I'm finally writing a Sasuke & Sakura fic! They're probably my favorite couple, but I just haven't felt creative enough to try out this story idea I had for them. Anyway, this is my first story with chapters since I figured it would be too long for a one-shot.
Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own Naruto. Big Surprise.
Sakura stood in front of the door to the Hokage's office, waiting for the order to enter. She had been informed that she was to be sent out in search of a group of rogue ninja that had recently been plundering small villages along the border, and was now waiting for more specifics from the Hokage before setting out.
"Come in." Tsunade's voice instructed from inside the room.
Sakura entered and walked to the front of the large desk and asked "I'm here about my new mission?"
"Yes, yes. As you know, a group of rogue ninja have been attacking border villages. I need you to seek them out and either capture or kill the members of the group. From our information, it looks like there are three men who make up the team, and they were last seen northwest of here." Tsunade explained.
"Hai. I'll do it as quickly as possible Tsunade-sama." Sakura answered.
"Just don't get reckless Sakura, we don't need you getting yourself killed. These men are strong, and they've shown this by not getting caught yet. Do you want someone else to go with you? I've got a few people around who are free to help." Tsunade offered.
"Oh no, thank you though, but I'll be fine by myself." Sakura quickly replied.
"In that case, good luck!" Tsunade said, smiling kindly at her student.
Sakura walked from the room and headed for the main entrance. Once she crossed through the gate, she picked up her pace and jumped into the trees, heading northwest.
After a few hours of travel, she came upon a small village and asked if they had seen the ninjas she was after. The villagers pointed her in the direction and she took off once more.
Sakura went deeper and deeper into the woods, until she found a recently used campsite. Stopping, she looked around for any clues that would give her an idea of where to go next. Finding a broken branch to her left told her to go in that direction. After awhile of following in that line, she became aware of the presence of three people ahead of her. Instantly she paused to think of a plan of attack. Barging into their midst wouldn't give her an advantage, so she would have to sneak up on them somehow in the hopes of finishing one off before the others realized. Sakura took a deep breath, hid her chakra from detection, and slunk forward, trying to not make any noise.
She was so intent on not being noticed, she didn't realize she had tripped a wire until it was too late. Kunai shot at her from the trees and she quickly dodged before she got hit. Leaves and bark flew into the air around her as one of the rogue ninja leapt at her, sword held high in the air for an attack. Diving to the side, Sakura narrowly missed the glinting blade, but got cut by another kunai thrown from behind. She whipped around and looked for the latest attacker, but couldn't find him.
Turning back to the first ninja she threw a punch and landed it on his sword arm. The bone in the man's arm cracked from the force and she had a second to assess the situation while he regained his composure. Sakura could tell that the other two men were hiding somewhere nearby, ready to step in at the perfect time. She knew she had to search them out before they gained the upper hand.
At that moment, she felt a sharp pain tear through her left arm. She quickly looked down to see that the man's sword had left a deep slice from her elbow to her wrist. Mentally kicking herself for letting her guard down, she lashed out at the man with her right fist. She caught his jaw and he fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Hurriedly running away from the fight scene, she held up her glowing green hand to the gash in her arm, stopping most of the bleeding.
Not a second after she was done, did she have to dodge yet another attack. Both of the other rogue ninjas appeared, and were coming at her with kunai. She was able to evade one, but ended up getting scratched by the other. Gathering some chakra in her foot, she kicked out at one of the men and just missed hitting his hip. Suddenly off balance, she wasn't able to avoid getting stabbed in the thigh by the kunai held in the ninja's hand. Trying to ignore the pain, she pulled a kunai from her pouch and slashed one of the men on the cheek. Sakura sprang away from the tight area in which she was fighting and retreated to a larger clearing where she would have a better chance for success. Both men followed her, and continued to attack.
Unbeknownst to her, the man with the broken jaw was also a medic-nin and had healed himself while she was grappling with the other two. As the two ninjas came at her from the front, the newly healed man crept up from behind and stabbed through her stomach. Sakura gasped and put her hand to her stomach to try to stop the blood. Her hand began to glow as she healed as much as she could while still fending off the attacks of the three men. This is going to be a lot tougher than I thought. She said to herself as she threw punch after punch at the rogue ninjas.
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Sasuke skirted around the edge of a small village, looking to make sure there were no guards keeping watch around the house of the village leader. He was on a mission from Orochimaru to assassinate the leader of this village who had recently begun standing up to the bullies Orochimaru sent to collect money.
The sun was setting and Sasuke was bathed in the orange glow. He retreated into the woods a bit further to wait until the sky was darker and he would be less likely to be seen. At that point, he would sneak in and kill the leader before anyone knew what was going on. Now, all he had to do was wait.
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Sakura was panting and leaning against a big tree while the last two men lifted themselves off the ground. She had managed to finish one with a chakra enhanced punch to the face, but she was still caught up with the other two. Trees were broken and scattered around the clearing and there were many pits in the ground from the numerous times she had missed a body and hit the earth instead.
She looked down at herself to see how badly she was injured. Her left hand had a few broken fingers, various cuts of different deepness were all over her body, and the wounds in her stomach and thigh from earlier were hindering her ability to move. However, she still fared better than the last two men. They were bleeding profusely and each had a broken arm. Sakura straightened and approached the men, ready to continue fighting. She hoped that this fight wouldn't take much longer since the sun was setting and it would soon be getting dark.
