A seemingly endless sea of emerald foliage rushed passed Sakura Haruno, appearing as a formless blur to the kunoichi. She occasionally paid attention to her ever-changing surroundings just long enough to scan for potential ambushes and listen for the telltale sound of approaching enemies before refocusing on the task ahead.

Now was not the time for sightseeing. Sakura had a mission, and she was committed to it.

Well, not in a formal sense, the medic-nin thought to herself.

Indeed, her purpose in speeding through the treetops of a remote wilderness was not an official shinobi mission for the Hidden Leaf village, a fact which accounted for both the absence of an accompanying squad and her reckless speed. Rather, Sakura was pursuing a goal of more personal nature.

Sasuke.

It had been several long years since she had seen the last remaining Uchiha at the gates of Konoha. He had been preparing to leave for a mysterious, personal mission of "redemption", and had left without even saying a proper goodbye. The only pleasant memory of him that Sakura possessed since she had been a genin was nothing more than a light, unsatisfying touch on the forehead.

Over the next few insufferable years, the absence of something more substantial had fostered a deep ache in the young woman's heart. The affliction had recently become so severe that Sakura had barely been able to properly perform her shinobi duties: healing those in need, helping to train new genin, and supporting the village through contracted ninja work. This fact had not gone unnoticed by her mentor, Tsunade.

"It's him, isn't it?" the fifth Hokage had suddenly asked her one afternoon when the two were enjoying a quiet lunch together.

Sakura remembered her mouth moving, but not being able to make words come out. Instead, she'd opted to stare down at her bento box and try (unsuccessfully) to ward away the feeling of emptiness.

"You don't have to answer," her blonde tutor had replied.

After that, the subject had gone unmentioned for weeks. Tsunade had clearly expected her pupil to work out her emotions on her own with the space provided. However, as Sakura's condition had continually worsened, Tsunade had decided it was time to intervene.

"You're barely eating, and I can tell you don't get much sleep, either," Tsunade eventually scolded her. "You barely talk to anyone, you nearly lost a patient, and we haven't trained together in months."

Sakura had looked down, embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Lord Fifth."

What had ensued was a very long, difficult, and drawn out conversation. Tsunade had attempted to persuade Sakura to cast aside her feelings for the rouge ninja, but it had been a half-hearted attempt. At the end of the day, Tsunade wanted Sakura to be happy, and recognized that Sasuke was apparently a critical component of that. After all, she had been in love too, once.

"I think you need a vacation," Tsunade had eventually remarked while handing Sakura a sealed envelope. "I hear there's this great resort in the middle of nowhere. You should check it out sometime. In any case, I hereby suspend you from all active duties until your condition improves."

"Sure. Thank you. I'll think about it," Sakura had curtly replied after accepting the envelope, but before slinking dejectedly away.

That night, a sleepless Sakura had opened the sealed container out of sheer boredom. What she'd found had nearly stopped her heart.

Classified intelligence reports detailing the last known sighting of Sasuke Uchiha.

The report was three days old.

Sakura had left within an hour.

That had been two days before her current journey through the wilderness, most of which time she had spent awake, relying on food pills and her monstrous chakra control to travel far faster than any ordinary shinobi. Still, it had been a lot of ground to cover, and supernatural tricks could only take one so far. Sooner or later, Sakura knew she would have to stop and rest, even though doing so might cause her to lose Sasuke forever.

The pink-haired ninja grit her teeth. I can't waste this chance, she reminded herself. I must find him.

Luckily, the evidence indicated that Sasuke was very close by. Her medical ninjutsu allowed her to identify the owners of blood or other biological components if she had a baseline comparison. Stealing an old sample of Sasuke's blood from the hospital where she worked had been all too easy.

What wasn't easy was following the trail of blood. Sakura had found several small splatters at the edge of an abandoned forest camp. One donor was definitely Sasuke, along with four or more unknown individuals. The trail led into the woods but had grown faint. Sakura reasoned that her quarry must have fled into the forest to hide and lick his wounds. She was sure that if she patrolled the region in concentric, slowly-restricting circles, she would eventually find some further sign of his location.

Knowing that Sasuke was, in a likelihood, very close to her was as exhilarating as it was terrifying. What would she even say to him after all this time? Would he event want her around? What if he had become a criminal again?

And most importantly, what if he was in trouble? What if Sasuke needed her, but she couldn't get to him fast enough? The thought of someone being able to kill the already legendary Uchiha was dubious at best, but Sakura did not doubt it was possible.

