Disappearance by LittleMissHippie

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

A/N: Sorry to everyone who got an e-mail saying there was a new chapter! I accidentally took this chapter down, so the "new chapter" is actually this one. I hope nobody's too disappointed.


Sakura Haruno was tired.

She was tired of Naruto apologizing, she was tired of Sai asking her why, she was tired of Ino glaring at her when she thought she wasn't looking, and she was tired of the entire village staring at her with pity. Avoiding everyone, she realized, is the only option I really have.

So, Sakura Haruno disappeared.


This situation—Ino looking for Sakura and nobody knowing where she was—was terribly familiar. Maybe that was why, when Ino saw Naruto, she felt hope flutter in her chest.

"Naruto-baka, have you seen Sakura?"

His eyes… she would never forget his eyes. She hadn't noticed until this moment but the hope was gone from his eyes. She almost did a double take. Naruto Uzumaki? No hope?, she thought. We have really hit rock bottom.

"She's gone, Ino-chan. I've been looking and looking but… she's gone." The poor boy looked like he was about to cry. "Nobody's seen her for over forty-eight hours. I thought maybe she was just avoiding me… I thought she was still in the village…" He started crying. Ino had to look away; the sight of this particular boy crying was too much.

"She couldn't have just disappeared. We're a village full of ninja, for crying out loud. Someone must know where she is…" She was trying to grasp at strings that weren't there and they both knew it.

"No one knows where she is, Ino. You don't understand! You just don't understand. Sakura-chan… Sakura-chan… She's gone. It's all my fault, Ino. It's all my fault…" He was sobbing now. Dialogue was impossible.

"It's going to be okay, Naruto. Everything is going to be fine, okay?" Ino tried to use her words to comfort him, but they were having no effect. She moved closer to him and pulled him into an awkward hug. She murmured words of encouragement; she murmured promises she wasn't sure she could fulfill.

The reason Ino tried to cheer Naruto up had nothing to do with Sakura—not really. No, Ino was trying to give Naruto something he'd lost. Because without Naruto's famous hope, she wasn't sure they could do anything at all.


Sai was not going to stop looking for her.

He realized she had been avoiding him—after all, he wasn't stupid. He also realized he was not the only person being avoided. Ino, Naruto, everyone in the entire village—they were being avoided as well. However, that wasn't enough to stop the artist. He wanted to know exactly why she was avoiding everyone. So, he was going to find her… and he wouldn't stop until he did. He couldn't just let her go… Sakura Haruno had taught him a lesson no one else had.

Sakura Haruno had taught him how to care.


It was a few days after Sakura was declared missing when he found The Note.

It was in an envelope with the words To Whom It May Concern written on it. A joke—that's what it was. To whom it may concern? Sakura, Sai thought to himself, you are the concern of the entire village.

"Sai-kun," Ino shouted from another room in Sakura's apartment. "Have you found anything?"

"No, Pig!" he replied. I will read her letter first. Then, I will tell the others.

He opened the envelope, preparing himself for the worst. Maybe it was suicide note, and she had gone to kill herself outside of Konoha. Maybe it was a simple list, and she had written down the names of everyone she hated and his name would be at the very top, right above Naruto and Ino.

The envelope, the folded up paper… it contained a single word.

Goodbye.


When Sai finally decided to enlighten Ino and Naruto about the real reason Sakura had been so hurt, he wasn't trying to help them understand.

No, Sai wanted to understand.

Sai hoped Naruto and Ino could supply him with the information he needed—the information only the two people who knew Sakura best would have. He wanted this information so he could understand Sakura—why she had left, where she might have gone, anything that would help him.

I think, he realized, I'm starting to care a little too much.


As Naruto listened to Sai's explanation, he wondered if he had missed something. Would I have been able to tell, he wondered, if I had paid a little more attention?

It had never been about Ino or what they had done. It had never been about him at all. In the end, it all went back to what he had done, all those years ago.

In the end, it all went back to Sasuke.

"It figures," Naruto muttered angrily. "After all, it's all about Sasuke, isn't it?"

"Well, you didn't really think this was about you, did you?" the forever-smiling male replied.

Naruto turned to face the pale-faced artist. "Leave me alone, Sai."

