Edit: 1. 6. 2015. So I decided to continue this story, but as I feel my writing style has improved, I rewrote this. The tone will be much darker than the original. And also, please tell me if you see any mistakes, I am working without a beta so it's hard to catch 'em all.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

She was standing in a meadow. Her skin warm under the sunlight, her eyes glimmering in contentment. She hadn't felt that peaceful in a long time and her lips split into a smile.

It was all gone in an instant. The clouds covered the sun, and the wind picked up. The air thickened with foreboding and her mouth filled with the acidic taste of fear. She looked around frantically, trying to find the source of her fear, trying to still her heart that felt like it could explode. She kept telling herself that she shouldn't be afraid, that she didn't have any reason to be. But it wasn't working and she was shaking.

Wind pushed and pulled at her hair and clothes, swirling around her. If it became only a little bit stronger, she knew it would blow her away. And something was in the wind. Small particles of... sand. They brushed sharply against her arms and legs, scratching her. Soon her arms were burning and her white skin was blemished with small lacerations. The sand became an entity in itself, growing bigger and moving on its own. She was afraid.

The visibility worsened. She tried to shield her eyes, but her arms could hardly move. They were held in a cage of sand and wind, burning in pain. She opened her mouth to scream and sand filled it, rendering it useless. Almost choking her. Her eyes spun around, looking for anything to help. And then she saw them.

Two black-rimmed, green eyes. They were staring at her intently. She tried to see to whom the eyes belonged, but she couldn't even look properly.

"Beware..."

The whispered word fluttered around her and floated away. In the next moment she wasn't sure if it had even existed, and then her legs gave out. Phantom hands squeezed her body, crushing her. She succumbed to the pain, and fell into blackness.

Emerald green eyes snapped open. Sakura lay in bed, still in the grips of the dream. She was disoriented and terrified. Her breathing came in small gasps, and it took her a while to calm herself down. It took her even longer to convince herself that she was at home, in her bed, safe. The dream felt so real, so frightening.

She had been having nightmares since the mission in the Land of Waves. They were filled with blood and bodies and desperation. And dying comrades. She had asked Kakashi-sensei about them, and he had said it would pass. It was just trauma, he had told her, and she believed him. After all, on that mission she had felt more stress than ever.

Shrugging, she concluded that this dream was just like all the others, deciding not to ponder on it anymore, carefully ignoring the way her hands still shook a little bit.

Forcefully expelling every thought of the dream from her mind, Sakura got up.

Kunai and shuriken littered the floor, and Sakura tiptoed around them on the way to her wardrobe. She put on her usual outfit – red dress with the Haruno clan circle on it, and black, spandex shorts. A frown adorned her face when she looked at herself in the mirror. She looked too much like a kid, she thought. Hands pinched her cheeks of their own volition, and she hated that she could still feel baby fat. She resolved to train more, but that promise would be empty just like all the other thoughts of improving.

Then his face entered her mind.

Uchiha Sasuke. Dark and mysterious. Cool and brooding. Love of Sakura's life.

But of late, she felt less enthusiastic about him. She loved him, still, and yet her asking him out felt more like a habit than anything else. But she ignored that, because surely it was just an after effect of the stress and soon he will become the most important part of her life again. She was sure of it. Liking Sasuke was one solid thing in her rapidly changing life, and she wasn't planning on doing anything to change that as well.

With that thought, her actions quickened, all in haste of seeing her Sasuke-kun sooner.

Picking up her kunai pouch, Sakura walked out of her room, and went downstairs to the kitchen. She prepared a quick breakfast, not bothering to check if anyone was home. Her parents were working, like always. She didn't see them much, and a pang of loneliness hit her. She could dimly remember times when she had been younger, spending afternoons going to the park with her dad, being enveloped in her mother's arms.

