" he roared, refusing to allow the panic at losing another comrade overwhelm him. He latched onto his anger like a lifeline, his fists already raising.
"She is no teammate of mine. But I didn't kill her nonetheless," the Uchiha responded simply.
"Then where is she? What have you done?"
"I've done nothing to her, despite her intruding on my battle. She disappeared during the fight."
"Your battle? What happened here?"
Sasuke smirked in response. "A battle of vengeance."
Sasuke was on him immediately, his chidori sparking to life in his palm without another word. He lurched forward, rushing towards Kakashi. The silver haired jonin parried his blow before planting a foot into his chest and knocking him backwards.
Sasuke laughed darkly, his eyes lighting up with madness. "Sakura hits much harder than you now."
Kakashi's eyes narrowed as he dropped into a more offensive stance, preparing to end this years-long struggle once and for all. "As the leader of team seven, I will settle this once and for all!"
"Stop acting like you're my sensei."
Even as they traded blows, Kakashi's forearms stinging as he blocked Sasuke's strikes, his mind raced. He needed to end this battle, he needed to find Sakura, and he needed to protect Naruto. He needed to keep the people he cared about safe.
Even as his thoughts whirled in his mind and even as he faced Sasuke's bloodlust for the first time, he couldn't help but remember the young man he had once trained.
The Uchiha before him was far from that young boy now. Punches that once came from fists so small they stung more than hurt were now being delivered by the fists of a man. Blows that once could be brushed off now had to be carefully blocked or parried. Chakra that was once smooth and controlled was now violent and erratic.
When had Sasuke changed so much?
The pair shot apart after their brief confrontation, Kakashi scowling beneath his mask.
"Tell me where Sakura is, Sasuke!" he demanded as the pair shot apart after their brief confrontation, Kakashi scowling beneath his mask.
"Forget about her!" Sasuke roared, rushing forward once again, "You're facing me now!"
Sasuke pressed chakra into the tattoos on his wrists, summoning a barrage of shuriken. Kakashi dodged them easily, vaulting off the edge of the bridge and towards the water below. Sasuke followed him and they traded a few blows midair before Kakashi kicked his former student and launched himself a distance away. They both gracefully landed on the water's surface.
"For someone whose sharingan is borrowed, you're quite skilled in using it. However, can your sharingan do this? I will show you that my sharingan is a completely different class than yours!" the Uchiha declared before his sharingan morphed into the mangekyou.
A great purple skeleton cloaked in purple chakra, the Susanoo, coalesced around Sasuke with a howl. Bands of muscle fibers emerged from the joints of the skeleton, overlaying on top of one another as it formed another layer of protection around the costruct. A simple suit of armor formed and cocooned the Susanoo, it's transformation completing with the production of a bow and arrow made of wildly fluctuating chakra.
More quickly than Kakashi had time to dodge, Sasuke used his Susanoo to unleash an arrow comprised of chakra from it's massive bow. With just enough time to activate his mangekyou as well, Kakashi was able to use it's signature technique to send the chakra arrow into the other dimension.
Water from the river under his feet erupted around him from the sheer speed of the arrow, raining frigid water down upon him. He stared forward, maintaining a direct line of sight on his wild-eyed opponent, as he marvelled at the easy devastation of the Susanoo.
Amazed as he was, he didn't have time to deal with this if Sakura was in danger.
"To think that someone who isn't an Uchiha could awaken the mangekyou. So it seems that eye's power saved you. You should be grateful," Sasuke declared haughtily, his mad smile somehow growing wider.
"Sasuke. You're more than just your clan. More than just hatred. Look deep inside your heart one more time," the jonin beseeched, desperately hoping that his misguided student could return to the light. That he could stop this pointless battle.
"Are you still going on about that?"
"Deep down, you know..."
Sasuke's face dropped and silence filled the battlefield for a long moment. When he spoke, it started as a whisper. "You're all laughing… They're all laughing…"
Kakashi's eyebrows furrowed as he silently listened to Sasuke's maddened mumblings.
He was so much further gone that he had expected... If he attacked Sakura... perhaps even worse... Was he even capable of being saved any longer?
"You're all laughing at the cost of Itachi's life! Laughing together, completely ignorant of everything!" Sasuke screamed, the Susanoo surrounding him growing further and sprouting another layer of armor. Even his creation screamed with his master, the maddened roars of the creature making the air tremble.
