“Are you and Lee dating?” Ino asks her, plopping down at the table in the library next to her.
Several months have passed after Sakura stops talking to Kakashi, and Sakura has eaten dinner with Lee several times, between missions. Sakura supposes that Ino must have heard about that and misunderstood.
“No,” she says, looking up in surprise from her book on ancient medical jutsu from the west, “Why do you say that?”
Ino gives her a look of disbelief, “Oh, c’mon, you guys go everywhere together! Didn’t you two go to a tea ceremony last week?”
Sakura thinks that if Ino put as much work into ninjutsu as she did into discussing the local gossip she would be a Chuunin already.
“Yes, we did,” she answers coolly, “But you don’t understand. We’re not dating. He just heard about a place in the next town over that-”
“So, you don’t like him, then?” Ino asks, leaning forward, pushing her breasts forward in a way that Sakura used to be jealous of.
“No.”
Relieved that the matter is cleared up, Sakura returns to her book.
“Then stop leading him on!” Ino says, sounding angry for some reason.
Sakura blinks up again, even more confused.
“Excuse me?”
“You…oh, c’mon, you have to know he likes you!”
Sakura scoffs, “That was two years ago, Ino. We’ve both changed since then.”
“Maybe you have,” Ino says, “But I know he likes you. Everyone does. Hell, I’m sure even Hokage-sama does!”
“Ino…”
“So, I’m telling you to stop leading him on,” Ino continues seriously, “It’s not fair to him, okay? He might start to think that you like him back (if he doesn’t already) and then things will get messy. I…I thought you knew.”
Sakura simply looks at her for a long time.
“It’s not like that,” she says finally, “We’re not…Ino, we just hang out. Like you and I do. It’s not…I’m not like that anymore. I don’t need that…I’m not you.”
The second after she says it she regrets it. Ino’s face contorts and she draws herself up angrily.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean!?” she snarls, not bothering to keep her voice down, causing several librarians to glare, “Just what are you suggesti-”
“Ino, I’m sorry,” Sakura says pleadingly, “I don’t know why I said that.”
“Well, I do!” Ino hisses, “You’ve heard the rumors, huh? You’ve heard that Yamanaka Ino is a filthy little whor-”
“Ino!” Sakura says, cutting her off, “Ino, I don’t care, dammit! I don’t care who you date or…or…”
“Say it!” Ino demands.
“…sleep with,” Sakura whispers forlornly, “It’s not you, okay? It’s me. I’m just…I don’t want that anymore. It’s not about you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”
Ino glares down at her angrily and then flops back into the chair. Neither of them says anything for a long time and Sakura stares miserably down at her book.
“Sakura,” Ino says finally, sounding tired, “You’re not still in love with Sasuke, are you?”
“No,” Sakura says bitterly.
Silence again.
“I overreacted,” Ino says stiffly, “It was wrong of me.”
“I’m sorry.”
Ino sighs and covers her eyes with a manicured palm, “Just be careful with Lee, okay.”
Sakura says nothing.
“You should listen to me, you know,” she says, sounding suddenly malicious, “I have experience, remember?”
Sakura chokes and opens her mouth to apologize once again, but Ino gets up and walks out of the library before she can get a word out.
She and Ino don’t talk for another year. But for some reason, their conversation sticks in Sakura’s mind and won’t go away. It’s stupid, she knows. Lee became infatuated with the longhaired, stupid girl who had spotted a genjutsu that even a fly could detect. She is proud to no longer be that person. It therefore stands to reason that he’s no longer interested in her. So why does she care?
But sometimes when they’re together, and Lee smiles and says some stupidly optimistic thing, Sakura feels strange. She finds herself smiling when he rescues a cat from a tree only to get scratched by it on the way down. She celebrates with him when the final vestiges of his spine injury sustained by a Sound nin during the Chuunin exam heal. She cries at his side when Maito Gai hangs near death as a result of a rogue team of Rock nin.
