Lost Year

Beginning!

If you keep on believing,
your wish will eventually come true.

The small blue and white slug that was resting on Shizune's shoulder was guiding the three of them the direction to where Tsunade was.

They didn't have the time to officially get into Konoha; the village that Tsunade asked them to go, surprisingly, so they infiltrated the village through the back gate as quickly as possible and continued to follow Tsunade's summoned animal's direction.

It was actually midnight an hour ago, which was Sasori's shift to keep a look out for their campsite. But halfway through, a small poof appeared around Shizune's flat chest and all that remained was a slug crawling around her body. He was about to attack, thinking it was an enemy's technique but Shizune literally screamed and jumped up when she felt the slimy liquid sliding across her stomach and tickling her.

They were then told by the summoned slug that Tsunade needed reinforcement immediately back at Konoha. No information or details were revealed any further.

The trio did what they were told, and they took about an hour of very fast traveling from where they were until they reached the gates of Konoha and decided to sneak in.

They got past the quiet village easily, since it was half past one and everyone was alseep at the time and all shops and stores were closed. They rushed over to the tall hill where all the Hokage's face sculptures were done on and towards a small cave where they could already sense some strong chakra in it.

"Look." Sasori quietly pointed at the few dead bodies floating along the the unmoving lake. Shizune gasped in horror before jumping towards one of the men. She flipped him over and put a finger to his neck.

"The ANBU. They are dead." Shizune whispered, standing up and back to her position after trying to check their pulse.

Sakura took out one of her kunai she hid in her heels and prepared her stance. Sasori looked back, glancing at the woods behind suspiciously before himself for any ambush they might encounter.

The slug on Shizune gave a poof and it was gone immediately once it had completed its mission to send the team to where Tsunade was. The three of them went steadily inside the cave, to hear a loud piercing scream echoing in the cavern as they stepped back in shock.

Already acting like a leader, Shizune gestured Sasori and Sakura behind her and glanced over her shoulders, getting the approval by the two of them before they charged in. Right then, the girl yelled in astonishment.

"Tsunade-sama!"

The blonde medic was standing and crouching down before the table with bead of prespiration trickling down her forehead. A lady was lying on the long table, a cloth over the legs and was yelling in pain. Her long, red hair was spread across the table, soaked with her sweat.

Tsunade couldn't move her attention away from Kushina, or the masked man that was standing in front of Fourth Hokage with a deadly kunai in his hand.

"I'll take the Kyuubi." The masked man claimed as he stared at Kushina who was panting and hissing in pain.

"You have to go through me." Minato glowered, his arms spreading out in order to protect his wife from getting any attack.

The masked man glanced back for a second. He took notice of the new intruders through his small eyehole, glimpsing at the other three who were ready to attack. He knew he's at a huge disadvantage, Minato was already a hassle, not to mention Tsunade too. And those three behind him didn't look that bad, or any worse than those ANBU he managed to kill so easily.

He scoffed, looking back at Kushina and the seal on her stomach that was glowing, disappearing, and reappearing again on her stomach. The seal was obviously weaken and the Kyuubi could escaped out any time once Kushina just let herself go. But he couldn't attack, not when five people were against him with no hostage and his Kyuubi still unreleased. He turned and sprinted out in a matter of seconds, surprising everyone with his sudden movement.

Minato looked back at Kushina, abruptly rushing back to her side and planting a kiss on her forehead. "I have to go. It's too dangerous for him to be out there in the village."

"Mi..nato..." Kushina whimpered. "The baby..."

Minato shut his eyes tightly, biting his lips and looked away. He gave Kushina's hand a tight squeeze and he soon departed after the man who just escaped.

"Minato!" Kushina wailed, trying to force herself to look up as she watched her husband disappearing into the woods.

"Shizune!" Tsunade creid out, gaining the girl's attention as she rushed over.

"You know what to do, I've taught you this a lot of times." Tsunade pushed her forward, forcing her to stand right in front of Kushina who was grunting in pain. Shizune looked down and back at Tsunade.

"But it's always with you." She mumbled indecisively.

Sakura stepped forward and stood behind Shizune. She didn't know how to explain about medic skills and how she could be a great help to her, so all she did was to give a light pat on her shoulder. "I'm here. We'll do everything together." She beamed.

Tsunade gave them both a pat on the back as encouragement, still having no idea Sakura was her apprentice in the future. But she still decided to put in faith in both of them. Tsunade looked out of the cave, narrowing her beige colored eyes before sprinting forwards.

"Tsunade." Sasori stopped her. She halted in her step and glanced back hurriedly. "What the heck is going on? He frowned. For the first time he felt so lost in a situation.

"The man is too powerful, I don't think Minato can handle it alone."

"I'm coming." Sasori took a step forward.

"You will stay here." Tsunade glared, turning around and jabbing her finger right into his chest. "There isn't time to argue, listen to what I have to say for once!"

"It's not just you only. That masked man- I can sense he is just as strong, or even stronger than you can manage, or even that Minato guy." Sasori gritted through clenched teeth.

"I know. Minato knows that too. But Kushina is important too. You have to keep guard. That guy is after Kushina's life, the life that is in her. If he was able to escape from us and appear back here again, the three of them and the baby are doomed. You have to protect them."

Sasori clicked his tongue. He ruffled his red hair and glanced back at Tsunade for the last time, showing that he gave in.

"Shizune and Sakura, everything counts on you!" Tsunade shouted. She gave one last look over at Sasori and bolted out of the cave without looking back. She soon disappeared into the woods.

Sasori gritted his teeth. He took a step closer to the opening of the cave with some hesitation, but then a shrilling scream echoed in the cavern, followed by quick pants and grunts. Sasori turned, watching Sakura and Shizune desperately trying to calm Kushina down.

"You can do this Kushina-san!" Shizune yelled, sweat trickling down her forehead and into her eyes. Her small hand was entwined with Kushina's, another patting softly onto both of their hand or comfort. "It's going to be fine. It's going to be fine!"

Sasori exhaled a loud, pressured sigh. He knew if he were to run out of the cave to search for Tsunade and the other two men, the three woman would be dead for sure if any intruders were to give them a surprise attack. But he did truly felt a very bad omen coming from the masked guy that escaped a while earlier. However for now, he had to at least believe in Tsunade and the Yellow Flash.