"Your laughing voices sound like contempt and mocking to me now! I will change those laughs to screams and wails!
"This is bad!" Kakashi thought aloud as the wake beneath him became violent, manipulated by the malevolent chakra coursing from Sasuke's summon.
Sasuke laughed maniacally, "How's this? Can your borrowed sharingan extinguish that?! I will show you the difference between the real thing and a fake!"
His now evolved Susanoo notched another chakra arrow in it's bow before releasing it. As Kakashi prepared to use his own mangekyou once more to disappear the projectile, the world suddenly jolted to the side. He landed on the water's surface with a splash a fair distance away and looked up to see Naruto crouched before him.
Even with the relief he felt at having been saved, fear at seeing yet another one of his students on the field rose within him.
The second arrow that Sasuke had unleashed rocketed off into the distance before connecting with the side of the canyon farther down the river. The resulting explosion decimated the cliffside, raining debris down into the water below. With the damage Sakura had done to the bridge and with Sasuke having destroyed the cliff face, it would be a wonder if this river continued it's flow with the rubble blocking it's path.
"Are you alright, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, concerned, even as his eyes remained trained on Sasuke on the opposite side of the river.
Upon seeing his eternal rival, the Uchiha moved to lurch forward but was only able to take a step before his hands shot to his face. He grimaced in pain as his Susanoo fell apart, the layers of armor and flesh stripping away before it disappeared completely.
"You're not supposed to be here, Naruto. You need to leave now," Kakashi responded as he watched Sasuke stare at them, the dark haired male blinking rapidly as if to clear his vision.
"Sasuke. Kakashi is our sensei, a fellow ninja of team seven! How could you do this?!" Naruto called out, baring his teeth in rage.
"Was a fellow ninja. I no longer belong," Sasuke responded, panting heavily from exertion.
Kakashi rose to his feet and walked to stand next to Naruto. He placed a hand on his shoulder and spoke in a hushed tone. "Now do you understand, Naruto? His intent to kill is real. Sasuke is no longer the same person as before. You need to leave this alone."
Naruto walked forward, his expression of anger being replaced with one of determination as Kakashi's hand slid off his shoulder.
"Sasuke," he called out.
"What?"
"I heard the truth about Itachi from a guy named Tobi… I don't know for sure if what he said is true or not. But it doesn't matter. What you've been doing is... understandable."
Kakashi and Sasuke's eyes widened in shock as they stared at the blond, startled by his words. While Kakashi remained calm, however, Sasuke's hands began to shake at his sides, the Uchiha masking his trembling by making a fist.
"Naruto… I told you before… you don't have any parents or siblings so you couldn't possibly understand me. So outsiders can keep their mouths shut!"
Naruto took a step forward and yelled, "I swear I'll save you from the chaos of vengeance!"
Sasuke simply smirked at his rival, madness returning to his eyes. "There's no need for that. The stage has already been set for my revenge to happen…"
Naruto and Kakashi both stared at the dark haired man in confusion, waiting for him to continue.
"Just a while ago. I finally got to take revenge on one of Itachi's enemies. I killed a high ranking elder of the hidden leaf. Someone named Danzo."
'Sasuke killed Danzo all by himself?' Kakashi thought as his eyes widened, shock overwhelming him. Danzo was a hardened veteran and a formidable shinobi, powerful and respected enough to be named Hokage. And Sasuke had defeated him alone?
Did Danzo have something to do with Sakura's disappearance? What had happened here?
The silver haired jonin walked forward to stand before Naruto, putting himself between his two students.
"I've never felt like this before. I feel the tainted Uchiha name being cleansed. I feel the Uchiha getting free from this rotting ninja world. You couldn't begin to understand. And isn't what I'm doing what you leaf ninja wanted all along? You've always snubbed and put down the Uchiha. So I'll help erase the Uchiha from your memories. I'm going to kill all of you and destroy the Hidden Leaf! Severing all the bonds of the hidden leaf is the ultimate purification! And that shall lead to the true Uchiha restoration!" The Uchiha ranted, smiling wickedly as he outlined his malicious plan.
'Hatred. The history of repeated, accumulating he may not realize it, Naruto is seeing that Sasuke is a victim of the times we live in. And that is why…' Kakashi thought as he glanced backwards at the blond, already hardening his resolve.
Kakashi would kill Sasuke here and now.