“Over here, Sakura-san!” he cries energetically, waving around a stick of dango they purchased only minutes ago at a festival booth, “The best place to see fireworks is right here! I found it a few years ago with Tenten and Neji!”
“Al-Alright!” she calls laughingly at his enthusiasm, leaning over to catch her breath, “Have you gotten faster? I can barely keep up with you anymore!”
He beams at her, “You noticed! I have been training especially hard with Gai-sensei on my speed!”
Sakura grins back despite herself and a large blue flash fills the sky. She goes rigid, grabbing for the several shuriken under her yukata that she has taken to strapping to her chest and thighs even when she isn’t on duty. But it is only a firework, brilliant and blue against the dark sky. Lee whoops ecstatically and nearly upsets his dango.
“C’mon, Sakura-san!” he shouts, scaling a tree, “Up here!”
Sakura pulls up the hem of her bright red yukata and leaps up to the tall branch Lee is standing on. Several other brightly colored fireworks go off, startling her again. Green, gold, red, orange, and Lee cheers, eyes full of innocent wonder.
And at that moment Sakura wants to kiss him more than anything in the world.
A month after her revelation that Ino might have been right after all, her shishou informs her that it she if she keeps up the good work, she will become a Jounin within the year. The information startles her and forces her to think farther into the future. She does some research and finds that at the moment, the average lifespan of a Konohan Jounin is 26 years. A little more than ten years then. Right. She can do that.
But, Sakura knows that the years will pass quickly. Life is short, as it took the disappearances of two teammates-friends- for her to learn. So she will have to do something about this crush, or whatever it is, before it is too late.
“Lee,” she says a month or so before her sixteenth birthday, when they are cooling down after a long day of training, “Do you still like me?”
Lee doesn’t seem to understand the question at first, and then turns as red as her shirt.
“S-Sa-Sakura-san,” he splutters.
She feels horribly embarrassed at this point and is probably blushing too, but refuses to back down.
Lee quickly composes himself, “Of course,” he says, though his cheeks are still burning. He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, smiling a bit, “Ever since I first saw you.”
Sakura had it all planned out, but this throws her totally of track. She has no idea what to say.
Lee is still smiling contently as if this is all he could ever want and she finds that she can’t help herself and kisses him right then and there.
It is a bad kiss. Lee is too shocked to do anything but freeze and despite all her bravado, Sakura’s never actually kissed anyone before. But it’s the start of something that will eventually become the most important thing in her life, so it doesn’t really matter.
People talk a lot after they ‘officially’ start seeing each other. Her parents for one. They are confused and uneasy with Lee.
“It’s not that he’s not a nice boy,” her mother says worriedly, “But he’s a bit…strange, don’t you think?”
Lee’s parents are bewildered as well, but Lee tells her it’s not anything new. They’ve apparently had no idea what goes on in his life ever since he entered the ninja academy.
She turns sixteen, becomes a Jounin along with Hyuuga Neji, and eventually joins the ANBU. She and Ino make up somehow and the blonde girl starts asking all sorts of other awkward questions (as if she hadn’t done enough already.) Six months later, Ino is horrified to find that she and Lee haven’t done ‘it’ yet.
“Do you even want to?” she demands, lounging in Sakura’s room.
Sakura shrugs, “I guess. But I figure since I’m moving in with him the second I turn seventeen, it doesn’t matter.”
Ino stares and drops the nail file she was using to perfect her nails.
“A-Are you kidding?” she whispers, “You’re moving in with him?!”
Sakura blinks, “Yes.”
Ino stares for a few more seconds. It begins to make her feel uncomfortable.
“So…is he like the one?” she asks after a while.
“’The one?’”
“I mean…are you in love with him or something?”
Sakura gives her a look, “Of course. Why else would I move in with him?”
“Just like that?” Ino asks weakly, “Dammit, you date one guy and you’re done! Me, I go through half the village and still haven’t found one yet!”
