Our Reflection in Each Other's Eyes.

Chapter 28: Redemption

The following morning I woke up without Sasuke to my side. I wore only one of his long white shirts that practically revealed my entire chest.

I made due, finding no time in searching for my own clothing. I tied one of the purple ropes he had left behind, making the big shirt into a dress.

I slipped on my ninja sandals and walked toward where the fire was located the previous night.

No one was around, making me uneasy.

I continued walking, while trying to track down a familiar chakra signature.

There was nothing. No one.

"He wouldn't just abandon me, would he?"

I began to worry and question everything. I made use of the abilities I had come across in the past.

I entered what previously showed as a place of the dead.

There were no familiar faces, but I approached anyway.

"Hello, ma'am, by any chance did you see three guys and a girl around?"

"Not with us," came her shaky voice, one that held her age, "they were in the land of the living."

"Did you see where they went?"

Her shaky finger pointed in direction, opposite the one I had started heading to.

"A good mile or so down that path. I lost sight of them after that last row of trees."

I respectfully thanked her and released the jutsu to jog in the direction I had been pointed to.

My jog wasn't full of energy, as holding that jutsu takes so much from me.

I reached the end of the treeline the elderly woman had directed me to, completely out of breath.

"I can't take a break." I encouraged myself, "I don't know if he's okay or not."

I pushed myself as far as I could, stopping only to take a deep breath before continuing again.

Once I felt I was already a good distance out, I tried locating a familiar chakra signature once more.

Thankfully, I found five. Suigetsu-san, Jūgo-san, Karin, Sasuke-kun, and Itachi-san.

I paid no mind to the fact that Sasuke-kun and Itachi-san were in the same location. I simply hurried.

When I reached familiar faces, I saw that they were waiting with whom I remember as Itachi-san's partner from the Akatsuki.

I tried pushing through to where I felt Sasuke-kun's chakra, but Kisame wouldn't let me.

I fought against him as I insisted in getting through. I couldn't risk losing Sasuke-kun.

In the heated moment, through all my anger, I made hand signs to a binding jutsu.

"Dark magic: Hands of the underworld."

With everyone who tried stopping me, held down by the hands that shot up from the ground, I ran toward where I felt Sasuke.

I reached a battlefield. The two were fighting one another with all they had, pushing one another back and forth.

"Stop!" I yelled from a safe distance.

I shouted over and over, but no one listened.

Tears were already streaming down my face as I shouted once more. My screams of agony mixed with my chakra, creating a jutsu, to give it a label.