Since she had started her ninja training, all that had stopped. She hadn't wanted to be smothered by their affection, and as her parents were civilians, they simply couldn't understand her. They didn't have anything to talk about, no common ground and they had easily drifted apart. She loved them still, of course, but it was a detached kind of love.

And deeper yet, they were afraid, she knew. They were afraid of that small black envelope that was delivered to unlucky families. Part of her hated them for that, as she had graduated from the academy and she could protect herself, right? They should have faith in her, right?

But another part of her knew they had reasons to be worried. She was an awful ninja, her skills were pathetic. She was ashamed of that, of course she was. She wanted to train more, she really did, but… It was hard. And she would much rather work to get prettier for Sasuke-kun. Because that was more important, Sasuke-kun was everything. And so, she ignored those other feelings, the ones that made her feel worthless, and just pretended everything was okay, when some voice deep inside continued telling her to stop being stupid and start taking her life seriously.

As Sakura exited her house, her thoughts drifted to Sasuke again. He rebuffed her the day before, as usual, but she was sure today was the day. The day she would finally go on a date with him. And then they would start dating and she would finally see his sensitive side, that she knew existed under that cold exterior. He would then tell her he loved her, ask her to marry him, and they would have babies with dark hair and dark eyes. They would get a happily ever after, so rare in the shinobi world. She sighed happily as she got lost in her carefully constructed perfect world.

"Hey, Sakura-chan!"

Sakura almost jumped and then blushed in shame, as ninja should always be aware of their surroundings. And she definitely hadn't been. She had arrived at the bridge – team 7 meeting place.

She replied with a distracted "Hey Naruto" while looking around. When she saw Sasuke, she felt the usual butterflies in her stomach. She gave him a big smile and said:

"Sasuke-kun! How are you?"

His reply was the usual, dismissive 'hn'. The rejection stung and Sakura looked down, trying to squish away the sadness. She braced herself and bravely looked up, opening her mouth and then closing it again with a snap. He wasn't even looking at her anymore.

Naruto, who couldn't stand the silence for long started telling her about a new ramen taste, and she turned to him glad for a distraction.

He was so sunny and happy and in a brief moment she wondered why she was always so mean to him. Then she remembered his obnoxiousness and she almost yelled at him. But he seemed so genuinely happy that she was finally talking normally to him, and she couldn't make herself do it.

And that's how the two hour wait for their sensei passed. Sakura and Naruto talking idly with Sasuke standing a few steps away from them, silent.

Suddenly, there was a loud poof, and their silver haired jounin sensei arrived.

"You're late!" shouted Naruto and Sakura simultaneously, as usual, while Sasuke just glared at him. As usual.

"Heh, heh... Sorry I'm late. You see, there was this cat stuck in the tree, and I just couldn't pass by without helping it..." Kakashi trailed off, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"Liar!" Sakura and Naruto shouted again. The whole thing was ridiculous, Sakura was aware of that, but it was their small team tradition, and she couldn't, wouldn't change it.

Their jounin sensei just shrugged of their complaints, saying:

"I have a mission for you guys," their ears perked at this, but when they heard what the mission was about, the excitement deflated.

Four hours and three missions later, Sakura had had enough. So had Kakashi apparently, because he dismissed them, his parting words being "Instead of doing missions, you should work on your teamwork, it looks like it had gotten lost somewhere along the way from the Land of Waves."

Sakura wanted to get mad at their sensei for saying that, but all she could feel was sadness and shame. They really were horrible. Sasuke and Naruto were at it again, trying to prove who was better. Especially Naruto, who was obviously put out that Sasuke had saved him on the last mission, and now tried everything to prove he was better than the Uchiha, thus ruining their missions. And they were both so concentrated on each other, they ignored Sakura completely.

Sakura felt like she didn't exist on the team at all. She was always in the background, doing nothing of use, and she was sick of it. Tears welled up in her eyes and she blinked rapidly. She couldn't cry now!

