Cherry Yellow
-One

Sakura was beyond tired. She was so tired she didn't think she could even move. She hated this forest, and she especially hated that… grass monster. Genin. Hah. If that was a genin then she was a mouse.

Slowly, she dragged Naruto in, Sasuke already laid down on a mat within the small cave that would be her hiding place. She'd chosen it quickly, but was glad to find that it was nearly invisible within this dense forest. It was unlikely that anyone would find her or her broken teammates here.

Unlikely… but she couldn't take any chances. Dying in her sleep was the last way she wanted to go down. She would not fall like that. She was stronger than that now.

'Damn straight.' Her inner personality admonished harshly. Despite her utter weariness, Sakura couldn't help but agree.

"Kuso Naruto! Why are you so heavy!?" She moaned, her hands pushing weakly on his chest, slowly pulling him onto the futon she'd laid out for him.

Suddenly, Naruto's body locked up, as he landed straight on the shabby cloth, his eyes squinting. Even unconscious pain, pain radiated from his tired body. She had seen his battle; she watched him stop that incredible snake and save both her and Sasuke's lives, his eyes fierce with the hatred of that man… Orochimaru, he had called himself. She thought that was it.

She had also seen… how afraid Sasuke had been. He looked as afraid as she had felt. It hadn't stopped him though. Sasuke was amazing! He had stood and battled against unimaginable odds against that freakish snake of a man despite his fear!

But Naruto… Naruto hadn't even been afraid of the deafening aura produced by that ninja! He hadn't even… he hadn't even flinched before jumping right in the path of that giant snake the Grass nin sent at them.

That bravery had touched her. Thinking back and picturing his aura… his determination. Had Sasuke ever striven to protect anything so fervently?

'Urusei! Baka! You have a job to do! Stop daydreaming and get to fixing up Sasuke-kun's wounds!' The voice in her mind snapped, biting at her conscience.

She nodded to herself firmly. The voice was right. But… Staring at the two, she judged their injuries and found Naruto's to be significantly worse… Still, that seal where the freak had bit Sasuke was worrisome…

She stood and left Naruto, despite his tense form, determining the correct course. The Uchiha was a genius… she'd loved him for so long now, but still he was so cold to her.

Sure… he'd opened a little. But after so long…? They'd been learning under Kakashi together for almost 

nine months now. They'd been together, through harsh training, through life and death experiences… Well, one life or death experience. The point was that after so long, shouldn't she be at least a little bit closer to him?

"Naruto touched people there, too." Her traitorous mind thought. She knelt down next to Sasuke but she couldn't manage to look away from Naruto.

'Get your head out of the gutter! Sasuke might die!' Her inner voice snapped hatefully. It was right, too. She was being an idiot. They were both hurt… so bad. And what was she?

She shook her head, hatefully, to free herself from her self-doubts. Kneeling down she attended, dutifully as always, to Sasuke's injuries. Bandages ended up around his arm, both legs, the side of his head where blood trailed. She didn't have any idea what to do about the strange tattoo plastered where the snake had bit him. Every now and then, through the sparse moonlight spilling in through to her small cave, and the dim fire she had set up for warmth, she could swear she saw the black dots… swirl…

"Sa-Saakura-chaan…" The blonde boy murmured fitfully. "Don't hurt… Sak…" He squirmed, pain obviously still irritating him in his unconscious weakness.

"Naruto…" she sighed. Even she couldn't tell if it was a sigh of exasperation or… or something more.

Deciding Sasuke was bandaged well enough, and definitely still alive and well, she turned to the other main boy in her life. Annoying and irritating beyond all reason, constantly pestering her for dates, and an all around antagonist in the perfect life with her Sasuke-kun that she dreamed of, this boy had been the single worst thing that had ever happened to her!

Or… so she thought.

Leaning over him she examined his injuries and found that his futon was covered in blood. Gulping in slight guilt, she instantly began bandaging him.