The direction of his feet turned and he went sprinting towards the table where Kushina was lying and curling up in pain. Sasori stood by her side, watching helplessly at the eight trigram seal appearing on her stomach, disappearing at the moment and reappearing again. The situation they were in now was very bad, very very bad.

"Push! Push!" Sakura yelled, looking up and watch Kushina's belly glow with the seal on her stomach. She gave a soft grunt and continued her words of encouragement to help Kushina go through the labour easier.

For once Sasori felt useless. Sure, he did have some medical skills, making and creating poisons and analyzing them, but giving birth to a child was another thing. He had no idea what to do to help, yet he was sure that if he were to move out, Tsunade would kill him if either of the three women were to get ambushed and hurt.

All he could do was to stare. And he hated it.

"Sasori!" Shizune cried out, surprising the said man immediately. "Grab her hand and give her support. I'll help Sakura."

The redhead did exactly what he was told to. He grabbed onto Kushina's hand and clutched it tightly. Despite his awkward face and position, Sasori tried his best to at least put in effort to help. In all his life, he had been out there in the Shinobi world killing everyone that was his enemy. Now, he's actually helping to the birth of a new life. He glanced at Sakura and smirked inwardly. She was the one that caused him into this heap of mess, however, he had accepted the fact. He still liked those adventure he went through, with her by his side of course.

"Push!" Both Sakura and Shizune bawled. Kushina face scrunched up in pain and she took in a deep breathe and pushed. Followed was a loud scream.

"Baby! The head! We can see the baby's head!" Shizune jumped and looked up at Kushina in anticipation She panted hardly before nodding her head to herself, preparing herself before she gave another push. Sasori could feel the grip on his hand tightened. He held on tighter in return.

"Just a bit more. A bit more! He's already out!" Sakura glanced over Sasori and Kushina. "You can do this!"

They exchanged motivating words with one another, then a loud scream could be heard and the cycle continued. They had no idea how much time passed since Tsunade and Minato and the masked man left, but if they do not settle this before the break of dawn, Kushina would definitely die from infection and blood loss. Sakura already gone through enough experience to know.

Kushina took in huge amount of air and clutched her fist tightly despite Sasori was holding onto one. With a final push Kushina gave, Sakura and Shizune successfully took the baby safely into their arms.

The echo of the screams died down, now replaced by the cries from the blonde baby. Shizune quickly grabbed a clean cloth and wrapped it around the baby while Sakura carefully placed the infant in her arms after soaking him slightly in the warm water Tsunade prepared beforehand.

"It's alright. It's alright." Sakura whispered and danced a little to calm the baby down. Sasori heaved a sigh of relief as he leaned heavily onto the table. This was way more stressful than any other battle he came across in his life.

Sakura continued whispering soft lullaby, but the baby was too stubborn to stop crying. Gaining enough strength, Kushina raised up her hand, stretching it over to Sakura and pointed at the baby.

"Naruto. I want to see Naruto..."

Sakura widened her eyes and turned slowly to stare at Kushina. She could had sworn she just heard her teammate's name, but it was not possible... was it?

"Naruto..." Kushina whimpered.

Shizune nudged Sakura and gently pull Sakura and force her to move to stand by Kushina's side.

"You named him... Naruto?" Sakura softened her gaze as she looked back at the blonde baby in her arms before proceeding to place the baby gently by his mother's side.

As Shizune continued her disinfection process, Kushina started caressing the slightly bloodied baby and ruffled the small amount of blonde hair the baby had. "It was Jiraya-sensei who choose the name. Minato and I found it cute so..." Kushina afforded and weak smile. "Naruto..."

Sakura could have sworn her mind was about the explode. The man she used to know, used to tease, used to hate... was actually the Fourth Hokage's son. The pinkette looked down at the small baby curling himself into a ball, those whisker's look-alike that was marked onto Naruto's cheeks flashed across her mind suddenly when her gaze was set upon the weird looking line marks on the baby's cheek too.

How much she thought she knew, were actually nothing, comparing to how much secrets that she actually didn't know.

"Sakura."

The said girl looked up and noticed Sasori staring intensively at her. Suddenly, her knees wobbled and gave way as she fell, but Sasori caught her just in time she landed on the floor.

He swiftly appeared by her side, pulling Sakura up and get her back to her feet.

"I'm fine. I'm just tired." Sakura managed a smile, grabbing onto Sasori's shoulder for support.

After doing what she needed to do, Shizune helped Kushina up slowly, making sure her wounds would not split apart again and let her cradle the baby in her arms. Kushina took it carefully and hugged him to her chest before looking at the other three.

"Thank you so much." Kushina said in a whisper as she glanced at the entrance of the cave, spotting several ANBU men lying dead on the floor or floating on the water. "I have to find Minato..."

"Kushina-san, are you out of your mind?" Shizune bawled.

"You have to rest and stay with the baby. Naruto can't afford to lose you. He can't." Sakura pleaded, her eyes resting on Naruto before looking at his mother. She knew she shouldn't be ruining the moment but damn, it's awkward to be staring at Naruto when he was barely even a day old while she's like more than a decade older than him.

"I have to agree." Sasori spoke in the calm manner he usually used. "Move around too much and you'll die." That's how blunt he was.

"But-" Kushina glanced down at Naruto with a weary look, "his father is waiting..."

"There's isn't a need anymore."

The four of them turned their heads towards the source of the sound and their eyes were all set upon the man who was walking steadily towards them.

"!"

Right before their eyes was none other than the Fourth Hokage. Followed behind was Tsunade who entered the cave as soon as Minato revealed himself. Kushina gasped and her eyes were slowly tearing.

Sakura face lit up and her lips turned into a grin.

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune shrieked and pounced right onto Tsunade. The blonde gave a soft pat on her back and smiled. Giving a glance over at Minato before looking at Sasori who was staring questionably at her.

"Madara is dead. We've finished him."

0o0

"Is there anything I can do for all of you?" Minato glanced at the four of them. "I'll do my best to fulfill what you guys want. But Tsunade-sama, you know that the Third Hokage doesn't like your gambling habits so I suggest a gambling den would be a bad idea."

