parings: NaruHina, SasuSaku, minor NaruSaku (mostly in flashbacks and stuff)
summary(full): AU Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke are all grown up. Naruto is the Hokage, and he and Hinata are married, five years prior Sakura left due to her heartbreak and is no longer a ninja. An epidemic is sweeping Konoha and Sakura is the only one that can help, can Naruto convince Sakura to come back, and can Sakura get over her own ego and heartbreak, and tell Naruto after all these years, how she really feels, or will she move on?
This story is more than who will Sakura get to make out with. There is an intended message, morals, and a storyline that revolves around character growth and development. So please use your brain an analytical reasoning when reading and we will all be peaches and cream.
do not own naruto!
enjoys
Phobia
by Riverhaze
Chapter One
Sakura remembered the day she heard wedding bells.
Certain memories can be frozen in your mind for years, that transport you back to that exact moment and how you felt. And on that day, Sakura had felt very very alone.
Once in a foolish fleeting moment, Sakura had imagined those bells would have been ringing for her. Funny way life works, it wasn't meant to be her.
She looked out over Konoha from her bedroom window, a crowd was assembling toward the lavish Hokage's mansion, some curious, some genuinely happy for the couple.
The new young Hokage appointee and his beautiful fiancée.
A large thick parchment envelope had been tossed carelessly on to her bed. A card rest on top with sprawling delicate calligraphy decorating the lacy white fabric. In lilac purple no less.
You are cordially invited to the union of Hyuuga Hinata and Uzumaki Naruto on the twenty-fifth of June.
They really had the nerve to invite her, she thought once more with a smirk as she began to fold a few articles of clothing. She did not plan on taking much with her, and was very content with leaving everything behind. She wanted to begin a new, to be born again. It truly was depressing that now there was nothing left for her in Konoha. Not Naruto or Sasuke who up and left all the time as soon as he could again.
No one even knew that she was leaving, just her parents who supported her decision, and Tsunade. They said it would be good to go out see the world, take in new cultures, heal the sick and poor like some sort of messiah trip.
She slung her shabby travel bag over her shoulder, smiling. If only they knew the half of it. Heartbreaks weren't her thing. Not any more.
There was a small thump as her head band landed on Tsunade's desk, the metal faced up and seemed to glow under the lights of the Hokage's office. It was very well taken care of, still polished and smooth like a ribbon as the day it was made.
Tsunade looked up at her apprentice, history had an uncanny tendency to repeat itself, she thought. But Sakura was leaving for different reasons than her own.
"Are you sure?" Tsunade asked. Sakura gave a smile that she was trying to pass off as reassuring, but looked more like a grimace.
"Yes, all I need is for you to stamp that paper." She motioned. Tsunade pursed her lips as she pulled the paper close to her, it had taken some time to convince the Hokage that Sakura's leaving was best for everyone. Alot of frustrated conversations and colorful language.
"You can come back whenever you want, the sooner the better." Tsunade said, trying to punch up the situation with some humor. Sakura only frowned, both of the kunoichi's knew she would not. She was too stubborn. Tsunade stamped the paper with the seal of the Hokage in blood red wax. The blonde handed the pinkette the documents, who snatched them up a little to eagerly.
"What will you do?" Tsunade asked as Sakura turned on her heel and marched to the door. She paused with the tips of her fingers on the nob.
"Whatever I want." She said and disappeared behind the Hokage's door, this time for the last time.
Tsunade sat there for several moments in silence as a feeling of regret settled in her stomach. A part of her would miss her dutiful apprentice until the day she saw her again. She stared at Sakura's head band for several moments before picking it up and placing it inside her desk. Someday someone would want it, she decided.
Sighing deeply, she got to her feet and left for home to get ready for the brat's wedding.
The back street Sakura had taken to the village doors was all but deserted except for a stray rummaging through an overturned trash can. It was almost eerie, the entire block echoed the quietness for miles. Convenient as hell though, but unsettling that her last memory of home would be this.
