Last Chance
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
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Naruto
The call came at 2:00 AM in the morning, and I made it to the phone after nine rings. My ears felt muffled, my eyes swollen with sleep, but the crackled words coming out of the receiver woke me up in an instant.
"Naruto, Sasuke's getting married," a muted version of Sakura's voice sounded.
My first instinct was to consol her, to tell her that it wasn't true, but something in her voice told me that it was bad and nothingwas going to help.
It constantly surprises me how often Sakura's feelings came before my own. It had been that way ever since I promised her that I would bring back Sasuke when we were twelve. I knew I was the only one she'd ever cry in front of. Somehow that raised an unbreakable wall of protectiveness in me. The shock from the news didn't even reach me until I thought of an appropriate answer that would suit Sakura's current mood.
"Hold on, Sakura-chan," I said assuredly, "I'm coming over."
As I was walking through the cold, brisk air, I finally took the time to evaluate my own feelings about Sasuke's engagement. I thought the old bastard would never get married, at least not before me. God, he was always so moody, and not to mention busy (with vengeful crap) what kind of chick would stick around for a guy like that? My heart sank at the answer. Still, it had been a few years after all the fighting and killing, suppose he somehow found a way to settle down?
Anyways, I knew that the truth would kill Sakura.
It was tough, or maybe even heartbreaking (yes, even for me) to think that my estranged-best-friend was finally settling down somewhere else. Away from Konoha, away from any chance of us settling into ANBU-dom together. Still, I could not give up, I was holding on too tight. Somehow, sometime, when the opportunity arose, I would beat the sense into Sasuke. It was the same logic I held when I was twelve, yet I still believed it.
After two knocks, Sakura came to the door. I thought of the different possibilities of her appearance. Bloodshot eyes, liquor on the breath, stuffy nose?
It was none of the above.
She was pale (maybe it was just the moonlight) and her eyes were dull. Not exactly the piercing bottle-green glass eyes she was known for.
"Come in," she said quietly.
I followed her quietly up the stairs and watched her as she took a seat on the floor beside her bed. I sat down across from her and waited.
No words came, so I finally asked the question I'd been dying to ask.
"How do you know that he's getting married?"
A moment of silence passed before I noticed her finger twitching towards the brown envelope set on her bed.
"Sakura-"
"A civil court case came up in the files that Kakashi made me file," she said as she drew out an official-looking slip of paper.
"The dating is pretty recent, two days ago in fact. Someone wants the buildings in the Uchiha district to be sold off…with a few items shipped to an unknown location."
My throat dried.
"Someone?"
"And someone has been attached to Sasuke's page in the bingo book," she continued.
I briefly glanced at the page she was holding out for me before instinctively reassuring Sakura again.
"Sakura-chan, Karin is the only one left because the others were killed, remember? This doesn't mean anything," I said as I reached out to touch her shoulder.
She stiffly avoided contact.
"You're not looking carefully, Naruto…," she said in a strange voice.
I looked at the page again, making sure to read all the text. I skimmed over the top part because I had more or less Sasuke's page memorized. No matter how many times I read it, it still made me uneasy to see him glaring up at me from a page of such a dangerous book. Then something jumped out at me. Instead of one bolded 'Uchiha,' there were two. Why was that?
Uchiha Karin
"T-There are political implications of being in a marital relationship with a missing-nin," Sakura said in a small voice, "Spouses know all sorts of information, location, health status, future plans…."
"Hey," I said helplessly. I reached out for her again. This time she didn't move and my hand caught her small shoulder.
"They could be married already," Sakura breathed, "And nobody would know. I mean…who would he ask to come?"
Her breath caught and I tried to soothe her by rubbing her back.
"Look, Sakura-chan," I tried again, "Tell me what you want me to do. I'll do anything."
She gave an airy laugh.
"I…it's fine," she said, "Don't you have a mission brief tomorrow? Go get some sleep. I'll talk to you…sometime."
With that, I left, trying to come up with a plan. I tried to think hard, but the thought of what Sakura was going through depressed me. Nothing came, even as the sun came up after my sleepless night.
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Sakura
With Kakashi finally as the rightful Hokage, Tsunade recommended me as the right hand aid for my former teacher. It was interesting working under Kakashi, fun even, when the workload permitted. He was always very calm, perhaps not always serious about the paperwork, sometimes he even complained a little, but he mostly got things done at the right time (anything was better than getting a stack of papers with puke marks on it).
