I do not own Naruto

Sakuraxmulti paring

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◊•◊•◊•◊FALLEN◊•◊•◊•◊

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Baby.

It's been a long time coming.

Such a long, long time

And I can't stop running.

Such a long, long time.

Can you hear my heart beating?

Can you hear that sound?

Cause I can't help thinking. And I won't stop now.

…

And then I looked up at the sun

And I could see.

Oh, the way that gravity pulls on you and me.

And then I looked up at the sky and saw the sun.

And the way that gravity pushes on everyone.

On everyone.

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"Oh, Sasuke-kuun!" A high-pitched voice called out, and a few seconds later, clammy arms surrounded him from behind and a body pressed itself against his back.

"Karin. " He growled in a deep, warning tone, trying to break out of the woman's tight hold.

But instead of getting the fucking hint and letting him go, Karin only tightened her hold on him.

"Mou, don't be like that Sasuke-kun" She whispered in his ear.

"I just wanted a little hug, Sasu-kun~" Karin spoke huskily in his ear while rubbing her chest against his back.

Feeling absolutely disgusted with the woman's actions, Sasuke decided, that thought it was against his principles to use violence against a woman, using a little force against this one wouldn't hurt.

So raising his hands to wrap around Karin's wrists, he gave a hard tug on both of them and easily broke out of her hold.
"Leave me alone Karin. I need to find my brother, he's been gone for three days now and so have Shisui and Madara." With those words, he turned around and began walking away.

"Oh come on Sasuke! I just got here don't leave so soon! I'm sure that they are just taking a little vacation from work" At her words about his family members taking a vacation, Sasuke let out a loud snort.

Madara, Itachi and Shisui rarely took breaks from their work. Not unless they-.

Realization hit him like a stone, and he spun around to face the eager redhead.
"What haven't you told me?" His eyes had in a fraction of a second turned from onyx to blood red.

"W-what are you talking about, Sasuke-kun? You know I would never keep anything from you" She whined and pouted.

"You know where she is, don't you. You've probably already told the others."

The red-haired female feigned a shocked gasp and laid her hand over hear heart.
"Sasuke-kun! I would never do something like that, you know I-"

"You have five seconds to tell me where she is or I swear I will show you just how horrible hell can be" His patience had run out, and the fact that she was acting stupid and pretended to be innocent made his stomach churn.
"B-but, Sasuke-kun"
"Five."
"You can't be-"

"Four"
"-Serious.."

"Three"
"I'm not lying!"

"Two"

"Fine! I'll tell you…" She finally gave up at let her head fall in defeat. He would be so pissed at her for keeping it from him. But what should she have done?

Did he really expect her to help him find a girl he liked, when she had made it clear on more than one occasion that she liked him?...

Why was he even pinning for other women, when he knew that he already had her?

Wait… maybe there was a really good explanation as to why he was asking her to do all this…. He just didn't get that she was totally into him! Either he misapprehended all her advances, or maybe she wasn't doing enough, and he probably thought that by pretending that he wanted that other girl, he was making her jealous. And his cold attitude towards her? He was just playing hard to get!

Why hadn't she realized that sooner?

"Awe, Sasuke-kun, you don't have to make me jeal-" She never got to finish, as a hand suddenly seized her throat and lifted her so her feet barely touched the ground.

Red eyes were burning with anger as he held her gaze.

"Tell me, now"

It had been a few hours since her little run-in with the demons in the ally, and Sakura and Naruto was once again back at the sand-siblings home, both eating a small bowl of ice-cream.

She hadn't felt this tired in decades!

Once Naruto and Sakura came back, she had tiredly asked Temari, Gaara and Kankuro to join them in the kitchen for some dinner, and once everyone had eaten, Sakura had promptly began explaining what had happened earlier. Temari and the boys remained quiet throughout her story, until she came to the end of it.

The part where she explained that she would be leaving soon, soon as in dawn, which was only a few hours away by now.

"B-but Sakura-chan! You cant just leave like that!"

"I know Temari, and I'm really sorry, but the longer I wait the further away he gets. Believe me Temari when I say that I wish that I didn't have to do this so soon. He won't stop before he has completed his goal, whatever that may be… I have to do something before he kills anyone else. He killed my friends, and I won't let him get away with it unpunished."