Tsunade smirked. She was really intending to ask about setting up a huge casino for her, but that'll means she would have to stay in Konoha for quite a while to repay her debts that she's definitely going to owe. She didn't want that. "I'm just doing my duty as a medic, and for Kushina."

Kushina gave a cheeky smile, cradling the sleeping baby in her arms. She was immediately sent to the hospital and Kushina and her child got a more precise check up. Both mother and son were completely healthy and her seal was once again strengthened by Minato.

"It is my duty to protect one of my grandmother's clansman, who sacrifice her life and future to host it." Tsunade continued as she stared at Kushina with a warm smile.

"It's my duty to help too, as a medic" Shizune nodded her head cheerfully. In the end, she couldn't resist the temptation and immediately scurried to Kushina's side and started poking the baby's face softly.

Sasori remained silent.

Sakura took in a deep breathe and bit her lips. She silently watched Shizune tickling the baby's stomach although Naruto was not able to feel anything and laugh about it. His mother continued having that small smile on her face and caressed his bouncy and soft cheeks while the baby was still sleeping soundly.

She remembered the time when she mocked Naruto in front of Sasuke after their Genin team was choosen, saying he was a stubborn and annoying brat who knows nothing because he didn't have any parents to scold him. Sakura's gaze lowered and her lips started quivering.

Sasori glanced over to the pinkette. His brows furrowed as he watched Sakura being a little quiet than usual. The redhead then glanced back over to Kushina who was carrying the baby close to her arms.

"Naruto... Naruto..." Kushina whispered softly into the baby's ears.

"I have a teammate who is loud and a little dumb sometimes. His name is Naruto." Sakura leaned against the bark of the tree and continued the memories she remembered and promised to tell Sasori about her life. "There was once when he was so darn hungry when we came back from this mission and went to one famous Ramen stall we have in our village to find it already closed. He literally bawled out crying and end up sleeping on the ground because he was too tired."

Sasori gave a sidelong glance over at the silent pinkette. He was about to call her when she suddenly looked up at Minato.

"I have a request." She spoke.

All of them in the room turned and faced her. Minato nodded his head, indicating her to continue.

"The Uchiha clan, is one of the most prestige clan in Konoha." She started, and continued after a short pause. "Can the Fourth Hokage protect the clan, at all cost?"

"Protect the clan?" Minato raised an eyebrow. "Of course we would, they are one of the most powerful clan we have, after all."

Sasori watched Sakura silently while she was gave that assured and relief look after Minato had said that.

Uchiha... Sasuke.

"Thank you. That's all I could ask for." Sakura bowed in respect.

Minato nodded and stepped back, standing beside Shizune and Kushina while he observed his quiet child in his wife's arm. Tsunade continued her exchange with Kushina and Minato, while Sasori and Sakura were leaning quietly against the hospital wall.

My work is done. The future has changed. Sakura glanced at Sasori from the corner of her eyes and sighed inwardly. He was staring at Shizune, giving that stop-it-you're-annoying look as the girl continued to poke all parts of Naruto's body.

She tried to smile, to smile at the fact she had accomplished her mission. But she just couldn't. The time she had left with Sasori was limited, and she had no idea when would she just randomly disappear away.

An hour? Tonight? Tomorrow?

She didn't want to know.

0o0

They departed Konoha on the same day Kushina gave birth to her son. Tsunade was the most tired among the four of them, but that didn't mean she was the weakest. She was still able to save quite an amount of strength to fight if it was necessary.

Why? Because she knew that another fight was going to happen again soon.

"For the past three days, you're pretty busy, aren't you?" Sasori narrowed his eyes at the blonde as they were walking towards through the dense forest.

"You can say so." Tsunade glanced over her shoulder. "I want to show you guys this place too."

After another ten minutes of walking, they emerged through the forest and reached a long and wide lake. Across the river was a very steep cliff with a supposing large cave. But the cave was blocked by a massive boulder with a seal sticker pasted in the middle of the rock.

Sakura widened her eyes. She remember this place. It wasn't exactly the location where she fought Sasori with Chiyo in the future, but the set up to protect the cave was very similar to the one she seen in the future.

"I found this lair by myself," Tsunade smirked proudly, "I was intending to ask you guys to join here after I get some back-ups in a couple of says, but something happened in Konoha, like all of you know." She didn't really want to return back to her home village where the death of everyone close to her happened there, but she had to do to for Kushina and her baby. Nothing more.

"Where is this place?" Sasori stared at the huge boulder.

"One of the place Orochimaru has to go." Tsunade rubbed her chin. "The informations I received wasn't really precise, but I'm sure Orochimaru is going to come here. Sooner or later."

"It is." Sakura muttered, nodding her head. "This is definitely one of the Akatuski's hideout."

"Aka- what?" Shizune inclined her head at Sakura.

"Nothing." Sakura smiled back innocently.

They were still standing before the lake, each of them wondering what they should do now. But none of them knew they were actually the ones who was going to get ambushed.

A couple of kunai tied with a bomb tag were flung into their direction. They were able to dodged them easily and the tags exploded in a second after they scattered. They moved quickly from their position, immediately finding the rest and stayed together.

"Well, well. You all ought to find yourself lucky that I'm the enemy you encountered."

When the smoke cleared, the could see a figure standing just opposite of the river, with hsi arms crossed boastfully and looking at them. They got back their vision and immediately recognized who was the one that gave them a surprise attack.

"Oh sure you're right." Tsunade cracked her knuckles and furrowed her brows. "Orochimaru."

"It's nice to reunite again, isn't Tsunade? If only Jiraiya is here." The snake man suggested.

"Joy." Tsunade faked a laugh. Shizune looked at the other Sanin in disdain.

Although they were all in their battle stance. No one dared to move, or speak a word. It was like time had frozen in place and time was still ticking. Even Orochimaru knew he should consider each move wisely before he make one.

"What is this?"

All of them jerked from their position, and glanced everywhere, looking for the soruce of the voice.

"A party?" Kakuzu continued where he had left and appeared right behind the four of them, but nearing Sasori a little more. He glanced at the familiar faces he recognized before setting his eye on Orochimaru who was across them.

"That, wasn't part of my plan." Tsunade muttered, giving herself a face-palmed as she recalled the staring battle she once had with the man in a gambling den. If this guy was actually on Orochimaru's side, her plan would probably be a failure.

