When she opened her eyes, she saw a white ceiling. She felt weak and dizzy, and was wondering where she was and how she got there.
"I see you're finally awake, Dekorin-chan."
Sakura turned her head and looked at the girl at the end of her bed.
"Ino-pig...” she replied out of habit. They stopped being bitter rivals long ago; their object of rivalry hadn’t been around for 3 years anyway. “What am I doing here?"
"You don’t remember? You and Naruto had a mission, and got yourselves some serious fight. Our team brought you back. Your wound looked pretty bad, but Godaime-sama took care of it; she said you'll only have a slight scar. Your..."
“My wound?” Sakura asked, sitting up, and as a keyword, her left arm started aching. She grabbed it, and bent forward, head resting on her knees.
"Sakura, are you okay?" Ino asked, worried over her friend.
Sakura, however, couldn't hear her; in fact, she couldn’t hear anything. "Yes, I remember... We were chasing that Akatsuki guy... And then... Naruto... And this wound... He... He..."
"Naruto... no baka..." Sakura mumbled, and started silently sobbing in her sheets.
"Sakura? Are you okay? Does your arm hurt?" Ino didn't realize her rival was crying, since all her pink hair was in the way. She could only see her shaking shoulders.
"I-Ino... W-Where is Naruto? H-How is he?"
Ino looked at Sakura in a weird way. "What is it with this tone? I never knew she actually cared for that knucklehead…"
She made a tsk sound and continued in a chatty tone. "Naruto had been in the emergency room for some hours before his chakra circulatory system normalized and his wounds healed. You are a much better medic-nin than what I gave you credit, Sakura! I have never seen anything like that before, his skin looked so pink I could have sworn he only had it for a couple of hours! Of course, it’s not possible, there’s no way someone would survive loosing all their skin… There would be too much blood loss…” She saw Sakura twitch, and looked at her with even more suspicion and curiosity hiding in her eyes. “…And his chakra system was a mess… Massive chakra overuse… It was like he released chakra in such a great amount that his system couldn’t deal with it… What in the name of God did that idiot do?"
Sakura let her arm go, and hugged her legs, burying her head even more in her knees. She cried silently, without Ino noticing.
"Naruto..."
"Sakura? What's your problem? I'm telling you, he's fine now! Knowing him, he must have once again done something reckless and..."
Sakura felt the sadness drift farther, and anger take control instead. She even stopped crying; she was too angry to cry.
“Nobody talks about Naruto that way...”
The door opened, and Shikamaru and Choji arrived accompanied by the Fifth, Tsunade.
"Hey, guys, Godaime-sama!" Ino bowed towards the female sannin, and then turned to her comrades. "What are you doing here?"
Choji was eating some chips as usual, so Shikamaru answered with a sigh. "Well we came to see Naruto. You know, he was in a really bad shape the last time we saw him... What a troublesome guy…"
Seeing her shisho enter, Sakura quickly wiped her tears out of her eyes, and tried to calm down. She was ashamed to act like this in front of her sensei. Upon hearing Shikamaru's words she revealed her surprised eyes. "What do you mean, Shikamaru? Naruto's in this room?"
All of them noticed her puffy and red eyes. The Fifth frowned, while Ino just kept looking at Sakura with a non-understanding expression, but they all decided to wait and see what would happen next. Ino answered Sakura's question. "Oh, I forgot to tell you, he's already released from the emergency room, and sleeping next to your bed." She pulled the curtains, and Sakura saw him.
All bandaged up like the time he went to retrieve Sasuke, but this time with some wires sticking out of his forearm. His hitai ate on his nightstand next to him. His eyes shaded by his wild hair, but she knew they were closed and he had black circles beneath them.
"His eyes... Blue or red...?"
No one in the room was able to see Sakura move; all they knew was that one second she was in her bed, staring at her teammate, the next she was already sitting on the chair next to Naruto's bed, holding his hand. Ino could hear soft sobs from her.
Tsunade spoke for the first time. "Don't worry, Sakura. He's tough; he'll be on his feet annoying as ever before you know it."
Ino was looking from the Hokage's serious form to Sakura's back and back ((wtf?lol)).
