He Never Knew What She Did for Him

Sakura is finally moving on with her life until something or rather someone from the past returns and opens old wounds and makes her relive past experiences.

Disclaimer: None the characters from Naruto, quotes from Naruto or the show Naruto itself belong to me, they belong to Masashi Kishimoto. All I own is the OC Shujimetsu Masekoto

Chapter one: Their Lives

He never knew what she did for him. When Sasuke left the village two and a half years ago, her world fell apart. Now she is 16 and promoted to the rank of Chunin.

It was a cold and rainy day in the Village Hidden in the Leaves; Sakura sat on her rose tinted duvet and held the photo of her, Kakashi sensei, Naruto and Sasuke. Sasuke had no emotion what so ever in the picture, but Naruto on the other hand, glared so hard at Sasuke that he didn't even notice that the picture was taken. She loved that photo. She looked at her smiling face, she couldn't remember the last time she had been that happy and wished she could go back to those days, when squad 7 was still together and Sasuke was still around. She did everything she could to stop him. She begged and pleaded for him to stay only to be given the cold shoulder. After he left, she tracked after him to try and bring him home. She loved him and would always love him, that is why she had put her life in danger countless times just for the smallest hope of seeing him again. She would die for him and almost had died for him, she thought about him everyday and the slightest mention of his name brought her to depression. She really felt tormented and the only person who understood was Naruto, for he too was Sasuke's friend and teammate along with Sakura. She suddenly remembered a conversation she had had with Sasuke a few years ago when they sat together on a bench near the academy.

"Sakura I want to ask you something… Naruto, what do you think of him?"

"He knows about my feelings, and purposely gets in the way. It's almost like he enjoys interfering and making me feel bad. In spite what he says he doesn't understand one single thing about me, he's just annoying."

That opinion of Naruto had changed drastically over the years, in fact nobody understood her better than Naruto. Another memory popped up in her head, it was the day Naruto, Neji, Shikamaru, Chouji and Kiba left on their mission to retrieve Sasuke, when she cried to Naruto to bring Sasuke back to her.

"Naruto, thank you so much…more than anyone else, he's always understood me, he's always been there when I needed help, Naruto." Her relationship with Naruto had really developed those past two and a half years.

Naruto felt how the weather looked, so he decided to go visit his friend and teammate Sakura. When he arrived at her window, he knocked twice and waited for her. The jade-eyed Chunin opened and let him in. They didn't need to talk to each other to know how they were feeling; it was a skill they'd picked up from each other over the years. They sat in silence on the edge of Sakura's bed embraced in each other's arms, although not romantically, in more of a consoling way. She rested her head against his chest and listened to the rhythm of his heartbeat, as she sobbed silently into his orange and black jacket. Naruto sat with his eyes closed, and gently stroked her back with a small grin on his face, as he knew she thought exactly what he had thought about-Sasuke-. He wished that this moment would last forever, that she would be his forever, but Naruto knew the truth, he knew that she loved Sasuke, but he was glad that he could have this moment alone with her. He could see this side of her that no one else got to see.

Sasuke sat on the lightly coloured grass with his eyes closed on the training fields with the wind that played with his hair; he took a break from training with Orochimaru. He was lost in deep thought, he reminisced about the past; what he did to get to where he was and the people he had left behind. He didn't feel guilty about leaving them behind, he simply thought about them. He remembered the day he left Konoha, like it had happened yesterday, the thoughts rushed back into his mind as though they were scenes from a movie. Sakura cried desperately and yelled for him to stay, and the few words he said her during his days on squad 7. The second last words he said to her "You haven't changed… you're still annoying." The last thing he remembered was the huge fight he had had with Naruto in which Naruto almost died.

The reason Sasuke was with Orochimaru was because he wanted to get strong enough to get revenge on his older brother Itachi who murdered their entire clan. Sasuke was only 9 at the time. He used to look up to his brother but ever since the Uchiha clan massacre Sasuke hated his brother for taking his family from him. In a way Sasuke was tormented himself. He lost the warmth of his mother's touch at the time he needed it the most. He was a child who struggled and suffered, forced to walk the difficult path alone, called life. Along the way he lost his will to go on, he couldn't see anything enjoyable about life. Sasuke didn't live anymore he simply survived. That was until he met Naruto and Sakura. They meant more to him than he admitted to himself.

"I knew it. I'm not the same as you; I'm travelling a path the rest of you can't follow. I know that the four of us worked together, and for a while I thought I could take that road instead, but in the end I decided on revenge. That's always been my reason for living; I'll never be like you and Naruto." Just when Sasuke thought he could move on with his life and his teammates, Itachi came back into his life and re-opened old wounds from the past which resulted in Sasuke's departure. Sasuke shook off his feelings of sorrow and decided to take a walk in the forest. Walking was the best way for Sasuke to clear his mind, a habit he got used to, after he completed missions with his former teammates. He walked down a familiar stone path that led into the thick green forest, for this was his first training area with his snake-like sensei. He ran his fingers over a completely charred Oak tree or what was left of it. That tree was the victim of his Fire ball jutsu. Sasuke thought about his previous teammates again and couldn't stop a certain memory that crept into his thoughts…

"Don't leave me…if you go, I'll scream and…" were the last words she said to him, before he concluded with "Sakura…thank you for everything." Afterwards he knocked her out, placed her on a bench and left for good. Sasuke came back to reality and realised that he had been walking for over an hour so he turned around and headed back to the hideout.

As the years went by Sasuke became a formidable opponent. There were so many things that Sasuke knew like he still cared for his teammates. He knew vast amounts of ninjutsu and he was a prodigy at genjutsu. His Chidori and taijutsu were impeccable, but there was one thing Sasuke would never know…he would never know how much she did for him.