Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Genin ❯ Chapter 5: Revelations ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. Nor do Sakura, Sasuke, or any of the other characters mentioned or described herein. I haven't even bothered to get permission from their great and august creator. Feel free to sue me if you wish, but you won't get anywhere. Not only do I have no money, but as a college student, I have LESS than no money. That's right. A negative net worth. Have fun, Mr(s). Lawyer! Also, I will be using adult language in this fic. If you're not supposed to read such language, GO BACK TO SCHOOL!

Genin

By: Flashfyre5

Chapter Five: Revelations

The full moon shone down brightly on Sakura's mid-town home. It was late; well after midnight, but she was still up, waiting for Sasuke to deliver the items that she would need to help him. In the distance, she could hear the sounds of the market, its business unabated despite the hour. She yawned widely, not having expected Sasuke to take this long to deliver what he had promised. /I'm going to have to wait for tomorrow to start this thing,/ she thought sleepily, /so that I don't make any mistakes./

Then, there was a quiet tapping at her window, and Sakura rushed to open it. Sasuke was outside, holding onto a water pipe that ran vertically down to the first floor of her house with one hand and a small brown satchel with the other.

"Here. Thanks," he said simply, handing the bag to her. A slight smile alighted on his face, and Sakura could feel herself melt inside. Sasuke hadn't smiled in as long as she could remember, and the thought that she was the cause of his happiness was like ambrosia to the girl. Somewhere inside, Inner Sakura protested, but Sakura shoved her voice down to where she couldn't hear it any more.

"All right," Sakura sighed, before he left. "Copy the old scroll onto the new one exactly, changing only Uchiha Shinda to Uchiha Sasuke and Uchiha Akiko to Haruno Sakura. That's all of it, right?" Sakura asked, confirming the instructions that Sasuke had given her earlier. She shifted a bit, and could feel something slosh inside the bag.

Before she could ask about it though, Sasuke replied, "Yeah. Just make sure to use what's in the bag as your ink. Got it?" Sakura nodded once, and Sasuke smiled again, just as faintly as he had the first time. Then he was gone, hopping from rooftop to rooftop away from her house.

Sakura moved away from the window slowly, pulling the items that Sasuke had given her from the satchel. One scroll issued forth, cream-colored and edged in deep crimson. Another, exactly like it, soon followed it except that the cream-colored middle was yellowed and a bit cracked with age. She set them on her bedside stand. Following the scrolls was a bamboo calligraphy brush, which Sakura placed next to them. Again her hand dove into the bag, but this time it brushed against ice. She pulled back a bit, then put her hand back in, grabbing ahold of the plastic bag that kept the ice contained. When she pulled it out, she discovered that the bag was not small; it was almost as big as her head. There was a great deal of ice in it. Nestled inside the ice, barely visible, was a dark red bag. Sakura caught her breath as she realized what it was.

"Blood," she muttered, seeing the name `Uchiha Sasuke' written in neat letters on the side. A chill ran down her spine; only the most powerful and dangerous jutsus required a blood sacrifice from their user, much less one of this magnitude. /A jutsu scroll written in blood,/ Sakura thought, trying to process the possibilities; she knew of none.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Sasuke-kun," she said worriedly, looking out the window.

* * * * * *

"All right, Konohamaru," Naruto shouted, his usual cocky enthusiasm easily apparent in his voice. "That's far enough." Now almost three hundred yards away from the orange-clad youth, Konohamaru stopped and turned to face Naruto. "Can you still hit me from that distance?" Naruto called, waving at the seemingly small ninja.

"I think so," Konohamaru called back, waving back at Naruto. "But why do I need to be so far away?" Naruto had to strain to hear that last piece; a bird had begun to chirp nearby. Such was life; Naruto had known that practicing this move in the forest would have consequences, but practicing it within city limits was simply not an option.

"So I don't hurt you too badly," Naruto called back with a grin. He knew that Konohamaru couldn't see it, but he couldn't help himself.

"What?" Konohamaru's voice returned, carrying a tone of incredulity, as opposed to confusion.