"Kakuzu!" Sakura squealed, staring at the masked man who was standing behind Sasori. The redhead turned in surprise and watched in disbelief at the man he thought he would never see again.

"You guys, know each other?" Tsunade whispered across to Sasori and Sakura.

"We're not friends," Kakuzu answered for them. Tsunade died inside, but he still continued his unfinished sentence, "but if you were planning to kill that man with the same cloak as mine, we can be friends for the moment."

Sasori frowned at him, his mouth closing and opening just like a goldfish. "Kakuzu, you-"

"Kakuzu, switching sides?" Orochimaru interrupted. He began making a few hand signs and took his blood, running it down his arm.

"We were never on the same side." He sneered back, preparing his battle stance too. Both he and Orochimaru were suppose to meet the leader and the newcomer at noon, but since he was passing by the place, he decided to rest around here somewhere before the times comes in three more hours. He never expected Orochimaru to come here first, neither was he expecting the other uninvited four people too.

Orochimaru smirked before shifting his eyes to Sasori. "And it's been a while, Sasori. We should continue the battle from where we left after you escaped." A loud poof appeared right before Orochimaru and everyone eyes narrowed. The smoke quickly cleared and there was Orochimaru, standing on one of his summoned snake, and probably hundreds of underlings standing behind the snake.

Sasori snorted. Sakura glared.

"Who are those people and where on earth did they come from?" Shizune blinked in incredulousness.

"There isn't time for questions." Tsunade hissed.

"Oh my, today is really my lucky day. All the people I want to kill is at the same place. It saves me so much time." Orochimaru gave a heavenly sigh before gesturing his underlings to attack. "Afterwards, I can celebrate the glory of killing all of you with my new partner I'm going to meet later."

They started charging, weird black marks started spreading across their face and it greatly increased the chakra and speed. Realizing there wasn't a choice, Kakuzu and Tsunade glanced at each other and both of them nodded in union, silently agreeing to their temporarily alliance they mentally created.

When Tsunade was about to move and fight Orochimaru's subordinates, a few snake started shooting down from Orochimaru's arm and towards her direction. She jumped, dodging them effectively even though her movement was rather slow due to the fact that she was still tired from Konoha's incident. The medic landed on the ground smoothly and she looked up, eyes narrowed. It seemed that he had decided to choose Tsunade's for his first opponent.

For warm up, Kakuzu just cooling swing his arms and punched each of them with this black iron fist.

Sakura and Shizune both synchronized their steps together, dodging and attacking together perfectly. Sakura sent her chakra fist into the ground and Shizune would use her posion needles and direct them towards the opponents who didn't get caught in Sakura's attack and wanting to escape.

Sasori caught hold of one of the enemy with his chakra string and controlled him. He made his puppet picked up the useful weapons that were all scattered across the ground and used them to attack.

They were doing great, but Orochimaru's subordinates were popping out from nowhere in a rapid increasing number. It was practically an endless fight for them.

Tsunade summoned one of her regular slugs to help to attack the snakes that Orochimaru summoned. They were both on an equal fight, but somehow it seemed that Tsunade was at a disadvantage when Orochimaru's people tend to barge into the fight and attack Tsunade from behind.

There wasn't a problem for the others, but only Sakura. A few black spots were randomly appearing in her vision all of the sudden that she almost got sliced right through in the stomach if she didn't dodged in time.

'It's time.'

Sakura gasped. Her chakra fist were still flying around, punching each and every opponent she saw, but she could hear his voice again.

No, it's not!

'This is the amount of time I can spare for you after you've completed your mission.'

No, I can't leave now. Can't you see I'm in a middle of a fight?

He didn't bother to answer Sakura anymore and continued with his plan. At first, sparkles and white glows surrounded Sakura's feet then it slowly travelled upwards. Her feet was gone, as if the white light had swallowed it up. Yet Sakura could not feel a slightest bit of pain, but the pain was coming from her chest. Her heart.

"Sasori!" That was the first word that came to her mind, and her mouth just opened and screamed out the name.

He was controlling one of Orochimaru's people, serving it as his weapons as he didn't have any scrolls with him. Sasori swung his arms to have his human puppet to attack his partners, but immediately turned towards the direction where he heard the sound of his name.

"Sakura!" Tsunade bellowed, releasing one of the enemies that was secretly attacking her from behind and letting him fell onto the ground. Her eyes widening in horror as she watched Sakura's body being enveloped with those mystic glows of light.

"Sakura-san!" Shizune cried out too.

"..." Kakuzu narrowed his eyes. His arms were swinging around and punching the enemies with his iron-hard fist, but his main attention was set upon Sakura and those weird effects that was happening to her.

In an instant when Sasori saw what happened, he released the chakra strings and sprinted towards Sakura. He tripped once, but that didn't make him stop running desperately towards Sakura.

She saw him running, running towards her and putting out his arms, as if it would help him to reach her faster. But she did too, thinking that it would help when she knew it didn't. As Sakura reached out her hand, the glows were starting to appear around her fingertips and engulfing her palm and then her arm.

"Sakura!" He yelled with distress.

Ah. Those eyes. Those were the exact eyes Sakura remembered seeing when she was dying in his arms. It was painful and scared. Despite the fact that the only thing Sakura heard from him was her name, she could actually see the terror in his eyes, telling her not to go... not to leave him alone.

Were those tears? Sakura wondered as she could feel the numbness spreading towards her neck and cheeks. She couldn't see her arms or body anymore, but all she could see was Sasori dashing towards her.

But it was too late. She wanted to shout for his name again, but she couldn't.

"Don't leave!"

Those were the last words she heard him screamed before the image of Sasori completely disappeared away.

It was the end.

I don't want to leave too.

0o0

"Where am I?" Sakura yelled, spinning rounds and round till she eventually got dizzy.

'Don't you remember this place?'

"Let me go back! I have to fight with them!" Sakura scowled, whirling round and round in exasperation.

'Your time is up Sakura.' He calmly spoke. 'You have done the things you needed to do.'

"What about Sasori?" Sakura shook her head in despair. "What will happen to him?"

'His fate... is death.'