She looked at each of them individually, Temari, Kankuro and Naruto wouldn't even meet her eyes as she stared at them, only Gaara held her gaze firmly. She caught the flashes of emotion in his eyes. Sadness, worry, anger, affection… She caught them all.

She held his gaze for a long time; there was something about his expression that told her he wanted to say something, but didn't quite know what to say.

She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but she never got to do it, as Gaara finally decided to voice his thoughts.

"How do you plan on winning?" Shocked, she looked at the redhead.

"What?"

"If he really is so strong and ruthless as you say he is, how will you beat him?" He elaborated.

"He kidnaped you and killed two of your kind. If you think you can beat him alone then you are seriously overestimating your own abilities" The effect the coldness in his voice had on her could only be compared to the chilling feeling you would experience by getting a bucket of ice water poured over you. Even his siblings looked with disbelief evident in their eyes, at their youngest sibling.

"You're right. I'm not strong enough as it is right now. I wouldn't stand a chance against someone of his calibre if I were to fight him now, but that's the reason I'm going with the demons. They'll teach me how to fight and help me become stronger. The training I've had with my mentor has made me strong, but I have no real battle experience"

"I'll become strong, and when the time is right, I will seek him out and I will stop him from making further damage to this world"

...

They had spent the most of the night talking, and when dawn neared, Sakura bid her friends goodbye.

Naruto had been especially hard to say goodbye to. When she finally got her closest friend back in her life, she had to leave him again. It wasn't fair to him, she knew of his feelings for her, feelings that stretched beyond friendly, and she would be lying if she said that she didn't feel something either, but as the situation was right now, she couldn't allow herself to give Naruto any kind of hope or promise of them being together.

She was running from him and she knew it, and somehow she had a feeling, that deep down, Naruto knew it as well.

As the sun rose above the horizon and bathed the earth in red and golden, Sakura stood patiently in the small ally where she had met the demons the previous day.

Itachi had informed her to be there at dawn and wait for one of them to arrive.

She would much rather have made the journey to hell by herself, but she had no idea of how to make a portal that would transport her from the earth to the underworld.

She was leaning against the cold brick wall when the temperature around her dropped to an uncomfortable low, the air condensed to a point where it was hard to breath and the darkness in the ally expanded, until it was impossible for her to see anything.

She didn't have the time to become frightened by the occurrence though, it didn't last for more than a couple of seconds, and when things turned back to normal, a lone male stood before her and she was instantly filled with awe.

Everything about him from his tall and proud frame to his unruly orange hair enchanted her.

"Pein" She spoke his name with a smile playing on her lips. She was relieved that he was the one to escort her to the underworld. He might be one of the most dangerous persons she knew, but besides Itachi, he was the most polite one.

"Sakura" He greeted her with a tilt of his head and a satisfied smile.
"I trust you are ready to go?" He asked as he held out his hand for her to take.

Gingerly, she walked towards him and reached out to let him take her hand in his.

"As ready as I'll ever be" She laughed nervously.

Pein let a smirk play on his lips as he took the fallen angels hand and pulled her close to him, wrapping his arms securely around her.

Creating portals to the underworld was a fairly easy thing for him to do, he had centuries of practise, but for someone like Sakura, who had never created a single portal in her life, it would be more than difficult, and even if she somehow did have just a tiny bit of luck with forming a portal, there would be no guarantee that it would actually take her to the underworld.

Traveling through a portal was far from fun. As the molecules around them began to break free from the bonds that held them, an enormous pressure enclosed them, slowly squeezing the air out of their lunges. As the world around them grew more and more blurry before disappearing, and everything turned black, a feeling of weightlessness overcame them both. Sakura, not being as used to this as her companion, clung tightly to Pein, and in return, he tightened his arms around her in a reassuring manner.

She felt like she could pass out any second now. The darkness was all-consuming, the air that should have filled her lunges was near completely gone and though she was used to flying, it had been a long time since she had experienced not having a solid ground under her feet.

The only two things keeping her from panicking was the fact that she would pass out if she exhaled more air than necessarily and the second thing was Pein. His arms held her safely against him, it was the only thing keeping her from believing she would fall into the everlasting darkness.

Relief filled her as she finally felt her feet hit solid ground. The darkness lifted so they once again could see, and the pressure on her chest loosened and she was finally able to breath again. Though it had felt like hours had gone by in the darkness of the portal, she knew that it hadn't lasted more than a couple of seconds.

