Chapter Eight

P.O.V. Sakura Haruno

The bedroom was dark as I sat upon my bed, strapping my last weapons pouch onto my thigh, I was still trying to reel in all my unraveled scars. Quickly running my hands through my hair, I pulled it up into a ponytail, still kicking myself that I had come so easily undone in front of Itachi and Diem.

The back of my shoulders ache in pain as my stomach grunted as I flexed it standing, with stiff legs I motioned to move towards my bedroom door, but I froze, resting my hand on the doorknob.

My heart felt hollow as I held no twisted desire to stumble back into the hidden leaf village, but why? Was the vacuous feeling I held simply due to Kakashi and his new pearl?

He did what he was supposed to do; he moved on after I died. But now I was returned to the land of the living and everyone looked at him as if he was expected to crumble his life apart for me, and if I was being honest I looked at him too...I waited for him to leave that woman's side and rush me into his arms like he used to do not so long ago but now...why did I have to come back? Why couldn't I just stay dead?

Why do I not feel that stringent urge to storm those familiar gates in order to save the people I grew close to? How could I easily write off the friends I had made, I returned a month ago and left the leaf village in my review mirror and I hadn't looked back since. Was I truly this selfish of a person?

"Sakura?" Dawn's voice bungees me back into a reality I did not recognize. I quickly pulled open my bedroom door, extending my arm ached my muscles.

"I think you should stay here." Itachi commented reading the pain on my face from the simple act of opening a door.

"Are you going to keep the Nine inside the village while we are gone?" I turned to Dawn ignoring Itachi.

"Yeah-" Dawn answered with a long reasoning, but my mind tuned her out. The thought of stepping back into the leaf village not only twisted my stomach but fluttered it as well, I knew it was going to be like a knife inside my chest but I wanted to see him, I felt the pain of missing him, for me it hadn't been two years, I blinked and everything around me shattered. "-are you sure about this Sakura?"

"You don't even have control over your eyes or seal yet." Diem annoyingly added on.

"I won't be using either." I sighed feeling annoyed, getting out of this house was taking too long!

"Sakura-" Itachi sounded worried.

"Your village is getting hit-!" I snapped; his masked face flashed through my mind. "-open a damn portal!" Itachi sighed but nodded, knowing I was right. Dawn and Diem stood beside me as Itachi's eyes flexed from their darkened orbs into purple circles.

"Can you drop us right into the action?" Diem requested as the portal opened beneath our feet.

"I wasn't aware I had 'taxi service' written along my forehead!" Itachi bit as we fell through his portal. My feet hit a hard surface, I snapped my eyes open hearing the playful sounds of clanking metal and screaming voices smack into me like an old cold winter breeze.

"Sa-Sakura!?" I turned my head hearing his high-pitched voice. Naruto stood beside Tsunade; unknown shinobi I didn't recognize surrounded their gear. I tilted my head seeing their tight clothing and bright blue and yellow color scheme choice.

"What are you-!?" Naruto breathed but was cut off as one of the brightly dressed ninja jumped him. Itachi ran forward quickly covering Tsunade as Dawn, Diem and I pulled our blade from their slumber.

"Really?" Diem scoffed with a shake of his head seeing seven of the ninjas from the group who had surrounded Naruto and Tsunade broke off and were now running towards us. "You all really wanna die today?" He sounded cocky as ever, but even so it took only second for the three of us to take down those seven shinobi.

"What?" Mutters grew from within the shrinking group of invading shinobi, they glanced at each other and then back towards us as we marched our way to be the cause of their deaths.

"Pink hair?" I heard from inside the group,

"It can't be!" Someone had gasped, I found a smirk grow along my lips.

"Oh-" I breathed glaring into the crowd as I pushed my way to were Itachi, Tsunade and Naruto stood still surrounded, "-it can be."

"You-You-The Reaper is dead! She-"

"Is right here-" I cut in, "-and she is getting bored."

"How can you be the Reaper!?" A voice cried out.

"How can you believe you could pull off those spandex's?" Diem countered cutting down two more ninja who ran directly towards him.

"Oh!" One man laughed stepping out from the crowd, his eyes locked onto me as if I was the one who just killed his friends? "I am going to rip you into spreads!" He angrily spat making me smile.