"You'll see in a minute!" Naruto reassured the younger boy. "Now just do it already!" he demanded, sinking into a more stable stance. /This is the first time that I'm gonna try this without Kyuubi's chakra,/ Naruto thought to himself, more than a bit worried. Though Kyuubi generated a great deal of chakra, he would only give Naruto so much before he began to hold back. /I'm probably gonna have to use this move in the jounin exams next week. I need to know how well I can do it while still saving Kyuubi for when I really need him./

"All right," Konohamaru shouted back, and Naruto could see him beginning to move his arms. It had taken a lot of convincing from Naruto to get him to do this; a full week of arguing, in fact. Konohamaru had been adamant that he didn't want to be responsible for a training accident that resulted in the death of his idol. Naruto had finally convinced Konohamaru to aid him by bribing him, after a fashion. After the jounin exams, Naruto would cheerfully teach Konohamaru the Kage Bunshin.

/A week,/ Naruto mused, even as he preformed the initial hand seals for his own technique. /I haven't seen Sakura-chan in a week. I should really go make up with her. Maybe even Sasuke if I have to. I miss her./ Naruto knew that his pride annoyed Sakura more often than not, but even as such, he hadn't been able to bring himself to apologize to her for yelling at her yet. He resolved to do so after he finished training with Konohamaru today.

"Kono Ha Maru Ha no Jutsu!" Naruto heard Konohamaru shout, and he cursed inwardly. He had been distracted by his errant thoughts, and now he was a bit behind on his seals. Naruto quickened his pace, even as he saw Konohamaru's burning red disc begin to contract. A red beam lanced away from the young ninja, and it was aimed well; Naruto knew that it would hit him if he failed.

"Katon!" He shouted, completing the final hand seal. Even as the beam approached and he drew breath for the final activation of the jutsu, he poured every ounce of his chakra that he could into the technique. "Hisan na Saigo Ha no Jutsu!"

* * * * * *

Again, Sakura found herself waiting for Sasuke. It had been nearly a week since he had given her the materials that she needed to make the scroll for him. As soon as she'd opened the old scroll, she had been simply amazed at its complexity. Never before in her life had she seen a scroll so intricately made. Since then, she had used several of her own blank scrolls and normal ink to practice for the creation of the actual scroll. It had taken her nine attempts to gain enough confidence in her skill to actually attempt the creation of Sasuke's scroll. Late last night, she had pulled his blood, the thought of which even now sent a shiver down her spine, from her miniature refrigerator and sat down. It had come surprisingly easily, even though the coppery smell of blood in her inkwell had forced her to stop and get fresh air several times.

Sakura had realized immediately a week ago that the old scroll was unreadable. It wasn't that it was decayed, or that it was in some other language. She recognized all of the characters used in the scroll, it just seemed that they were arranged in a completely random order. The only things that she did recognize were the name of the technique, which was repeated often, and the names of the two people that Sasuke had told her to re-write.

Even there, there had been an oddity. Surrounding the name `Uchiha Akiko,' there was a great deal of space; much more so than was necessary. Sakura had contemplated mirroring the extra space around her own name for some time, but she had found that, if she did, she would run out of writing space for that column of text, since her name contained more characters than did `Uchiha Akiko.' Since Sasuke had already told her that that was unacceptable, she had simply shrugged and put her name in without the extra spacing.

"Hey, Sakura," Sasuke's voice wafted over to her. Sakura turned, her attention returned to the present. Sasuke was standing at the end of the bridge that they, along with Naruto, had used as a meeting place when they were still genin. "Do you have it?"

"Yeah," she smiled, pulling the cream-colored scroll from her purse. Sakura wasn't sure if Sasuke had noticed, but she'd made herself up for him. Over their admittedly rather brief contact over the past week, Sasuke had seemed to her like he had changed. He was almost, but not quite warm to her, much more than he had ever been. "Here you go," she said, handing the scroll over to the raven-haired boy. He immediately opened it and unrolled it carefully, his eyes scanning each line quickly, looking for mistakes. Sakura bore his scrutiny in silence for as long as she could bear, then asked worriedly, "Is it good?"

"Perfect," Sasuke said, rolling it back up with a grin. It wasn't, however, the warm grin that she had seen on his face occasionally over the past week. This grin was cold, excited. It was dangerous. Regardless, Sakura pressed forward with her plan.

