Blind.

That was the word.

She was blind to never see this side of him before. Years of Sasuke ran and abandoned her and Naruto, Naruto's doing the same. Except now she's all alone with no one. Unlike Sasuke, when he ran, he whispered goodbye to her, a sad, cold goodbye before walking off. Then he walked right by her, exactly the same as before. A sickening silence fell between them before she asked "Why?"

Naruto stopped walking and the steps behind her halted. He didn't look back but only whispered "Sakura, do you remember why Sasuke left?" Again another blanket of silence fell upon them when Naruto continued walking and Sakura blurted out "He wanted revenge for his fallen family."

The steps came to a stop again "You said to him 'I have friends and family but if you are gone, it's like being alone.' Right?" Sakura muttered "Yes, h-how-"

"Sasuke told me."

She turned around and stared at Naruto's back. It was strangely relaxed, not tensed like Sasuke was. He seemed to be blending into this situation much too easily. Her voice was even more quiet now "How did you meet up with him."

Then there was a strange quality in his voice she couldn't understand when he said "See, Sakura, there's a lot you don't know about me. One, Sasuke and I met up about seven times while we were searching for him and he'd always tell me something useful. Two, I have a bottle of secrets that I have kept shut to myself ever since I was born. Three, I'm not as naive as you think I am."

Sakura didn't absorb the information and the only words that slipped from her mouth was "W-Wha?" The footsteps continued and she said "I'll scream!" But they didn't stop. The excuse that caused Sasuke to knock her uncounscious didn't work on Naruto.

She ran up to him with her gloves and somehow, just somehow. He was suddenly behind her, holding her hands together with only one of his hand. He whispered "Goodbye Sakura." again and vanished into the cold, hard night.

It took her minutes to process what just happened before she collapsed onto her knees and sobbed. Tears streaming from her eyes. Sasuke and Naruto were the same. They just don't see it in each other, all they see is their rival. She wiped her tears away and stopped hyperventilating and ran. Her feet pushing her into a dash into the Hokage's office. She burst through the door.

"Eh? Sakura? Don't you know it's three in the morn-" Tsunade began.

"Naruto ran away." Sakura blurted out causing Tsunade to drop her pen in shock.

"He... what?" Tsunade hissed. Suddenly she rummaged through her desk like a woman gone mad and found a scroll and summoned some ninjas, some from the Anbu, others just regular genins. "Naruto has just exited the borders of Konoha, you have to go get him." Her voice was still in a hissy tone as she pointed to the door that led into the outskirts of their humble village.

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Naruto dashed through the trees, cuts and scrapes appeared on the surface of his skin and he ignored it. According to his calculations, different ninjas are now on his tail. He jumped down and skidded to a stop before staring at the trees surrounding him. He turned back and he could hear the rustling of leaves and he didn't have time to do anything complex. So he came up with something simple.

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Leading the Anbu division of the squad was Kakashi himself. He knew Naruto the best, his weaknesses, his strong points when one of his dogs smelled Naruto's scent. They would catch him. As his dog rushed ahead, he couldn't imagine why Naruto was doing this. When one of his dog took the wrong turn and an explosion occured- it didn't push them away, but it actually pulled them into the center of it. The silver-haired man stared at where his new location. He stopped his squad and observed the trees.

In a triangular formation, there seemed to be a explosive scroll surrounding all of them. Naruto somehow got them into a death grip.