The Girl They Never Saw [Completed]

Chapter 20 ~ Golden Irises

      "Just like muscles become stronger as you wear them down, as bones get tougher every time they broken, and as tissue repairs thicker when it is torn, the mind steels when it is shattered." -Sakura Haruno

(Thanks Anime_Reigns for the quote)

      Sakura smirked from her position just outside Kakashi's vision. Naruto's pathetic attempts were getting him nowhere, they weren't even strong enough to provide her an ample distraction. She sensed movement to her left, and spotted four shuriken whizzing toward their sensei. That was what she was waiting for, Sasuke's move. She flashed out of hiding and shunshinned into the tree across the clearing, on the other side of Kakashi.

      As his body changed back into a log, she grinned at the silver haired ninja perched on the branch beneath her. With nimble fingers, she swiped a bell and shunshinned back to her former location just as the jonin turned his head. All Kakashi saw was a few rustling leaves.

       Completely ignoring Naruto's continued antics, Sakura tied the bell to the end of a senbon needle and used it to hold up her hair in a messy bun. Then she looked around for Sasuke, who was nowhere in sight. She sighed. With his superior attitude, he was probably off just waiting for Kakashi to finish Naruto and come fight him. This was going to be a lot harder than she'd thought.

<Time Skip>

      Sakura stood over the bodies for hours, long after her team had returned to Tazuna's home to rest. She didn't need rest, she'd barely done anything the entire fight. Better that Sasuke and Naruto get the combat experience, which was something she already had.

      Mist overshadowed the bridge, but it was natural mist, unlike the stuff Zabuza had summoned. It cloaked the girl in droplets of moisture, but she payed them no mind. At last, she bowed to the corpses. "Thank you, Zabuza Momochi and Haku. Goodbye, and good fortunes." She buried them in the water, their bodies sinking to the depths and gone.

<Another Time Skip>

      Sakura rounded a corner at top speeds and bumped into someone, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

      "Hey! Watch it!" An unfamiliar female voice shouted.

      Sakura leapt to her feet. "Sorry! Wasn't-" Her voice died when she took in the appearances of the two in front of her.

      A male with purple markings on his face, all in black, and a girl with blonde hair tied back in four spiky pigtails and a fan strapped to her back. But most interesting was their headbands. "You two are Suna shinobi, aren't you?"

      They nodded in confirmation. "Yeah! Now watch where you're going!" The man shouted at her.

      "Again, sorry." She looked down for a minute, then back up. "Can I ask why you're in Konoha?" She suspected, but needed to know for sure.