Stream of past

First Night in the Forest

Sakura crouched down in front of Naruto and cut the rope that tied him. She entered medic-mode as she quickly examined him of any injuries. Once she gave him the ok, the three of them decided on a password, so they can recognize each other.

"Listen closely, because i'm only gonna say this once." said Sasuke. "When does a ninja strike? The answer is a ninja waits until the time is right, when the enemy sleeps and drops his guard, when his weapons lie forgotten in the stillness of the night, that is the moment for a ninja to strike. Got it?"

Sakura nodded while Naruto scratched his head, a bit confused. "You got a shorter one?"

"No, dobe. That's it." said Sasuke.

"Well excuse me teme, I thought you were going to give us a password not a passspeech." said Naruto. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Ok, now that that's out of the way, we should probably head to the tower." said Sakura.

"But we don't have the right scroll yet." said Naruto.

"True, but if we head towards the tower we may encounter a team that has both scrolls-" said Sakura.

"And then we can ambush them." finished Sasuke. "It's a good plan, the other teams may be exhausted from their previous fights. It will be easier to take the scroll."

"Exactly. So let's get going." said Sakura. They all stood up and started walking, alternating between taking the trees and walking on the ground. They were all pretty tense after the last attack, Naruto and Sasuke in case they were going to get ambushed, and Sakura because of Orochimaru. She can still remember the terror she felt last time she was here, when she first encountered the snake and froze from the killing intent he was emanating. Then she remembered him giving the Uchiha the curse mark and- Oh god, the moment curse mark first manifested. She was so sure Sasuke would have killed the sound nin, had she not have stopped him. It was something terrifying she didn't need to go through again. But what if she could stop him, what if- No she won't think like that she was going to stop the snake even if it's the last thing she did.

As night started to come, team 7 decided to camp out for the night. They found a clearing at the base of a huge rock and decided to rest there. The stone was slightly bent and would probably protect them from rain if needed. She sent the boys to look for food while she gathered fire wood.

And while Sakura was collecting wood, Naruto and Sasuke found a small stream. And a stream meant fish and fish meant food. Naruto took a stick and tied a vine around it with a worm, to try and get one. While Sasuke stood patiently at the edge of the water, trying to spot the fish and kill it with a kunai. Kinda like a cat. Eventually, Naruto got tired of waiting for the fish to bite threw the improvised fishing rod into the stream. This action scared some fish that swam directly towards Sasuke, who immediately caught them.

"Hn, dobe. Throw something again." said the Uchiha. The blonde nodded as he started throwing sticks and stones, which rilled up the fishes. They continued this action until they had enough fish.

"Alright! Now we have enough fish for all of us. Sakura-chan will be so impressed." said Naruto. Sasuke rolled his eyes. The boys came back to their makeshift camp and found that Sakura already lit up a fire. They all took a seat next to the fire and started cooking the fish on sticks.

"I'll take first shift." said Sakura.

"Hn, I'll take second and Naruto can take the last." said Sasuke. After this the boys went to sleep, leaving Sakura to her thoughts. She was extremely twitchy and hyperaware of everything. But really, could you blame her? She basically had the weight of the world on her shoulders. After she dealt with Orochimaru, next would be the Akatsuki, and boy she didnt want to deal with that. But she had to, she owed her shishou at least that much. Oh, how much she missed Tsunade, it would be extremely useful to have her here. But she had to wait, she won't see her until after the chunin exams. Not until the third dies and she comes back to become hokage. She felt bad about the third, but really, what could she do? He needed to die so Tsunade can come back and the council can lose power. Some things just can't be changed.

Sakura was jolted out of her thoughts when she heard a small groan. She quickly took her kunai and looked around, until she realized the groan came from Sasuke. The Uchiha was tossing and turning, groaning and mumbling incoherent things in his sleep. He was having a nightmare. The pinkette's eyes softened a she made her way to him. She crouched next to him and looked at his pained expression. He was probably dreaming about the uchiha massacre. She started calling his name as she gently shook his shoulder. She was about to call his name again when his eyes snapped open. Before she knew what was happening she found herself pinned under Sasuke, one hand binding her wrists, the other pressing a kunai to her neck. Sasuke widened his eyes when he realized it was Sakura and he put his kunai back.

"Sorry." he mumbled.

"It's fine. Can you get off of me?" asked Sakura.

"A-Aa." the Uchiha blushed slightly as he climbed off of her.

Sakura got up and then took a seat next to Sasuke. "Are you ok?"

"Aa." Sasuke nodded.

Sakura looked at him and bit her lip. "Y'know if-if you ever wanna talk about it... I'm here for you and not just me. I'm sure Naruto and Kakashi would also be willing to listen. Um..."

"I know." said the raven haired male.

The pinkette sighed. "Just remember you're not alone, ok?" Sasuke nodded.

Sakura was about to ask him if he was going to sleep again when she felt a familiar chakra signature.

Orochimaru