Boundaries
Summary:
After successfully retrieving Sasuke after his battle with Itachi, the now grown-up rookie nine is ambushed by a group of Orochimaru's followers- Sound Nin.
Sasuke and Sakura end up being caught in a rare jutsu that creates an invisible barrier around them, and are stuck together until the jutsu can be reversed.
Will the boundaries be enough to soften these two hardheads enough to make them realize their true feelings?
Or will they be too much to bare the consequence?
SasuSaku – NaruHinaKiba
&
Author's Note: The idea for this story is from Maydrei. YES. I did ask for permission, and YES, permission was granted. Of course, this is completely different XD
So, if you have time check out her version as well! If you aren't up to date with the anime AND manga, then this might spoil important parts of the story for you.
Also, putting up this story doesn't mean I will cease to update "Miss Trouble Magnet", this is just a simple side project, so don't expect too much, lass.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Bwehehehe…. No. I don't. Sigh.
&
Chapter 1:
The jutsu that started everything
Our large group rushed through the thick forest branches, jumping from one to another. "Hinata-san, which way is it?" Kakashi asked the raven haired Hyuuga heiress following behind him.
She blinked a few times, processing what he said, and then closed her eyes. She furrowed her brows slightly in concentration, and when they shot wide open again, veins were pulsing all around them, daring to pierce through the pale surface. Our group stopped and waited for an answer. Hinata's hands, which were previously formed in a seal, dropped limply to her sides. She looked down to her feet, gulped, and mustered up her courage.
"Exactly five minutes South West from our current position." She mumbled quietly.
Kakashi nodded his head, and the group dashed in the designated direction. As they launched themselves from branch to branch at maximum speed, Kiba noticed Hinata lagging quietly behind, and quickly slowed down to her side. "Hinata-chan, we have to catch-up, don't want to get left behind do you?" He asked, grinning. Akamaru barked.
Hinata burst into tears and had to hold onto Kiba's arm to keep from tripping and completely falling over. Kiba flinched and stared at her in confusion, but didn't say another word.
Naruto, obviously, led the group far out front. It wasn't that he was the leader; it was simply because no one could keep up to his pace in his rage. Kakashi and I were following him as closely as possible, behind us were Shino, Shikamaru Ino and Chouji, and then Neji, Tenten and Lee, and in the far back were Hinata and Kiba, trying to keep up. Sai had also tagged along, and monitored the right, while Yamato monitored the left.
Our group came to a halt when we found a clearing, and before us was a mountain of rumble. Naruto stood in front, as always, still as a rock. I walked up to his side, placing a few strands of hair behind my ear, and grabbed his arm. He looked down at me, and his cloudy and dark expression softened a bit. Kakashi dashed forward, "There's no doubt in my mind that Sasuke may be hidden somewhere in or near all this rubble, split up in teams and search. If you find anything, alert us in anyway you know how." He declared to everyone.
It might have more had more of an effect if his uniform wasn't ripped and torn everywhere and blood stains splotches were scattered here and there, but everyone was in such a condition, probably worse. The silver haired juunin paused. "Don't take this task lightly; this may be our last chance to get him back." He finally said.
Everyone gave a stiff nodded and started their search, Kakashi was teamed with me and the tearful Hinata while Naruto was with Yamato and Sai. The other teams were scattered and were already searching frantically, so desperately wanting to find the man who'd caused so much trouble.
Hinata quietly sobbed in the background as she followed Kakashi and me, her hands cupping her mouth to keep us from hearing. Kakashi had already known, but it took a minute or two for me to realize, and as soon as I turned around to look a Hinata, the girl sucked in her breath to try and stop. "Hinata-chan…" I started, walking up to her, "I know you're really low on chakra right now, but could you please… please use you're Byakugan one last time?"
Hinata sniffed, and wiped her tears with her sleeves. From her expression I had a feeling she felt that deep down I was beginning to get irritated with her crying, which I wasn't really. I thought I had been patient enough, waiting for the right time to ask for her to try helping us. No matter how I said it, it would sound negative. "O-Of course." She said, still whimpering slightly. She was about to close her eyes, but stopped, as though she still remembered the place where she'd seen him, and pointed in that direction.