"Well, I was thinking," she began, blushing a bit underneath her makeup. "Well, I mean… Maybe, since I helped you and all…" she tried to continue, looking down and to the right. /I can't believe that I'm still like this,/ she thought to herself. Inner Sakura tried to pipe up, but Sakura again pushed her back to the recesses of her mind, as she had been doing for the past week. With a sigh, she shook her head and looked right into Sasuke's eyes.

"Would you like to go out with me sometime?" she asked, smiling. As soon as the words had left her mouth, Sakura felt her whole chest tighten in nervousness. These were the words that she'd wanted to say for years; she had fantasized about this moment for just as long. In her dreams, Sasuke would look at her in surprise for a moment, then draw her in close for an embrace. With a breathy "Yes," he would kiss her, and all would be right with the world. In reality, things were… surprisingly like her dreams. Sasuke looked at her in surprise for a moment. Then, his face melted into a relaxed expression, with a small smile alighting on his lips.

"I'm going to go train," he said bluntly, with a bit of a dismissive snort. "I thought that Naruto would be the weak link on our team, but I guess I was wrong. It looks like you're the one that's most likely to fail us. You should train too," Sasuke continued, tucking the scroll into one of his coat pockets. He walked past her, continuing over the bridge and towards the forest beyond. Sakura could barely move; she could feel her dreams crumbling around her. She heard Sasuke's footsteps stop a few feet behind her.

"Don't screw this up for me," Sasuke said darkly, his tone venom. "I've worked too damn hard to get this far. If you keep me from the techniques I need to learn in order to kill Itachi, I'll end your life in the most painful way I can imagine." His footsteps began again, walking away from her. Sakura could barely remain standing, even as he jaw shook and she tried to keep herself from crying.

/You dumbass!/ Inner Sakura finally managed to shout in her mind. /I've been trying to tell you all week! He's just using you for the damn scroll! Couldn't you see it in his eyes?/ Slowly, Sakura sank to her knees. No longer could she restrain her tears; they streamed down her cheeks, ruining her carefully applied mascara.

"He hates me," Sakura said quietly to herself, unable to believe what had just happened.

/No, it's not that…/ Inner Sakura consoled her, giving Sakura the mental equivalent of a hug. /It's just that Sasuke lives for himself. He doesn't have any room for anybody else in his little world. Certainly not for love,/ Inner Sakura continued. Sakura digested this for a minute, even as she tried to wipe the tears from her eyes. Her arm came away streaked with black and brown; she had forgotten about her makeup.

"Maybe," Sakura admitted, her tears finally stopping. "I just don't know."

/It's okay,/ Inner Sakura comforted, trying to help her other half as best she could. /Hey, why don't you switch with me and take a break from the world until you feel better?/

"That…" Sakura thought aloud, heaving a great sigh. "Sounds like a really good idea. Jikan Kokan no Jutsu," she concluded, performing the three hand seals. Sakura-chan, now in control, stood up and stretched luxuriously.

"Damn, that feels good," she said to herself. She walked to the end of the bridge, then down to the riverbank to look at her face. It was a streaked mess; her makeup was everywhere. With a smirk, Sakura cupped water from the stream and splashed herself in the face, scrubbing all of the makeup off. It took a few minutes, but afterwards, Sakura looked fresh again. She couldn't help but flash herself with a wide grin.

Suddenly, an explosion echoed through the forest. Sakura was on her feet and in a defensive stance in an instant, her right hand grasping for a kunai. /Damn,/ she thought angrily of Outer Sakura to herself, carefully guarding her thoughts from the still emotionally fragile girl inside her. /You just had to leave my ninja-to at home today. Oh, well./

It soon became apparent that the explosion had come from deeper in the forest, and away from the area that Sasuke had been heading towards. A cloud of dust was rising from a section of the forest far away from any that was used for training. Sakura glanced down the trail; she saw no Anbu members or jounin on the way.

"Shit," she thought to herself. "If they're not coming by now, they're not gonna be coming in time. Whoever the hell did that is gonna get away if somebody doesn't do something!" With a sinking feeling, Sakura realized that she was the only person close enough to arrive in time. "Well, there is Sasuke. Like he'll do anything. Jackass," she muttered sarcastically as she darted across the bridge and leapt into the trees.

