Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Cherry Blossoms in Fall ❯ Chapter 1: Recovering Sakura ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Title: Cherry Blossoms in Fall
Pairing(s): Sakura/Kakashi; Minor: Sakura/Sasuke, Sakura/Naruto, Sakura/Sai Eventually minor pairings: Naruto/Hinata
Rating: M (Lemons, explicit language, and violence)
Summary: Sakura was sent on a secret mission for two years not long after the Sasuke recovery team was formed. Since she’s been gone, Sasuke came back on his own and team Kakashi was reformed minus Sakura. With information saying that Sakura is KIA what will happen to team Kakashi?
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters or any other ideas drawn from the series.

Chapter 1: Recovering Sakura
Team Kakashi stood before the Hokage waiting for her to divvy out their next mission. They were called to her office via ANBU messengers at the break of dawn and now stood in the early morning light that glowed yellow against the walls of the tower.
Naruto yawned comically loud and stretched his arms, heavy bags under his eyes another indication of how tired he was but even in his fatigued state he was fidgety with the kyubi’s energy. At 18 he was only a couple inches shorter than Kakashi, the handsome features of the 4th were clearly defining in his face. His blue eyes stared expectantly at Tsunade.
Sasuke at 18 looked much the same as Sasuke at 16, he was a tad taller, also only two inches shorter than Kakashi. He wore his samurai-esque outfit from when he was a missing nin but it had more black to it now. Sasuke was also tired at being woken early in the morning but he didn’t show it, he didn’t show much on his face period. It was the picture of aloof, since returning to Konoha mysteriously he was trying to gain back the trust of the village and also managing the hate he’d felt for so many years.
He’d returned to Konoha 6 months prior to this early morning meeting, there was a punishment period for a few months but the elders agreed to forgive his crimes because he’d killed one of the village’s greatest enemies, Orochimaru. He had not achieved his revenge against Itachi, after realizing the way he was being manipulated by Orochimaru he disposed of him and returned to Konoha feeling that joining the ANBU squad that was hunting Atkatsuki would be the best way to hunt Itachi down.
However, after factoring his punishment period and the limitations of promotions in ninja ranking he was still a genin. He and Naruto planned on taking the chunin exams in the coming December. Tsunade had assigned him C and B ranked missions after seeking approval from the elders because they were such valuable tools for those missions and the fact that they weren’t ranked high enough to do those missions was more of a technicality than a true limitation.
Sai stared blankly off into space on Naruto’s left, Sasuke on his right and Kakashi on the far right. Kakashi read his Icha Icha Paradise book, a lazy droop to this right eye but no signs of tiredness in his appearance. A fifth man stood off to the side, he looked awfully disheveled, with many injuries which Shizune was tending to on the spot in the office. Tsunade held a leaflet of paper in her hand with bits of blood on it. Through his mask Kakashi could smell that the blood on the paper belonged to the injured chunin to his right.
Ever since signing the contract with his nin dogs Kakashi has had dog-like senses and instincts that have been infinitely useful for him as a ninja. They weren’t nearly as strong instincts as in actual dogs or in the Inuzuka clan but they were much stronger than the average ninja.
Tsunade appeared to be at her wits end, one might think it was a hangover but the anxiety that rolled off her in waves was easily sensed by the perceptive members of the group. Naruto was oblivious to the tension but Sasuke and Kakashi were waiting for the bad news to be delivered but were still confident that no matter what the news Team Kakashi could handle the mission given.
“I will be assigning you a recovery mission based on this man’s eyewitness accounts.” Tsunade finally broke the silence of the room. “Last night he was scouting through Fire Country near the border we share with Light Country and he was engaged by some missing nin from Mist who killed the rest of his team.”
Sai cut across in his usual innocently socially inept fashion. “That’s an ANBU job.” ANBU were in charge of disposing of the dead bodies of their ninja comrades and recovering any scrolls or other ninja arts from the corpses.
Tsunade’s eye twitched in irritation but she pressed on. “I would normally assign this to ANBU however you are there to dispose of the bodies of this man’s team but you are also there to recover the body of Sakura Haruno.”
A chill swept the room, Kakashi’s book slipped from his hand and clattered on the floor at the name of his female teammate. Naruto was suddenly wide awake, his face showing disbelief.
“Wha…? That’s not a funny joke Baa-chan!” Naruto shouted earnestly at the Hokage. Sasuke and Sai stared in silent shock at the Hokage who was now tearing up a bit.
Tsunade’s grip on the bloody report tightened a bit and she snapped her gaze to the injured chunin. “You are sure the kunoichi who saved you was Sakura Haruno?”
He stared dumbfounded at the Hokage for a minute, perhaps a little dizzy from blood loss. “Yeah…pink hair…? Wicked earthquake inducing punch?” He turned to face Team Kakashi who were all staring at him with wide eyed dread. “My team was losing badly to these guys; they must have been at least jounin level. Sakura came out of nowhere and saved me but they were able to take her down with them. I ran back to Konoha as fast as I could…”
“Did you check that she was dead?” asked Sasuke harshly, his face almost snarling at the younger man. When the man nodded fearfully a heavy weight sunk in the guts of the four man team. Tears flowed down the kyubi container’s cheeks while Kakashi’s right eye was squinted shut, as if he was wishing to not be there anymore. Sai and Sasuke stared blankly down at their feat in deep thought, neither allowing himself to cry.
