#yes i drew sasuke like he never left konoha | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

catflorist · 3 years

Text

Stars (ao3/ffn) catflorist warning: major character death

Sasuke joined the Akatsuki for simple reasons. He heard they had a plan to destroy the shinobi world, and he wanted a part of it.

As a blizzard raged in the cold northern air, he followed a dark-robed figure into a passageway carved into the cliffside of a snow-capped mountain. The tunnel twisted and turned, snaking past cavernous rooms and rocky chambers. Akatsuki forces milled about everywhere, red clouds hovering on dark cloaks everywhere he looked. His guide, Konan, led him past without stopping.

“Where are you taking me?”

“To our leader,” Konan said, leading him deeper. “She says she knows you.”

He was sure they were halfway through the mountain before she stopped by a metal door.

“Wait here.”

She knocked and the door opened a crack. Whispered words were exchanged, too low for Sasuke to overhear.

“You’ll have to wait,” Konan said. “She's still bathing.”

Sasuke was annoyed. Why was Karin going through these theatrics? He hadn’t seen her for months, not since disbanded the team and left to face Itachi alone. How she’d ended up in the Akatsuki he couldn't guess. Not only that, she somehow had all of them tiptoeing around her.

“Tell Karin I don't have time to wait,” he snapped.

Konan gave him a curious look, but stayed silent.

“What?”

“Enter,” a voice called from inside. The way it echoed off the rock, it didn't sound like Karin’s voice at all.

He stormed in. Torches lit the dark room in a flickering glow, and the air felt warm. A shadowed figure rose from a steaming pool of water. An attendant held out a billowing Akatsuki robe, helping guide arms through sleeves.

When the light caught her face, shock ripped through him. Because it wasn’t Karin.

Her pink hair was dripping wet, her cheeks hollowed. She pulled on glasses over red-rimmed eyes pinched with pain, the green irises huge beneath the thick lenses. The dark robe slipped off bare, bony shoulders—was that all she was wearing? He averted his eyes, stared at the steam curled in the air. His guard down, his chakra stretched out to meet hers of its own accord. But there was nothing.

He recoiled. How was that possible? She should be dead.

A diamond mark on her forehead pulsed like the core of a star, the only part of her with any vitality, energy. That and her eyes—they were still bright and sharp. The rest was fading.

“It's good to see you,” Sakura said.

It didn’t take long for Sasuke to understand. The chakra stored in Sakura’s seal was all that kept her alive, and one day it would run out.

At the same time, it all depended on her, it seemed, the meticulously planned attack on the shinobi world. She was its life force. Every ounce of her remaining chakra was rationed and monitored, planned in advance for that day. It was all anyone talked about, the reason why heads lowered in respect when speaking Sakura’s name.

To fill his time Sasuke accepted mission after mission. He brought back intel, took out troublesome political figures, and weakened supply chains, doing anything they asked of him to prepare for the attack on Konoha, three months away.

He avoided Sakura.

One night Konan pushed aside the curtain hanging in the door of his small chamber, an alcove in the stone set apart from the other Akatsuki members. “You’re back. What was it this time?”

“We intercepted a shipment of weapons,” he said. “They’re waiting in the meeting room.”

“When do you set out again?”

“I don’t know yet. What do you want?”

Konan met his eyes. “She wants to see you.”

He crossed his arms. “Tell her I'm busy.”

“You think you’re so important,” she said in that calm, mild way of hers. “You wouldn’t act this way, if you truly understood the magnitude of what she’s doing for us. For the world.”

Overcome with sudden anger, Sasuke forgot he came to the Akatsuki willingly, that each day he helped advance its mission. That he too hated what their world had done to his family.

“It's all for nothing!” he spat. “You’re throwing her away. For nothing.”

“You’re selfish. It’s no wonder you don’t understand sacrifice.”

He grit his teeth. “Find another way.”

“She’s dying already,” she said. “She’s just making something from the time she has left. What have you done with your life?”

Sakura was frozen. Dying. Sasuke pictured her in a land of ice, the snowy expanse that surrounded the mountain lit by a weak and wintery sun. Perhaps she could stretch her life a few years, each day lighting her chakra no brighter than a candle’s fire, barely warming her hands in the cold.

Instead she would burn up all at once, quick and hot and bright, like an exploding star, and maybe something would grow after the flames cooled. Fire always led to life in some way after all. She would not wait to freeze to death.

“Go away,” Sasuke snarled. The curtain was already flapping in the doorway.

Sasuke stormed through the hideout after a botched assignment. What should have been a simple scouting mission had turned into a bloodbath after a surprise ambush. The hidden villages were growing more hostile and clever as the day of the attack drew nearer.

He didn’t pay attention to his loud footsteps, the eyes following him in fear, until a figure darted into his path. One of Sakura’s attendants, blocking his way with an outstretched arm, a finger held to her lips.

“What?”

“She's asleep.” Her voice was hushed, like discussing a sleeping god. Not his old, annoying pink-haired teammate.

Sasuke stepped back. “So?”

“It's the first time in three days.”

Sasuke realized the hideout was utterly quiet except for their conversation. If he listened hard enough he might hear snow falling outside.

An old memory flashed through him. When they were genin, taking missions as a team, how much Sakura hated waking up in the morning. She’d groan and clutch her pillow, though she’d always get up and help him with their breakfast anyway. That Sakura would never struggle to fall asleep for three days. How things had changed.

Sasuke knew when she woke up, because the deathly silence in the compound lifted. Foot traffic picked up again, the scent of cooking food from the mess hall drifted through the halls.

He walked down the twisted passageway to the metal door, following the route he’d memorized, though he hadn’t ventured this way since Konan led him the first time. He pushed open the doors without knocking.

A wide futon was spread on the ground, where Sakura lay against soft pillows. Her eyes were closed, but he could tell from the stiffness of her shoulders that she was awake.

“Sakura,” he said.

Her head turned, set deep in the pillows like it held a heavy weight. She did not look surprised to see him, did not ask why he’d avoided her for weeks. “Sit down.”

With some reluctance, he lowered himself on the edge of the futon. Steam curled in the air, and water gurgled somewhere hidden, feeding the spring. Beneath the blanket, Sakura’s legs shifted gingerly.

“What happened to you?” he said.

“It’s this world,” she said. “Person after person, sent out to get killed. To protect someone else’s money, or goods, or to fight in pointless wars. And the survivors, they sent them all to me. It never ended.”

She closed her eyes again. “I healed, and healed, until something inside me broke. I couldn’t make chakra anymore. Without my seal I would have died then and there.”

Without meaning to, Sasuke’s hand stretched out, brushing her forehead, where the mark lay. Her brow was feverishly hot.

“That’s nice,” she whispered. He was about to pull away, but his fingers changed course, trailing into her hair, drawing a sigh. He didn’t know what to do. It was a long time since he’d tried to be gentle. He tried to think of what he liked as a child, the comforting touches he received from his mother, or Itachi, a lifetime ago.

When he finally lifted his hand, the cords of her neck seemed less tense, her head less heavy on the pillow.

She exhaled. “I was dying. I’d given everything away, but still they wanted more. That’s why I’m here. The way this world is, it can’t go on. Everything I have left is going into changing it.”

“This world won’t change,” he muttered.

A thin arm emerged from the blankets, fumbling at her bedside for her glasses. She slipped the frames on, appraising him with large eyes. “Then why are you here?”

This new Sakura was a stranger in many ways. She carried herself with a quiet calmness, a stillness, like she’d lived longer than her years. When she walked down the corridors of the hideout, heads bowed. At gatherings, she barely needed to speak louder than a whisper, because everyone listening hung onto her every word.

Knowing she favored him, the members of the Akatsuki looked differently at Sasuke, too. They brought him into their meeting rooms, seeking his advice and ideas. He learned why each of them wanted to destroy the shinobi system. Its claws had harmed others beyond himself. He started to believe they could truly build something new. Something better, that would never force older brothers into cruel and heartless choices.

When Sasuke returned from a mission he found Sakura sitting on a ledge under the stars, snow gently falling around her. They were high up on the mountain, but the sky was white and hazy in all directions, so he could barely tell where they were or what lay in the distance beyond the haze.

“What are you doing out here? It’s cold.”

“I like the fresh air.”

He sat next to her, knowing it was useless to argue. Everyone knew Sakura did as she wanted.

“My father used to use his katon on days like this. His fireball was strong enough to span the whole length of the lake. But when it was cold, he used it to warm his breath.”

“Show me,” she said.

His hands shaped the quick signs. When he exhaled, a soft puff of fire curled out, a flash of red and orange warming their icy surroundings. “Like this.”

Sakura watched him with furrowed brows. “Can you teach me?”

“Yes, but…” He stopped, tried again. “You can’t...”

“I can’t use my chakra,” she said. “But I can still learn.”

He took her hands. “Serpent, ram, monkey, boar, horse, tiger.” He didn’t need to, but he shaped her fingers through the signs. “Pull the chakra into your throat. Let it churn. Exhale.”

Sakura mimed the signs, paused in concentration so the chakra could build. Of course, it was only pretend. She exhaled. Her cold breath hung in the air, the furthest thing from fire.

“Thank you. I understand now. Your katon always fascinated me.” She opened her eyes. “Once, I saw you practicing in the distance. I secretly hoped, one day, you would teach me yourself.”

Bitterness filled him. “Not like this.”

“This is enough,” she said, her voice kind.

He thought about young Sakura—energetic and talkative, irritating, nervous around him. He pictured her, watching as he exhaled fire, wishing. The way her voice sounded as she spoke to his back, because he didn’t have the strength to turn and look at her, begging him to stay, or to take her with him.

“Did you mean what you said? The night I left?”

For once she didn’t meet his eyes. “That I loved you? Yes, I meant it.” Then her calm returned. “I’m glad you’ve thought about it since then.”

He felt the urge to throw her off guard, to catch a glimpse of the girl from his memories.

“You still love me,” he accused.

Her eyes seemed to sadden. She touched his face, her hand growing warm. He wrenched away, but it was too late. A cut on his cheek was healed.

He held his cheek like she had burned him. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m in control. I know how much I have left. Shouldn’t I be able to do what I want with it?”

Her hand remained outstretched. He gripped her wrist tightly, so tight it must hurt, and threw it away from himself.

“Don’t ever do that again.”

“Why are you always bathing?” Sasuke asked her once.

Shameless, she stood up in the bath, reaching for her robe. He tried very hard to ignore her body, only glancing up when he was sure the robe was around her. The front hung loose, only her hand clasping it together.

“It hurts less in the water.”

Her eyes always gave everything away. Even when they were kids. They said everything she was thinking. When he met her eyes now, he was dazed to find unguarded curiosity, desire. The difference now was she put it bluntly to words.

“Haven't you wondered?” she said.

He would be lying if he said he hadn’t. He was wondering now, painfully aware of how his body was reacting to her there, so close, so easy to touch.

“It doesn't matter,” he said. “You’re—you’re sick.” Dying. But he couldn't say that. “I could hurt you.”

“I've never been as fragile as you thought I was.”

She let the cloak slip. It draped down low, revealing the narrow expanse from the hollow of her throat to the space between her breasts. Sasuke heard a small noise escape his throat, a strangled cry. And he was crossing the room, because he couldn't refuse her, not when it was something he also wanted so badly. Each footfall shed away the time and distance built up between them, laying in his wake like shed layers, so by the time he got to her he already felt naked.

He walked straight into her touch, her palm pressing against his heart, the other curling around his nape. He slipped her glasses off, let them fall, secretly hoping they’d break on the stone ground. He hated them.

In the dark, as he leaned in to kiss her, he could almost imagine they were somewhere else. In a soft bedroom, in a life they lived together, elsewhere. But he could not ignore the echoes sounding off the rock walls, the feeling of emptiness handing over their heads, the cold pressing in.

Sasuke stared up at the sky, his back to the dirt.

Around him, battle was waging. The day they’d all been waiting for, fueled with Sakura’s remaining chakra, was almost over. He didn’t know which way the tide was pulling now. He could only feel the hole in his side and know for him it was over.

When he next opened his eyes, everything was green, like he was lying on the forest floor. It wasn’t what he expected death to be like. But Sakura was there, leaning over him. He smiled, washed with relief. At least, even in this place, they had found each other. It was such a comfort, it didn’t matter to him what happened next.

He tried to sit up, and pain tore through him, though it was fading quickly. His eyelids drooped. Sakura’s hands shifted across his body, so warm.

“Can I go back to sleep?” he mumbled.

She cupped his cheek. “Yes, my love.”

He almost listened to her, but strange sounds reached his ears. Metal clashing, screaming. He cracked open his heavy eyes. A body lay close by, red staining the ground beneath. Above him, Sakura’s face was streaked with dirt and tears.

“What are you doing?” he hissed.

“My part is over,” she said, hands rooted to his chest like an ancient tree to the earth, unwavering and sure. “I have some left. Just enough.”

His body rippled with an electric shock. “Don’t, Sakura!”

He struggled to move, but she held him down with an iron grip.

“Just take it!” she cried. “What else would I do with it?”

It was always coming to this, he knew. But he wasn’t ready. He needed her to stay just a little longer. There was so much he still needed to tell her.

“One more day,” he begged. “You could stay just one more day.”

Her green eyes were like a storm, and as she steamed the last of her chakra into him, she didn’t look like she was dying. She looked as strong as he remembered. “If I stop now you’ll die.”

That night, when he left the village, he should have taken her with him. Taken her far, far, away. Why had he left her there? What use were his prized eyes and Uchiha blood if he couldn’t see the right choice to make?

“Don't leave,” he gasped. It was hard to see her, tears blurring his vision. “Please don't leave.”

Her hands softly slipped from his chest. “It’s okay, Sasuke-kun.” Her voice came from far away. “Just go back to sleep.”

The mark faded from her forehead like a star at dawn.

Konoha fell. The world was raw and overturned. Burning, and growing, and burning, and growing. One day, Sasuke would want to see it. For now he returned to the mountain, to Sakura’s pool.

He floated in the water, weightless, aching with the life she’d given him.

notes: a longer multi chapter is coming soon, but for now take this, and sorry

#sasusaku #sasusaku fanfiction #sasusaku fanfic #ss fic #ss #my fic #stars

52 notes · View notes

dimigex · 3 years

Text

Healing Hands, Chapter Seven

New chapter is up and I’m so excited to say it’s a start of the new arc!

You can find it on Fanfiction and Archive (linked for your convenience). But, here’s a snippet. The full chapter was over 8k words, so please find it on one of the other sites if you want to read the rest!

After nearly a month of careful inquiries, disappointing viewings, and unreasonable prices, Sakura found an apartment. The process had been about what she'd expected, though the selection left a lot to be desired. Sakura had wanted somewhere closer to the hospital than her parents house, but in a different building from Kazuko's. She'd formed an uneasy truce with the man over the past few weeks by ignoring what happened between them. There had been no more dinners or mixed-up, alcohol-fueled kisses in the dark, only professionalism.

Sakura found it easy to shift from budding friendship to simple coworkers, and Kazuko didn't question it. She was thankful for that much at least, because, regardless of their extracurricular problems, Sakura and Kazuko worked well together at the hospital. She didn't depend on him as much as she might have before things changed, but at least it wasn't awkward any longer.

The majority of Sakura's free time had been spent looking for an apartment, then getting her life in Konoha settled. She had taken Naruto out for ramen one night and was surprised to find that the boy had matured in the time they'd spent apart. He'd been busy with missions in an attempt to bolster his number of completed missions. Naruto needed to catch up if he wanted to be considered for Hokage in a few years when Kakashi retired. It was nice to know that his dream hadn't faded, especially when so many other things had changed.

Naruto and Sakura's conversation had turned to Sasuke at one point during dinner, but Naruto read the situation and dropped it after a couple of awkward questions. The night had gone better than Sakura thought it would, and they'd agreed to meet up every few weeks to stay in touch. Naruto spent a lot of time in and out of the village with missions these days, but he promised to make an effort to see Sakura, especially if it involved ramen. Some things would never change.

Smiling to herself, Sakura fussed over the pillows on the couch. They weren't the color that she would have chosen, but they complemented the rest of the room. Mebuki had picked them out on their latest shopping trip. Her mother's touch was obvious in each of the rooms, but Sakura hadn't resisted, even when she disagreed. Mebuki needed to feel like she still had a place in Sakura's life and the colors didn't bother her that much. Besides, she could "lose" the pillows later if she wanted to.

A knock on the door drew Sakura away from her contemplations. Taking a deep breath, she finished adjusting the cushions and went to answer. Sakura was both looking forward to having Ino over, and nervous about it at the same time. The girls had talked only a couple of times over the past few weeks, mostly commiserating about how hard being an adult was. Then, they'd laughed about being considered adults. Rebuilding her friendship with Ino felt natural, normal even.

When Sakura opened the door, Ino stepped into the tiny space and looked around with a telling curl on her lips. When her gaze came back to Sakura's face, however, the blond's smile was falsely bright. "It's cute."

Sakura groaned at the fake optimism and closed the door. "Is it bad?"

Ino didn't answer for a long moment, looking around the room with a calculating expression. Then, she nodded as if she'd reached some decision. "Are you allowed to paint?"

"I think so," Sakura answered, raising her shoulders in a shrug. "I'll have to check the lease."

True to her promise, Mebuki had helped Sakura decorate when she moved in two days ago. Candles, photographs, and trinkets filled the space in a way that Sakura never would have considered on her own. It almost felt like a home, or would soon enough. Only a few hours before Ino arrived, Mebuki had appeared with half a dozen bags in hand. The new throw pillows on the couch and the towels in the bathroom were a reminder of her mother's attention to detail.

It wasn't until Sakura moved her things into the larger space that she realized how few personal items she'd accumulated over the years. Thankfully, the apartment had basic furniture; Sakura didn't own any. A picture of her much younger self and the rest of Team Seven grinned at Sakura from a table beside the door. Half a dozen other snapshots surrounded it. Medical textbooks that Tsunade had gifted to her were tucked into a basket beside the couch. A bowl of bright fruit sat on the table.

"We can fix it," Ino declared, placing her bags beside the couch. After a moment, the blond turned to face Sakura, a devious grin sliding onto her lips. "So, who is he?"

Frowning, Sakura tried to follow the mental leap from talking about the apartment to whatever this was. "Who is who?"

Ino reached into one of the bags and pulled out a bottle of wine and matching glasses. As she walked toward the kitchen, she called over her shoulder. "It's not Sasuke again, is it? He wasn't good for you the first time, and he won't be any better the second."

Once Sakura finally caught up to Ino's reasoning, she rolled her eyes and followed her friend to the kitchen. "What makes you think there is even a him to begin with?"

Affecting a gasp, Ino covered her mouth and waggled her eyebrows in Sakura's direction. "Well then, who is she?"

Ino's question ended in a strangled gasp when Sakura smacked her with one of the questionably colored tea towels that Mebuki had selected. The girls dissolved in a fit of laughter that left them with red faces and aching sides. Still chuckling, Ino poured two glasses of wine, then followed Sakura back to the living room. As they settled on opposite sides of the creaky couch, Ino tipped her head to the side to study Sakura. "Seriously though, why the sudden urge to move out if it wasn't to get a little action? You said it's been months since you got some. How do you stand it?"

Sakura tried not to let herself flush at the memory of the almost dalliance with Kazuko as she shrugged. "There are more important things than sex. Besides, work keeps me busy."

"Riveting." Ino mimed a yawn, then her lips contorted into a wicked smile. "Speaking of work, I've heard that there's a good-looking, young doctor at the hospital these days. Would you happen to know anything about that?"

Sakura grinned, forcing the thoughts of Kazuko as far from her mind as possible. "I am pretty cute."

"Ha ha, very funny." Ino rolled her eyes then tossed a pillow at Sakura. "You know, I also heard that this handsome young medic had dinner with a certain pink haired kunoichi who you might also know."

Fighting down the blush that threatened to stain her cheeks, Sakura kept her expression neutral. She had already started to regret going to eat with Kazuko for fear of the rumors it could spawn. If she had to deal with it from Ino as well, Sakura wasn't sure that she'd make it. "Don't you have better things to do than gossip?"

The blond laughed. "I am Head of Intelligence in Konoha. It's pretty much my job to know everything."

"You don't have to be so good at it," Sakura grumbled, realizing that she'd been beaten before her mouth opened. Ino probably knew more about Kazuko than Sakura did. Though, maybe not, since he wasn't a shinobi. Accepting that Ino wouldn't leave it alone, Sakura settled on a version of the truth to feed the woman's curiosity. "We'd had a shitty day and were just decompressing."

"Together." Ino drew out the word with a suggestive flair, eyebrows waggling.

Huffing out an annoyed breath, Sakura nodded. "Yes, together, and that's all there is to it. He's a civilian."

Ino hummed under her breath, considering the words from multiple angles before speaking. "Does that mean you have to go on a certain number of dates before you can fuck him? I can never remember."

Laughter burst out of Sakura before she could stop it. "I don't think so, but it wasn't an issue. What about you? Who are you sleeping with these days?"

For the first time in a long time, the color on Ino's cheeks had nothing to do with makeup. Sakura's mouth fell open at the unexpected reaction. "Oh my god, who is it?"

"Nobody," Ino answered, draining the remainder of her wine in one long pull. "I think it's time for a refill. It's hardly a housewarming party without a little alcohol."

Narrowing her eyes at her best friend, Sakura held out her glass. Perhaps the drink would loosen Ino's tongue about whomever it was that made her blush like a little girl again. And if not, Sakura had sources too. Ino wasn't the only person who could dig up a little gossip.

----------BREAK-----------

Moving into her own apartment had given Sakura a modicum of freedom that she hadn't known she'd been missing. At least, in some respects. On the first night that Sakura worked, Mebuki had brought dinner by, and there had been enough leftovers to last several days. When those were finished, Sakura realized that she'd have to add a grocery trip and meal preparation to her routine, not to mention laundry. She hadn't recognized how much her mother still helped her until she had to do everything herself.

Even so, Sakura was thankful to have a place to call her own. She could have the occasional glass of wine without her mother's disapproving looks, sleep late on her days off, and have people over whenever she wanted. Not that Sakura had many opportunities for the latter. Apparently everyone else was busy doing adult things too.

Sakura hadn't found the time to take Naruto out for ramen a second time. Their schedules made it difficult, but she hadn't put as much effort into it as she should have. Sakura simply didn't have time to do everything that she wanted to do with all of her responsibilities. Not to mention, constantly being on alert for Anbu who might need her. Over the past week, she'd only treated one shinobi, a genin who'd gotten over enthusiastic with his shuriken training.

The situation with Kazuko had settled down, though Sakura hadn't talked to him about anything. They had gone their separate ways like adults, working together when necessary and separately when possible. She thought that time would eventually smooth it over. Now, if she could learn to control the blush that crept in whenever an unwanted memory sprung up in her mind.. Maybe Ino was right. Sakura just needed to get laid.

Not much chance of that, Sakura mused as she settled in bed after a long day. Her shift at the hospital hadn't been so bad, it was the running around after work that did her in. But, at least she had enough fresh vegetables to make food for the next several days. Contemplating which dishes she wanted to try her hand at first, Sakura drifted to sleep..

The onions were too large to be considered diced, and Sakura couldn't get her eyes to stop watering long enough to correct her mistake. She grumbled under her breath and continued to chop the pesky vegetables. A pan bubbled and hissed; steam rose in tantalizing waves that wafted the scent of meat and garlic across the room. Sakura nodded to herself, shoved the onions into a smaller bowl, and moved back to the stove.

Focused on the food, Sakura didn't hear the soft footfalls behind her until arms snaked around her middle. She squeaked and suppressed the urge to lash out with chakra. Soft kisses burned a trail along the shell of her ear as she swatted the hands. She tried to complain that she was too busy for the man's attention, but they both knew it was a lie.

When Sakura turned, the man's face was indistinct, a face that she could have seen hundreds of times during her day. She didn't have long to study his features before warm kisses made her forget everything else. Nimble fingers worked at the apron that Sakura had secured around her midsection; his hands drifted lower as the string came loose.

Beep, beep, beep. Sakura squeezed her eyes shut as the hands pulled her closer in a dizzying rush. The kisses along her neck were gaining heat, burning through her attention span. "Don't you need to get that," an unfamiliar voice husked by her ear. Beep, beep, beep. Sakura reached for the oven behind her, frowning at the numbers slowly ticking down. Beep, beep, beep.

The buzzing of Sakura's pager drew her from the warm confines of sleep. She blinked, trying to capture the remnants of her dream, but the urgency of the noise drove them from her mind. Sakura peered at the tiny digits indicating the time, then groaned. Why couldn't Anbu have emergencies during normal business hours?

