Goodbye, Little Bastards

***

Sakura's POV

"RELEASE!"

And just like that, their bodies were wrapped in a blinding light. Naruto and I had to shield our eyes because of the intensity.

"At last.."

When I shot my eyes open, my breathe hitched once I saw the Akatsuki nins wide awake, aking in their current situation. Most of them were sitting on their beds, some were already standing with the blankets hung tightly around their naked bodies.

"What the fuck? I was stuck being a kid for two freakin' months?! Tss. I ain't buying this shit."

"Tobi knew something was wrong! Tobi knew it!"

"Well, no duh Tobi, un. Hey danna! see ya back at the hide-out, yeah!"

I panicked when they started to make handsigns, making a cloud of smoke appear. Naruto already made a move and kept Pein distracted. I ran towards the Akatsuki.

"Sakura-chan! What are you doing?!"

Zetsu shook his head and made eye-contact with Sasori and Itachi. Just then, vines from out of nowhere appeared and wrapped my arms and legs! I grunted and was about to break loose from them when Itachi suddenly showed up in front of me and...ah, shit!

"I hate the Sharingan..." I muttered before he put me in one of his genjutsus.

"AAAAAHHHHHHH!!"

-*-

Third Person's POV

"Go!"

Pein yelled at his members and in no time, Kakuzu, Hidan, Kisame and Itachi vanished in a cloud of smoke. Zetsu smirked before merging into the ground; Deidara made a giant clay bird before Sasori and Tobi jumped out of the window to join him in his fleeting escape.

Konan stayed watching him and Naruto fight.

"Konan, go! I'll meet you back at the hideout. I just need to finish this annoyance."

Naruto momentarily looked at the blue-haired woman and saw sadness in her eyes before it faded instantly as she sighed and vanished in a storm of paper.

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!!"

"Sakura-chan!" The blonde huffed and ran towards the pinkette to pull her out of the genjutsu. Pein then took this at an advantage and threw poison-filled kunais at him.

Cling!

Metals clashed.

"Sai!"

The pale ninja stood not a few feet away from the doorway. Behind him are Ino and Sasuke who were assessing the events.

"W-What happened here?! T-The kids.."

Naruto smiled sadly by the time he finally released Sakura from Itachi's genjutsu. "Gone."

Pein groaned out of frustration and stepped back.

"You'll pay for what you did to us, Konoha nins. Two months doing nonsense is enough to ruin my organization's activities. We will be back."

And with that, the leader of the Akatsuki disappeared with the use of a jutsu. Leaving the five ninjas in deep thought.

"Sakura-chan, are you alright?"

The pinkette held her head and scanned the almost empty room. "W-Where are they? D-Don't tell me..."

Ino walked closer to her and patted her shoulder, tears already forming in her eyes.

"They.. They've grown up, forehead. Fast.. Faster than we expected, eh?"

It was a lame joke, she knew. But it was still intended to cheer up the mood and unfortunately, it didn't work.

Sakura fought back her tears and stood up, voiding any emotion from her face.

"Crying won't do anything. We have to tell this to Hokage-sama, maybe we could----"

"Maybe we could what, Sakura? We could keep them kids forever and live happily ever after with the Akatsuki?" Sasuke was the one to interrupt her, "Hn. They're an organization of criminals, not a bunch of toddlers. And if you can't accept reality, then you need to grow up too, Haruno."

Everyone fell silent at what the Uchiha said.

Sakura was hurt.

What more can she say? The truth hurts. He's right. They've been living in an illusion for so long. And this,

This is reality. There's no room for fantasies and happily-ever-afters.

"I'll report this to the Hokage. Excuse me," Sai told them before exiting the room.

Naruto shook his head, feeling a bit devastated for the turn of events. "Err.. I'm just going to tell this to Kaka-sensei.."

Sasuke left the vicinity too.

Ino approached Sakura and was shocked to see her crying.

"H-Hey, Sakura.. are you okay? I mean, yeah it's a stupid question and all.. but---"

"Ino-pig?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut the fuck up."

-*-*-

Days have passed. Naruto and the others were finally back to their normal lives. Team seven no longer needed to argue at who will take care of the kids and such.

No more late night milk sessions.

No more noisy brats running about Sakura's apartment.

No more cussing, 'Tobi is a good boy' declamations, 'un's and 'yeahs, creepy plant smiles, puppets, blushing, piggy banks, blue-color-issues, encyclopedias or even death threats.

All of these simple yet meaningful little gestures were taken away from them by the cold hard stone of reality. It'll surely be an understatement to say that they miss them.

But what more can they do than to suck it up?

One day at the Hokage office,

"Tsunade-sama, why did you call us? Is anything wrong?"

"No. Actually, everything is fine.."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the Godaime, "I believe it isn't. Something must be up since you called us today and left me in a cliffhanger in what I was reading, ma'am."

Tsunade-Senju glared at the silver-haired man,

"It think everything will be better than fine once I order to burn all of Jiraiya's Icha-Icha novels, ne Kakashi?"

The jounin paled.

Which made Naruto laughed. "HAHAHAHAHAHA! HEY, KAKA-SENSEI! WHY SO PALE? YOU LOOK LIKE SAI IN A HEAVIER SCALE! HAHAHA! OLD PERVERT! WAHAHAHA!"

Sai eventually smiled, "Why, thank you, dickless."

The young Uzumaki stopped his fits of laugher and shot daggers at the boy.

"Eeeeeh?! Damn you!! You wanna fight, Sai?! Come on! Bring it!!"

"SHUT UP, IDIOTS!"

Everyone fell silent when the Uchiha finally lost his temper and unconsciously (?) activated his Sharingan. Ah, yes.. he was still here in Konoha, without an apparent reason though. Nobody knows what Sasuke Uchiha's motives are, but Tsunade made sure her ANBU spies kept an eye on him 24/7.

The fifth Hokage cleared her throat to get their attention.

"Anyway, the thing is.. the Hidden Rose village is under attack."

Their ear's perked up.

"Yosh! Then we're heading there right now to go help them, dattebayo!" Naruto proclaimed with determination lacing his tone.

Sakura nodded. "Is that why you called us, shishou? Not that I'm not into this, but why us? Why not send some ANBU squad to help them?"

And this time, Tsunade's face looked hesitant but otherwise told them the catch,

"I chose Team Seven, because the ones who are attacking them are the Akatsuki."

***

Unedited.

This is not the end. There will still be an Epilogue posted by tomorrow. :) thanks for reading!

-misty