Inner Sakura's prowess in taijutsu was apparent as she vaulted through the trees. Few chuunin would be able to keep up with her as she practically flew through the trees. Sakura allowed herself a smile of accomplishment; it had taken a great deal of training, between Kakashi-sensei and Naruto, for her to become as good as she was. Though her body didn't change at all when she used the Jinkaku Kokan, Outer Sakura hadn't done the training that had developed her muscles and reflexes. Subsequently, she wasn't really able to utilize the latent speed and strength that she had gained. It had, however, given Sakura a much-needed boost to her chakra reserves; well-tuned muscle cells generated much more chakra than they had before Inner Sakura had taken to training them.

Finally, Sakura burst into the site of the billowing dust, and cursed to herself. Whoever had done this was gone, and she could tell by the tracks that they had left that they were in a hurry. Then the enormity of what she was seeing hit her, and she looked at the site again.

Radiating from a small crater in the exact middle of the site to a distance of what Sakura guessed to be a distance of about a hundred and fifty yards, there was not a tree standing. Closer to the middle, they hadn't simply toppled; they had been ripped from the ground, roots and all, and flung to the edges of the freshly made clearing. Further out, trees had simply been blasted from their trunks, as if they'd been hit by some incredible force all at once. Those trees that still stood, out to a distance of about three hundred yards, were stripped of branches and leaves. As Sakura stepped on the scoured-bare ground, a puff of dusty dirt issued from underneath her sandal and into the air.

"What the hell made this?" she asked to herself, a shiver running down her spine. /I can't believe that I paid so little attention while I was coming here,/ Sakura scolded herself, her eyes still wide. /If these people hadn't been in such a hurry to get out of here,/ she thought, turning slow circles to take in the devastation, /They would have seen me./ Another shudder ran down her back as she realized how fortunate she had just been.

"Hold it right there!" a woman's voice commanded her. "Hands up, no jutsus." Sakura slowly raised her hands, and dropped her kunai. She recognized the voice, but couldn't place it. Something about it sounded very familiar, however. She heard the swish of a branch as someone jumped off of it, followed by approaching footsteps. They slowed after a moment, then stopped. "Sakura?"

"Yeah?" Sakura responded, turning slowly to face the woman behind her. She was wearing a white facemask modeled after a raccoon; Sakura almost melted with relief when she saw it. "Mom!" she exclaimed, dropping her arms. The Anbu pulled her mask up over her head, and rushed forward to embrace her daughter.

"What on earth are you doing here?" the older woman asked once she released her child.

"I heard the explosion, and I didn't see anyone coming. I came to see what the hell happened," Sakura explained, her voice surprisingly steady. The older woman noticed this, and the `comforting mother' attitude that she had adopted disappeared. If anything, Sakura's inner self, she knew, could take care of herself. "I didn't see them," she said preemptively, as she saw her mother about to ask. "I think there were two, from the tracks. One there," she pointed, then shifted her arm. "And one there."

"Who's that?" a dour man's voice demanded from the trees. An Anbu with a mask designed like a badger sat in the tree. Arriving shortly after him were three other Anbu, all of which took up positions behind him.

"It's just my daughter," Sakura's mother reassured them, stepping away from her daughter. "And whoever did this is long gone. We should inform the Hokage. It could just be someone practicing where nobody's looking, but…" she trailed off.

"Right," the dour man replied, vanishing back the way he had come. The three behind him followed suit.

"I need to go do my job, honey," Sakura's mother said softly, turning to face her daughter again. "Your father and I have something for you tonight, though. Why don't you go home and rest up. I'll be home from work early, okay?"

"All right," Sakura nodded, smiling at her mother. "Be careful, Mom," she said, as she always did when they parted and her mother was about to go to work.

"There's no other way to be," the older woman replied with a smile as she pulled her mask down to cover her face. Then the woman was gone, following her partners through the treetops.

Sakura sighed and began to slowly walk home. She didn't bother hurrying; she really had nowhere to be. /Unlike Sasuke,/ she thought bitterly to herself, /I have to train hard to get anywhere. I can't make a difference in the week I've got left./ At a leisurely pace, she made her way out of the clearing and into town.

* * * * * *

Sitting cross-legged in front of the fallen ninjas' monument, Sasuke did his best to meditate, to concentrate his chakra as well as he could. /If I want to be able to use the Shijuukaigan Sharingan in time for the jounin exams, I need to master the Sharingan until it becomes easy for me to maintain,/ he thought to himself, his brow furrowed in concentration.