"He's tough; he can take it." She told herself, in an effort to appease her conscience. Naruto was hurt. Badly. Far worse than Sasuke had been. She should have been working on him from the start.

Her limbs aching, Sakura felt like a slug as she finished bandaging Naruto, but her guilt made sure that she did an extra good job. The blood stopped flowing under her strong manipulations, having learned the basic techniques for bandaging wounds and battlefield healing well back at the academy. She was nowhere near an expert but she knew her way around wounds.

At least she hoped she did.

"Naruto… you… why do you put yourself through this for me?" She wondered as she idly played her hands through his spiky hair, searching for more head wounds. She'd found three already.

With a shock, she dropped the bandage in her other hand into his hair as she saw his squeezed eyes, and the tears trailing from them. "N-naruto! I'm sorry, I—!"

'Baka!' Inner Sakura exclaimed to her. 'He's unconscious! He can't hear you! He's just having a bad dream.'

'I know that!' She shot back mentally. After a moment with her inner voice not arguing back, she sighed feeling stupid for arguing with herself.

She watched him for a time, realizing that there was no chance for him to respond. Despite her weariness, she worked the bandage out of his hair as easily as she could, but in her mind she almost forgot was she was doing. In her mind she saw them, always staring at their backs as they dashed ahead to power, leaving her behind.

Not anymore.

"I'll protect you. Both of you. I'll be useful! I… I promise…" She sighed. Delving into her slim chakra reserves, she reinforced her eyes and limbs with a small amount of chakra to bring herself some small inkling of revival.

She pulled herself to her feet in and moved outside, finding the overgrowth surrounding the cave she had chosen to be a veritable treasure trove of trapable ground. She grinned. At least this would be easy.

Twelve or thirteen different, traps, all undeniably lethal in their intent, she finally felt that she would be able to rest in her hidden cave. She knew there was no way she could stay awake any longer… the traps were her only choice. There was nothing else she could do.

Lying down next to Sasuke, as was natural, on her own futon, she began her nightly dreams of him. Sasuke, the boy she loved. She sung herself to sleep at night thinking about him. Sasuke Uchiha. Genius Genin. Strong. Aloof. Terribly Sexy. Coward…

"No… He's not! He's not a coward!" She sat up furiously screaming. "You're not a coward!" Her eyes staring down at Sasuke. "You're not…"

"Maybe he isn't… what we thought." Her inner personality murmured.

His silence did nothing to reassure her as she lay back down.

…

"What is wrong with me…?" She thought to herself, as the last vestiges of consciousness left her.

Dosu chuckled as he felt the dim touches of chakra hiding pitifully beneath the shrubbery. It had taken some effort to find this team. Strong effort. They'd been concealed almost beyond even his incredible 

tracking abilities, but not quite good enough. Honestly, without Kin, he doubted his team would have been able to find them. Useful little wench, with that ability to pick out the sound of individuals' breath from miles away. She had honed her ears for that. All she had to do was hear a voice once and she could track them by their breath and waves of sound created by it passing through the air.

Amazing ability, wasted on trash like her. He narrowed his eyes at the girl, thinking about how good it would be to kill her once this mission was completed.

Ah well, best not to think like that. He'd been told not to underestimate Sasuke Uchiha. Focus. That was what he needed.

He leapt down, landing easily on the soft grass surrounding the nigh on invisible cave where he was certain his targets were hiding.

"Heh. Our target is pretty smart…" He chuckled noticing an almost invisible trip wire. Laughingly, he pulled it, chuckling as he dodged the falling tree log that lanced at him.

"Nice…" He murmured, impressed with the gigantic size of the trap. "But not quite good enough."

He took another step and found the ground below him missing, and himself falling face first into a ten foot pit, slamming into the dirt.

"Hah hah hah!" Kin bellowed heartily, glad for the entertainment. Dosu was an asshole, and she was more than glad for him to make himself look an idiot. An amateur could have noticed these stupid traps.

As she tried to stop laughing she looked around and mentally began counting. 'One, two, three…"

Seven. Seven traps, excluding the two that Dosu had… noticed and not noticed.

