Reviewers;

Czar Joseph: Well, I felt like little rock creatures in the movie was really weird, and yet they know magic? To me, a sealing family having books and the know-how has a better chance at helping Naruto. For now, it'll be pretty much a better giant version of 'do you want to build a snowman, area of the movie.

Duh Bomb: Your poems, while short, sum up my chapters really well. You should make them your profiles for stories you suggest to others.

PinkFox245: Well, I suppose I do owe you an update, so here you are PK.

7th Demon of Razgriz: I knew you'd say that.

DaNightsTemplar: It took a bit to get back, but with you all as my readers, I couldn't ask for more encouragement.

JayK24: For being young, most people start facing things like this around their age of 15-18. It marks a time when feelings swirl around and some are hidden from the conscious thoughts. For my stories, I thought about it so hard. But- I had already started to write this, so I couldn't really stop, could I?

AN: Hey all, and thank you for waiting for this third chapter. I know you're used to my rapid updates, but urgent business and second half of college demand more attention, but I still post these to hear what you have for me. So, now that Naruto's memories are gone, I wonder what will change? Well, I suppose we'll find out, now, won't we?

Fire & Ice

Arc 1: Conceal It

Chapter 3: The Fear of Magic

Three days passed since the event when Sakura stabbed into her servant Naruto with her blossoming magic and now he laid asleep in his bed from within the castle walls. His breathing was shallow but steady, and he slowly got better, as his eyes stayed closed and away in the world of eternal sleep. And at his bedside, Sakura sat on a chair, her head using his teenage chest as a pillow, holding and placing his hand between her breasts as she listened to his steady heartbeat; in it was her only safe refuge from her own heart's ache. Sakura knew that it might look confusing and even not acceptable to the guards and other servants, but she refused to leave Naruto's side. Still, her eyes lay open after three days beside his sleeping face.

To think, she had been ready to give Naruto everything that she was, and now she was told that these feelings she held within could not be received at all. She had been coerced into lying to Naruto on his deathbed, promising him that she would be waiting for him, and now he would have to love another, forever lost to her. That thought alone scared Sakura; that meant her love for him had to die so that Naruto himself could live.

What his parents had told her was that Naruto would still have his memories of their times together, but the magic was no longer there and the part with magic erased into his subconscious. But emotions were different; and Sakura had admitted to their kissing before the stabbing, so there was a chance that Naruto could still love her, right? But that tiny chance of love could not be.

Kushina had apologized to her and explained to her that even a simple kiss between them could trigger a relapse and so they couldn't do that at all. The memory of her first kiss was only that, a memory, and one that Naruto no longer had. Sakura had cried the first day over that; only she had her feelings anymore, and Naruto was on reset. She had to treat him like a servant, a simple commoner, when all she wanted to do was to wrap her arms around him and kiss him and make love with him. And now her very magic was preventing that from happening! it was now her crutch!

Sakura sat up and reached up to Naruto's forehead and took off the dry towel that lay on it. She turned her upper torso to the water bowl on his bedside table and dropped the towel in to wet it once again, leaving Naruto's hand lightly gripping her waist. As Sakura placed the wet towel back on Naruto's forehead, she stared at her white gloves that hid her hands and fingers from view.

She had never wore these gloves in front of Naruto. Always off, so that he could kiss her knuckles and adore her hands which Sakura thought were too small, but which Naruto assured her was just the right size. As a common servant though, he wasn't allowed to see her hands anymore, and his duties had to change. A single slip up in her bedroom from changing or practicing could kill Naruto, and she'd rather he live and find another love than die because of her.

Naruto groaned and Sakura stopped to stare at him as he finally, after three days, opened his cerulean ocean eyes. They still held the magical sheen to them and yet, unlike all other times, Sakura held back a fearful panic attack. That magic had almost killed him, and was just waiting for her to screw up, waiting for her misery in the shadows, and Naruto would be her eternal punishment.

Naruto moved a bit until he saw the Princess's white gloved hand on his shoulder, keeping him from getting up. He looked over to see her eyes glazed in barely held in tears. Naruto smiled, and Sakura smiled back.

"Good morning, My Lady."

What? Sakura thought. My Lady? No. Naruto had said that when he was eight when he first met the princess and then Sakura yelled at him in her childish voice and demanded he call her Hime, and then later on Sakura. Why not just plain old Sakura? Like old childhood friends who loved the other and- Oh…..