Fortunately, Sakura didn't have much time to ruminate on the maelstrom of conflicting emotions in her rapidly-beating heart. A slight rustle in the canopy of leaves ahead signaled the presence of another person.

The kunoichi slowed her blinding pace, coming abruptly to halt on a thick branch. A kunai knife was in each hand instantly, her pose readied for battle.

Perhaps it was her exhausted mind and body, or perhaps it was simply the speed of her adversary, but before Sakura could even blink, a katana was pressed to her throat from behind.

"Who are you?" an emotionless male voice demanded.

Sakura didn't need to turn around to know who it's owner was. Hell, his delicious scent, the one she could never forget, would have been a dead giveaway.

"Sasuke, it's me…" Sakura whispered, barely able to believe what was happening. Not just that she'd actually found him, but that Sasuke would do this to her. Didn't he recognize her anymore? Had he really thought of her so infrequently (if at all) during the past few years?

A pause.

Sakura gulped. She wasn't sure whether to be excited or afraid.

The blade was removed from her neck, and a slight rustle signaled that Sasuke had stepped away from her. Sakura wheeled around, eager to face the man she loved but had not seen in such a long time.

Sasuke already had his back to Sakura and was preparing to leap away. From what little she could see, he was wearing a loose, dark cloak that encircled his whole body.

He spared a lazy backward glance at her, revealing one shadowed pupil, as well as another eye that was completely covered by thick locks of ebony hair.

"Leave me alone," Sasuke commanded harshly.

Sakura was dumbstruck.

When she had absorbed the statement, a different emotion sprung up within her: white-hot rage. She clenched her fists tightly.

"You haven't seen me in years, and that's all you can say?" she complained loudly, gesticulating madly at him.

"Yes, that's right," Sasuke deadpanned as he scanned her from head to toe. "Go. It's not safe."

Sakura ignored him. "Do you know what I went through to get here? To find you? Do you understand the risks I took?"

Sasuke sighed and glanced around, agitation marking his body language. "It doesn't matter."

"Hell, do you even understand what I've been going through since you left? Or do you just not care?" she went on, all of the resentment and hurt exploding out of her in a toxic tirade.

"SAKURA! Stop. This isn't a fucking joke," Sasuke barked. He shot her an evil glare. "Go away before I make you."

Sakura stared long and hard across the tree branch at the rogue shinobi in front of her. She wondered if she should try to hit him.

Before Sakura could decide on anything, Sasuke twitched.

"They're here."

Several whoosh noises could be heard as black shadows blurred all around the pair, then coalesced into the forms of other shinobi. There were four of them, arrayed in a square formation around her and Sasuke.

"Look what we have here," one of them spoke. He was a burly, middle-aged man who wore the attire and headband of the village hidden in the stone. "Sasuke's got himself a girlfriend."

Sasuke's eyes darted back and forth, sizing up the other ninjas. If he was worried, he didn't show it.

"How many times do I have to tell you? I am not Sasuke Uchiha," he replied evenly.

Sakura furrowed her brow in confusion, opting to stay quiet until she could figure out what the hell was happening. Her reckoning with Sasuke would have to come later.

"Just admit it and let us see those lovely eyes of yours," another shinobi hissed from their position standing horizontally against the side of a nearby tree.

The voice and body were so androgynous that Sakura honestly didn't know which gender the person was. All she knew was that it was someone thin, wrapped in cloth from head to toe, and sporting a headband bearing the mark of the village hidden in the sand.

"It will go easier for you if you give in. There are four of us and only one of you," the mummy continued.

Sakura shot them an angry glare, then glanced briefly back at Sasuke. He didn't respond, just put one hand on the hilt of his sword.

"He's clearly not going to listen to reason," another ninja chimed in with a grumpy tone. He was a wrinkled, yet confidently-posed older man who had no ordinary ninja signifiers whatsoever.

Nodding solemnly at the sand mummy, he said: "But now we don't have to make him. He might get angry and release his full power if we kill the girl."

"I'm standing right here, you know," Sakura shot back coolly. "Come over here and I'll show you what this little girl can do."

"There's no need for that," Sasuke interjected, holding out an arm to block Sakura. He peered at her intently. "I've been trying to tell these gentleman that they must be confused. They think I'm the famous Sasuke, and they want his Uchiha visual prowess. I told them that my name is Akihiko, but they won't listen to me."