Taking a deep breath to refill her lungs, she looked up at Pein. He was clearly amused by her reaction to traveling through a portal.

She pouted, she had only used a portal once before in her life, and at that time, she had been to focused on getting away from the very place she was now, to fully notice how uncomfortable it was, but Pein was of course unfazed by their little travel.

He didn't even have the need of taking a deep breath like she did!

Looking around, she immediately recognized the scenery.

"Why here?" She asked.

"Because, it is easier for everyone this way" Pein spoke calmly, but something told her that he too wasn't too trilled with the place.
"If we want to train you as fast and efficient as possible it is easier if you just stay at one place, and since there are four members from the Uchiha clan who are going to teach you, it was decided that you should be staying here" His jaw clenched slightly as he spoke.

There had been a huge discussion between Pein and the Uchihas regarding, where Sakura should stay during her training.

Pein's lead argument was, that as the ruler of the underworld, his realm would be the safest one for her. No one would be able to get to her there.

Madara had then opened his mouth and pointed out to him, that there were four of them, so if Sakura stayed in the Uchiha's realm, they would be able to train her much more often, and only four people would have to travel in order to help her train.

It was a stupid argument really. Traveling from one realm to another did not take long for any of them, but he had to admit that there were certain benefits in having four of them around her basically all the time.

So, through it wasn't with his good will, it had been decided, that she would be staying with the Uchiha clan.

It didn't really matter how much he was against it, they were four against one, and the other demons really didn't have anything to say in the matter.

Realising how close they still were, he smirked down at the pinkette, before releasing her from his hold as she too let her arms release their strong hold around him.

"Come, we should get you inside" He said abruptly as he with long and fast steps walked towards the manor.

Behind him he could hear Sakura's fast steps as she tried to keep up with his longer and faster footsteps.

The Uchiha manor was exactly as she remembered, huge, dimly lighted, quiet and beautiful.

In the centre of the room stood the Uchiha matriarch and her husband.

As soon as they stepped inside, Mikoto rushed towards Sakura and pulled her into a warm hug while her husband gave Pein a curt nod as greeting.

"Oh, look at you my dear" Mikoto chirped as she released a stunned Sakura from her bone crushing hug.
"You look absolutely gorgeous, falling has done nothing to lessen your beauty." The elder woman sang as she smiled warmly at the pinkette.
"Uh, t-thank-you Mikoto-sama"
Truth to be told, Sakura was quite stunned by the Uchiha matriarchs actions and words. She had never talked much with Itachi and Sasuke's mother, but here she was, treating her like she was a part of the family, as if she was her daughter.

When Mikoto stepped away from her, Fugaku then greeted Sakura with a firm handshake.
Though it would seem like an ordinary greeting, Sakura couldn't dismiss the thought that this probably would be one of the warmest greetings one could receive from the stoic Uchiha.

Behind her, she heard Pein clear his throat and she turned around to face him.
"I should get going now, Sakura, I will be seeing you soon" As he spoke, he stepped forward to place a gentle kiss on the back of her hand.

"Mikoto, Fugaku" He bid them farewell curtly and then vanished.

"Come my dear" Mikoto placed her arm around her shoulder.
"Dinner is ready, and the boys are all there, they are quite excited to see you again" The queen then let out a small laughter.
"I thought it would be a tad too overwhelming for you if they were all here right when you arrived, so I made them stay in the dining room and wait for you there. Trust me dear, I remember how tiring a portal can be, when you're not used to them"

Sakura smiled as Mikoto kept rambling as she lead her towards the dining room.

Maybe staying with the Uchihas wouldn't be so bad after all.

Alright, first off, I'm really sorry for taking so long with this chapter! Ff has been quite a bitch to me, and for some reason, I couldn't upload any documents, so I kinda gave up for a while.

Second off, I know that this chapter doesn't really have much action in it, hence the title, but trust me it WILL get better! I promise!

Soo, who would you like to see as Sakura's first combat instructor? Leave a review and tell me who you would like it to be (Pein? Sasuke? Itachi? Madara? Shisui? Deidara? Sasori? Aidan?), and the most popular one will be the first!
Also, tell me if there's something specific you'd like to see happen, getting ideas from you guys really helps me!

I won't take so long with the next chapter, I kinda feel that my inspiration has returned to me so yay!

Take care all you sweet people out there!