Throwing off the blankets, Sakura climbed out of bed and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She stripped off the oversized t-shirt and reached for standard issue jonin blues. Sakura couldn't be bothered with the complicated snaps and buttons of her normal attire while half asleep. Tying off the pants, she grabbed a bag that held everything she'd need for an emergency consultation from beside the night stand and headed toward the door.

The streets of Konoha were eerily quiet in the deepest hours of the night, deserted except for the occasional flicker of unseen protectors at the corner of Sakura's vision. The fluorescent lights of the hospital glowed in the darkness, drawing Sakura like a moth. When she stepped through the doors, the same blanket of silence that cloaked the village enveloped the reception area.

Sakura turned away from the serenity, preparing for chaos. She'd barely reached the shinobi wing before Chiasa hurried toward her. Blood splattered the woman's scrubs as she indicated one of the rooms. "This way, Haruno-sensei."

Chiasa had already attached monitors to the patient while awaiting Sakura's arrival. The machines beeped an urgent rhythm that forced the last vestiges of sleep from Sakura's mind. Her eyes darted to the heart rate, lips pulling into a frown. The number was higher than Sakura wanted to see for someone as physically fit as an Anbu.

A flash of silver caught Sakura's eye; armor littered the floor. A chest plate tilted haphazardly against the leg of a chair. Metal arm guards and black compression gloves piled in a corner. Streaks of mud brown and dappled crimson looked like a macabre art display against the crispness of the bed's sheets.

Shaking her head to clear the image, Sakura moved closer to the bed. She noticed the man lying on it for the first time. Familiar brown hair stuck up in a dozen directions, pushed there by the faceplate and mask that lay beside his hand. Despite the chaos of the scene around them, Yamato's face looked markedly untouched by whatever injuries had brought him to the hospital.

The man's black compression shirt had been cut away, baring Yamato's chest to the light. Minor cuts and gashes decorated his arms and shoulders, each one in various states of healing. On his left side, a bloody bandage clung to the skin, mud and dirt covering it. The edges were too saturated to bond well; it had reopened at some point, allowing debris into the wound.

Sakura dropped her bag into a chair and dug out the tools she needed. One hand came up with a stethoscope that she draped around her neck, and the other held a pen light. Sakura thumbed open Yamato's eyes to check his pupil's reaction and was surprised to feel the burn of fever beneath her fingers. "Yamato? Can you hear me? Do you know where you are?"

When the man didn't answer, Sakura tucked the light into her pocket and turned to Chiasa. "What do we know? Do we have any information? Where is his team?"

Chiasa glanced down at the notes, though Sakura knew the woman hadn't forgotten any of the information from the intake. The nurse nodded to herself. "A member of his team brought him in while he was unconscious. The girl didn't stay around to check on his status."

Sakura frowned at that addition, wondering if friendships in the black ops meant so little and who the girl was. She didn't have time to answer that question now. Chiasa offered a shrug as if she could read Sakura's thoughts, then continued. "I was told that I don't have clearance for the details of the mission, so your guess is as good as mine on what happened."

A flash of fury burst in Sakura's chest at the words, but she forced it away. With a sharp dip of her head, she moved closer to Yamato and sighed. "I wish I had the time to be gentle."

Bracing her hands against Yamato's shoulders, Sakura pushed her chakra through his semi-conscious defenses. The man arched, a soft growl ripping free from his throat as she probed the injuries. As she'd expected, a dozen or more smaller wounds vied for her attention. They were minor compared to the one on Yamato's side. Another significant cut crossed his thigh, undoubtedly wrapped and hidden by the fabric of his pants, but that would need attention as well.

Ignoring the inconsequential details, Sakura focused on the most threatening injuries. Both the chest and leg were infected. She eased chakra into the wounds, lessening the body's strain to heal itself. A sluggish pulse of blood caught her attention; a tiny laceration on Yamato's liver. Sakura's forehead knit together in concentration as she pushed healing energy around the wound, forcing the body to speed its repair. She spent as much chakra as she dared, but the infection presented another problem.

Sakura lifted her hands away from Yamato's warm skin and wiped them down the front of her pants. It was only then that she realized that she hadn't bothered to don her lab coat, another detail that hardly mattered. She turned back to Chiasa. "Let's start with a broad spectrum antibiotic. Has he been coherent since they brought him in?"

Chiasa shook her head as she turned to the medicine cabinet to find the items needed to start an IV line. Sakura tapped her fingers against her thigh as she chewed her lower lip, mumbling to herself. "Where is your team? Why didn't they stay? And, what the hell happened?"

Grumbling under her breath, Sakura swiped her hair away from her neck in a messy ponytail as she considered the options. Trying to purge infection was trickier than poison; it was a body's response to stimuli instead of foreign invaders that she could isolate. It would be better to clean the wounds with traditional medicine and drain the infections, especially since Sakura wasn't sure what she was dealing with yet.

Sakura released her chakra when Chiasa appeared at her side, holding out the medicine. She nodded and made the notation in Yamato's chart. The page was empty except for Chiasa's intake notes. Sakura resisted the urge to throw the file against the wall as she checked the numbers. Yamato's blood pressure and heart rate were higher than she wanted them to be, especially after healing. Had she missed something?

Kneeling, Sakura picked up the discarded chest plate that she'd noticed earlier. A puncture in the side correlated with the injury to Yamato's chest. Whatever hit him had to have been moving at incredible speed to crumple the armor that way. Sakura placed the item on the chair, then collected the arm guards to join it. She reached for his mask, brushing her fingers over the green and red stripes on the cat's cheeks that had kept his features free of wounds. Sakura wondered if the animal had been assigned, or if Yamato had picked it himself.

After placing the mask with the rest of the armor, Sakura crossed the room to pull a blanket from the cabinet. Since the rest of Yamato's team hadn't stuck around long enough to see how he was doing, she had no idea what to do with it. The man had essentially been abandoned, and it infuriated Sakura. Was that the way that all Anbu treated each other? She couldn't imagine bringing Naruto or Sasuke to the hospital in this condition and leaving them there.

Sakura sighed, watching the efficient way that Chiasa worked. The nurse had already gotten an IV line started in Yamato's wrist and was buzzing around the machines connected to his body. Sakura glanced at his heart rate and blood pressure again, frowning. "I want vitals checked by hand every twenty minutes for the next three hours," she decided aloud.

"If there are no changes after that," Sakura glanced at her watch, startled to find the time so late already. "After that, I'll be back on shift and can reevaluate him myself."

Chiasa nodded, familiar with the expectations. "Do you want any blood work?"

"Yeah, let's get a cbc and blood culture to see what we're up against." Sakura paused, then nodded to herself. There was nothing else that she could accomplish tonight. "I'm going to try and catch a couple of hours of sleep in my office. Wake me if there are any changes."

Gathering her bag from beside the bed, Sakura slung it over her shoulder and walked from the room. The silence of the hallways made her uneasy. She was used to the hustle and bustle that predominated day shift, but more emergencies came through the doors at night. Sprains and stuffy noses were replaced with broken bones and heart attacks. Sakura didn't envy the men and women who worked while everyone else slept. She'd done more than her fair share of night shifts when training with Tsunade, mostly because the woman liked sleep more than she liked her student. Or, so Sakura thought.

A ratty couch tucked into one corner of Sakura's office, a new addition for these late night Anbu surprises. It was hardly long enough to stretch out on, even for someone of Sakura's height, but it worked in a pinch. The room was blissfully dark at least. Sakura tossed her bag onto the floor, then tried to get comfortable on the lumpy cushions. Seconds ticked by, then minutes. Despite the exhaustion nagging the back of her mind, Sakura's body refused to rest. Sighing, she moved back to the desk and flipped on the light.

A dozen charts waited for Sakura's attention, but she couldn't focus enough to deal with the tiny details that they required. Her mind refused to settle enough for sleep, but wouldn't let her work. Sakura had assumed that the worst missions, the ones that left shinobi broken and battered like Yamato, had become an exception now that the world was at peace. She berated herself for that naivety. The current political situation was tenuous at best, forced by fear or respect for Naruto and Sasuke. Anbu continued to put their lives on the line daily and would do so until something major changed

Sakura's frown deepened as she considered Yamato, still trying to reconcile the fact that he was Anbu. She had wondered why she saw so little of him after the war, but hadn't thought to comment on it. Sai had never mentioned the man in relation to Anbu either, but that wasn't surprising considering the security around them. Sai wasn't one to gossip, anyway. Sakura tapped her fingers against her forearm, then checked her watch, less than an hour had passed.

Giving up on the idea of sleep, Sakura pushed to her feet and left her office behind. The halls were still deserted and silent as she walked back to Yamato's room. Chiasa had gone, dimming the lights before she left to help her patient rest. Beside his bed, the alarm on the monitor flashed, but it had been silenced for being constantly out of normal parameters. Yamato's heart rate and blood pressure remained elevated.

The healing, push of fluids, antibiotics, and rest should have lowered the number by now. Sakura stepped closer and captured Yamato's wrist in her hands. Her fingers pressed against his pulse point, surprised to feel the rapid beat through the skin. She had wondered if the machine was getting a false reading somehow, but her physical count came up with the same number or close enough that it made no difference. Sakura laid his hand back on the bed and frowned. "Why aren't you stabilizing?"

As Sakura expected, Yamato didn't answer. Chiasa had cleared away the tatters of his uniform, then cleaned and wrapped the wounds. Yamato's armor remained beneath the blanket where Sakura had left it. The man looked different without the jonin uniform and usual head protector. She brushed her fingers over his forehead, feeling the warmth of fever. Yamato's temperature was up, but not high enough to force his body to shut down. "Did I miss something," Sakura wondered aloud, mentally cycling through the dozens of medical textbooks that she'd read over the years.

Lowering her hands to hover above Yamato's chest, Sakura eased her chakra into his body. The echo of the man's life force ruled out chakra exhaustion. Sakura had tended to Kakashi after battle enough times to know what that felt like. Yamato's chakra brimmed with energy and life.

Sakura quested deeper, reexamining the injuries and looking for something that she could have missed. It was exactly as she'd seen earlier, minus her healing. Huffing, she broke the connection between herself and Yamato. When Sakura opened her eyes, she was startled to find Chiasa at the end of the bed with a stethoscope in hand. The woman was coming back to get the next set of vitals. Sakura dipped her chin in greeting. "Have we gotten any results yet?"

"Not yet," Chiasa answered, pulling the file from the box at the end of the bed. "We should have part of it back in the next couple of hours, but the culture will take longer."

"Yeah," Sakura agreed, humming thoughtfully. Her eyes swept over Yamato again, then returned to his heart rate. "Draw a tox screen as well, and put a rush on the results."

If Chiasa was surprised by the unusual request, her face didn't reveal it. She nodded and made a notation in the chart. "Anything else, Haruno-sensei?"

Sakura shook her head, wondering if any of the tests would help her fit the pieces together into an image that made some kind of sense. She rested a hand on Yamato's bare shoulder. "We'll get to the bottom of this soon, I promise."

Don’t miss the rest of the chapter, linked above!

#dimi write #healing hands #YamaSaku #Tenzo/Sakura #Sakura Haruno #Tenzo #Yamato #SLOW Burn

3 notes · View notes

beans-shadow · 4 years

Text

looking for the truth (pt 8)

Fandom: Naruto

Relationship: Kakasaku

Characters: Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura

read on ao3: here

part one / two / three / four / five / six / seven / eight / nine / ten / eleven / twelve / thirteen

This time Kakashi got a significant portion of the message decoded.

More flowers needed for Leaf shipment, increase total by two tons ---

“Hmm,” Sakura read Kakashi’s decoded scroll. “Nothing that sinister yet, but considering it was encrypted I wonder what the rest of the scroll says. It must be something interesting.”

“I’d want to keep working on this, but unfortunately if we do not leave soon we’ll be late for the group picnic,” Kakashi sighed, leaving his post at the table. “And now I need to change, since Futoshi undoubtedly is expecting a different assortment of clothing from my breakfast attire.”

Sakura laughed. “True, true. Just throw on a nice pair of clothes and you’ll be fine, don’t worry. You look good in anything.”

“I do?” Kakashi asked, but Sakura either did or chose to ignore him as she went to look for picnic clothes as well. He couldn’t help the smile that appeared under his mask. Then an idea struck him.

“Hey, Sakura?” He walked into the bedroom, finding her sifting through a pile of clothes. The whole scene felt very domestic to him, and his heart felt funny when she turned around with a smile on her face.

“Yes, Kakashi?”

“I’m going to try and find Futoshi before this whole event, so I’m going to change quickly and I’ll meet you there. Is that okay?”

Sakura appeared a bit taken aback at the suggestion, but could not find a reason to say no. “Yeah, that sounds fine. Just, somehow let me know where you end up then.”

Kakashi nodded, and after he switched clothes, swiftly departed. A quick navigation through the small village found Kakashi at park on the edge of the main town square where Futoshi was organizing the group picnic.

With a tap on the shoulder Futoshi spun around and greeted Kakashi.

“How nice to see you! It has been so long,” he admonished, giving Kakashi a hug.

With a dismissive pat on the back, Kakashi agreed. “Yes, so long. If it is alright with you, I have somewhat of an unusual request…”

-------

Futoshi was more than happy to accommodate, and soon Kakashi found himself on a secluded part of the hill under a small line of trees with his own basket and blanket. The young Lord had assured Kakashi he would find someone to direct Sakura his way, and when a pierce of pink in the distance peeked over the mound, Kakashi knew Futoshi had not disappointed.

The young woman looked very adorably confused, looking all ways around her before spotting Kakashi. Her body stretched out as she waved in his direction, increasing to a brisk trot to reach his location.

As she drew closer, Kakashi got a better look at her. She dressed herself in a summer dress, a soft blue with white swirls knitted in for detail. It blew in the delicate wind, bellowing around her and lifting her hair, creating what looked like a painting in Kakashi’s mind.

He rose from the blanket to welcome Sakura. “You look wonderful,” he said, taking her hand to balance one another as they sat down.

Sakura blushed. “Thanks. What is this all about? Where is everyone else?”

Opening the picnic basket, Kakashi explained, “You mentioned you were done socializing for the day, and I couldn’t agree more… so I asked Futoshi for our own picnic.” Emptying the basket, Kakashi found grapes, cheese, some sake (he was NOT going to be drinking any of that), and some chocolate. There was also a small set of dishes, which Kakashi laid on the blanket and set up a display of food with. He prepared a separate plate and handed it to Sakura, who had a dumb smile on her face as she accepted the offering.

“What?” Kakashi asked, patting his face. “Is there something on me?”

“No, no,” Sakura shook her head, still smiling. “This is just very sweet of you.”

“Oh, well,” as he looked down, Kakashi found he did not know what to say. He usually knew exactly what do say. Why couldn’t he think of anything to say? “Futoshi really planned everything,” he settled on. That sounded dumb. Why was he acting like this?

“Well, thank you, Futoshi,” Sakura said, smiling as she ripped off a grape.

“Yes. Thank you, Futoshi.” Kakashi made his own cheese plate and leaned back on his elbows. He admired the landscape around them, for some reason finding it hard to keep eye contact with Sakura for more than a few seconds.

But out of eyeshot, conversation became easy again. They chatted about the food, Sakura once again giving Kakashi his space when he lowered his mask to pop a piece of cheese into his mouth. All the produce really was delicious, an attribute to the Daimyo’s claim from before about their fertile ground. Topic to topic drifted in and out, including the friendliness of the village and the contents of the scroll. After a while, they ambled into silence, but this time it was companionable. They were comfortable around one another, and neither was attempting to distance themselves from the other. It was pleasant, and Kakashi found he had never quite enjoyed spending so much time alone with one person before in such a vulnerable state.

When Sakura became brave enough to open the sake bottle, she tensed up. Kakashi felt it, but did not pry. He kept one eye on her, the other closed from habit. She kept her gaze away from Kakashi this time as she cleared her throat.

“You know, I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said the first day we arrived here. And you were right. I don’t have the natural potential that Sasuke and Naruto were gifted.”

That conversation did not stir good memories for Kakashi. Trying to avoid the topic, Kakashi sat up on the blanket and said, “Sakura, I didn’t mean—”

The ninja cut him off. “No, it’s okay. I will never be on their level, not truly, without their bloodlines or special abilities. But I want to be remembered too. Not as a Hokage or a covert ninja, but for something.”

Kakashi twisted in place to fully face her. “You’re the best medic nin Konoha has ever seen,” he reminded her.

With a scrunch of her face, Sakura said, “People may say that, but Tsunade will always hold that title. I think I need my own jutsu.” She looked at her small hands, so dainty and precise. “I know you trained Naruto to develop his, and Sasuke developed his technique based off your chidori.” She clenched her hands into fists. "I need my own.”

Without reason, Kakashi enveloped her hands in his own. Heat raced through his arms, but Kakashi tried to ignore it. “You need only to ask, Sakura; I’ll help you once we return to our village.”

Now Sakura smiled, eyes playful. “Oh, I’m already passed the creation stage. I’m just perfecting it now.”

“Oh?” Kakashi was surprised. “And what is it?”

“It’s my turn for secrets, Hatake.” Sakura winked at him, lifting her hands from his in a manner that made Kakashi wonder if she too felt the electricity running down his fingers. Without looking away, she popped another grape in her mouth, forcing Kakashi to fight from watching her lips move tantalizingly.

“I never thought you would be so bold,” Kakashi settled on saying, leaning back fully onto the blanket.

A puff of pink filtered in his peripheral vision as Sakura lay down next to him. Her pinky finger brushed his as she said, “And I never thought I would find myself having a picnic with the legendary Copy Nin, but here we are.”

Looking up at the clouds filtering the dusk light, Kakashi replied, “Yes. Here we are.”

They ended up hanging out on the hill for a few more hours, choosing to enjoy the view of the sunset over the village from the perch. Kakashi found it hard to choose between watching how the colors of the sunset projected over the buildings or how the light made Sakura’s hair turn a golden rose. Good thing she was too captivated by the scenery in front of her to notice Kakashi’s wavering eyes.

Before the night became too dark for them to return to their rooms in relative safety, Sakura and Kakashi cleaned up their picnic to head back. Sakura passionately talked about her current work under Tsunade’s supervision involving innovative surgical techniques, and Kakashi was happy to silently listen, nodding in appreciation and smiling with his eyes to communicate he enjoyed the conversation. It truly was amazing what Sakura was doing, despite the fact Kakashi could not understand all the technical vocabulary. Medicine was not his specialty.

When they reached their inn, Sakura was describing some case that was beyond Kakashi.

“And you couldn’t believe it – what I felt with my chakra was unlike anything I had ever seen before. The complexity of the cist was more advanced than any common ones, and simply with my chakra I was able to pinpoint the solution.”

Rummaging through his bag, Kakashi said, “I am very impressed, Sakura. And not only because I couldn’t follow most of that.”

Warm laughter came from Sakura’s side of the room. “It’s nice to hear that there are some things even you don’t know, Kakashi.”

When Sakura left to change in the bathroom, Kakashi tore off his overshirt, leaving his mask on, and changed his pants.

He settled into bed, lying on his back, before Sakura returned, taking care to stay as close to the edge of the mattress as possible. Her hand, so close to his at the picnic, was on his mind. Even if they were getting closer with their friendship restored, Kakashi felt as though there was a line being more defined he could not step over. A line he would never have considered before this trip. A line, whose train of thought was too dangerous to follow.

Just as he was nodding to sleep, Kakashi felt the bed sink with Sakura’s weight. She shimmied until the perfect position was achieved, and the room filled with a deep sigh. From his periphery, he could feel Sakura’s eyes flutter on him every once in a while.

Sakura studied him, but Kakashi flipped around to face the wall. Pulling his mask up, he tried to return to his comfortable state and fall into deep slumber. But all he could feel was the kunoichi's gaze like feathers on his back.

#kakashi #kakasaku #naruto #fanfic #looking for the truth #my writing

11 notes · View notes

isolavirtuosa · 4 years

Text

Starting Over (For Real?) 29-30

[fanfiction] NaruSasu

Read the previous parts here.

This part picks right up where 28 left off.

I wanted to not be a sarcastic asshole and actually help him. I really wanted to. My complete failings at human niceties had never bothered me before, yet here I was, floundering to be normal for once.

He reached over, smoothing the wrinkle in my brow. “What are you thinking?”

I looked at him.

He waited.

- 29 -

He waited for a long time.

“If I try to put it into words, it just sounds jumbled and stupid,” I finally said.

“I don’t mind,” Naruto said, bumping our foreheads together and making his gaze inescapable.

“I do.”

“I know,” he said. “But it’s just me, you know? You don’t have to try and be cool in front of me; I already think you’re the coolest guy in the world.”

“That’s a ringing endorsement.”

“You make me feel so small and unimportant when you say things like that,” he said quietly.

I flinched.

“It’s just you being you, but… I wish you could talk to me instead of deflecting everything,” he said, lowering his gaze. “Why do you have to put up your walls with me of all people? Do I… do I… have I done something wrong?”

I could tell he was getting upset again. “I’m not saying you’re perfect,” I stumbled out. “But it’s… it’s not you, okay?”

Naruto swallowed.

“I know you don’t want to hear this and I don’t want to say it…” I trailed off.

He rested his hand on my knee, squeezing gently.

“The other me… the me in your world…”

He tensed up.

“He’d already dealt with all his issues,” I tried to explain. “He knew that he had issues and he dealt with them, and he was a mature adult, and then there’s me, and I haven’t… dealt with them.”

When I didn’t continue, he squeezed my knee again. “Dealt with what?” he prodded.

I shook my head.

“You’re not ready?” he asked softly.

I shook my head again, feeling pathetic.

“I get what you’re saying,” he said, rubbing my knee in what seemed like an anxious movement. “I…” he trailed off and swallowed. “Maybe I’m not completely… over him…”

I took in a shaky breath and let it out. This was really just beyond idiotic.

“I can see your walls going up,” he said.

“Well I need them,” I said, pushing his hand away.

“I know,” he said, looking stupidly devastated.

I didn’t know where this conversation was headed anymore, but I just wanted it to be over. “You’re fine now, right?” I asked, standing up. My legs were sore from sitting on the floor for so long, but they held me up.

“No,” he said.

I glared at him.

He stood up, too. “I thought we were okay.”

“Clearly we’re not,” I said, trying to push down the embarrassment from the ridiculous way I’d thrown myself at him earlier only to run away, which kept running over and over in my head on endless, mortifying loop. Then there was this whole conversation about how he was more in love with some fake version of me than he was with the actual me, which made a lot of sense and explained why someone like him could ever be with someone like me. He thought that I was going to grow and mature into a good person. It was funny and sad, and we were never going to work. “So what are we doing about all of the impending world crises?”

“…did you just change the subject…?”

“Fucking right I did.”

“Sasuke.”

“So all the kage are turning into white zetsu.”

“How… did you…?”

“I’m Uchiha Sasuke.”

“I’m not supposed to…”

“I already know, so who cares?”

“Okay, well you didn’t hear it from me.”

“No, I didn’t,” I said, looking at him pointedly.

“Don’t act like that,” he said with a frown. “I trust you. I was just sworn to secrecy by people who… don’t.”

“Yeah, okay,” I said. “Anyway, why was the tsuchikage acting like everything was normal?”

“I guess he was the only one who didn’t get turned into a white zetsu?” Naruto offered.

“Does that really seem likely?”

“Well, I don’t really know how God Trees work, so…”

“Don’t white zetsu have transformation abilities?” I suggested. “Can’t they mimic someone’s body and chakra signature?”

“Uh…”

“The answer is ‘yes’, in case you were wondering.”

“Just so we’re clear, you’re saying that the tsuchikage is a fake?”

“That body probably used to be the tsuchikage,” I said with a shrug.

Naruto studied my face.

“What?” I asked irritably.

“You’re really smart,” he said.

“…okay?”

He shrugged. “I mean like savvy. You know what’s going on and you can read the political climate and all that stuff.”

“As any good ninja should be able to.”

“You and your digs. Anyway, I want you to be my partner at the Summit.”

“So there’s a summit now?” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Well, I’m trying to put one together, but everyone is about as helpful as you are,” Naruto said.

“And yet you want me to be your adjutant? How flattering.”

“Like I even know what that word means, but no, I said partner you jackass.”

He was clearly getting mad, but I was in the kind of horrible mood where I just wanted to make him madder. I opened my mouth to rip into him, paused to think about earlier, and closed it. I gave my words more thought. “You don’t show up to a peace summit with the enemy next to you.”