"Honestly. Do they really think these idiotic traps will stop us?" Zaku complained irritated at the annoying hindrance.

"Shut the hell up, Kin. Disarm these traps I—!" Dosu was cut off instantly as a he barely dodged a small metal object falling directly into the pit. Sweat trailed down his face as he realized the small kunai had sliced right through his layered armor. An instant later and he would have been dead.

"Yo Dosu… what are you doing?" Kin asked, staring down into the pit, laughing.

Slowly, Dosu turned his eyes up, breathing heavily. "These traps… are a little bit more developed then I thought." He murmured, getting slowly to his feet.

Zaku sniffed. "Hah. Dosu, that was just you being an idiot. These traps are—!" In shock, Zaku felt the pressure beneath his foot and he instantly disappeared, narrowly avoiding a volley of almost thirty shuriken.

Kin smirked, staring at the spot where Zaku had appeared. "You're both idiots."

Stepping forward she activated no less than three traps at the same time, countering another volley of shuriken, four blasted kunai, and a swinging boulder with ease.

"This is just—!"

Without warning an exploding tag burst beneath her feat, blasting her back away from the cave, her legs bleeding, and her entire body covered in dirt.

Dosu would have laughed… but it was obvious that whoever had set up these traps knew what they were doing. "Okay… so they're a little smarter than we thought." He commented. Traps like this were no laughing matter.

Kin grit her teeth, gruntingly picking herself up out of the dirt and soot she now found herself coughing up. "Little bastards… I'm going to enjoy this…"

Dosu grinned. Finally, the woman says something he agreed with!

"Come out you goddamn cowards!" Dosu exclaimed, having climbed out of the pit.

Not actually expecting them to truly come out, Dosu lunged another couple of steps dodging a few more traps that had been set up surrounding the cave, and was suddenly shocked to see a figure walking through the darkness.

He didn't know why. He'd felt auras from ninja's far more powerful then this… but that terrible glare and the burning hate radiating from the pink haired girl's malicious eyes sent chills down his spine.

"Alright… Bring it on." The girl said lowly, as she took a heavily offensive stance.

Sakura had been awake since dawn. She came prepared for things like this, and she always had been an early riser. Even so, she had set up an alarm to warn her if any of her traps were set off. A rather mundane technique but one she'd now decided, was of immense value. She had first found it in the back of one of the old academy tomes while studying for the genin exam, now a year gone.

She had not been surprised when the alarm was tripped. She'd been waiting for just that event, tending to Sasuke and Naruto and hoping this didn't happen.

Now she stood ready. She would defend her friends. Dammit, for once she would be useful.

The instant before she moved, she gave a smirk, warning her targets that they had fallen right into her largest trap. With a sudden movement she stabbed her kunai straight into the ground in fury, to the surprise of her opponents.

Instantly, the world around her exploded. Fiery chasms and blasts blew all across the entrance. Kin, Zaku, and Dosu leapt climbing to the trees, barely escaping the fiery carnage, only to find the trees the landed in falling from the explosive blasts set off by the array of multiple fire tags.

'Only two of those left. Sorry for taking them Sasuke, but I don't have much else to fight with.' She thought as she stood, facing the inferno before her.

When the trees that had been destroyed hit the ground, and the explosive firepower finally dissipated, the three sound Ninjas reappeared, affront Sakura. All of them wore grins.

"Out of traps now, little girl." Dosu mocked. "What are you going to do?"

Intantly, the sound nin regretted the taunt as he found cold, strong eyes placed on him. "Don't underestimate me." Sakura boomed, menacingly. Inside she was quivering. That should have done… something!

As fast as she could, she dashed forward, launching seven or eight shuriken to clear the thin one and the girl out of the way, leaving her an open passage to the taunting bastard.

Whipping her Kunai across, slashing down, she found it quickly blocked by the large contraption on his arm. Without pause, she sliced again, moving faster with each slash. The boy dodged or blocked warily, backing up with every consecutive strike.

