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This story is classified with Sakura as the main character and Naruto as the minor. Naruto will be a big part of the story, but there will not be any romance between the two. I apologize if anyone took it to be NaruSaku with the classification, but I am leaving it as such. There are tons of other fics categorized with two characters without having any romantic connection between the two, and I made it clear from the start that this wasn't NaruSaku. Now, on with the story!
Principles
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Chapter Two
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The sun had still not escaped his slumbered prison when my eyelids snapped awake. I blinked twice in rapid succession, stretching into the warmth I had created on my makeshift bed. Sleep had been sparse in the cricketing hours of twilight, my mind not allowing more then a couple minutes rest before firing back up again. There was just too many ideas to wrap my head around.
The acceptance blew in with the dampening of the night's call. The dead of night strengthened my resolve. It was time for Haruno Sakura to be improved and re-established.
It has been exactly two weeks, five days since the mission to Wave with Tazuna-san. I wish I could say that I have been so exhausted from my training regime that my past-due conversation with Naruto has been postponed, but that is not the case. I'm still a coward.
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Five Days Prior
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"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan wait up!"
Team 7 had just completed another half-assed training session. Our trio was up and armed at six in the morning, waiting with a childish anxiety for our sensei to arrive. Sasuke took his normal scowling position under a vacant tree, slumping with Uchiha dignity. I tried to swooned over him, shaking my head mentally at my own lack of enthusiasm. It must have been too many days away from Ino-pig, I justified to myself. That must be the reason for my lack of fighting pride.
Naruto was pacing back and forth on the bridge, face set in a petulant scowl. The whiskered boy never had patience, his brashness in battle a prime example. I distractedly hoped it wouldn't get him killed one day.
Kakashi-sensei strolled up to the bridge mid-morning, hands tucked carefully into his pocket. He seemed to be frowning under his mask as he came within the proximity of one of Naruto and Sasuke's daily arguments. Realizing his approach, Naruto turned to face the jonin, eyes alight with anger. A single finger shot towards the copy-nin's chest accusingly.
"You're late!"
"Ah, well you see, I got lost on the road to life."
It was a pathetic attempt for an excuse, sending Naruto ranting at the time we had lost. I normally joined my teammate in these particular ravings, but my mind had been preoccupied that day. I had been uncharacteristically distracted since our upgraded mission, a fact Kakashi pointed out at the beginning of the training session. I merely blinked at him before staring up at a focal point above his left shoulder.
"Enough Naruto. There is no point in wasting any training time."
"Hn. Dobe."
The hyperactive ninja turned on Sasuke, growling deep in his throat with an animalistic ferocity. I took an unconscious step back.
"Today we are working on our basic ninja skills, an area we have been neglecting lately."
Sasuke, Naruto and I gawked at our sensei, who for a rare moment, addressed our trio with a focused determination.
"Kakashi-sensei..." I hesitate. Sensei's eye lights up with question. Haruno Sakura has never questioned authority or instruction. She always does what is told.
"Yes Sakura?"
He sends Naruto and Sasuke away to warm-up. The reasoning is two-fold: Get the boys' muscles stretched out, and let them work off some of the testosterone building between the two. I take in a particularly large gulp of air.
"I am weak sensei." He makes no effort to lessen the truth with false reassurance. I am grateful.
"I need to catch up, and become a real ninja. My way will get me killed."
He is silent as he contemplates what I have said. My mouth moves without my logic's consent.
"We all saw how useless I was with Tazuna-san's mission. I am a liability to the team at the moment and-"
"Alright Sakura. Let's see if you are truly ready."
He calls my partners back over, announcing our traditional start-up for exercise.
This is the beginning, and how I stumbled across Naruto's biggest fear, and secret.
The exercise was simple enough. We split up, Kakashi and Sasuke, Naruto and I, and began sparring. Sasuke had unlocked his Sharingan nearly two weeks ago, and was eager to learn more about his Uchiha kekkai genkai. I couldn't blame him for that.
