Sakura's POV
Sakura had spent the past 20 minutes walking back and forth across the, still broken, village. But many repairs were happening. As a matter of fact, repairs were happening quick.
If the villagers kept this up, the village would be rebuilt in less than possibly 3 months. However, the huge crater was going to be a huge deal.
Sakura was currently searching for Sasuke. She was told that he'd spent all night training so she wanted to check up on him to make sure he doesn't exhaust himself too badly.
Assuming he hasn't even eaten yet, she grabbed lunch and water to help keep his stamina up. He may be talented, but he still had limits. Even he knows that.
Sakura reached the training grounds and saw Sasuke breathing hard. His right eye bleeding badly.
"Sasuke!" Sakura shrieked as she ran towards the boy.
"Sakura..." He breathed out.
"Lay down, let me see your eye!" She said as she reached for his head.
Sasuke moved her arm as he looked around.
"I'll be fine.."
"No.. you're bleeding from your eye very badly. It's time you rest."
"I've been through worse.."
Sakura looked over at the obliterated village.
"We're all going through worse..."
Sasuke wiped the blood from his eyes and laid down for Sakura to heal it. He had a blank expression, but she had seen that expression way too many times to the point she knows he's hiding something.
Like right now...
"What's bothering you?" She asks.
Sasuke sighs. "Four years..." He responds. "We thought he was dead for four years..."
Sakura frowns. "I know..."
"I don't even think I shed tears for him when it happened.."
"Sasuke..."
"I don't know the reason to it. I didn't feel sadness, I felt angry. Angry at the fact that he went through so much trouble to bring me back, only to die a few days later.." Sasuke continued.
Sasuke looked over at Sakura. It was weird for him to show this much emotion so it was unexpected to say the least.
"Sakura... did we truly hate Naruto, even though he had good intentions..?"
Sakura's eyes went big at that. "I just think we were a bit too harsh."
"Bullshit, Sakura." Sasuke said as he stood up quickly. "A bit too harsh? How can it be just a bit when we thought we had driven him to suicide??"
Sakura stared at the grass. "I- I don't know..."
"Don't go lying to yourself..." A familiar voice had said. "You both know the exact reason..."
Sakura and Sasuke both looked over. Thier eyes going big. "Sakura.... Sasuke..."
They both looked to see Naruto standing right there. They noticed his other eye was replaced with the rinnegan.
Oh no...
"Do I really have to lay it out for you both?" He said as he stepped forward. "It's not that you both hated me. It's just that you both didn't believe in me."
Naruto stood between the two, not looking at them. "Ever since the exams, I wanted to believe in you both a lot more. But it seems I have gotten my hopes up, because I'm truly disappointed in you both."
Naruto stepped over to Sakura. The girl was at a loss for words as she stared at the ground. Who would've thought that the presence of the boy she once knew would be so.... terrifying.
"Being trained under Tsunade is definitely an honor... I'm sure most people would kill to have her train them. But clearly she chose the wrong person to train."
Naruto reached out to Sakura as he cupped her chin to make her look at him. "Because at the end of the day.... Sakura, you're still the scared coward I remembered on that bridge."
Naruto turned his attention to Sasuke. "And for someone to be praised by the entire village, this is the best you can do..? I'm disappointed, Sasuke."
"Why are you here...?" Sasuke asked as him and Naruto stood face to face.
"To kill you.."
Sasuke almost went on high alert until Naruto smirked. "At least that was my original plan, I thought you'd be a pain in the ass as I chased after the last two remaining Akatsuki members."
Naruto's smirk then turned into chuckles as he began to laugh at Sasuke in his face.
"But it seems I have nothing to worry about. After all..... you're weak, and you wouldn't stand a chance against me."
Naruto then did a gesture where he put his hand on his chin and closed his eyes as he looked up at the sky. "Hmm.... what was it that everyone called me at the academy...?"
Naruto hummed as he sarcastically thought about it.
"Dead boy?? No.. I'm pretty sure that was after the fake death. Dead wrong? No.. that wouldn't make sense. Ah! I thought of it... dead last"
Naruto then puts a finger on Sasuke's shoulder. "Out of all the people I'm worried about. You're dead last."
"You're wrong...." Sasuke responded as he slapped Naruto's finger off his shoulder.
"Oh? Am I now?"
"You are. I'll admit, when I saw your strength back there against Danzo... I was shaken up a bit. And I thought I stood no chance... but now, I know I'll at least have a fighting chance."
Naruto chuckled and then looked at Sasuke like he was joking. "You know.... I could kill you right now. I could kill everyone here. Do you think my strength was just for show?"