“Well, I’ve already showed up everywhere with him in my bed,” he said. “Not that you’re the enemy,” he added quickly. “And, uh…” he stuttered, suddenly going red.

I liked when Naruto embarrassed himself. It put me in a kinder, gentler mood. “In your bed, huh?”

His lips pursed defiantly. “Yes.”

I wanted to throw myself at him again, and that was just so beyond embarrassing that I looked away. “And who are you inviting to this summit?”

“The Ninja Alliance.”

“So… basically any ninja?”

“Well, sure,” he said. “I’m not excluding anyone.”

“Do you even have a functioning brain in your head?”

The purse of his lips got deeper.

“Your enemies are everywhere!” I snapped. “Konoha is fucking poison, Iwa’s propping up a fake tsuchikage, Kiri’s being wiped out by non-ninjas and fake God Trees, and we couldn’t even set foot in fucking Kumo because they’re already under fucking Konoha’s thumb.”

“You’re the one Konoha’s after,” Naruto said with a shrug.

“Oh, well in that case, please give them your location and invite them into your home for fucking tea and crumpets.”

“You’re really mad,” he commented.

“I’m not mad!”

“You swear a lot when you’re mad.”

“I fu-… do not.”

He stared at me knowingly.

“Fuck you,” I said.

“Not yet.”

I was going to crush his windpipe and that was going to be that.

“You haven’t even left the entryway,” he added, taking my hand and tugging me inside of his apartment.

His ability to just change gears was astounding. He was almost as adept at avoidance as I was.

“Does the fucking happen after I tour your shitty apartment?” I muttered.

“Only if you want it to,” he said cheerfully.

I tensed up.

He tugged my hand harder and we moved into his living room. It looked exactly like my living room, except his was already messy. “Sit,” he said, his eyes screaming, ‘you need to rest your legs!’

I sat down and looked long-suffering.

“I’ll make you some tea,” he offered.

“You don’t have any tea.”

“Oh…” he said, scratching the back of his neck. “I could… borrow some…”

“Who is going to lend you tea?”

“Sas’, it’s been a long fucking day and we’re both stressed and exhausted,” he said.

“Yes,” I agreed.

“So I’m gonna go ask Karin or someone if they have any stupid tea, and then I’m going to boil some water and serve it to you and you’re gonna shut up and drink it,” he decided, crossing his arm over his chest.

I looked at him.

He looked at me.

“Yes, please,” I said, leaning my head back against the back of the couch and closing my eyes.

His footsteps creaked closer to me, then I felt him lean in and kiss my forehead. “I’ll be right back.”

He was not right back, but I barely noticed as I drifted in and out of sleep. I kept startling awake from uneasiness, running from the shadows in my head, before exhausting myself back into sleep.

The door flew open. Naruto kicked off his shoes with a loud thump and bounded back into the living room before setting eyes on my half-asleep form. He tiptoed by me and put the kettle on. Then he tiptoed back over.

I cracked an eye open at him.

“I’m back,” he whispered. “I got tea,” he added. “And a whole chicken,” he added again. “Because we didn’t eat dinner.”

I didn’t bother asking where he got a whole chicken from or what he was currently doing with it. “Naruto.”

“Hm?” he said, coming closer.

I needed to talk to him. I needed to express myself. I needed so many things, and all I could do was stare at him.

He looked worried.

“I don’t know how to talk to you,” I finally said.

Naruto gave me a sad smile. “I know.”

“I’m… embarrassed.”

Now his brows drew up a little. “Why would you be embarrassed?”

I shrugged.

He came over to sit next to me.

“Maybe I’m not what everyone thinks. Or maybe… I was but now I’m not.”

“And what do we all think?” he asked, genuinely curious.

I shrugged.

Naruto sighed loudly.

I glared at him.

“I can feel frustrated by your inability to express yourself,” he grumbled. “You don’t have to shut down the second that I do.”

“I’m not shutting down.”

“You are shut down and closed for business.”

The kettle started to whistle.

Naruto sighed again and got up, disappearing into the kitchen. He came back with a cup of tea and put it on the coffee table in front of me before going back for his chicken.

It was just a giant plate filled with chicken.

He picked some up with his fingers and held it up towards my mouth.

I gave him the repulsed look he deserved.

“You’re just a priss,” he said, sucking the grease off of his fingers. “Eat something.”

“I’m good,” I said, sipping my tea. It was still a little hot.

Naruto continued to eat chicken with his hand. “You know I love you, right?”

I shrugged.

“I don’t think we’re…” he trailed off.

I kept my facial expression frozen as I sipped more overly hot tea.

“See?” he said. “I just sent you into full panic mode.”

“Who is panicking?” I asked, calmly setting the cup and saucer back on the table.

“You’re locked down more than a daimyou’s mansion.”

I shrugged. “I’m perfectly calm.”

“We can’t have a relationship like this.”

Everything inside of me shattered into a million pieces. “Okay then,” I said.

Naruto put down his disgusting chicken, wiping his hand on his pants. “No, it’s not okay. You’re the air I breathe.”

“You’re very desperately codependent,” I informed him.

“Yeah,” he said. “I know. And that’s a very large part of the problem. I’m like… aggressively in love with you, and you’re… not…”

“So really the problem is me,” I said. I picked up my tea and took another sip. It was still too damn hot.

“That’s not what I’m saying,” he said frustratedly.

“Does it matter what you’re saying?” I asked, putting the cup down again. “You want to end it, let’s end it.”

Of course Naruto was crying. “I don’t want to end it, you stupid jerk.”

“Then what do you want, crybaby?” I started rubbing at my temple, feeling a headache coming on. The skin was hard under my fingers.

“I want you to grow up!” he snapped.

“Yeah,” I said, standing up. “Well, give me twenty or so years to catch up to you.” I was almost to the door when I felt him tugging at the back of my shirt.

“Don’t go,” he requested barely above a whisper.

“I thought that’s what mature people do during arguments,” I said. “You know, they run away in the middle of it.”

“Sasuke.”

I didn’t look at him.

I didn’t even know how we ended up kissing on the floor, shoes crushed under Naruto’s back.

His eyes were still wet and glistening so I closed mine.

Everything felt wrong.

I was embarrassed when we pulled apart, both sitting up and looking anywhere but at each other.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

“For what?” I asked, trying not to snap.

“I don’t know how to make things right, so I just make them worse.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

“If you can’t do anything but snip at me, then…”

“Then what.”

“…I don’t know,” he said quietly, playing with the hem of his jacket. “I think I’ll lose you.”

I didn’t want this. I didn’t want to keep pushing him away. I didn’t want to, but… “I’m gonna go.”

Naruto was quiet for a moment. “Yeah, okay,” he finally said.

I got up and stepped into my shoes.

Naruto stayed on the floor.

I opened the door and didn’t look back.

- 30 -

Karin and Sakura seemed to think that having vaginas somehow uniquely qualified them to prepare the men’s breakfast.

“Why isn’t Naruto here?” Sai asked, looking around Sakura’s apartment.

“He had a meeting,” Sakura said through clenched teeth. She proceeded to fold her omelet very aggressively in the pan.

“Oh, so he still hates you,” Sai said with a knowing nod.

“Sai,” I said.

He looked at me.

I shook my head.

“Ah, girls are sensitive about that kind of thing,” he said.

I nodded.

Karin burst out laughing.

I gave her a look.

“I’m sorry,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes. “But you of all people telling Sai how to behave appropriately… oh my god…” she trailed off before cackling madly.

“I know how to behave appropriately, I just choose not to because I’m a sociopath,” I said with a shrug.

“At least you acknowledge it,” Sakura said, smiling a little.

“I’m self-aware,” I said, which got me another round of laughter from the peanut gallery. I chose to ignore them and continued sharpening my kunai while I waited for this farce of womanly nurturing to come to an end.

Kakashi popped into the room, stealing a piece of sausage from the pan where Karin was cooking.

“Isn’t that hot?” she asked him incredulously, but he just shrugged.

The rice cooker dinged.

Sakura turned off the stove and flipped her omelet onto a plate before hurrying over to the rice cooker to start scooping the rice.

Sai watched with interest. “Is this some kind of mating ritual?”

Sakura just sighed loudly. She was probably the person the most used to Sai’s ridiculousness.

Karin looked affronted. “Who would want to mate with any of you?”

“I believe you tried to mate with my best friend Uchiha several times,” Sai explained. “And he and I look similar, so many women who are attracted to him are also attracted to me.”

“We don’t look that similar,” I muttered.

Karin looked like she was revving up to yell something, then paused and actually looked at Sai. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Hey, I thought the belly shirt meant you were gay, too, but are you…?”

“Undecided,” Sai said, his actual smile spreading across his lips.

Karin’s eyes gleamed. “And how do you plan on deciding?”

“Karin, down,” I commanded.

She turned a withering look on me. “What, are you jealous?”

“He’s figuring things out and he doesn’t need your obsessive stalking,” I said.

“I only obsessively stalk you!” she snapped, slamming a bowl of salad on the table.

It actually warmed my heart to hear that.

“Why don’t we eat?” Sakura suggested, putting down the last of the dishes on the table.

“Don’t mind if I do,” Kakashi said, already digging in.

“Sensei,” Sakura said irritably. “At least give proper thanks before stuffing your face like a pig.”

“Rubba dub dub, thanks for the grub,” Kakashi said, his mouth clearly full behind his mask.

“How does he eat without showing his face?” Karin murmured.

“I’m a ninja,” Kakashi informed her proudly.

“Was there a reason for this circus of a breakfast, or did you just want to show off your mediocre culinary skills?” I asked, carefully bringing rice to mouth with my one hand.

“Maybe if you all could stop being jackasses for five seconds, we could talk,” Sakura grumped.

“That might be asking a bit much from this group,” Sai said cheerfully. “This really is rather mediocre. Look how burnt the bottom of this omelet is.”

“Sai, so help me, you will be the first one that I throttle,” Sakura growled.

He grinned at her. “I look forward to it.”

“Throttling is bad,” I informed him. “Especially if the person doing the throttling is strong enough to destroy this entire building with a punch.”

“Yes, but Sakura-chan only throttles the people she loves,” Sai said happily.

The expression on Sakura’s face was priceless.

“Well, thanks for the food,” Kakashi said, starting to stand up.

Sakura put her hands on his shoulders, shoving him back into the chair. “Enough. You all are children. We need to talk.”

“Then talk,” I said.

“Okay, well…” she said, fidgeting back into her seat. “Kakashi brought us to Suna to get off the ANBU’s radar, but what are we doing here?”

“There’s food,” I said.

“Shelter,” Sai added.

“Naruto,” Kakashi chimed in, which I would have thought was directed at me, but everyone besides Karin seemed to look away at that one. “Tsunade,” he added.

“I brought her here, but I can’t do anything else for her in Suna,” Sakura said with a sad shake of her head. “I want to do more research on the zetsu. I was thinking maybe you two could help,” she said, nodding at Karin and me. “Orochimaru’s research…”

“Sakura, you don’t want to get involved in that,” Karin said, shaking her head. “The things he did in the name of science, you… you don’t want to touch it.”

“What choice do I have?” she asked, looking lost and desperate.

“We go to Water and we look into the God Trees,” I said.

“Water’s awfully dangerous for a ninja,” Kakashi hummed.

I rolled my eyes at him.

He winked at me.

It was not sexy and it did not make me feel uncomfortable.

“I wouldn’t mind cleaning the clocks of a few anti-ninja brigades,” Sai said, looking very cheerful about the prospect of bloodshed.

“We could ascertain what’s happened to the mizukage,” I put in.

“Sounds like a plan,” Kakashi said, pushing himself off of the table and onto his feet. “See ya.” He disappeared.

“Why is he like that?” Sakura complained, stabbing her food with more force than necessary.

“What other way would he be?” I asked.

She sighed and took the first bite of her food since we’d sat at the table. She seemed a little more at ease now that we weren’t just twiddling our thumbs.

It felt strangely comfortable now, like we were some kind of unit working towards a goal.

“What about Naruto?” Sai finally asked in the middle of our planning.

Sakura tensed up.

I avoided eye contact.

“Seems to me like the kid can’t make a decision,” Karin commented.

“He can choose to be mad at me,” Sakura muttered.

“He can choose to du-” I started to say and immediately shut my mouth. Why had I been about to tell these people my personal business? And it wasn’t like we’d officially broken up. Naruto had just said that he loved the fake me more and that he wanted me to grow up and that we couldn’t have a relationship.

All three of them were looking at me with too much interest.

“Best friend, do you require my comfort?” Sai finally asked.

“No,” I said flatly.

“I could procure some alcohol for us, and we could have a rip-roaring time,” he continued.

“‘Rip-roaring’?” Karin repeated, her nose scrunching up.

“You keep calling Sasuke your best friend, and I really don’t understand when this dynamic came about,” Sakura said, looking between us.

“It’s got nothing to do with me,” I said.

“A lot happens when men travel together,” Sai explained. “Sacred bonds are forged.”

“Have you been hanging out with Lee?” Sakura asked, squinting at him.

“Oh, no, I haven’t,” he said. “But I’ve been reading his book. He’s one of my role models for how to be a normal human being.”

“You chose… Lee…?” Sakura said slowly.

“He wrote a book…?” I asked.

“I don’t even know what’s going on anymore,” Karin said, shaking her head.

“Sasuke’s sad about being dumped,” Sai explained.

“I wasn’t dumped!” I snapped.

“But you just said-”

“I didn’t say anything!” I yelled, standing up abruptly and stomping my dishes over to the sink. I started washing them vigorously. Fuck, I was so uncool. I needed to go back to not caring about things.

They whispered about me for a while like somehow I couldn’t hear them, then went back to planning our departure to the Land of Water.

I washed all their damn dishes until there was nothing left to do but go back and sit at the table.

“Can you be in charge of getting Kakashi-sensei to transport us?” Sakura requested of me, not even bringing up what a fool I’d just made of myself.

“I don’t think I have any particular sway over his whims,” I said.

She raised an eyebrow at me.

“What?” I asked.

“I know,” she said flatly.

“Know what?” I asked, legitimately confused.

“I know,” she repeated. “You saw.”

“I saw what?” I started to ask, before it clicked into place. “His face?”

Sakura stared back at me evenly.

I shrugged.

She simmered.

“I’ll ask him,” I said casually.

Sakura shook her head. “Try and kill us all and you’re still the favorite.”

“Oh, is that why you joined the ANBU that were trying to kill us all?” I asked. “Currying favor?”

“The mission given to me was to bring you back alive, which you are perfectly aware of,” she said, reaching over the table and poking me in the chest.

Her poke was harder than a normal poke. I closed my eyes for a moment and opened them again, looking into hers directly. “I do know.”

Her angry expression faltered. “I swear, if I had known what Hyuuga was up to-”

“Sakura, I know,” I said. “I never doubted you. But no many how many times I try and tell the idiot to just shut up and listen to you, he doesn’t.”

She sighed, running a hand through her mess of a ponytail. “I don’t know how to fix it.”

Strangely, I wanted to help her fix it. The thing was, I couldn’t even fix my own relationship with Naruto.

He came pounding on my door that evening, in a tizzy about not being included in our plan to leave.

“You’re the one who ran away from the Land of Water,” I said with a shrug, stepping inside the apartment and letting him in against my better judgement.

“I said we needed time to make a plan!”

“So you have a plan now?”

Naruto followed me to the living room, huffing away.

I sat on the couch.

He sat next to me.

We stared at each other.

“You’re really planning to just go without me,” he finally said.

I shrugged. “I have my mission, you have yours.”

“Really, it’s that simple to you?”

“Yes, Naruto, because I’m not a codependent crazy person like you.”

“I feel like that’s not completely true…”

I glowered at him.

He looked down at his lap.

“Are you going to make up with Sakura?” I asked, hoping to steer the conversation away from us.

“No,” he said sullenly.

I rolled my eyes.

He sighed. “Okay, yeah, I’m being childish about it, but she…”

“But she what?”

“She didn’t trust us!”

“You didn’t trust me,” I said with a shrug.

“Why do you keep trying to compare the two situations like they’re the same?”

“Because they are the same?”

“They’re not!”

“You tried to bring me back to Konoha by force because you thought I was making a mistake by leaving.”

“Well, you were making a mistake.”

I exhaled loudly and stood up. “Clearly the only perfect one among us is Saint Naruto, he who never makes mistakes.”

“That’s not what I was saying.”

“I was right to leave,” I said, looking down on him coldly. “I regret leaving the way I did, and I regret hurting you, but I made the right choice. I will never be complicit with Konoha and its-”

Naruto stood up now, too. “You’re not going to be complicit with Konoha, but you’ll be complicit with Orochimaru?” he asked incredulously.

“I took what I needed from him,” I said with a shrug. “You think that I look down on you all the time, but I can feel your disdain right now. You think you’re so morally superior to me, and yet here you are, doing exactly what I did years ago. Don’t even try to get on your high horse with me, Naruto, I see right through you.”

He took a step back from me like I’d struck at him.

“You can go,” I said, turning away from him. I clung to the edges of my steely calm, trying to stay afloat.

My couch creaked.

I turned around to see Naruto sitting again, his hand covering his mouth and his eyes wide. “That wasn’t an invitation to stay-” I started and stopped.

He was trying so hard not to cry.

“You are pathetic,” I said, sitting next to him.

“I know,” he mumbled into his hand.

I waited.

He seemed to pull himself together, dropping his hand from his mouth. “I wish I knew who I was.”

“You’re Uzumaki Naruto,” I offered. “The number one knuckle-headed ninja of Konoha.”

He breathed out a laugh, but he wasn’t smiling. “I can’t even claim that anymore. I’m in the BINGO book and everything.”

“You’ll defeat all the bad guys, and Konoha will be clamoring to have you back as the hokage in no time,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Is that the happy ending?” he asked. “I’m not so sure anymore.”

“It’s your happy ending,” I assured him.

“I think I might want something different,” he said quietly.

We looked at each other.

“Sas’…” he said pleadingly.

I sighed and bumped our foreheads together, reaching up to cup his cheek.

He closed his eyes and leaned into my hand. Then his eyes shot open. “Do you… have… horns…?”

“No,” I said with a frown. I’d checked this morning.

“Feels hard,” he said, pulling away and touching my temple with his fingers. “Uh, yeah, definitely hard.”

“Well they haven’t come in like yours,” I said. The press of his horns had been obvious against my skin.

“Oh, yeah, that reminds me,” he said, suddenly yanking his shirt off.

#narusasu #isola starting over #sasusai: bbfl

1 note · View note

kakasaku-shipper · 5 years

Text

Natural Progression (Chapter 7)

Chapter 7

Sakura ran through the rooftops. It felt good to be able to soar high in the sky. It made it seem like she could fly, could do anything even. As she looked around, she noted that Konoha's rebuilding seemed to be progressing very well, with most of the skeletons of structures destroyed from Pein's attack re-erected. Only some finishing touches were needed, and Konoha would look as if it had never been attacked.

"Yamato-taicho!" Sakura greeted the man sitting on the rooftop.

"Ah, Sakura-chan," Tenzo turned around to wave at her. Sakura's smile dropped immediately as her heart leapt to get throat.

"Taicho! You shouldn't work yourself to death like this. It was bad enough that Kakashi-sensei scares me half to death on a regular basis, I don't need you to do the same," she admonished as she immediately went to replenish his chakra supply.

"Well, it's an honour to be compared to senpai.." Tenzo began, but quickly shut his mouth at the deathly glare Sakura was giving. Tenzo was a smart man. So he knew that keeping quiet and nodding appropriately was the best option he had.

"Well, you're all done now, Taicho. Please refrain from overusing your chakra in the future. I know Naruto's running around, please just grab him and get him to transfer you some chakra."

"Noted, thank you, Sakura-chan," Tenzo said with a smile. "Are you going to a party? That's a lot of ice cream and goodies right there."

"Ah.. I'm just going to Ino's to keep her company. Her father's death still affected her really badly."

"Please send my condolences for her too. Inoichi-san was a great man."

"I will," Sakura replied. "By the way, I'm planning to have a gathering soon with team 7 members. You have to come along."

"But I'm not a part of team 7."

"You are. You and Sai both are," Sakura said firmly. "I haven't managed to track down Sai since I'm still busy at the hospital. But if you see him, would you please let him know too, Taicho?"

"Will do, Sakura-chan."

Sakura gave Tenzo one last smile as she leapt through another building. Ino first, and then she'll worry about dragging her teammates to sit down together through a meal.

...

"Ah, Sakura-chan," Ino's mother greeted as Sakura landed in front of Ino's house.

"Oba-san," Sakura replied as she gave the older woman a hug. "How's Ino?"

"She hasn't came out of her room. And she barely eats," Ino's mother said as she shook her head sadly.

"I'll do my best to drag her out of bed," Sakura joked weakly. "How are you holding up?"

"It's hard, but I'm a kunoichi of Konohagakure. I have been prepared for this to happen the day I married Inoichi. I understood my duty to my family and the village."

"Yes, of course," Sakura replied. Although Ino's mom spoke with such poise, Sakura could see the sorrow in her eyes. She just lost her husband after all. "Well, my mom is in town for a while. I think she would be happy to have company over tea."

"Thank you, Sakura-chan," Ino's mother replied kindly as she drew Sakura into another hug. "I'll be on my way to the flower shop first. It's going to be a busy day as we are having the funeral procession tomorrow."

"I'll do my best to drag Ino to help you," Sakura promised. "But if she's still not up to it, I'll come along to help. I'll bring some friends over too."

"That would be lovely. Thank you, Sakura-chan," Ino's mother said as she released Sakura from the hug.

Sakura watched as Ino's mother disappeared from her line of sight as she quietly made her way into Ino's house. She set down grocery bag she brought on the coffee table before making her way up to Ino's room.

"Ino," Sakura called out softly as she stood in front of her door. There was no answer, but Sakura could hear the rustling of sheets. "I'm coming in, Ino," she tried once more. When there wasn't any answer, Sakura gently opened the door.

Ino was lying in bed, cocooned inside her blanket. Sakura made her way towards Ino's bed and sat on its edge as she gently ran her hand through her hair.

"It still hurts, Sakura," Ino rasped as tear began to trickle out of the corner of her eyes. Sakura's heart broke for her best friend. Sure, she did not know how it felt losing a parent, but when Sasuke left it had hurt her and left her numb for weeks. And at the time, she knew that he was still alive and that there was hope of him coming back. She couldn't even begin to imagine how Ino was feeling.

"I'm sorry for your loss. I really am, and I don't know what to say or do to make it better," Sakura admitted quietly as she knelt down beside Ino's bed to be at eye level with her.

"At least you're not telling me that it will get better with time," Ino said bitterly as she sat up. "I know it's true, Kami, I hope it's true. But it still hurt so fucking bad right now. I don't need to hear it!"

Sakura nodded her head, just listening to what the blonde had to say. Ino then drew her beloved bunny stuffed toy and hugged it close. It was the first stuffed toy Inoichi had gotten her, and Ino said that she had the bunny since before she could remember anything. As the silence stretched, Ino huffed and patted the space beside her. Sakura complied and sat beside her best friend as Ino laid her head on Sakura's shoulder.

"Can you believe that the elders came right after I got home, before I could cry in my mom's arms and demanded that I started the training to take over as the clan's head?" Ino said seethingly as she chewed on the ear of her bunny.

"Hmm. You can always give me their names and I'll work something out with Naruto, Sasuke and Sai," Sakura replied as she gently removed the poor bunny from the abuse of Ino's teeth.

"I'll give you the list. And I want to watch their faces when they suffer."

"That settled it then," Sakura said. "Your kaa-san is really worried about you, and I've brought lots of ice cream, chocolates and cookies. All your favorites. Could you try to eat something for us?" Sakura added quietly.

"Yeah. I'll eat. I haven't had anything for a while so all those calories shouldn't ruin my figure," Ino joked weakly.

"Good. Because we're stuffing ourselves with all of it and we're going to help your mom run the store," Sakura said as she got up from the bed. "I'll grab the food and you'll choose the movie?"

"Hmm." Ino nodded as she slowly crawled out of her cocoon. Before Sakura could exit the room, Ino called out to her. "Thank you, Sakura."

"This is what friends are for, pig."

"Forehead," Ino retorted back fondly.

...

5 pints of ice cream, 2 boxes of cookies and nth pieces of chocolates later, both Sakura and Ino were in sugar induced commas. With the latter swimming in so much more endorphins than she had been for the past week.

"This is a bad idea," Ino moaned as she stuffed yet another cookie into her mouth.

"I feel like I've gained 10kg," Sakura groaned as she lied down flat on the bed.

"Uh, I feel like I should join Team Gai's training session for a whole month just to lose everything I've gained today."