A great explosion echoed through the forest. Sasuke looked up for a moment, then returned to his meditation. /I don't have time for that,/ he thought to himself.

* * * * * *

That… was… AWESOME, Naruto-niichan!" Konohamaru exclaimed once he and Naruto finally re-entered town. "Forget the Kage Bunshin; teach me that technique!" Naruto breathed hard beside the younger ninja, sweat pouring down his face. As soon as he had completed his technique, Naruto had demanded that he and Konohamaru evacuate the blast site.

"No way… kid…" Naruto managed between breaths, finally stopping to rest against a convenient wall . "You… don't… have the… chakra for it… yet." /I didn't think I had the chakra for such a big blast without Kyuubi's help myself,/ he added to himself mentally, shaking his head. A little further down the street, Naruto noticed a small open-air eatery. Considering that he had just used up almost all of his chakra and had just run, at top speed, four or five miles, Naruto decided that it was time to obtain something to sooth his parched throat. He motioned with his hand towards the place, and Konohamaru walked with him towards it. The younger ninja continued to chatter at Naruto, but the blond-haired boy tuned him out, consumed with his own thoughts for the moment.

As he walked, he could feel Kyuubi pulsing gently against his seal. The demon fox loved it when he used his Hisan na Saigo Ha. /It's just the kind of technique that the damn fox would use if he had the option,/ Naruto mused cynically to himself. Nevertheless, Naruto realized the need for an emergency absolute defense technique; the Hisan na Saigo Ha filled that hole in his repertoire, worked excellently as a crowd control technique, and set him up beautifully to execute a counterattack. /It's just the type of technique that you can't use too often,/ Naruto shook his head, sitting down at a small table across from Konohamaru. An older woman wearing a rather soiled kimono approached the two shinobi with a paper pad in her hand.

"What can I get for you two?" she asked in the tone of voice that one adopts after working a job for so long that they've passed beyond the point of even insulting it for how poor it is. After a moment, she seemed to recognize Naruto. At this point, her expression darkened considerably. Konohamaru didn't even notice.

"I'd like some juice and a couple of dango," Konohamaru ordered cheerfully, his voice bringing Naruto back to the present.

"Juice," Naruto croaked. His heavy breathing, though much reduced now, had left his throat very dry. "Lots of juice."

"You got it, kid," the waitress replied, looking at Naruto warily. Naruto could read her gaze; innate feelings of loathing towards the Kyuubi were warring with her innate pity for such an obviously disheveled youth as he. It seemed that pity won out, for a small smile crossed her face. "I'll get a pitcher for you two," she said, kindness just barely evident in her voice.

"Thank you," Konohamaru chirped, having missed the entire shift of emotions in the woman. Naruto nodded towards her with a genuine smile of thanks. Her smile grew a bit, then she ducked into the kitchen. "Anyway," Konohamaru continued, again orienting on Naruto as his target for conversation. "With that technique, you're sure to pass the jounin exams."

"I guess we'll see," Naruto replied, shrugging. "Just do me a favor, okay?"

"What is it?" Konohamaru asked, becoming serious again. Naruto wasn't able to reply, because the waitress took that moment to return, carrying a tray laden with a large pitcher of amber juice, a pair of glasses, and a tray of dango. She set down the pitcher and the glasses between the two boys, saying, "I hope apple juice is okay. You didn't specify."

"It's fine, thanks," Naruto nodded his thanks as he reached for the pitcher and a glass. He filled the glass, then drank it all in one long pull. When he came up for air, he noticed that the waitress had set down the tray of dango; it was a large tray, with eight of the sweet treats on it. In front of each boy was a plate, and Konohamaru was already reaching for one of the sweets. "But we didn't order that much," Naruto protested weakly, pouring himself another glass of juice.

"Don't worry about it," she said, shaking her head. "It's on the house." She took a few steps away, then turned to face Naruto again. "You know, Naruto," she said with a smile, "you're not as bad as everybody says."

"Thank you," Naruto said, blushing. The waitress again disappeared into the kitchen, and Konohamaru snatched the juice pitcher from Naruto's custody.

"What did she mean by that?" the younger boy asked as he poured himself a glass of the sweet juice. Naruto helped himself to a dango as he took his time drinking his second glass.