Then Sasuke turned around and said "I'm going" to no one in particular. All her frustration turned to desperate hope. Maybe Sasuke would finally want to train with her, now that Kakashi told them they had to improve. This was her chance.

"Sasuke-kun, wait! Why don't we work on our teamwork, just the tw-"

Sasuke turned to look at her and she stopped in the middle of her sentence, her mouth left gaping. His gaze was so full of contempt and disdain that her knees almost buckled. Then he said, his tone impassive and bored:

"No Sakura. I don't want to train with you. You are the same as Naruto. Better go practice a jutsu or two."

After a pause, in which his dark eyes appraised her, he said, "Frankly, you are even worse than Naruto."

Saying that, Sasuke left, not looking back.

Sakura felt beaten down after the rejection. She just wanted to curl in her bed and cry. She couldn't understand why she was so undesirable. She did everything to gain his attention, couldn't he see that? She moulded herself to be perfect for him, and he smashed her hopes like that. With a detached sort of surprise, she realized a small part of her was seething. But she was never angry at Sasuke. She blinked slowly, trying to sort through her emotions, but then Naruto spoke:

"Sakura-chan! Forget Sasuke-teme! Let's go train together, the two of us!"

The hot, simmering anger found a perfect outlet in Naruto, and it took all of her self control not to shout at him. She knew it wasn't Naruto's fault, yet her teeth were clenched so hard it hurt. So she was sort of glad when she realised Naruto's attention was not anymore on her but on something behind him.

It was a box, coloured as a rock with two holes in front.

The anger seeped out of her as she tried to figure out what she was seeing. The camouflage was so ridiculous that she found herself trying to contain laughter.

Then Naruto shouted:

"I don't know who you think you are, spying on me! And I can see right through it! What kind of a rock is a square with two holes anyway?"

The box shook a little, and whispers could be heard. Three kids stepped out of the box, looking sheepish. Two boys and a girl. The boy in front stood grinning proudly, acting overconfident. He had a cape that seemed to be too long for him as he tripped on it and almost fell. The second boy had glasses and snot running from his nose, looking like he wished to be anywhere but there. And the girl looked admiringly at Naruto. The goggles on the first boy reminded her of something, and Sakura dimly remembered Naruto having similar ones when they were younger.

The boy in front said to the other two:

"That's the man I view as my rival!"

A snort almost escaped her and she quickly covered her mouth.

Naruto looked at the kids, his interested lost.

"Oh it's just you Konohamaru"

Sakura was a bit startled at that, wondering how on earth Naruto knew the Hokage's grandson.

Konohamaru looked lightly disappointed at Naruto's lack of interest. Then his face lit up again, and he pointed a finger at the goggles, saying, "Look boss, we're copying you from your younger years."

Naruto still looked unimpressed, and said, "Yeah, yeah. What are you doing here?"

The kid immediately replied, "You promised that today we would play ninja!"

Sakura couldn't take it anymore and a giggle escaped her. Quickly schooling her expression when everyone looked at her, she said, "Uh, Naruto? Why would a ninja 'play' ninja?"

The kids hadn't noticed her before, and Konohamaru looked at her with interest.

"Hey boss, is that your girlfriend?"

"Heh, heh... You brats are very perceptive," Naruto replied, while scratching the back of his head.

Sakura felt her amusement turning into anger.

"Naruto?" said Sakura, smiling sweetly.

Naruto was visibly nervous as he said, "Yeah, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura's voice turned low and menacing.

"You. Are. Wrong!" the last word she screamed while hitting him over the head.

"She hit boss! Run away!" Konohamaru shouted and ran around the corner, his two friends following after him.

"I'm sorry Sakura-chan! I'm sorry!"

Sakura calmed down a bit and said, "Okay, but Naruto, if you say something like that again you will be sorry!"

Naruto gulped. "O-okay Sakura-chan..."

Suddenly they heard a male voice saying, "Ouch! That hurt you little piece of shit!"