"Ah, you probably haven't heard, but Gai-sensei may never walk again," Sakura said soberly, as she sat back up in the bed.

"What, no way! What happened?" Ino asked, flabbergasted. Gai-sensei was one of the strongest jonin in the village. And he was posted in Kakashi-sensei's batallion. And if Gai-sensei was strong, Kakashi-sensei was straight up a monster. He was able to fight against two Akatsuki members, one an undead zombie and another, a creepy ragdoll who can split himself into what, 4 or 5 pieces of himself? While protecting both her and Chouji. And although Ino was not on Kakashi's battalion during the war, she was linked to another Yamanaka who was the sensor in his battalion. Her cousin had told her that he was glad that Kakashi was on their team because a rampaging copy-ninja carrying a massive cleaver was the most terrifying thing he had seen since the Yondaime Hokage's rampage on Kumo during the third war. So how could he let his best friend got hurt to that extent?

"Gai-sensei fought Madara and activated his eight's gate. He broke his leg kicking Madara."

"Now, that's a cool story on how you broke your leg."

"I know right?" Sakura laughed. "But I really wish that there is something we can do, to at last allow him to walk again."

"Me too. How's the team though?"

"Neji woke up for five minutes yesterday before going back to sleep. But otherwise he seemed fine. Tenten had been busy being the convoy guard for our rebuilding materials and I think Kakashi-sensei had been training with Lee."

"Hmm.. Chouji and Shika had been dropping by every day to check on me and shooing the elders." Ino mused. She would treat them to BBQ after the funeral, but she's only paying for 5 servings for Chouji. "How's your team? Any luck with Sa-su-ke-kun?" Ino asked as she wagged her eyebrow suggestively.

"I just saw Yamato-taicho this morning, and he asked me to pass you his condolences," Sakura said. "Taicho said that your dad was a good man."

"He was," Ino said as she took a deep breath. "I'll thank him tomorrow in the funeral procession if I see him." Ino said. "Well, enough of that. I want some tea on how your team is doing, especially with you and Sasuke-kun."

"Well, Taicho looked exhausted when I saw him. I think they worked him to the bone for the rebuilding effort."

"Hmm. I bet Naruto's roped in too?"

"Yep. He's surprisingly been more help than hindrance so far," Sakura commented fondly. "Oh, and before you asked about Sai," Sakura added conspiratorially. "I haven't seen a head nor tail about him. But I'll probably try to find him after the funeral. You're very welcomed to come along," Sakura said as it was her turn wagging her eyebrow at Ino.

"Maybe I'll take you up on that offer," Ino said with a giggle. "But how about Sasuke-kun?"

"I think Kakashi-sensei's roping him into something," Sakura said with a shudder, remembering the sadistic smile on Kakashi's face.

"It can't be that bad."

"Oh but Sensei caught him sneaking out of the compound."

"Do you think he'll be at the funeral tomorrow, as the fallen?"

"From the look on Kakashi-sensei's face I say that it's a pretty high probability," Sakura said with a cringe.

"You should help him then."

"Nah, whatever Sensei is doing to him, I figured it will not even be sufficient punishment for him leaving us years ago."

"Forehead?" Ino called with a surprising quietness in her voice. At Sakura's head tilt, Ino drew a deep breath. "You don't sound so.. enamoured with him any more."

Sakura sighed as she sagged back into Ino's bed. "I've started having this confusion about my feelings for him since the war ended."

"Oh, I'm sorry I wasn't there to listen to your love adventures," Ino commented idly, her exact words prompted Sakura to turn her head and groan into Ino's pillow.

"You know who I talked to about this instead?"

"Tsunade-sama? Shizune-san? Your mom? Tenten? Hinata?" Ino grew more and more puzzled as Sakura shook her head to every names Ino suggested. "Naruto?" Ino asked incredulously. While Naruto was a great friend, he was just too dense.

"It's worse than Naruto."

At Sakura's words, Ino's eyebrow furrowed. "You talked to Gai-sensei?"

"I think it's even worse than Gai-sensei," Sakura said grimly.

"Well, I'm running out of options here. I would start throwing in Ibiki-san and Anko-san just for the sake of it."

"Well, it's not that bad. It's not that he's a bad person to talk to, but it just felt so mortifying."

"Were you drunk?"

"I was completely sober," Sakura said dryly. At Ino's eyebrow cock, Sakura caved. "I somehow talked to Kakashi-sensei about my feelings for Sasuke."

Sakura shot Ino a scowl as the blonde howled in laughter. "You asked Konoha's number one most aloof bachelor for love advice?"

"We talked, and it just came up."

"So what did he say?"

"I have time to figure all this out, since Sasuke-kun's not going anywhere for a while."

"That is a surprisingly good answer."

"He's aloof and reclusive. He's not socially inept, Ino. Thats's Sai."

"I suppose he always have a knack to assure everyone that things are going to be okay," Ino replied nonchalantly to not bite into Sakura's bait.

"He does. And it's reassuring because we know that he will try his hardest to keep his promises."

"How is he though? I heard he lost his sharingan?"

"He managed to make me feel like a genin again from a taijutsu spar," Sakura replied with a pout.

"Well, it's Kakashi-sensei. The fact that he even spars with you means that he recognises your skills."

"I supposed so," Sakura said as a smile tugged on the corner of her lips. She may not be good enough now, but she could always train harder. After all, the thing she did best was playing catch-up, right? "By the way, I told your kaa-san that I would help her drag you out of bed to help in the shop. But if you're not feeling up to it, I'll grab Naruto in your stead to help?"

"I'll come. I know she's been suffering too," Ino said with a sad smile. "Besides, can't have my family business be ruined now, can we?"

At that, Sakura laughed as she exited Ino's room to give her some privacy to get ready.

...

A/N

1. Ino's mom's name has never been revealed, and I don't think she would come up again in my fic, so I don't think I need to create a name for her

2. She might sound a little cold from her interaction with Sakura, but I imagined Ino's mom as a sort of noble lady. The Yamanaka clan, although not as prominent as even the Akimichi (because there are 4 noble clans in Konoha: Uchiha, Hyuuga, Aburame and Akimichi) would still be an old clan along with Nara clan. So I expect the patriarch and matriarch to have a sort of noble air around them. Sooo for Ino's mom, since the Yamanaka are also florist, I imagine her to be someone gentle, but with a lot of inner strength. So she would not usually sound cold and detached, but in this circumstance, since her husband had just died and her daughter is still in a state of emotional turmoil, she have to be the strong one (cos that's also what moms do). So the 'detachment' is probably her way of coping.

3. Endorphin is a 'happy' hormone (basically an endogenous opioid/ opioid produced naturally by the body). There's some research that suggests that eating chocolates causes endorphin release because of the chemical compound found in chocolates. So, eat chocolates and stay happy! :)

4. In a lot of fics, Kakashi is often depicted as someone who's not very good with social interaction. But I think Kakashi, being a ninja, would know how to act and what to say, since acting the right way and saying the right stuff goes a long way in the shinobi world, especially when it helps you to not get killed in the job. I think he would no doubt be awkward in a setting where he is in a big crowd and is the centre of attention of said crowd. But if it's a smaller group of people, I think he would know how to position himself (especially literally positioning himself in a way where extricating himself from said situation would be easiest).

#kakasaku #fanfiction #fanfic #fic #Natural Progression

32 notes · View notes

365daysofsasuhina · 5 years

Text

[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day One Hundred Eighteen: At the Top ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: A Light Amongst Shadows ] [ AO3 Link ]

They say it’s lonely at the top.

From the night he lost them, all Sasuke had ever wanted was justice for his family. At first, that meant killing Itachi. The man - boy - he’d assumed was the one solely responsible for the genocide of their entire clan...save for the two brothers themselves. One the perpetrator, the other...the lone survivor.

Of course, the truth turned out to be so much more convoluted than that.

For nearly a decade, Sasuke trained every spare moment. Drove his tiny body to its limits no matter the weather, the circumstances, the odds. He had but one purpose. One goal. It consumed his every thought, pushing everything else to the wayside. He had no time for bonds, friends, memories. He couldn’t rest - couldn’t stop - until he was at the top. Only when he became the best could he stand a chance against his elder brother...and finally put the souls of his massacred brethren to rest.

So...yes, it was lonely, even then.

His Academy classmates were background noise. Shadows in the corners of his vision he had no reason, no inkling to turn and see. All that drew his gaze was the task laid out before him.

Some tried to reach him. Sakura with shallow affection. Naruto with boasting rivalry. And later Kakashi with his cryptic warnings. He...indulged in them for a time. But as twisted as his intentions were, Orochimaru’s intervention reminded him of his true purpose. He had no time for genin games, or bothering with the shinobi ranking system. Naruto, it was clear, was gaining on him...him, a prodigy, being approached by a knucklehead dead-last!

If someone as lowly as Naruto could threaten him...then he’d stand no chance against Itachi.

So he’d accepted the serpent’s offer: made a deal with the devil. In the end, to him, it didn’t matter where the power came from, or at what price. All that mattered was, before his own dying day, Itachi would face his, at his own hand. Sasuke would end the life of the boy - man - he’d once admired so...adored, and gazed after jealously for their father’s attention.

A father they no longer had...and it was all Itachi’s fault…!

The snake sannin’s training had been effective...if not irritating. His obvious lust for the Uchiha blood in Sasuke’s veins was like an itch in a place he couldn’t reach. Add in Kabuto’s thinly-veiled envy, the hatred (and later fear) from many of Orochimaru’s other underlings, and the constant moving about between lairs, and Sasuke was fed up by the time they were discovered by his own team.

...he’d truly felt nothing, seeing them again.

Sakura had never really loved him. She loved the idea of him. The idea without his faults, his traumas, his reality. Her affection sickened him. And Naruto...he still couldn’t see what Naruto wanted from him. Surely the Uzumaki had most of what he himself had desired since young. Acknowledgement, friendship...he was no longer alone. Why the fixation on Sasuke? Just because they had similarities didn’t mean they couldn't ever be apart. It irritated him like nothing else.

He’d almost killed Naruto on a whim.

From there, things began to change yet again. Sasuke found himself more and more bored with Orochimaru’s antics...and soon decided he had no further need for the serpent. Killing his main body hadn’t been the end of him, of course...but it removed a thorn in his side.

...and it was satisfying. As well as a mark of his level.

Hebi was assembled from the most sensical parts. Even if, in some ways, they reminded him of his old squad. Karin’s obnoxious affections were on par with - perhaps even worse than - Sakura’s. Despite his obvious disinterest - and later blatant disregard - she continued to fawn over him. Foolish. Suigetsu’s needling and humor were a bit reminiscent of Naruto. But at least Suigetsu had wit.

Jūgo...well, Jūgo was decent company when not on a rampage. All else aside, Sasuke might’ve considered him a friend.

But in the end, they were a means to an end. He’d protect them as long as necessary, but...when push came to shove, little more mattered than Itachi. Everything else, in his eyes, was disposable.

And then, it happened. The longest, most physically-straining battle of his life...against Itachi. The last thing standing in his way before reaching sweet, sweet justice for the clan.

...or...so he thought.

Awaking from the darkness, Sasuke was told the truth: Itachi’s truth. Konoha’s truth. His clan’s truth.

And so began a new leg of his journey: revenge against the council that had issued the order...and the village that had been allowed to live on in peace at the cost of nearly every drop of Uchiha blood. And not just those lost to Itachi’s blade...no. There’d been many, many more before that. A system of oppression spanning generations...that he would put to an end.

He would bring it all to an end.

Fighting Danzō hadn’t been easy...but in the end, he’d forced the councilman’s hand. Then there was yet another reunion with his team...after sacrificing one of the others. Konoha, of course, took Karin with them. Sasuke, frustrated with his limits, accepted his brother’s eyes.

Then came healing.

Then...came the war.

He’d stumbled upon Itachi completely by accident. Demanded answers. Agreed to wait until Kabuto was dealt with. And even then, Itachi’s genius and pacifism shone through as he both defeated...and spared Orochimaru’s old underling. Claimed to still be loyal to Konoha. And then...vanished back into the afterlife.

And left Sasuke with more questions than answers...answers he’d pry from the previous Hokage themselves. Among which was Hashirama. Madara’s closest friend, and greatest enemy.

...the parallels between them, and Naruto and Sasuke, were striking...and irritating.

In the end, they’d convinced him. He and the others joined the war...and Sasuke learned his destiny. One he fulfilled alongside Naruto, and the rest of Team Seven.

Then came his plans to wipe the slate clean...and for the last time, Naruto stood in his way.

For the first - and last - time...Sasuke admitted he’d been defeated.

But there was still so much to be answered for. So much to learn, to see, to judge. He planned to do it all, but...Life had other plans for him.

And for his brother.

Which meant returning - however begrudgingly - to Konoha...and Sasuke’s decision to make it, and it alone, his ultimate project. He would take the shell of the village - hollowed with the loss of the council - and shape it into something better...but how?

His return was, admittedly...lonely. He wanted nothing - at first - to do with his team. They’d wounded him too badly. Too deeply. Time, and much of it, would be needed before he even tried to tend to it. The rest of his agemates were wary of him...and for good reasons. He had his past to atone for...and he was at the top of the shinobi world. Only Naruto could hope to hold a candle to him.

At first, he didn’t mind the loneliness. He has those few last scraps of family. But then...he met someone different. Or rather...met her again.

They say it’s lonely at the top, but...well, maybe he wouldn’t be quite so lonely after all.

Just a lil introspective piece from Sasuke's POV. I tend to...exaggerate Sasuke's loneliness when I write him. I write him more seriously, without as much focus on Team Seven. Cuz honestly...they'd have been a distraction for him, and I think even in canon he did his best not to get too dragged into it. Same with Hebi / Taka. Sasuke was too driven - too focused - to really bond with someone like that, imo. Hence why his ship doesn't happen until AFTER all is said and done. When has the headspace to do so. Idk, I'm very tired and sick and blegh. Thanks for reading, lol

#sasuhina #uchiha sasuke #hyūga hinata #a light amongst shadows [ canon verse ]#365daysofsasuhina

11 notes · View notes

betustamorla · 6 years

Text

What you can’t read

I wish you didn't have to go

You know, it scares me to think you will never come back

Now that you are free

Why would you come back?

Sakura watched her left arm filled with kanjis she didn't dare to put down in her right one. It's been a year since Sasuke tapped her forehead and told her 'maybe next time'. She didn't write in her right arm as much as she used to do either, she doesn't know what to say that aren't the same questions. He doesn't answer most of her messages and when he does its usually to her more direct questions that only required 'yes' or 'no' as an answer.

.................................................

I wonder why are we soulmates?

We are so different

Still I couldn't imagine anyone else to be my soulmate

.................................................

"Sakura." His voice made her drop the glass she had been holding. Sasuke was quick enough to catch it before it shattered in the floor.

"Sasuke! You're back." And in her apartment. He probably entered by the balcony, which made her wonder why he couldn't have just knocked in her front door.

"Hn."

She blinked. It had been fourteen months since he had left, but she had the sinking feeling he would leave again soon. "I-" She stopped herself. "Do you want something to drink?"

"Hn." He nodded. Sakura smiled to herself, his monosyllabic responses were cute when she wasn't particularly set on extracting some words from him.

.................................................

Next time Sasuke had been in Konoha she had been away in a mission. When Kakashi-sensei had told her she had missed him by two days she nearly broke the Hokage's desk in half. The white haired man had thrown her a weary look, probably thinking by the same line, then relaxed as she didn't seem inclined to let loose her temper.

"You'll have plenty more chances to meet him in the future." Kakashi assured her.

She had forced a smile and agreed with him, she knew she didn't fool him but he didn't comment any further. She later went to her apartment and cried herself to sleep.

Couldn't you have waited?

.................................................

It's hard to know the person you love is out of your reach

You know that?

Probably not

.................................................

Sasuke's hawk was waiting for her in the railing of her balcony when she came back from her hospital shift. It bore a letter, they never were long but he at last wrote something, nothing too personal nor particularly important. But this time, there was a small package as well. Inside were a new couple of gloves, they were strong and durable she noted, but they as well had some embroidery in the shape of gray flowers around the cuffs. She took them to all her missions, it made her feel as if part of Sasuke was there with her.

This time she did write on her right arm.

Thank you for the present

They have been very useful

.................................................

It's morning, dawn is just breaking in the sky filling it with shades of bright colors. Sakura just finished her night shift in the hospital, luckily it wasn't specially busy. It still left her somewhat tired, night shifts usually had that effect. She opened the hospital doors and walked into the cool air, it took her long to realize she wasn't alone. She turned to see Sasuke leaning in the wall where shades helped to conceal him, most people would pass up his presence easily enough.

"Sasuke!" She cried in surprise. He walked up to her without saying nothing. "When did you come back?"

"Yesterday." He answered in his usual flat tone.

"Oh." They stood there a few seconds in awkward silence. "I-I received the gloves. They have come in handy, thank you."

"I know." He pointed out softly.

Sakura laughed restrained. "You're right. I think I have already thanked you. It's just sometimes I wonder-" She halted her tongue, it seemed her worn-out state was making her slip.

She hoped Sasuke hadn't noticed it. She turned to see him only to find narrowed eyes. "You wonder what?" He stressed out.

Sakura looked at her feet her hands were grasping the edge of her coat. "It's nothing."

"Sakura." He admonished.

She clenched her fists to her sides and locked eyes with him. "Do you read what I write?" She busted in a brittle voice.

"I- Yes. Always." He looked taken aback by the question.

"Always?" She answered faintly.

Sasuke broke the eye contact, he was feeling awkward, she could tell. He always did when talking about their connection. "Yes Sakura. I've always read everything you write."

I've always read it.

"Even back then?" She asked quietly.

"Hn."

Sakura's throat contracted and her eyes started to sting. She didn't know if she felt more relief or hurt. Relief as she had always reached a part of him, but hurt that it had never been enough for him to answer back. She turned away from him as the tears started to fall, it was getting tiring that all she could do around him was cry. She felt his warmth behind her, his arm came around her shoulders and he pressed her against his chest.

"You don't have to hide." He whispered in her ear. Warmth filled her intermediately as their connection hummed at the close contact they barely ever had. "You're so strong Sakura. You deserved better."

She wanted to punch him, but instead she cried harder. Sasuke hugged her closer. She finally calmed enough to small hiccups, so Sasuke started to step back. She didn't let him, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face in his chest. "I don't want better. I just want you."

Sasuke took a sharp breath and pulled her head back. Their eyes locked again, he drew together their foreheads and smiled at her. "I love you. I will always love you."

Sakura's eyes grew wide and some more tears fell down, but this time they were born out of joy. Then she pulled him by the neck and kissed him softly, he complied to her and she could feel him smile against her lips. Finally something clicked into place, it felt like all the hurt and waiting was nothing but a dream of the past, today they would build a better future together as it was meant to be since the start.

.................................................

"Do you write in your left arm?" Sasuke asked her before he took off again.

Sakura looked surprised then guiltily looked at her feet. "Sometimes." She muttered. "How did you know?"

"I can feel it." Even if he didn't have his left arm any longer he could tell there was the same tingling he felt when one of her kanjis appeared on his skin. At first he had discarded it as another phantom sensation, but after some time he realized it wasn't that. The connection soulmates shared went beyond flesh, it was a connection between their souls and minds. Just because he didn't have his arm to read what she wrote didn't mean he didn't know she had been writing things she knew he couldn't see.

Sakura didn't ask how he could feel it, she only seemed to realize he could. "Sorry. I won't do it any more."

He frowned, that wouldn't do. "Do it in your right arm."

"What?"

"Write it in your right arm."

"But-" She looked down again. "Sometimes they aren't nice things. And I don't want to burden you."

He sighed and stepped closer. "Anything you want to say, I want to know what it is. Good or bad, it makes me feel closer to you." He understood she didn't want to make him feel guilty for being away, it didn't matter because he would feel that way whether she wrote to him or not. He hadn't mentioned to her before how he noticed she didn't write to him as often as before since he thought she didn't want to do it anymore. He wouldn't admit to her either that he missed her annoying nagging after his health or other small things. "I might not always answer, but I'll always read what you have to say."

Sakura's face turned the same shade as her hair. "Sasuke, t-then I will."

"Hn." He turned to leave but Sakura called him again. He stopped and watched her over his shoulder.

"Next time-next time I'll go with you!" She was still slightly flustered, but her eyes burned with determination.

This time he didn't go back to tap her forehead and tell her maybe next time. He just smiled and kept walking, but before he was out of earshot he said "Next time."

#sasusaku #angst #fluff #so much fluff #uchiha sasuke #haruno sakura #Sasuke Uchiha #Sakura Haruno #naruto #soulmates au #soulmates #what you write in your skin soulmates

181 notes · View notes

quirrrky · 5 years

Text

strange

secret lovers (tumblr thread | fanfiction.net)

Chronological One-Shots / Post-War / Pre-Last

After the Fourth Shinobi War, Naruto’s huge crush on Hinata gradually surfaces and the whole village of Konoha knows it…Well, aside from him.

entry nine

Prompt:

Hinata started helping Naruto with his studies under Iruka-sensei's supervision. Naruto realizing that his friendship with Hinata is strange.

/strange/ unusual or surprising in a way that is unsettling or hard to understand

"Uzumaki Naruto! I, the Sixth Hokage, hereby grant you the rank jounin of Konoha…That is what I'd like to tell you, but there's something you must complete before that…"

Stock of books appeared before him.

Pfft! As if he would be able to recall any of it.

To be fair, Naruto wasn't exactly dumb. Let us say that academics wasn't exactly his strongest suit and this Philosophy, Psychology and Rhetorics and why was he even studying them again?

Were you going to really use this stuff in practical terms?

What did these things have to do with being a Hokage?

All those stuff were practically irrelevant and he still didn't understand why did he have to study these when he should be focusing on learning new jutsu instead?

Well, that's more applicable and rational, right?

Oh Kami! It was boring. It had already been few months since Kakashi-hokage-sensei came up with the bright idea and Iruka-sensei decided to help and personally instruct him with his studies, but it felt like a year. Plus, writing with his left hand wasn't exactly easy. For months, he'd been trying to do things all by himself, but there were just those stuff that he couldn't do alone.

Outside the birds chirped merrily. The sun was thawing what's left of the previous season that it didn't even look like it snowed.

His mind wandered off to what other fun things he could be doing if the odds were just different.

Hmmm…. He could enjoy training Konohamaru with the other technics that can be done with Rasengan. And then, they'll have ramen afterwards, which reminded him that Kiba challenged him to an eating competition. In speaking of Kiba, he wondered what was Hinata doing, he had to show her what progress he had made with just his left arm.

Yes, that's right!

If he managed to write legibly using his left hand, he now has another thing to show to her.

"Naruto!" Iruka-sensei called as he approached from the blackboard to his direction.

"Iruka-sensei,"

"I would like to congratulate you for your quarter report." He said as his student's eyes sparkled in success and started shouting for joy. "Yes, yes, as I thought you would behave like that,"

The blonde then excitedly bombed his teacher questions, while enthusiastically jumping up and down, "Hmph! I told you I can do it dattebayo! Does this mean I'm going to be a jonin now? What's next am I going to be trained as the hoka-"

"What I mean was I'm congratulating you for your consistency."

His energy was drained a little bit. Well, consistency seemed to be a positive word. "Well, it doesn't matter at least I'm getting there -ttebayo!"

"Oh no! No, Naruto. What I really meant was I'm congratulating you for your consistency in failing."

Naruto was taken aback momentarily. He couldn't believe, he couldn't believe-

"How could you kid like that Iruka-sensei?!"

Iruka just pinched the bridge of his nose, while thinking of a way to explain the matters to his student, "You see, Naruto. I really don't know how to explain that you need to give importance to these subjects to become Hokage. Shikamaru won't be able to assist you for now as he has to help Kakashi in diplomatic missions. And all there's left was me and I am already doing my best, but it seemed like none of these lessons was going through your head."

The student fell silent for a while. He was trying but, "I don't really see the importance of this Philosophy stuff as a shinobi or whatever."

"See! Naruto, our subject right now is not Philosophy it's Psychology!"

"I don't know! What the hell is the difference anyway. Well, yeah, the spelling. I get it!"

Iruka paused for a moment and examined his student. He was standing with a slumped shoulder, hand inside his pocket, head was lowered down and he was sporting an evident pout.

He sighed. Naruto was still Naruto after being the hero of Konoha. It was a good thing and there were also apparent changes in his behavior like he would just choose to daydream than butt in with non-sense remarks, but Iruka knew that he had to mature in vital aspects. He had to develop and he had to start now. Naruto was already seventeen and it would only be few years before he should be developed into a fine young man that the Yondaime, his father, could be proud of. And what kind of teacher was he if he couldn't guide his growth.