'She's fast.' Dosu thought, as he narrowly blocked another lightning fast Kunai swing. 'Not fast enough.'

Whirling around, he bashed her with a foot sending the girl careening away. Dosu grinned. "Dumb girl."

Sakura flew wildly through the air, her vision, dazed from the heavy kick. Somehow, she managed to figure out which way was down and plunge her feet towards it, skidding along as she landed, her fingers casually sliding along the ground.

She looked up, but was instantly hit by a wave of killing intent, followed by the sharp attack of senbon needles flying towards her from above.

Not missing a beat, the pink haired girl flew. Bounding from trunk to trunk she was instantly attacking the enemy girl, Kunai in hand, gliding gracefully across the high tree branches, their fists awhirl.

'A wild fist!' Sakura saw, watching her opponent throw her lungs a bit too far. Squatting, Sakura threw a devastating kick, sending the girl rocketing towards the ground.

She followed like lightning, instantly resuming her position affront the cave, staring at the displaced dirt from the girl's crash.

"Heh. You aren't bad… little girl." The bandaged boy, the leader she presumed, exclaimed.

The female sound nin moaned, crawling slowly to her feet, wobbling on tired legs, now oozing with blood. With a tired sigh she fell back to the ground, her weak legs no longer able to support her. Her legs hurt, but obviously not permanently, she glared hatred at the pink-haired girl standing between them and their target.

"You bitch…" She cursed, hatefully.

'Shannaro! Kicked your ass! Hah!' Inner Sakura exclaimed.

Sakura didn't have the time to comprehend it. One moment she was gloating her victory over the sound nin, loser. She'd never let her guard down against the other two ninjas. It didn't matter though. Her eyes widened as a blaring, deafening, bang blasted through her ears, making them scream in agony.

She fell to her knees, staring at the vibrating contraption of the Leader's arms, her entire body shaking, as she tried to make herself focus.

'It hurts… oh god… it hurts!' She wailed, piteously in her mind. Somehow her hands had gone to her ears. The sky? When had she fallen? Her stomach hurt, but it was a dull ache next to the unbearable pain in her ears.

'Get up, Sakura! Get up! Forget the pain! Pain is nothing! You can do it, dammit!' The voice inside her cheered, and it helped.

'Focus…' She made herself think. Slowly, she began to move her Chakra. Sound had attacked her ears. Sound could be blocked out with chakra. A double edged sword, since she would no longer be able to hear, though.

Slowly she stood, to her feet.

"Y-you're… not getting the scroll." She defied, valiantly, finally regaining her footing. She still stood in front of the cave. They wouldn't get the scroll, and they wouldn't hurt her teammates.

'Shannaro!' Her inner voice screamed, propelling her confidence back to the calm, form she had perfected when she'd first engaged.

"Scroll? Hah! Who cares about the stupid scroll? We already got both of those anyway!" The boy laughed, while pulling out both a heaven and earth scroll. He began a slow walk towards her, laughing as he put the scrolls back into his pocket.

Sakura fell back to a defense stance. "Then what the hell do you want?" She demanded, even as she winced. Even light words hurt her tender ears, but she would not back down. The chakra barriers laying in front of her eardrums let in only enough sound for her to hear the bastard, diminishing the pain.

The man shrugged, as if he didn't even care. "Suppose there's no point in not telling you, seeing as you'll be dead in a few minutes."

Another step. Another.

"The Uchiha brat…" The bandaged boy said coldly, as he came within arm's reach. "We're here to kill him."

Sakura reacted instantly. In a flash her fist slammed into the bandaged boy's face, coldly smashing him off balance, before following up with a slice right up his abdomen with the kunai in her left hand.

He casually lowered his arm, blocking the kunai in a battle of strengths and wills. Sakura's anger flared to unholy, and without a second thought, her fists went into action. Flying at uncanny speeds she bashed the boy, dodging his strikes like a madwoman.