Sakura met his gaze, the cogwheels of her mind turning for an instant. She gave a slight dip of her head to show him that she understood.

"Is that what this is all about?" Sakura said in as friendly a voice as she could manage. She turned back to the assembled men. "That's ludicrous. We're just a couple of shinobi from different villages, meeting in this woods for…well, you know."

The sand mummy crossed their arms in disbelief. The old man shook his head, and the first one to speak—the stone ninja, chuckled.

"Is that so?" he shot back. "Well then, you should be able to tell us what village you friend Akihiko is from, shouldn't you?"

Sasuke winced, and Sakura knew that he was mentally kicking himself for not putting her under a Tsukuyomi earlier, or at least stating more about his false identity out loud. Not that either of those would have been likely too work, either. She could tell that whoever this motley mob was, they weren't stupid. If they'd been hounding Sasuke this relentlessly…enough for several skirmishes' worth of blood…and survived, let alone wounded him, they had to be tough, experienced, and smart. And, most importantly, they were convinced that they knew the truth.

Sakura didn't see how her present situation could possibly end without bloodshed, but she was impressed, and surprised, that Sasuke was trying to avoid that outcome at all costs. If he truly wished it, all his attackers would have likely been dead already.

Oh well. She may as well guess. There was at least a one in three chance of getting it right.

"Of course, I can. He's from the village hidden in the mist," Sakura reported.

A tense silence.

The brash stone shinobi clucked his teeth. "That's not what he told us," he grinned evilly. "Sasuke here said he was from the cloud; supposedly that's why he can use lightning style."

Sakura looked back at Sasuke, who wore an impassive look absent of any trace of disappointment. Even so, she felt horrible for letting him down by forcing a confrontation he clearly didn't want. (Not to mention the fact that she'd gotten him caught in the first place.)

"There's no use anymore, Mikoto. They're going to attack us, and I'm not going down easily," Sasuke told her sternly. "I'll have to show them I'm not Sasuke based on how I fight when two lives depend on it."

Sakura nodded, Sasuke's message clear: he wanted to keep the charade up for whatever reason. Although the prospect of risking death by holding back his best powers terrified her, Sakura was willing to go along with it.

The only problem was that Sasuke clearly wanted her to understand that she needed to make up for his deficiency, and in her current state of near-exhaustion from constant running, Sakura wasn't sure that she could.

It doesn't matter. I have to try, Sakura thought.

The kunoichi put her hands together and audibly cracked her fists. "Let's do this, then."

The scene instantly exploded in a cacophony of motion.

The first thing Sakura saw was the fourth person, an average-looking cloud ninja with long white hair, start weaving signs at incredible speed. As he completed the seal, the man shouted, "Lightning Style: Thunder Chorus Jutsu!" at the top of his lungs.

At the same moment, the old man also began to weave signs. He finished a moment later, with the proclamation of "Water Style: Torrential Downpour!"

The combination was devastating. The overcast sky above them, which Sakura had only just noticed, began to churn with an ominous, grayish hue. Static discharge crackled in its midst as heavy raindrops began to fall, soaking the whole canopy in moments.

"We have to get below!" Sasuke bellowed, already in motion. He threw a kunai as he fell, which Sakura could tell had wire attached to it. The stone ninja leaped aside, the blade sinking into a tree branch as intended. Sasuke used his fall and the cord to swing down to the forest floor and then under the enemy ninja.

Sakura was mere seconds behind him. She vanished in a blur, following the Uchiha. Before the maneuver was complete, she released a spray of smoke pellets in every direction—obscuring their movements.

As she left her previous perch, Sakura felt searing heat at her back and heard a deafening blast of thunder. A lightning bolt, enhanced by the conductive properties of the water and the storm that had been created, had apparently impacted the branch moments before she'd dodged. Sakura breathed a sigh of relief, awestruck by this rag-tag band's teamwork.

She hit the ground next to Sasuke hard, but barely felt the impact. Adrenaline was coursing through her, and she was already alert and armed with kunai.

That's when the mummy appeared. They were sailing over the duo as if they'd anticipated she and Sasuke's evasive action, a steel rain of shuriken and kunai cascading down on them from above. The weapons were accompanied by little puffs of smoke that came from various summoning formula tattooed on the now-exposed sand ninja's arms.

Sasuke's katana flashed with blinding speed as he ducked, dodged, and twirled, effortlessly deflecting the hail of missiles. Sakura performed similarly well with her dual kunai. Thankfully, the canopy above offered them some resistance from the lightning storm and raindrops.

