Blinded by Fear

The Same River

Almost a year had passed since Sakaria had arrived at the village. Shikamaru had made the argument that the community should try to make her life as close to normal as possible considering the duress she was under, but it did little to no use. No one talked to her, and the ones who did, asked questions that seemed entirely out of line to ask a stranger. Occasionally, the dark haired girl would hear mumbles on the streets such as "How could she run off with the man who killed her whole family?" "She is going to be the downfall of this entire village."

That was when Pain attacked. Sakaria did nothing to help Konoha as the red haired bodies of Pain infiltrated the village. In fact, everything went by in a blaze and Sakaria only ran to her parents' graves to be with them, sure that she was going to die there. Why would she help the village that would have killed her had they known she was born? Konoha was destroyed, and a war was announced among the village just as they started to rebuild. Sakaria had no idea how she had survived the explosion. There was a brief break of light and, suddenly, she was back, lying in a mound of dirt alone where her parents graves once were. They must have been knocked over and covered in dirt by the blow.

The weeks after were the hardest. Sakaria thought of running away every moment she could, but she remembered what Shikamaru had said. "Things are always less frightening when you have someone come along." The problem was though, Sakaria was alone. There was no one in the village to run away with, and no one she would even consider asking, but it was becoming impossible to listen to the whispers of the villagers while they started rumors.

"If she wasn't here, we wouldn't have been attacked."

"I heard that Uchiha girl lead them here."

Of course, none of this was true. She had met Nagato before, but only briefly, and she had no way of "bringing him to the village." The only people to come to her after the attack to ensure she was okay were Shikamaru, Naruto, a blonde haired boy who seemed vaguely familiar to Sakaria though she couldn't place where she'd seen him, and who had brightly talked to her about Sasuke a few times, and Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke's teammate. Even they didn't have much to say, but she appreciated the gestures of kindness.

When news broke out of Sasuke attacking the Five Kage Summit, the people of the village were outraged, not only with Sasuke, but with the Uchiha name in general. Sakaria learned that Sasuke had not only succeeded in killing Danzo, the leader of the Anbu, but also their older brother and processed this only as much as she could with everything else going on. She knew Itachi would fall to Sasuke one day. Itachi had told her that for a long time, but Sakaria still was unprepared. She had decided to set up a small alter in a place by the river that Itachi liked to visit. He often told Sakaria about the time he had almost jumped off of the cliff nearby to end his own life, but stopped himself and met a murder of crows at the bottom. She went there often to set out flowers and candles, and to feel close to her eldest brother. Often times, she sat praying to Itachi to give her some kind of purpose or direction, but she hadn't received that.

That is, until one day while she was out by the river, she watched as the water bubbled up in the middle as if someone were drowning. Knowing she had been alone just moments before, Sakaria stood and readied her kunai while looking around with her Sharingan. Suddenly, a white haired man flew from the water and landed in front of her, one of his sharp teeth poking over his lower lip as he smiled wickedly. "Hey you!"

Sakaria couldn't place where she had seen the man before, although she knew it must have been somewhere. His appearance was too unique to forget. Somehow though, his persona escaped her. He was wearing an akatsuki robe, but she knew he wasn't a member... or, at least, he hadn't been before she was captured by team ten. "Who are you?" She said, still ready to defend herself against the white haired man in front of her.