The Love That Pain Can Bring
AN: If you're reading this, that means you must either like the story or still be on the fence. If it's the latter, hopefully this chapter will give you your answer.
Anyway, on with the second chapter!
Chapter Two: The Unhappy Reunion
{Last Chapter}
He ran home only to find five men standing near the entrance of his slightly burnt house. One quick look at them and he knew they were foreign ninja. One in particular he recognized as an S-rank ninja in the bingo book. He remembered trying to memorize all of the S-rank ninja when he first became a Genin, as he wanted to beat them all someday to prove himself. The teen quickly hid in a bush nearby, only to find that the ninja were gone. There was something he read about the one that was standing in the middle. It was unique to the other descriptions of S-rank ninja in the book. 'I know that he did something that was really bad, but what was it? It wasn't for killing or stealing...' Then he remembered why. His eyes grew wide and he said in fear "Oh no." He was...
Naruto woke up in cold sweat. As he looked around his surroundings he realized that he was sleeping in his bed, and that it was morning. 'When did I make it home?' He knew that his clones had finished rebuilding, but not much past that. Naruto tried to piece together his memories of the previous night. It didn't help that he had a throbbing pain at the base of his skull. He touched the spot on the back of his head, immediately regretting his decision as he pulled back, wincing in pain. 'Kami, what a terrible headache.'
The pain made him forget what it was he was thinking about, as he tried to soothe the ache the best that he could. Naruto took a shower, figuring that would relax him more. With the warm water running down his body, Naruto had time to think. He remembered the store and the 'chat' he had with Sakura. This put him in a sour mood until the interaction with Hinata entered his mind, which put a smile on his face as he remembered the gift she gave him. 'OH YEAH, the fox! I wonder where I put it?' Deciding he would look for it later, he slowly pieced the events of last night together, but what happened after the shop visit was still a mystery. For some reason, the number five kept appearing in his head, but he had no clue why. Finally giving up on his quest for knowledge, the young Genin got dressed and ate some breakfast.
As he cleaned off his plate he heard a scratching sort of noise at his door. Going to open it, he found a hawk clutching a scroll. Taking the scroll from the bird, he read the message, which was from Granny Hokage. The details were scarce, but the Genin teams (Team Seven, Eight, Ten, and Team Guy) were to show up for a meeting. Naruto thought about not going as most of the time these things were long and very boring. But our favorite ninja knew that it was serious if all the teams were showing up so he left his house and locked the door. Now that the Kyuubi festival had passed, and most adults were usually hung over the next day, he didn't have to worry about someone going after his house.
Naruto walked down the street to see Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Hinata, and Shino coming towards him. The Genin (and their newly promoted Chunin Shikamaru) all decided to go to the meeting together. Waving frantically, the energetic blonde ran over to them, much like a dog does when their master returns home.
"Hey guys! What's up?"
Shikamaru chuckled at his excitement, prompting Naruto to give him a questionable look. "What's so funny Shikamaru?" "Nothing. I assume you got the message about our meeting too?" Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out the scroll. "Yup! Why does Grandma Tsunade want to see us?"
"Beats me, but it's got to be important if she wants to see all of us. What a drag, I was in the middle of something important too." A visible tick mark appeared on Ino's forehead at this as she bluntly commented "Yeah right! You were in the middle of a nap you lazy bum!" "Like I said, something important. Now, let's get this over with so I can get back to it."
"Right, let's go!" Naruto yelled to his friends as he went running towards the Hokage Tower. Most people know to look where they are going, especially when running. 'MOST people'. But then again, Naruto is not like most people. Unfortunately in this case, that is a bad thing as he turned a corner too sharply which set off a terrible chain of events.
Sakura spent most of her free time alone. All it took was one person (rather, the lack of one person), to crush her spirit. She had been on a mission since then, a D-rank mission where she was basically a tour guide for a somewhat wealthy foreigner. She put on enough of a happy face to fool her tourist, but anyone looking hard enough could tell that it was only a façade.
Her plan was to sleep in today, the same plan she'd had all week. Of course, she hadn't been getting much sleep anyway, so extra sleep was needed to balance herself out. That's why when she was woken up by a hawk with a scroll, she was understandably pissed, especially when she discovered it was only for a meeting with Lady Tsunade. Reluctant to go, she let out heavy sigh and got ready.
Sakura wanted to get this over with as quickly as she could, so she decided to take a shortcut through an alleyway. As she walked, her mind drifted away. Not on any particular thought, just away. Away from this, the day to day struggle. Coming out into the street again, still in a trance, she didn't notice something barreling her way until it was too late.