Sakura shot a look at Sasuke as they defended themselves. "Well?" she asked. "What's your plan?"

Sasuke didn't respond. He wore a blank look, and Sakura hoped he was simply concentrating on coming up with a plan before rushing to the offensive. A sound strategy: they were outnumbered, and likely out-prepared as well.

Sakura evaluated the situation as the mummy began to jump from perch to perch, attempting every angle from which to attack that they could think of.

Clearly, her foes had a specific strategy in mind: force the couple to the ground and away from the treetops. What was the reason for it, though? Why attack in a manner that was designed to give your opponent an out?

Sakura did not have to wait long for an answer. Shadows darted among the surrounding trees, all matching the outline of the brash stone ninja leader.

"Clones!" Sakura shouted as she fought to avoid being struck. "They're…"

"Earth Style: Granite Enclosure!" she heard numerous voices speak in unison, drowning out the noise of the storm, the shriek of metal-on-metal, and her own voice.

In accordance with the jutsu, the ground began to shake as earthen barriers sprung up all around her and Sasuke. Sakura could see dozens of clones with their arms extended, guiding the walls into place. She threw a few missiles at several of them, but the rock came up too fast, trapping she and Sasuke within a small ring.

"So that's why they wanted to get us down here," Sakura said out loud as she batted a kunai away.

Sasuke nodded, casually slicing an incoming shuriken in half.

"You do have a plan, right?" Sakura asked. As much as she hated to admit it, Sasuke had the leg up on her when it came to intellect. He was the smart fighter, the cunning adversary. She was more of a brawler or a healer.

"Don't die," Sasuke replied.

Sakura frowned, her inner self snarling.

That's when the iron barrage stopped, the mummy halting in a static position against a tree. At the same moment, the cloud ninja came into view slightly behind the sand ninja. His hands were clasped together in the shape of a sign, his head bowed in concentration. He was keeping the storm going. Meanwhile, old man grumps was dashing from spot to spot, placing paper bombs in various locations.

Sakura gasped. She knew what they were trying to do.

The medical nin didn't have time to voice the thought. The ground suddenly erupted in front of them, a duplicate of Mr. Rock-Clone exploding out from it. He pilfered a fallen kunai from the battlefield as he lunged at her throat with a crazed gleam in his eyes.

Sasuke didn't let him complete the attack. He was just there, in-between her and the attacker, a stroke of his sword slicing cleanly through his opponent. It shrieked with the sound of chidori, lightning humming all around the weapon as the chakra countered and disintegrated the earth clone.

"Go!" Sasuke ordered, jerking his chin towards the canopy where the other three shinobi were. "Stop them."

"Hai!" Sakura agreed emphatically.

She leapt aside, avoiding another clone that appeared from the ground, then delivered a swift kick to it that slammed it violently into the rock wall. Then, without further ado, she kicked brutally off the forest floor, creating a crater that exposed and blew aside a third clone as she leaped diagonally into the air, heading for the concentrating cloud ninja and his guard.

"Oh no you don't, little girlie," the androgynous one chided, jumping horizontally at her as he slit his own palm with another summoned kunai. "Summoning Jutsu!"

Sakura frowned in consternation, instantly recognizing what that person was doing. The summoning formula on their palm flashed, and then, with a puff of smoke, the object Sakura had feared, but expected, was in front of her.

A puppet.

Sakura would have complained it was too soon if she ever saw another puppet again after fighting Sasori. The horrific things that she had been forced to experience during that battle haunted her nightmares…many times she had awoken to cold sweat and screams as images of herself impaled by the deviant Akatsuki member's poisoned weapons wracked her mind.

Even know, the woman feared she was too surprised and intimidated to react. Moreover, she was already in motion and could not stop. The puppet, which was shaped like an ugly human with eight arms and no legs, was flying in her direction…fast. Sakura did her best to swallow the instinctual fear, knowing that she had mere moments to assess the device and anticipate the secret attack. Chiyo had taught her as much…but Sakura knew that a large part of their victory had been owed to the older kunoichi's skill, and not her own.

"Shannaro!" she roared in defiance as her mind worked on overtime.

The puppet met her determination with an array of sharp steel knives that appeared from the palms of the eight hands. With a crooked jerk of the puppetmaster's hands, half of the appendages detached and moved to strike her.

