A/N: It has taken a little longer than expected to write the new chapters for Dawn of a New Era, because I don't have the inspiration to write it; however, I will try my best. About Sakura being a ANBU, she is a medic ANBU of sorts.

~Dawn of a New Era~

Chapter 1: Falling

Sakura sighed as she stared at the tiny village through the inn window. The villagers were coming and going, the look of dread and despair on their faces. Sakura talked to a few already, getting the details from some locals. Apparently these "disappearances" were caused by some monster. Some of the witnesses say that a man had appeared and touched the victims, making them vanish. Others say that the victims fall into a pond and never resurface, and when the villagers tried to search for a body, none were found.

None of the victims had any connections to each other, not one has any similarities to the others. Whether the victim were old, young, male, or female, these disappearances were peculiar.

Sakura sighed once more, rubbing her forehead, trying to subdue her oncoming headache. She had to meet the client soon, a young lord who had been apparently wanted to save the people. Sakura however didn't believe a word of it, she found it strange that he spent a nice amount of money to request this as an A-rank mission. This would at least be a B-rank at most, a C-rank at least. The client also requested to meet the ninja, which is not uncommon, but very… strange; usually the client would give all the information and the ninja would be informed of all of it, and take care of the situation without ever meeting the client. Sakura looked out the window, maybe she was overthinking it, maybe it's her nerves, or maybe it's just paranoia. Sakura got up from her seat inside her room. She put on her cloak, starting to move toward her predetermined destination.

"Ah, thank you for coming ninja-chan." the young lord said, gesturing to a seat in front of him. Sakura sat down and looked at her client, a handsome, tall brown haired male, with eyes of the color of the ocean. There was a glint in them that annoyed Sakura. No, annoyed was not the word, those eyes disturbed her, those eyes agitated her. A little voice in her head told her to walk away, to run, to kill this man…

Sakura nodded in response, "it is no problem, so what would you like me to do, Himura-san." She took in her surroundings, a public area, outside one of the local stores. Their meeting area was very close to the woods, she shifted her eyes to her client, who seemed to have an innocent grin on his face.

"Oh please, just call me Hibiki! Anyway, let's not talk here… we should talk in some more private settings." Hibiki smiled and got up from his seat. He started to walk toward the forest, expecting her to follow him.

That pompous attitude pissed her off, but he was a client and Sakura reluctantly followed. He stopped a few yards away from the entrance, staring into the darkness that had consumed the forest. He turned around with a smile, "I'm glad they sent you ninja-chan, I have been worried about my fellow villagers. I'm especially glad that they sent such an exotic, young, experienced female kunoichi."

A shiver crept its way down Sakura's spine. Her instincts screamed at her to turn around and bolt. Forget about the mission, something was not right.

He walked toward her, silently and slowly, "I'm so happy, happier than you can imagine." He took her hand and Sakura stilled, her breath hitched, staring at the man while he stared at her hands.

Sakura's eyes narrowed as she saw a grin appear on his face. Screw the mission; this scared her more than she would like to admit. Sakura used her free hand to move to her pouch, but it was stopped by Hikari's hand. His hands started to burn her, Sakura winced. "Now I wonder what would happen if I tried my new power on a ninja…"

Sakura tried to escape, but an invisible force stopped her. She opened her mouth to make a noise, but no sound came out. His hands started to turn blue, Sakura's eyes widened in horror. "Have a nice trip ninja-chan, I hope you can survive the experiment" he whispered into her ear before Sakura felt herself drop.