Sakura wanted to puke. She wanted to spit her guts out.

She also wanted to break the face of the sailor that was leering at her from the other side of the deck. She rolled her eyes and tried to focus her gaze on the horizon, hoping it would somehow alleviate her seasickness. It did little to help. The endless vastness of the sea spread in every direction and Sakura was sure it had been at least a month since the last time she had laid eyes on dry land.

As impressive as the huge vessel was, the young kunoichi couldn't really find it in herself to enjoy the rhythmic bouncing of the ship on the waves. She wasn't used to this kind of travel and she couldn't say she was particularly enjoying this experience. She got seasick at least once a day and the lack of anything resembling cover against a possible enemy attack made her uneasy. She knew that there was little to no chance that anybody would actually attack them in the middle of the high seas-especially considering this was a huge trading ship armed to the teeth, ready to repel any possible threat-but it was hard silencing years upon years of survival instincts.

She focused her gaze on the sea. Despite her dislike towards sea traveling, she couldn't say the same thing for the sea itself. Waves came, transient, yet always there, rising, falling. They scattered the light, the hue of the water ever changing yet always familiar, always blue. How could she fail to love them as they danced inward to crash against the vessel's sides? How could she fail to appreciate the salty air or the pleasantly cold caress of the breeze?

She felt the white salt spray on her cheeks every now and then. A layer of salt had encrusted her eyelashes and she could taste it over her cracked lips. She closed her eyes to the lullaby of the ocean, breathing in its salty breath. The ocean breeze whispered like a lover, placing salty kisses on her cheeks and tousling her long pink locks. It playfully filled the sails of the ship, fluttering its flags and pushing the clouds along. She smiled and stretched out her bare hand like a starfish to feel it wrap around her fingers. That day the breeze told only of sweetness and joy.

Above the white-tipped waves, the seagulls owned the skies. The light of the sun was oddly bright, casting the gulls into dark shadows against a sky of palest blue. Their wings beat, hugging the air as they drifted on unseen thermals. For a few moments they had Sakura's eyes, keeping her spun into some sort of daydream. Their wings beat salty air as they approached the sails and flew parallel to the ship's sides, hours into their haul even though the day was still young. They cried and made their inverted arcs, hungry, tenacious. The crew members waved them away, though truth be told, they loved them too. For what would the sea be without the squawking of the gulls? The air would be empty and their ears grieving for that most wonderful of terrible melodies.

Sakura sighed. Despite the seasickness, the perverted sailors and the relentless heat of the sun, it was nice being away from the village after so long. She certainly wouldn't have accepted this mission so easily had she known that it involved such a long voyage, but deep down she knew that she would have said yes either way. She loved her village deeply but sometimes she couldn't help but feel…..encaged.

And Sasuke's return had only made things harder for her. While she was glad that the War was finally over, her relationship with her former teammate had made little to no progress. Sasuke was still the same silent, brooding man and she couldn't help but remember all those times he had tried to hurt them every time she saw him. It was hard suppressing all those bitter memories and for the time being she couldn't-or wasn't willing to-be the bigger person.

Naruto and many in the village had chosen to forget everything Sasuke had done because of his involvement in winning the War but she hadn't. And she couldn't help the instinctive urge not to be anywhere near him whenever Team 7 had training or dinner together. It was ironic how a few years back she would have killed for the opportunity to be around the lone Uchiha survivor.

She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind. She wasn't willing to allow Sasuke or anybody else to spoil her first long-term mission outside Konoha in more than a year. Thank the Gods, Tsunade was more observant than what people gave her credit for and she had noticed her young apprentice's restlessness almost immediately.

During her travels, Tsunade had made more acquaintances than most people did in a lifetime. And a visit to Emperor Il's lands for rare-herb gathering was the perfect excuse to get the pink-haired medic out of the village and give her the breath of fresh air that she so desperately needed.

