• Dear Sasuke,

    When someone cries

    for you and begs

    you, just for you to

    stay with them, will

    you? Will you treasure

    their affection or

    throw it away just for power?

    What would you do if that person

    got hurt? Would you

    care? If they died,

    would you cry and say you were sorry?

    Would you risk

    everything for that special

    person? Would you say you

    were in love? Love, is important,

    or is it? Do you care for it? What would

    it make you do? If you didn't

    care for it, would you hurt others?

    What if one of them was

    that special person? Would you stay

    for them? Or, would you take them with you?

    Would you express your emotions?

    Would you laugh? Would you hug them, even when

    their hopes are down? Would you make

    them smile?

    Would you admit your feelings for them?

    Blooming like a flower. What would

    you do with that person? Would you

    laugh, or, hug, or kiss, or even smile?

    Would you treat that person with once long lost

    emotions? In one word, yes! You would love them

    to the end of all eternity and long after that,

    like how the wind blows forever more and never stops.

    Love, is what you gave me, even if in the end, it

    was just an illusion.

    Love, a once lost kunoichi
    ~*~

    Sakura finished writing the letter and hopped off of the couch. She picked up her black gloves, put them on, and left the apartment. She went to the Hokage, catching her in the middle of a drunken stupor. She quickly told her master that she was heading out on a journey and left Tsunade to indulge on her Sake. Sakura lept from roof top to roof top and soon made her way into the forest surrounding Konoha. She continued on, going through the forests, leaping from tree to tree, soon making it to the border of the Fire Country and the Sound Country. Looking around, she found a secluded area and changed into her ANBU outfit. Even if it wasn't an official mission, Sakura did not want him to know it was her until she talked.

    She walked into the sound village, getting hard glares from everyone. They knew to keep their distance, but couldn't help to shout rude comments at Sakura. She only continued forward and did not look back. The insults got even worse and eventually, someone threw a rock at Sakura. She stopped and turned around. Behind her mask, she smiled wickedly and punched the ground. The earth below her quaked and split in mere seconds, bringing down a few buildings and trapping many people.

    Sakura walked past the rubble and made her way to the one place that she KNEW he would be. She walked briskly, as to not get there late and miss her chance to give it to him. She caught a glimpse of one of his teammates, Karin. She was walking in the same direction of Sakura and looked angrily at her. Sakura, merely aware of what karin was doing, only continued on, looking only in front of her.

    Sakura neared the one place that he would go: a training field connected to Orochimaru's "lair" underground. If she really wated to, Sakura could have easily destroyed Orochimaru's base in a few seconds and hopefully, kill him with it. She walked up to a wooden post in the middle of the training field and made a hand sign: Ka(1). A gruesome sight appeared and Sakura was amused that Karin, unaware of the genjutsu, threw up in a near by bush. What they saw was dead bodies, strewn all over the training field, with bones sticking out of them as well as a vast variety of weapons that Tenten would have loved to get her hands on.

    Karin, unware of what she was stepping on, slowly slid to the ground, only to find out that she was on top of a pile of ripped, torn, rotting organs. She threw up again, and passed out. Sakura, almost laughing at the display of Karin's, picked her up and slowly took her to a tree, 10 yards away. She leaned her against the trunk and made her way over the rotting carnage that could be made by only one man alive: Sasuke Uchiha.
    ~*~
    Sakura sneaked into to the base and made it all the way to a secret corridor, leading to Sasuke's bedroom. She walked to the door and slowly opened it. She let out a sigh, for Sasuke was not in there. Sakura made her way over to the desk inside of the room and picked up a picture frame. Inside of it was a picture of Team 7, and in the bottom corner, a few words were scribbled on the glass. 'Don't forget them, even when you kill them...'. Well, that's comforting. Sakura looked at the picture again, and looked at herself with such a happy face on. She put on a small smile and turned around.

    What she saw when she turned around was not what she expected. It was Sasuke, staring at her, almost activating his Sharingan. But, the aura of the ANBU told him that if he did, he was going to die and the risk was too great. He slowly walked to the desk next to Sakura and said, "What and why are you here?" Sakura looked at him as pulled out a scroll signed by the Hokage as well as the letter that she had written. She handed Sasuke the scroll and left the letter on the desk and headed towards the door. She looked back and said, "Ai shi teru (2), Sasuke-kun." and left. Sasuke looked at where she just was and followed as quickly as he could.