Sakura took a step back, her breathe hitched for a moment. Her head lowered slowly, staring at the piece of white ground and her fist slowly clenched together.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" She sneered. Her head shot up as she glared forward. "The months I spend together with him, the months I took to change him... It all ends by having me ditching him? Having his heart torn into pieces and then let him die? This isn't fucking fair!"

'Have you forgotten, Sakura? The months you spend were for Sasuke and your friends. Not Sasori.'

"It's not...true..." Sakura's leg gradually gave way and she fell unto the ground, knee first. This time, there wasn't anyone to help her up. No one to ask if she was alright. There's no Sasori anymore. "But you told me to help him, you told me this was-"

'This is the consequence you will suffer, Sakura.' His tone getting a little impatient than before. 'No feelings for one another, didn't I tell you?'

Sakura covered her face with both of her hand and whimpered softly into her palm, tears slowly forming in her eyes. "This shouldn't be happening..."

He ignored her, continuing where he had left. 'Your head will be a little bit messed up though, since tons of information that happened in the future would be replacing your old memories. You'll wake up, finding yourself in your bedroom and-'

"No!" There was a short silence afterwards. If Sakura could see the Fairy-God Father, she would have glared him to death. "I'm not going back! I have to save Sasori! I have to kill Orochimaru with Sasori. I have to..." Her voice turning softer and softer till all was left were faint whimpers.

'Sakura...'

"Don't you remember what you told me? This mission isn't just for me! It's for Sasori too! We both wanted things to be different! Why must death be the only way out for Sasori? This just isn't fair!" Sakura screamed. She chocked back her tears and ruffled her hair, lowering her body and curling up into a ball. "I only managed to survive all these while, going through so many experiences... It's because Sasori was with me all the time... He deserves better than me. He went through all the pain and changed so much in the end yet..."

He gave a tired sigh and went silent for a moment, only to have Sakura's soft sniffing to break the silence. Finally, he decided to continue. 'It's possible for you to go back.'

Sakura looked up and stared up in the air. She took in huge breathes and helped herself up slowly, rubbing the tears that were forming in her eyes. The voice continued.

'But once you choose this decision, there is no way to turn it back. The people you once knew would forget about your existence forever. You were never born into their life. You are who you are now.'

Sakura gulped, her fist tightened.

'If Sasori were to die and things didn't go your way like what you wanted when you decided to stay in the past, that's it.'

She closed her eyes and smile. "That wouldn't happen."

'What about your friends? Your family? You were doing all these for them, aren't you? I don't understand.'

Sakura smile didn't falter. "It's true that I did all of these for them..."

'Then?'

"Ino could easily find another friend she could have fun and quarrel with. Naruto could easily find any girl who would punch him and knock some sense into him in any situation. Kakashi-sensei could easily have students warning him not to read any more porn books. Sasuke could easily find his true love, and get someone to love him more than I could..." Sakura lowered her head and bitterly held back her tears.

"But Sasori couldn't. He couldn't find someone who could love him like I could. He couldn't find a person who knows the pain he feels. He couldn't find any person who would be willing to tear that mask of stones he built around him. It's true that it isn't easy to love him, but it isn't easy for him to brace up the courage to love again too. He has already lost the people he put his heart, soul and love in. I can't... I can't make him suffer that pain again..."

White glows started forming, starting from her leg again. She looked down and stared blankly at it until she realized what was happening.

'I'm just bluffing you actually. You can stay in the past if that is your final choice.' After he finished his sentence, Sakura could hear a light laugh.

Sakura stared blankly into space before her eyes widened in disbelief. "What..."

'I'm sort of playing around, since you were stubborn and refused to heed my warning. I'm just making fun of you.'

Sakura's jaws dropped, the glows already reaching her stomach. "You. I-"

'My mission as the nice Fairy-God Father has now finished. I don't want to waste anymore time while the rest are fighting. As for now, all I can do is to wish you two all the best for your future.'

Sakura sniffed and a small smile appeared on her lips. "Thank you very much. Although I wish that I could punch you for once."

In an instant, she was gone.

0o0

"Snap out of it." Kakuzu growled, taking a few steps back and stood beside Sasori and defended him when a large shuriken was directed his way.

"She's gone," Sasori whispered, looking down at his hand that was unable to touch Sakura's hand even at the last moment, "forever."

"Alright, continue standing so you can get killed and join her in the future when you reincarnate." Kakuzu bluntly spoke. "At least fight, you dumb ass. Even if you don't want to live, save the others by helping to fight."

Kakuzu words had no effect on him. His mind was already dead. He looked to his left, and then to his right. He couldn't feel anything anymore. His body felt so numb that he was about to cry.

Cry, yes. When was the last time he cried again? Oh, it was when Sakura was dying in his arm.

"Sakura..." He muttered, lowering his head.

Why must it always be her? On that day when she was drunk and mad, swinging and dancing around in one of the hotel room they rent to stay for the night, he already knew he shouldn't fall in love with her. And look at what happened.

For the longest moment, he just stood there and he didn't know what to do. Maybe he should really die and get reincarnate in the future to meet Sakura again. Then he could also forget all that pain he felt and become a new person who perhaps have a family to love him, and having the opportunity to love too.

It hurts so much, God' damn it. He lifted his arm and started pounding his fist on his chest. He really should have killed her in that desert when he first met her. This wouldn't happen. He wouldn't have to be a RobinHood, stealing money and giving it to the poor, being a free baby-sitter and helping some kid to be send back to her family safely and also a mid-wife, helping some people he didn't know to give birth to a baby boy.

What the hell was he doing? He was suppose to be investigating his poisons and researching more about his human puppets and not wasting time doing all of these stupid things.

Yet he enjoyed it so much, he was willing to sacrifice his time to spend it with her. Only her. Now she's gone. It's pointless to be fighting with Tsunade to kill Orochimaru. It's pointless to avoid getting chase down and get force to be an Akatsuki member. Everything was pointless to him already.

He decided he should just die. Come on, someone just throw a bomb tag at me already.

"Sasori! That's-" Shizune dodged one of the enemy's attack and yelled out to the redhead, pointing at the spot where Sakura was gone before.

Tsunade tried to look back, but most of her attention were forced to be on her ex-teammate. Orochimaru wasn't giving any chance for Tsunade to get distracted at all.