Naruto rapidly made the hand sign for his Shadow Clone Jutsu, a few shadow clones puffing into existence behind him. Before he could rocket forward, Kakashi threw out his arm to block his path. "This is my task. Naruto. Get out of here. Go find Sakura now."
"But Kakashi-sensei, what are you talking-" Naruto started before Kakashi cut him off.
"If you stay, you'll see things you don't want to see. I'm telling you to go."
At Kakashi's statement, Sasuke's wicked smile dropped. He silently formed a chidori in his palm and strode forward, prepared to meet his old sensei in combat once again. Kakashi formed a chidori in his own palm, his eyes narrowing at his old student.
Naruto's voice, soft with emotion, piped up from behind him. "Kakashi-sensei. This something I don't want to see… are you going to kill Sasuke?"
Kakashi didn't answer him, responding with a simple, "Go, Naruto."
The jonin took a step forward, intending to sprint towards Sasuke, but felt a set of arms latch onto him from behind, holding him back. He heard a rasengan spark into life behind him and watched as Naruto instead charged forward.
"Wait! Naruto!" Kakashi yelled, panicking, as he struggled to free himself from the clone behind him.
Panic bloomed within them as he watched Naruto and Sasuke sprint towards one another. He couldn't allow Naruto to be hurt as well. Not when he may have lost Sakura. Not when he was about to lose Sasuke. He couldn't let the people he loved die yet again...
His two students thrust their jutsu together once they met, creating a massive explosion of light, heat, and sound. He watched as the two were shot outwards, both stunned from the blast. He flipped backwards, over the head of Naruto's clone, and used it as a springboard to launch himself upwards. Catching Naruto in his arms, he landed on the surface of the water.
"Naruto. I told you to go find Sakura," Kakashi scolded, staring down at his injured student.
"Now… It's all clear…" the blond whispered as his eyes cracked open.
Kakashi's eyebrows came together in confusion as he hoisted Naruto to his feet. "It's all clear? What do you mean-?" Kakashi began as he hoisted Naruto to his feet before the appearance of two unknown chakra signatures on the battlefield stole his words.
"What's going on, Sasuke? I told you to go home and rest," a man with a swirling, orange mask scolded, staring down at Sasuke. Zetsu lingered at his side, a disturbing smile stretched across his inhuman face.
'Madara,' Kakashi mentally hissed, his eyes narrowing.
Madara followed Sasuke's line of sight when the Uchiha didn't respond, his exposed eye settling on Naruto and Kakashi.
"The Nine Tails, huh? It seems you cannot suppress the urge to fight when you two get together," he noted before turning back to Sasuke, "I'll arrange a proper place for you to hunt the Nine Tails. For now, we retreat."
Zetsu stepped forward menacingly, a deranged, toothy grin still stretched across his face, as more Zetsu's emerged from the water. "I'll fight in your stead. Since we need the Nail Tails jinchuriki anyways."
"Zetsu. You can't capture Naruto. The Nine Tails will be too much for a non-combat type like you. I'm going to let Sasuke get the nine-tails. It's for my enjoyment as well," Madara ordered, appearing unfazed by the Leaf ninja across the river.
Zetsu's smirk widened, despite the criticism. "Oh, is that so?"
The masked man continued. "But I'm concerned about Kisame. So go to him. And rendezvous with Black Zetsu."
"Okay, okay, I understand," the pastel white man responded, him and the other Zetsus sinking back below the surface of the water.
Before Madara and Sasuke could leave, however, Naruto took a few steps forward.
"Naruto," Kakashi warned, his panic still roiling within him, "We don't have time for this."
"I just need to make sure I say something to Sasuke," Naruto replied simply, stopping after a few paces to stare at his rival. Sasuke stared back, waiting expectantly.
"Do you remember what you said to me long ago in the Final Valley? The thing about high-level shinobi clashing? Just now, we learned things from just trading blows. It means we've become high level shinobi... Were you able to read what was inside of my heart? And you saw it, didn't you? That if you and I fight… we will both die. Sasuke. If you attack the hidden leaf, I will have to fight you. Save your hatred until then. At that time, throw all of your hatred at me. The only one who can handle all of that hatred is me! Only I can fulfill that duty."
"What is it with you, Naruto? Just what the hell do you want?! Why are you so fixated on me?!" Sasuke roared back.
"Because you're my friend. Sasuke," Naruto answered simply.