The group dashed off, signalling the other searchers to follow, and stopped right at the edge of a steep hill. At the bottom, Neji, Tenten and Lee were standing around what looked like two limp bodies. Before Kakashi, Hinata and I could take one step down the hill, Naruto had dashed past us, pushing through the three other Nin to see for himself.
Itachi and Sasuke bodies lay there on the ground, covered with blood and sweat. I could hear Hinata's sobs again behind me, but I ignored them and slowly approached the two. I kneeled down, glancing at Naruto, whose fangs were beginning to protrude from his mouth, and then back again at the bodies who I knew definitely belonged to the two Uchiha brothers.
Slowly, I reached to touch Itachi's face; it was stone cold. I tried to check for a pulse, and after a few tries, I announced, "He's dead." Even though the lump in my through had shrunk a bit, the air felt thick and tense. I forced myself, through my own sobs, to reach towards the boy I had once loved, not even bothering to feel the temperature of his skin as I found his neck. Everyone waited and watched as I tried and tried and tried again to find a pulse.
I could feel Naruto's anxiety rising by the second, and his steaming hot chakra wasn't going to help. I gave him a firm stare, and he seemed to be trying to contain himself. Suddenly, I felt something move under my outstretched finger. "Sasuke…" I mumbled, jerking her head back to him. Urgently, I bent over him and put my head against his cold chest, hearing something faint, becoming louder, and louder.
I felt a smile break onto my face. "He's alive." I said, finding it hard, myself, to believe it. Suddenly, there was a shattering of tension, and even a joyful laugh fluttered in the crowd, growing more and more contagious. I felt the giggles rising up my throat as well, but managed to contain them just barely. I realized I was still lying with my head on Sasuke, and quickly sat up. When my heart ceased to flutter, I turned to Kakashi. He was smiling- a grateful, serene smile- that made me feel warm inside.
Yamato slowly approached me, looking down at me with a bright expression. "Alright, we need to tie him down, so that you and Ino can heal his major wounds." He said, and he preformed the proper hand seals. Wood appeared out of the tip of his outstretched fingers and wrapped tightly around Sasuke's body.
When the jutsu was done, Ino and I began to heal him. I was taking on the more challenging wounds while the less experienced Ino did whatever she could. In a few minutes, he looked renewed, and we slipped him a pill to make him sleep as long as possible. "I'll deal with him," Yamato said, glancing at Itachi, and then at Kakashi, "You guys can go ahead."
Kakashi nodded his head and our group was off, not even taking a moment to rest with such an important person in our hands. We weren't as far as Konoha as we had once though, in a few hours we would be back home, and fast asleep. Naruto and I no longer led the group with Kakashi. We were centered in the middle; our duty was to protect our unconscious prize.
Kakashi, now leading, turned his head to address everyone. "Keep a sharp eye on all surroundings." He then turned to Naruto and I, "Naruto, Sakura, you know what to do if he wakes up."
We nodded. Did we?
Once Kakashi smiled and turned his head, I sighed. "Naruto-kun," I said, "We're almost home."
Naruto studied my smile before quickly nodding his head. He opened his mouth and was about to speak, and was interrupted. An explosion was heard, followed by a number of thunderous crunching noises that made all heads jerk to the side. "What the f-" Naruto yelled, but was interrupted once more, this time by a giant flying tree- which, by the way, he barely dodged.
Neji managed to reflect it with his spiny thing, yet more debris seemed to fly their way. I looked around, looking for Naruto; I wouldn't be able to ferry a dangerous Uchiha by myself. With all the confusion and noise, it took me a few seconds to notice the stirring body hanging on my arm. I froze.
"Oh shit."
