Author's Note:
Inspiration: The First Cut is the Deepest by Sheryl Crow.
Rated: T
"I would have given you all of my heart, but there's someone who's torn it apart.
& he's taken just all that I had."
When I was listening to this old song on the radio, it instantly reminded me of Sakura. Enjoy ^_^
1. Cut
Tsunade's hazel eyes flickered between her two most trusted ANBU members who were both peculiarly quiet. They were studiously inspecting the walls of her office like it entailed their troubling future. Their future was in for a hell lot of trouble if they were attempting to lie to her . . .
By the way her second agent was subtly trembling, she was incredibly suspicious of their supposedly 'sound' report.
"Are you sure you've told me everything?" Tsunade asked once more, huffing a sigh between her glossed lips, shap hazel eyes refusing to miss a single move that they displayed.
"We," started Tenzou, her second agent, glancing nervously at the other. After seeing nothing being displayed from his partner's blank face, he trailed off, " . . . nothing."
"Sakura?" Tsunade narrowed her eyes, her suspicions boiling. They were definitely hiding something from her.
The surprisingly aloof girl arched a measured eyebrow at her master. Other than that, her face revealed nothing. "Yes, shishou?"
"What the fuck happened in the Sound country?"
Tenzou winced at the Hokage's F-bomb, completely aware that the hokage had reached her boiling point. Sakura, on the other hand, didn't even flinch. All those years training under the hokage herself definitely helped her tolerance.
Sakura droned calmly, "Everything that we reported, Tsunade-sama. We successfully retrieved Hatake Kakashi from his compromised position at the Sound country's boarder. As you had demanded, we murdered the entire complex that held Hatake-san. We covered all evidence of our infiltration."
By the way Tenzou was fidgeting with his hands, Tsunade suspected he had more to say. She growled, "Spill it, Tenzou or I'll spill your guts!"
The pink haired kunoichi met Tenzou's troubled eyes and sent him a silent, emerald piercing glare that would give a Tsunade a run for her money. He gulped. Being on the punching block between two monstrous strength women wasn't an ideal situation.
"T-that's all that happened, Tsunade-sama," Tenzou murmured, rubbing the back of his neck as he intently studied the stone floor.
Tsunade puffed another exasperated sigh. If this man was under the influence of her student, there was no way he'd confess to anything that Tsunade wanted to hear.
"Did any of you encounter Uchiha Sasuke?"
Tenzou grimaced. Sakura's face was measurably blank.
Without missing a beat, Sakura replied, "No, Tsunade-shishou."
Tenzou, on the other hand, definitely appeared like he had more to say.
The hokage scowled and resisted the scorching desire to reduce her office into rubble.
"If I find out ONE word that contradicts your reports," Tsunade snarled, "I'll personally string you up outside my office by your BALLS, Tenzou."
The wood user gulped.
"CLEAR?"
"Y-y-yes, Tsunade-sama," Tenzou squeaked.
Sakura shrugged. "Crystal."
"Good. Now get out of my sight," she hissed, jabbing her finger in the direction of the door.
Tenzou, without another word, scurried to the door like it was his life line. Sakura, on the other hand, turned on her heel with calm finesse and raised her hand in a simple gesture of goodbye as she stalked out the door after Tenzou.
"Remind me to never trust you to keep a secret," Sakura admonished vehemently between clenched teeth. "With the way you were acting, you might as well have told her what happened! You fool!"
Right then, the wood user began to seriously consider what terrible things he'd done in the past to deserve to be caught between the cross fires of two women that could break his bones with their pinky finger alone.
"I'm sorry," he mumbled, eyes not leaving his sandals as they strode aimlessly away from the Hokage tower. "I just don't understand why you didn't tell Tsunade-sama the truth . . ."
Abruptly, Sakura halted and whipped around to face her captain whom had his eyes downcast in shame. She felt a quick pang of guilt and just as quickly as it had came, she dismissed it.
"I was equivocating. I bumped into Sasuke, not you, alright? It was the truth, just not the entire thing," she reasoned, crossing her arms defiantly. "Besides, what do you think she would've DONE to him, Tenzou? His head on a platter could buy out everyone's retirement in Konoha! Konohagakure wouldn't have passed out on such money."
"So?" Tenzou retorted, still not finding the reason of why she had spared that man's life. Especially after what had happened just the day before.