It might come off as a little creepy, but I really loved watching him work. His eyes would squint the tiniest bit when he saw a complicated proposition, or a confusing bill. When he finished dealing with a particularly difficult piece, he would exhale through his nose and toss the paper and pen on his desk. But matter how tedious the paperwork I handed him was, he would finish each in one reading, which was why I always gave him one envelope at a time (eventually I figured out how to order the documents to fit his attention span).
He was also careful to balance my duties as assistant with my duties at the hospital, and was always infinitely kind (much, much kinder than Tsunade). I knew I often enjoyed early nights at his expense, but sometimes I wished that he would push me beyond my limit. He had always been too soft on me, a mixture of pity and concern, I'm sure, but I wanted to be kept busy. I needed the weight of responsibility to weigh down all other anchorless fears swirling in my mind.
Being the Hokage's assistant allowed me to come across some very interesting documents, containing many dark secrets of Konoha. I don't know if Kakashi has started to censor me or not, but I'm pretty sure that I'm not supposed to know half of the things I've read. There have been endless espionages, assassination attempts (and successful ones), 'peace' treaties, as well as mission assignments that would taint one's mind forever.
However, when I noticed the Uchiha symbol on one of the papers sticking out from the folder that arrived in the mail, I knew I had picked up on something incomparable, covert…dangerous. With hands that didn't seem to be my own, I picked up the piece of paper and read and reread it. My eyes moved slowly, the way that they would if I were on the last page of a book, afraid to accidentally read ahead and be forced to experience something I wasn't read for. The formal language softened the blow of what it really meant to say.
Signs were to be removed from the Uchiha district, all properties to be sold.
Personal property to be picked up Sunday…..
I quickly checked the date and time. It was this Sunday.
I took the piece of paper into Kakashi's office and held it up.
"What the hell is this?" I asked.
He took the paper out of my hands and I saw his eye widen slightly after skimming through the page.
"Sakura…I'm sure it's just some people trying to clear up space for…apartments," he said in that deep, reassuring voice.
"No….," I said, my voice shaky, "No one else would have the right to request something like this."
He had swiveled his chair so that he was facing the window. I stretched slightly to see what he was doing, but he was just quietly gazing out at the mountains and streets of Konoha.
"Kakashi…"
I knew he was disappointed in me. Disappointed that I still cared, still wanted him back, but I had to ask.
"Can I keep this?"
The silence stretched forever.
Then he sighed.
"Yes."
I returned to the room where I filed all the crap that was sent to the tower and stared at the piece of paper I was given permission to keep. I tried telling myself that it was a situation that I could fix, and maybe I had to figure out the initial steps before I actually tried to do something about him leaving forever. First I had to find more proof, to get a sense of the whole situation. Then I would tell Naruto and we would fix this together.
I tried to picture what Sasuke would say if he saw me like this, if he was sitting by the window sill, gazing at me with those dark eyes.
"Have you considered the fact that this is not a problem?" he said in a voice coincidentally alike the voice in my head.
"There is nothing to fix," he said coldly, "I've left. Deal with it."
I tried talking back, "I can't. I can't deal with it. Sasuke-kun please…"
But he already left the windowsill without so much as an answer. But what did I expect…?
Sometimes I wonder if I've become delusional with my constant thoughts of him. But when I look down and see that all the files that have been filed away perfectly, I think, nope, I'm not crazy yet.
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Naruto
Hyuuga Hinata.
I can't say I love her. She's just not Sakura. It's as simple as that. But it would be a lie to say that I didn't love her. She'd always been that other possibility. There were a few times when I believed that I could love her like the way I loved Sakura, but then Sakura would return from a mission, hair messy, blood on her shirt, tired eyes and when I held her in my arms I would know it wasn't true. Still, she'd always been there for me, cooked for me when I ran out of instant noodles, let me stay with her when I couldn't pay my rent, and basically took care of me. Then again, Sakura did most of those things as well.
They say I'm dense with relationships and they couldn't be more right.
Of everything I'm ashamed of, not taking Hinata's feelings into consideration for such a long time is my worst. It really makes me sad sometimes. All of the sneaking glances, blushes, faints and really, really obvious accounts of her crush were right there in front of me, but I didn't see them.
