Chapter 1: The deception and final straw
"Naruto, I've had a change of heart and I think we should...well do something together"
His eyes lit up like Christmas lights.
"Really Sakura!...you're not just kidding this time"
I saw those lighted eyes dim a bit and knew I had to do something so his hope didn't falter.
"Yes, no joking this time...I promise" -I say and then give him my winning-est smile, and the brightness in his eyes comes back full force. That's when I know I've got this in the bag!
"Well I don't got much money and no car, but still we can"
"Oh no, you don't need any of that, we can just go for a nice walk in the woods...you can show me where that old well is by your family's farm"
"Just a walk in the woods?"
"Well not just that...I'll pack some food and drinks in a cooler and you bring a CLEAN (I had to emphasize that word because yeah, Naruto was kind of a dirty kid) blanket and it will be a picnic date"
He really got excited at the word date.
"Wow...I'll bring every blanket in the house and clean them till the colors fade out then!"
"Great!...then tomorrow at noon it will be...I'll meet you there"
Yeah right...meet you there in your dreams, sucker.
. . . . Approximately 5 and a half days later . . . .
"Sakura, what should we do...should we take him to the hospital?"
"Why, so they can turn him away?...he's not that bad"
"Oh shit there's deer crossing the road!"
"I see them, now quit freaking out about every little thing so I can drive without you making me want to jump out of my seat from you yelling about stuff all the time!"
"I have not been yelling about everything!"
"Yes you have!..."watch out for that sharp curve"..."that guy is too close to the center lines of the road"..."there's loose gravel over that little hill!"
"Ok damnit, I am a bit freaked out...this is like attempted murder we're dealing with here!"
"Look, everything is going to be ok...he's alive and a bit malnourished..."
"Just a bit huh...like over five fucking days!"
"Didn't I just say about freaking out!...a person can go up to two weeks without any food, it's just water that someone can't be without for three days, and he was trapped in a well so he had plenty of water!
"Sakura, how can you be so cold!"
"I'm not being cold, I'm just stating facts, and when did you become his big defender huh?...hypocrisy much Ino pig!"
"Billboard brow, I'm not his defender, it's just that this is a bad situation and could be much worse since he seriously could have died if we didn't get to him in time"
"Yeah, Sasuke went a bit over the line on this one"
"No shit huge foreheaded queen of understatement!...I warned you about him didn't I!"
"You warned me about him being a player and user of girls and you were right about that and I'm a fool for not listening to you...but none of us could have guessed that he was capable of this"
-police car siren sounds and lights-
"Oh shit!"
"Shut up!...I was going the speed limit, it's just that I might have a tail-light out or they're checking for drunks on the road since it's Saturday night"
. . . . After both vehicles are stopped and the Officer walks up to the driver's side window . . . .
"Hello young Miss Haruno"
"Oh, Sheriff Uchiha...I'm glad it's you"
"Hello Sheriff Uchiha"
He bent down to look at Ino and then turned on his flashlight and shown it upon our passenger in back.
"Oh, Young Miss Yamanaka is here too...please call me Sheriff Fugaku...both of you...and I can see by the yellow hair sticking out of the blanket covered lump in your back seat that the Uzumaki boy seems to have joined you"
"Uh, yes that's him...ummm, he was"
"Down a well near the old Uzumaki farm...I know, I just came from there with Jugo...he told me that five days ago he, my youngest son, Karin, and Suigetsu saw Naruto there playing around the well"
Suddenly loud coughing filled the inside of the car. I looked back and Naruto was sat up with his head exposed.
"Yeah I should have been more careful, (cough) but stupid me, I didn't listen to what Sasuke and his buddies had to say"
Fugaku stared at him for a while, then gave long looks to me and then Ino; and it took on a really tense atmosphere in my little Toyota. Finally his ultra serious demeanor became pleasant again.
"Well you're alright and that's what counts...we don't need no kind of major incident upsetting the peace around this place...so get going and all of you, especially you young Uzumaki, be careful"
He just walked off after he said that, and we all knew that those final words could basically be heard as: "If you don't want trouble, then don't speak a word of the truth about this matter".
Well we all knew except for Ino pig.
"Is that true Uzumaki?"
"For you it is...I'll just leave it at that for your own good"
The female blond idiot thought about that for WAY too long before saying:
"Wait a second, that's not true!...why didn't you tell him what really happened!"
Naruto said nothing so I answered her.
"Uzumaki...I meant Naruto doesn't want to tell you that I tricked him into going to that well five days ago and that Sasuke and his crew dumped him down it (I turn my head back to look at him for a moment and then raised my voice so that he knew I was talking to him), that's what happened right?...I swear to you that I didn't think it would go this far...Sasuke told me that he would go out with me if I got you to be at the well on that particular day and at that particular time...and I'm sorry"
And I WAS sorry. Sorry to Naruto most definitely; and also sorry for being played by Konoha High School's number one player: Sasuke Uchiha. We did go out though. As in we went OUT of a party Suigetsu was holding at his parent's house, and then in to Sasuke's apartment where we had sex. I'm not going to say that the sex wasn't good, because it was; but I figured that there would be more than just that. But oh boy was I wrong! The next night I arrive at another party (this time at Jugo's trailer) and find some other girl on Sasuke's lap. I of course was upset and confronted him about the little honey grinding on his groin like a pro.