Right now, Iruka was wondering how could he, for the very least, jumpstart his student's journey to maturity. Reluctantly, he released his student, who in every way, was in no mood to continue the lessons.

Feeling a bit despondent, Iruka stood by the swing, where he usually saw the young child back then when the whole village still used to criticize him.

He drew a heavy sigh.

Naruto really carved his own path to his dreams now. It's an open secret among them ninjas that Kakashi would sit as the Hokage only to train and pass the title to his student. Now, it would only be a matter of few years before Naruto would become the Hokage and the first step to the transition must be through him.

Well, if his student can do it, he can as well, right?

He just needed some unexpected way to encourage his unexpected student to study.

Yeah, but what would that be though?

Iruka started walking to the Training Grounds as he tried figure out what would enlighten Naruto to give the subjects some importance.

"Our team can no longer have an alone time now, you idiot!" The Inuzuka's voice caught his attention and he glanced towards the shinobi's direction, not shocked to find that he was, again, bantering with Naruto. However, Iruka was a bit interested as the fights between the two can get humorous at times.

"Shut up you, dog face! I'm not talking to you." The blonde threw back, but he instantly turned away and faced the giggling Hyuga with his cheeky grin.

"Look Hinata!" Naruto said as he showed her a notebook, "I can draw now with my left hand dattebayo! Look at here, that's Kurama then these are the other stuff and look! Right there! I tried to draw you as well."

Hinata blushed at the thought that Naruto drew a somewhat mini version of herself. But, she scrapped the thought away, because he drew many other doodles as well, including a cup of instant ramen.

"Show off!" The brunette muttered, as Shino added, "You must be forgetting that I'm here," but went unnoticed.

"I did that during Iruka-sensei's lectures on those boring subjects."

"Naruto-Kun! That's-"

The blonde chuckled quite guiltily. "Don't worry, don't worry. Next time! I'll just try to focus on writing and I'm going to show it to you, Hinata! I'll write all that notes in that darn boring book -ttebayo!" Naruto proudly proclaimed.

"Okay, Naruto-kun. Just write notes alright?" She said softly. Hold on! What did Naruto say?

Iruka suddenly felt the light shining through him. His prayers must have been answered.

"Your stupidity makes me sick! Whatever you do, you still have one arm, so don't act so cool and tough as if you will impress Hinata with that!"

"You talk too much for someone who takes a bath with his dog, bastard!"

The fight went on and soon the blonde summoned his clones and the brunette prepared with his dog-nin, while the dark-haired girl stood watching and giggling.

Hopefully, the gods were with him in this uncanny plan. Iruka admittedly knew nothing of this kind of things, but if what he read from his silver-haired friend's books were somehow right, his plan could probably work.

Before he left the now crazy yet petty battle between his two notorious students, a sudden presence made him stop and quite weirded out at the same time.

Sai. He was sitting on a sturdy branch of tree with a sketchpad and paintbrush in hand. He never became his student, but he was the new member in Naruto's team and he heard a lot of stories about him, especially those that involved nicknames and studying people carefully.

"He has, recently, always been like this with the Princess after all." Sai flashed him with his signature stiffened smile as if he knew exactly what Iruka was thinking.

Iruka made sure to give Naruto a small pep talk before he entered the classroom for their next meeting.

"A classmate dattebayo?"

"Yes, it would be a great help for you, Naruto."

Naruto pouted and looked away. He couldn't understand why did he had to have a classmate with all honesty. Did he also want to become a Hokage like him as well?

Upon entering the most dreaded four walls, the shinobi was greeted by a familiar face.

"Hi-Hinata?" He asked, shocked yet happy to see Hinata as his classmate.

"Naruto-kun," she greeted with a sweet smile as the blonde sat beside her.

"You-you've come to save me here dattebayo?!" He said and ran up to her, grabbing her arm in excitement.

Hinata blushed at his actions, but find it hard to explain things to him, "About that Naruto-kun…"

"Naruto, Hinata would be filling in everytime Shikamaru wouldn't make it to assist you with our lessons." Iruka-sensei informed them as the dark-haired girl gave him an apologetic smile.

Naruto's shoulders fell off and he heavily sat on the chair beside Hinata, "I couldn't believe this. How could you this to me, Hinata?" He reacted animatedly that made the girl laugh softly.

"Naruto-kun," she said while softly laughing.

"There you go, you're laughing at me." He said and gave a pout afterwards.

"Naruto, you should know that when it comes to studies Hinata was a forerunner in your class back then. Her grades came in close competition to that of Shikamaru, Sasuke and Ino." Iruka thought about this seriously. He even searched for his students' records to check the stats. The result made him wonder why Hinata and Naruto weren't even in the same team when the two would definitely complement each other really well. The Hyuga girl was excellent in everythinng Naruto failed and his blonde student was great at one thing Hinata failed, Positivity.

This news delighted Naruto for a moment, but his reaction went a downward slope.

These academics were not his game and Hinata was an A-Grade student, while he was a big failure back then and even now. He didn't want to disappoint her yet how could he do that when he still didn't know why he had to study all this shit?

Hinata knew that look. Although there were times wherein he would try to hide it, these were the moments that Naurto-kun needed to be encouraged. She knew how he preferred action than sitting down in a classroom and how he'd rather remember things by relating them to events in his life. And she knew that he was having a hard time right now.

"I'm here to help you, Naruto-kun. So don't worry, okay? I-I believe in you."

Her sweet smile at him made him reciprocate the expression. However still a bit embarrassed by his lack of knowledge, he rubbed the back of his head, eyes chinked in his usual way, "I don't know how to say this, Hinata, but, uhm, I don't really know much about these things. Heck, I don't even know why should I study these."

"I understand that you might not yet grasp the importance of these subjects, but soon I know you will. I believe in you Naruto-kun and I will help you. We can do this to-together."

Yes, that's right. He will show her that he can and make her proud. He always wanted to make her proud and he'll continue to do so in his studies, even if he still didn't know why was he so motivated by that thought.

"Thank you, Hinata, for standing beside me up until now." Naruto said, while he hoisted his fist, feeling the determination.

The blushing girl, being reminded by the bond they had during the war, was further moved to help the blonde with his studies. She put her hands down the desk and stood up, "Yes, Naruto-kun, because I never go back on my word."

"That's right, Hinata. Let's do this!"

Iruka just scratched the non-existent itch on his head as he watched his students' dramatic display of encouragement. As he began the discussion, he noticed how the two had an uncanny understanding. Hinata was quick to pick up Naruto's frustration and she had a way in explaining the lessons to him. How was she doing that? No one could learn. But being able to hold Naruto's attention and comprehension for that long, Hyuga Hinata must be an expert.

"Re-reward system?" The blonde asked the dark-haired girl.

"Hmmm… You-you love Ramen right, Naruto-kun?" Naruto nodded in response and she continued, "And whenever you are in a tiring mission or feeling a bit down, you'll just think of ramen and it will light up your spirit, right?"

"Yes! Yes! And so…"

"And a reward is something that you look forward to and-or feel delighted about which means that for Naruto-kun…."

"For me… then ramen is a reward!"

"Exactly, then the reward system is…"

"Ah! Ah! I got this. I believe, I got this! The motivation I'm getting from the ramen is the reward system dattebayo!"

"Right! That's right Naruto-kun, the reward system is about the reward, how it motivates you, the kind of motivation you get from it and the choice we make because of it."

"Ah, so that was it. It was like Kakashi-sensei and his Icha Icha books, although I didn't really see what's to look forward about it and how does reading a boring book like that could be motivational."

Hinata, knowing what the books were all about, was a bit taken aback. "Uhmm…Tha-that's…Maybe we can have another example like…"

"I know! I know! Must be Sakura-chan to Sasuke. I-Is that a…" Naruto rubbed his chin in deep thought as Hinata tried to figure out how to properly cite examples.

"Well, I-I can't speak for Sakura-chan, but what I know is that rewards come in different forms. It could be through an activity like cooking, knitting or singing. It could also be through something. It could also be through a place. And…" She paused for a while, voice going softer while she fiddled her fingers together, "It-it could also be through someone or somebody."

"Somebody?"

"Yes, maybe just like Naruto-kun to the village or being the Hokage?" Hinata stated in question-sounding manner for she really wasn't sure if Naruto-kun was still motivated by that.

"Well, about that. Being, a Hokage, yes. Plus, I'm really happy that the village is nicer to me. It's just that there's this something strange that I couldn't point out to, uh," Trying to veer the frustration away, he chuckled and asked, "Well, I think, let's just talk about you Hinata. What's the reward for you? Something like ramen for me."

"W-well, I like Zenzai and cin…" She trailed off, averting her eyes from the sight of the energetic blonde.

"Oh! I like Zenzai too!"

"Yeah, but I don't think that it's like your ramen for me."

"Then, what's yours, Hinata?"

"It's k-kind of s-strange, Naruto-kun, because…" It's you.

"I understand, Hinata. Uh, what about this Dopamine thing?"

Iruka-sensei cut his question, saying that he wouldn't get what it was anyway and proceeded to give his own examples and with the next topic. The discussion was beginning to have a life. Naruto's behavior around Hinata made him pay attention more. Iruka noticed that he'd keep himself awake, whenever the discussion was getting sleepy and Hinata was there to back the topic up with some stories to keep him from falling asleep.

Perhaps, a lot of things happened during the war. Iruka hadn't seen them this close all throughout their academy days, for the knucklehead always had his eyes set towards Haruno Sakura, trying to pull-off pranks just to catch her attention. However, Naruto's determination right now was a bit different from how he wanted to please the pink-haired girl. It seemed that, now, Naruto was inspired to be the best that he can be. Even if he still couldn't quite understand what the discussion was for, he was trying and Hinata's presence was a big factor for the motivation. Iruka took note of the grin Naruto gave the shy student when he answered a question correctly. It was as if he was seeking her acknowledgement, which she immediately gave through a demure thumbs up.

As promised, Naruto took patience in writing the notes legibly with his left hand. He told Hinata the about it the last time and even swore on writing the boring notes. However, he couldn't help but feel conscious around her. The way she'll highlight the books for him, her stories and ideas. He just liked all of it! Like, how something so boring like this could be so fun with her? If he only knew, he could've seated next to Hinata during their academy days, which reminded him…

Why weren't we close back then, anyway?

Soon, Iruka called it a day with a great deal of relief evident on his face. He was making an improvement.

"Hey Hinata! Where are you heading?" Naruto asked enthusiastically.

"I'm heading home."

"Are you going to do something?"

"Hmmm… No-Nothing really."

"Is it okay if we study more?" He was flashing that trademark grin he always had that made Hinata quite flustered.

"Ye-Yes, tha-that would be okay."

Iruka didn't miss it. For the first time, he saw Naruto willing to study extensively. Well, he also didn't miss the side glances Naruto was giving Hinata in between lessons and those side glances contained a sly smile.

Who knew what Naruto was thinking?

"Kagebunshin no jutsu!" The blonde summoned clones as Hanabi lunged forward with her byakugan ready.

Naruto surely got the storm with him when he entered the calm and peaceful Hyuga compound. At first, he was in awe to see how grand and massive the manor was. No wonder why Hinata was called, Hinata-sama all this time. That made him wonder if he should call her such as well.

Perhaps, some other time he'd ask her.

"Ugh! Not again!" The brunette Hyuga grunted while her opponent followed her neechan inside the hall.

"Hanabi, I'm sorry. Naruto-kun and I have to study." Her sister said as the blonde laid out his stuff on the table and began sitting cross-leggedly. The younger Hyuga pouted and stuck her tongue out to the blonde, who just scratched the back of his head apologetically.

"Hold on, neechan! You promised to cook some afternoon snacks for today."

"Yes, I remembered. Don't worry I will prepare some for us."

"Oh! You go ahead, Hinata! I'll start with writing notes for these pages first, so we can head straight to discussion after you cook -ttebayo!"

"Okay, then, I'll head to the kitchen. Hanabi, make sure Naruto-kun is at home, okay?"

Her younger sister proudly announced, "Don't worry, neechan! I got you covered."

"Yeah, just don't mind me, Hinata!"

As soon as her sister proceeded to the kitchen, Hanabi sat facing the blonde with a mischievous grin on her face. "Are you sure you're here to study?"

"Eh?! What else should I do here? Your home seemed so quiet and kinda' boring. Although, I really admired that you have your own training grounds and training hall in here. Plus, the ambience is really good for some meditation."

"Pfft. Oh, really? You sure you're not here just to hang out with my sister a little bit longer?" He dry gulped at her comment and his fingers flinched, surely Hanabi didn't miss that.

Got 'ya!

"Well, I love hanging out with Hinata! She's really fun to be with."

Hanabi tapped her fingers on the table, while she rested her chin on her other hand. "So?"

"So, what? Huh?" Naruto just tilted his head in confusion as Hanabi sighed her lungs out.

"We've got a long way to go." She muttered, while the blonde started jotting down notes. Hmph! If not only for my neechan…

Naruto couldn't believe that he was writing down notes. Back then, he was just so lazy to do so that had him sleeping during the class, but right now he just couldn't believe that he can do it. Well, Hinata must see the improvement in his penmanship using his left hand. He promised her that. From all of that though, he still was not able to fathom where was the determination to make Hinata proud of him coming from?

It was not long enough before Hinata entered the hall with a cooked meal in tow. She placed it atop the table and the blonde's senses immediately caught up with the delicious aroma of the dish.

"This is Yakisoba, Naruto-kun." She informed him after noticing his dumbfounded expression on the dish. He looked at her with those blue eyes, with her not knowing it is filled with admiration. Not knowing that, at that moment, he was wondering how amazing she was.

She didn't seem to notice his stupid stare, but her little sister did and she didn't even know how to feel about it. Happy, because her neechan was already being noticed by the boy she admired for so long. Annoyed, because the said boy couldn't notice that he was already admiring her sister.

Her neechan sat beside him and he still had the dumb look on his face, wide eyes and parted lips, while looking at her sister. Her sister started giving him some food on his plate, but he just looked at her as if his soul was fleeting.

"Are you okay Naruto-kun? You-you don't seem well."

He was jolted at her neechan's question and started to move frantically. His nervousness was apparent to the younger Hyuga. "I-I-I'm really okay. I guess I'm just hungry that's all. I mean you do cook really well and it's amazing actually. You're amazing!" He word-vomited that made the heat on Hinata's face spread like wildfire across her cheeks and left him speechless for several seconds.

Hanabi quickly cut through their awkward stare-fest and the three of them quickly began eating in silence.

Naruto confidently took out the chopsticks showing that he could already manage eating on his own. Hanabi, seeing the lack of progress between her neechan and that stupid Naruto decided to take matters on her hands. As he was about to bring the noodles for consumption, the younger Hyuga lightly bumped the table with her knees causing Naruto to drop the noodles he carefully stuck on his chopsticks back to his bowl again.

He looked at Hanabi, confused. He knew she was just acting like she didn't know what she did. Naruto was about to call on her, when Hinata asked him, "What's wrong Naruto-kun?"

"Ah! It's nothing -ttebayo!" he responded cheerfully as he got few noodles in between his chopsticks and started to lift it up, but another bump rendered him to fail.

He snapped his head up planning to ask what the hell was wrong with Hanabi, when she immediately caught up and retorted, "Maybe niisan's hand is already tired of writing."

Naruto was about to protest, but Hanabi continued, while twirling her kunai around her index finger, "I think you need to help him eat, neechan."

He thought over the idea quite carefully before speaking this time. He glanced at Hinata, whose cheeks were dusted with pink. He was used to see her blushing like this after all the time he spent with her. It was something that he found weird at first, but now, it was something that made him chuckle inwardly.

"I-I'll help you." She said as she grabbed the bowl in one hand and the chopsticks with the other. Naruto faced her, but he suddenly felt the impulse to avoid her gaze.

She lifted the chopsticks towards his direction, but their cross-sitting position made it hard for her to avoid spilling the food. "Neechan, I think you should move closer."

Hinata gave her a sly glare before doing so.

"Closer, neechan." Hanabi said in a sing-song manner and Hinata made sure that her little sister got the message clearly by giving her sharp side glance.

Hanabi, getting the sense of defeat, stood up and went near the two. "The space is still far away, you should really move closer."

That's it! Hinata knew what her sister was setting them up to tease her with Naruto-kun. And as she was about to call her on it, it was the boy who moved closer to her. She looked at him disbelievingly and, as if everything was on slow motion, he raised his head to meet her eyes with a smile slowly forming on his face.

Her world stopped. She had never seen him smile like that before and Naruto had different smiles. The cheeky smile, the proud smile, the embarrassed smile, and many others that she witnessed. But right now it was, strange. She had never seen that smile from him. Not when she looked at Sakura-chan, to Sai-kun, to Shikamaru-kun or just basically to anyone. However, it was a smile she was familiar with, but it wouldn't be possible that he did so because…

Hinata shook the thought away. She was daydreaming again and jumping into conclusions.

Hanabi saw that look on Uzumaki Naruto's eyes, his smile and everything about it. Silently, she slid open the door and went out. She suddenly find it so difficult to breathe. She saw that look on the knucklehead's face on her sister's magazines, by the way the authors described how a man looks at his woman in her sister's books and by how the films showed it. Before, Hanabi used to laughed at how ridiculous it was, kept on believing that it wasn't true. But that look on that stupid blonde's face said it all, and he gave that to her sister! She bit her lower lip trying to fight her tears from falling.

She could feel it.

Her neechan's slipping away.

It was bound to happen.

She's going to lose her.

She's going to lose her to him.

Nevertheless, she wanted her neechan to be happy. All this time, it was very rare to see her smile, but that idiot was obviously making a difference. Not just to her sister, but also to the dull silence of their clan. Ever since he came here, even if it was just for few hours, Hanabi didn't feel alone in being the one lacking cool, calm and reserved nature in their family. At least, she didn't have to act composed while he was here and soon the compound will get used to him and probably will never notice her mischievous nature.

Yes, that's right! Plus, her neechan and that boy were really interesting together. She swore on playing a big part on bringing them together and she wouldn't back down. But before Hanabi walked away to study more stuff in her room, she could not deny the feeling that there were several byakugan watching her sister. And that was the day she knew, that she wasn't the only one interested.

"Wow! This really tastes great dattebayo!" Naruto complimented as Hinata just finished feeding him with a bowl of Yakisoba that she prepared.

Deep inside, Hinata was very happy. Recently, she was blessed to have moments like this with Naruto-kun and how she wished they could continue to get closer and get to know each other more. Being with him, made her feel like it's okay to be herself. It's not that she wasn't comfortable being with her teammates, but being with Naruto-kun was a different kind of happiness and she knew the reason behind it.

"Th-thank you, Naruto-kun." She said, trying to be more confident by starting to look at his face. Right at the corner of his lips, she noticed a stray cut of cabbage. Without giving any thought, Hinata wiped away the residue with her curled index finger.

Her skin lightly touched his lips.

Naruto's breath was caught in his chest. The mere contact sent shivers running down his spine. His mind going blank for a second.

This feeling.

Ever since the war ended, he'd been getting this feeling from her.

It was something he couldn't explain, yet it didn't feel unfamiliar.

It was just there.

It felt good, it felt right.

He wanted to hold her hand and feel if it would be there again, just to check. Without a doubt, he did so. Naruto held Hinata's hand that was now resting on her lap. Her heart jumped and her gaze shoot up at him, confused at what he did. His clueless eyes were telling her that he didn't know as well. Naruto wanted to ask her, if this weird yet happy feeling was normal. If it was real and if she was getting the same too. Because he had never felt such way and he didn't know how to identify it, it was…

"Strange…You-you are sort of strange, Hinata… I mean, uh," He panicked knowing that he was not sounding the way he must sound. On one hand, Hinata couldn't help but feel a bit down. Did he really find her…

"No! No! What I mean is I couldn't call you a best friend because it's for Sasuke and Sakura-chan and it's just different. I don't know you-you are sort of a-my strange friend that is. Strange in a good way! Like, uh, what word could that be?" Naruto glanced at the table beside him, there laid the open notebook to where he was writing. "S-special! That can be right. Right, Hinata?"

Special?

She could feel the drumming of her heart getting louder and louder. Could Naruto-kun be…

"Then you're like a special kind of friend to me, Hinata –ttebayo! But, err, isn't that all friends are special? I don't know, but it's just different. This is so strange…" Naruto continued with an incorrigible mumbling, certainly feeling all confused with what was happening. The same could be said to Hinata, who was lost in her own thoughts as Naruto-kun was not only holding her hand right now, he just said she was special.

"S-special?" She asked almost breathlessly, while the blonde chuckled his usual way.

"Well, it's strange, huh. Yeah, special..." Naruto didn't know why he was feeling a bit embarrassed by the word special. I mean Hinata was his friend so something must not be wrong about it. It was just that she's his strange kind of friend and up until now he was slightly bothered as to why.

"W-well, Na-Naruto-kun is s-special too." She said, red-faced and avoiding his dumb-founded stare.

Naruto felt happy when she said that. It was as if he was being rewarded. It was one of the nicest he'd ever felt about and it put to rest all of his confusions. Well, if Hinata thinks so too, then I think there's nothing wrong with what I feel.

"Neechan!" Hanabi entered and soon the scene dawned in her.

That Naruto was holding her sister's hand and he looked like he just woke up or something and her neechan! She was red as the carnations in their garden.

Damn it! Did she get in the wrong time? Were they finally happening?

"Ha-Hanabi!" Her neechan called out of a panic and the younger Hyuga noticed how she immediately pulled her hand away from the blonde's grip.

Hmph! Realizing that there was still no progression between the two, Hanabi didn't pass up the opportunity to tease her sister, something that she found to be amusing and really fun to do lately. "You sure, you two are studying?"

"O-Of course, dattebayo!" Naruto said as he had awoken from his trance and started preparing the books for discussion.

Hanabi sat right beside her sister, "Right, right." And whispered clearly into Hinata's ear, "You sure are studying each other quite diligently, isn't neechan?"

#naruhina #naruto #hinata #naruhina fanfiction #fanfiction #took me so long to upload #whyyy #naruhina fanfic #slquirkynovelist

16 notes · View notes

darquedeath4444 · 6 years

Text

Of Tales Now and Long Ago

Chapter SEVEN

When Sakura stepped out of the office, Kagetsu hurried over to her. He did not question what the Mizukage had wanted, but he gave her an once-over to see if she was okay, and she once again felt pity for the man who seemed to genuinely care for her.

She knew his fate, after all.

Sakura clearly remembered the puppets that had acted as servants around the Haruno compound and when she reached out, a countless number of chakra signatures that weren't quite human replied to her call. Sakura made her way down towards the isolated cave located deeper down, and the moment she even got close, the smell of blood and rotting flesh hit her nose. She wordlessly commanded the puppets behind her move past her into the cave and begin the cleaning process.

Not like these caves would ever be used again.

At one point, she approached the mess and reached for a part of the bone that had begun to crystallize The process would be much faster deeper in the caves. Once she had them brought to the tunnels she had spent years living in with Toneri, they would turn to dust and crystalize on the walls in mere days.

With this thought in mind, Sakura commanded her puppets to clean any bits of flesh still left and to leave the bones in the tunnels. The puppets let out a series of clicks and they all floated out, soon leaving Sakura alone at the mouth of the cave that had changed her life.

Sakura spent a majority of her time in Kiri experimenting with the chakra techniques written down in the Haruno archives.

The Haruno chakra, or the Otsutsuki chakra, was the purest form of chakra. When shinobi clans took this chakra and made it their own, something distinctively theirs became a part of this chakra as it was honed and passed on. However, Sakura's chakra was the rawest, that was not tainted by generation after generation of human usage, and due to this nature, she could incorporate this energy into several other techniques.

Sakura broke out of her thoughts when her water dragon drew itself out from the river she had used as a medium and leaned down towards her. It's nuzzle left her cheek wet and she had to wipe at it lest she dirty her clothes but she merely smiled at the creature and it made a gurgling sound as its liquid vocal cords strained to create noise. Sakura could see her Puppet Cursing sphere glowing in its chest, where it heart would have been had it been a real being.

Two weeks had passed since her arrival in Kiri and by now, people were used to seeing her walking the fogged streets of the village. Some smaller shinobi families even extended invitation for tea and dinner towards her but she always had Kagetsu, and when he was not available Mangetsu, accompanying her and that kept a majority of them off her back. If that wasn't enough, the eerie clicking of her ever-present puppets warned the rest of them away.