"H-how are you, Naruto?"

"A little sore, but I'll be back and ready to serve you in no time, My Lady."

Another twitch in Sakura's left eye moved. She'd have to get used to this. This wasn't the Naruto she grew up with. This Naruto did not know her secret and therefore she had to hide it from him just as she hid it from all the others that did not know.

"G-good. Well, I'll let you sleep." Sakura nodded to him and stood up, moving to leave the room quickly, but as her gloved hands touched the handles, she was stopped as Naruto spoke out.

"My Lady? Did you care for me while I was asleep?"

Sakura held herself back from smiling, nodding, and just plain hugging him. She hadn't left this room in three days, except to go to the bathroom. Her clothes had been changed and she had bathed herself in Naruto's bath to keep clean and everything, but he couldn't think she was caring for him. Not...One...Bit.

"N-no Naruto. I only came to check on you, and you awoke."

"Oh…I thought there was water on your gloves."

"I…I checked your temperature…nothing more…"

"I see…Thank you, My Lady."

Sakura walked off and barely opened the door before slipping through and closing it behind her. Tears fell down her face as Sakura leaned against Naruto's door and looked across the hall to where her own bedroom door stood. She should have him moved to another hall, or out of the castle completely, but she needed him close. After all, this was only until Sakura mastered her growing powers. Then she would heal Naruto completely, his memories would return, and they'd live happily ever after! Right!

But until then, Sakura let her tears fall as she silently choked back her own sobs.

The next day, Sakura stood in her bedroom, in a red gown that matched her mother's. It was a normal royal day in Port Haruno, but the family had finished the meeting with the people early so that they could practice. Luckily it was still winter, but the King and Queen wore their winter coats over their clothes as the balcony doors were closed and the hallway was sealed.

"Okay, Sakura. You have the instructions for what to do. Try them." Yuki Haruno explained to her daughter from five feet away. Sakura looked at the distance warily. Last time, Naruto was ten feet away and she appeared next to him with her arm in his gut, and claws on her fingers. What if it happened again?

"Um, can't I…wait a bit?"

"Daughter," Maki Haruno, the King, chided his child. "You must practice and master this for the good of your own safety."

"But can't you leave? I-…don't want to hurt you."

"You won't dear. We believe in you." Maki insisted.

"Come on try it." Yuki encouraged, smiling at her daughter.

Sakura nodded warily, her eyes a little apprehensive, but felt inside her for her magic that ran within her very veins. Sakura crinkled her nose a bit; her magic hadn't just grown, it had multiplied. She didn't know how, but she felt like her magic had tripled since that night and she felt it dividing to create more.

Sakura breathed out and her gold red fire magic erupted from her left hand. Sakura groaned at the speed of it. It was faster than usual too. Sakura's fire moved out of her hand and moved to look like a magic saber, almost three feet long, and almost touched the floor before Sakura stopped her magical flow and the fire died.

"Sakura, why did you stop?"

"It felt weird…" Sakura insisted, hoping that she could just stop.

"Try again."

Sakura nodded and this time, an icy flurry of wind dripped from her right hand, and fell to the floor in a frozen lump of ice. Sakura squeaked as it almost hit her foot and jumped back. "I didn't mean for that!"

"It's okay. Try. Concentrate." Her parents encouraged.

Sakura nodded again and let the flame in her left hand and the icy gust in her right out again. This time, they were more controlled with the fire saber shorter and the the gust flowing within a saber small length, and so Sakura smiled after a minute of them remaining steady and looked happily to her parents. "I'm doing it!"

"Good Job, sweetheart!" Her mother cooed and Sakura smiled and shot her arms upwards. Sakura suddenly felt another snap in her gut and gasped as the fire and gust flew off her hands and collided together, before the gust blew outwards and the fire exploded in a deadly explosion all around her.

After a single second, Sakura stopped her magic as best she could and like a dam, the fire slowly died out, but the gust continued to lightly blow around the room. Sakura looked to her parents and held back a sob as her mother lay on the ground, holding her shoulder as tears fell down her face. A huge burn mark lay wrapped around her arm.

Sakura ran forward towards her mother, and hugged her with her father." I'm sorry, Mother! Here, I'll heal it. You'll be better in no time." Sakura smiled as her green magic formed on her hand and as she touched her mother's wound, her mother sighed in relief for a second.

