Chapter 3
Eyes shooting open, there gaze snapped side to side relaxing only when the sullen orange form entered her feilf of vision. Arms and legs crossed in front of him, face stony, and gaze focused straight forward. His Neji-like demeanor was unsettling.
His sudden solitude had changed him for the worst, then again, no one wanted to feel alone, even if they weren't actually alone.
"Naruto-kun, arriving at Rakeun no hone to search for Pakkun will take a while, please let us take shelter in our sister village Suna. It seems to be only a few kilometers away." Remaining silent, Naruto pushed to his feet and carried on in the direction she'd indicated.
She sighed in relief, bittersweet as it was, he wasn't approaching this recklessly as usual. Agreeing with a rather reluctant calmness he held her opinion in high regards and actually followed her suggestions.
The situation had turned grave, yet she couldn't help being thankful to whomever had kept them safe up to this point. Shivering violently, cold chills radiated through her at the thought of the rampage he might have still been in at this moment, had she not stopped him at their village.
He'd already wandered quite far from her but his pace slowed as in sensing her hesitation. She jogged off behind him giving him a small smile.
'Naruto…' His usually tall and brave figure slouched and despondent. She had to cheer him up a bit somehow. Her ability to act on that thought was stolen when something slid around her leg holding firm and pulling her down into the sand.
"N-Naruto!" She called out. Naruto spun rushing back to assist Hinata.
"Hand over everything kid, and we won't hurt your little girlfriend." A voice called out to them. Dangling from the grip of a 10 meter long desert centipede, Hinata pried at the limb that held her firmly above Naruto's reach.
"Dammit." Naruto said pushing his hands together quickly.
"Summoning jutsu!" He called out. Smoke scattered from the summoned being's appearance, Hinata began her heavenly rotation ripping the insect's leg off and dropping harshly on her back. Wasting no time she rolled back over returning to Naruto's side. Glancing down, she found them on the back of a rather humongous teal and brown toad.
Naruto and four or so clones stood beside her, two prepared Naruto's infamous Rasengan, the other springing forth into the smoke to distract the attackers. Once the wind spiral was complete, the other two sprung from the dissipating smoke to attack manipulating the attackers into turning their back to where he was.
"Keep a tight hold Gamahiro." Naruto whispered to the frog. The frog nodded nearly tossing Hinata on flat on her back. She held firmly to the frog as it pulled to swords from its back pointing them in the attacker's direction.
Before Hinata could register the events, how, or when they occurred, the frog was before the centipede impaling him with both his massive swords and Naruto was springing towards him with his Rasengan now a few times bigger than it had been moments ago.
Naruto dropped back to the ground his eyes never leaving the centipede and the men contracted with it.
"Che." Several bursts of smoke left them alone once more the empty threats the men left vanishing.
"I told you." A muffled and trembling voice tickled at her ears. Smoke filled the area and Naruto's toad summon was gone.
"N-Naruto-kun?" She asked cautiously. He spun his eyes narrowed in rage.
"I told you to stay in the village! I told you, you could have gotten hurt! Why do you insist on following me like this?! Why do my friends, my family, everyone I love, why do they all have to die!?" He yelled at her.
She stayed silent and he passed her continuing on in the direction she'd pointed out earlier.
"I don't want to see another friend die. I won't be able to protect you, and I…I just can't have that." He muttered not once looking back at her.
Boredom, it was a relatively simple feeling, relatively easy to attain, and just as easy to cure. Yet somehow, she just could not cure her own. She couldn't leave the house, so she explored the entire building, she knew the layout blindfolded.
Having heard the angry rumbles of her stomach after many hours, she had even made a meal, leaving two servings for her savior, or perhaps captor? She wasn't quite sure yet. She opened the windows looking outside upon the village made from sand.
Some impressive sand castle skills had to have gone into building this.
Looking down onto the busy streets random patches of brown, silver, black, and blonde hair bobbed up and down on their way to homes, work, schools, maybe even darting off for a quick meal.
She sighed. There was somewhere she was supposed to be wasn't there? She knew it by the first glance at herself, but where that was, was beyond her.
She supposed she'd lost all her memories. She hadn't a clue what her name was nor where she was from, not even quite sure how old she was. All she knew at the moment was that she had bright pink hair, was found roaming the desert and she was saved by a rather handsome man in a strange coat.
Another sigh floated from her and she nearly sighed again for sighing so often. Looking out at the village, a desire to jump out and explore overwhelmed her, such a beautifully crafted place filled with such lively, friendly people, she was sure nothing could go wrong.
Instinctively a smile crept on her face and she jumped straight through the window, bursting into a panic mid air. She landed safely on the ground beside the crowd wondering more and more who she had been.
She made her way down the streets doing her best to walk around the crowd rather than through it. Children tottered by playing games in the street and laughing carelessly.