"Okay, could someone tell me what the problem is? It's only Naruto we're talking about here!!"
Tsunade frowned; Shikamaru shook her head while Choji bent over to his ear. "Hey, Shikamaru, why is Ino mean like that? I didn’t know she hated Naruto."
Shikamaru sighed. "She doesn’t hate him; it’s just that this is how she expresses confusion: through aggression. What a troublesome woman." Choji nodded, understanding, and took out another bag of chips. Shikamaru looked at Sakura, and frowned, smelling trouble.
Sakura's shoulders stopped shaking, and she straightened up a bit. Slowly, killing intent leaked out of her, noticed by both Tsunade and Shikamaru, who tensed up a bit and sharpened their senses.
Ino, oblivious to the changes in the fellow kunoichi, continued with one hand on her hip. "I don't know what he had done, but it must have been his fault as usual and..."
“That’s it.”
It all happened in a fraction of a second. Sakura, Shikamaru, Tsunade, they all moved faster then the eye could see.
Ino was sitting on the floor, her shadow connected with Shikamaru's. Sakura was being held back by Tsunade, her fist inches from the spot where Ino's face had been.
Shikamaru gave out a tired sigh. “Kagemane no jutsu… Seko…” The sitting blonde girl looked at the pink-haired one, totally shocked. "Sa... Sakura..."
Shikamaru sighed. "Had Godaime-sama not stopped Sakura, Ino would be the one in need of treatment... Even though I managed to make her avoid the first blow, had there been a second one, it would have hit..." He dispelled the Kagemane no jutsu, hoping Tsunade held Sakura under control.
Tsunade felt Sakura once again started shaking; with rage or tears, she didn’t know.
"Sakura! What are you thinking?? If that punch had hit Ino, she would have..."
"SHUT UP!!"
Tsunade did. She had no answer to that. This was the first time Sakura cut into her sentence. Also, this was the fist time she heard the girl curse.
Sakura yanked her hands out of Tsunade’s grip, and the shocked woman let her go.
Ino watched with fear all over her as her former best friend and rival approached her. Sakura grabbed her top and pulled her up, holding her against the wall. Ino was looking into green, watery eyes.
"Ino,” she said with an ice-cold tone,”I dare you to talk like that about Naruto once again. You do, and I'll kill you."
No one dared to say a word, not even Tsunade. They stood there frozen, unable to move from the shock. All of them knew Sakura wasn’t exactly the most… Ladylike kunoichi, but this was far beyond tomboyish. The killing intent that was radiating from her was more terrifying than anything any of them thought she could produce.
“You said something about me having amazing healing abilities, right?” Ino gulped audibly. “You said that I must be really something to heal him like that… But guess what: I didn’t do anything…” Ino’s eyes widened; she was so shocked she momentarily forgot her fear.
“But… That’s impossible… His condition…”
“Hah! You should have seen him before… Bleeding… Bleeding from every single pore of his body…” Everyone’s eyes widened at that; not even Tsunade knew Naruto had been in such a bad shape before the rescue team arrived. “Sacrificing his body, his life… For Sasuke-kun… For us…”
None of the chuunin understood anything she said. Her words made no sense to them; sure they knew Naruto was strong, and that he planned to retrieve Sasuke and keep his promise… But what was that about sacrificing himself…?
Tsunade looked at Naruto. “Gaki… So that’s how you got injured… You let the demon take control and destroy your body, just to get that Uchiha boy back…”
Sakura smiled a wicked smile, closing her eyes. "His fault, you say...” Her grin became wider, her grip on Ino stronger… The girl coughed a bit… Sakura opened her eyes, and Ino let out a whimper of fear. If bloodline-limitless eyes could kill, she’d have been in the otherworld already.
Sakura snapped, and started screaming.
"HIS FAULT?? WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HIM?? HMM?? ANSWER ME, WHAT DO YOU?? YOU KNOW NOTHING OF NARUTO!!" She smashed Ino towards the wall behind them. She began crying again, and her voice became weaker and weaker. "YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA...!! YOU KNOW NOTHING...!! He... And Sasuke-kun... And the Akatsuki... And he..."