I stared at Sasuke, who grumbled something unintelligible and tried to move his hand around under the tight wood bindings him. I had stuck my arm through one of the hoops so that I could hold him properly without Naruto around and jumped towards Kakashi, who I could barely see in the distance. The flying debris had caused up to spread out, and the nearest person to me was Akamaru, who was trying to stick to Kiba.
"Stop."
The cold voice sent a shrill down my spine, and nearly made me slip when I tried to land on a branch. I stared down at Sasuke, whose sharingan was activated. Before I could stop him, he yanked one of his arms forward, completely breaking through the wood. I had already grabbed his arm, and with my unmatched strength, it would be impossible for him to escape with amputating his own arm.
He growled at me, once again frightening me, but I didn't let go of him, "Sakura, you don't know who you're dealing with, let me go and no one gets hurt. I don't want any business with you and your little friends and it would be to my advantage if you stayed alive." He said venomously.
Where was Kakashi?!
I glared at him, trying to beat his icy stare. "No matter what, someone always gets hurt, Sasuke." The fact that we weren't even using THINGS meant we were too serious to bother with politeness, at the moment we couldn't have cared less. "You just don't notice because you're too absorbed with yourself." I hissed. I was starting to get pissed, and was secretly storing up chakra in my other palm.
I could have really used some help, and glanced around. No one seemed to notice what I thought was a major change in events. I then noticed that sound Nin were fighting with the leaf Ninja; and hell, they didn't look like rookies. Still, they were better off than me.
I quickly glanced back to Sasuke, who had probably expected this to happen. He narrowed his eyes, "I warned you." He said. The hand attached to the arm I was holding wrapped itself around my wrist, and he grabbed my arm with his other hand. Within the space frame of a second, he pulled me upwards, twisted slightly to the side and aimed me towards the ground.
I pulled my other hand from my weapons pocket, and thrust it, now shiny a sky blue, at Sasuke, successfully numbing the nerves in both arms. Still, I landed with a thud on my back, and was vulnerable to any sort of attack not involving his limp hands. Without hands to use, he couldn't even attempt a jutsu, let alone think about one that would help him detached my arm from him.
Suddenly, I heard someone yell Sasuke's name. For a split second, he was distracted, and I yanked him down, so that he fell flat on the branch. As soon as he tried to get up, which was rather soon, I tried to numb his leg, but he avoided it. I was surprised, to say the least, that he had such a range of movement, even through we were technically attached through my hand, and even when he could only use his legs to do move.
Finally, I could see Kakashi and Naruto bursting out of the dusty air, bleeding once more. I didn't think I had enough chakra to do anything much, so I hoped no one was badly hurt. "Sasuke!!" Naruto yelled, blinded by his ever present rage.
"Stop Naruto!!" I yelled. He didn't even seem to notice me, or else he was just trying to ignore me. Kakashi immediately realized what I'd been talking about. Not only had Sasuke kicked the back of his sheath, making his sword fall out, had grabbed it with his teeth, right before it fell past his feet, and was about to swing the sword at me, but there was a strange blue light heading straight towards us. Of course I had no idea what to do, either jump towards Sasuke, get impaled, and save him -OR- Jump backwards, risk getting him caught in the approaching- and intimidating- beam and save myself.
I turned my head and my vision became blurred in orange and black. Naruto smashed into us and we both fell down to the ground. As I fell, I saw the blue beam swipe over us, and disappear. Kakashi caught me, and Sasuke hit the ground, though I still held him. I felt my grip wasn't as strong, and my hand was getting tired, yet Kakashi muttered, "That's one iron grip you have, Sakura-chan…"
I blushed, realizing how Kakashi was carrying me, but he either didn't notice or was enjoying this. I realized it was the latter, and felt like I could punch him senseless. Suddenly, though, I felt Sasuke slip through my grasp and jumped up to his feet, dashing at Naruto. Kakashi immediately let me go and followed the raven haired boy, who had just swung at Naruto. Blood splattered everywhere, and I closed my eyes to keep from witnessing the scene. When I opened them, Kakashi was holding down a struggling Uchiha and Naruto was pulling out Sasuke's Katana from his shoulder, making the blood spray everywhere.