Sakura worked her bare hands into a frenzy, trying her best to smash the arms to pieces. She managed to crush two of them, but the others carved into her body, thankfully missing vital organs. Sakura swallowed the pain and raised a fist to destroy the puppet's main body as it, too, closed in for the kill.

Knowing that she would be unable to fully counter the remaining arms, Sakura leaned into a punch of massive power, focusing a gratuitous amount of chakra into the leading fist and the rest into her skin to slow the penetration of the blades.

To her surprise, the flying puppet made absolutely no move to dodge. Sakura wasn't about to whine about such good fortune, though, even as the four arms, now separated from the torso, stabbed her in the same moment. As wood chips flew in every direction, she felt the blades sink halfway into her upper body: four spots of blindingly-agonizing pain. Her vision turned white and she screamed.

At that moment, Sakura was infinitely grateful for the fact she had been mentored by a sanin. Without the power of her healing abilities, she would most certainly be dead. One dagger had managed to nick her heart. A second buried itself in her spleen, a third in her stomach, and fourth in the liver. If she were any ordinary shinobi, she would surely have died in the next few moments.

A spray of blood shot out from her body, drenching the ground below. Sakura also felt crimson life-fluid spewing from her mouth and nose as well. She impacted a tree trunk on what she hoped was the other end of the clearing. Coughing, choking and convulsing, the pink-haired woman managed to yank the intruders out of her body and obliterate them with her strength. Then, in the next few seconds before she bled out, Sakura activated her one-hundred healings jutsu.

Energy coursed through her as the soothing power of the chakra stored in her forehead suffused her entire body, mending the fatal wounds in the blink of an eye. Sakura stood, shakily, as the dark lines of power traced themselves across her skin.

Her eyes flickered open, and she peered around with a smirk. She refused to give her enemies the satisfaction of a quick kill.

"Amazing," she heard the sand ninja say from the other side of the clearing. Chidori flashes accented his words as Sasuke furiously dueled a squad of earth clones below her that constantly emerged and re-emerged from the ground around him. Rubble scattered this way and that as he fought, slaying a few of them but also taking bloody grazes of his own. "I never thought I'd get to see the legendary healing power of the fifth Hokage. This bitch must be that slut's student."

The cloud ninja smiled but did not speak. He merely stood behind his protector with his eyes closed, focusing.

Sakura glanced around. The earth style-user was nowhere to be seen. Likely, the original was utterly depleted of chakra and intended to hide; not that she could blame him. He had used his chakra wisely, if not sparingly. Sasuke was trapped between a landscape which gave his enemy the advantage, even if he did have the perfect chakra nature to counter it. Alone, the strategy could not have worked…but with the puppet master's iron rain (and whatever else) above, with the impending lightning storm waiting to strike once the canopy was cleared, it was brutally efficient. Their enemies controlled every facet of the battlefield, and had even managed to sperate the two of them. She and Sasuke had played right into their hands.

Thunder sounded from above, as if her echoing her thoughts.

"It doesn't matter, though," the mummy went on. "I guess you didn't see the cloud of poison that came out when you smashed my puppet…too busy writing in beautiful agony."

Sakura's eyes went wide. Was this person telling her the truth? If so…

Instantly, her vision swam. Sakura's knees buckled, threatening to drop her to the ground below. Her limbs quivered, muscles spasming.

Antidote…I have…it might work…she thought, struggling to reach for the pouch on her hip.

"It's useless!" her enemy gloated from afar. "Even if your antivenom did work, medic-nin, there's no way you could apply it. My poison inflicts a short term, yet total paralysis. That means I'll have just enough time to kill you! Not even that healing jutsu will save you now…"

Sakura grit her teeth, but it was no use. She was done for. No matter how much willpower she exerted, her body refused to obey. It was all Sakura could do to remain standing.

There was a crackle of lightning as Sasuke slammed his palm into the ground beneath him. Chidori spread out in a radial fashion, blasting apart the earthen walls. Sakura guessed that her ally had dispatched the remaining clones and decided to use the opportunity to destroy the stone constructs in case their creator tried to use them for something else.

"Die!" her poisoner yelled, closing in for the kill, uncaring of the destruction below.

Sakura looked up at her incoming death, unable to escape or even blink. As the ninja brandished a kunai, all she could do was think back to the past events that had led her to this place. She'd heard that one's entire life flashed before their eyes moments before they perished, but all Sakura could dwell on was her regrets. She regretted being reckless, regretted not being strong or fast enough to fight well despite that recklessness. She regretted normal things, too, like not spending enough time with her parents, being mean to Naruto, and more.