Sakura loosened her grip on the other girl, letting her feet touch the ground beneath her. Even more tears rolled down her face. Then, before anyone could do anything, a voice spoke.
"Sa… Sakura-chan... I…” cough “…I h-have already t-told you...” cough “…S-stop worrying about me already..."
Sakura dropped Ino, who collapsed on her knees with a turd, and turned around to see Naruto looking at her, smiling. She could see he tried to smile as if nothing was wrong in the world, and he was the happiest person in the universe. But Sakura knew him; his eyes always betrayed his hidden feelings.
His beautiful, deep blue eyes. Not the bloodthirsty, frightening red ones with the slits. His innocent, childish, yet sad ones.
"Blue... He's back... Yokatta..."
Sakura started crying even worse, and dashed towards Naruto's bed. She threw herself at her teammate, hugging his neck and sobbing into his chest.
"Naruto... I'm so glad you're okay... It's all my fault... You and your stupid nindo... I'm sorry...I’m so sorry…"
Naruto struggled to sit up. The girl let go of him, and helped him up as gently as she could. "Sakura-chan, please, stop worrying about me already.” He said as gently as he could, adding some of his usual annoying tone to calm her. ”You make everyone else worry, too…"
Sakura hugged him once again, with even more force, and shouted out "Baka!!” Naruto quickly shut up, and just stared at her, not sure what to do.
"Why shouldn't... Why shouldn't we all worry? It's only natural to worry! You were almost killed! And who knows what could happen to you! Those guys are after your life, after all, and they’re dangerous S-class criminals!! We could hardly defeat Itachi’s replacement with the help of a former ANBU captain and a village elder!!” The InoShikaCho trio gasped. S-class ninja, after Naruto…?
Ino seemed to have calmed down a bit, and now was staring at Naruto. She stood and walked over to Tsunade. “Itachi? As in, Uchiha Itachi? Sasuke-kun’s… Older brother?” Tsunade sighed, and nodded towards Team 10. “S-class missing nin, member of the organization Akatsuki, wanted for slaughtering the entire Uchiha clan with the exception of Uchiha Sasuke, whom he tortured mercilessly into coma twice. That Uchiha Itachi.” The team’s mouth was hanging open, looking at Naruto, who pretended not to hear; however, they could all see him shift under Sakura uncomfortably, blushing.
Tsunade decided to leave the two alone. “Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, please follow me outside; I have something to discuss about your mission reports.” The three nodded, understanding, and they left quietly.
Sakura, ignorant of their conversation and departure, didn’t even seem to breathe throughout her rambling “…And it's not going to be like with Gaara, there's no one who could save you! How... How could I stop worrying about you...?"
Naruto couldn't say anything. He tried to comfort her and was caressing her arm; suddenly, he felt her bandages. “A wound?” Naruto started sweating, remembering his training with his perverted sensei; how Jiraiya was beaten up… And he couldn’t remember a thing… He couldn’t remember that he did it all…
“I can’t remember half this mission, either… Dear God, please tell me I didn’t… “ “S-sakura-chan… Your w-wound… How…?”
Sakura looked at him, and then at her arm. Her mind was working overdrive for a second; then she answered smiling “Ah, nothing, I got it during the fight…”
However, Naruto saw through her. “I hurt Sakura-chan…I really am a monster…” He held onto her tighter, and Sakura knew he knew.
"I don't want you to die..." Sakura whispered "…Please don't do stupid things like that again! Please forget your promise, forget about Sasuke!" This was the first time she left off the -kun. Naruto held her even closer to him, still quiet. He never stopped caressing her hand.
"You understand me more than anyone else, and you have become my best friend... I couldn't stand losing you, too! Not after what had happened! Please, Naruto, don't tell me to stop caring about you, because I just can't!"
Naruto couldn't find any words to express his feelings. He couldn't make her understand that she shouldn't worry, that he was strong, that he would beat the Akatsuki, that he would save Sasuke... That he would never ever again allow himself to hurt her...