I ran towards Naruto, quickly trying to heal his wound with any ounce of Chakra I could muster. "Sakura-chan," He said, "You look really exhausted."
I shook my head. "I have to heal this before you get some sort of infection, Naruto-kun." I quickly said.
He grabbed my hand and pulled it away. "Sakura-chan, I'll be fine. I have… I have the Kyuubi, remember?" He asked me.
I blinked a few times, processing this, and then said, "Oh…. Oh, yeah." Already, his wound was closing up. I exhaled loudly, and wiped the sweat off of my forehead. The lack of chakra and energy was getting to me; I could eat anything, even some ramen- which I wasn't really a fan of.
"Okay, he's good." Kakashi said, smiling at us. We looked at Sasuke, and saw him lying, conscious, on the ground.
"What'd you do?" Naruto asked, staring at the stiff boy with narrowed eyes.
He chuckled. "Don't worry about it," He said, and winked at us. We both glared.
I walked towards Sasuke anyway, while Naruto tried his best to clean the blood splattered all over him. Sasuke glared back at me vehemently, looking like he was regretting something. Probably regretting the fact that his jaw wasn't that good at wielding a sword, and he might have been able to pierce Naruto's heart and kill him if he had aimed right. He looked like he was glued to the ground by some unknown force, and didn't look happy about it at all.
I sent him a fake smile, and he only grew more furious. Suddenly, I change my expression, matching his furious one, and I punched him straight in the gut. His eyes opened so wide they looked like they would pop out, but his inability to move forced him to stay put, and all he could do was grimace in pain.
"Whoa- Sakura-chan, we don't win anything if we kill him!" Naruto said, scratching the back of his head.
I ignored him and lowered myself so that Sasuke's face was inches away from mine. "Don't you ever do that again." I said.
He just glared at me, still wincing from the pain in his stomach, and was breathing heavily.
"You know what I frickin' mean, so stop acting so clueless." I hissed.
The look on his face just taunted me, "Hit me." It seemed to say. I wished I could, but Kakashi pulled me back, giving me a stern look. I looked down and my feet angrily. "Yo", Naruto suddenly said, "Shouldn't everyone be back now?" He asked, looking around.
As if on cue, Kiba appeared with Hinata by his side, her arm over his shoulder, and his hand on her waist. "Hina-chan twisted her ankle." He explained, making Hinata blush at the nickname and Akamaru bark. Naruto and I walked up to them. "Whoa." He suddenly said.
"What…?" I asked.
He chuckled. "You guys are covered in blood, did someone die?" He asked casually.
Naruto scoffed. "No, that bastard over there had the guts to stab me." He said, now scowling disapprovingly as Sasuke like a mother did to a child.
Sasuke didn't see this but I could sense his anger from where I stood. After filling them in on what had happened on our area of the battle field, Kiba mentioned the most peculiar thing. "Hmm… You saw that blue light too, right?" He asked.
I nodded my head. "Yeah… do you have any idea what it was?" I asked.
"Nah. I don't see why you're asking me though, I mean if you don't know, then what are the chances that I do?" He joked, lifting his shoulders and eyebrows in unison. Hinata and I couldn't help but giggle. He grinned back at us, and for a second I thought I saw something flash behind him.
I turned to Naruto, "Did you see that?" I asked.
He frowned, "See what?" He asked.
I shook my head. "Nevermind." I said. I walked towards Sasuke, feeling a little bad for getting angry earlier, and began checking his stomach for any wounds. Meanwhile, Kakashi walked towards Kiba, Naruto and Hinata, and chatted with them while we waited for everyone to regroup.
I noticed Sasuke staring me as I checked him. He had some internal bleeding -Oops- and I quickly fixed that. That must've hurt like hell. "Sakura." He said, rather loudly. I turned to him, but he looked like he wasn't going to say anything else, as though whatever he was going to say didn't matter anymore.
"Sakura-chan!!" Hinata screeched, and the next moment, I was out cold.
DARKNESS