But most of all, she regretted not being able to kiss Sasuke. It seemed a pathetic regret to her, and maybe it was, but at least it was an honest one.

Sakura braced herself for the impact, wondering what dying would feel like.

Apparently, it felt like being dizzy.

Wait, what?

Sakura refocused on the sight before her, realizing that the deathblow was nowhere to be seen. In fact, it seemed that she was in a different place entirely.

Am I dead? Is this the afterlife?

Sakura tried to move but found that she could not. If she was dead, why couldn't she move? Poison didn't matter to a spirit, did it?

Her vision swam again, then cleared. Sakura was in a circle of shattered stones, craters dotting the earth around her.

How did I get back here? she thought. Did Sasuke do something?

It hit her like a ton of bricks. If she had somehow swapped with him, then where was he?

Sakura craned her neck, finding that the toxin was beginning to wear off. She looked up and saw a sight that horrified her.

Sasuke was locked in a death embrace with the mummy-ninja. He had managed to turn slightly to the side, but the weapon was still embedded deep in the center of his chest were his heart should be. His one arm clutched his sword, which was buried in the other person's heart. The steel emerged from their back like an obscene, crimson pillar.

Both Sasuke and the enemy nin dribbled blood and fell in opposite directions. She watched them tumble to the ground helplessly.

"Sas…uke," she managed to grumble in a pained tone as tears slid down her cheeks.

"Damn, I can't believe that freak actually managed to take Sasuke down," the water-nin spoke to his earth-nin companion, the latter of the two emerging from underground. The speaker glanced over at Sasuke's fallen, immobile body, flashing a grin. "This way was easier than we thought, my friend."

"Now we just have to…finish this…bitch off…" the stone shinobi panted, his chest heaving with the exertion of creating so many rock clones. He began to take several cautious steps towards her.

"Not so fast," Sakura heard the older man warn. "She's got some fight left in her."

Sakura flexed her muscles, finding strength rapidly returning to her frame. She stood up, eyes blazing with rage.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Missile!" the mist shinobi proclaimed, weaving signs.

An instant later, a massive spear made of water and shaped like a dragon materialized and shot towards the kunoichi. Sakura was ready, though, and met the attack head-on. Her empowered fist slugged the head of the beast with all her might, and she released another savage growl of "Shannaro!" as she did so.

The impact was so ludicrously strong that the air itself battered back the water jutsu, returning it to the old man, who was too slow to avoid it. The younger earth shinobi was also caught in the blast and struggled vainly to escape with his chakra-depleted body.

As the liquid washed away, Sakura saw that the two men were slumped against a tree, gasping for air.

"Explode!" the water-nin said as he clasped his fingers together.

Sakura had closed about half the distance before the paper bombs detonated, ripping away the protective layer of branches and exposing her to the fury of the storm above.

"Shiro!" the drenched earth ninja yelled, as he scooped up his comrade and barely managed to leap back into a part of the forest that hadn't been stripped of its canopy.

"Lighting Style: Electric Crescendo!" the cloud ninja behind her said.

Aware that she was soaking wet, along with the rest of the nearby ground, Sakura leaped into the air and off to one side. A crackling pillar of deadly lightning narrowly missed her body, practically blinding her in the process. She hit the ground about twenty yards away, her one-hundred-healings jutsu repairing the damage that was caused by the lingering shock inside the puddles of water. Her limbs threatened to seize up from the energy, but her anger and chakra control allowed her to shrug off the paralysis.

As soon as she could, Sakura was darting towards a safe part of the woods…but was immediately blocked by the water-earth pair.

"We need to tag her, or else she'll just keep healing," the earth one said. "You do it. My chakra nature prevents me."

The water ninja nodded and drew out a fistful of shuriken. He threw them in a curving fan at Sakura, who was able to keep herself from succumbing to hatred long enough to duck. To her surprise, though, the missiles changed course and flew straight for the cloud ninja above and behind her, embedding into a tree trunk next to him.

"Lightning Style: Grounding Rod!" the man blurted, causing electrical tentacles to materialize and grasp at the metal missiles.

As Sakura watched, the appendages twisted, flicking the weapons—which were now crackling with a static charge of their own-back at her. Sakura dodged again, leaping high into the air. She threw several barrages of her own ninja tools as she went, impeding the water-nin's charge as well as forcing the cloud one to counter or risk being hit himself.