She stopped gazing at a large orb like structure she assumed was the center of the village. People hurried in and out occasionally otherwise it remained relatively quiet and uneventful.
She walked inside tottering through the halls quietly, ignored by the officials that scampered through occasionally.
Her hand found it's way onto the first room she really took notice of. The doors were grandeur and she had the feeling something exciting waited behind them. She pushed the doors open and found a figure in blue and white robes sitting at a desk an absolutely passive face on while an official stamp hovered near his head.
A full head of red hair swayed slightly, the man's eyes slowly sliding up to gaze at her. The beautiful man had spoken but she hadn't heard a think he said.
"Haruno-san." He said again. She jumped. Was that supposed to be her? Gaara just watched her noting to chide his ANBU operatives for such slack security.
"Eh? Oh! I-I'm sorry mister! I was just looking around! Sorry!" She spluttered out slamming the door and running away. She ran all the way back to the room she wasn't supposed to leave. Her savior hadn't returned but at least she wouldn't get scolded.
A harsh glare carried over to the men they'd encountered. By chance they'd found them carrying some rather elderly man about on their shoulder.
It had to be them. It just had to be.
"Where's Sakura! We know you bastards took her! Return her now or I'll kill you!" The hasty threat thrown at the unwelcomed men hovered in the thick silence of the dessert sea. None of the four moved, the wind blew by dragging sand by their skin, scratching and scaring the skin.
"Oh ho! You kill us? You can't kill us stupid boy." The man holding the elder laughed out. Naruto's hands bled his knuckles turning white in frustration.
"Naruto!" Hinata's cries came in whispers watching Naruto stand quietly.
"Give her back!"
'They're right, I can't kill them, we can't kill them, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try. Just you wait Sakura, I'll have you safe in our village again!'
A quick puff of smoke and thousands of shadow clones sprung at the men launching attack after attack, each of which ended with another clone dispersed, yet still they came, The man dropped the elder captive unraveling his sword and bearing it to the two.
"You piss me off! I'm going to let Samehada devour your chakra and kill you the most revoltingly slow way possible." The man baring his sword motioned to swing but was stopped by the sudden extra weight on top.
"What are you doing Itachi?" He bellowed at his teammate. "Just lemme kill these damn kids and we'll get back."
"WE have no time, and they have long lost." Itachi said tearing Kisame from the genjutsu he'd set for all on the field. He collected his partner, their captive and transported elsewhere.
His disappearance left Naruto and Hinata to slump to the ground.
Several hours passed and again the black akatsuki coat shimmered in the distance the immense heat.
Singing both bodies over either shoulder, his figure vanished into a scatter of crows.
The crows gathered into a Small bedroom, of a dark and empty hotel room.
Itachi's eyes darted from left to right before turning towards the window.
"Her disregard of my warning has left you a longer search." He said his body dispersing into crows and his body and presence vanishing.
The door to the small room opened quietly and the young woman's head popped in cautiously.
"Mister?" She whispered into the eery silence. At her voice a groan echoed through the room and her eyes darted to a pile of humans thrown on the small bed She'd woken in that morning.
She glanced about the room deciding to hide before the couple could wake and scold her.
Another groan sounded and the bed's sheets rustled softly while someone stirred.
Another voice mumbled to it's companion.
"Naruto-kun? Where are we?" The gentle voice called.
The other voice remained quiet.
"Naruto-kun, what is the matter?" the sweet voice called.
"That was our last hope, days have passed and still nothing from my messenger toads. Pakkun and Kakashi-sensei, have not been found. They were the last lead we had. I couldn't save her. I cant save anyone." The deeper voice whispered out harshly.
Something about the voices tugged at the back of her mind. They were so familiar, could they maybe be the ones she was with? A sudden shuffling of sheets was heard and the two fell quiet. She decided she wouldn't reveal herself until they ended their chat.
"Hinata-chan...why did you-"
"You know, years have passed since I first began admiring you, s-since I-I started loving you. Y-You taught me that giving up was weak, th-that getting back up was your nindo. I-I respected you s-so much, even t-took on your nindo, y-you have saved me m-multiple times from the darkness I allowed to eat away at myself. B-But it is my turn now. I-I l-love you U-Uzumaki Naruto. A-And I will not let you g-give up on yourself or on S-Sakura." She couldn't help but blush in her little hiding spot. What an intense conversation.
"I-If...If you truely l-loved Sakura-san, you wouldn't s-surrender so quickly, I-I-If you h-had been the one t-to go missing Naruto, I-I-I would h-have searched until death himself st-stood in my path. Because I-I love you." The voice finished off shakily. Quiet sobs tickled at her ears occasionally as the room fell into a thick silence.
"Why would you go so far to help the woman I love, when you yourself also love me?" The man asked quietly.