    He was catching up when she suddenly disappeared. He activated his Sharingan, only to find that she was at least 5 miles ahead of him. He quickened his pace to catch up, only to find that she would just get farther and father away. He soon stopped and headed back to his base that he shared with Orochimaru. He opened the scroll from the Hokage to find information about Itachi and what Sasuke had to do in order not to be killed for treason when he comes back to Konoha. In the letter, he read it over and over again, unaware of the spying ANBU member on his ceiling. Sakra had stayed there for the past half hour, trying not to cry at the sight os Sasuke punch the wall in frustration. It was clear as day that Sasuke was trying to tell Sakura something earlier but, she had "disappeared". He slumped to the floor and didn't move for at least ten minutes. Sasuke leaned against the wall and looked up.

    Sakura gasped at how Sasuke had found her so easily. He smirked, happy that his "cool-guy act" actually worked. He soon stopped smirking and looked seriously at Sakura. "Sakura, you shouldn't be here. Orochimaru, or I, could hurt you," Sakura continued to stare back and slowly landed on the floor in front of Sasuke. "No thank-you, Uchiha-san. I was sent on a mission to A) Kill Orochimaru and B) bring you back to Konoha." Sasuke stared at Sakura with curiosity and anger. Sasuke moved in front of Sakkura and growled, "You leave now and I won't be forced to hurt you." Sakura smirked under her mask and said, "Well, Sasuke-san, i guess I will have to beat your a** in a fight to get my message clear..." Sasuke pulled out a Katana and thrust it at her abdomen. Sakura easily dodged it and hit Sasuke in the back of his head and caught him just as he was passing out.
    ~*~
    Sakura had waited for three hours until she heard movement in Sasuke's room. He opened to door to find that Sakura was still there and her mask was hanging from her neck, droplets of blood on the nose and around the mouth. "Well, well, I see you have woken up!" Sakura said, laughing at how easy it was to frustrate the Uchiha.

    "Why are you still here?!" Sasuke yelled, raging with fury about earlier. Sakura stopped laughing and stared at Sasuke like he was retarded. "I said that I came here to Orochimaru, right? Well, I just killed his lackey, Kabuto-san and I was hoping that at the very least, you could watch me fight your mentor." Sasuke stared at her and activated his Sharingan. He saw the corpse of a dead Kabuto, and it looked like it was a painful and easy death. "You want me, to watch you kill Orochimaru? One of the legendary three Sannin?" Sasuke asked in disbelief.

    Sakura nodded and added, "After that, I will leave it to you if you want to come back to the village. Y'know, if you keep killing innocent people like out in that training field, you will be labeled as Konoha's number one threat and enemy." Sasuke just nodded, already knowing that he was a murderer of innocent lives. Sakura just sighed and was going down the hall when Sasuke said, "Where are you going, Sakura?" Sakura continued on and siad, "To complete my mission." Sasuke followed her, amazed at how she could tell the hallways apart and which ones were correct. Eventually, they made it to a large wooden door with two snakes eating each others tails and an eye in between them.
    ~*~
    Sakura put on her mask and opened the door. "Ah, so I see that Tsunade sent me a play toy. Well, I was hoping that it was a prettier girl, but you'll do..." Orochimaru said, getting up out of his thrown. "Kabuto! Get in here!" Orochimaru shouted, looking at them both; Sakura and Sasuke. "Orochimaru, Kabuto is dead. I had killed him two hours ago while I waited for Sasuke-san to get out of his little "coma"." Sakura said, pulling out a large sword with a dragon intertwining with the hilt. "Oh, are you that little girl from the Forest of Death? I knew you'd be a pretty one, but I can't see your face, darling. Care to treat an old man to some comfort?" Orochimmaru reminisced. Sakura pulled off her mask to reveal a very confident smirk.

    "Orochimaru, you have given me no other option than to kill you. Any last words?" He laughed and said, "Bring it on, little girl!" Orochimaru lunged at Sakura with a Katana and tried to hit her abdomen. Sakura raised her sword and cut off Orochimaru's left hand. The hand and arm reattached and Orochimaru tried again. This time, he aimed for her right hand, successfully scraping it. Sakura took off her glove and healed it. She quickly put her glove back on and punched the floor. Sasuke, unaware of all of the changes made to Sakura and how she had became stronger, was stunned that she could do any of that. Sakura looked over at Sasuke and smiled. Orochimaru seized the chance to hit Sakura in the gut but, was stopped when a hand enclosed around his neck.