Kakashi opened his eyes and stared up at the Hokage who was now staring out the window of the tower with a slouched defeated posture. “We have to go retrieve her body…? We have to carry her lifeless form all the way back here??” Kakashi wasn’t able to keep the emotion from cracking into his voice; inside he was already berating himself for failing as a shinobi. He failed at not only repressing his emotions but he ultimately failed Sakura in his eyes. ‘I should have been there for her. Trained her better even so this would never have happened…It’s all my fault again that I’ve lost another person I loved.’
The Hokage turned and gave Team Kakashi a pitying look. “I thought that you four would like to see she is gone for yourselves since we were going to need to bring her body back anyway.”
“Why must it…she…be brought back?” asked Sasuke.
“Sakura’s body holds many secrets that are very important to this village; we will need to run some tests on the blood in her body before we give her a proper burial.”
“Blood tests…?” Sai ventured, confused like the rest of Team Kakashi.
Tsunade sighed heavily. “Shizune take Takoto to the hospital.” Shizune escorted the young man out of the room; he mumbled an apology to the team which made most of the flinch a bit. “What I reveal to you now is top secret information that you are under no circumstances to reveal to anyone outside of this room. Am I understood?” The four men mumbled their consent. “Two years ago the Harunos were proclaimed KIA. In their will they left Sakura a letter revealing that she was adopted.”
Kakashi blinked in surprise, he had never had the pleasure of meeting Sakura’s parents so had no idea what her family life was like. He vaguely knew her parents were chuunin who had died at the hands of missing nin while they were on a mission. He had been a shoulder to cry on for the young cherry blossom but she had never told him about this letter. A week later she was off on that two year mission.
“The letter also revealed that Sakura’s biological parents were refugees from the Flower village who had traveled into Fire to escape the genocide that took place there about two decades ago. I believe the 18th anniversary of that day just passed by a few weeks ago…”
“Genocide?” Naruto blinked in confusion.
“Mass killing of a race.” Sasuke supplied.
Naruto blinked in surprise. “Someone was trying to kill Sakura’s family??”
“Mist would have liked to have killed Sakura as well but no one knew of her existence. She was the last Secondary.” Kakashi’s coal eye widened in alarm and his breath caught, the three younger men spared him a curious glance.
“Secondary?” Sai queried.
Tsunade sighed in annoyance. “I guess we don’t teach this part of shinobi history because of the shame the village feel for not stopping the genocide, I guess I’ll explain from the beginning…”
Centuries ago there were no shinobi and humans had no knowledge on how to control chakra. The first chakra controllers were the Primary’s. A Primary is a demon or spirit with 100% chakra control and a great amount of chakra, like the nine-tailed fox. They roamed the lands mostly terrifying the people who lived here.
Then they came upon the Flower village, the people there had reached a unique stage of Enlightenment that many of the Primaries thought was interesting and valuable so they struck a deal with the villagers. In exchange for allowing the Primaries to enter their minds and bodies the Primaries would give them the ability to control chakra 100%. They agreed and thus there were the Secondary’s.
They were the first humans to control chakra, 100% chakra control does not require hand signs usually and allows the person to use external chakra from the environment and not just the internal chakra. Only descendents from that village are Secondary’s. Tertiary’s are us…ninja’s who were taught by the Secondary’s many years ago how to use chakra through hand signs that the Secondary’s developed.
“So why did Mist kill off all the Secondary’s?” asked Sai.
“It was around the time that the kyuubi attacked Konoha. Another lesser demon had also attacked Mist on the same day. Mist then reported intelligence that it was the Secondary’s that had sent those Primary’s to attack the villages. They declared war and swept through Light Country and killed off all of the Secondary’s.”
“If the Secondary’s had such great chakra control why were they unable to defeat Mist?” asked Sasuke.
“Well for one Mist had far greater numbers. Also the Secondary’s were a naturally peaceful people who at the time of the genocide had hoped that they would just be taken as POW’s they didn’t know they were to be executed. Also those that did resist were at a disadvantage because their chakra control was very good for doing genjutsu and ninjutsu but because they were peaceful people they never felt the need to train in taijutsu and Mist sent all of its taijutsu experts.”
“And Konoha.” Kakashi cut in sharply.
“And Konoha sent its taijutsu users to assist in the slaughter.” Tsunade conceded miserably. “It was mostly at the whim of the elders but the Third did not stop it. We really thought the Secondary’s were attacking us. It was later that we realized that the intelligence was false. By then it was too late, the Secondary’s were gone.”
There was a contemplative silence. “Where are we headed?” asked Kakashi stepping up to accept the scroll.
“You are ok to take this mission?” Tsunade asked, eyeing the younger men worriedly. Naruto still looked anguished but he nodded.
“We will bring Sakura back.” Kakashi promised taking the scroll. He then turned to his team. “Pack up we leaved in an hour.” They all teleported to their respective homes to prepare, Tsunade sank down into her chair and held her face in her hands; her shoulders shook with her sobs.