That left Naruto and myself to work in an abandoned training field. Sensei gave us directions to a private place to practice, assuring us that we had proper clearance and necessities for our pseudo-mission. Small talk was kept to a Naruto minimum, mostly exclamations of excitement or encouragement from my blonde teammate. I smiled gently at his ramblings; Naruto's personality was dangerously contagious. It was just another part of his genuine personality that drew people to him. I couldn't understand why the villagers pierced him with such hateful and despising looks. Naruto was a known prankster, but surely he has never done something so despicable to deserve that much hatred.
As we wandered further through the tree tops, Naruto's voice cut off abruptly. We had reach the training ground, and what a training ground it was.
A rusted sign, crooked on its hinges gave the looming area a fitting name: The Forest of Death. A thick blanket of danger coated the edges of the forest. It was impossible to see more then ten or twenty yards into the grounds from any point on its perimeter. Hisses and growls from lurking predators whispered through the wind, a despairing omen and warning to turn back. Naruto eyed the forest with a cutting glare, before turning to me and shrugging noncommittally. He gave his trademark grin, the one that threatened to split his face in two it was so wide, and shouted out a few words of foolish courage. I once again couldn't help but smile. Naruto wasn't as bad as I thought he was, although his hyperactivity was taxing at times.
As my bumbling teammate was prepared to rush in, I grabbed him by the collar of his orange and blue jumpsuit.
"Naruto-kun, how about we take inventory before charging in there, ne?"
A sheepish grin was my only response as Naruto emptied his pockets and kunai holsters. He had two positioned at either side of his waist.
Between the two of us a decently large pile of weapons lay at our feet: nearly two dozen kunai, ten shuriken, three exploding tags, a coil of ninja wire, two smoke bombs and a handful of senbon needles.
We split the throwing knives up evenly. Naruto pocketed the smoke bombs and exploding tags; I stowed away the ninja trip wire and senbon needles.
"Alright Naruto-kun. Kakashi-sensei didn't leave any real instruction. We are to remain in the forest for an undetermined amount of time. There is a camp set up two miles into the is cooperative intense survival training. Have... fun?"
I can practically picture the bastard with his eye-smile as he scrawled the note out. Naruto shakes his head in silent agreement. We double check our gear, leaving it in the place for optimal speed and usage. I wonder briefly why Naruto has chosen waist holsters. A newer model of thigh straps have been proven more effective and were worth roughly the same. I brush off the speculation, jumping up at the same time as my comrade and into the nefarious looking thickets. The sense of foreboding weights on my mind, but is eased with the jaw-breaking smile Naruto sends me.
We disappear from sight and into the eerie jungle. Naruto and I decided to make our way to the camp first, and plan our next moves with a better grasp of the surroundings. There must have been some reason for Kakashi-sensei to mention it; our jonin sensei never wasted his words.
Faint echos strained to reach my ear as the thick muscles in our legs propelled us from tree branch to tree branch. Our pace kept steady for the entire journey. I felt my stamina waning at the faster-then-civilian pace. I glanced over at my teammate as we reached the abandoned campsite. Naruto looked as if he had just taken a stroll down the block, aloof without a drop of sweat staining his brow. I muttered darkly under my breath.
The blonde scanned the empty pots and pans, inspecting the tent materials for any traps set out. It was better to be safe then sorry. Shinobis had to be precise and thorough- lives depended on it.
"Sakura-chan, it seems to be safe. I think Sensei left this encrypted message as further direction? How about you decode it while I go grab some firewood?"
My comrade was sprinting away from the camp halfway through his speech. I chuckled at his actions. Everyone knew Naruto couldn't stand the unnecessary paperwork or puzzle. He was a hands-on guy, through and through. I got to work decoding the note. It was a basic scrabble taught to us in the academy. Iruka-sensei had said that it was a necessity for the First Great War, with couriers behind enemy lines with only messenger hawks to pass back vital messages. Enemies could intercept the packages, and had in the past, so the codes were developed to keep Konoha 's secrets safe.
I had the original instructors in just under five minutes. Naruto walked back into the campsite, a decent sized pile of logs and branches in his arms. It was enough fodder to last us through the night.
"Did you finish Sakura-chan?"
I wordlessly held the note up in my hand for him to take. His childishly wide blue orbs read through the paper twice before his eyebrows scrunched in confusion. His glance landed on my sitting form.