Naruto crashed into the person in front of him, knocking both himself and the mystery person to the ground. Said person got up quicker than Naruto, dusting themselves off. Naruto got up shortly after, immediately apologizing for what he had done. But something seemed weird about this person. They had pink hair, and further more, were dressed in red clothing. His eyes widened as he realized he only knew one person that would fit that description. Said person turned around and their eyes met.
'Sakura...'
The young jinchuriki knew that this was going to get much, MUCH worse.
Sakura had snapped out of the funk she was in once she had been knocked over. 'Another moron who doesn't look where they're going!' Inner Sakura raved on as she stood up and dusted herself off. She froze in place once the person started talking. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry for running into you!" That voice, that loud, obnoxious voice was easily recognizable. She turned around to confirm what she knew to be true, and was met with those same cerulean eyes she had grown accustomed to seeing over the past year.
'Naruto...'
The others had came around the corner at the time Naruto and Sakura were on the ground. Seeing as Naruto went flying like a bat out of hell, it was fairly obvious that the boy had ran into Sakura and knocked both of them over. 'This is bad' they all thought simultaneously, knowing how mean Sakura tended to be with Naruto. But even they couldn't have known what was about to happen.
Sakura and Naruto stared each other down for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was nothing more than a few seconds. A pair of strong, yet nervous eyes as blue as the ocean up against the cold, unwavering gaze of emerald. Naruto knew they weren't going to hold hands and sing 'Kumbaya', but he figured she wouldn't freak out like last night. Not in front of everyone. Spoiler Alert: he's wrong.
"Sakura, I'm so, SO sorry that I ran into you! It's completely my fault, I wasn't looking where I was going." As he spoke, she continued to gaze at him in those same, cold, almost dead eyes. "How about I buy you some new clothes as an apology? Treat you to some ramen?" Her response stayed the same, just a cold stare. "Come on Sakura, work with me here. How can I make it up to you? What can I do..."
"Stop."
The pink-haired kunoichi said in a demanding tone. "Just stop. I don't care what you have to say. Just. Stop. Nothing you say, nor nothing you do, will 'make it up' to me. You can't 'do' anything to make me happy. I'm NEVER happy around YOU!"
Naruto chose his words carefully. "Sakura, we're a team, and a team..."
"We are NOT a team! We never HAVE been a team! What we did have was a teacher who only taught one student, someone who's left in the dust because she's not as powerful as the rest of group, a loud mouth BRAT, and Sasuke. And now, we don't even have him!"
Hinata stared at the pink haired girl in confusion through her little speech as did most of the people there. Was all of this really about Sasuke? Now that the words finished processing in her mind, the white-eyed girl started to see why the Uchiha was always annoyed by her.
Kiba decided to speak up. "Sakura, just knock it off, we don't have time for this!" Akamaru, who was sitting atop Kiba's head, barked in agreement. Sakura turned towards Kiba and said "You know what he's like. It annoys me that someone can be so damn happy ALL the time. He's like an ADHD kid on crack. He's dumb as shit too. But you know what really bothers me about him? The fact that he's so damn loud that my eardrums shatter is what really pisses me off."
Now Kiba knew that what she said about Naruto was a bit over dramatic, but he can't say he didn't agree with the last two parts. But while he wished Naruto was a little bit quieter and less dense, it wasn't so annoying that he'd bring it up to him. They were friends. He may not be the greatest friend, but at the end of the day you couldn't find anyone with more loyalty than Kiba Inuzuka. "Why can't someone be happy? It's not like he's hurting anyone and with the recent mission failure of ours we could use some morale."
The mission was the one thing that he shouldn't have brought up and when he laid his head on his pillow later that night, he regreted that decision. Sakura didn't care about Kiba at all, she was surprised she even knew his name. But when the the sentence about their mission came up, shit hit the fan. "Why do you feel bad? Shikamaru prepared it well, and he, you, Choji, and Neji fought well from what I heard. Even Lee and that Gaara kid showed up to help fight the fifth guy and they did great. All of you did your part while Naruto lost. I should have known a failure like him could never beat Sasuke."
"Sakura," Shikamaru, the highest rank in the group, attempted to reason with her, "He tried his hardest to bring back the guy that you like, even though Sasuke left on his own. He risked his own life, like we all did, to bring back Uchiha. Sasuke doesn't care about you, or any of us for that matter. I don't know why you can't see that, but we have a meeting to attend so stop being troublesome and let's go before we're late."