Flashback start-
"Just what the hell is going on here Sasuke!"
The dyed blond haired Asian girl looks surprised at first, and then gives me a shit eating grin.
"Who's this baby?"
"Oh, she's just yesterday's business, but that business is over and done with...just like a penny down a wishing well, I've already forgotten it"
He gives me the craziest looking smirk when he says that.
I'm making fists and getting ready to punch Sasuke AND the slut, but someone grabs my arm and swings me around. It's Jugo and beside him are Suigetsu and Karin.
"Bitch back down or you're gonna get bounced hard!" -says the redhead
"Yeah Miss pretty in pink, now that Sasuke is done with you I can get sloppy seconds and I don't want damaged goods so just chill" -says the white-hair
"Please don't make me have to call Sasuke's father" -says Jugo
I would gladly throw-down with all three of Sasuke's stooges just to get a chance to get one hit on the douche; but getting in trouble with the law was a price I was not willing to pay no matter how pissed I was...and so I left in a rage on the outside but sobbing on the inside. What a monumental fool I was!
Flashback end
"Sorry?...for what?...you lured me to the well, and like you've done before to me, it was another false get together just to embarrass me...anyway, while I was there I saw Sasuke, Karin, Jugo, and Suigetsu where they gave me a warning about goofing around and falling in it...that's the story that's in you two's best interests to know so that's all I have to say about it...but now I'm out of that place and hungry and got a few wounds to have heal up so please just drop me off at the foster home I'm suppose to be living at so I can grab a few things"
"No, you're coming to my house so you can get cleaned, fed, and bandaged!...everyone knows that your foster parents are somewhere hiding out so they won't have to pay their gambling debts while using the money they should be using to take care of you to do it"
"Sakura, that's all nice and all but I don't think your parents would go for that"
"They're gone for a little romantic getaway till tomorrow evening"
"Sakura please...this isn't like I'm asking you out on a date so please honor my request this time"
I think about it for a few seconds, and against my better judgment I turn down the street that takes him to his deadbeat foster parent's house.
"Sakura no...we can't just abandon him in the condition he's in, what are you thinking!"
"I'm thinking that someone needs to take him seriously for once around here piggy, so I'm going to be the first one!...now Naruto, after you get your stuff from that place, where are you headed to?"
"Back to my late parent's farm, but I can just walk"
"I thought that's where you were going, but you aren't walking"
"Nah, you two did more than enough by getting me out of that terrible well so you don't..."
"No you!...I won't budge on this...you're in no condition for a long ass walk, so you're in no condition to resist if me and Ino drag you into the car to give you the ride you need to the rats nest...I meant farm house"
"People call it a rats nest because it keeps getting vandalized"
I felt a pang of guilt, and the way Ino looked at me when I momentarily looked at her, I could tell she was feeling guilty too; because we at times were the vandalizers. And not just of the farm house where Naruto really lived, but also of his foster parent's house.
"So how did you two find out about me being in the well anyway, and seriously why did you come to get me out?...other than kind of Shikamaru, Kiba, and Choji, I don't get along with any one in this whole place, especially not with any girls"
"I'm sorry Uzu...I meant Naruto" -Ino blurts out
"Naruto...after you were missing for three days...
(three days where everybody was happy about you being gone except home room Teacher Iruka and the three kids that were just mentioned)
...Iruka got kind of worried because Kiba and Shikamaru and Choji went to the two places that you use as homes and couldn't find any trace that you were there...like nothing was out of place...
(other than stuff obviously broken and trashed through vandalism)
...and the mail was not checked and stuff like that...anyway, he asked in class if anyone knew your whereabouts...
(to which question it was said that you had just left the area and good riddance to you)
...and no one had a clue, so basically you were considered to have wandered off...and then a few hours ago it just dawned on me to check the well where I tricked you into going to...
(actually I was in a restaurant with Ino and a few tables down from me I heard Sasuke's three toadies talking loudly like they usually do...well except for Jugo...and Suigetsu says something like: "so did Sasuke get the moron out of the well like he said he would?". Karin said: "I dunno" and Jugo shushed him)
...so I grabbed Ino and came to get you"
"Well at least you and Ino, and I guess Jugo care at least a teeny bit about me"
"Naruto...things are going to be different...at least with me and Ino"
"That's right Uzu, Naruto"
"You'll see...on Monday when you come to school it will be like a you stepped into a new place with me and her to back you up...trust us"
. . . . Monday, start of school . . . .
"Hey Mr. Iruka, where's Naruto?"
"He's not here...and why do you care all of a sudden!" -he bit out tersely and gave me a glare that made me want to melt where I stood.
"I'm sorry Sakura...I'm just mad at myself for not doing something for Naruto...for not being attentive enough, and I took it out on you...anyway, he sold his family's land to damn Orochimaru Corporation and had an old friend of his deceased parents...Jiraiya I think his name was...come and take him out to Las Vegas"
Well...I guess he didn't trust us.
TBC