Kitty-chan: So here is the probably but not really long awaited Traipsing Darkness by yours truly. I hope those of you who read Watcha Doin? liked it very much and will enjoy this one. Now-drum-roll please-Disclaimer!

White Zetsu: Kitty-chan does not own Naruto.

Black Zetsu: If she did, I would've eaten her by now.

Kitty-chan: O.o

Chapter 1

She couldn't eat, the lump in her throat wouldn't allow it. She couldn't sleep, fear of the darkness kept her awake. She couldn't live, it all just seemed to hard for her now.

"Sakura, you need to eat," her father finally declared at the dinner table one evening. Sakura was staring sullenly at her food. She didn't say anything.

"Come on, Sakura. Is this payback for me taking Ame's side?" he asked. Only a week had passed after she had returned from the Sabaku household before her father had filed for a divorce. He had caught Her Evilness sleeping with another man one evening.

Sakura still didn't answer. Instead, she mentally sighed and lifted a forkful of the pasta her father had prepared and shoved it into her mouth. She tried swallowing, but it got stuck in her throat and she ended up throwing up instead, and since her stomach was lacking food, all that came up was a painful dry heave.

Her father bolted from his chair to her side, holding her hair out of her face. Once she had finished, Sakura felt the faint sense of being lifted and then she blacked out.

~(^-^)~

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Sakura lifted her hand to turn off her alarm clock, but felt a sharp tug on her skin that kept her from moving any further. She furrowed her brow, squeezing her eyes tight before opening them and exposing them to the blinding light above her bed.

She turned to the direction of the sound and groaned at the sight.

Heart monitor, and the beats were slower than usual. Probably because her heart felt really heavy right now.

'Why am I in the hospital?' she thought irritably.

'Puking up nothing and then passing out in front of your dad might do the trick,'a voice she had not heard from since elementary school piped up in the back of her head. Sakura inwardly groaned at the presence.

Voices coming from the other side of her room piqued her interest, though, efficiently distracting her from the voice. For a second she froze, fearing that they had returned, and her heart rate began to pick up. At least until her eyes focused on two human shapes in the corner of the room and she recognized one of the voices as her father's. The other voice she assumed belonged to the doctor.

". . . there's nothing wrong with her . . ." she heard the doctor say and pause, trying to stop her father's protests.

"All her vitals are checking out okay. You said she takes vitamins, which is keeping her healthy, and she's drinking plenty of fluids. The only thing I can think of is that she's depressed," she informed.

"Depressed? Why? How?" her father questioned.

"I don't know; I'm not a psychiatrist. I can recommend you to one if that's what you want, but other than that, there's nothing else I can do. We can't keep her here. There's nothing physically wrong with her," the doctor replied. Then she handed him a card and walked out. Sakura heard the click of the door and her father shuffled over to her bedside. She looked over him tiredly.

"Hey, kiddo. How are you feeling?" he asked, brushing her hair back out of her face.

"Like a million bucks," she tried to joke, but it came out sounding hoarse and lifeless. All that time of not using her voice was really paying off. He smiled softly anyway.

"Well, I'm glad you're finally talking to me," he murmured.

"Are you going to send me to that psychiatrist?" she asked him. He hesitated for only a moment.

"Yes," he answered solemnly.

"Okay . . ." she murmured.

"Do you want to tell me why you're so upset?" he asked. Sakura looked away, memories of Gaara's disappearance taunting her. She felt her eyes sting with tears and shook her head furiously. She could hear the heart monitor pick up.

"Okay . . ." he murmured, brushing his fingers through her hair like he used to when she was little and couldn't sleep because she was too scared of the dark. Sakura closed her eyes, forcing back the tears and trying to calm her throbbing heart.

It wasn't long before the doctor came back in with discharge papers and Sakura was steadily making her way out of the hospital.

"Would you like to go somewhere to eat?" her father asked her once they were on the highway. He glanced back at her through the rearview mirror. She sighed, knowing she'd have to eat sometime, and nodded.

"What sounds good?" he asked, a small smile forming.

"Chinese," was the first thing that slipped past her lips, memories from a certain Chinese restaurant with a certain redhead flooded her mind. "No wait . . . Pizza," she pushed the memories away, trying her best to repress them. She stared out her window at the passing trees.

They were doing it again. Leaning away. Sakura turned her attention to her lap, not wanting to be reminded of him anymore.

The pizza parlor her father took her to was her favorite, mainly because of the atmosphere. It looked like an old fashioned pizzeria mixed with a diner. Classic rock was the only music that played, and the waitresses knew everyone, or at least tried to know everyone.

"Well, hey there, Sakura. I haven't seen you since you started studying with Gaara, How ya'll been doing?" her waitress asked. Sherie was from the south obviously, and had never really lost her accent, Sakura cringed at the statement; her father noticed.

'Wow. These people sure do know everyone else's business,' her inner voice declared.

"Sakura has actually been sick for a while. We haven't seen Gaara for a week," he lied replied smoothly.

"Oh. Sorry 'bout that, hun. Ya'll want the usual?" she asked, trying to patch up the kind of awkward moment.

"Yes, that's fine," her father answered, never taking his eyes from Sakura, who was slowly but surely starting to relax.

"Alright then. I'll be back. Ya'll get better now, ya hear?" she replied and then was gone.

"What did he do?" he asked as soon as Sherie was out of earshot. Sakura was quiet for a moment, tears prickling her eyes again. Then she looked up at him, her eyes rimmed with red, and answered quietly, "He disappeared."

~(^-^)~

It was a quiet meal. Sakura ate enough to satisfy her father and then they left.

When they made it home, she went straight to her room, her father standing at the bottom of the stairs, not knowing what to do to comfort his daughter. With a sigh, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed an all-too familiar number. A female picked up and answered with a sigh.

"Yes, Hiro?" she questioned warily.

"Yumi . . . there's something wrong with Sakura . . . and I don't know what to do . . ." he admitted hesitantly, worry lacing his voice.

"I'll be right there," and then she hung up.

Hiro looked back up the stairs at Sakura's closed door.

"Sakura . . . what am I going to do?"

Kitty-chan: well, I hope you liked this chapter. Please review and stuff. Reviews make me happy and motivate me to update faster . . . or at least to update period because yeah . . . I am so lazy. Review and tell me how you liked it. Give me some suggestions of how you want it to go, and I might take it into consideration (I already have it written down. I just need to type it) I guess this is goodbye for the next few days.