It was kind of exciting, knowing that she would be appearing before an Emperor and his royal Court but also kind of stressful. While she was a courteous person and knew how to treat others-especially her superiors- with respect, she was sure it was going to be a bit awkward at first. Imperial Palaces and Royal Families had completely different sets of rules than shinobi Villages. While every shinobi showed respect to their respective Kage, in the Imperial Palace even a mere slip of the tongue could get you thrown in the dungeons.

With those thoughts, the young ninja pushed herself off the ship's bow and crossed the deck, heading for her cabin. She paid no attention to the annoying sailor from before and disappeared behind the door that led to the lower parts of the ship where the cabin the captain had so kindly offered her was located.

XxxOxOxOxxX

Sakura woke up with a start.

Quickly throwing the covers aside, she jumped to her feet. She immediately realized that the ship was swaying uncomfortably fast. She could hear the wind hollowing outside and from the scuttle of her cabin she could see that the sea had turned black and ferocious. She hurried up the steps to the deck, losing her balance at least twice in the process.

When she reached the deck, everything was in pandemonium.

On the high seas, sailors tried to prepare for sudden, violent storms but this reached far beyond any storm Sakura had ever encountered in her life. The thunder seemed to crack the air, almost as if the heavens were about to split apart. It rolled like the ashen cloud of a volcano, becoming a rolling, booming rumble. It declared to all the raw power of nature and gave fair warning of the wrath that was to come. It rolled like the fury of the Gods.

Lightning came like a rip in the inky night, as if behind the dark canvass was a brilliant light just waiting to flood through any crack no matter how small. Streaks of pure white cracked against a stormy blanket of black, shrouding hot dark grey clouds with its blinding incandescence, emanating the might of the ongoing tempest.

Violent gusts of wind swept the deck, rattling the ropes and wrestling the sails and fiercely agitating the flames of the laps, blowing most of them out. Its roar was deafening, almost making the young medic to rock back on her heels. It was biting and harsh and it chilled her to the bone.

Even though most of them were veteran sailors, the men struggled to get the sails down and tie them off. They slipped on the rain soaked deck. Overcoming a momentary wave of panic at the sight of their frightened faces, Sakura jumped to their side, hoping to offer whatever help she could. She grabbed onto ropes, ignoring the sting and the feeling of them digging into the flesh of her hands, burning her skin.

The wind slammed the rain into their faces like tiny stones and threw their hair in their eyes, impairing their vision even more. The ship pressed, first up waves at forty-five degrees, and then crashed down, jarring their bones. At one point the waves spun the vessel sideways violently. The held tightly onto the mast, onto ropes, onto anything they could get their hands on.

The waves grew so large that the vessel was dwarfed, riding up and down the mighty swelling sea like a child's toy. Is there any more desolate feeling than the mighty swelling of the ocean beneath one's feet and nothing on the horizon but more of the same?

Sakura watched horrified as one of the smaller masts gave away under the wind and waves. It broke off almost to the middle and was flung at two unlucky sailors, taking them with it as it was driven off board.

The clouds above her oozed and billowed across the pitch black sky, the violent winds whipping her pink locks around her face. It was terrifying and left her completely hopeless. Fear gripped her heart as she took a look around. The sailors appeared to have given up on trying to secure the sails and were focused on not being swept away by the waves attacking the deck. She didn't know how long they could keep that up. She would probably last more than any of them but things seemed bleak ever for her. Out on the high seas, thrown off course by the wind and waves and with no sight of land, her fate was almost sealed.

And that's when it came. A wave so huge and terrifying and violent that Sakura felt tears gather at the corner of her eyes as the faces of her friends flashed before her eyes. It was as if that wave enclosed all the wrath of the God Poseidon, angry and devastating as it swallowed the ship, tearing the sails and shattering the masts and destroying everything. It threw the vessel around like a rag doll, hopeless and defenseless and nothing but a mere pile of soaked wood and rope.