The woman's sobs deepened.
"I...I'm the reason she's gone. I'm the reason Sakura-chan went missing." She nearly jumped from her hiding place. That had to be her they were searching for!
"Wha-" An angry knock shook the door .
"Oi! You bastards! Check out time was hours ago! Get the fuck out and pay your damn bills!" He bellowed out. Silence followed. She could hear a window slide open and the two left the room.
She sat there petrified. The man continued to bang at the door angrily.
"Gimme the damn key, I'm gonna kick their asses!" She heard the angry man shout. No other escape she rushed to the opened window and jumped out right after them.
A sigh floated out of her mouth in a hot fog of air against the cool dessert night. Here she was once again wandering the streets of the unknown village, but this time, she'd no where to return to. She looked up finding herself at the center of the village again.
"What now..." She whispered. She'd lost the couple from the room, she'd lost the man who'd rescued her, there was no where to turn. She hadn't a shrivel of memory to go by.
"Ehh? Ah! Haruno-san! What brings you to Sunagakure?" A kind voice asked from behind her. She spun hoping to add a familiar face to the voice but only found a rather tall blonde woman a few years older than her.
"Excuse me, am I the one you are speaking with?" She asked cautiously.
"Of course idiot! Who else has bright pink hair and green eyes!" She had a point. The elder woman grabbed her hand pulling her into the building.
"I'm actually just picking up Gaara and Kankuro to head home. If you haven't found a place to stay please don't hesitate to stay with us." She offered with a smile.
She supposed that was an offer she had no room to refuse. She was pulled into the grandeur office through the large double doors she'd wandered through earlier.
"Oh no don't go in there I don't think he wants to be distu-" She tried when the door was pushed open slowly from the inside.
"Temari, you are late, let us go." The man said. She looked over and found the same red headed man from earlier. He glanced over at her with a quick raise of his eye brow and looked back at Temari for explanation.
Had someone finally tried to implement some form of security?
"Ahh Haruno-san is in town for whatever reason, I invited her to stay with us, she seemed a bit down anyway." She told the man walking off in the direction they had come. The man followed quietly as Temari spoke.
"Who is that? Actually who are you? Or rather who am I?" Sakura asked slowly one after the other.
"What? What do you mean? Why all the strange questions?" The woman asked giving her a queer stare.
"That's Gaara remember? The Kazekage? And Temari, his older sister? And who are you? What are you getting old or something Haruno? Your Haruno of course, the same thing I've been calling you the whole time." Temari argued in confusion.
"Temari, we are stopping at the hospital before we head home, something is clearly wrong with Mrs. Haruno." Gaara said from behind them. Temari nodded in agreement and they quickly changed their direction.
"It seems she suffered an incredible blow to the to the head and it also seems like the little memory she would have had after awakening were erased. She was left with only speech and motor skills." A man clad in a long white jacket offered with a smile.
"She will be perfectly fine, but whether or not the memories return, is completely up to her and whatever happened to her remaining memories."
Temari sighed a slight smile on her face as Sakura tottered up to her. In a corner Gaara lurked watching the females' interactions.
"Well I suppose it is well and good that you're mostly alright." Temari offered glancing back at Gaara.
"I suppose we can go home now. In a few days I will be heading out to Konohagakure for the diplomatic meetings, while I am there I will pass word that Sakura has been found here." Temari left the room quickly followed by Sakura, and Gaara followed at his own pace.
They arrived rather quickly to the large almost mansion like home that the kazekage and his family lived in.
"Make your self at home." Temari said. Kankuro wandered by fiddling with what looked to be a head of some sort.
"Yo." He tossed over his shoulder not even looking at them. Temari sighed and Gaara sauntered down a hallway without a word.
"So I'll give you a quick tour then I have to go take care of dinner." Sakura followed closely behind the older woman noting the rooms that were allowed and that were not. Gaara's room the one right beside her was not so much off limits as advised not to enter, especially at night.
Sakura smiled thanking Temari for showing her around and made her way to the room beside Gaara's to inspect her room. A light peach color with a large and heavenly bed with a personal Japanese bath and American shower. She nearly fainted, this was a guest room?
She left the room closing the door quietly to meander about the halls of the relatively large home. She stopped before a room Temari had said was a library, she felt like she could curl up with a good book right now. Pushing the large door open she found herself in between massive rows upon rows of books from cooking to ancient history of Suna.
She smiled jumping on a ladder quickly to grab a few books. She crept to the furthest corner from the door sat down amongst some conveniently placed pillows and cracked a book open. Engrossed in her reading she looked up to close her fifth book when her eyes caught the clock.
She'd already missed eating whatever Temari had prepared. She sighed, she wasn't much hungry anyway she didn't mind. She opened another book giddy to get started.
There you go, I'm hoping that was pretty long for you :) Please enjoy.