Sasuke's face dropped as he stared at his rival. He said nothing, rendered speechless by Naruto's declaration.
Naruto plowed forward with his speech. "I knew from the moment we first met that it was going to take more than just ordinary means to understand you. Exchanging fists is how we understand each other. That's for sure... I'm not giving up on you yet. I'm taking you back to the hidden leaf village! That's something I'll never give up on!"
The blond smiled and scratched the back of his head, as if embarrassed by the speech he had just given, by the promises he made. "Damn it. A poor talker like me lecturing you. It's not my style. If we both end up dying… You won't be an Uchiha and I won't be the Nine Tails jinchuriki. We'll be free of all our burdens. And we'll finally be able to understand each other in the next world," Naruto finished with a smile, his fingers lacing together behind his head.
Sasuke finally spoke up. "I don't plan on changing. Nor am I interested in understanding you. And I don't plan on dying. You're the one who's going to die."
"If I die, we both die, Sasuke," Naruto responded, his smile still decorating his face.
Sasuke smirked in response before yelling out, "Fine then! I'll kill you first."
Kakashi had had enough of this. He stepped forward, setting his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Enough, Naruto. We can't waste any more time here. We'll face them again... Someday."
"Smart move," Madara chuckled as the group began to become distorted, their bodies being drawn into a transportation jutsu.
"I'll be ready any time, Sasuke," Naruto declared with a grin as he watched the group disappear.
Once their foes were gone, Kakashi was already forming the hand signs he needed to summon his pack.
"We need to go. We have to find Sakura now," he informed immediately, urgency coloring his tone. They had wasted enough time with that pointless battle. They needed to locate their missing teammate.
"Sakura? What are you talking about? She's back in Konoha..." Naruto returned, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he watched Pakkun and the rest of his pack of ninja hounds appear in a burst of smoke.
"Everyone. We need to find Sakura. She left Konoha with a few others to face Sasuke but knocked them unconscious to face him herself. When I got here, she was already gone, and Sasuke said that she tried to interfere with his fight with Danzo and disappeared. I need you all to spread out and search for her, she could need our help," Kakashi ordered his pack of hounds, ignoring Naruto's assertion to instead explain the situation.
"Sounds complicated. But you got it, boss. Everyone! You all remember Sakura's scent so fan out!" Pakkun ordered without wasting a moment of their precious time, the pack of dogs immediately splitting apart and shooting off separate directions.
When Kakashi finally turned to face Naruto once again, the wide eyed blond's mouth was hanging open.
It was a few heartbeats of silence before Naruto finally blurted out, "She what?!"
Sakura walked along the precarious railing of the decimated bridge, making her way off of the battlefield and back into the forest. She had no idea what had happened or who those strange people were and wracked her mind for a solution. One moment she was descending on Sasuke, preparing to deliver a decisive blow to not only relieve Naruto of his burden but to protect her admittedly disliked Hokage and her village... only to be suddenly facing a small army of strangely dressed shinobi on a pristine bridge.
She glanced over her shoulder at the wreckage.
Well, perhaps not as pristine now that she was done with it...
As she walked, she attempted to release any genjutsu she might be under a couple more times, just to be on the safe side. Despite her calculations, she could come up with no other explanation other than genjutsu. She briefly wondered if Sasuke had cast one of the inescapable genjutsus that Kakashi warned her about during the battle with Itachi's clone. She quickly trashed the idea almost as quickly as it came.
If the Sasuke she had just faced had placed her under any genjutsu, there would be far more torture and far less casually strolling through the woods involved.
Perhaps someone had summoned all those people as a diversion so that that Akatsuki member, Sasuke, and the red haired woman could escape since she had been on the verge of landing a killing blow on Sasuke? But then why would the bridge suddenly be repaired?
When Sakura's gaze drifted to the patches of gray sky visible through the canopy, her confusion only amplified.
Why would it now be morning if her battle with Sasuke had been in the afternoon? Had she been knocked unconscious? Had they set up all this as an elaborate ruse? To what end? Why not just kill her? It made no sense...
Despite her confusion, the kunoichi decided that she would return to where she had left her unconscious teammates. She had failed in her mission to kill Sasuke and wasn't capable of finding him by herself, considering she wasn't a sensory type. She couldn't locate him again if she wanted to.