"What does this-"
A loud snarling broke through the clearing, Naruto's sentence long forgotten.
A giant centipede with dripping, venomous forcipules hissed at the gap between us. His mouth was open and clenching. Unlike the normal, palm-sized arthropods, this mutated red-brown beast had sturdy legs and stood nearly a foot taller then Naruto. Unable to stand still, the long, stringy body swayed back and forth in a provocatively predatory dance. I shivered at the unnatural creature.
Naruto drew a handful of kunai from his pouch, wrist tense with pressure. His eyes cut over to me, and I drew a pair as well. Before they could charge forward and cut the beast down, a gurgled growl escaped the thing's mouth and lurking shadows traced the open plain.
A pack of the centipedes circled around the two genin menacingly. I surveyed at least ten wriggling forms in the sphere around her. A feral snarl ripped from Naruto's throat.
"Well, if that's how you want to do it. Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Making the familiar hand signs, eight exact replicates appeared, kunai in hand.
The Naruto copies sprinted forward in an orange flash, engaging their new enemies at the call of an unspoken signal. Ripples of pain screeched through the dampened airas the shadow clones ripped the giant invertebrates apart, punches and kunai causing irreparable damage. I stared at the new foe with apprehension. The apparent leader of the clan, designated with purple spots on his outer shell. He hissed, mouth open in utter rage at the massacre of his family.
I held my kunai posed, waiting for the creature to charge. Mere seconds later the monster lay bleeding on the jungle floor, a thick purplish liquid secreting from it's body. Hands flew up to my nose unconsciously as I struggled to keep myself from dry heaving; the smell was thick and death clung to the air.
A sharp, jagged pain stabbed through the back of my left shoulder. I turned around with narrowed eyes at the snarling opponent behind me. The centipede had apparently gotten in a lucky swipe, for no shadow clone was in the proximity. I brought my kunai up and across, slashing the beast's soft, jelly-like weak spot below it's guarded head. The syrupy stream of blood-like substance splatters across the bridge of my nose. The mutant died in a pool, choking on it's own plasma.
I looked around, taking in the dispelling of Naruto's shadow clones. He looked over with a tired smile, the stench of corpses not bothering him in the slightest. I tried to smile back as my vision fell into a a pitch black existence.
"-ra-chan! Sakura-chan!"
I moaned in pain, blinking my eyes rapidly to clear the sleep from them. What the hell had happened?
"Thank Kami you're okay Sakura-chan."
My vision was blinded by a pair of innocent, crystal clear blue orbs filled to the brim with worry. I tried to use my voice to comfort my comrade, but a slight croaking sound came out instead of my words. Naruto had a canteen in front of my face before I could move. I gulped the contents hastily, muttering thanks in-between.
"What happened Naruto-kun?"
"Poison," his voice was solemn. It was too unlike Naruto.
"Poison?"
"Hai, I've fe- seen the effects of animal toxins before. I applied basic first-aid to the wound, disinfected the wound and stopped the spread of poison. You should be feeling some drowsiness, but other then that..."
He scratched the back of his head, a nervous gesture of his, and shrugged, leaving the sentence incomplete. I stared hard at him for a moment before reaching out to hug Naruto. He flinched at the initial contact, and almost slipped out in his explanation - things that did not escape my notice.
"Arigato, Naruto-kun."
The worry in his eyes lessened as I stretched, walking the circumscribed camp he had set up while I was in my unconscious state. My shoulder felt fine, with exception to the embedded sting that always complimented a healing wound. A wandering rabbit scurried through the campsite, unique in the fact that no mutations seemed to mark its body. Naruto went to draw a kunai, but I beat him, throwing a senbon needle between the small creature's eyes.
After skinning and gutting the rabbit and any other edible marsupials we could find in the area, I brought the raw meat over to the licking fire Naruto had kindled.
"Naru-kun, can we talk?" I asked, voice seemingly softer then normal. He looked over with a puzzled expression.
"Ummmm, why Sakura-chan?"
I was taken aback by the question.
"What do you mean why?"
"Well," he started off slowly, as if afraid that he would set off my temper, "You never have wanted to talk in the past. You're usually too busy with Sasuke... or other things."
