Chapter 7

Sakura ran across the pale white sand, soft and cold under her bare feet, the ocean wind whipping through her hair and white lace dress, causing the sand to sting her bare legs painfully as she ran to the fallen angel in the distance.

Sasuke stood on the edge of the high cliff face Sakura was running to, his shimmering, raven-black wings brushing the sandy stone underneath his feet as he watched the waves crash violently against the black stone with cold and empty eyes. The sky above him was grey and overcast, and the wind threatened to push him over the edge and into the dark broiling water below.

Sakura stopped running, standing a metre away from him and watching his back, dazed, feeling almost as though she wasn't in control of her own body somehow.
"Sasuke!" she called loudly to be heard over the wind and he turned slowly, the tips of his feathery wings scraping against the ground, and Sakura felt her body go cold when his obsidian eyes fell on her, icy wastelands, cold and unforgiving.

Sakura felt like she couldn't breathe. It was like he wasn't even alive and he looked at her like she was a stranger to him.

"Who are you?" Ino's malicious voice rang through Sakura's mind as the blonde suddenly appeared at Sasuke's right and folded her black wings around him. Her smile was cruel and possessive. "You're just a human."

"Cherry blossom," Karin sniggered, appearing at his left and doing the same, so that Sasuke was caught between the two in a feathery cloak, and Sakura growled from low in her throat, vicious and feral and she was unsure of how she had even managed to make such a menacing sound.

Kiba and Neji appeared from behind the three malevolent figures and took fighting stances in front of them, their wings extending to the sky, baring their fangs and looking at her with the same cold eyes as Sasuke and Sakura took a frightened step back. Strangers. These are strangers. The same thought rang through her mind and Sakura inhaled sharply as her back came up against something solid. She turned and looked up into a pair of very pale-blue and darkly rimmed eyes.

"Sakura," Gaara said in a low voice, his tone grave and his expression weary. "Don't turn your back on the enemy."

"But, Sasuke's not the enemy," she said dumbly and Gaara growled.
"Look at the colour of his wings Sakura." Tenten looked at her from over Gaara's right shoulder. "They're the enemy," the brunette said gravely and Hinata nodded from over his left shoulder. "Their wings are black." Her silver eyes were so sad, Sakura realised and she took a step back and gasped. While Sasuke's wings were darkly beautiful and black, Gaara, Tenten and Hinata's were magnificent and shimmering silver-white. The colour of purity.
Sakura's eyes were drawn to a dark, wet blood stain that had soaked through the fabric of Gaara's shirt on the left of his chest. Over his heart.

"Look again," Gaara said, and she did. Kiba and Neji snarled viciously while Karin cackled and Sasuke stared ahead coldly, making no effort to break free of Ino and Karin, and Sakura felt her heart ache painfully.

"He doesn't care about you anymore," Karin's voice hissed in her head and Sakura felt a stab through her chest and heard Tenten growl. The three angels behind her spread out as Kiba and Neji did the same and Sakura felt soft rain start to fall over them as the waves crashed below. She saw more fallen angels standing behind Sasuke now, Itachi being one of them, black wings that were vaguely specked with silver feathers extended, but the rest were people Sakura had never seen before and didn't know. She felt all their cold, hard, eyes on her and she felt her blood run cold.

She turned behind her and noticed that there were more angels behind Gaara as well, also people she had never seen before, but unlike the Fallen, they watched her with warm eyes that were encouraging and comforting, and Sakura stepped closer to Gaara. Sasuke growled from behind her.

"Until we meet again, Sakura Haruno," Gaara murmured and Sakura frowned with confusion, taking another step toward them. "What?"
Both sides rushed forward, hissing and snarling, with Sakura caught in the middle as fighting broke out around her. She went rigid with fear as she heard the sound of bodies hitting the ground and turned frantically, looking for Sasuke. He hadn't moved from where she had first seen him and stood still, watching the battle indifferently while Ino and Karin smothered him. Sakura stepped towards them.

The wind picked up, shrieking in her ears and whipping her hair into her eyes and mouth, wrapping it around her neck, choking her while Karin and Ino laughed cruelly. The sand stung her skin and got into her eyes as she fought to breath. She heard Gaara move towards her but he never reached her. "I will wait for you, Sakura."

"Sasuke is ours!" Sakura heard Ino and Karin shriek from somewhere behind her as she dropped to her knees, gasping for breath, before their voices dropped to snakelike whispers, dark and threatening. "Only ours..."....

xxxxxxx

Sakura's eyes opened as she inhaled sharply and sat up, clawing at her throat; images from her dream still flashed across her field of vision and she screamed into the darkness surrounding her, still feeling her hair choking her and her lungs burning for air. A strong hand covered her mouth gently, but firmly, strangely warm against her skin.
"Calm down, Sakura. It's over," Sasuke whispered from beside her and Sakura froze.

Sasuke only took his hand away after her breathing had calmed and her shaking had stopped, and watched her quietly, almost like he thought that it was too soon to speak, and Sakura's eyes found his, feeling something in her chest start to build up, searching for that cold hate from her dream, but she only saw affection and concern for her in Sasuke's eyes and relief washed over her.

A sudden burst of electricity and energy surged through her, making her gasp and grit her teeth, starting from her chest and expanding until it fuelled the rest of her body as well, and she gripped her bed's headboard tightly to steady herself as she got used to the strange sensation, hearing the wood splinter slightly as all thoughts of anything else vanished from her mind.