It kinda was... Kurama spoke to him in his head.
"My strength comes solely from-"
"One week." Sasuke interrupted.
Naruto raised a brow. "One week..?"
Sasuke stepped foreword. "Give me one week, and I swear to you that I'll be strong enough to be on equal footing against you."
Memories began to play in Naruto's head. He thought back on when he said the same thing to Tsunade when she doubted that he could learn rasengan in a week.
"One week...?"
Naruto smirked. "Alright then... sole Uchiha survivor. One week it is."
Naruto then began to face Sakura as he leaned down to be face to face against her.
"Same for you too. You got a helluva punch, but you're sloppy."
Naruto then backed away from her and began to walk past Sasuke. But before he could completely disappear he stopped in his tracks, his back still turned to them.
"You know what? Make that three weeks!" He said as he held up three fingers.
Sasuke gritted his teeth. "You really don't believe we can?"
"No... I don't. There's no way you could get such strength in a week."
Naruto then continued walking away. "Be lucky, I'm giving you something I haven't given most of the Akatsuki members that I've killed."
"Which is...?" Sakura responded.
Naruto smirked as he looked back at them one last time.
"Mercy.."
And just like that, he vanished. Sasuke didn't look to fazed by Naruto's words. Then again, when is there a time where he is fazed.
"There can't possibly be a way that we can get stronger in 3 weeks! Right, Sasuke?"
Sasuke remained silent as the wind blew. Still facing the direction that Naruto stood. It was at that moment that Sakura knew, he was in deep thought.
"Sasuke...?"
"Sakura..." He spoke.
Sakura stood straight when she heard her voice leave his mouth.
"Tsunade-sama is awake... right?"
"Y- Yeah... but she still needs lots of rest."
"That's fine. There's just one thing I need you to do."
"M- Me...?"
Sasuke asking for a favor... that's kinda new...
Sasuke finally faced Sakura before walking past her, and into the shambled village.
"I'm going to talk to Tsunade-sama. I need you to gather everyone right now. That includes Orochimaru, Karin, Juugo, and Suigetsu. I don't want a single person left out, got it?"
"Y- Yes! I'm on it." Sakura says before running off to find everyone.
Sasuke sighed as he heads towards Tsunade's tent.
It didn't take him long. Even though the village is completely gone, he still got around pretty quickly.
He wasted no time entering the tent without saying a word, only to see bowls stacked on each other and a very hungry Tsunade finishing up her 50th something bowl.
Shizune noticed Sasuke's presence and almost shrieked, nothing new.
"Sasuke! What the hell are you doing here?!!"
"The village is my home..." Sasuke bluntly responded. "Tsunade-sama..." He called out.
Tsunade put down the bowl she was about to finish up as she looked up at Sasuke. Raising a brow..
"It's rare to hear you call me that, but I'm guessing you have something important to tell me."
Sasuke pulled up a chair as he sat down and nodded. "Try to listen carefully to everything I say. I don't like repeating myself, so I'll only say it once."
"Tch.. fine." Tsunade said as she grabbed another bowl.
"We need to be prepared..."
Sakura's POV
Sakura walked back and forth, biting her lip as she awaited Sasuke's arrival. She managed to get everyone here surprisingly, however some are starting to get impatient and are just about ready to leave.
"So.. where the hell is he?" Suigetsu asked, for the 10th time.
"Dude.. he'll be here in a bit." Kiba responded.
"I've been told that shit about ten times already."
"Because you've asked the same damn question about ten times already!" Karin responded.
"Because we've been waiting for over thirty minutes for him to show up! Pinky here said it was urgent, so why the hell is he late for his own damn urgent meeting?"
Sakura bit down on her lip harder as she waited longer and longer.
"I think I'm about ready to go home and get lots of sleep.." TenTen told them.
Just when it seems like everyone was about to leave, Sasuke then approached them all. His look was always serious, but they could tell that he clearly had something on his mind.
"So, Mr. Cool... what's this meeting about?" Suigetsu asked.
Sasuke lifted an arm and pointed at Rock Lee.
"Rock Lee, where you're standing at right now... that's where Naruto was standing earlier today during my training. He could've easily killed us all, but he didn't."
"He's giving us three weeks.." Sakura joined in.
"For what? Until he kills us?" Ino asks.
"That may be what's going on in his head, especially for me. But for us, it's three weeks until we get strong." Sasuke responds.
Sai decided to join in. "Although I'm not very fond of Naruto, I have seen his monstrous strength. It's terrifying to the point none of the kages stood a chance." He says.