Sai chuckled. "You did think this was about you, didn't you? You poor, misguided soul." He was having way too much fun taunting this boy—and really, it wasn't Naruto's fault Sakura's world didn't revolve around him.

"Excuse me for thinking for a minute that I had the ability to affect my girlfriend—"

"—ex-girlfriend," Sai interrupted.

"You won't let me forget for a minute, will you?" Naruto growled. "Well, anyway, I don't know what I was thinking. It's always about teme. And I had actually thought…"

"It's not your fault."

When Naruto looked at him like he was crazy, Sai decided it was time to change the subject.

"Anyway," he started, "now that I've helped you understand, I'd like a little help understanding as well." Naruto looked confused, so he continued. "Why do you think Sakura left?"

Naruto laughed in his face.

"Are you really that socially challenged?" he asked mockingly. Now it was his turn to taunt. "Obviously Sakura-chan got was overwhelmed. So she bailed." This explanation—so simple, so sensible… Sai just couldn't understand. "Really, Sai, people do that sort of thing all the time."

Sai stared at him.

"Yes, people do," he eventually responded. "But not Sakura. Sakura wouldn't—"

Naruto cut him off before he could finish. "Sakura did."

"If Sakura-chan was overwhelmed…" Sai murmured. "She wouldn't have just left…"

"But that's the thing," Naruto responded calmly. It was weird, how calm he was in this particular situation. "She was overwhelmed. Put yourself in her situation. People bugging you all the time. No one will let you forget that you've been betrayed by those closest to you. You just want to be left alone. What do you do?"

He processed everything the blonde had just said. It made sense, in a way. Why didn't that occur to me?, he wondered. It's so incredibly simple. "You leave," he answered.

Naruto nodded in response. "Exactly."

"…and then your friends find you," he continued before turning around. "Because that's what friends do, correct?" He started walking away. "They find you."

Naruto watched Sai as he walked away.

Who is that guy, he wondered, and what has he done with Sai?


Ino was reflecting.

It wasn't often that she was ditched—after all, who would willingly leave Ino? But it happened. And really, she didn't care that much. Those people that left her didn't matter. Obviously if they left, they couldn't be that important. But there was one person who mattered so very, very much to Ino… and she'd left her. Again. She'd left her behind—or rather, in the dust—when she'd began her intense training with Tsunade, she'd left her behind when they'd both liked Sasuke, and now she'd done it again.

Sakura, a voice in the back of her mind called, please, please, please stop leaving me.


She saw Sai in the most unlikely of places—a bench.

That bench.

"Sai-kun," she said slowly. "What are you doing here?" This particular bench wasn't exactly a really popular spot in Konoha. Really, it was the opposite. No one ever came here. Except for Sakura, she reminded herself. She always came here to think.

Sai stared at her. She started shifting nervously under his gaze. He's looking at me like he thinks I don't belong here, she realized. Why?

"I'm thinking," he finally responded. "Where did Sakura-chan go?"

She realized she had Sakura's goodbye note in his hand. It looked like it had been folded up and then unfolded and then folded back up and unfolded again numerous times. She directed her gaze towards his eyes and what she found was slightly surprising.

There was so much care in his eyes. It was so unexpected—why would he care about Sakura so much, she wondered—and yet… It made a strange sort of sense. All the signs are there, she realized. The care in his eyes, the way he's been leading the Sakura search effort, and even the way he says her name…

And maybe he didn't love Sakura—it didn't matter. Because it was obvious that he liked Sakura very much… he liked her infinitely more than he'd ever like Ino.

Her heart was breaking with this realization, just as Sakura's probably had. He may not love Sakura, but it doesn't matter… because he still picked her over me. Words were swirling in her head—picked her picked her picked her—and she just stood there.

She finally realized why her half-hearted apology hadn't had any effect on Sakura. Apologies can only fix so much, she thought. And this is something they just can't fix.

Ino started laughing. It was a slow-building, crazy laugh. Sai looked at her like she was insane. "What's so funny?" he asked, and she only laughed harder.

"Karma," she finally managed to say through her laughs, "is a bitch."


Thanks for reading! I honestly don't know if you'll see another part to this story or not. The first chapter had a more Sakura-centric focus, and I'd like to think this chapter had a more Sai-centric focus… so maybe I'll write something focused on Ino next? There's definitely room for expansion…

Anyway, please review!

Ja ne!,

LMH