Bright glows started appearing at that exact spot where Sakura last disappeared.

"Sakura?" His eyes widened just as large as a dango. All he knew was to repeat her name over and over again till her body fully appeared right before his eyes. The sparkles and glows stopped and Sakura was standing there just like how she was before.

"Sasori," She sheepishly rubbed the back of her head before walking forward when her feet was back on the ground and hugged him right there and then, "sorry to worry you."

"What, on earth happened?" He harshly whispered into her ears. The fight that was happening behind them was ignored by the two of them and in their world, only the two of them existed.

"I'll tell you once this is over." Sakura took Sasori's cheek and turned them towards her. Before he knew what happened, her lips went forward and she kissed him. He kissed her back in return.

Kakuzu raised an eyebrow and took a few awkward steps back and carried on fighting. Without them knowing, he was tackling the people who were trying to near the two of them.

It took quite long for them before they broke the kiss. Sasori stared down deep into her eyes, softening his gaze immediately. She knew that if she had made the wrong choice and went back to the future, the future that she thought would happen probably didn't really happen at all, having Sasori to be broken-hearted and left in this world was completely impossible for her.

He took hold of Sakura's wrist and tightened it, but not tight enough to hurt her. "Promise me, don't leave me ever again."

"I won't. Everything is fine now." Sakura nodded her head in assurance and pecked her lips on his cheeks in replacement for the pinky promise. "I swear."

"We have come!"

The silent and peaceful moment Sasori and Sakura both shared together shattered in an instant when an old lady fly right above the two and landing just a few meters away from them. A couple of ninja from the wind village settled themselves beside the elder.

"Chiyo-baa-sama!" Sakura broke into a smile.

Tsunade smirked, liking it when Orochimaru narrowed his eyes and clicked his tongue in annoyance. He began making a few hand signs to summon more of his people from his secret hideout to fight. But it was not enough. Back behind Chiyo was not just a dozen of her people, but a number reaching a hundred.

With Chiyo's help and her people that followed her, the burden in attacking Orochimaru's people were very much lessened. Kakuzu decided to interrupt the fight between Tsunade and Orochimaru since he suddenly had the urge to kill.

He took off his cloak, revealing the four masks that was stitched up on his back. Ignoring the continuos fight between Tsunade and Orochimaru and also the other people, he pushed with all his might and the black animal look-alike figures flew out of his body and all of them stood readily beside him.

He took the chance when Orochimaru was distracted and made different hand signs for his different element animals to attack without hitting Tsunade during the process.

Kakuzu missed several times, but he didn't mind. When Orochimaru gave that irritated look towards him and Tsunade, he was pretty pleased already.

Tsunade raised her legs and swiftly appeared right above Orochimaru, and immediately he slammed her heels right onto the snake-summoner's head and he went crushing down. Taking the chance, Kakuzu mentally ordered his fire element animal to jump towards Orochimaru. He made the necessary hand signs and the animal fired a giant flaming fireball down and it directly hit Orochimaru.

He scoffed, and slowly regained back his calm composure thinking it was over, but Tsunade knew better. She went back to her usual stance and prepared herself for another attack. Sure enough, instead of the long-haired man appearing to attack, it was a man-like snake, revealing his true body made out of a multitude of smaller snakes.

Kakuzu cringed in disgust and dodged when Orochimaru slithered towards him to attack. Tsunade jumped, and attempted to body-slam the snake but it easily slipped away.

"Boobs, move out of the way."

Tsunade widened her eyes and turned towards Kakuzu who started making, yet another, complicating hand seals. Did he just call me 'Boobs'? Seriously? But nonetheless, she quickly dashed across the field and stood behind him and his weird look puppets.

A fire ball started forming at the beak of the black masked animal. But it was much larger and stronger than the previous one. A wind element masked animal swiftly collided into the fire-element and both formed into one large black monster, but with two masks. The wind element mask opened its mouth, collecting the air particles from the surrounding and swirling it into a massive ball. On the cue, they two mask blasted their attacks at once and it turned into a massive fire attack that covered the almost half of the field. Orochimaru was unable to escape at all as the snake burnt in the flames.

"Hot? Time to cool you down." Kakuzu made another complicated hand signs and one of the masked monster fly up and opened its mouth. A water ball started forming near its beak and in a flash, the water ball shot right down onto Orochimaru and it created a huge blast of smoke once it landed right on the snake form.

Not enough, Kakuzu thought and he directed his lightning element animal and strike down Orochimaru with a bolt that could kill a thousand men. There was no way the snake could survive it.

Tsunade took the chance again and once the smoke cleared away, she smashed him down, his snake form went crashing deep into the earth and the ground cracked at least a hundred meters away, inflicting some of Orochimaru loyal remaining underlings that were trying to save him.

A loud growl escaped from Orochimaru's lips and then a soft grunt, then whimpers. Then silence.

The rest of the people had already stopped fighting as the last subordinate fainted or died when they were trying to save Orochimaru but Tsunade knocked them out. No one dared to make a single move and not even a single bird or insect made any noise. The clearing was filled with nothing but the soft pants coming from Kakuzu, Tsunade and a few other Shinobi from Sunagakure.

Sakura, Sasori and Shizune were perfectly fine and clean from any cuts or bruises.

"Grilled snake, anyone?" Shizune whispered out of the blue. Gradually, the rest soon relaxed and started to move around. Especially Chiyo's people, most of them were hurt and injured, but no deaths.

"It's proper to at least bury him." Tsunade watched Orochimaru's true form in disdain. The blonde was ready to receive a surprise attack, witnessing Orochimaru popping from somewhere and then he would slither towards them and give a merciless attack. But he was already dead and not moving. Forever.

Shizune raised her eyebrow. She knew how much her master had hated her teammate so much, but she was actually suggesting to give him a burial?

"Bury him at least a hundred miles beneath the ground, so he could never, ever climb back up to earth." The blonde spat. The youngest girl in the team smirked and shook her head.

"I have a better idea." Kakuzu spoke up. All of them turned to stare at the masked man, who was browsing through some papers in his hand. His puppet monsters had returned back into his body, all stitched up and resting and he was already wearing back his cloak. He trudged towards Orochimaru's battered snake body and pick it up easily and slung it over his shoulder. "Luckily his true form was revealed in the bounty paper, or he'll be worthless."