The tactic paid off. Her attacker's aim was compromised as he leapt aside, causing the shuriken to deposit themselves in scattered locations all over the battlefield. Each of them created a puddle of electrified water where they landed, but Sakura was sure that she could avoid them in the future. She fought the oppressive cascade of rain as she twisted in midair, readying herself for a prolonged taijutsu battle.

The kunoichi forced herself to think rationally. It was difficult, with all the fantasies of vengeance for Sasuke's death clouding her thoughts, but there was one thing she was able to figure out: whatever these guys were planning, it was probably some trick to stop her from avoiding the lightning blasts. Her healing could outpace the ordinary blade attacks, but if one of them did manage to get stuck in her…from the sound of it, the storm would be drawn to that and incinerate her whole body. Sakura knew that she had prevent that at any cost.

She splashed as she hit the ground, and the old man was waiting for her. He came at her with a barrage of kicks and punches, keeping her on her toes as another version of him wove signs from far away. Clearly, her attacker was a water clone.

Sakura parried as she tried to figure out what to do. Her opponent didn't give her the chance, though, as water tentacles began to emerge and take control of the shuriken in the ground. They absorbed the electricity, which did nothing to them: they merely conducted it as they swung the metal weapon in circles like saw blades.

The next few minutes were sheer hell. Sakura was constantly contorting in bizarre shapes as she navigated a labyrinth of spinning lightning metal and the punches of the water clone. Amidst all the chaos, she barely found the time to counter. All Sakura could do was land one punch.

Fortunately, that was all she needed.

The water clone exploded with a loud hiss, scattering droplets everywhere. "You killed Sasuke!" she screamed. "I'll rend you limb from limb!"

The real old man and his companion looked at each other from edge of the battlefield. The former shook his head.

"No more chakra either, eh?" the latter confirmed. "All right, let's take this bitch down with taijutsu then."

The water tentacles drooped, but now there were two incoming enemies. Sakura sighed in relief: the tentacles had nearly stuck her with their impossibly fluid movements and ability to sluice around the battlefield. Not having to face them anymore would be a huge boon.

Yet, Sakura was also incredibly tired and weak. Her healing jutsu was running on fumes from the constant demand of absorbing small static shocks from the puddles, and the previous punch was probably her last.

If I'm going down, I'm taking as many of these bastards with me as a I can. For Sasuke.

Sakura cracked her neck, a plan forming in her mind. It was basically suicidal, but it just might work.

Her opponents closed in from both sides, and she made a half-hearted attempt to counter; just enough to make it look like she was trying. The men picked up the shuriken from the ground and swung them like fist blades.

Sakura spun away, but purposely let the ones used by the water-nin nick her. She felt a jolt as an electrical charge seared into her body.

"Now!" both of her enemies yelled in unison. "She's marked!"

The one called Shiro smirked. "Lightning Style: Thunderous Finale!"

A white-hot bolt of death bridged earth and sky.

"Shannaro!"

Another Sakura appeared behind the old man.

"What?" he gasped before being punched hard enough to send him crashing against Sakura an instant before the lightning struck.

And in that same instant, Sakura ripped a shuriken from her own body and sent it flying at the earth-nin. His mouth went agape in surprise as it sunk into his chest.

The world became an empty void of white light as electricity was drawn to the chakra beacon implanted inside Sakura. She felt unimaginable pain as the power of an entire storm surged through her.

The leaf ninja was not the only one who suffered from this attack, however. The old man, who was thrown against her by the other Sakura, absorbed some of the shock as well. A tendril of electricity also surged between Sakura's body and the stunned earth ninja, who successfully diverted some of the damage.

The next thing Sakura knew, she was staring up at a cloudy sky. Raindrops were no longer drenching her but were replaced by something far worse: a maddening itch that encompassed all her sensation. She smelled a disgusting cloud of burning flesh and knew it was not only hers, but the flesh of the enemy shinobi as well. Sakura wanted to vomit but had not the energy to move.

For the second time that day, Sakura was awestruck that she survived.

It must have been the healing jutsu, Sakura decided.

As if on cue, she sensed the markings on her body retreat. The ability had evidently burned itself up by regenerating her body from the blackened husk that it had likely been.