While she doubted that her friends would be particularly forgiving of her ploy (well, maybe Lee would be understanding at least), they still needed to regroup. And she needed to make sure they were unharmed if strange groups of aggressive shinobi were patrolling the area.
Sakura picked up her pace as concern for her friends surfaced. She traveled down the same path she had taken to get to the bridge or… at least the one she thought she had. The terrain seemed altered. The dirt path remained mostly unchanged beneath her feet, but the forest surrounding her seemed oddly different. The trees still stood tall all around her but there was an unusualness to her surroundings that she couldn't place.
She reigned in her confusion and rising anxiety as she continued onward, coming to a halt where she was sure she had left her comrades. Only there was nothing.
There were no signs of a struggle in the dirt, no ink splatters from Sai's dispelled ink snakes on the ground, no sleep power residue dusting the area, no footprints besides her own behind her, but, more importantly… No sleeping comrades.
Sakura's breathing and heart rate ramped up as she felt panic course through her veins. What was happening? Had her friends been taken during her fight? Had she allowed her comrades to be captured by those strange ninja with her regrettable decision of knocking them unconscious?
No. Her sleeping powder bomb wasn't that powerful. Powerful enough to knock them out for a while and to keep them asleep if they remained undisturbed, yes, but surely not powerful enough to allow them to be captured without a struggle. She ran over the calculations for her sleeping powder in her mind, confirming that she had mixed it properly.
Perhaps they had woken up and left to warn Naruto, Kakashi, and Yamato of her plans? And cleared the area of signs of their presence? Yes, that had to be it.
It had to be.
Making her decision, Sakura returned to her run. She would go to the small town where they had first planned to stop in order to meet up with Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, and Yamato. At the very least, if Kiba, Akamaru, Lee, and Sai weren't there, she could admit her mistake to Kakashi-sensei and they could go searching for them.
The forest quickly turned back into the snowy terrain of the Land of Iron. Sakura's footsteps crunched in the freshly fallen snow, her toes tingling with the cold. She ignored the sensation and continued onward even faster, her confusion amplifying her rising panic.
The kunoichi watched as the trees became more and more sparse and as the snowfall came down more rapidly. The cold bit through her cloak, chilling her skin. She saw the hill that she would have to ascend to reach the town and felt her anxiety ebb. Kakashi-sensei and Yamato would know what to do.
She cleared the hill, a smile of relief tugging at the corners of her lips, before she once again faced nothing.
Atop the hill, there was nothing but an unending plane of snow, dotted with the occasional tree. Her smile dropped and her mouth fell open in shock as she came to a dead stop.
Where was the town?
Her panic returned tenfold as her eyes ran over the barren landscape. Her heart rate ramped up to a near dizzying level as her emerald eyes settled on the nothingness surrounding her.
Sakura walked forward on shaky feet, hoping to breach the concealing genjutsu that must have been placed around the town. She got a hundred paces into the field before she realized that there really was nothing around her. Not even any ruins signifying that the town she was searching for had been destroyed.
She spun in a shaky circle, her eyes trained on the sky, hoping to find some signs of life in the distance. Only, she found nothing. No smoke signifying a chimney or stove, no buildings in the distance, not even any birds in flight.
Sakura closed her eyes and forced herself to calm down. There had to be a rational explanation for this. Perhaps some of the ninja she fought had razed the town she was looking for to the ground and the snow hid any traces or it's destruction? Or perhaps, most probably, she hadn't truly known where the town was in the first place? They had opted to avoid it after all. Maybe her coordinates had just been wrong.
Out of options and unsure of where she could go to find her teammates, she decided she would return to Konoha. Running around aimlessly in a foreign country was a sure-fire way to find trouble. Not to mention a waste of time if her friends were in danger.
She had to report the appearance of the unknown shinobi and the los-er-misplacement of her squad to… someone. While she had no idea where Danzo, her current Hokage was, and knew Lady Tsunade would more than likely still be in a coma, there was someone along the chain of command she could report the information to.
However, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Very, very wrong. She tried to control her rising fear, her confusion feeding it like wind into a fire jutsu, but found that it remained under the surface, clouding her thoughts.
Sakura took off at a dead sprint, intending on returning to her home as quickly as possible. As she ran and as she drifted into the trance so familiar to a shinobi during these long treks, her panic continued to claw at her mind. As the snowy terrain turned into woodlands, then into savannah, and then into the thick forests of Fire country, the sense that something was incredibly wrong remained.