    Sakura looked back at Orochimaru, hanging in her hand, struggling to breath. She loosened a little and watched as Orochimaru said, "So I see that Tsunade was training a brat like you. Tell me, did she tech you everything she knows?" Sakura laughed at the question and said, "She did, but at the age of 15, I was stronger than her. Now, I'm 17, and I was offered the position of Hokage as well as Naruto and Neji-san. Tsunade argued that I was the best candidate but, I told her to chose Naruto." Sasuke stared at Sakura in half hysteria. Sakura was offered to be Hokage and turned it down?! "Really, why did you pass it on?" Orochimaru said, trying to escape his position in Sakura's chakra-induced hand.

    "Well, I thought that I wasn't ready and because Naruto is actually as strong and now as smart as me. Neji turned it down because he is taking over the Hyuuga Clan and becoming their leader. Naruto is already married and is waiting for his wife to have a baby, isn't that so romantic?" Sakura said, looking mystified into space. Orochimaru slipped through her hands and retreated to a few feet away. "Interesting... so love distracts you, huh?" Sakura looked back at him and smirked. Sakura disappeared and reappeared behind Orochimaru and was doing some hands signs. She stuck her hand onto his back and when she pulled it back, she had a slug next to her and it was eating the Chakra that Sakura was pulling out of Orochimaru. Sasuke noticed that during the whole fight, while Orochimaru was sweating heavily, Sakura didn't even look tired.
    ~*~
    Sakura was throwing multiple kunai and had her sword on her belt, waiting for the opportunity to strike him. Sasuke watched in amazement as Orochimaru was left without any chakra, hardly any weapons, and was imbedded with so many weapons that you'd think that Sakura was 120 pounds lighter than when she came there. "Well, Orochimaru, it's been fun fighting with you, but I'm crunched for time so, now I'm going to be serious about this fight." Sakura said getting faces like this from both Orochimaru and Sasuke: O.o

    "So, you're saying that for the past three hours, while you embedded me with multiple weapons and drained me of my chakra, that you were just goofing off?" Orochimaru said, his brain overloading and throwing up from blood loss. Sakura jsut laughed and nodded, but as soon as she did, she grabbed her sword and shoved it into Orochimaru's heart and she pulled it out, leaving blood everywhere. She wiped off her sword and she stuck it back into her belt and walked away. She went over to Sasuke and held out her hand, "Ready to go back home, Sasuke-kun?" Sasuke stared at her and hesitantly took her hand. She smiled and led him out of the base and they went through the forest straight on for a day.

    At last, they were nearing the edges of Konoha when Sakura stopped. She motioned for Sasuke to use his Sharingan and sure enough, he noticed it. The Akatsuki. Sakura pulled out a radio from her bag and tuned into it. "Hokage-sama, the Akatsuki is outside of the village, planning an attack as we speak." Sakura said, focusing on the movements of them all. "Sakura-chan, kick their asses! You too Teme!" The Hokage coughNARUTOcough, said, a little too loud for Sakura. "Naruto, you may be the Hokage, but I will still kick your a** when I get home with Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said, sounding like she did when they were genin. "Anyway, Sakura-chan, kill them and dispose of the bodies. I have full faith in you." Naruto said, sounding like the responsible Hokage that he should be.

    "Naruto, how is Hinata? Did she have the babies yet?" Sakura asked, giggling at the noises that Naruto and Sasuke were making. "Y-yeah, a girl and a boy. The boy looks like me and we named him Minato and the girl looks like Hinata and we named her Kushina." Sakura smiled and said, "Well, good luck with them, Hokage-sama. I'm going now." Sasuke watched from the trees as Sakura lept down from the tree they were in right in front of the Akatuski. "Well, well, if it isn't the little brat that killed Sasori. Have you come back for more?" Kisame asked, looking ready to strike. "Heh, you got me. I want to kill you all!" Sakura said, looking at all of the remaining Akatsuki members that weren't already dead.
    ~*~
    Sakura looked at the dead bodies of Itachi, Kisame, Pein, Konan, Tobi, Zetsu, Hidan, and Kazuku. Sasuke was slumping over, staring at the dead face of his brother, the one that Sakura had killed first and the fastest. If she could kill Itachi in about half an hour, what else could she do? Sakura walked to Sasuke, with only scratches and a little bit of Chakra missing.

    "Well, ready to go home?" Sakura asked, taking Sasuke's hand. Sasuke just nodded at Sakura and let Sakura lead him into the village. A village of promise, a village of protection, a village of trust, a village of strength, a village of love: Konoha or, more commonly known as home.
    ~*~

    (1) Ka: hand sign for 'Release'. used mainly for genjutsu.

    (2)Ah Shi Teru: Japanese for 'I love you'.