I recoiled at his words and a sliver of fright slipped onto his face. I burned with shame. Naruto never lied, and this I knew to be particulary true.
"Naruto-kun... I'm sorry."
He looked up with confusion at my words. My hands clenched tightly at my side.
"I have been a horrible ninja. I obsessed over Sasuke, neglected my training and most importantly..."
My non-existent nails broke through the skin of my palms. I was always horrible at apologizes. Naruto looked down at me with with understanding in his cerulean orbs.
"I haven't been a good friend to you Naruto. We all see the way the villagers look down at you and glare at you. You don't have to be Shikamaru to see that. You wear outdated equipment, an obnoxious jumpsuit, and shy away from physical contact.
I know I haven't been there for you Naruto-kun. I could understand why you wouldn't want to trust me. But I'm hoping to get the benefit of the doubt and... well just know I'm here for you. You are an important part of Team 7. It wouldn't be the same without you. I acknowledge you as a fine ninja."
I still couldn't look at him. My face flushed with embarrassment at the corny speech I had just given. I babble when I'm nervous.
"Sakura-chan..."
There were tears in his joyous, sparkling eyes. We all knew how much Naruto struggled for the village. He just wanted recognition and acceptance. Shikamaru had set me in my place on day when I had brought Naruto up.
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"He's so annoying you know?" I babbled to Ino. She nodded her head in furious agreement
"He always asks me out, I don't get it. Why would I want to waste my time with someone as useless as him, When I could have a fine shinoni like Sasuke-kun.
"Troublesome women," Shikamaru muttered, cutting off whatever compliment Ino was going to give to Sasuke-kun.
I turned to glare at him, silently asking him to expand.
"Naruto is a fine ninja," he drawled in his lazy pace, "Annoyingly troublesome at times, but there's something inspiring in him. He wants the acknowledgement."
Shikamaru slunk off, letting his shoulders sag as he trudged down the street. Ino and I just stared after him.
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"Sakura-chan I..."
It was the blonde's turn to look away during our discussion. I put my hand over his in a hopefully comforting gesture. He smiled appreciatively.
"What do you know about October 10th?"
"It's your birthday and... the attack of the Kyuubi."
Naruto thumped to the ground, motioning for us to sit again. A sigh escaped his lips.
"Bijuu, tailed demons, cannot be killed Sakura-chan, at least not by mortals. The Yondaime was a fine shinobi, but even he could not kill one of the feared beasts."
Naruto paused for a moment, letting the information sink in. I could begin to see where this was going.
"So he did the next best thing. He sealed the great Kyuubi no Kitsune in an infant, whose chakra coils hadn't fully developed yet and would not die from the procedure. He sealed the damned fox in me."
I hugged him. I know it wouldn't help or make any amends for my past mistakes, but I needed some way to comfort Naruto. He wouldn't want my pity; he never wanted pity from anyone for any reason. But this had hurt him, deeper then the smiles he glued onto his face.
"So, you see Sakura-chan... I wanted the new kunai holsters, but the shopkeeper wouldn't sell them to me. I even offered to pay triple the price. He almost had me thrown out of the store. I'm not used to much human interaction, besides punches or pushes."
I winced. How many times have I smacked Naruto in the head, frustrated about something? Too many to count. It make me sick to my stomach.
He smiled, this smile had more depth then his normal full-faced one. It was trusting and forgiving. The smile made me feel worse. I did nothing to deserve that trust.
"Don't blame yourself Sakura-chan. You were nicer then most of the people I interact with on a daily basis. I didn't have to have my bright-and-stupid mask up with you. As for the jumpsuit,"
He shrugged, rubbing his hands through his hair.
"Orange is the best color!" He chuckled at my mortified look.
"I loved the brightness as a child. I was too used to the grays of the world and wanted to shine no matter what."
I smiled affectionately at him. That was such a Naruto thing to do.
"Also, It helps when people underestimate you: ninja and villagers alike. I would probably get overcharged if I tried to buy anything else, so I've just kept it."
"Naruto-baka, we are so getting you new clothes when we get back to civilization and away from man-eating bugs."
We shared cheesy grins and an easy sense of camaraderie.
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