"So Sasuke, what makes you think we will?"
"He's right... if you think it about it. Sasuke, you're basically telling us to die." Kiba joins in.
Sasuke sighed, and in a split second, his tone changed.
"Ever since I first arrived to this village, my clan had been killed. And I had nothing on my mind but revenge when I promised myself to kill by brother. But not only that, one thing I had on my mind as well, was to be better than anyone to the point I almost left this village just to accomplish it."
Sasuke stood tall. "But up until now, I started to accept those around me.. and I even began to notice some your guy's strength. You've all gotten strong too, but times are changing quick. Soon, we're gonna be going through hell... but we need to be stronger to conquer that hell."
Sakura immediately joined in.
"He's right. Come on guys! Compare yourselves to the past! We were all sloppy back then, and all we really cared about was strength! But throughout the years, we've realized that we can't get such strength unless we have each other!"
Sakura looked over to Ino. "Ino, come on! You're with me right??"
Ino sighed as she walked up to Sakura. But that sigh, was joined by a smile. "And to think that one day, that big forehead of yours would come up with something smart."
Sakura smiled as she lightly hit Ino. "About time you've finally sided with me on something, Ino-pig."
Rock Lee soon ran up to Sakura as well. "I can tell from your tone and emotions that you truly believe in us Sakura-san! Therefore, I will continue to get stronger than I already am!!"
Sakura smiled at him too.
Hinata quickly turned towards Neji, her face full of determination. "Neji, I've seen how you fight. There's still things that I want you to teach me, or things that I can learn from! We can learn something more from each other throughout our training!"
Neji nodded. "I suppose so."
Sai put his hand on his chin as he turned towards Shikamaru. "Now that I think about it, I think our abilities could work well together, in a way."
Shikamaru sighed. "Great, hard training and I'm stuck with a weirdo. This whole thing is so troublesome, if we do all this training just to die, I think I might actually off myself before the enemy does."
Choji chuckled as he put his arm around his best friend. "You're always packing the lame attitude! We need to work together and make those we've lost proud."
More and more chatter began to happen as Sasuke and Sakura watched everyone begin to already think of plans and how well their strengths can benefit from each other.
Sakura smiled as Sasuke remained with the same expression.
Kakashi watched from a distance as all of this unfold.
"Sasuke... Sakura... you both really came a long way. But of course, there's still plenty of room for improvement."
Kakashi then put away the same book he's always reading before slightly chuckling nervously.
"But then again.. I've already died once, so the same could be said for me. I guess it's time Guy and I actually spar."
As the chatter began to quiet down, Sasuke stood over everyone, alongside Sakura.
"It seems you all understand what needs to be done. But I'll have you know that we're not the only ones who will be working hard. I've talked to Tsunade, and she said she'll send all the current kage's a message about this all. Meaning Gaara and every village out there will be training too."
Everyone nodded and smiled at this good news. With the kage's strength along with their 3 weeks of training, there's a chance they could take down Naruto.
"Hehe.. seems the bastard isn't just all talk and actually wants to try." Suigetsu says.
"Now then, all of you... get to training, now! Don't let these three weeks go to waste!" Sakura shouted.
"Right!!" Everyone replied before they split into teams or separately.
Before Sakura could go off to train on her own, Sasuke spoke up.
"Sakura... I need you to spar with me."
Sakura gulped. "M- Me...?"
"No need to be afraid. But just know I won't hold back. So don't hold back on me either. Think of me as an enemy you need to defeat if you want to protect the people who matter to you."
Sakura took out her gloves as she began to put them on, while Sasuke stepped away as he tried to get some distance.
"It's like you said... don't let these three weeks go to waste."
Sakura chuckled as she pulled her glove down tighter "Right!"
Sasuke then closed his eyes. "Now then..." And just like that, his eyes flashed open as he activated his Sharingan.
"Come at me.."
Sakura chuckled one more time as she rushed towards her opponent before jumping in the air and balling up her fists.
"SHANAROOO!!!!!"
To Be Continued....
Alright I'm done with excuses as to why I've been gone, I'll see yall in the next chapter -_-
Also im going back in the other chapters to fix errors because I just noticed that in chapter 24, Sakura suspects that Naruto was an Uchiha even though I had Shizune LITERALLY TELL THEM THAT SHE TRANSPLANTED THE EYES !!!
Im a dumbass (but so is og naruto Sakura and Shippuden Sakura) to the point that I even forget what happens in the story that i've been writing for almost 2 years rn... embarrassing asf...
F uck
M y
L ife