He couldn't answer her because he wasn't sure either... He tried hiding it all the time, but he was just as afraid of the future as the trembling girl... He felt so guilty, so vulnerable that all he wanted to do was to bury his head into her shoulder and cry to sleep… However, that wouldn’t have done any good to Sakura…
So, Naruto hugged Sakura closer, caressing her back with his fingers in a calming manner, burying his head in her soft hair while whispering “Sshh…”. After a while, Sakura stopped crying, and when she felt calm enough, she wiped the tears from her eyes, stood up to push Naruto back into his bed and tell him to go to sleep. Naruto of course protested, saying he was fine, but Sakura just glared at him, and told him if he would behave like a little brat, she’d have to shoot tranquilizer in his ass… Naruto pouted but let Sakura put back the sheets on him and closed his eyes. She waited until his breathing became slow and steady enough, indicating he fell asleep, and she went back to her own bed, suddenly feeling very tired. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was fast asleep.
Both of them slept a bit more calmly then before, knowing they were close to each other, feeling safe, and stronger than before. They knew they needed the strength to protect each other… Even from themselves.
Ino, Shikamaru, Choji and Tsunade all stood outside the hospital room. It seemed Tsunade was lost in her thoughts; staring out the window. The three chuunin just stared at her back, not doing anything to make her speak; they had a lot to think about themselves.
Finally, Ino decided to break the silence, her voice barely audible. "Tsunade-sama... What was Sakura talking about? What had happened to Naruto? Why are all these dangerous people after him? What... What did they go through?"
Tsunade looked at the door she just closed, and then at Team 10. Her eyes were filled with sadness and regret.
"It’s something Naruto has to tell you himself, like he told Sakura… However, I'm afraid soon you'll all find out anyway. Just remember, Ino, you shouldn't talk badly about anyone you don't know well. You might meet surprises like this one."
All of them looked at the closed door.
Then, before leaving in total silence, Ino muttered:
"Sakura was right… I guess I really have no idea..."
[Reviews - 2]
Table of Contents
- Text Size +
Story notes: Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or places. A Japanese guy does. I'm not Japanese. And I'm not a guy.
(The © Naruto characters and places belong to Masashi Kishimoto.)
WARNING
(IMPORTANT, IF YOU DON'T READ THIS, YOU WON'T UNDERTAND!!)
While writing this, I hadn’t known the details of the events; I hadn’t read the manga at that time. I saw a slideshow with spoilers, and I figured out my own plot. However, most of this IS in the manga, and it might be a major spoiler.
PLOT: After Naruto saves Gaara from the Akatsuki, Sakura and Naruto chase the members of the evil organization. Naruto tells Sakura about the Kyuubi. Sakura's shocked and worried. They fight against one member of the Akatsuki who has information of Sasuke, and Naruto transforms. Sakura wants him to turn back, and she tries to stop him, but Naruto, while under the control of the Kyuubi, wounds her. After the fight (Naruto beats the Akatsuki guy), both are injured, so Sakura can't heal Naruto. Team InoShikaCho brings them back to the hospital of Konohagakure no Sato.
Chapter notes: If you like listening to music while reading, I suggest Lithium from Evanescence (which I obviously don't own, either).
Translation of Japanese words at the end notes.
Chapter end notes: nindo: She's talking about Naruto never going back on his word, and even sacrificing himself only to become strong enough to bring Sasuke back.Dekorin-chan: Forehead-girl
Godaime : Fifth (referring to Tsunade)
(Naruto no) Baka: (Naruto, you) Idiot
Shisho: Master (Sakura calls Tsunade that)
Kunoichi: Female ninja
Hitai ate : Forehead protector
Kagemane no jutsu… Seko…: Shadow possession jutsu… Complete…
Gaki : Brat
Yokatta...: Thank God...
Wow, after rewriting, it became 1200 words longer! That’s exactly 67,5 percent! (Yes, I got a calculator and calculated it… I’m a nerd -.-’)
Anyway, if you were wandering why would Sakura have to protect Naruto from herself: she felt it was her fault Naruto was so desperate to get Sasuke back, because she made him promise her he would.
Written, edited: 18th March, 2007
Rewritten, reedited: 05th July, 2007
© MikoKriszty, 2007