The usually cheerful blonde had hit his point. Normally he just let Sakura have her way, but even Naruto has his limits of being nice. "I tried to bring him back. I didn't want to kill him so I held back to bring him in alive. But Sasuke didn't hold back, so he won."
Sakura gave the infamous 'Are You Fucking Serious' look (You readers all know the look!). "Really? Maybe I wasn't clear. GET THIS THROUGH YOUR HEAD! YOU. ARE. WORTHLESS!"
Naruto opened his mouth to respond, but Sakura wasn't having it. "I've heard enough out of you." And she punched him in the back of the head. Naruto was used to this, but Sakura hit the exact spot of his mysterious bruise from this morning. The pain being much more potent than usual resulted in Naruto falling to the ground.
But even now he was not hostile. He had felt hated all of his life and he couldn't bring himself to do it to another person. Even though she deserved it. Several people jumped to Naruto's aid (Kiba, Choji, and Shikamaru) as Sakura looked at her handiwork. Seeing tears flowing down her crush's face, Hinata was filled with sorrow. 'How could she treat Naruto like that, after everything he's done for her?' "You can't do this!"
Sakura looked the girl right in her pupil-less eyes. Like Hinata could do anything to her. Making sure to set an example of her, Sakura walked up to Hinata and punched her in the gut. As she fell to the ground and coughed up a small amount of blood, Sakura coldly stated "I can't do what now?"
Kiba and Shino were very protective of Hinata (for obvious reasons). Three chakra levels spiked up at that moment. Kiba started to grow fangs and Shino's was calling forth his bugs. But the third spike was the biggest and most frightening. All they saw was a blur of red chakra and Sakura hit the ground. Said girl scrambled up to her feet to see an angry Naruto looking at her with red, slit pupils. Said boy, filled with the fox's chakra, grabbed Sakura by the neck and lifted her slightly in the air.
As Sakura was halfway slipping into unconsciousness, Naruto yelled in a demonic voice "IF YOU EVER TOUCH HER AGAIN I'LL GIVE YOU A REASON TO HATE ME!" He threw her to the ground. Getting up quickly, she ran away in fear towards the Hokage Tower. Naruto went back to normal and, helping her up off the ground, asked Hinata "Are you alright?" Hinata looked at him bewildered, responding "Y-y-yeah, I'm ok." Naruto sighed in relief. "That's good."
Now was Hinata's turn to ask him "Are YOU alright?" Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly "Yeah, sorry for scaring you with that. I was just looking out for a friend." Hinata looked at her crush with rosy cheeks. "I'm-m y-your fr-friend?" If she wasn't in pain from Sakura, she likely would have fainted by now.
Naruto gave a foxy grin and said "Of course, you are one of the only people who is nice to me. Even back in the academy, only you, Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba were ever nice to me." Touched at this, and blushing a crimson red, Hinata said with slightly more confidence "Th-thanks for s-standing up f-for me."
"No problem! You would have done the same thing."
Kiba was glad that Hinata was ok but he was still in shock of the red chakra. 'Naruto's chakra is blue, but that red chakra...It was different. More violent.' "Naruto, what the hell was that?" Naruto grew a panicked look "Umm..."
'Think fast Naruto.'
"OH, we have to get to the meeting. COME ON!"
Far away on top of a building, a ninja lands softly on the roof. Four more appear on the roof as well. The first one to land asked his squad-mate "So, is the plan ready Jakkaru?"[1] Jakkaru adressed him "Yes Hokkyokuguma [2], she will be our next target." Another member of the group selfishly proclaimed "I want her first." The fourth man sighed "No Suzuki [3], you idiot, our leader gets to have his way with her first. You got to go first with the last one." Suzuki grumbled "Leader first my ass, Kurohyou [4] won't even use her right." Said leader spoke up "That's enough out of you Suzuki. Thanks Taka." [5] Taka looked at Suzuki with his signature smirk.
"So it's settled. Our target will be Hinata Hyuga."
'The quiet types are always the best' they all thought in unison.
"We will strike tonight."
AN:Oh snap, the people from last night are after poor Hinata! What will happen? Will Hinata be kidnapped? Well, I guess you'll have to keep reading to find out now won't you?
Peace out girl scout!
- FoxFang7
P.S. For the translations below, know that I just threw it in a translator. So if it's wrong, I apologize as I don't speak/read/write Japanese.
[1] Hokkyokuguma = Polar Bear in Japanese
[2] Jakkaru = Jackal
[3] Suzuki = Sea Bass
[4] Taka = Falcon or Hawk, I'm going with Falcon
[5] Kurohyou = Panther