As she approached the exit and her freedom, she spotted a dark figure leaning against the doors dressed in an elaborate looking tux. At once Sakura recognized Sasuke. She had finally managed to put herself in a good mood for the first time in a long time, and she felt it deflating like a hot air balloon. Oh, he can come home for Naruto's wedding but who cares about Sakura's birthday?
"Going somewhere?" He spoke up when she was twenty feet away from him.
"Shouldn't you be somewhere?" Sakura threw back and he smirked. She didn't want to deal with goodbyes, especially with Sasuke.
"I wouldn't think you were one for giving up." He said. Sakura froze, several feet away from him and she fixed him with a hard stare that he returned with indifference. Always indifferent. His eyes travelled up to her head, noticing that her headband was gone.
Still indifferent?
"You'll break his heart, you know. If you left." He added and Sakura wondered why now was the time that he decided to use his vocabulary.
"Good. An eye for an eye as they say." Sakura laughed shortly and marched toward the door, pushing it open with her shoulder. Sasuke did not say anything, or even follow her, as Sakura stepped outside of the village and the door swung shut with a loud resounding bang. That was okay, because for once Sakura did not look back at him.
Inhaling deeply, she put one foot in front of the other and left Konoha behind.
Five Years Later
Sakura slowly felt herself drift in to consciousness, and she noted sleepily how odd her dream had been. She felt the waves lazily rock her boat down the river, and she pushed the straw hat out of her face. The sun was just over head in the middle of the day, and holy crap did it feel like she was in a postcard. In the fields, humble farmers worked the rice patty's, a donkey was lazily clunking his hoofs over the cute bridge just ahead, and there were even some kids wading their feet in the water as some fishermen dozed off by their reels.
With the moderate temperature and clear skies, Sakura really liked the Land of Waves this time of year.
She almost bought a cottage just up in the hills overlooking the most picturesque bay too, the salesman almost had her too until he mentioned the old owners used worship some ancient deity in the cellar. Bad juju, Sakura wasn't going to mess with that. Think she would have learned her lesson by then too, normal is never normal in her world, there was always something weird lurking underneath. Literally.
So she bought this tiny boat and decided to sail down the river. Digging into her sack for the oranges she stowed away, she munched on her breakfast and watched the catfish wiggle on by twitching their whiskers. Sakura got to thinking about her dream again, it had been about Konoha. She did not often reminisce of the past because at first it was painful and then just repetitive, so she blocked it out of her memory and pretended like everything was fine. Gradually it became true, and that was that.
Although, it wouldn't hurt to ponder her curiosity for a bit. Walking through the rural country side, she had rare time for deep thinking.
Sakura wondered if Ino had finally bagged Shikamaru, or had Temari beat her to it? Had Sasuke finally silenced the gay rumors and hitched himself to some girl to rebuild his clan? Okay, that one was a little out there. Had Tenten finally asked Neji out? Did Kakashi enjoy the latest issue of Icha Icha? And most of all, had Hinata and Naruto had pale eyed blond haired brats yet?
"Help!" Someone shouted and figures darted through the path on the left banks of the river. Sakura turned to watch a few kids burst through the overgrown vegetation, chasing a vaguely older looking girl with odd bright blue hair. Well, Sakura had pink hair so she did not have much room to talk. No doubt genins that were ahead of themselves.
Troublesome, was what an old friend would say.
Sakura glanced around at the other bystanders, it was almost funny by how the way they just went on with what they were doing. Maybe this sort of thing happened often. She was approaching the bridge now, and the kunoichi with the blue hair had darted to the middle with the other three genin on her trail. Their chakra's were weak, barely even there. It would be more of a waste to actually help than to sit by.
Her boat slid under the bridge, the water broke like glass.
And then the bridge exploded into pieces.
Sakura's boat rocked from side to side when the blue haired girl fell into it, the ends of her pigtails still sizzling a bit.
"Ya know, I once helped build a bridge." Sakura crossed her arms and pursed her lips at the snot nosed brat. That had been a really pretty bridge, if Sakura was an artist she would have painted the hell out of it.