'Senbon,' She thought, an instant before she leapt over her opponent, avoiding another vigorous flurry of needles aimed right for her heart.

A yelp, left her throat as she felt one of the needles puncture her leg, stabbing right into her calve, but she did not stop.

'Poison! Goddamn cheaters!" Inner Sakura shouted spitefully.

She did not stop. She could not stop. A leg sweep and her opponent was down. Then she felt it. Intense pressure, bashing into the chakra barriers over her ears, she forced more power into them.

Suddenly, a powerful fist came falling from above. She frantically dodged the third member of the sound trio. Once. Twice.

'Shit!' She thought, as she found herself cornered.

A howl left her as her back was hatefully pounded into the ground, a hollow crack echoing in her mind as she felt what was surely one of her ribs cracking. 'God… It hurts so much!' She screamed in her mind, even as she forced herself to roll away from the next powerful fist.

Her breath ragged, she pulled herself to her feet with a flip, her back, and rib burning with the effort. Her leg was starting to feel numb as well.

"Heh… had enough, pink haired bitch?" The girl, now standing once more, laughed at her.

Sakura stood, staring at the thin silent ninja, who had yet to make a comment.

The ninja spat, casually, he left hand still residing in his pocket, spiky black hair blowing in the light wind. "She's pathetic. Stay back Dosu. I'll kill this girl, and Sasuke by myself."

The bandaged boy, Dosu, she discerned, sniffed. "Fine by me. Don't blame me if you get yourself killed."

The boy gave a sharp laugh. "By this weakling? I don't think so."

Sakura could barely move, but her eyes brimmed over with fire. Weak? Maybe once… but she'd show him. She'd show them all…

In a flash, she stood before him, and before he could blink, her kunai flashed forward.

With a shocked effort, the boy raised his arm, just in time, feeling the sharp blade sink into it, the girl backed away once more to stand defiantly in front of the cave.

"Weak… eh…?" She breathed. The poison was already spreading. Struggling, she forced her eyes to remain open. She would not lose! Dammit!

"Feh." Without hesitation the boy pulled the kunai out of his arm. Blood spattered all around it; he didn't even act like there was pain.

Then, he locked eyes with her. "Die."

She didn't even see it coming. Looking down, she saw her own kunai impaled within her stomach. Falling desperately to her knees, her hands found the small hilt of the assassin's weapon. Weakly, she pulled. This couldn't be it…! Damn… how had he thrown it so… fast?

Weakly she tugged, but her strength was gone.

"I… won't… let you hurt… Sasuke…" She vowed. "I'll… die first…"

The boy merely smirked. "Weakling… like I said."

Sakura's eyes lost their ability to remain open, the poison finally hitting her in full. "K-Kuso…" She breathed.

"Don't worry."

The voice echoed all around her. It was her inner Sakura. The voice she'd always known, but somehow, it was so much more powerful now. So much more… She felt herself drowning. Felt herself… leaving.

"Am I… dying?" She asked.

The voice seemed to… smile… if a voice were capable of such a thing. It wasn't a nice smile either… maliciousness seemed to ooze from it.

"Not even close… Now, let me take care of it…"

Sakura had never heard her inner voice so… soft before. "Who… are you…?"

"Watch. As I always have. See, what you really are…"

Unexpectedly, vision graced her once more.

"Weakling… like a said." Zaku smirked, ruthlessly, stepping on the girl's pink head, preparing to crush it to nothing.

Suddenly, a hand grasped his ankle.

He didn't even have a chance to scream before a lance of red chakra blasted through his heart, blood bursting out of his opened back.

For a moment, he gurgled, blood spilling from his mouth.

Then his head fell back, dead, held up only by the pink-haired girl's hand, holding him by his collar.

"Z-Zaku!" Kin screamed, staring in horror at her dead ally and the girl holding him. The pink haired girl's eyes faced her, and fear unlike any she had ever known raced down her spine. Orochimaru had sparked fear in her, but as she stared into the black wells of darkness where the girl's eyes had once been, fangs now visibly bared against her, she felt true terror unlike anything she had ever experienced.