Sakura felt herself hit the water as the last of the ship was swallowed by the ocean, the waves pushing it down into the cold embrace of the sea. The freezing water pierced her skin, though she could feel little else. Her lungs were quickly running out of oxygen and she started feeling lightheaded and numb and losing touch on reality.

And then everything went dark.

XxxOxOxOxxX

"So, this priest of yours lives here?"

"Yun, did you once live here too?" asked Jeaha.

The young boy smiled at the memories as his blue eyes took in the comfortingly familiar sight of the valley. "That's right. It hasn't been that long, but it feels like I've been gone for years." He said, quickening his pace. Yona smiled at his eagerness.

The company reached the familiar hut in no time as Yun led them through the valley. His smile widened and his hand trembled slightly with excitement as his fingers closed around the knob. He burst through the door excitedly.

"Ik-Su! We are back!"

The first thing they all noticed was the small hearth and the boiling pot sitting over a fire, the smell of cooking meat wafting through the small house and making their mouths water. As far as they knew, the eccentric priest had no culinary skills.

The second was the form of said priest laying on a cot on their right, further inside the hut, away from the annoying rays of the sun so that his sleep wouldn't be disturbed. There were bandages carefully wrapped around his forehead. A bowl filled with water and a clean rag were placed beside his head.

Yun gasped at the sight and hurried to the man's side. "Ik-Su!"

The others watched worriedly as the younger boy proceeded to check the blonde man for any sign of injury though his breathing appeared steady and there was nothing particularly worrying about his appearance, excluding the bandages around his head.

"Yun? Is everything all-" started Yona but was cut off by the biggest surprise of that eventful day.

"Oi! What do you think you are doing?"

They all turned around abruptly, startled by the sound of the foreign voice since nobody had taken notice of any foreign presence. Their eyes drank in the sight of the young woman-not much older than Yona; a couple of years older at best-with the long pink locks and the calculating emerald eyes, standing at the door. Her clothes were slightly tattered but clean and there was a basket filled with herbs hanging from her arm. She was watching them carefully, passing her gaze over them and almost immediately falling on the weapons strapped to their backs. Her eyes narrowed.

Yun jumped to his feet, standing in front of Ik-Su protectively. "Who are you?"

The young woman rolled her green eyes and walked inside nonchalantly, walking over to Ik-Su. She kneeled beside the sleeping man and placed her basket beside her bent knees. "It is impolite to ask for someone's name before providing yours." she said and her voice sounded calm and collected, not the least bit surprised by their appearance. She unwrapped the bandages from around the priest's forehead and they all managed to see the long, bloody gash above his eyebrow. She took some ashen-green leaves from her basket and placed them carefully on the wound before re-wrapping it with clean bandages.

Yun stared at her for a moment before he remembered that she was still a complete stranger. "I'm Yun and these are my friends." he said and proceeded to introduce everyone. "I used to live here with Ik-Su."

The woman stood, throwing her rosy hair behind her shoulder. "Ah, the priest spoke of you. I'm glad to be finally meeting you." she answered and smiled.

"Will you give us your name now, my lady?" said Jeaha and was startled by the greenness of her eyes when she raised her gaze to meet his.

The woman's smile widened and she bowed her head courteously. "My name is Sakura, Haruno Sakura."

THE END…..OR NOT

Hey guys!

Potential new project here with a Naruto/Akatsuki no Yona Crossover. I might continue it depending on the feedback this will get. Haven't decided on a pairing or if there's even gonna be one so I'm open to suggestions.

If I continue this, I need to clarify that I've never read the manga. I'm doing this solely based on what happens in the anime. I have no idea what happens after the season's finale so if this continues, it'll probably largely different than the manga chapters. So to those that have read the manga, please bear with me.

I hope you liked this and would love to hear your opinion. Tell me if you'd like me to continue this.

Until next time!

Lots of love!