It took only a few hours, her speed that much more enhanced by her chakra-assisted sprint, to reach the familiar Land of Fire. Mostly familiar… She found herself getting lost in her own home country, something that fueled her fear even further.
She had spent the entirety of her life in this land! She knew it's landscape like the back of her hand! Yet, she found herself getting turned around in far denser than normal forest, getting confused by unknown landmarks, and running circles around strange rivers.
Convincing herself that it was her distress influencing her senses and getting her turned around, Sakura continued onward. When she reached a familiar and unforgettable river that she knew lead to the base of the Hokage Monument, she breathed an immediate sigh of relief. There was no way she could get lost following this river and it was only a matter of time until she got home and would be able to put this debacle behind her… After a harsh scolding from her superiors.
She cringed at the thought as she ran along the water's side, taking the direct route home.
After finding the river, it took little time until the mountain she knew had the Hokage's faces carved into the other side appeared before her. She once again let loose a relieved sigh, her pace quickening as she approached the foot of the mountain. She slowed as she circumvented the arduous climb up the mountain, her chakra getting uncomfortably low despite her flawless control. She had pushed herself far too hard that day, but knew that she had to if she was to ensure her friend's safety.
Sakura repeatedly, mentally berated herself for making the retrospectively horrible decision of knocking her friend's unconscious to face Sasuke alone. She beat herself up for also not verifying that she knew where that stupid town was. But no matter. The village would be coming into view any second now, and she would get the help she needed to fix her mistake.
She rounded the bend that she knew would reveal the high walls of her village only to, once again, find nothing. The walls, built to withstand even the strongest jutsu, hadn't been destroyed during Pain's attack, only damaged.
But… Where was the wall?
Her breathing was labored and her heart beat a frantic rhythm in her chest as she ran forward, past where she knew the wall should stand. Panic enveloped her once again as she rushed through the trees and was met with nothing but more and more forest.
Sakura used her chakra to scale up one of the massive pines, reaching the top in record time. She balanced on the top-most branch and looked out. Nothing but more forest, brimming with trees untouched for a millenia, laid before her.
The sight that met her eyes told her that her village hadn't been destroyed, as she briefly thought it had been… again. No. It was as if…
It was as if it had never existed in the first place.
Sakura leaned against the wispy crown of the tree, the breath being stolen from her lungs at the sight of her non-existent village. She hadn't gotten lost, she knew this was where Konoha was supposed to be. She could recognize the mountain that bordered the village, even without the Hokage's faces carved into it.
She closed her eyes tightly as she altered the flow of chakra in her body, desperate to break the genjutsu, as she frantically yelled in slowly increasing volume, "Release, release, release, release, release!"
When Sakura cracked open her eyes, the same untouched forest stood before her, mocking her. She heavily sat down on the branch she was balanced on, the tree swaying dangerously at her shifting weight. She held on with chakra even as her heartbeat fluttered dangerously in her chest, her breathing becoming too rapid. She felt herself begin to become light headed and mentally slapped herself.
'Calm down! You need to calm down. Deep breaths… If this isn't a genjutsu… If this isn't some kind of sick trick… Then this is real…'
Her eyes snapped open to return to the forest before her as she forcefully corrected her breathing. She certainly couldn't pass out at the peak of a hundred foot tree. She stared out at the now quickly setting sun as her frantic thoughts coalesced into one, the only, logical conclusion: she was in the past.
Sakura swayed dangerously at the thought and suddenly realized that she needed to rest. Her chakra levels were dangerously low after pushing herself all day. She took stock of her remaining chakra supply and, as she finally extended her awareness inwards, became instantly aware of a terrifying fact…
The chakra she had spent the last three years accumulating in the seal on her forehead was completely gone.
Her breath caught in her chest, her heart clenching painfully. Her seal, the chakra she had spent years saving, had disappeared. Stolen from her body and leaving her all the more vulnerable in the past. All the energy she had carelessly expended fighting those strange ninja and rushing to return to her non-existent village seemed all the more precious.
She had been so caught up in her fight and then so caught up in her fear that she had failed to notice how the trickle of chakra she always redirected into her seal was now draining into an empty void instead of an overflowing ocean.
Sakura hadn't felt this exposed since she was a genin. She finally realized how incredibly precarious her situation had become, trapped in the past with no allies, and now no chakra, to speak of. Even as fear reared its ugly head in her heart, so did her need for answers. She forced herself to focus on her confusion and her questions to draw attention away from her nearly absent chakra levels and the panic that came from the vulnerability.