"Wh-what the hell are you?" Kin screamed, backing away from the pink haired demon girl.

No words were given as a response, but Kin was suddenly thrown bodily across the clearing to smash into one of the fallen trees surrounding her. Weakly, she opened her eyes, and wished she'd left them closed.

A red aura was billowing now about the 'weakling' Zaku had just been murdered by. Behind her a single, red lance waved as tall as the trees, like a fiery red tail. So overwhelmed was Kin, that she could not turn away, her fear almost a tangible object within her.

'Run! Run! Run now!' Her mind screamed at her, but she could do nothing. She couldn't even twitch! Suddenly, the tail flashed.

A shriek echoed across her ears, that was abruptly cut off. Dosu!

The pink-haired girl turned and stared over her shoulder, straight into Kin's eyes.

"M-monster!" She squealed in terror.

The girl smirked, showing off one of her fangs…

The tail flashed.

Suddenly, everything was gone. The terror left in an instant.

'What's this… pressure at my neck?' Kin thought, as she stared at her enemy. She felt the palm holding her face, staring into those eyes, but now… the fear was gone.

Slowly, she started to feel light headed. Then… dizzy.

"I…?"

She knew no more.

Sakura screamed. She screamed, endlessly, staring into the lifeless eyes of the head her hands held, watching the body slump to the grass.

She screamed till her throat went hoarse, watching the head's unseeing eyes.

She screamed till she could no longer think, those lifeless eyes forever staring into her heart.

She couldn't even believe this was real… but it was… she felt the blood gushing down her fingertips as her body laughed her victory into the morning.

She screamed until blackness took her… those haunting dead eyes terrifying her.

"Wake up, baka!" Her own voice shouted at her in her mind.

Slowly, Sakura felt herself wake up. Blinking, she lifted herself.

'Hmm?' She moaned, rubbing her eyes.

Where was she? Looking around she saw the woods. The sun smiling down warmly blared the time to her, telling her that it was just before noon. What the hell had happened to her?

Glancing at herself, she found that she had a few wounds and scrapes about her body, but nothing was majorly damaged.

Wind swept up her hair as the grass blew warmly across her exposed legs. Standing, she stared across the clearing. She was outside the cave… evidence of an intense battle lay everywhere.

"Wh-what the hell…?" She breathed, fearfully.

Lying at her feet were a Heaven and Earth scroll.

"I… I killed them! No… I… that…" Looking around the clearing, she stared at the spot where she'd watched the spikey haired Ninja stabbed. Nothing was there. Turning, she looked for Dosu… Nothing.

The girl… she remembered, holding that head in her hands! Nothing… nothing was there! No blood. No body... Nothing!

Quivering, she knelt to the ground, hugging herself to her knees. "Did… What happened? I… I couldn't have done that… there's no way…"

"Shannaro, we did it! Those cowards ran off, leaving us the scrolls! Complete wimps! We're incredible!" Her inner voice exclaimed.

Sakura… didn't remember that… all she remembered was… was…

"Oh god…" She gulped, just before vomiting across the grass at the gruesome images her mind seemed to be remembering.

Weakly, she got to her feet, wiping her face clean. Desperately trying to fling the sickening images from her mind, she stumbled back into the cave to find both Sasuke and Naruto still deep in slumber.

She wanted to check their wounds… but she couldn't… she just couldn't…

Falling weakly onto her own futon she forced the sickening memories from her mind.

'It didn't happen… It didn't happen… It's all my imagination… That has to be it. Oh god… please let that all be one terrible nightmare…' She thought to herself weakly as she dimly fell to sleep, the two scrolls clutched tightly to her chest.

End One

A/N:

Wow… that turned out hella dark. Didn't see that coming when I started this. It's not going to be an evil fic really… Promise. Just trying to… how was it put to me…? Reach out and grab you, so to speak?

Heh.

Leave a review if you would! I sure wouldn't mind!

Till Next!

MB