"So," the pink kunoichi snapped, whipping around to continue her swift pace towards nowhere in particular, "I refuse to turn in his whereabouts."
It wasn't until then that everything that had been a jumble of puzzle pieces clicked together in Tenzou's head.
"You still love him."
It wasn't as much as a question as it was a fact.
That stopped the woman dead in her tracks. Even with her carefully trained emotions that had been reprimanded severely in ANBU, that statement alone could effectively chill her to the bone.
Seeing as how Sakura had froze, he felt certain he had hit the nail on the head.
"That's why you didn't tell Tsunade the truth. That's why you drugged Kakashi-senpai and," he trailed off, uncertain if this was true too, he was hoping it wasn't, "that's why you stumbled into the room half naked . . ."
Somehow finding the will in her to move, she began to robotically move her feet from the man who had pieced everything together. She had severely wished he hadn't.
"Tell anyone what happened," Sakura warned, tossing a nonchalant gaze over her shoulder, "and I'll kill you."
Tenzou chewed on his bottom lip, trailing after the kunoichi. He had no doubt she would.
"Why?" was the only reasonable question he could muster with his clustered mind.
Sakura huffed a breath of annoyance as she quickly realized her surroundings. Of course her traitorous body had led her to the same exact spot she had stood 11 years ago, where she had watched her first and only love leave her.
The brown haired shinobi arched an eyebrow, unsure if that breath of annoyance had been directed at the question. Either way, they had stopped and her back was stubbornly facing him.
An unsettling silence settled upon them like a blanket.
Before Tenzou could properly formulate an apology for being so nosy, she asked softly, "Do you know what it feels like?"
"Huh?"
Sakura turned to gaze at him over her shoulder, revealing glossy emerald eyes that were on the brink of drowning in tears. His brows creased in concern and he tentatively reached out for her in an automatic attempt to soothe her.
All she had to do was flicker her eyes in disdain at his hand. His hand froze and he took his hand back, replacing it at his side. However, he just couldn't take his hand off from her eyes. He'd never seen her cry before. Kakashi-senpai had warned him that Sakura was like a leaky sink faucet that could be sent off over the edge if someone on her team so much as breathed wrong . . . Tenzou had never witnessed that side of her and he realized he really didn't want to.
Watching a beautiful woman cry was traumatic.
"To love someone?" she whispered at last, down casting her eyes and letting them flicker to the bench that Sasuke had at least had the decency to lay her gently upon.
If he had only done the same thing to her heart . . .
Tenzou coughed, uncomfortable with the 'L' subject that many men his age avoided, especially if it was a topic raised among the opposite gender.
"I, uhm, not really," he lied, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment, all of a sudden taking interest in the starless sky.
Sakura chuckled bitterly, clenching her fists at her sides.
"Well, you're lucky," she murmured resentfully. "Don't ever fall in love, Tenzou. You have no idea what it's like seeing your loved one walk away from you at this very spot. You have no idea what it feels like having them reject you point blank. To have them call you annoying. To realize that you meant NOTHING to them when they meant EVERYTHING to you. You can't possibly comprehend what it's like for someone you love to never acknowledge you . . ."
He gave her a sad, small smile. "I may not know exactly how all those other feelings work, but I know the last one perfectly. I know how it feels like to have someone you love not notice you."
She blinked, slightly taken back by his sudden confession. She had had no clue that Tenzou had a love interest.
"Who is it?" she inquired, suddenly thrown off her current track of depression.
He shook his head. "Someone. Like I said, they've never noticed me. I mean, at least not in the way that I wanted. All she sees is a man that doesn't deserve her. She doesn't know that I'd treat her way better than he could ever dream of doing. So, I think we might have a little in common, eh?"
She pressed again, "Who is it?"
Tenzou shrugged once more, avoiding her piercing stare. "Someone."
"Well, 'someone' is going to have to survive my interrogation. There's no way she can be good enough for you," she said obstinately, narrowing her eyes.
It was all or nothing.
Tenzou took timid steps towards Sakura, closing the gap between them. The closer he got, the harder he felt his heart thump deafeningly against his chest and eardrums. He slowly wrapped her arms around her waist, cradling her delicate body against his.
He craned down his neck and whispered into her ear, "I'm pretty sure the real problem is that I'm not good enough for you."