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Satisfied with the amount of darkness, Sasuke left the woods and silently leapt onto the roof of one of the village houses. Angling toward the leader's house, he ran without making a sound. Once he reached the big traditional Japanese house, he paused and focused on finding the presence of the leader. From what he could tell, the man was sitting alone in his room and nobody was near enough to be able to hear anything going on.
Sasuke dropped to the porch, quietly opened the sliding door, and took a step into the room. At that moment, the floor squeaked and the man turned around. Before he could even yell, Sasuke had his hand over the leader's mouth and had slit his throat with a kunai. After making sure the man was dead, Sasuke left the room and jumped back onto the roof. Not caring about being silent anymore, he ran over the rooftops back into the woods.
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The last of the three men was swaying where he stood in front of Sakura. The bodies of the two others were lying on the ground, and Sakura was having trouble moving and breathing due to a cracked rib. I need to finish this quickly, or else I am done for. I can't keep this up. She thought to herself as she began to gather the last of her chakra into her right hand. Hoping that this would work, she lifted her fist into the air and promptly punched the ground.
A large boom shook the surrounding area; creating craters in the earth and making trees fall down around them. The man had not anticipated the sudden attack and tried to jump away from the crumbling rock beneath him. However, in his haste he misjudged the angle and slammed into a tree.
Crumpling to the ground he moaned and tried to move away from the base of the tree before his opponent was able to attack him. Sakura picked up the abandoned sword from the first rogue ninja and advanced toward the broken man on the ground. Using the last bit of her energy, she stabbed him through the chest.
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The woods were a blur as Sasuke sped away from the small village, wanting to get away before anyone noticed that their leader had been killed. He hated how he was so often used only as a tool to complete Orochimaru's dirty work, when he really wanted to train to become stronger. Simple missions only wasted his time.
Sasuke's speed lessened as the distance between him and the village increased. The need to run had ceased and he was now able to take a slower pace for the path back to Orochimaru's hideout. He wondered if the snake would be around when he got back, or if he could spend some time developing new techniques without being sent on anymore missions.
Suddenly, a loud boom ricocheted around the surrounding forest, making the ground tremble and the trees shake, almost knocking him off balance. He paused and steadied himself against the trunk of the tree he was on, wondering if he should go investigate the source of the noise. Deciding he could put off going back to the hideout, Sasuke quickly began running toward the explosion.
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Sakura staggered away from the man she had just killed, trying to find a safe place where she could rest and recover from the battle that had stolen more energy than she had planned. She was having trouble seeing as her vision kept blurring from the loss of blood. Trying to staunch some of the bleeding she put her hand to one of her wounds and began to bring chakra to the area. Despite her attempts, there just wasn't enough chakra to begin any sort of healing process and she gave up.
Accidently stumbling over a piece of lose earth, Sakura fell facedown to the dirt. She knew she needed to get to a safe place before anyone showed up to investigate the source of all the destruction and noise she knew she had created. Unable to move any part of her body she felt helpless as she slowly lost consciousness.
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Sasuke could see fallen trees up ahead and knew he was getting close to the cause of the disturbance. He stopped and waited, listening for any sound that could clue him in to what might be happening. The woods were silent, but he could feel the faint presence of someone nearby. Cautiously moving ahead, he stood on the branch of a tree next to all the wreckage. He could see the bodies of four people lying on the ground, three men and one woman.
From the branch, Sasuke looked closely at all of the people and tried to see if any of them were still alive. The men all appeared to be dead, but the woman was still breathing, slightly. He jumped down from the tree and approached the female lying on the ground. She was unconscious and covered in blood with her face directed away from him, but she seemed familiar. He crouched, and turned the girl over onto her back.
Sasuke stood up and took a step back, as memories that he had tried to lock away hit him from all angles. She was older than he remembered, but that was to be expected as it had been years since he had last seen her. And although the blue twilight pervaded the woods causing the woman's hair to look slightly purple, he could still remember the bubblegum pink that it really was.
Shit! He thought. Now what am I supposed to do? Sasuke hadn't thought he would face a setback like this. He had only planned on checking out the noise and leaving before he was noticed and dragged into another fight. He never imagined he would have to deal with something like this.
The best idea would be to leave her; there was no rule that said you had to take care of old fallen comrades when you find them in the woods. That way she would have no idea that they had crossed paths, and would be able to go back to her village. But would she be able to get back to the village?
It looked like she was injured pretty badly and could possibly bleed to death before morning, not to mention other people and forest creatures that might arrive during the night. Taking her with him, however, would cause numerous questions on the part of Orochimaru and the Hidden Leaf Village. Whatever choice he made, he knew the Hidden Leaf Village would send people to look if Sakura didn't show up, but that could take days.
Sasuke looked down at her and sighed. He picked her up and began making his way back to the hideout with Sakura in his arms.
Okay, there we go. First chapter down! Hahaha! I am going to really try to write as much as I can to get more chapters out soon. I recently had time due to my school's winter break, but now I am going to have a bunch of essays to do (which really take out any desire to write). I don't like writing fight scenes, so it probably isn't that great. Sorry for all the jumping between Sasuke and Sakura. It didn't look that crazy on Microsoft Word...
Has anyone else noticed that Naruto Shippuden is one the DisneyXD channel (which is supposed to be like their "anime"/older kid stuff, I think)? Yeah. I was flipping through stuff and found it. But really, on DISNEY?!?!? How are they going to handle Sai and Hidan? Of all channels I expected it to come back to Cartoon Network in Adult Swim, or something. But whatever, I have no control over that.