Then her mother screamed the next second later and Sakura withdrew her hand as ice formed along her mother's arm, encasing the burn in a layer of ice. Sakura shook her head as she hastily moved backwards.

Sakura tripped on the chair and moved to hold one of her bedposts. As her fingers touched the wood however, the ice formed again and froze the post completely in less than three seconds. Sakura screamed the sudden freeze and backpedaled to lean against the curtains to the balcony, when her hand touched the curtains and suddenly they were ablaze with yellow fire.

Sakura continued to freak out as her magic froze and began to burn around the room, and as Sakura hit the corner of the room, she saw her mother moving towards her. "D-don't Mother." Sakura whispered and as she spoke, her magic reacted on its own, as the floor around her to her parents froze in a thick layer of ice, ragged and razor sharp, as the furniture around the room, smoked and began to burn a path that made getting to the princess almost impossible.

Tears baked Sakura's face as she held her face in her hands, and croaked as her own face wasn't melting or freezing at all! Sakura cried and cried, as her parents just stood there, looking worried for their daughter. And as they did, Sakura curled into herself, he knees tucked up to her chin and looked around herself as the sun slowly set on the day and darkness surrounded her.

One month passed, and Naruto breathed in the fresh air from the window as he placed on his black and red jacket to start his day. It wasn't much of a day. Naruto stepped out of his bedroom and looked around the empty hallway and sighed. "Sakura should be guarded more than this-"

Geez…What do I think of Her Lady as Sakura? I can't call her that! Naruto voiced inside, as he made his way over to His Lady's doorway and knocked on the door. He had tried his key to begin his duties once more three weeks ago, and found that the lock had been changed. Then he was told by Sakura that she could change herself from now on.

Naruto was proud of her, but this change was so sudden and it was like...she didn't want him around her as much as before his riding accident in the courtyard a month ago. Naruto knocked and as usual, there was no response.

"My Lady? It's time to get up!"

"Okay…" A muffled voice sounded on the other side, and Naruto knocked again.

"...Can you let me in?" Naruto asked, hoping to still be let in after Sakura finished changing as his usual routine over the last month.

"No…" Her Lady's voice sounded hurriedly on the other side, like she was scared or something.

"Why not? I need to clean your room." Naruto insisted.

"…You're not allowed in here anymore."

Well, that was sudden. Naruto thought as he knocked on the door again. "Come on, My Lady. You're scaring me. I can have your breakfast here in a bit."

"I-I'm not hungry."

"Of course you are. Just open the door and-"

"No!"

"Saku- My Lady!" Naruto bit his tongue and cursed inside.

"Just-…Leave it at the door."

"…Okay, My Lady. I'll get it now." Naruto sighed in defeat and moved off to get her breakfast.

Sakura heard Naruto's feet retreating from the door and cried back into her knees. Her eyes were as black as could be from lack of sleep. Insomnia had plagued her for what was now two weeks if she could really trust the visions of the rising and setting sun from her balcony window, and she refused to come to court to greet the people who came to see and adore her.

Everything she touched became coated with her magic and she just didn't want to hurt anyone! Her father now had a burn mark that matched her mother's across his neck when a stray flame had shot around the room, and almost slit his throat, and so, Sakura kept herself in here, and she had the only key to this room. Not even her parents could get in to see her, but like Naruto, they stayed on the other side of the door, talking to her to encourage her and try to comfort her in all that they could.

Sakura sniffled as her nose grew wet. It was only because of their words that she got what sleep she could, but she couldn't risk hurting them! Sakura looked around her and felt so lost. In a ring around her, ragged spikes of ice surged everywhere in random directions, even to within a few inches of her own body. These spikes coated the entirety of her room, from the floor to the walls, and even blocking her view from her balcony windows since last night.

The light of the sun barely flickered through the ice to light the room in a cold glow as sporadic fires burned freely around the room, its light sucking in the light more than giving it. Sakura looked to her bed, once majestic and beautiful, now sliced apart, the canopy caved in and cut down, the bedposts burned and charred and still smoking, and finally, her silk sheets cut to ribbons from various encounters when Sakura first slept.

And so, even as the sun came up, and the smell of breakfast came from the single crack in the doors from where Naruto stood watch over her, Sakura cried silently in the darkness, listening to Naruto as he talked to her about absolutely nothing, pulling her heartstrings tighter, as the darkness in her life crept ever closer towards her mind, body, and soul.

AN2: So, what should I do next? Was it angst enough for you all?