Sakura smiles sympathetically, but cannot help but feel happy.
Sakura’s parents are not pleased when she announces her plans to move out, but they can’t do anything about it. Her father tries to convince her that she isn’t ready to live on her own yet, and Sakura very nearly laughs in his face. Not ready to live by herself? Sakura’s been killing people since she was sixteen. She’s pretty sure she can remember how to buy groceries.
Lee finally caves in and has sex with her after a month of living together and afterwards Sakura feels a sudden wave of pity for her blonde friend. Poor Ino, not being able to find someone who is as important to her as Lee is to Sakura.
Everything is perfect for a while, but then life rears its ugly head again and Sakura returns from a mission to find that Lee is in the hospital.
She rushes there, trembling with anxiety because Shizune can’t tell her exactly what his condition is.
It is bad. Lee’s lung has been punctured and she spends hours pacing in the hospital waiting room before the doctors come out and tell her he is going to be alright. Weeks go by until he is allowed to walk again and the first thing he does after he takes his first steps is hug her.
“Sorry for worrying you,” he murmurs into her ear.
“Don’t apologize,” she whispers, holding back tears and hugs him gently, careful not to hurt him.
He asks her to marry him then, and it doesn’t even cross her mind to say no.
Chapter Thirteen-
For the first time in a week, Sakura leaves the complex and sneaks out into the city that surrounds it. There aren’t many ninja around to blend in with, she finds, so she is careful to stay in the shadows to avoid attracting attention. This is doubly important because she broke her old mask before Konoha and hasn’t had time to get a new one.
It takes her nearly three hours, going from bar to bar, to find any. Finally, near the outskirts, she finds a group of four Leaf Jounin who appear to be celebrating the end of a successful mission. She hides under the overhang of the bar and listens to their conversation, careful to mask her chakra. Most of it is about women and the idiot target of theirs, but after half an hour, Sakura is rewarded for her pains.
“Oi, taishou, any news on who’ll be the next Hokage?” one asks between sips of sake.
“Are you kidding?” a man with spiked hair and a tattooed face replies, “It’s only been a week! And the higher-ups are still trying to work out that whole Danzou fiasco.”
“Yeah, taishou,” another says, “What’s up with that, really? All they told us was that if we see Haruno Sakura, we’re supposed to tell her the village wants to talk to her. I mean, she cut off his fucking head! But then we all hear these rumors about half the ANBU being under inquiry for torture and Rokudaime-sama being in charge of all this illegal activity.”
The others around them gave sounds of agreement and turned to their captain.
“So they want to talk to me, huh?” Sakura thinks, “Interesting…”
“I haven’t heard anything other than rumors,” the captain admits, “However, it’s pretty much assured that he framed Godaime-sama.”
There is a pause in the conversation.
“Fuck,” one with a scarred neck whispers, “I mean, I knew that he wasn’t the nicest guy around, but I never would’ve thought that he-”
“None of us did,” the captain says bitterly, “In retrospect, it should’ve seemed obvious though. Danzou and Godaime-sama had never seen eye-to-eye, especially since Danzou lost out on being Hokage to her teacher. And the Council never really appreciated her methods either, so they sided with him when the question came up.”
“And Haruno Sakura was her student, right?” one asks, “So she probably knew that Rokudai- Danzou was lying, that’s why she killed him.”
The captain nods, “Were all of you there, that night, a week ago?”
They all nod except one.
“I’ve heard about it,” he says, and motions for him to continue.
“Well, you’ll remember that before she escaped with the Uchiha and the jinchuuriki, she said something about files.”
“Yeah…”
“Well, they looked at the files she was referring to, of course. I heard several Council members talking about it. Apparently they were the documents that Danzou submitted as evidence of Godaime-sama’s betrayal. And I think,” he lowers his voice and leans in, “that they were fake.”
“’Fake?’” his subordinates echo.
“Wouldn’t they notice that, though? Before, I mean?”