"Hm." I hummed, "Kinky, I like it."

"You bitch!" He called.

"Thank you." I replied, having finally cut my way beside Naruto and Tsunade.

"Sakura!?" The blonde gasped, her amber eyes wide. "What are you doing-!?"

"You think I would let you guys have all the fun?" I asked looking at her.

"But you...you were..."

"What are you doing out here?" I ignored her flabbergasted self.

"Wh-What?" Tsunade breathed as she punched a woman on the side of her face, sending the brightly dressed ninja flying backwards. "My village is being attacked! I have to be-"

"We have eyes, we can see you're getting attacked. But your pregnant-" I stated, "-you should be inside the tunnels with the other-"

"I didn't have a choice!" Tsunade shouted over the clashing sting of metal. "They swooped in so fast, dropping bombs and scattered us so quickly. I wasn't able to get to the tunnels."

"Do you know who attacked you?" Dawn questioned.

"Yes." Tsunade answered from behind me. I blinked after a second not hearing her continue, I turned to make sure she was still in place.

"Ok-?" I shook my head, "-care in enlighten us?"

"Well..." Tsunade sighed punching a man square in his face knocking a few teeth lose, "...long ago there was a group of shinobi who had the ability to control their chakra strategically enough to where they could fly, they were called the land of sky-"

"Uh...-" I broke her story huffing air into my lungs as my arms stung, "-you know me, I love a good story but um, why the fuck are you telling us bedtime stories at time like this!?"

"I was telling you-!"

"Break it down simple and easy, you twat!" I snapped without thinking.

"What did you call me?!" Tsunade turned to face me, "I was the one who offered you the job of a lifetime-!?"

"Really?" I stated, "Now you think is the best time for this conversation?"

"Yes!"

"No!" I shook my head, "Who the fuck are these people and why are they targeting you?"

"The Leaf Village destroyed them, or so we thought." Tsunade sighed, seeing the training grounds had cleared out, "Now that they have made a comeback it seems the Leaf is their main target-"

"Who is we?" I cut in.

"The Sky Village."

"The what?" I responded,

"What kind of absurd cyber bullshit-" Diem laughed deep from inside his chest,

"The Sky Village is real now listen!" Tsunade lectured us, "After they take us down, they will go after the rest of the fire nation. I just don't understand why they stopped their attack and retreated the way that they did."

"They retreated?" Itachi raised an eyebrow, this did not feel like they had retreated at all.

"Yes, they came flying into the village dropping bombs and causing some serious damage but out of nowhere they pulled back." Tsunade explained.

"Uh..." Diem rubbing his face, "...I must be getting to old, you said flying?"

"Yes." Tsunade breathed, "They were on these strange machines, they flew on them that's how they dropped bombs on us, which scattered us so quickly, giving them the upper hand."

"You said these particular group of people can control their chakra like we can't?" Dawn questioned looking at me,

"Yeah?" Tsunade answered,

"They are like you then." Dawn spoke to me.

"Well then we are fucked." Diem commented throwing his hands up in the air.

"No-" I muttered, "-whatever machine you said they flew in on, I will put my money on they used their chakra to power it. They only retreated from the sky due to running out of chakra."

"Which means-" Dawn finished, "-they will have a base of sort somewhere close nearby."

"They will?" Tsunade muttered.

"Yeah." I agreed with Dawn, I spotted more shinobi wondering towards us.

"Dawn, Diem-" I called turning to face the oncoming ninja. "-go hunt out their base and bring it down."

"On it!" Dawn said with a bounce in her step.

"Not even my boss anymore and she's still bossing me around." Diem muttered as he walked off quickly following Dawn.

"Are you sure that was smart?" Itachi questioned, "We may need them to help cover Lady Tsunade and-"

"If they these shinobi do have a base set up nearby, they are there to recharge and then most likely will start a second air strike." I explained. "That is something we don't need right now."

"That is true." Naruto muttered, "Besides you have me to help cover Granny!"

"That isn't what I am worried about." Itachi sighed.

"Huh?" Naruto muttered.