"It worked," she heard Tsunade murmur in a low voice.

"Hn."

"This is unnatural," she heard Itachi say icily. "A human shouldn't be allowed to wield the abilities of our kind. It is an insult." Sakura's head shot up, the corners of her mouth curling upwards in a snarl, fuelled by a new and foreign instinct she had never felt before, and Itachi paled and retreated, muttering "It's unnatural," under his breath as he went and Sakura felt her nerves calm when she felt his presence retreat.

"How do you feel, Sakura?" Tsunade was beside her now and looked at her with large, golden eyes and Sakura removed one hand from the headboard and flexed her fingers. "I feel stronger." Tsunade smirked. "You are stronger."

Sasuke looked at her seriously. "But you have to train in order to make full use of this new power." Sakura looked up at him and nodded, removing the other hand and pulling the blanket draped across her body away.

"I'm ready."

xxxxxxx

Sakura and Sasuke stood parallel to one another, back at the training grounds and taking fighting stances. Tsunade gave the signal and Sasuke charged, a blur, and reached her in seconds. Sakura ducked quickly as he lashed out and leapt backwards as his foot connected with her shoulder painfully. She growled in response, surprised that she was able to make such a sound and adjusted her stance.

"Evading again?" Sasuke smirked and Sakura narrowed her eyes competitively as he chuckled. "You know that won't work forever, Sakura."

Furiously, Sakura ripped a large branch off one of the trees as easily as if she were pulling a splinter from her skin, and flung it at him with all the force she could muster. He dodged the branch easily enough but the arrogant smirk was replaced as his expression became weary. He had underestimated her. He charged once again and Sakura continued to evade his attacks easily and fluidly and he growled with frustration as time wore on and neither of them tired. Tsunade had left them to train on their own, deciding that they no longer needed her there.

Sakura leapt right over him, backwards, and he smirked again as he activated his sharingan, obsidian replaced by red and Sakura growled again as they circled each other, panting. "That's cheating, Sasuke."

"Tell that to the Hidden Rock vampires," he hissed and she snarled in response.

Sakura flung herself at him, knowing that it was probably the last thing he'd expect her to do. It was the last thing she expected herself to do and her new, incredible speed surprised her just as much as it seemed to surprise him.

The force of her sudden assault caught him off guard. She slammed into him, feeling the adrenaline and new supernatural energy coursing through her veins, and he staggered backwards, the expression on his face was stunned as they both tumbled to the ground. She sat up, straddling his hips, and drew back her arm, not even knowing exactly what she had planned to do, but she had forgotten how much faster he still was.

Instead of her fist slamming into his face, it hit his upraised hand and he wrapped his fingers easily around hers, forcing her arm back down with a smirk as he threw her off of him. "I win."

Sakura landed beside him and stared up, dazed, at the stone ceiling that supported the weight of Manhattan above them. "Wow. I can't believe I did that."

"You were incredible, Sakura," Sasuke murmured, turning his head so that he could look at her, and his cheek touched the soft grass. "Are incredible." Sakura couldn't help but notice that his voice sounded husky.

He slowly drew himself up onto his elbows. He looked down at her, and his expression had changed. There was a look on his face that Sakura had never seen before. He let his fingers trail down her cheek to her lips, delicately outlining the shape of her mouth with the tip of his finger.

"You should probably tell me not to do this," he said softly, obsidian eyes on her and her alone, holding her in a trance. "We're supposed to be training you for war."

Sakura said nothing; she didn't want to tell him to stop. He bent down and she felt his lips against her cheek, brushing her skin lightly, but even that sent shivers through her nerves. Shivers that made her whole body tremble.

"If you want me to stop, tell me now," he whispered, his cool breath sending tingles down her spine. Sakura still said nothing and he brushed his lips against the hollow of her temple. "Or now." He traced the line of her cheekbone. "Or now." His lips were against hers. "Or-"

Sakura reached up and pulled him down to her, making use of her new-found strength, and the rest of his words were lost against her mouth. He kissed her gently, carefully, but it wasn't gentleness she wanted, she discovered, and she knotted her fists in his shirt, pulling him harder against her. He groaned softly, from low in his throat, and his arms circled her and gathered her against him as they rolled over the grass, tangled together and still kissing.

There were stones digging into Sakura's back and her shoulder ached from where Sasuke had struck her during training, but she didn't care. All that existed was Sasuke. All she felt, hoped, breathed, wanted and saw was Sasuke.

And nothing else mattered...

Ino watched them from the trees above, silent as rage made her clench and unclench her fists, her sharp nails digging into her palms so hard that they drew blood, the corners of her mouth curled up in a silent snarl. Karin watched emotionlessly from beside her, her red eyes focused on the scene below them.

"This is getting out of hand," the redhead said in a low voice, adjusting her glasses on the bridge of her delicate nose as the trees whispered loudly to one another when the wind blew through their branches. The wind blew through the two girls' hair. "This cannot be allowed to continue."

"I think it's time, Karin," Ino saiddarkly as she composed herself, gazing down at the blood that seemed to formthe shapes of small red clouds on her bleeding palms, before the small woundsquickly healed themselves. "It's time to bring in the Akatsuki."....