Not that it mattered. That cloud ninja, Shiro, was probably still alive and unaffected by the strike, considering it was his. He'd come over to finish her off, but since nothing could change the fact that Sasuke was dead, she welcomed it. Perhaps if there was an afterlife, she would receive a chance to be with him there.

"Wow. That was incredible," Shiro said, coming into view above her. "I've never seen anyone do anything quite like that before. I can't help but acknowledge your determination and skill."

Sakura glared up at him. She tried to think of something to say, but everything just felt…empty. What was the point of talking to this guy?

"It's ok. I was planning on killing everyone else for the sharingan anyway. All you did was make my job easier. So, thanks for that."

Shiro kneeled over her, his white hair brushing Sakura's face. She wished she could reach up, grip it, and swing the man like a ragdoll.

"I don't know when you found the time to create that shadow clone, but it was brilliant. Just brilliant," he went on. "I've known a few kunoichi like you before. The clever ones are always so much fun."

Sakura gulped, not liking at all where this was going.

Shiro stroked her cheek obscenely. "I think I'll have a bit of fun with you before I slit your throat. Fucking corpses isn't quite the same, you know? Dead women can't feel fear."

He smirked lecherously, then picked Sakura up and began to drag her under the nearest tree that hadn't had its branches blown off by paper bombs.

For the first time in a long while, Sakura felt true fear. She'd been prepared to die, had even accepted it. But this, what she knew was about to happen, it was something different entirely, something infinitely worse.

"What? You're too proud to beg me to stop?" the cloud-nin teased. "Or are you just too weak?"

Sakura barely heard him. She was trying her best to dissociate from her body in preparation for what was to come. Thoughts of Sasuke flooded her mind as her inner self railed against the injustice of it all. The sheer vulnerability, aloneness, and panic threatened knock her mercifully unconscious.

A sharp slap stung her face, stopping that from happening. "Stay with me, you little whore. Do you understand? If you do, I may just decide to let you die and join your boyfriend in the afterlife when I'm done. If he'll even want you anymore, that is."

Shiro chuckled at the perverse evil of the situation, clearly getting off on her torment. Sakura shut her eyes as she was slammed against a tree trunk, trying to block out as much as possible.

Shiro braced his hips crudely against hers and Sakura was horrified by the bulge she felt there. Her knees were suddenly jerked apart and her ankles thrown to the side as Shiro braced the kunoichi against the tree with the weight of his body and his hands on her ass.

"I want you so fucking bad," he whispered into her ear as he grinded himself against her core. "Scream for me, or I'll use my knife to make you."

Sakura gulped and began to sob. She considered herself a proud and strong person, but in this situation, she didn't think anyone could have blamed her.

"Sasuke…" she whimpered.

Sakura heard a pair of trousers unzipping, followed by a hand forcing itself between her legs.

"Scream for this."

Sakura was sure she must have been driven insane by the terror of her situation and was hallucinating. That voice…it couldn't possibly be him. She'd watched him die. The pink-haired nin refused to open her eyes and tease herself with delusions that couldn't be real.

Sakura started to fall. This time, she did open her eyes, wondering what the hell was happening.

As the woman slumped against the base of the tree, she saw Sasuke standing over Shiro, the latter kneeling on the ground with his arms thrown wide. Chidori was streaming through Sasuke's arm and into the man's skull through a pair of fingers that were jammed into his eye sockets. He thrashed madly and howled with an agony so disturbing that Sakura felt her bones quiver.

"Amaterasu," Sasuke stated casually.

Black flames flowed down his arm from his right eye, accompanied by streams of bloody tears. The fire entered Shiro's skull and began to consume him from the inside out, starting with his optic nerves. Sasuke released the man and stepped back, staring down at the sadistic shinobi as he squirmed and died in sickening pain. Even Sakura could not help but feel the cruelty of it; although the man was quickly reduced to a shriveled husk like his companions, the torture he experienced must have been equal to the misery of entire wars.

Sasuke swiveled and turned his back on the dying shinobi as he stood over Sakura.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke said, picking her up gently.

Sakura's heart throbbed in relief. The high-octane drama of the past hour was wearing on her, and now that she was safe, Sakura felt darkness closing in.

"What…how…" Sakura managed to ask, half-suspecting the answer would be 'it was all a dream'.

She felt herself being carried deeper in the forest. Her eyelids flickered, feeling like they were weighted with lead. Her consciousness was fading fast, and the only thing she could think to do was lean her head against Sasuke's chest as he carried her.

"Sasuke…" she mumbled before peacefully drifting off.