"Sakura has been made." Itachi quickly explained as I turned my focus onto the shinobi who were wrapping around us. "It won't be long until they start to target her."

"Why-Why would they want to target her!?" Naruto's scratchy voice crawled up the back of my neck raising the hairs on it.

"How about we save the catching up until after we don't have people trying to kill us!?" I snapped without turning back to look at the leaf shinobi.

"You're so bossy." Itachi muttered, "I have missed that."

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing!" Itachi nervously chuckled on my left.

"Who do we have here?" A voice sang from behind me, I kicked away the brightly dressed ninja before looking over my shoulder making sure Tsunade was still there. She was looking towards the tree line where more invading shinobi were emerging.

"What the hell?" I breathed out annoyed.

"The Reaper?" A tall slender man laughed, looking in charge and his ego overly inflated. "It must be my lucky day!" He laughed, "Bring me the Reaper!" He ordered his men behind him.

"Who are you?" Naruto groaned leaning his head back.

"I am the Commander of the Sky Village!" The man proudly announced, I rolled my eyes at his sadistic laugh.

"Good for you." I muttered more to myself than anyone else.

"Bring me her eyes!" The man continued to laugh as his dozen or so men took off running towards where I and the leaf shinobi stood. "I want them for my collection!"

"I told you." Itachi muttered towards Naruto.

"Really?" Tsunade said, "Now is the time for this?"

"Ew." Naruto muttered, "While you were saying all of that, did any of your words come across disturbing to your or is that just me?!" He shouted out towards the deranged commander.

"Naruto stop making friends." Tsunade ordered bracing for the on coming fight.

"I-I am not making-"

"Fanfuckingtasic." I cursed tuning Naruto out seeing the unwanted workout sprinting my way.

----

"Why can't we kill him again?" Itachi questioned me as I finished tying up the commander of the sky village. It did not take us long to capture him then strike down his men, and the smart ones who didn't feel like dying today all scattered from sight. Looking around the area I was questioning how this man put together such a solid attack plan when he himself was a poor opponent.

"He could be useful." I repeated shooting Itachi an annoyed face, warning him to shut up.

"I don't see how." Itachi muttered looking at the man who tried to cast his men down onto us and tasked them with the mission of ripping out my eyes for his trophy case.

"Sakura!" I looked over my shoulder, Dawn was jogging towards us.

"Hey." I commented.

"Don't 'hey' me!" She snapped.

"What did I do now?" I muttered.

"What did you do?" Dawn mocked,

"What do you mean?" I asked looking around, "I didn't blow anything up and the village is still standing. This is a good day for me!"

"Diem and I were at the boats before they got orders to flee." Dawn said putting her hands on her hips. "Sky ninja were flocking out of this village by the boat loads, now we have to go hunting for them!"

"Oh..." I realized. "...he started it." I said pointing down to the incapacitated commander.

"Who is this?"

"An asshole." Naruto answered, crossing his arms over his chest.

"An asshole that should be dead." Itachi corrected, I smirk. I enjoyed how I was rubbing off on him.

"So-" I looked around at the empty field. "-looks like we have a scavenger hunt on our hands."

"A what?" Tsunade questioned.

"Since the sky shinobi were literally flying out of the leaf village-" Dawn crossed her arms over her chest, shooting me an annoyed look I pulled my lips into a thin line and went to start collecting my silver kunai. They are bastards to make so losing them wasn't something I planned on doing today. "-we need to go hunting to eliminate the left-over shinobi, so they don't come back retaliating-" Dawn went on explaining.

"Dawn!" My voice cried out; my heart dropped into the pit of my stomach seeing a built man running up from behind her; a swirling thirst to spill her blood reflected inside his eyes and a shiny blade extended within his right hand.

When Dawn didn't react to my voice my feet ran on their own account, my arms wrapped around her torso. But my eyes widened feeling the throbbing pain on the side of my head as my right arm wouldn't corroborate with my command to rise and block the oncoming sword. Pulling Dawn into me as I automatically without thinking used myself to shield her and waited for the familiar pain to thrash my body.

"Urgh!" A voice grunted from behind me, I looked over my shoulder still holding onto Dawn. My heart stopped beating from inside my chest, my lungs refused to draw in vital oxygen as my eyes stared wide as the sun at his masked face blocking the man from reaching Dawn and me.