"Nothing," Naruto said, a small smile on his face. Then, he shook his head and addressed Konohamaru directly. "Anyway, I just wanted to ask you not to tell anybody about the Hisan na Saigo Ha," he explained to Konohamaru frankly.

"Want to keep it a secret for the jounin exams?" Konohamaru grinned around a mouthful of dango.

"More or less," he replied cryptically. /Actually, if I can get through without using the damn thing, I'd be pretty happy about it. If I do do it, I'm gonna do what I can to keep as much of the fox as I can out of it,/ Naruto thought to himself as he began to eat his own dango. /I don't like pulling that much chakra from Kyuubi in one go. Gives him way too much of an opportunity to leak more than just his chakra into me./ Naruto shuddered a bit in memory; Kyuubi's bloodthirstiness was always the first thing to appear, then his reckless rage. It was hard to keep them in check, even though Naruto knew very well that they were not his own feelings. The few times that he'd had to draw on a lot of the fox's chakra, for any reason, Naruto… changed. And he didn't like it.

After that point, the conversation turned to more mundane matters, such as the B-rank mission that Konohamaru was leading at dawn tomorrow. They took their time consuming their impromptu snack, then parted ways after they finished.

Naruto made sure to leave more than enough money to cover the juice and the full tray of dango on the table.

* * * * * *

"Sakura-chan, are you here?" Naruto called at the house. He had been standing on her doorstep knocking for several minutes without result. When there was no reply, he sighed and jumped up to her roof, then off in the direction of his own home.

Five minutes later, Sakura rounded the corner that lead to her home. She was carrying a brown paper bag; on her way home, she'd decided to take a detour and go shopping. What she had intended to be a five-minute detour had turned into a two-hour marathon. Inside her, she could feel that Outer Sakura was coming back to her senses, and offered her a mental nudge of encouragement, which was returned. Since Outer Sakura didn't offer anything in the way of conversation, Inner Sakura decided to respect her unspoken wish, and left her alone.

/And people think I'm insensitive,/ she thought cynically as she unlocked the front door of her home and stepped inside. Once inside, Sakura ascended the stairs to the second level of her home, and made her way into her room. Once there, she unloaded her bag. A new pair of stretch red jeans went into her jeans drawer, and a black vest that was, aside from color, identical to the one she was wearing now was hung on a hangar and put into her closet.

With an impulsive glance around, more out of mischievous habit than actual necessity, Sakura drew from her bag some unmentionables, which her mother and Outer Sakura would NOT have approved of. Grinning widely, Sakura emptied her underwear drawer, then took the contents and stashed them inside her closet, next to some other items that Outer Sakura had purchased, but would never admit to owning. Next, Sakura returned to her dresser and put the lacy items in the now very empty drawer, then slid it closed. Her mischief for the day done, she fell onto her bed and grabbed the remote for the small television that she had finally convinced her parents to allow her to have in her room.

A few hours passed lazily by as she watched things that she really didn't care about on the television. She heard her father come home, and start cooking almost immediately. After a little while, her mother returned as well, and moved up to her own bedroom to change out of her Anbu armor. Soon afterwards, Sakura heard a soft knocking at her door.

"Honey, are you in there?" her mother's voice asked.

Sakura turned off the television and replied, "Yeah. Come on in." The door opened, and her mother, wearing comfortable clothes, entered. To Sakura's surprise, her father followed, carrying a long, wrapped bundle with him. /I didn't hear him come upstairs, and Dad's a chef, not a ninja,/ Sakura thought, surprised. She sat up on her bed and crossed her legs, leaving room for her parents to sit down, if they wanted. Neither of them did.

"We just wanted to tell you how proud we are of you. I couldn't even try the test until I was twenty-five," her mother said with a smile, and Sakura found herself blushing a bit. Her father brought the bundle forward and handed it to her.

"We were going to give this to you after you finished the test, pass or fail," he said by way of explanation as Sakura began to unwrap the gift. "But we talked some, and decided that it might be more useful to you if you had it for the test."

Sakura was left in awe, staring at what she found herself holding. It was a gorgeous ninja-to; she could tell that much just from holding it. The hilt was wrapped in real ray-skin, and capped in brass. Hammered into the cap, obviously by hand, was a beautifully rendered cherry blossom petal. The sheath was beautiful too; it was heavy, and made out of metal, just the way she liked it. Two long slits along the wide side on either side lightened the sheath considerably. It was painted a matte black, aside from brass caps on either end of the sheath. These too bore the hand-hammered cherry blossom petal.