The captain shakes his head, “I’m sure you know that all official documents from the Hokage come on special paper. The documents that Danzou submitted, to be official, had to be on that paper. I guess he couldn’t steal that stuff, you know, with the cane and all. So he must have created a really good copy. However, it must have aged in a way that the official paper doesn’t over the years it sat in the files. I’m sure Haruno must have figured that out too.”
“But wait a second,” another interjects, “If Haruno knew that the Fifth wasn’t a traitor, then why didn’t she say anything? I mean, she only left six months after her teacher was killed.”
“I think Danzou was watching her at the time,” the captain says, “He kicked her out of the ANBU and even revoked her license to be a ninja once he became Hokage.”
“Really?”
“I didn’t hear about that.”
The captain shrugs uncomfortably, “They tried to keep it quiet at the time,” he says.
“But why didn’t he go after her too?” the scarred one asks, “I mean, didn’t they try to execute her assistant, what was her name-”
“Shizune,” the captain says.
“Yeah, and even Jiraiya-sama, after he showed up. Before they escaped, anyway. You can’t say there wasn’t any evidence, because they didn’t have evidence for those two, right?”
“Well,” the captain says, leaning in again, “Haruno had something that Shizune and Jiraiya-sama didn’t.”
“What?”
“The truth is,” the captain whispers, “that before the Fifth was taken, she-”
Sakura clears her throat, stepping out of the shadows. They can gossip about her and that bastard Danzou all they like, but she’s not going to listen to them say anything bad about Tsunade-sama.
“Y-You!” one of the subordinates with an eyebrow piercing gapes, upsetting his sake. Sakura watches as it trickles down the uneven table and spills onto the floor.
“Haruno?” the tattooed captain croaks, “How the hel-”
“So Konoha wants to talk with me?” she says, cutting to the chase, “Fine. Tell them to meet me at dusk in two weeks in the mountains by the Northern Border Post between old Sound and the Lightening Country.”
They stare at her.
“If they’re not there, I’m going to be pissed,” she threatens and then turns to leave.
“W-Wait,” the scarred man calls out.
She turns and raises an eyebrow impatiently.
“So…so , it’s true then,” he stutters, “Rokudai- I mean, Danzou, really-”
“That’s right,” she says and then turns away.
She wants to say something else, but cannot force the words out.
“Tell them to be there,” she says finally, without looking at them, “Or else.”
She returns to the Uchiha weapons complex.
--
There is an arm around his neck. Sasuke stiffens, grabs it and nearly breaks it in two before he realizes it is only Naruto. Who hasn’t even woken up at this point and is drooling on his pillow.
It takes him a while to remember what occurred the night before and when he does, disgust fills him and he feels like vomiting. He sits up, and pushes Naruto’s arm off him. Naruto groans and reaches out for him sleepily, but Sasuke moves out of the way his hands. He nearly stumbles over the comforter in his haste and grabs a yukata before walking straight out the door.
Cursing, he refrains from childishly slamming the bathroom door behind him. He sees his reflection in the mirror, however, pale and weary looking, and smashes it.
Disgusting, he thinks. He really is no better than Orochimaru.
He turns on the shower as hot as it can go and lets the water burn him. He leans his head against the tiles and clenches his fists, trying not to unleash his anger on other objects in the bathroom.
What is wrong with him? Is he so weak that filth like Orochimaru can corrupt him so easily? He gives up trying to hold back and makes to smash his fist against the tile. A well-tanned hand grabs his wrist at the last second and Sasuke turns in fury to behold a soaking wet Naruto only in his boxers.
“Have you gone completely mad?” Naruto asks, eyebrows furrowed in concern, “Shit, it’s hot! Turn that off, will you?”
“Get out!” Sasuke snarls, pulling his wrist out of Naruto’s grip with more force than is probably necessary.
Naruto looks hurt for a second, but then his expression goes cross.
“What the hell is wrong with you? Are you trying to burn your skin off or something?”