"And I destroy them, we complete each other. Where you headed?" The stranger grinned, flashing a wide toothy mouth.
"Far away from here."
"Sounds like a plan. Name's Youko." She stuck out a gloved hand.
"Haruno."
Line Break
The stack of paperwork exploded from his hands almost by itself, and Naruto racked his hands through his hair. He really needed an assistant.
"Gaa-! Where are those papers?" He muttered to himself as he began to pull drawers open on his desk. Of course when he needed the tax reports, they were no where to be found. He wrenched open the top right drawer and threw out papers randomly. Most of it was junk Kakashi and mostly Tsunade left behind. His hand enclosed around something hard and he yanked it out in a flurry of old balled up papers.
He was unsure of what he was looking at at first, but as he turned the red ribbon over in his hands, the metal of the headband caught the light. Curiously, he turned it back over to read the lettering stitched on the back.
'Property of Sakura Haruno.'
Naruto felt a stinging sensation in his heart as he turned it back over and wiped away the dust, his stunned reflection staring back in the metal. Slowly he rotated in his chair to face the windows overlooking Konoha.
At first he thought about her everyday, and then as time went on and he could not quiet recall the sound of her voice, he started thinking about her less and less. She had been his best friend, his team mate, his childhood sweetheart.
He held her headband close to him dearly, closing his eyes.
Sakura had been wearing a white instead of her usual blood red, her hair free and tickled occasionally by the wind. His hand entwined with hers, as her laughter, pure and happy, rang through the air. Of course, that had been before...well he did not like to think about it.
There was nothing he could do about it either, Tsunade had discharged Sakura of her ninja rank, making her just another civilian.
Sakura had become a ghost, only alive in the belief that she still existed in words and memories. She contacted no one, not even her parents or Tsunade or Ino.
His heart feeling heavy, he placed the headband gingerly back inside the drawer, but in a place that he could see from now on.
He really had to get organized.
With that thought, there was a sharp rap at the door.
"Uh, hold on!" Naruto called and started to shove the papers inside his desk before slamming the drawer shut. "Come in!"
Ino walked in, and Naruto sighed, he did not like dealing with Kohona's number three medic. Number one was retired, and number two was of course no longer in Konoha.
"Naruto, I made this appointment with you weeks ago. Have you decided who is going to run the hospital? The board can no longer deal with the plague victims and the general welfare." Ino crossed her arms and glared at him. Plus, she didn't respect him as the Hokage.
"Uh, what about Tsunade?" Naruto asked. He had been putting off this decision, it just did not seem important to him until news of an odd disease sweeping through the Fire Country that was fast approaching epidemic levels reached Konoha.
"Are you serious? She'll laugh in my face. You know she's working with the other former Kage's." Ino frowned.
"You...?" Naruto said slowly as he dug in to his ear.
"Me? But, I can't possibly, I'm not as skilled-" Ino said, flustered. There was only one other option, one on both of their minds.
"You know she wont agree." Naruto said and Ino frowned so deeply her forehead wrinkled.
"She will if she knows she's the only one that can stop it, and people are dying from it everyday. People that don't have to die." Ino explained.
"I'll see what I can do." Naruto said with a sigh.
"Good. It's about time, too." Ino said before making her departure. He leaned his head back with an irritated huff and closed his eyes.
His desk drawer burst open then and the papers were vomited out. He hit his head on the desk with a groan.
He really had to get organized.
AN 4/2/15: I hope I don't get into trouble posting to many of these. Anyway, I took a hiatus from FF around the time I started rewriting this. I plan on returning with a gusto, I hate leaving stories unfinished or badly written. My original plan was to give this story a face lift, but now I'm certain it will be overhauled. Like I said, I was a poor writer when this was first posted, and now seeing how Naruto has ended has given me some ideas. I think this will be fun, check out my profile for an important notice and as always, enjoy.
Edit 8/29/15