Sasori and Sakura scoffed in union.

Tsunade just watched Kakuzu walking into the woods. She didn't really care much about Orochimaru's body anymore since it would be the best if she'll never ever see that disgusting snake again.

"You guys alright?" Tsunade turned away called out to a few sand ninja who were groaning in pain and healing one another. Wanting to save their embarrassment, they all gave an OK sign the female Sanin to impress her too. "Chiyo?" She called out again.

"I'm fine, I should be the one asking you." Chiyo emerged from behind a rock while she was unrolling a scroll she was holding.

"Chiyo..." Sakura's face brightened up.

Sasori turned towards the old lady who was already watching him. She gave a small smile, her aging spots and wrinkles already appearing, but despite that, she was still fit to battle most of Orochimaru's underling without even getting a single scratch on her. She still lived up the name of the master in puppetry skills after all.

"We wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for Chiyo's help either." Tsunade solemnly spoke when she walked forward and stood beside Shizune and Sakura. Her apprentices looked up at her as the blonde continued.

"I made a secret alliance with Chiyo to bring an army to assist us in fighting when I was gone for a few days. It was actually lucky that I did made an alliance. If I didn't, I wouldn't have received the message that Kushina was giving birth from one of the Lords I met while traveling and went over to Konoha to help." Tsunade nodded to herself. The seals are always the weakest when the host is giving birth and furthermore, there was actually people attempting to get Kushina's life because of the Kyuubi. She could have died if we didn't go there.

"Why didn't you want to ask for Konoha's help when we returned there while giving birth to the Fourth Hokage's son?" Shizune asked, even puzzled then ever.

"Even though Orochimaru was an exiled ninja, Konoha would definitely refrained from killing him. Instead, they'll just interrogate him and tries to brainwash him to become a good guy." Tsunade scoffed. "They want powerful men to be on their side, those stupid councils wouldn't want to kill off someone powerful and could help them if he or she is needed in a war or fight, even if he once killed thousands of people or not. That's how desperate the villages are, for power."

"But Chiyo was your rival!" Shizune exclaimed, "how did she even agree to it?"

"It's the grandmother's love. You can say I was sort of using Sasori as a 'hostage'. I wasn't really using him because he hated Orochimaru." Tsunade managed a weak smile. "After all, Sasori is her only grandson she have after her son and daughter-in-law died in the war."

Sakura who had been silently listening to their exchange slowly turned and looked at Chiyo and Sasori's direction. She watched quietly at the two of them from a distance, wondering what could they be talking about. It made her heart cringed a little when she suddenly remembered those cold words Sasori said to his grandmother in the battle between the three of them.

But now, it's different. She was sure of it, and that Sakura sort of happy to know.

"Sakura, what was that glowing-then-disappear-and-reappearing technique you used?" Shizune inclined her head to one side as she scrutinized Sakura for a while.

"That-" Sakura rubbed the back of her head sheepishly when she retuned her attention to her family-like members. "It's a long story. It's sort of a... a surprise technique!"

"If that is true, then you should have done that earlier." Shizune crossed her arms and had her face nearing Sakura's. "You missed the chance to see how sad and agonized Sasori was when you disappeared."

"He really likes you. No, he truly loves you. I can bet my life on that." Tsunade gave a teasing look over at Sakura.

Shizune nodded her head quickly, agreeing to what her master had said. "For once, I'm very confident that Tsunade-sama wouldn't lose the bet this time."

0o0

Chiyo softly smiled once she approached towards Sasori, looking up at him who was looking on the ground.

"Ah, my adorable grandson." She spoke first. "Even after so many months, you still look as cute as usual."

"You do know that I'm not going back." Sasori muttered.

"Can't you let me enjoy watching my grandson's face?" Chiyo sighed before she scratched her chin. "You looked a lot more like your father now."

"Even if you were to send an army, I'll get rid of them." He continued.

"I know that already. You're turning naggy too." Chiyo gave a light laugh. "Who says we're going to bring you back?"

Sasori blinked as he stared incredulously at Chiyo.

"You like that girl, don't you?" Chiyo secretly pointed at Sakura who was listening to Tsunade's talking. Sasori turned to where her finger was pointing and his lazy brown eyes were fixated on the pinkette. He remained silent.

"I have no idea what really happened between the two of you, but something just tells me you really like her. And I can see she's a really nice girl." Chiyo gave a soft pat on his shoulder. He didn't shrug it off.

"Travel around the world with her and settle down to start a family together." Chiyo grinned.

Sasori made a face as if he was disgusted by the idea. Even until now, he's trying to act cold but his attempts were failing. His abilities to hide his emotions were also rusting too. "What? Who says I'm going to-"

Chiyo laughed and cut in, liking how his grandson was acting so defiantly for a moment. "Just visit Suna once in a while. That's all I can wish for."

0o0

12 years later, and so much things had changed.

It was expected. When she had choosen to stay, eventually the future was rewritten. The people who appeared in the Chunin exam she was viewing now were all different. The first match for Neji's opponent wasn't against Naruto, but Lee. It was an incredible fight with many people cheering them on. Surprisingly, Lee won.

Sakura lightly laughed. It wasn't really surprising actually. With Neji's cold attitude and remarks, claiming that Lee would lose nonetheless, Naruto ended up screaming and yelling from the balcony for the competitors to prepare themselves and it motivated Lee a lot.

Sasori also noted that Minato, who was sitting beside the Kazekage at the special seat was shaking his head in mild embarrassment for his loud son.

The following matches were not the same either. There were people Sakura didn't recognize against Sakura's friends. Like Naruto, he seemed to be fighting against some random guy from the rock village. Of course Naruto managed to win. Instead of using his stupid Harem technique to distract his opponents like what he usually did in the past, he performed several special attacks that Sakura never seen before. Like that weird wind element that was blasted out from his mouth when he correctly executed the hand signs.

Sakura beamed. She felt so proud to be able to see the baby she once carried in her arms to have grown so fast and powerful. In just one night, a change of fate, Naruto ended up being a complete different person. He's still a little loud, but powerful and a lot more charming for some odd reason. But that same orange jumpsuit sort of deduct some marks for his looks.