"Kaka..." I breathed, Kakashi quickly strikes the large man down but not without earning a gash along his right arm before doing so. My arms released a very confused Dawn.

"Sakura-" My name on his voice almost collapsed my knees from beneath me. "-are you alright?" Kakashi questioned turning his body to face mine.

"Wha-" I breathed out, "-are you a fucking moron!?" I snapped walking over towards him.

"Uh...what...?" He sounded confused, I reached out gripping his wounded bicep.

I meant to quickly heal Kakashi and then step away but the feeling of his muscular arm underneath my fingers froze my brain as I numbly stared at his torn bleeding skin, had his arm always been this hard?

"Are you stupid!?" Itachi's voice shattered my bubble as I quickly looked behind me, still stupidly holding Kakashi's arm. "You could have been killed!"

"Itachi's right." Dawn agreed stepping up, "You still have the Reaper's poison in your system, you can't be healed but Kakashi can."

I rolled my eyes feeling annoyed, I was so use to being the caretaker, so I didn't like to be taken care of. I turned ignoring their frantic complaints as I went to healing Kakashi's arm.

"You shouldn't have jumped in front of that shinobi." I muttered to Kakashi; my face hot as my heart pounded inside my ears as I refused to look up at him. "You could have been hurt a lot worse than this."

"And you could have been killed-" Kakashi answered sternly, "-why are you out fighting anyway? I can tell you're not completely back-"

"I was fine." I muttered feeling like I was being lectured.

"You are not fine." Kakashi said, "You clearly need more time to recover, if I hadn't come along when I did you could have been killed-"

"Well I already died once so-" I shrugged with my shoulders.

"Sakura." Kakashi snapped, I looked up into his exposed eye. A swirling cloud of confusion and anger laced his orb. "-I don't want to see you hurt, you are-" I swear to God if he calls me his student, I will personally be the one to put him inside his final grave. "-very special-"

"Kakashi!" My body physically cringed as my hand dropped from Kakashi's arm. I watched in annoyance as Hanare came running towards us, once near a large smile pulled onto her face as she jumped freely into his arms. "You're ok!" She sounded relieved.

"Hanare?" Kakashi asked, "What are you doing out of the tunnels?"

"We were let out." She answered looking up at him, it finally occurred to me Hanare may have seen Kakashi's face without his famous mask on. I was no longer the only person to have seen him without it. "I heard after the Sky Village's ships were blown up they all either flocked away or were taken down."

"I see, well it looks like that attack is over-"

"Commander?" Hanare brought my eyes to investigate hers, "What are you-?"

"The Waterfall Village came to aid us." Tsunade flashed a grin,

"Oh." Hanare nodded, "Well...um, thank you!" She brightly smiled almost making my stomach physically ill. "Kakashi-" She turned to him, "-I volunteered to help with the village clean up, will you help too?"

"Of course." Kakashi nodded, Hanare laced her fingers through his as the two walked off towards a group of leaf shinobi who were collecting together getting ready to repair the damage, I watched him walk away with her.

"Sakura!" Naruto gasped out,

"Huh?" I turned.

"Your arm!" Naruto said, I followed his gaze to my right forearm to see I had a warm blood trail dripping down my fingers.

"Oh-" I said having not even feel myself getting cut, "-lookie there, I'm bleeding." I smirked looking back over at Naruto's terrified face.

"You're going to bleed out!" Naruto cried trying to get close enough to apply pressure to my arm.

"Shut up." I said swatting him away, "I'm fine."

"But-"

"She is right." Tsunade agreed, "It's just a simple cut."

"But-"

"Hey guys!" Diem shouted gaining everyone inside our small group's attention. He was soaked to the bone, leaving behind a water trail. "I sunk a boat!" He threw both his arms up in the air looking so victorious, like he was on top of the world and nothing could bring him down. "Did you see how awesome it was!?"

"Ugh." Dawn shook her head as I laughed, she turned towards Tsunade. "So, are you going to have all the fun, or do we get to tag along too?"

"Huh?" Tsunade blinked causing me to smirk.