He turns off the water, crosses his arms over his bare chest, and glares like a child. “Can you leave me alone for one second?” Sasuke hisses, furious and past the point where he cares about any sense of dignity.
Naruto frowns in confusion, “Geez, what’s your problem?”
He takes a few steps closer to him and Sasuke has to look away when he sees the limp.
He pushes past him and grabs the yukata he only threw away minutes ago.
“Sasuke…” Naruto sounds confused, “Look, about…before, I shouldn’t have-”
“Shut up.”
It’s not Naruto’s fault. It has nothing to do with him. It’s all him, him and his infernal weakness-
“Fuck you!” Naruto snarls, “I’m trying to apologize, you ass!”
“Go to hell.”
Naruto slams a hand against the wall, “That’s it, you motherfucker!” He grabs the collar of Sasuke’s yukata, “I’m sorry I got into your highness’s personal bubble! Maybe next time I’ll just-”
“Don’t an idiot,” Sasuke says disdainfully, “It doesn’t concern yo-”
Naruto slams him against the wall and kisses him brutally, sliding his hands down the backs of Sasuke’s thighs painfully. Sasuke digs his nails into his shoulders and bites back furiously, wanting to hurt him as much as possible for daring to do this to hi-
The door opens and there is a loud groan. Sasuke glances over in horror to see Sakura spin around.
“Oh, please…” she says, facing away from them, “Can you two stop being such men for once?”
Naruto turns red and hastily lets go, backing up in mortification. “What do you want?” Sasuke asks angrily, releasing his grip on Naruto. His fingernails come away red.
“Get dressed,” she says, “We’ve got problems.”
Sasuke frowns, taking in the fact that her hair is windswept and she’s wearing a cloak.
“Where were you?”
“I ran into a couple of Leaf nin,” she says, not answering his question.
Sasuke stiffens, “They know we’re here?”
Shit. That’s not good. His parents would never forgive him if Konoha got hold of one of the last secret Uchiha bases. Not to mention the trouble it would put Neko-baa, her granddaughter, and all the cats through…
“No. Apparently, they found out what a bastard Danzou was. They sent out a message to all their shinobi.” She starts to pace and Sasuke pulls his yukata closed uncomfortably. “They want to talk.”
“You didn’t agree, did you?” he asks in annoyance.
He wants nothing to do with Konoha, now even more than ever.
Sakura’s lips thinned, “You don’t have to come.”
“Wait, I don’t understand,” Naruto says, “Why would you want to talk to them anyway?”
“For once, I agree with the idiot,” Sasuke says irritably.
“I might be able to get them off our backs,” she replies, “The ones I came across almost seemed thankful that he was dead. I suppose he wasn’t that popular when he was alive, even before they knew what he was.”
“Where did you agree to meet them?”
“Two weeks from now in the mountains on the border between the Lighting Country and old Sound.”
Sasuke thinks very carefully over this. The mountains could be a bad place in case of an ambush. However, it can work the other way around if they get there early enough.
“Stakeout, then?” he says with an upward twitch of the lips.
“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” she says sliding down the tile wall, smiling tiredly, “They don’t really care about you two anymore. The Danzou thing really shocked them.”
“Of course we’ll come,” Naruto says, hands on his hips, “We’re not just going to ditch you!”
The way Naruto says this causes Sasuke to falter, to pause. He doesn’t know why, but something-something- hurts, right in his chest. He glances at the bloody marks on Naruto’s shoulders, and exhales deeply.
“It’ll take us about a week to get to the border from here. We should leave early if we don’t want to risk being ambushed,” he says in a matter-of-fact tone.
Sakura looks up in surprise, and then a smile breaks out over her scarred face.
“Right then. I’ll go pack.”
She exits then, leaving the two of them alone.
“Sasuke,” Naruto says seriously, “Look, I-”
“You heard what she said, didn’t you?” Sasuke scoffs, though he keeps even the tiniest bit of malice out of his voice, “We should pack. Idiot.”