The voice was coming from the direction where Konohamaru ran off and Sakura and Naruto quickly went that way to see what had happened.

The scene they walked into wasn't very nice looking. Apparently, in his haste to escape, Konohamaru ran straight into a foreign shinobi. The shinobi had a hood with what seemed to be cat ears, and purple face-paint. He also had something on his back. Sakura spent a few moments trying to identify what it was, but then gave up.

Beside him stood a kunoichi. She had blonde hair in four pigtails and a giant fan on her back. They both had forehead protectors with a symbol that wasn't from Konoha.

It took Sakura a second to remember what the symbol meant. They were from Suna and Sakura was confused. It wasn't often that Suna shinobi walked around Konoha as the villages weren't allies.

The male shinobi was holding Konohamaru by his collar, and he didn't look like he would let go with a simple apology, but Sakura opened her mouth to say it anyway. Yet, at that moment Naruto decided to snap out of his shock, and to scream, "Hey fatass! Let Konohamaru go!"

They completely ignored Naruto. The girl tried to subdue her companion by saying, "Don't. We'll get yelled at later", but he was paying her no heed. He grinned, showing rows of white teeth.

"Let's play a bit."

The situation was quickly spiralling out of control as Naruto with a shout recklessly ran at the foreign ninja.

Sakura had an urge to strangle Naruto. The ninjas were obviously stronger than them and he wasn't thinking, at all! Ninjas were supposed to have perfect self-control, and Sakura briefly thought with a twinge of horror that if Naruto was like this, then how bad did she appear to Sasuke?

But she was yanked back to the present quickly. With a twitch of the foreign nin's fingers, Naruto fell down. Sakura stared in shock, trying to identify the technique and failing.

The guy scoffed, "Heh. You Konoha nin are weak"

Sakura didn't know what to do and she was starting to panic. She was perfectly aware that there was no way that she could come even close to matching these two in front of her. But she should at least try, at least do something. She realised she was trembling.

"First I'll take care of this brat, and then the other annoying one," said the one holding Konohamaru, shaking him, paying no heed to his scared blubbering.

The girl only shrugged.

"Do what you wish. I'm not getting involved."

Sakura clutched a kunai, her knuckles turning white. She didn't want to be a coward, she wanted to help. She really did. So why wasn't she moving? Why was she frozen in place? A drop of sweat dripped from her chin to the floor. Or was it a tear?

Just as the guy pulled his hand back for a punch, a small rock hit him. Startled, he dropped Konohamaru down. Sakura looked up and everything was okay. Her shoulders sagged down in relief. Breath left her, breath she wasn't aware she had been holding.

"Sasuke-kun!"

He was sitting on a branch on a nearby tree, a few pebbles in his hand.

"What are you bastards doing in our village?" His voice was monotone, but confident.

The foreign guy's face scrunched up in an angry grimace.

"Come down from there. I hate show-offs like you the most"

He unbuckled the wrapped up weapon strapped to his back, preparing for battle. Sakura felt dread clawing at her. The relief she felt when seeing Sasuke slowly evaporated. She was aware Sasuke was strong and of course she had faith in him, and yet… Was he stronger than these guys? She wasn't sure. And they didn't need a conflict right now.

"Kankuro, stop it," a harsh voice suddenly said. "You're an embarrassment to our village."

The command sent shivers down Sakura's spine. The voice was soft as velvet and yet sharp as a blade. She followed the sound of it, and she saw him. Her breath left her and her legs felt weak.

He was standing on a tree branch upside down. His forehead protector showed that he was a Suna nin, just like the other two. He had blood-red hair and a tattoo on his forehead that was a kanji sign for love. He seemed dangerous, too dangerous and her instincts told her to run.

But the eyes are what had captured her attention. They were the eyes of a beast, cold and calculating and cruel. Yet strangely captivating. The same eyes Sakura had seen in her dream. She looked at them, and couldn't look away.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment.

Elya