The four man team crashed through the forest at break neck speeds. It was not a long journey to Light Country but they would need to get there before any other ninja happened upon the bodies. Kakashi could hear the muffled sniffling from Naruto behind him, they were all crushed by the news of Sakura’s death but Naruto was still crying even now as he thought of Sakura’s prone form, lifeless and alone.
Nightfall was approaching as they came upon the scene; unfortunately they were not the first ones there. Mist ANBU were inspecting the bodies of Takoto’s team. Team Kakashi took a stance ready to fight them off away from the bodies, there were only two Mist shinobi but it would still be a challenge given that they were ANBU ranked. Kakashi quickly scanned the clearing looking for any signs of pink, he spotted a spot where clearly something had been bleeding but was dragged off into the bushes.
“Where’s the kunoichi?” Kakashi asked the ANBU who took fighting stances. “Better yet…why are you two even here? Mist is over a day’s journey away…” He saw that they held the headbands of the rogue nins who were killed by Takoto’s team and Sakura. Suddenly they attacked and the battle was on.
Kakashi had to use his sharingan against the enemies, as did Sasuke. Naruto and Sai were trying to deal with one while the sharingan users took the other. These ANBU were no joke, eventually Sai and Sasuke were eliminated, knocked on conscious. Naruto quickly tried to move their prone forms from the fight while Kakashi did his best using ninjutsu to defeat their opponents. They were able to either kill or knock out one of the shinobi but the other was proving to be very difficult. Kakashi’s eyes widened in shock as an ice sword jutsu came crashing down on him, piercing his chest along with his lung and his legs. Kakashi passed out from blood loss, his vision growing dark as he vaguely heard Naruto shouting “RASENGAN!”


*~* Kakashi’s POV *~*
Pink. That’s what I saw. My eyes drifted open and they were blurred at first. I wasn’t in pain…I must be dead. The events of the battle played in my mind as my vision focused slowly. I was looking up into Sakura’s face. Her face show relief and pure happiness. Whatever I did to deserve heaven I’m not sure, and I definitely won’t question any decision from a higher power on this…I was finally with Sakura again. I never thought our reunion would be in the afterlife but it was nice none the less. Her tears spilled over from her beautiful green eyes and a few drops pattered against the material of my mask.
Sakura’s face was partially shadowed by what appeared to be a flickering candle light. Her hair was much longer than I remembered it, it fell in silky locks of cotton candy over her shoulders and around me like a curtain. All I saw was Sakura and she was so beautiful. So this is what she looked like when she died….
She began to say things that didn’t make sense to me. “You’re finally awake I was worried you never would…” her voice cracked a bit and she squeezed her eyes shut willing away the tears I think… Her eyes snapped open and she leaned down closer to my face speaking a little more softly. “You can hear me right Kakashi?”
I nodded vaguely, immediately noticing the honorific missing. To be in a place where Sakura saw me as more than just the old man that used to train her, this is definitely heaven. “Are you in pain--?” I interrupted her earnest question by reaching up to grab her by the shoulders; I flipped us over with all the grace I could with the bandages restricting me.
I pressed my lips to hers swiftly muffling her surprised cries. My mask was being annoyingly obstructive just as I reached up to pull down my mask my right side was overcome with pain. I fell over to the side with a pained grunt. My hand came down to my side to come away with blood. “I’m not dead?” I mumbled confused. I looked down to Sakura whose face was flushed beet red. She shook her head slowly indicating I was indeed alive. “Well damn…” I just kissed Sakura.


Chapter 2 preview: Kakashi finds out what happened after he passed out and how Sakura survived but what will he do now that he’s taken their professional relationship to the next level?

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