During one of the invasions, while rocks and debris was flying everywhere overhead, while Hinata was healing me, the words came out.
"I-I won't l-let you die Naruto-kun," she stuttered, her trembling fingers pressing down on a wound. But there was so much blood, too much had left my body.
"Hinata-chan, it's okay! Even if you don't heal me, it's not the end of the world, right?" I tried to say lightly, although the blood spilling out from my mouth put a downer on my words.
"No, no, p-please no," she sobbed, tears dropping from her cheeks.
"Hey Hinata-chan, seriously! nobody'll blame you! (I still can't believe I said that) Why are you crying?" I asked stupidly.
A particularly loud sob ripped out from her throat, and by then I was really confused and in pain.
"N-Naruto-kun, I love you," she hiccupped, "And I will always try to protect you."
She said it in a firmer voice than I'd ever hear her say anything else in (well, besides that time when she called out Neji, which was awesome).
With that came a blinding white-ish blue light, and by the time I could see again, all my heaviest wounds were healed, and she was gone.
I told Sakura about what had happened, and needless to say she more than encouraged me to date her or to at least give her a chance. It would've been heartless for her to hope that Hinata and I would fall in love so that she could take the easy way out. Sakura isn't a cruel person so I assumed that she was clueless about my feelings for her as well. I haven't specifically told her how I felt, but as I walked to her apartment three minutes after her end clicked on my phone I think she ought to know.
"Sakura-chan!" I called through the door.
"Hey Naruto," part of her smiling face said through the door. For a moment I thought everything was going to be okay.
"I'm seeing you more than usual, lately," she talked as she walked towards her small dining room.
"Is that so bad?" I smiled and reached behind her to give her a hug. Too slow, she immediately whirled around and smacked me on my head.
"Don't even think about it!" she stuck her tongue out at me, like we were kids.
"Ne, whats up, Sakura-chan?" I asked.
"I don't know…have you thought of anything?" she asked casually.
I stuffed my hands in my pockets.
"Well we have to go to the wedding," I said simply. After all, it was honestly the only thing I thought of, and it damn well made sense. Well, it all depended on what Sakura truly wanted to do.
A sad smile on her face told me that I had said the right thing.
"Naruto….do you ever think that we're…too hung up…on the past?" she said slowly.
I looked down. I hated hard questions.
"I think…it's never too late," I answered.
The corners of her mouth sagged down.
"But…but maybe it's been over," she said fearfully, "Maybe he's never coming back, and no matter what we do…he just doesn't want us"
"No, that's not true," I said, starting to feel angry.
"I mean you've seen Orochimaru," she continued ranting, "He used to be friends with Tsunade and Jiraiya! Look how he ended up. I'm sure Jiraiya thought the same, but sometimes it's no use…"
"Don't compare Sasuke to Orochimaru!" I shouted, "They are nothing alike!"
"I-I'm sorry Naruto," she said softly, "I just don't know what to do anymore…Maybe it's time that we let go. But I…I…"
I waited for her to catch her breath.
"What do you want Sakura-chan?" I asked quietly as I walked closer to her.
Her shoulders were shaking and all of a sudden the words tumbled out from her hand-covered face.
"I don't want him to get married!"
I sat right in front of her, close enough to see the tiny tremors going through her lips and the small tears sticking her pink lashes into individual triangles.
"It's okay," I said as I hugged her closely, the side of my face getting a little damp, "That bastard won't get married, not if I can help it."
I wonder as her sobs subside whether my promise this time is any more likely to be fulfilled than the promise I made so many years ago.
She finally calmed down enough to sit back and laugh while hiccupping. Eventually she stood up and left.
When she came back, she held up something in front of my face.
"Here's a tissue."
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Sakura
Unbelievably enough, it was decided.
Through Naruto's smiles and confident words, it was decided that we would both take a leave from work this Sunday. We would follow whatever was picking up his personal property and see where it would take us. Even if we were late and happened upon their (gag) honeymoon period, we could just go with the option of killing Karin. In fact, I believe that that was the best option of all.