It was that clicking, which people found creepy but brought her comfort, that alerted her of an approaching figure. She looked back to see Suigetsu rushed over, a wide grin on his face. "Sakura!"

Sakura spun on her spot to face him and greeted him with a soft smile of her own. "Hello, Suigetsu."

The boy skidded to a halt beside her. "Let's get lunch together!"

Sakura glanced back in the direction the boy had come from, but saw no members of his clan accompanying him. "You snuck out of a meeting?" She guessed.

"Academy," Suigetsu corrected, like it did not matter either way. "Now, let's go."

And just like that, her time in Kiri slowly drew to an end. Sakura stood at the gates of Kirigakure, checking over herself one last time. Kagetsu stood beside her, ready to accompany her back to Konoha, while his wife and children stood opposite them.

"I'll see you again?" Suigetsu asked.

Sakura smiled faintly at the similarities she saw between the boy and Sasuke.

'Allies,' her Inner said. 'He will make a good ally.'

Sakura nodded. "Of course," she told him.

"Take care, Sakura," Mangetsu said.

"You too," Sakura straightened her cloak over her shoulder then turned to Mizuki. "Thank you for having me."

The woman smiled. "Anytime, Sakura-san."

Sakura bowed one last time before she turned to the man beside her. "I am ready, Kagetsu-san."

"I'll be back." Kagetsu told his family, then nodded at her. "Then let us depart."

Sakura watched Mizuki, Mangetsu and Suigetsu wave at them as she followed the Hozuki head out of the village.

He's not coming back, she almost said. He's playing a role, just like the rest of us.

Hozuki Kagetsu's death was as swift and as painless as any death could be. Sakura watched him collapse onto the ground, then turned towards where the burst of chakra had come from.

"Is this mercy?" She asked softly.

"Some say death is release," Toneri stepped out from behind the trees. His empty sockets landed on her and a smile graced his lips. "Personally, I do not care too much."

Sakura crouched down beside the man that had taken care of he for the past month. "I'm sorry," she said simply. She felt something heavy in her stomach but could give it no name, so she pushed it aside.

Toneri laughed. "I took into consideration his service to you and made it as painless as possible," he said. "His body simply stopped working. Without a working body, one cannot register pain."

"A blast of sheer chakra powerful enough to simply force a body to shut down," she said in wonder.

Toneri nodded. "It only works against a single target and requires a long time to prepare," he said. "It is not very functional in battle."

Sakura hummed thoughtfully and allowed her companion to cut into her arm to extract a little of her blood. He proceeded to toss it around the clearing they were in, then tossed away the kunai as well. He left a few scuff marks on the ground, then turned towards her. "I believe that will be enough," he said.

Sakura looked one last time at the dead body lying in the clearing before she nodded. "Shall we depart?" She asked.

Toneri nodded and turned towards the trees. "The closest entrance to the caves are a little away," he told her. "From there, we will be heading home."

Sakura's thoughts went blank at the word. "Home?"

Toneri smiled. "Yes, home."

Sakura liked to think that the Haruno tunnels existed in a dimension of its own, where normal humans simply could enter without a Haruno or Otsutsuki guide. This was because these pathways, which had existed for as long as the shinobi nations, or even life itself on these lands, stretched out across the entirety of the lands and no one had ever come across them.

Of course, there were rumors about them, and they had grown during the Shinobi Wars when the Haruno had often used them as a means of transportation of backup, supplies, and information, but even if one did see them simply vanish, no one could follow them.

Sakura paused in her steps and looked around the stone structure. There was no sunlight, no fire, and the tunnels were simply lit up by the glowing blue-green crystals that symbolized their history.

Soon, in the distant, she could hear the sound of water. Toneri sped up, almost subconsciously, and Sakura followed without complaint. A while later, they arrived in a clearing with a small spring, and Sakura felt a sudden, powerful pull towards the glowing liquid. Her companion did not even stop; he simply kept going, pausing only when Sakura stopped at the edge of the water. He turned around, standing knee deep in the surprisingly deep spring, and smiled. "There is nothing to fear," he told her gently and slowly held out his hand.

Sakura took it without hesitation and allowed the older teen to guide her into the water. A few steps later, only her head was sticking out of the water. Toneri released her hand and moved a little further until he too was beck deep in water.

"There is nothing to fear," Toneri said again. "I will see you on the other side."

As if on cue, Sakura suddenly lost her footing. She immediately tried to find the bottom of the spring, only for her feet to hit nothing. She took an unwilling sharp breath, expecting water to come flowing into her lungs, only to blink and suddenly find herself sitting on the floor, completely dry, with Toneri smiling down at her. "That was the portal," he told her.

Sakura's head whipped up and glanced around. She allowed Toneri to help her to her feet and almost blindly followed him as he began walking in a certain direction.

"This is the bridge between the Earth and the Moon," he told her. "These orbs contain memories of all humans that have ever walked the lands," He gestured towards the glowing spheres. "Some are forever trapped in their memories and can never escape." However, when he reached towards one, the sphere floated away from him like it was being repelled. "That does not apply to us."

Sakura smiled as Toneri cleared a path for them and soon, in the distant, she could make out a huge shape. "The Gatekeeper," she whispered.

Toneri nodded. "The Guardian of this dimension."

Sakura knew of this creature from the tales passed down. The Gatekeeper guarded the doors to the moon and stopped anyone not Otsutsuki from entering the sacred grounds. The crab regarded them with its beady eyes and let them pass without any interference.

Behind the huge creatures was another spring. This time, Sakura did not even hesitate, and when she appeared on the other time, she found herself overlooking a very familiar scenery. Above them, the artificial sun brought light, and below the ledge they were standing on, was the Otsutsuki village.

Minato placed the letter on his desk and took a deep breath. "Please call in Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Itachi, and Uchiha Shisui."

His assistant hurried out of his office.

The two Uchiha entered his office mere minutes later and Kakashi was relatively early as well. Minato pushed aside his surprise and gestured towards the letter. "I just received a letter from the Hozuki."

Itachi instantly stiffened and SHisui glanced over at his cousin in worry. Kakashi remained reactionless.

"Sakura left Kiri, accompanied by Hozuki Kagetsu, two weeks ago," he paused. "Travel times would have taken a few days at most. However, the Head has not returned, and Sakura has not yet arrived."

"So they're missing?" Shisui asked.

Minato nodded solemnly. "There is a possibility they had been attacked."

"Toneri," Kakashi said.

Minato nodded again. "That is a possibility," He held out a scroll. "You will head out to Kiri. The Mizukage has been alerted of your arrival. We will search around on our own, but any information found will be shared between the two villages. You have permission to enter Kiri and talk to the Hozuki. Kakashi will act as team leader. Track down their routing, and see if you can find anything on their whereabouts."

The Hozuki were surprisingly willing to meet them, especially considering the relation between the two villages, but Uchiha Shisui was not too shocked, considering that their clan head was missing. After receiving the confirmation that the two had left the village gates and there were many witnesses, they headed out of the village and immediately began tracking their pathing.

Kakashi sent out his dogs and Pakkun came back a while later, eyes serious. "We found something," he said. "But you might not like it."

Indeed Shisui did not like it. The lifeless body of Hozuki Kagetsu lay limp in a clearing and Sakura was nowhere to be found. There were blood splotches on the ground and Pakkun immediately confirmed that it did not belong to the Hozuki head.

"Send a summon to Hokage-sama," Kakashi ordered Itachi, then turned to his summon. "Is there a scent trail?"

Pakkun shook his head. "Well, there is a scent trail leading that way." He gestured with a paw into the trees. "But it vanishes after a bit, almost like they just disappeared."

Shisui watched Itachi send off his crow, eyes dark. He knew his cousin had been close to the girl, and his brother liked her as well. He stood awkwardly to the side as Kakashi stood up.

"Let's return to Kiri," he finally said. "We should return the body to his family."

Itachi returned to Konoha with a sense of dread weighing him down. It had been a while and he was sure most of them had forgotten, or had at least put to the back of their minds, the reason Sakura had ended up in Konoha.

And just like that, she had vanished. Whoever had taken her had left a dead man in his wake. He could not stop himself from worrying. This dread only got worse as he went with his team to report their findings, or the lack of it thereof, to the Hokage and returned to the Uchiha compound. The Academy had started a week or so ago and Sasuke had been complaining nonstop about the girl's delayed return. He had been pressing him about information on the girl and he could not decide if it would be kinder and right to tell him of the truth or keep him from it just a while longer.

The kidnapper had held the girl captive for years and had come after her once again. He had a nagging feeling and a growing fear that this time, they may not find her. In the end, when Sasuke ran up to him, he could only say that there had been a delay.

He could not bring himself to crush that smile, not just yet.

The Otsutsuki village called to her, that was the only thing she could think of. She was sure she had never been here before, never stepped foot on their home planet, but there was a heavy sense of familiarity that made her run her fingers over the structures that stood on either side of the streets as the two of them traveled through the village towards the main Otsutsuki compound.

It was almost as though she knew this place, knew where exactly she was going.

Perhaps it was her blood.

"Sakura-sama?"

Sakura turned towards Toneri, who had stopped a little ahead of her and was now waiting for her. "Sorry." She quickened her pace, so that she was walking beside him.

"No worries, Sakura-sama," Toneri said softly. "I understand it must be..."

"It's strange," she said, eyes once against wandering. "Like I've been here before."

Toneri did not say anything. Instead, he merely continued to smile and Sakura firmly turned away from the streets and towards the looming compound of the Otsutsuki.

Time passed differently on the Moon. A day on the Moon was around twenty-nine days on Earth, but they lived underneath the surface and an artificial sun supported life. It was not easy to see how much time has passed.

Sometimes, when she was not busy reading the scrolls and books found in the library and training with Toneri, she thought of Konoha.

Sasuke must be missing her. People must be worried. She felt a little bad, because she had promised the boy she would return. Of course, she would be returning. She had just not factored in this little detour with Toneri when she had stated so. The boy was a ball of innocence, she thought often. Just like that blond friend of his. And yet, they were both going to attend an Academy that taught them to kill using a gift that was meant to make life better.

Teaching was done by those who knew better. Perhaps they could simply kill the adults? The children were innocent until they were tainted, were they not? Not to mention, she quite enjoyed the company of some of the human children she had met.

Perhaps she could bring it up with Toneri.

If there was one thing Toneri feared, it was the influence human ways of thinking would have on Sakura. The girl was his, his to cultivate and sharpen, the one being that would share his ambition and the one who would remain with him once the sinners were purged.

However, he could not be with her all the time and all that stood between them and the taint of humankind was her loyalty towards their blood and him, and her belief that humans were wrong. He did not doubt that Sakura would fail to see their superiority to humans, but he decided that that was what fear was, an unreasonable force that made one think irrationally despite them knowing.

"Toneri!"

The teen paused in his musing when he heard his name being called by the very girl that haunted his current thoughts. If there was second thing he feared, he mused, it would be the strange feeling that filled his chest at the sound of her voice.

Distractions, after all, were very unwelcome, not when they were two beings trying to take on an entire world.

"The main reason this meeting was arranged was so that you can learn about your Dojutsu." Toneri told her. "The Tenseigan."

Sakura's hands slowly went up to her face. The Otsutsuki had several Kekkei Genkai, powers that had been lost and gained throughout their time as the rulers of the world. Even after they had ceased to be nothing more than a myth, a bedtime story of the history of the Shinobi World, their bloodlines lived on in the flesh and blood of their descendants.

However, in a way, it was no longer only theirs.

"It is your job, as the head of the Otsutsuki, to retrieve what truly belongs to us," Toneri had said. "As the last head of the clan who is the history itself of the world humans know today, you must right the wrong and punish those who have forgotten just who exactly they owe this life to."

Sakura clenched her fist. The Tenseigan activated in order to protect the user. The first awakening of the dojutsu came when the body truly felt it was in danger. Sakura knew that despite her role, she had grown up relatively sheltered. She hoped that as she rose in rank within Konoha as a shinobi, she would gain the chance to awaken the Tenseigan.

"We will research the other Kekkei Genkai that have been stolen from us," Toneri had said. "That is the other main reason we are here."

Sakura smiled faintly. This conversation had occurred a few moon days ago when they had eaten their first meal on the Moon.

"'Main reason'?" She had asked."There are others?"

"Of course," he had said. "I wanted to see you, Sakura-sama. I wanted to make sure you were safe."

This battle had started with just the two of them and no matter how many new pieces were introduced to her, she and Toneri would remain the two constant forces that affected the rest of them. Toneri had then smiled, empty eye sockets as dark as ever and his expression losing all the tenseness it usually held. This was a teen that thought and acted with the Otsutsuki constantly at the front of his mind. In a world that had forgotten their kind, he was the only one left here that truly understood her because he was almost just the same.

And any doubt had flown right out of her head.

Chapter EIGHT>

<Chapter SIX

#Of Tales Now and Long Ago #naruto fanfiction #sakura #toneri #poor kagetsu i kind of liked him #but too bad #plot is op and all consuming

4 notes · View notes

itslulu42 · 7 years

Text

The Scroll (pt 1)

Part Fifteen of Ninja Dorks Flailing at Interpersonal Relations

Emotions are running high in this chapter!

One | Previous

FIFTEEN

"What the fuck?" Sakura wrenched her hand from Sasuke's grasp. "You didn’t ask me if we should get married. Where did you come up with this idea?"

The only reaction was the slight crinkling of Sasuke's brow. "You mentioned it this morning." He turned away from her and to the village leader. "You'll have to excuse her."

Sakura gasped as her belly burning with embarrassment and humiliation. The only thing that kept her from punching Sasuke to the next mountain was the light shade of pink his face was turning.

"Maybe you two need to talk it out." Yasuo frantically shooed away a group bringing a platform to the front of the crowd

“That’s not necessary,” replied Sasuke. “Sakura has always wanted to marry me.”

The terrible truth of his statement pushed Sakura to her breaking point. Not wanting to have the argument in the middle of the village, Sakura lunged for Sasuke. He grunted in surprise as she threw wrapped her arms around his midsection. She channeled her chakra down her legs as she crouched down. Sasuke was half-tossed over her shoulder as she gave a terrific leap into the air.

The village shrunk to meaningless dot as Sasuke's cloak whipped around them. She let go of Sasuke when the cloak wrapped around her head, but she kept a steady hand on them as the approached the surface of the adjacent mountain. They landed in tandem on the cliffside and separated to face each other.

"Was that necessary?" Sasuke tugged at the cloak around his shoulder to straighten it.

"You don't want to have this conversation in public," Sakura said as she resisted the urge to stamp her foot. "Why did you think I wanted to get married?"

"You were talking about it this morning."

"Yes! Because I was talking about Naruto's wedding. I wasn’t asking to elope with you!"

Sasuke furrowed his brow. "I don’t understand why you are so upset. You said the only thing that you needed at your wedding was the man you are going to marry."

Sakura clasped her hand together and brought them to her chest. "I said that it was the only thing I needed at my wedding, but I want more than that, Sasuke!"

Sasuke huffed. "You should make up your mind."

"Sasuke, I don't want to marry you!"

The scream echoed in the empty mountainside and Sakura hoped that it didn't carry far enough to that they could hear it in the village.

Sasuke furrowed his brow in confusion. "What?"

Sakura threw her hands up into the air. "Sasuke... we can't get married. You’re not ready to be married. You came up with the idea because of Naruto. And I’m not going to be a part of your stupid friendship where you always try to one-up each other. I thought you learned your lesson when you lost your arm!”

Sasuke drew back in anger and Sakura knew she had pushed him too far. "I'm the one that suggested we get married. You're the one that opposes the idea."

The only warning Sakura had was a small spike of chakra before Sasuke vanished. Angry, Sakura tossed her pack against the cliff wall and then marched over to join it. The sun had only been in the sky for a couple of hours and it was already burning at her skin. She sat down once next to her pack in the shaded area. "It figures that he would leave now." She punched the rock next to her and turned it into dust.

What was she going to do? Was Sasuke coming back for her? Did he just need some time to cool off before he would return? How long should she wait for him?

Sakura had not hesitated when Sasuke asked her to join him on his travel, happy that they were on the same page. Sakura had imagined her relationship with Sasuke a hundred times. She had dreamt of bringing Sasuke over to her parents’ house for dinner. She imagined chatting with Ino as they picked out flowers for the bouquet. She had visions of an incredibly smashed Tsunade in the corner of their small wedding reception. She had never imagined getting married in the middle of a mountain town with little warning and no friends.

Sasuke said he was ready to married Sakura, but it didn’t feel like it. It was impossible to deny the feelings she had for Sasuke, but she was tired of waiting for him. She tired of feeling alone even when she was in his company. Yes, he had returned to the village specifically for her. He had kissed her, but he had yet to say he loved her. He rarely initiated conversation with her, leaving Sakura with the pressure of filling the silence, carefully choosing her words in his presence. The one time Sakura spoke unrestrained caused Sasuke to run off rather than hearing to her words.

Naruto would have pestered her until she was forced to admit what was bothering her. Ino would have invited her to go out and Sakura would have shared her story willingly. Kakashi would have...

Sakura bit her tongue. It was unfair to compare Kakashi and Sasuke to each other, and she had done her best to dismiss any thoughts of Kakashi after Pakkun’s scolding. But she missed him. She missed his bed. She missed waking up with a snoring dog at her feet as stood in the bedroom doorway to call her to breakfast. She missed sitting on his couch as she watched TV while he read a book next to her for companionship. She admired his commitment and his selflessness. He gave nothing less than everything for the village.

Sakura dug into her belongings searching for the scroll Kakashi had sent, eager for a reminder of home. Her fingers traced over the wax seal, her finger catching in the bite mark left behind by Pakkun's teeth. Trembling, Sakura broke the seal and unfurled the scroll. A small note fell out, and Sakura lifted it to read.

Konoha will always be your home when you are ready to come back. Take care.

Yours,

Kakashi

Sakura crinkled the note in her hand, hating the disappointment blooming in her chest because of her own greed. Thanks to Tsunade and Pakkun, Sakura had begun to think there might have been something between two of them. She had built up the message in her head into some grandiose statement only to be met with more disappointment.

Kakashi was a man, someone who had a lifetime of grief before she was even born. What would he want with a silly girl like her, someone who had run off her with her childhood crush because she couldn’t see beyond the stars in her eyes?

Foolish

Sakura dug through her belongings for a water bottle when Sasuke reappeared. Sakura returned the half-opened scroll in her bag. “Where did you go?”

“I had to return to the village to tell them there wasn’t a ceremony,” Sasuke replied. “It was humiliating.”

“Join the club.” Sakura wiped the tears off her face and took a long drink of water before speaking. “Sasuke, why do you want to marry me?”

“You’re strong and you can take care of yourself. You’ve always wanted to be with me. I never have to worry about you if we are apart.” He shrugged. “Since Naruto was getting married I thought it was our time.”

“I see.” And Sakura did.

Back in Konoha, Sai was constantly reading psychology books so he could be with Ino. Shikamaru was studying treaties and navigating a political minefield so he could be with Temari. Sasuke loved her enough to marry her, but not enough to want to take care of her. He wanted to give her a relationship but didn’t understand the responsibilities of being in one. Would he ever be ready?

Looking at his face, at his cool compose expression, she wasn’t certain. He was so calm while her longest-held dream fell apart.

“Sasuke, this isn’t working.”

“I don’t understand. Why does it matter when we get married when this is what you have always wanted?”

“Sasuke, you want to marry me because of Naruto, because I’m a convenient choice because I can stand on my own two feet. But you there was only one answer that you needed to say, and that is because you love me.” Sakura pressed her hands against her mouth to hold back her sob, squeezing her eyes shut. “Sasuke, you didn’t even think about saying it.”

“You don’t want me.” Sasuke placed his hand on his sword and Sakura tensed before she realized the only fidgeting. “Am I not enough?” For the first time, she saw his confidence waiver.

Sakura turned her back to him, unable to bear the hurt expression on his face. She could no longer hold back her tears as she began to sob in earnest. Through it, she waited for Sasuke’s to reach for her, to feel his hand on her back, to hear his voice. She only cried harder by his absence.

Sakura was able to speak again when her body wrung dry of tears. Sasuke had sat down during her breakdown on a nearby rock, pulling at a thread on the bottom of his shirt. Sakura returned the empty water bottle in her bag.

“Sasuke, I’m the greatest medic-nin in the world. My place is in a hospital, where I can make medical advancements so every country can benefit. I understand why you’re out here, I really do, but I belong in Konoha. If I were to ask you to live there with me, would you do it?”

Again, she was met with silence, but the minute reactions on Sasuke’s face told its own story. He was finally catching on to her point.

“Konoha, the village, hasn’t felt like home in a long time, Sakura.” His hand vanished under his cloak to rub at what remained of his left arm.

“I know.” Sakura nodded her head, “I know. I think I want more than what you want to give and it’s not fair to either of us. One of us is always going to be disappointed.”

Sasuke gave a soft laugh. “I’m trying to remember a time when you didn’t have a crush on me.”

Sakura stood up to give him hug, her words muffled by his clothing. “Idiot. I don’t have a crush on you. I love you. I think you’re brave and strong, and what you’re doing is incredible. But we don’t belong together.”

“Can I ask for your help if I need it?” Sasuke removed himself from his grasp.

“Of course,” replied Sakura as she gave him a soft smile, “but you won’t.”

Sasuke raised his hand, hovering in mid-air as he tried to decide what to do. He finally settled for patting her on the shoulder as a goodbye. Sakura turned away, grabbed her things, and used the body flicker technique to leave Sasuke before she lost her courage. She wasn’t going to watch him walk away this time.

Part Sixteen

#kakasaku #ninja dorks #my fanfiction

111 notes · View notes

hermadnessmac · 7 years

Text

SasuSakuMonth17 Day 2

Title: And Nothing More Summary: In pointing out everything Sakura’s not, Sasuke starts to figure out just who she is. Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto--I just like to play in the universe. Prompt: Something More from day two of the SasuSakuMonth Prompts. Rating: T Words: 2,880 Warning(s): None

When a girl with bubblegum pink hair walked into Sasuke Uchiha’s life at age twelve, he had no intention of letting her stay.

Sakura Haruno was smart, that much was true. It was also true, however, that one glance at her too-wide stance and weak grip on her kunai would tell even the lowest ranking chunin that this particular ninja-in-training had very little aptitude for the more practical aspects of her chosen career. What was her plan for facing an opponent, anyway? Lecture them on chakra pathways until they got bored and left? Stun them with her brilliant use of the most basic substitution technique? Startle them by throwing kunai in their general direction?

No. This girl with bright green eyes and innocence wrapped around her as tightly as a swaddled baby was not going to last. Innocents made great sheaths for the monsters of the shinobi world; Sasuke was only too aware of this.

At best, he concluded, Sakura was an accessory. A shiny bauble that dangled off the arms of nin far stronger and more menacing than they. At worst, she would become canon fodder. The unskilled foot soldiers that provided the numbers or distraction of any large scale operation.

Even Naruto, dead-last imbecile that he was, had the unwavering resolve to get better. Grow stronger. He knew the cold ache of loneliness that had long since taken root in the very marrow of Sasuke’s existence. While Naruto dealt with that sickly sting differently than he--choosing to shout out instead of shut up--Sasuke could respect that the blonde was still racing in the same direction as him: forward. And if his teammate had set his sights on Sasuke’s back as some sort of target, so be it.

Maybe he would use him as a springboard.

Sasuke had no need of arm candy with appropriately colored hair, however, so he elected to leave Sakura behind.

She was dead weight. A liability. A nuisance. Annoying.

And nothing more.

--x--

When a girl with wide, innocent eyes stepped in front of a deadly opponent with nothing but a poorly grasped kunai, Sasuke’s brain told him it was only a matter of time.

His feet apparently responded to different sort of logic, and he found himself acting as a human shield for his terrified female teammate before his brain had finished its smug, “I told you so.”

Luckily Kakashi had intervened, but later, when the threat of danger was no longer imminent, Sasuke had to wonder about his actions. Why was he so willing to throw his life away for a meaningless girl? He had goals to achieve. Threats to eliminate. Family to avenge. Offering himself up as a pincushion would bring about none of the things he strove for.

So why? Why?

Sasuke found sleep more elusive than it usually was for the duration of the mission. He wasted nights he should have been resting weighing the restless souls of his clan against the bright life of his teammate. Perhaps that--the fact that she still had a future ahead of her--was the reason he intervened. But was it forgivable to put the needs of an outsider above the needs of his family--even if they were dead?

When, no more than a few days later, Sasuke found himself protecting Naruto from sure death, he was annoyed, yes. Annoyed, but also a little relieved.

