* * *

The start of the incident was quite a simple one. It had been the evening of a fall day, there was quite a chill in the air and the sun was setting a bright red orange. "That's it for today," announce Kakashi reading his "Icha Icha Violence" and looking somewhat red. "Same time same place tomorrow."
"Yay! Ja see you guys tomorrow!" shouted Naruto running down the lane. It was apparently the day once a week that Iruka bought him ramen.
"How can he still be hyper after that work out," muttered Sasuke when suddenly he felt a tug on his arm.
It was Sakura.
"Sasuke-kun," she said in a quiet voice. "Would you mind walking me home."
"...Sakura, you live on the opposite side of town from m..." he started, looking down expecting to see the girl red and smiling as usual, but what he saw was totally different.
Sakura had a worried look on her face, it even looked as though she was scared, and she was trembling. "Please" she said looking up at him. Sasuke couldn't say anything; he'd hardly ever seen Sakura looking that way.
"Sakura are you ok?" he asked.
"Y, yeah, I was just wondering if you could take me, at least half the way."
He wasn't quite sure how to react. But he knew from the way she looked that she wasn't just playing around as usual. That it was something much more serious, so he muttered, "ok."
The walk was quite strange. None of them said a word, and Sakura had been turning around as if she was searching for something several times. Sasuke kept an eye on her expressions. They were those of a child who was afraid some kind of monster would lurk up behind them, but Sakura wasn't any child, she was 13 years old. He at least knew that she wouldn't be afraid of monsters.
When they had at last gotten to her door he decided it was time to ask her. "Sakura, something's wrong isn't it?"
She looked up at him. His eyes were serious and gazing directly into hers. She was quite surprised because she had never seen him with those eyes on her. She hesitated for a second, but then said, "It's nothing don't worry!" She was smiling but he could see that she was faking it. "Thanks for taking me home, see you tomorrow morning!"
With that she ran to her front door and slammed it behind her, leaving Sasuke standing dumfounded in the dark street. Something was wrong with her, he was sure now, but why was she faking it then?

* * *

The next morning Sasuke and Sakura had gotten to the meeting place earliest as usual. Kakashi would probably be three hours late again, and Naruto would come about twenty minutes after the meeting time. Sasuke was leaning against an electric pole with his arms crossed and glancing at Sakura occasionally. Sakura just sat there, looking paler than the day before. Why wasn't she telling him? Sasuke had a strong urge to just ask her, to just find out why she couldn't tell him. But he couldn't, he didn't know why, but he just couldn't, maybe her rejection the night before had made him feel uneasy. It was when he was thinking this that Sakura broke the silence, "Naruto's later than usual."
"Hm? Yeah." Replied Sasuke. "Can't I say anything else?" he secretly thought inside.
"Maybe we could go pick him up, Kakashi sensei probably won't come for another hour or two."
"He'll be alright by himself."
"C'mon, it's better than just waiting here doing nothing."
Thinking he had no other choice Sasuke followed her, Naruto's house was quite close from their usual meeting place so he didn't understand why he was always late. After about five minutes they arrived to the front door of his house. Sakura rang the doorbell, no answer, "Naruto!!" she screamed, again no answer.
"Maybe he already left," said Sasuke peering through one of the windows.
Sakura turned the doorknob, the door opened. "Then why is his door unlocked?" she asked stepping in.
"Sakura, you know it's illegal to..." He was interrupted by a scream. "Naruto!!!!" it cried.
Sasuke quickly ran into the house, there sat Sakura, unable to stand or say anything because of the shock. Naruto was lying on the floor, covered in blood and stabbed by kunai and shuriken all over his body.

To Be Continued