We were right back to where we started, chasing him. I wondered if others thought we were pathetic, endlessly hopeful of the retrieval of our long-last teammate. I knew Naruto was the only one who understood why we had that faith, why it felt like our hearts were snagging against barbed wire whenever we thought of just leaving it be. Maybe we're fools, but we're working together, with that same optimism we held when we were twelve, fifteen even. We never lost that optimism.
It was difficult, asking Kakashi for a leave, especially when he knew exactly what I was using the time for, but couldn't understand why.
"Kakashi…," I said, feeling the same breathlessness as yesterday, when I was asking for Kakashi's permission to keep the paperwork.
"Sakura," he looked up from his paperwork and smiled. I only notice this because the corners of his eyes crinkled and his cheeks slightly shifted upwards.
I remember how he used to call me 'Sakura-chan', and Naruto, 'Naruto-kun'. Whenever he said my name with that little honorific, I felt my lungs expand with pride and slight smugness. It was like being praised, like he especially cared for me, thought I was cute even when others didn't. It was a constant reminder that I was his student, and I had the coolest teacher, Konoha's copy-eye ninja. I felt lucky whenever he called me that, just like whenever I called him 'Kakashi-sensei.' Sometime around when Naruto and I turned sixteen, he stopped calling us that. I wondered if it was because we were getting too old or he simply didn't consider us his special students anymore. I didn't understand until I reached the jounin rank and he told me to stop calling him 'sensei' since we were practically on equal footing. I eventually stopped calling him 'sensei' and learned to accept our new relationship, except I never wanted to be on equal footing with him, I wanted to follow him and take his orders with unwavering trust. I realized after experiencing my first invasion (and Kakashi's near death), that it wasn't because he didn't love us or that we didn't see him as superior. It was because he needed us to be independent, that we had to be strong in dark times and make our own decisions. It was a small sacrifice for us to grow up.
I wonder if that sacrifice was for nothing as I ask, "Can I take a leave this Sunday?"
He seemed to consider this. In his mind, I knew that he already knew that I was going to ask, and why I was asking.
"Don't you usually get the half day off on Sundays?"
"I…I'd like to take the whole day off, i-if that's okay with you," I ask, mouth stumbling over the words.
"I'm sorry Sakura, I need you this Sunday," Kakashi said impassively.
I started to feel hot anger claw inside my chest.
"Why are you doing this?"
"I admire your perseverance on this…subject, but I can't allow you to waste any more of your time on pursuing something pointless."
"First of all, there's nothing else to do right now. It's been a year since the Akatsuki has been more or less exterminated, and we're on stable economy. Second of all, it'snot pointless."
The minute those words flowed out from my mouth, I knew it was the wrong thing to say. Worse, it would piss him off.
"Sakura, grow up."
His words felt like a slap in the face.
"There's nothing to do? I'll give you something to do. Go on a mission, maybe it'll clear your head up."
"Life isn't about pining after unrealistic notions of people who have betrayed and abandoned this village."
"Ka…Kakashi-sensei!" I cried out, unconsciously slipping on the honorific, "He…He was your student."
"So he was…until he left," he continued, "And selling off his property only shows that he's grown up and made his own decision to let go. You should too."
"Please, Kakashi," I begged, groveled in a way that surely made his stomach turn, "I need you to let me do this. Please…."
"I can't stop you," he said simply.
It took me a moment to realize that this was his way of letting me go.
I lingered a bit, feeling the need to clarify the length of my leave.
"…And the…subsequent week?" I asked meekly.
"Leave."
I knew by requesting for something like this I had seriously disappointed him, but I also knew that if I didn't ask, I would be disappointed at myself for the rest of my life. Naruto would've been disappointed as well.
"So how was it?" he was waiting for me at the bottom of the Hokage tower.
He'd felt a little guilty for giving in when I persuaded him to let me do the talking, but somehow I couldn't trust Naruto to ask for something as grave as this.
"We have a week," I said, fighting the smile creeping on my face as I watched his face splitting into a wide grin as well.
As I leapt into his embrace I exhaled, knowing that despite all the doubt and shame, I had done the right thing. I knew that if anyone cared as much as we did about something or someone, there was no shame in trying again and again.
AN: bahahahhaa the thought of sasuke getting 'married' makes me laugh, and i hadn't planned on making this fic so sad...? anyways, it's not supposed to be too emo so please read on and review!!! eventually sasuke's pov will come up ;)