His apparent death wish wasn’t reserved only for Sakura but also for his teammates. Sasuke had been reporting to Kakashi for less than a month, and already his first lesson repeated like a mantra in his head: those who don’t take care of their comrades are lower than trash.

Not that, Sasuke told himself, he particularly cared what Kakashi thought. He needed the Jonin’s jutsu expertise--not his life advice. Still, the man was a legend. Not as legendary as the man he wanted to kill, but legendary enough that Sasuke could forgive himself for letting Kakashi’s words take root in his subconscious so quickly.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke observed Sakura as she walked in a subdued manner beside him. Although the tear tracks staining her cheeks were no longer, her eyes were bright red and puffy. That was because of him. When she had thought he was dead, she had cried for him. Not dainty, fake tears. Messy, snotty, heartbroken tears. For him.

And even though it wasn’t useful, even though it broke shinobi rule #25, and even though he normally found her attention grating to an extreme level, somewhere a lot less deep than he wanted it to be, Sasuke was touched. It felt..nice to have someone care about you. To know someone would have his back and care about his well-being.

Sasuke looked at Sakura for a second longer before glancing at Naruto. The barest of grins fell into place. If this was what teammates were, Kakashi’s rule might make sense. And, therefore, so did his actions.

She was a person worthy of his protection. A fellow nin. A comrade.

And nothing more.

--x--

When his female teammate stood in front of him covered in an alarming numbers of bruises and scratches and swollen bits, Sasuke Uchiha never meant to act with anything but indifference.

Injuries were a constant companion of every ninja that ever was and ever would be.

So why was he burning with rage instead? The last time Sasuke could remember being this furious was the day he swore to himself he would avenge his clan’s death with his brother’s head on a pike. He could barely look at her without wanting to burn the whole fucking forest down.

On Naruto the deep wounds decorating her arms would be battle scars. Although Sasuke personally felt walking away from a fight unscathed was a stronger testament to a ninja’s adroitness than a brocade of scars, there was no denying that they were evidence of survival. After all, no one picked a fight with Ibiki on a whim.

Sakura, though--Sakura’s skin was supposed to stay unstained. She had chosen to place herself on the front lines, true. Just like him, just like Naruto, and just like every other Leaf nin. She was Sasuke’s sister in arms, technically. A back to place against his when the kunai were dense and escape routes were few.

But Sasuke saw the soft in Sakura all too easily.

There was affection in her eyes as she groused at Naruto and a playful tilt on her lips as she scolded Kakashi for his choices in literature. He knew that she adored sunrises and sunsets and butterflies and fireflies. She would rather be curled up in a patch of sunlight reading a book on genjutsu than training with her weaponry, but Sasuke had noticed the calluses that slowly grew on her hands.

It seemed, slowly but surely, Sakura was evening out the number of hair products and weapons she owned. Her bravery was matched equally with her fear. Labeling her the ‘weak link’ of the team would be easy--Sasuke had thought the same thing at first--but the exact same characteristics that made her weak made her a crucial component of their team.

She was Sakura, and, somewhere along the way, she had snuck up in Sasuke’s ranks from ‘comrade’ to ‘precious person.’

Because Sasuke cared that Sakura felt confident and not dejected, and not just because her insecurities could be the downfall of their team. He knew it was naive to think so, but in the last couple of months he had convinced himself that he and Naruto could shield her from any harm. If they could just grow strong enough, move fast enough, learn enough jutsu, Sasuke would never have to hear her scream in fear again. Never.

Idiot.

It didn’t matter that she was just one person or that Sasuke was older; he could no better protect her than he could stop his brother from annihilating everyone he had loved.

She was a pink target. A fleeting ray of sunshine. A doomed precious person.

And nothing more.

--x--

When a worried friend placed herself between him and the path out of Konoha's smothering walls, Sasuke Uchiha had every intention of brushing her aside and never looking back.

Sakura was a weakness, but her liability didn’t stem from her overly-conditioned hair and practically empty repertoire of useful ninja techniques as he had initially assumed. Sakura was his weakness specifically. She was his siren’s call.

In retrospect, he should have figured it out sooner. Sasuke had tasted power, just the smallest nibble, before Sakura’s arms and voice drew him back too soon. Instead of begrudging the loss, though, he spent his time mourning the blemishes on his teammate’s once-porcelain skin. Weak, unfocused, pathetic.

The twine-like bonds she had laid on him as a teammate had already transformed into shackles, and Sasuke could bear nothing holding him back if he wanted to move forward.

He had it right in the first place; Sakura was a shiny bauble. A distraction. To hell with Kakashi and his lectures on teamwork. Throwing himself between Sakura and danger wasn’t admirable. It was folly. Pure and simple.

So when Sakura cried, unshielded and honest, loudly enough for any to overhear that she loved him, Sasuke told her how annoying he found her.

But he also told her thank you, because he hadn’t yet squashed the part of himself that responded to those pure eyes, hopeful lips, and honest heart. He laid her down because he couldn’t bear to throw her aside like nothing, and he did it gently because the thought of hurting her any more made his stomach turn.

“It’s because your heart is lacking...lacking in hatred.”

And it was. His actions of the past few months with Team 7, towards Sakura now, proved that. But no longer.

She was a temptation. A moment’s weakness. A comfort.

And nothing more.

--x--

When a furious femme fatale stormed the walls of Orochimaru’s crumbling hideout, Sasuke Uchiha hadn’t meant to call to her.

Striking Sakura down before she realized the threat would have been the more disciplined approach. It had been two and a half years since they had laid eyes on each other, though, and Sasuke was curious to see what he would find in those eyes. Were they still as unshielded and innocent as when he had left her behind?

Immediately Sasuke cursed his own weakness. He thought he had squashed the softness from his soul years ago. Yet not even a minute had passed in Sakura’s presence, and he was already seeking out her attentions--longing to see her look up at him in awe. Wanting to see her recognize how powerful he’d become without her to drag him down.

As he drew his sword to strike Naruto down, he told himself it was only her strength that captivated him now. He had heard the rumours, of course. Shutting out news of old teammates was hard when each member had landed themselves an apprenticeship from one of the legendary Sannin. So, yes, Sasuke had heard about Sakura in their time apart. Stories of a young medic already stepping out of her mentor’s shadow flitted about most villages. Already whispers of a pink-haired kunoichi who downed Sasori of the Red Sand could be heard in the shadows.

Reconciling the image of the trendy and polished girl he had left behind with the practically dressed young woman before him was difficult, though. Once painted nails were chipped and full of grime. Then enchanting, calculating green eyes narrowed beneath long, full eyelashes, and Sakura charged.

At that moment, Sasuke became certain that his fascination with the temptress before him was...professional.

She was a kunoichi. A fellow apprentice of a Sannin. A force to be reckoned with.

And nothing more.

--x--

When a Leaf kunoichi held a poisoned kunai in her hands and lies on her lips, Sasuke Uchiha felt the last fraying cord of his sanity snap.

There was not one thing, he was certain, not one single thing about Konoha that was worth saving. They thought they were so good and noble. Playing at being samurais in shining armor while war, death, disease, and famine sprung forth in their wake. How dare they preach morality from pedestals forged from his clan’s bones?

And it was all of them.

Not just the leaders or the politicians. Not just the Anbu and the elites. The Jonins and Chunins. The blacksmiths and doctors and civilians, too. Until this very second, he had considered the Genin and children an unfortunate casualty. He had only considered them guilty by associated with a tainted system, but now he knew that they too would rot from the inside out as time passed.

Of all the terrible things he had thought of Sakura, Sasuke had never considered her a deceiver. They stood on opposite sides, but he had expected her to approach him as openly as she always had. Yet here she stood with falsehoods forged to suit her own goals.

She was an enemy. A backstabber. A liar.

And nothing more.

--x--

When a Konoha colluder broke the horn off of a Goddess’s head with only her fist, Sasuke found he wasn’t the least bit surprised.

The moment Sakura jumped up onto the rock overhang with Naruto and him was the moment she came into her full power, and she had been turning heads ever since. Even the dobe, the one teammate who had been around to see her grow the most, had been shocked by the monstrous strength she suddenly channeled. It wasn’t that Sakura’s display left him unfazed. Instead, reunited on the ultimate battlefield, Sasuke felt a surge of pride for the mountain-leveling hellion before him.

They had separated once more soon after, but Sasuke saw the miniature versions of Katsuya attached to the cannon fodder nin of the Alliance. Saw shinobi up and fighting that should have already taken their final breaths.

Later, when Sasuke had felt Sakura falter under Madara’s gaze, he was almost hopeful she would let his ancestor focus on Naruto and him and stay out of sight. It proved to only be a moment’s hesitation, however, because Sakura shot past the both of them with the order to use her as a diversion.

Then she went and got herself impaled.

His heart seized when he saw the chakra rod holding Sakura aloft poking through the back of her flak jacket. She didn’t cry out, though; she just gritted her teeth and raised her fist to deliver a devastating blow. Of course, one of Madara’s shadows acted as an invisible shield, but the fact of the matter was she had tried to face down Sasuke’s ancestor--she had surprised Madara, even. After all, not many people still throw earth-shattering punches when they’ve been impaled.

As far as he knew, Sakura hadn’t spoken with the Sage of Six Paths. She hadn’t received any insights or gifts from one of the first chakra wielders. So, when Sasuke told her there was nothing she could do anymore, it was just because he wanted her to understand that, just like that time in the Forest of Death, she was facing opponents far above her pay-grade.

Sakura refused to back down, though. Madara’s murderous gaze made her falter but didn’t make her flee. Kaguya’s overwhelming reservoir of chakra made her wary but didn’t make her retreat. Had Sasuke not placed a genjutsu on her, she probably would have tried to interfere with Naruto and his fight, too.

Because, power ups or no, Sakura Haruno was one of them.

She was an elite. A Neo-sannin. An equal.

And nothing more.

--x--

When Tsunade’s successor crouched over his prone form and focused on knitting his mortal wound closed, Sasuke Uchiha wasn’t overwhelmed with relief at his survival.

He was overwhelmed with guilt.

Kami, how had he gotten everything so wrong and twisted up? Labeling Sakura--who she was to him, what she had accomplished--had become something a habit. As if summing up her existence in a few tidy words would make his feelings for her easier to contain.

Of course, it didn’t. Demeaning her and idolizing her had failed in equal measures. It had been like using explosive tags to try and defy gravity. Sasuke wrought plenty of wreckage in his wake, his fevered attempts at escape, but sooner or later physics became an inevitability.

And Sasuke was left to face the fact that he had spent his life hurting the person he loved the most.

The fact was that he had understood so very little. It had been a long time--ten years, to be precise--since Sasuke had allowed himself to love. Not lust for or admire, but love unabashedly and unfiltered in the way that Sakura had her whole life. So, for the first time, Sasuke was beginning that Sasuke loved every facet of her--not just this label or that description or that characteristic.

Because, the truth was, she was all of that. Annoying. A comrade. A precious person. A comfort. A force to be reckoned with. A liar. An equal. Sakura Haruno was all of those things, every single one and sometimes none of them at all, but still--still, she was…well.

His soulmate. His future. His second chance.

And still something more.

#ssm17 #ssm17d2 #hermadnessmac writes #sorry i'm so late on this #and it's kinda long #but i hope you all enjoy my excessive use of parallelism

278 notes · View notes

narusakufactory · 7 years

Text

Home - Chapter 7

Note: Sorry for any massive mistakes that might be present. Looking for a beta reader to go through and fix the various errors in the whole series! This is the second to last chapter. Look forward to the conclusion where everything finally gets resolved and comes to a close.

As planned, her alarm clock woke her in the morning. Normally, she wouldn’t need it, but watching over a child everyday proved to be more tiring than she thought. Sakura extinguished the loud beep after the first ring. When she sat up and stretched, the dreadful feeling of ‘I slept but not really’ washed over her. The worst.

A sleepy mumble drew her attention to the bed. The alarm clock only annoyed the small sleeping boy by her side. Shina mumbled and buried himself further into the pillow he must have wrestled from under her while they slept. She decided to let him sleep a little longer while she picked out an outfit for him and made a quick meal. She felt like a little girl again, as if she were picking out the next outfit her doll would wear. Shina wasn’t a toy of course, but the feeling was the same.

“Knock it off!”

Sakura paused and swiveled around. Did Naruto REALLY come back after she kicked him out? Abandoning the clothes, Sakura exited her bedroom, checking for herself. She didn’t find Naruto at all, and he wasn’t exactly great at hiding since he still insisted on that orange jacket.

“Just start over, you’ve ruined everything’’ttebayo!”

Or at least, not inside.

Sakura swung open her front door, surprising the Naruto clones sitting outside. There were at least 5 of them sitting around playing a card game. Sakura narrowed her eyes, trying to pick out the real Naruto, but he didn’t seem to be among them. She grabbed the closest one by the ear, dragging him closer.

“What are you doing outside of my house like this Naruto??” She demanded. The clone squired in her grasp, but it was for show. She rarely actually pulled or smacked him hard enough to cause real harm. But he sure loved playing along. She kinda loved it too…

She shook her head. Her mask of indifference towards Naruto slipped more than she previously thought. At this rate… she’d be a mess when Naruto took his relationship with Hinata further. Naruto, the clone, interrupted her thoughts and gently removed her hand from his ear. She expected him to play along a little longer and whine as he usually did… but he looked so serious.

“Last night…. Someone was out here last night Sakura-chan.”

“He stood right over there.” Another clone pointed out to the edge of the forest not very far from her house.

“I don’t think they knew I was here. They ran off pretty quickly after realizing it.” A clone continued. “They were so quick, I failed to catch them again.”

“Sorry.” The clone told her as it still held her hand. “I stayed all night and I left as soon as your alarm went off. I left some clones here just in case. I didn’t want to make you upset.” Sakura frowned. “I mean…. I didn’t want to make you MORE upset and I’m sorry.” The clone repeated.

Someone waiting… outside of her house? Sakura scanned the edge of the forest. How long had they been there, waiting for them to sleep. What did they want?

“Are you sure? Is it… is it the same one from before?”

The clone frowned, contemplating an answer. “Probably.”

“Then they know where I live…”

“Sakura…” The clone gently squeezed her hand, bringing attention to it. Surprised, Sakura yanked her hand away from the warmth that built up from the contact. She glanced around again, making sure no one witnessed the hand holding.

“I understand Naruto. You can leave now. You and your clones.”

One clone glanced at the others, resigned to their fate. Still, the one nearest to her turn back. “Sakura-chan. About last night-”

“You should really go.” She insisted. “I won’t discuss this with a clone Naruto”

“Then, maybe later?” The clone asked hopefully. Sakura turn away, refusing to answer. She did not look at his face, but his body slumped in disappointment and a sigh escaped his lips. “Have a good day then, Sakura-chan…”

The other clones disappeared like a chain reaction filling her entryway temporarily with their smoke. When the final one lifted his hands to dismiss the jutsu, Sakura stopped him. She slapped her hands on top of his, causing him to jump.

“Naruto I…” She didn’t want him to go on the date. Sakura expected them to spend another day with Shina trying to figure him out with a little bickering here and there. If she asked, he would drop date with Hinata without a moment's pause. He would stay if she simply asked. He went on dates with Hinata because she told him to, and he would stop the dates if she told him to.

Why did he listen to her? She knew why. She acted angry and upset when he didn’t and he wanted nothing but to please her. She constantly lead him in a game of cat and mouse, never confirming or denying her feelings and leaving him confused. She didn’t do it on purpose… she was confused too. Everyone expected her to still love Sasuke, even Naruto did to some extent. Was she a terrible person for giving up on Sasuke?

“Naruto… have a good date.” She finished. He deserved someone better. Hinata seemed like a willing option. Hinata seemed more put together and certain of her feelings toward Naruto. It would be unfair to keep him… wouldn’t it? Naruto couldn’t live happily with someone like Sakura, someone who didn’t even understand herself. Wouldn’t she be a terrible person if she took Naruto away from someone who loved him… as much as she did? Someone who wasn’t at all confused about it?

“... Right,” He responded. The clone did not disappear right away. He stared straight through her, reading her like an open book. He almost always knew what she was thinking and feeling even before she did. She hated that... No, she loved it. Another problem, another confusing conflicting feeling she held inside.

“Goodbye.” She said, squeezing the clone’s hands hard enough to make it disappear in a puff.

Today was the day he would fix everything.

Ever since he woke up in the hospital, nothing made sense. The town looked different. His house wasn’t how he left it. Most importantly of all, his parents forgot him. Or at least, he thinks that’s what happened. Sometimes they acted normally, but other times they were complete strangers. He only told them his nickname. They’ve yet to call him his full name, ‘Shinachiku’. All except what happened a few days ago.

His father wore his black and red cloak along with the orange pants his mother disliked. ‘It’s not professional’, she used to say. Whatever ‘professional’ means. His father had his bangs again, they hung just above his eyes and were swept to one side.

That was the only time Naruto called him ‘Shinachiku’. At first he thought his mom and dad were imposters. Fakes pretending to be his real mom and dad like his parents always warned him about. The fakes would try to get information out of him. Or, they would try to hurt him and make him suffer…

None of that happened. Not so far.

The… ‘imposters’ did ask questions, but they gave up quickly and always treated him kindly. They behaved like his real parents. While they couldn’t remember him, they weren’t exactly “imposters”. He gave up trying not to call them mom and dad, they were too real. They WERE his parents.

He just needed to... ‘fix’ them. Help them remember somehow. If he did that, then everything would go back to normal!

… But how?

“Shina?”

“Huh?”

Shina glanced toward his mother. They were holding hands walking through the town early in the morning. Not many people were around this time of day. He’d rather be sleeping… but he liked going to work with his mom. Soon, she said he wouldn’t be able to do that anymore because he had to go to school. His mom hasn’t said anything about school lately...

“Have you been listening?” Sakura asked. Shina shook his head. She sighed. “Sitting in the office might be a little boring, but you can ask for anything and I’ll find something for you to do, ok?”

“I won’t be bored!” Shina grinned. “I’ll be good, I promise.” He spent plenty of time in his mother’s office and he knew he had to behave. The hospital had plenty of books for him to read and pages for him to color on. They even had a playground in the back. He could play in with other kids if he got really bored. When he behaved, he also got a treat at the end of the day or even an extra dessert at dinner. A win-win situation. He did whatever she asked for a special prize. Most of the time anyway.

Sakura gave him a strange look, but didn’t say anything else until they reached the hospital. Her office… was not the same. This smaller office was on the fourth floor, but he remembered it being higher. The only thing the two rooms shared was the large window that had a nice view over some of the shorter buildings in Konoha.

“Here you go.” Sakura dragged over a small desk into the office toward the window. She called in ahead of time and asked the staff to borrow one from the children’s room. She opened it, pleased to find paper and crayons already inside.

“Is this really your office?”

Sakura observed the boy’s reaction. The puzzled look he carried sometimes returned.

“Yes. Do you like it?” She smiled, beckoning him closer. When he got close enough, Sakura pulled out the small seat for him. He didn’t answer her question. He fixated his gaze on the window instead.

“First, why don’t we make a name tag for your new desk?”. The suggestion reignited his curiosity. Shina turned as Sakura reached into his desk to pull out a blank sheet of paper.

“A name tag?”

“Yes. Like the one I have on my desk, see?” Sakura pointed out the shiny fake golden nameplate that sat on her desk. She had one outside of her office too. “When people come inside, there’s no way they can forget my name since it’s on my desk.”

“... They can’t forget?” Shina’s eyes lit up. “If I write my name, then they can’t forget?”

“Yes…” Sakura raised a curious eyebrow. Shina eagerly reached into the desk, pulling out a hand full of crayons. Without much though, he pulled out the red and green crayons. Everything looked better in red and green.

What if he told her… his real name? His full name? Would she remember everything for good? He really want to try it, but something still held him back. This could be a trap too, all a trick to get his real name.

No, he already decided earlier that they WERE his parents. They just forgot is all. And if his name could help, he had to write it down.

“Ok, I’ll write my name.” Shina took the green crayon and careful started to write his name. His mother taught him how. She was so proud and told him and told him he would be super ready to start school.

He started with a “U” and continued with the “zu”-”ma-”ki”. Next, he wrote his first name, it was just as long as his last name. “Shi”-”na”-”chi”-ku”. Shina was his nickname. His mother told him at school, he needed to write his full name on his papers. But why? Most everyone called him ‘Shina’, even his parents. Well, almost everyone. People he didn’t know very well called him his full name. Now that he thought about it, his uncle called him by his full name too…

“All done.” Shina proudly held up the name tag. Sakura hadn’t said a word since he started on it. She stared at the nametag for a long while. Did she remember something? He sure hoped so. Shina waited and waited until she finally spoke up.

“Uzumaki Shinachiku… that’s your name?”

“Yeah’ttebaro! Do you remember?”

‘Remember what??’ She wanted to ask, but she didn’t have the heart to. She wondered why writing his name would bring him so much excitement, and this is why. He thought she was forgetting something. All her talk about not forgetting someone’s name because of a name tag made him think SHE would remember something.

Shina still believed she and Naruto were his parents and that they had simply forgotten about him. A pang shot through her chest. What convinced this little boy that she was his mother and Naruto was his father? He waited patiently for her answer, genuinely waiting for her to ‘remember’ him. The problem was that there was nothing to remember… and yet she so desperately wanted to recall something. Maybe she forgot that she had four or five year old son with the man she secretly loved? Somehow he too had forgotten that they had a little blond hair green eyed child together? She wouldn’t name her child ‘Shinachiku’, surely…

Impossible. Yet here she was, toying with the idea in her mind.

“... You still don’t remember?” Shina lowered the name tag. Disappointment clear on his small chubby face.

“I don’t remember… yet.” She said without much thought. She bit her lip, trying to come up with an explanation.

“Yet?”

“Listen Shina…” Sakura struggled for words. This was the most the little boy had ever opened up to them. If they gathered enough information, Kakashi wouldn’t need to interrogate him harshly or at all. “I think we may just need a little more time, ok? There more things you can do to help us.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. She wouldn’t be able to remember anything, but understanding the situation would help them. Additionally… she disliked seeing him so disappointed.

“There is?” Shina’s eyes lit up again. Sakura stood and approached her desk. She had a quick solution to their problem. A test. A few tests in fact. Sakura returned to Shina’s side, needle in hand.

“Shina, is it alright if I perform a few tests? Like… a shot? I think it can help us.”

Shina looked wearily at the needle Sakura prepared. He’d gotten shots before, but he didn’t expect to get one now. If it helped her remember, he had to do it. Right? Shina nodded agreeably.

He should have cancelled the date. His mind simply wasn’t in the right place. Hinata mumbled something about the menu. The waiter had to ask him a few times what he wanted to drink. He didn’t eat his food, he pushed it around the plate absently. He wanted to eat, but he didn’t feel like it.

“... Naruto-kun.”

Sakura wanted to say something to him right before she dismissed all his clones. He saw it in her face. In her eyes. Her hesitance. Her everything. If he had stayed, maybe the talk could’ve happened? That just meant he needed to try harder. Or maybe he was trying too hard? No no, he shouldn’t push her. It was her decision. He knows she feels something, but what right did he have to make her admit it? Even if she did admit it, what then? Naruto pushed more food on his plate, conflicted.

“Naruto-kun?”

As soon as the date was over, he’d rush back to her house and finally work things out. They had too. They could spend the day together just like she wanted. He wanted to stay the night again and be there when Shina woke up, but of course she was angry with him. He didn’t dare to ask. It was fun helping the sleepy kid get dressed and ready for the day. Did Shina miss him yesterday? He thought Sakura mentioned such, but he couldn’t remember.

“...”

Naruto jumped when a hand gently squeezed his arm. He blinked and focused on Hinata. She looked concerned.

“Ah, were you saying something Hinata?”

“... No.” She answered, quickly looking back at her empty plate.

“Whoa! You must have been hungry.” Naruto looked at his own dish. He stirred so much that the food blended together in an unappealing mess. “I’ve barely gotten started’ttebayo....”

“Naruto-kun… are you feeling alright?” Hinata timidly tied her fingers, refusing to look at him.

“I’m fine. Why?” Hinata shrunk into herself further and didn’t answer. “Hinata, what’s wrong??”

Uncomfortable silence passed. Naruto tried not to squirm in his chair and repeated his question. It took patience to figure out what was going on in her head. Well, he never actually knew what was going on in her head, he had to wait for her to tell him. Patience wasn’t his forte.

At last, Hinata took a deep breath and turned to him. She looked timid moments earlier, but now she looked firm, prepared for whatever it was that she decided.

“You’ve been very busy with Sakura-san, haven’t you?”