Naruto smiles for a tenth of a second and then scowls deeply.
“Hah! I know that, bastard,” he says, slinging an arm around his shoulders, “You don’t have to tell me everything, you know.”
“Actually,” Sasuke says, picking up Naruto’s arm like it is something incredibly disgusting and removing it from his person, “I do.”
At the end of it all, Sasuke’s nose is broken, but he doesn’t really care.
--
They leave early the next day, and Naruto can’t help notice that the crazy cat lady and the blonde woman look relieved to see the backs of them. While they stop for lunch in a small town, Sakura-chan purchases a new mask. This one is a plain white, so she carves blue lines into it that look suspiciously similar to the scars on her face. Naruto thinks this is more than slightly creepy, but for the sake of teamwork doesn’t say anything.
As the asshole intended, it takes about a week to reach the meeting place. It involves crossing through a hell of a lot of Fire territory, which makes Naruto nervous, but he keeps his mouth shut. Sasuke and Sakura-chan are just as nervous-he can tell-and talking about it probably isn’t going to help.
After a bit of searching, Naruto finds a cave that is large enough for three people to stay in for a while. Sakura collects branches of trees that don’t give off a lot of smoke and Sasuke goes out to find something that’s edible. Naruto is left to stare at the small fire as Sakura-chan takes out all their cooking utensils.
Finally, when he can’t stand it any longer, he makes an excuse and goes out for a smoke. He finds an excluded ledge and lies back against the cold granite. He lights a cigarette and inhales deeply, closing his eyes. He sighs, feeling the tension slip out of his shoulders.
It’s not that he doesn’t know that smoking isn’t exactly the best habit to have. But, at the same time, he’s not addicted; most of the time he doesn’t feel the need to smoke. It’s only when he’s really nervous or is under pressure. And, more importantly, being the holder of the Kyuubi has its perks. It isn’t like he’s going to die of lung problems. It’s probably the only good thing about being a jinchuuriki, but Naruto’ll take it for what it’s worth.
Chakra invades his senses and Naruto draws a kunai, spinning around. His blade grazes its target and Naruto looks up to see Sasuke with blood running down his cheek.
“You’re faster than I remember,” he observes coolly. Naruto drops the kunai and grapples at his quickly beating heart, “Fuck, don’t do that! Do you want to die?”
Sasuke gives him a superior look and doesn’t answer the question.
“What is that?” he asks, pointing to the cigarette in Naruto’s other hand.
Naruto realizes his mistake too late and attempts to hide it behind his back, “Uhh…nothing?”
Sasuke raises an eyebrow and takes a step forward. Naruto, not liking the look on his face, takes a step back and subsequently find himself backed up against the mountain.
“You smell like smoke,” Sasuke says, much too close to his face for his peace of mind.
“Oh, c’mon,” Naruto says in irritation, “You’re not my mother. What does it matter to you?”
“Oh, nothing,” Sasuke says flippantly, but leans over and rests his upper arms on Naruto’s shoulders.
Naruto drops his cigarette.
“It’s just a particularly revolting habit, that’s all,” he continues in a deceptively light tone.
Naruto, who has pretty much stopped listening at his point, slips his hands down Sasuke’s waist. Sasuke leans forward, mere centimeters away from his mouth.
“Which means,” Sasuke breathes, “if you don’t remove your hands, I’m going to cut them off.”
Naruto starts, knocking his head against the rock.
“Oww…“ he groans, bring his hands up to cup his head.
“Hmph,” Sasuke intones, and turns away, “Stop smoking, idiot.
Naruto groans and then looks up to glare at him. Sasuke smirks and jumps down from the cliff.
“Fu-Fucking tease!” Naruto shouts, gesturing rudely at the other man.
Sasuke does not even look at him, but waves dismissively at him from below.