The blonde gave a proud grin at his father and in return, Minato smiled. Sakura caught him looking around and he finally spotted his mother as he gave an exaggerated wave towards Kushina's direction before he proceeded back to his area where he's suppose to assemble.

"Next match! Kasumi versus Sasuke Uchiha!" Loud applause and roars sounded in the arena and the audience got excited again.

"There she is. I thought she forfeited." Sasori smirked as he watched one of the two competitors walking steadily towards the middle of the field.

Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Don't let her hear that. Remember how mad she was when you scolded her for being useless and annoying? We have to move house in the end." She poked her finger right into his chest. "Because it was destroyed when you two ended up fighting against each other."

"I was just dodging." Sasori raised his two hands in defense before putting them down and giving that teasing look over at Sakura. "She got that temper from you."

"You." Sakura growled.

"No, you."

"Y-"

Sakura was unable to say any word when his lips went down crushing on hers without mercy. She still hated the fact that he always gave her surprise kisses, and the only surprise kiss she gave to him was when she came back to Sasori after the confrontation she had with the Fairy-God-Father. It was so unfair.

Tsunade, Shizune and the two of them departed from the last battle they encountered with Orochimaru together but decided to continue their own paths. Tsunade and Shizune didn't know or care about what they were going to do in the future, but after some time, they decided to go on a mini tour around the world to help out villages that need their medical skills.

Kakuzu? He just brought Orochimaru's body with him and disappeared before someone could even blink. Probably he had became rich and retired from being an Akatsuki member. (if that's even possible) It would be funny if one day Sasori and herself were to meet him on the street again.

They travelled for quite a while and decided that they should settle down in the first village they went together, the Land of Silk. After a while, they found a house and bought it to stay. Sakura got pregnant, of course, after they got married without really being official or open about it. It wasn't really surprising that Sakura ended up carrying Sasori's child so fast, since they could barely remember how many times their neighbors had to tell them to quieten down during the night.

At first, they were worried what gender would their baby be, and it was soon revealed to be a girl. At least it's better than a boy with pink hair.

They named the baby girl Kausmi. She had Sakura's green eyes and Sasori's red hair. She grew it long and tied it up into a pony tail despite the fact that she once swore she was going to have her hair short like her mother.

Sakura then gently pushed Sasori aside after their kiss as she pointed at the field down below. "The fight has started, you have to watch or you'll not be able to answer Kasumi's question when she is going to ask you about her match."

Sasori nodded slowly in agreement and turned to watch. What could he do? He doted on his daughter just as much as his wife. But his daughter was more aggressive for him to control.

And so, like every Uchiha does, Sasuke unveiled his Sharingan in the middle of the battle. He made a couple of hand signs and the fireball that came out from his mouth was his signature move, the fireball technique.

Sasuke still looked like Sasuke. But she wondered what happened to him eventually. His families? Was he still twisted and lusting for power to get revenge on his brother? Did the Uchiha clan survive? All these question were haunting her several times even when she was living in that peaceful town with her happy family.

Kasumi scoffed, dodging it easily with little effort. She then clutched her fist and with the remarkable strength she learnt from her mother, she strike her fist down onto the floor which sent the shocked Sasuke flying up, but only suffering from some minor scratches.

In a moment after a few hand to hand combat attacks, Kasumi decided to showcase her very first puppet she created along with her great-grandmother Chiyo. They visited Sunagakure during New Year and Chiyo taught her great-granddaughter skills on puppetry and a few games to prank her parents. Especially choking on a dango, it sure scared Sakura like hell when Kasumi feigned dead during tea break few months ago.

Flinging her scroll into the air, the small poof appeared and it engulfed her with white smokes. This was always the move that reminded Sakura how much her daughter looked just like her husband.

When the smoke cleared, her chakra strings were seen to be attached to a human look-alike puppet dressed in a dark purple cloak. She swung her arms and the puppets moved to her will. Sasuke dodged quickly, his brows frowning every moment when Kasumi twitched her fingers and the puppets moved according to how she wanted.

"She's getting complacent." Sasori muttered.

"I agree." Sakura chortled.

"Is that your daughter?" A voice suddenly spoke beside Sakura. All these while she had been focusing on the people, her memories and the match her daughter was fighting in that she had forgotten that there were also other viewers sitting around her, who she could make friends with.

"Oh yes she is." Sakura turned to her side and smiled while Sasori leaned forward to see who was the one speaking.

The man nodded his head. "I'm Fugaku Uchiha. The boy who your daughter is fighting now is my son, Sasuke Uchiha."

Sakura blinked, so did Sasori. She turned and stared at the redhead and blinked even more times before turing back to Fugaku.

Uchiha? Wait... that means...

"This is my wife. Mikoto Uchiha. This is my elder son, Itachi Uchiha." Both of them respectively nodded their head when their name were mentioned.

"Itachi-" Sakura gasped and kept her mouth shut immediately. Itachi raised his eyebrow, but he gave a smile in return again. Sakura recalled her first encounter with Sasuke's brother when they were on their way to save Gaara. It was one of the scariest moment of her life. But now, he's just sitting there with his casual clothing that had the proud Uchiha symbol on his back and smiling like there was no tomorrow.

Sakura had never met or heard much of Sasuke's parents, but she felt that Sasuke had gotten his looks mostly from his mother. She then softened her eyes.

She never knew things would end up this way, falling in love with her successful mission and actually becoming a mother of a child when she was supposing to be just 12 in the real year she was alive.

So...this is how it ends.

"I was just discussing this with my wife," Fugaku started speaking while his wife nodded and expressed a polite smile, "we are wondering if you're interested to have your daughter, marrying our younger son."

Sasori and Sakura widened their eyes at the same time as they turned towards to stare at Fugaku with raised eyebrows.

"...Eh?"

Or perhaps, this is all just the beginning.

Author's Note: Longest chapter in history. I'm proud

By the way, I've uploaded a new story called; Thanks for the Memories. Yeap, SasoSaku again! AU this time though. I hope you can spend some time to look at it!

ALRIGHT. YOU HAVE REACH THE END! Thank you so much for all those favorites, reviews and supports from each and everyone of you! I'm so glad and honored that you guys like my stories and I hope I can write more stories to share the SasoSaku love with everyone! :)