Naruto hesitated. Yes, for the past few days, he spent all of his time with Sakura and Shina. For good reason.

“I heard… you’ve b-been staying over her house a lot and looking over a child… i-is it true?”

Normally one would say, ‘It’s not what you think!’

If she assumed Naruto was trying to settle his feelings with Sakura and possibly reignite whatever they had prior to when they were dating, she would be correct. He didn’t plan to cheat on Hinata. Never. He also couldn’t end the relationship with her. Everyone told him he owed her. She loved him for so long and he never noticed. He felt terribly guilty about it. Everyone was right, how hadn’t he noticed her before? Like with every problem, he tried to fix it.

No matter how hard he tried, no feelings developed beyond the guilt. He liked hanging out with her like anyone else, but more often than not their dates ended on an awkward and boring note.

He tried to kiss her, but he either didn’t know how or he was simply doing something wrong. It as uncomfortable. When he hugged her, it wasn’t entirely different from hugging anyone else. She was his friend after all. He never craved contact with her. He is her friend, not her lover. He tried. He really tried to feel something more, but nothing came.

He resigned to his fate. Sakura ignored him. Soon he would be with Hokage. Everyone expected him to be with Hinata. His future was set. He wasn’t happy, but Hinata was. All he had left to do was become Hokage and make Hinata happy... even if he didn’t love her.

Then Shina ran into him.

The world flipped on its head. Not immediately, no. It was a slow transition. First he found Shina, tired and confused. He never met Shina and yet… something clicked. He could have passed Shina off for someone else, but he wanted to handle it.

Then Sakura came into the picture. When Shina described his mother, it didn’t really make sense. No one else looked like Sakura, or at least, not to his knowledge. Whether it was her or not, he was fine with using Shina as an excuse to see her face. For months and months she ignored him and avoided him. He had no reason to show up to her house, she’d call him a creep and kick him into the next dimension.

Sakura changed too. Sakura knew him for even less time than him, but she took an interest in Shina too. Sakura was a medical ninja, she would take interest in any injured patient, especially a child.

But when she saw his face for the first time… something shifted in her too. She invited the boy to stay in her home without any hesitation. Even more surprising, Shina quickly fell into her arms and wrapped his arms around her, as if he did it all the time.

Shina called him papa. He thought about it all night. About being a father, or Shina being his son. They did resemble each other.

After that, Sakura didn’t ignore him. All of their conversations revolved around Shina, but he was ok with that. Sakura may not have noticed, but she smiled just like she used to. Not only at Shina, but at him. She complained, nagged, and bickered, just like she used to. Of course he didn’t want to argue with her all the time, but anything was better than her indifference.

It had only been a few days, yet he felt closer to Sakura than he ever had before. All thanks to a little boy. Sakura wasn’t the only one smiling. Shina made Naruto smile too. Naruto was his ‘papa’, and Sakura his ‘mom’. It felt so natural. He craved it, unable to resist the thought of Shina belonging to them.

Last night, Sakura looked so pleased to see him and so upset that Shina hadn’t. Why did he have to screw it up? He shouldn’t have mentioned Hinata at all. Last night was his chance. Last night… Sakura was exactly how she used to be. He missed his chance.

Another chance to confirm her feelings. Another chance to act like a family for a little while. Another chance to figure out the mystery of Shina. A mystery if unsolved… could mean Shina could truly be theirs.

“Naruto-kun…” Naruto blinked. He cursed, realizing he let his mind wander off again.

“I’m sorry Hinata. What was the question again?” She watched him. Hinata frowned. She looked… sad.

“... I’m sorry.” Naruto apologized again. He didn’t know what do when she became like this. Give her a gift? A kiss? A hug? Apologize?

“Naruto-kun… you apologize a lot.”

“Ah… do I?” Naruto rubbed his head and offered a smile. It didn’t work, her expression didn’t change. Hinata squeezed her hands tightly together so tightly her knuckles turned white. “Hinata?”

“Naruto-kun… you don’t have to do this a-anymore.” She whispered shakily. She looked up. Tears started to well in her eyes.

“What?” Naruto’s eyes widened, confused.

“I-I can tell… you aren’t the same. Not when you’re with me.” Hinata took a breath and continued. She held her face, embarrassed to be crying in public. Luckily, they were seated outside away from the other customers, but it brought her no comfort. Naruto fretted over her, unsure of what to do. She wanted him to hold her, and tell her it was ok, but he didn’t.

“Usually, N-Naruto-kun is so cheerful and happy. You s-smile and laugh or do silly things. But when you’re with m-me…” Hinata stopped and lowered her hands to look at him. Naruto’s jaw hung open. She supposed he never expected her to say such things. Hadn’t he noticed her unhappiness? She happy when he was happy… but he wasn’t. Not with her. She knew why. She always knew why. She thought if she were given a chance, she could change his mind. She thought he finally loved her back. Maybe she was just fooling herself, hoping after so many years… he wouldn’t love Sakura anymore.

She truly thought so. Naruto started to pay more attention to her. Slowly but surely, Sakura spent less and less time with him, so Naruto had no one but her. Hinata revelled in his attention. It made her nervous and awkward, but being near him was enough. For a while, she thought he felt the same. That being in her presence would make him happy.

Instead, he always looked so serious and pensive. Tense. Stiff. Fidgety... His mind always went somewhere else. He paid attention to her more, but his mind still wandered somewhere else. Where? Where did his mind go when it wasn’t with her? She already knew the answer, but for so long, she pretended she didn’t.

She pretended he wasn’t thinking about Sakura.

She pretended he wasn’t thinking about Sakura when he smiled so warmly at nothing.

She pretended he didn’t whisper Sakura’s name when he took his naps.

She pretended he wasn’t thinking about Sakura when he squeezed his eyes painfully closed as he kissed her.

She pretended he wasn’t thinking about Sakura when a longing looked passed over his face despite being right next to her.

She knew, even now, he was thinking about Sakura. The woman he loved. Hinata tried, she truly did, but she was not the one who would bring out the Naruto-kun she admired so much. The Naruto-kun she loved… was the Naruto-kun in love with someone else.

Hinata sobbed, but she smiled. She forced a smile to spread on her lips just like Naruto did when they were together.

“Naruto-kun… you don’t have the p-pretend anymore…. Thank you for trying. Thank you.”

Sakura felt terrible. She felt like she tricked the little boy for just a blood sample. Even if she explained what she actually wanted to do, he wouldn’t have understood, right?

Sakura wanted to match Shina’s DNA to their database. All the allied villages combined their medical databases and information save for trade secrets some clans refused to release publicly. If she ran this test through, it would spit out any and all possible relatives in all the allied villages.

‘Uzumaki Shinachiku’. With a name like that, there were very little other possibilities. The last name indicated Shinachiku must be related to Naruto. Or maybe Karin, one of Sasuke’s old traveling companions. Or some other Uzumaki out there? Unfortunately, those were the only two Uzumaki’s she knew. Out of the two options… it simply had to be Naruto. They looked so much alike. Shina even had a verbal tic similar to his. The blond hair. The attitude that sometimes bubbled from under his polite demeanor. The smile… Somehow, someway, Shina and Naruto shared a connection.

She’d be kidding herself if she didn’t see a little of herself in him too. Green eyes weren’t really that rare of a commodity, but their eyes and their face looked strikingly similar. Still...

Theories cycled through her mind over and over. She struggled to lower her expectations. Certainly the results would crush any connection they may have to Shinachiku. Yet… she wanted the results to tell her the impossible. She wanted the results to reveal that Shinachiku did have a connection to them. That… Shinachiku was theirs.

Sakura frowned. How did she become so invested in this again? In only a matter of days… she wanted Shina to somehow be her child. She wanted to protect him and hold him close. Just yesterday afternoon she made plans to spend more time with Shina and Naruto. More walks in the park. A proper trip to the ice cream shop. Sakura could buy Shina more clothes and force Naruto to abandon his neon orange outfits. She could get him a proper bed and some toys to play with. Naps. Playtime… Being with the two of them felt… right, as if Shina had been missing from their lives and he properly slipped into place as he should be.

These feelings couldn’t be normal. Last night she pondered if it could be some kind of jutsu she never heard of. The books and scrolls in her office would have answers, but if not, she’d track down Tsunade and ask her. A trip to the library might be beneficial too. More time spent with Shina meant more answers, she reminded herself. That was the ultimate goal.

Sakura finished preparing the test and allowed the machine to search the database. Because it was so large, it would take a while. If she wanted to, she could directly test her DNA against his, but the thought of it made her nervous.

She made her way back to her office to check on Shina and to check her books for her newest theory. She had to do something to keep her mind distracted as the machines did their work.

“So, this is a family picture?” A voice trailed out of her office, one that certainly wasn’t Shinachiku. And it wasn’t Naruto’s either.

“Yeah. It’s so they can remember.” Shina’s voice rung out. He sounded excited or pleased.

“Oh, what did they forget?” The voice asked. Now that she was closer, Sakura recognized the voice easily. Sakura stopped in the doorway, suddenly afraid of what she might see.

Ino managed to slither her way into her office. Ino and Shina were leaned up against each other comfortably as Shina concentrated on sketching out his doodles.

“What are you doing here?” She tensed when she noticed Ino petting his head. She didn’t feel jealously, but suspiciousness. After all, her best friend was one of the best intelligence gatherers around. Not because her interrogation skills were particularly advanced… but she could read minds. Reading the mind of a child required little effort, especially if the child was distracted with something else.

Ino peered up from Shina’s doodles with a casual smile.

“Ah, there you are forehead. I’ve been looking for you. Have you been avoiding me??”

“Hey!” Shina exclaimed, turning to Ino. “Don’t call her ‘forehead’. That’s mean, auntie.” A frown had spread on Shina’s face and he looked more serious than ever. Both women were taken aback by his change in attitude. Ino chuckled and apologetically ruffled the boy’s hair.

“I’m sorry Shinachiku, I didn’t mean it.” The attitude Shina gained faded away just as quickly as it appeared. “Wow, you’ve got quite a temper under those chubby cheeks.” Sakura cleared her throat.

“Ino, can I talk to you? … Outside?” Sakura motioned toward the door.

“Fine fine.” Ino stood, leaving Shina to continue his work. Sakura closed the door to the office quietly as not to disturb the other offices.

“What are you doing here? What were you doing to him?” Ino didn’t answer immediately, pinning Sakura with an observant gaze. She sighed and waved off Sakura’s concerns.

“Don’t look so worried Sakura. I’m not here for ‘that’. Haven’t been told to do anything yet.”

“... So it’s true, Kakashi wants to interrogate him?” Ino paused again before answering.

“There’s been talk about it. Mostly people curious about the little one you and Naruto took under your wing. You guys have cut yourself off from society ever since.”

Sakura rolled her eyes and began leading Ino down the hall. That was a bit exaggerated. They did keep to themselves as they tried to figure out the mystery of “Shinachiku”.

“So ‘Uzumaki Shinachiku’ is his name? Where’d he come up with that?” Sakura narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Come on, I said I wasn’t here to interrogate didn’t I? Obviously you have a mystery on your hands and I want to solve the child sized enigma too.”

“... He told me today that that was his name. Before he only told us his name was ‘Shina’. I don’t think he made it up.”

“Shina? Mmm… maybe a nickname.”

“That could be…”

“... Sakura, relax already.” Ino placed her hands on her hips. She tried not to look hurt by Sakura’s distrust. “I am genuinely here to help. I’ve been worried about you. You’re acting… weird.”

Sakura relaxed her shoulders. “Right, sorry.” If Ino were here to cause a ruckus, Sakura didn’t think she’d try so hard to be genuine. “...I’ll explain.” Sakura offered.

“Sakura.”

Sakura and Ino stopped. Naruto stood at the end of the hall, breathing heavily. He ran all the way to the hospital when the date with Hinata ended. The date wasn’t the only thing that ended. Their relationship did too.

Naruto was still high on emotion. He felt terrible about it. Hinata balled her eyes out, struggling to explain herself, but all he could do is sit and gape at her. She refused to be comforted and eventually decided to leave. Coupled with his terrible feelings… were feeling of relief. Like a weight fell from his shoulders.

“Naruto… what are you doing here?” Surely his date hadn’t ended so fast. He didn’t say anything as he caught his breath and came closer. “What’s wrong with you? Did something happen?” She hadn’t forgotten last night, but seeing him in this state worried her.

“Sakura… we need to talk.”

“All finished.” Shina announced to no one. He held up the picture, admiring his work.

His dad stood the tallest in his picture. Shina used a lot of red on his cloak and orange on his pants. His face had a big crooked smile and two blue dotted eyes. He drew his hair as spiky as he could, just like his real hair.

Next was his mother. He gave her a round belly and a red dress. Although her belly was missing now, maybe… if she remembered she had a belly it would come back? He used pink on her hair, green for her eyes, and purple for her diamond mark. Shina remembered she called it a seal of some kind.

He drew himself and his favorite Katsuyu plushie. He missed sleeping and playing with it. Shina started to draw their house, but he gave up and drew grass with a sun instead.

“What else…” Shina thought aloud. If drawing is all he needed to do to make them remember, he would have drawn much sooner.

Tap. Tap tap. Tapping? Shina looked around the office, but nothing moved even as the tapping continued. A louder tap banged against the window, startling Shina from his seat. Shina held his chest as his heart raced.

“What was that…” He approached the window, pressing his face against the glass. His mother always told him not to do that because he left grease stains on the windows, but right now he didn’t care. From the window, he had a good view of Konoha and the street below. He thought someone threw something at the window.

He tried to pick out people on the busy street. No one noticed him from below. Who threw something at the window? They must be strong to reach up this far. Shina continued scanning the street until finally, he saw someone looking up at him. Shina squinted, trying to decipher their face.

Suddenly, his vision blurred. Shina backed away and rubbed his eyes. What was that all of the sudden? He blinked, but his eyes were back to normal. When he looked out of the window again, the person was gone. Who was that? He didn’t get the chance to figure it out, but they looked… familiar.

A sudden knock at the door startled him again. Shina turned toward the door. Another knock came. If it were his mother, she didn’t need to knock. But there were a lot of people around, maybe a nurse? Shina approached the door, standing on his toes to twist the knob. He expected to see a nurse at the door, wanting to speak to his mother.

“Here you are Shinachiku. I’ve been looking for you.” His father smiled down at him. He had his red and black cloak again. His hair grew long again with his bangs brushed to one side. “Come, let’s go home. You’re probably bored, right?”

“Papa…? What are you doing here…”

“Didn’t you hear? I’m here to take you home.” Naruto offered his hand, and Shina took it.

“Does mom know?” Shina asked. Sakura hadn’t told him that Naruto would come and pick him up.

“Mom is at home waiting for us. You know she can’t move very much because of her big belly.”

“But…” Shina stopped, causing Naruto stop too. “Her belly is gone. And… your hair was shorter. Why? Do you… remember again?” His father said nothing, but the smile slipped from his face. Naruto knelt, looking Shina right in the eye.

“Shinachiku… right now you are dreaming. The ‘papa’ and ‘mom’ in this dream aren’t real.”

Shina’s eyes widened. “A… dream?” Naruto nodded.

“It’s all a trick. You’ve been dreaming for so long, I’ve come to wake you up.”

“... It’s really true?” Shina asked in disbelief. “They’re really…” Naruto’s expression darkened again.

“‘Naruto’ and ‘Sakura’ in this dream are not your parents. They are not real. Haven’t you noticed?” Shina started to speak, but Naruto interrupted him. “The Naruto in this dream has a different girlfriend than your mother. They don’t live together in your house. Sometimes, they aren’t very friendly towards one another. Doesn’t it hurt to see mom and papa apart?”

It did hurt. He noticed strange about his parents, but he thought they only forgot. A dream? This couldn’t just be a dream. He decided that a long time ago. What was his ‘papa’ talking about? Shina held his chest and stepped back. Naruto stood, looking down at him. His father’s face didn’t look quite right. He’d never seen him wear such an expression.

“Shinachiku, we have to go home now.”

Shina turned away and went into Sakura’s office, shutting the door behind him. Or at least, he thought he did. When he turned his back to the door, he was back in the hallway with his dad standing there, looking down at him. Everyone in the hallway disappeared despite how busy it was moments before.

“Shinachiku, we have to go home now. None of this is real.” Naruto repeated, almost robotically. “Come with me.” Naruto offered his hand, but Shina refused it.

“S-stop it!” Shina shouted. Shina turned, needing an escape.

“Come.” Naruto demanded urgently. Everywhere he turned, it seemed like his ‘papa’ was standing there, hand extended. Shina picked a path and bravely rushed past him. He ran and ran and ran, but the hallway never ended. When he glanced back, his father was only inched away from him, as if Shina hadn’t been running full speed at all.

“STOP IT!” Shina shouted, squeezing his eyes shut. In that instant, he heard gasps and confused whispers. Everyone that was in the hallway before reappeared. They stared at him, concerned about his sudden outburst. Shina looked around, but his father was nowhere to be seen.

“Are you alright?” A nurse asked. She approached him, but Shina backed away and rushed to the exit.

“Sakura-chan please.”

Naruto, Sakura, and Ino were cramped up in the room Sakura left the test to run in earlier. Naruto explained everything that happened on his ‘date’. She didn’t know what to say. She was angry at him for letting Hinata go and cry on her own. What man does that to a woman? A woman he’s supposed to love?

“You guys have really wrapped yourself in some classic soap opera drama.” Ino sighed and tapped her foot.

“I’m busy Naruto. Go away.” Sakura stared at the screen as it rapidly scanned through the database. It already scanned through Suna, Kumo, Kiri, and Iwa with no returns. All that was left was Konoha. No one reported a missing child here. None of the orphanages were missing a child. Nothing lined up. Nothing except Naruto’s explanation.

“... Is Shina here with you?” Naruto asked. Sakura scowled, declining to answer such an obvious question. “... You’re still upset with me?” That earned him a glare.

“Do you even know what position you’re putting me in, Naruto??” Naruto and Hinata broke up. She felt horribly for Hinata… but a small tiny thought in the back of her mind persisted.

‘Now you can be together again.’ How sickening. She would never do such a thing. They broke up, but Hinata definitely still loved him. She didn’t think she was a horrible person, but she would be if she became so opportunistic. Even if she wanted to be with Naruto, it simply couldn’t be allowed to happen. Not now, not ever.

“You need to find Hinata right now and apologize to her! Beg if you have to!” Naruto remained silent and just watched her. He made no attempt to do as she said.

‘That’s good. He’s stubborn. Just like you. You know he doesn’t want her.’ The tiny voice in her mind spoke. Naruto never took interest in Hinata. Not until Hinata’s feelings were made clear to him. Sakura wondered how can someone be so blind, but the answer was pretty clear. Naruto had tunnel vision. He found other girls attractive or pretty, but there was only one person he truly considered.

‘That’s right. He’s always loved you. You can’t use Hinata as an excuse to avoid him anymore.’ Maybe not… but she wasn’t going to give up. Naruto’s true happiness was on the line.

“You really think I should?” Naruto asked blandly. “I didn’t break up with Hinata, she broke up with me.” Naruto stepped closer. “And I think I know why. Sakura-chan, you know it too. How terrible I am at lying…”

Sakura gripped the computer monitor. The search had a few thousand samples left to compare. It would be finished in a few minutes.

“No, you’re just being an idiot.” Sakura gritted through her teeth and turned on him. “Naruto, I don’t-” Sakura stopped before the words slipped out. Just like Naruto, she was terrible at lying too.

‘I don’t love you!’ He would sniff out the lie in seconds. She needed to find a different way to try and redirect his attention again.

“I… am in love with Sasuke. And Hinata loves you. Don’t you understand? We can’t be together.” She couldn’t even look him in the eye. Maybe the lie was still too obvious?

Ino rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. The two idiots were obviously in love, but Sakura was being stubborn about it and dancing around the issue. Why? Ino wouldn’t step in, she swore off match-making after the Naruto and Hinata disaster. And what a disaster it was. Hinata’s intentions were pure and her feelings just, but she couldn’t keep up with Naruto no matter how hard she tried. Naruto, on the other hand, still had feelings for someone else and constantly had his head in the clouds. On the surface, they were quite a cute couple, but the problems underneath were apparent.

Ino tried to speak to Sakura about it. Sakura was Naruto’s best friend and she was in love with the dude even if she pretended otherwise. Sakura refused to see it. She became convinced Naruto would be happier with Hinata than herself. How would Naruto tackle this challenge and change her opinion?

A beep on the monitor disrupted her thoughts. Sakura looked at the monitor, shocked by the results.

“What? What do they say?” Ino and Naruto huddled around her, tense atmosphere forgotten.

A list of data displayed on the screen. At the top was a strand she titled “SHINA”. Underneath was a list of matching DNA from most matching to least matching as well as the most likely relationship they had.

HARUNO SAKURA - Probability of Maternity: 99.9998%

UZUMAKI NARUTO - Probability of Paternity: 99.9998%

UZU-

Sakura stopped reading it then. She knew what the rest of the list would be. Naruto’s parents. Then her parents. Then any other relatives she may have. The impossible happened. Shinachiku… was their son.

“What’s… this?” Naruto asked, staring dumbly at the screen. He had a gist of what he was reading, but it didn’t make any sense. “What does it mean?” Naruto continued, glancing at Sakura as she sunk into a chair nearby.

“... Shinachiku has a high probability of being our biological child.”

“Shina… chiku?” Naruto repeated, shocked to hear Sakura mention it.

“His name. He told me his name was Uzumaki Shinachiku. So… I ran a test.” Sakura’s voice was empty, unsure how to digest the information. Earlier she was hoped Shina would somehow end up being theirs, but it was an impossible little wish to giggle about. A silly thought at most, not an actual possibility!

Without a word, Naruto left the room, nearly running down the hall.

“Where are you going?!” Sakura called, following him out of the testing room. Ino stayed behind, analyzing the data for herself. She wasn’t as deeply trained as Sakura on this matter, but she knew enough to make sure there weren’t any mistakes.

Naruto made his way to Sakura’s office. He hadn’t seen Shina yet, but that’s no other place he could be. He opened the door expecting to see the little blond boy inside… but it was empty.

Sakura caught up to him, and grabbed his arm to steady herself.

“Shina?” Sakura entered the small office. She checked under her desk which was the only possible place to hide. “Shina???”

Naruto approached the smaller desk and picked up the picture resting on it. A family drawing. One of him, Sakura, and Shina. Shinachiku.

Shina knelt in an alleyway, hugging his knees as sobs wracked his body. He hated crying, he really did. It gave him a headache. His nose ran and his eyes stung.

His father followed him out of the hospital. He followed him everywhere. Shina didn’t understand. No matter where he went or where he turned, his father was right there. Waiting for him. His dad was good at hide and seek, but not like this. He was more like a ghost chasing him around.

“Shinachiku… don’t you want to go home?” Shina raised his head. His father’s face changed again. He looked more like himself again, albeit worried.

“I-I do wanna go home…”

“Then, why do you run away?”

“You’re… scary.” Shina confessed. His dad was always weird, but not THIS weird. Naruto smiled softly.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He explained. “I really want to go home with you now, to your mother.” Shina ached to give in and agree to go with him… but he resisted. He had to make sure what he was saying was true.

“This is really… a dream?” Shina asked. Naruto shifted and sat cross legged in front of Shina.

“Yes, it is.” He stated calmly. More calmly than earlier. “You accidentally fell here, and I’ve come to take you out. No one knows you because this is not where you belong. The people you call mom and ‘papa’ may technically be the same, but the dreams have made them into very strange people, haven’t they?”

It made a lot of sense. No one knew him here, not even his mom and dad. They didn’t look like they were supposed to, and the town was so familiar but clearly different. He never had a dream like this one, but boy did it explain a lot. Shina nodded.

“I’m not trying to scare you.” Naruto opened his arms warmly. “Come on. Let’s go home, Shinachiku. You’ll be safe and everything will be normal again. No more bad or strange dreams.”

This time, Shina didn’t resist. Shina jumped forward, wrapping his arms around his father’s neck. Naruto returned the favor and tightly wrapped Shina in a hug as he got up.

“Everything will be ok.” Naruto whispered, walking away from the alley towards the forest nearby.

An intense feeling washed over Shina. It made him dizzy and tired. His vision became so hazy that he couldn’t see where they were going. His arms and legs felt weak as his head sank into the crevice of Naruto’s neck. He closed his eyes, unable to fight against the heavy weight of his eyelids.

Just then, he had the smallest realization that his father didn’t smell like this father at all.

#narusaku #shinachiku #sakunaru #naruto #sakura #fanfiction #may2017

64 notes · View notes