Through the slits in the sheath, Sakura could see that the blade had been powdercoated black, except for the edge itself. This would reduce the reflectability of the blade, even in the noontime sun, to almost nil. It was a favorite trick of the Anbu, since the technique had come into use a few years ago.

"It's made of folded steel, just like the best katanas," her mother offered. Sakura looked up from the beautiful weapon and towards her parents; she couldn't believe what they had just given her. If her mother was telling the truth, Sakura was holding a much higher quality weapon than even her mother used.

"We had it custom made for you," her father said, grinning at her expression of amazement. "Congratulations."

"Thank you!" Sakura finally shouted, jumping up to embrace both parents. They returned the embrace warmly, even though Sakura, the sword still in her right hand, thumped it into her father's back rather hard.

"Let's go downstairs and have dinner," her father suggested, and the two women readily agreed. Sakura ate well that night, with her new sword by her side. The festivities even coaxed Outer Sakura out of her misery, and into a much more festive mood.

That night, when Sakura went to bed, her new ninja-to went with her, clutched in her arms like a child holds a stuffed animal.

* * * * * *

Sasuke stumbled into his apartment late that night. With barely a thought, he tossed his keys onto his bedside stand and collapsed into his futon. The raven-haired youth was asleep barely before his head touched down on the pillow.

* * * * * *

Morning broke slowly over the village of Konoha, and it brought an unusual visitor. Two chuunin, the village's night guards, were conversing quietly on top of the village's closed gates when they noticed a cloaked figure making it's way towards them. The figure was using a long staff with something that looked like a ball at the top end as a walking stick. It had another long pole strapped across it's back.

"Who's there?" one of the chuunin guards called in challenge. His partner reached for a sword that she kept strapped at her side. The figure stopped, raised the long pole it was carrying, and drove it into the ground, hard. The pole quivered for a minute before the figure spoke.

"My name is Masako Toru. I am here with two messages," the figure declared, pushing back her steeple-like sakkat so that it hung from her neck by its' string. The sun finally rose over the treetops, its' rays revealing a pale face with cold, blue eyes. The guards, however, were not looking at her; the sun's rays shone brightly on the rounded item at the end of Masako's staff.

Long, black hair hung almost two feet below the roughly severed stump where the head had once been attached to a body. Blood had drained down the staff, but it was now dried. A few flies buzzed around it. Lolling out of the head's mouth was a long, pale pink tongue. It hung down below the head's jaw, issuing from between a pair of slightly elongated canine teeth. The head's yellow, vertically slitted eyes were wide open in an almost comical expression of surprise.

"My first message is for the people of Konoha," she announced, just loud enough so that the guards could hear her. "Orochimaru is dead. The war between the Leaf and the Sound is over."

*** Author's Notes ***

Woo hoo! Another chapter in the bag. Anyway, I just wanted to thank everybody who's been taking the time to review me, especially the ones that have been asking serious questions about different things in my fic. It keeps me on my toes, and I appreciate it greatly.

Anyway, I know that pretty much everybody who doesn't like Sasuke is now gonna want to murder him brutally, and everyone who DOES like him is gonna want to murder ME brutally. Oh, well. Can't win everyone over, I guess. Or anyone. Oh, well. I'll just lock my door at night.

So… yeah! Reviews, even negative ones, are much appreciated. If you don't complain, I won't get any better! Thanks, for your time, everybody, and a BIG thanks to my prereaders!.

~Flash (Flashfyre5@msn.com)

Number One Song on Naruto's Playlist:

"Call Me Call Me," The Seatbelts, Cowboy Bebop OST. This is a great song, and it fits the Sakura/Sasuke interaction to a tee. Actually, I'm thinking about making this song the series theme. Oh, well.

Character Themes:

Tsunade: "Main Theme," Iria: Zieram the Animation OST. This is a fun and flavorful song, and I think it fits Tsunade pretty well. Anyone who's seen this anime will agree with me that Tsunade and Iria bear more than a passing resemblance to each other, in terms of personality. I wish I had the link to this one, but I found it years and years ago. You could probably find it by doing a Google search for Iria: Zieram the Animation music. I think.