“Ass,” Naruto snarls, leaning back and lighting another cigarette, “Made me drop it! Doesn’t he fucking know how much these cost…”
Sasuke apparently does not know the value of his precious cigarettes and makes every effort to ruin them over the next few days. Naruto can understand Sakura-chan’s disdain of them-hell, she’s a medic-nin, after all-but Sasuke? The only conclusion he can come to is that the fucker is just doing it to annoy him. And it’s working.
However, Naruto’s never been one to give up, so he retaliates in a way that is truly his own. Basically a bunch of lame pranks that only twelve-year olds would fall for. None of these actually work, of course, but the payoff is the insulted look on Sasuke’s face, as if Naruto really thinks he’s stupid enough to fall for them.
Finally, the day comes when they are supposed to meet up with representatives from Konoha.
Naruto wakes up with his stubs of fingers burning. He sits up and holds them, grimacing and biting his lip. It isn’t the first time this has happened. Sakura-chan called them ‘phantom pains,’ but it hardly feels phantom. In fact, it alternates between feeling like he is getting his fingers cut off all over again and as if his fingers are still a part of his body, even though he knows they are rotting on the floor of that dank cell.
He grips his left hand harder and feels blood drip down his chin.
“Naruto?” he hears Sakura-chan mumble, and then, “Oh, dammit, stop that!”
He glances up at her scarred visage, and attempts to smile. It doesn’t work out so well.
She plops down beside him and grips his shoulders bracingly.
“Are you sure,” he gasps, sweat rolling down his cheeks, “there isn’t a way to stop this?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Naruto,” she whispers, “Painkillers don’t even work, because it’s just a mindset.”
“Right,” he hisses and closes his eyes.
It is a few minutes before it passes completely, and when it does Naruto exhales loudly and slumps on his bedroll.
He wipes the sweat off his face and smiles weakly up at Sakura-chan and Sasuke, who is hovering in the background.
“So…” He grins and stretches. “What’s for breakfast?”
Sasuke snorts and Sakura-chan smiles and claps him on the back.
Dusk comes all too quickly, and the three of them communicate by radio from three different positions.
“I see them,” Sasuke says minutes after the sun goes down, “They’re a lot of them. Five are out in the open, but at least ten are in hiding.”
“Shit!” Sakura-chan snarls, voice blurred slightly by static, “Ambush?”
“I can’t tell,” Sasuke whispers, “It might just be a precaution.”
“Are we going in?” Naruto asks, getting antsy.
There is a long silence.
“I’m going in,” Sakura-chan says, “You two don’t have to co-”
“Not negotiable,” Sasuke replies, before Naruto can even open his mouth.
Naruto smiles and inhales the cold night air.
“Okay. Let’s leaps from cliff to cliff, using a few treetops in-between. He and Sakura-chan reach Sasuke’s position at the same time and all three of them stare down at the deceptively small party below.
“Ready?” Sakura-chan asks.
“Yup!” Naruto says, but his fingers-or lack thereof- tingle.
Sasuke grips the hilt of his sword and Sakura-chan removes the mask. They jump down to land several hundred meters in front of group of Konoha Council members and ninja. Even in the dark, Naruto can recognize Kakashi-sensei’s form and he inhales sharply.
“Don’t panic,” he tells himself and takes a deep breath.
“So,” Kakashi-sensei says softly, “You came.”
“Of course,” Sakura-chan answers, shoulders tense.
Kakashi-sensei runs his one eye of him and Sasuke, and then turns back to her.
“Haruno Sakura,” he starts, face impassive, “Are you ready?”
Sakura-chan’s face twists, “Of course,” she repeats.
“Then let’s begin.”
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Chapter notes: …Er...yeah, I have pretty much nothing to say about this chapter, except sorry for the wait, I was really busy during the past few weeks and this chapter ended up getting pushed back.
Chapter end notes: Sorry, about the cliffhanger, I just have too much fun writing them…
Also, unless you are the holder of a tailed-demon, don’t smoke! It’s bad for you!
Anyway, please review and many thanks to my amazing beta!