One question stood out to her the most and that was the one she focused on as she made her way to the forest floor and out of the open: Why would all of her stored chakra be gone?
As she descended from the tree, her mind stuck on that fact. Why would her seal be drained? What could have possibly stolen all that chakra, a supply so incredibly vast that it could dwarf even Naruto's near limitless supply?
She thought back on the battle with Sasuke, right before she had appeared in the center of that small army. She had been shooting forward, attempting to land a punch that would finally put an end to his path into darkness. He had looked at her… No, he had looked behind her. And the heat… She had felt a burning heat before the world turned to darkness.
Had that Akatsuki member or Danzo used some kind of space-time ninjutsu on her? To save Sasuke? To save themselves? Had she been the target of it? Or had she been drawn into it?
Had it latched onto her, or rather her vast supply of chakra? Perhaps it had grown more powerful, feeding off of the chakra in her seal? That Akatsuki member had shown that he was capable of some unknown space-time jutsu when she had faced him alongside her friends all those months ago. Had he been the one to send her backwards in time? But what of Danzo and his horribly mutated arm implanted with numerous sharingan? She had learned how mysterious the sharingan could be, how many secret powers it contained. Was Danzo to blame instead?
Sakura's thoughts continued at lightning speeds as she reached the forest floor. Even in her exhausted state, her brilliant mind worked to solve the problem she had been presented with.
Sakura was aware of very few space-time ninjutsu and knew even less about their implementation. She knew that transference jutsus and summoning jutsus, ones she was incredibly familiar with, were technically classified as ones. But the strength of the one she had been caught in was astounding. She had never seen, or even heard, of such power…
Either way, there were more important matters at hand. She was precariously low on chakra and, even with her flawless control, she needed to recover. If she was forced into another fight like the one she had been thrown into earlier, she was concerned as to how she would fare.
She desperately needed to rest and recover.
As Sakura set out to search for a safe place to sleep for the night, she ran her fingers through her sweat-soaked bangs. Her fingertips brushed cold metal and she stopped in her tracks.
Her headband…
If she truly was in the past, if Konoha hadn't even been created yet, her headband would draw unnecessary questions. She needed to find out where, or rather when, she was, so she would need to set out eventually to find her answers. But for now…
Sakura pulled her headband from her hair, the strip of cloth and metal feeling heavier than it ever had. She brushed her blood stained thumb over the leaf insignia, smearing dirt as it went. The symbol stared up at her, the dirty metal reflecting the misery in her eyes.
She felt overwhelmed tears build up in her eyes but blinked them away. Before she could think on it too long, she jammed her headband in the pack on her hip.
She needed to find somewhere safe to rest before she could even think about giving in to her misery and crying. She was no longer the weak, scared little girl she once was. She was a woman, a ninja of Konoha, and the apprentice of the most powerful kunoichi in the world. She would not lose sight of her goals, she would not give into her sorrow when her life was still very much in danger.
Tears could be saved for later. For now, she needed safety.
Sakura trudged onward, her eyes scanning over her terrain, before she located a partially uprooted tree, the massive oak's roots creating a perfect hiding spot for her for the night.
The forest was rapidly growing too dark to see and the air was beginning to become cold. She made her decision and stepped into the cave-like opening underneath the roots. Inside, it was tall enough for her to stand in, albeit while crouching, and wide enough for two people at most. It reeked of wet soil and rotting wood, but at that moment, Sakura was just happy to have found a suitable place to sleep.
She used the rapidly fading light to set up a tripwire, rigged to a kunai trap. Just enough to wake her should some predator, human or animal, get too close.
Now too dark to see, and with her not wanting to risk lighting a fire, Sakura pulled up her hood and wrapped herself up tightly in her cloak. She laid down on the ground in her hideaway, sinking into the loamy soil, and closed her eyes.
Tomorrow… Tomorrow she would find out when she was and how to get home. For now, she needed to rest and regain what chakra she could.
Overwhelmed with the events of her debacle of a day and the thought that she may very well be trapped in the past, completely alone, she finally allowed herself to cry. She shuddered under the force of her sorrow but refused to make a sound to reveal her location in the eerily quiet and suddenly frighteningly unfamiliar forest.
It took far too long to finally succumb to sleep.