Chapter 7
Changing Dynamics
"Say, Naruto, what are we doing here?" Sakura asked, as they noiselessly walked on the earthy ground beneath them. The forest was particularly quiet on that particular day, with the occasional crunch of rustled leaves as the two trudged on in the tree covered environment. It was the perfect day for an outing, Sakura surmised, as her eyes darted all over the place taking in the features of the area.
"See here, my name is not Naruto, its Yami," the red eyed man said in a defiant tone as he walked beside the pink haired girl. It was the umpteenth time that she had referred to him by the name of the man inside him at the moment, and somehow it irked him that she wasn't referring to him by his proper name. As the retort escaped his lips however, a small doubt in his mind told him that Sakura would pay no heed to it. His initial thought was of course, that she was turning a deaf ear to him, but the more he pondered on it, the more he realized that perhaps Sakura still saw him as the original Naruto. Well, it wasn't exactly unexpected; she and Naruto shared an unbreakable bond after all.
Coming to this realization, Yami decided to reply to his earlier question, seeing that it would help in progression of the conversation," This is the place where we first talked, Sakura."
Sakura turned to face him, a curious expression adorned on her face. "Really?" She asked in a voice that mirrored her facial expression at the moment. The two then stopped at the bottom of a tree. The tree itself had been fitted with a ladder along its surface, which led upwards into an old compartment. Looking up at the tree house, Sakura felt an old memory stir within her, though it still remained a vague feeling and something that she could not quite place her finger on. Beside her, her companion had already proceeded climbing up the tree, after checking for the initial firmness of the ladder and making sure it was still sturdy. Once he had gotten into the house, it did not take Sakura long to follow suit after him, although her first thought after entering the age old compartment was that it needed a bit of cleaning. Dust still lingered in the air, dispersed by the rays of sunlight that permeated the house from the openings in the sides, which served as the windows. The walls of the house were littered with moss at set places, and the floor as well, but luckily enough, there were still some clean spots, and the duo proceeded to make themselves comfortable near one of the wooden walls of the compartment. The floor creaked slightly underneath their initial pressure, but soon enough silence reigned again in the house, allowing the two to continue their earlier conversation in peace.
In her current position, Sakura's eyes darted throughout the empty house, as if looking for something that would help her jogs her memory enough to remember. She knew that she had been here again in the past, but as to when she still could not remember. Luckily for her, Yami noticed her antics, deciding to clear her doubts. He huffed a little, and then said in his usual curt voice, "You remember the small boy called Yota? We used to come here and hang out with him as kids during lunchtime in the Academy."
Sakura's eyes widened a little as they refocused themselves on the man seated next to her, in a show of realization. A small 'Oooh' escaped her lips in kind, and she said to Yami," Oh yeah, there was a boy like that wasn't there? It's been so long, and a lot of stuff has happened since then, so it kind of slipped my mind." She giggled nervously in embarrassment, a small pang of guilt escaping her at the realization that she had forgotten about one of her first friends in her youth.
"But still, there were plenty of other places to choose from, right? Why did you bring me here exactly?" Sakura persisted in the conversation, intending to wash away her earlier pang of guilt. Yami smiled a little at her, then said, this time in a more relaxed voice than his usual curt voice," Fair point. Well, the truth is, I want to kind of start over with you. Like from ground zero, since well, my circumstances are kind of different and all."
"Start over you says," Sakura asked, tilting her head to one side in confusion. She did not quite fathom what he meant by that, but not entirely. "That might not be quite as easy as you put it. Things are different, I agree, but they are also different from back then. We've both changed…."
"Well I know that first-hand, of course, Sakura, so tell me how exactly I've changed from back then," Yami said, with this closing the distance between him and the pink haired Medic a little. Sakura became dangerously aware of how close they were now, since he could stretch out and hold her hand if he wanted, effectively causing her cheeks to stain slightly crimson. Still, she was able to compose herself, clearing her throat and saying, "If you really must know, however, it's that, I never really told you but back then, your face would always be flushed whenever you were around me, plus you would turn into a nervous wreck as well." Ironically enough, even if Sakura had been able to form a coherent reply then, she averted her eyes away from Naruto's crimson gaze, since she was not all sure about looking at him with the close proximity they now shared.
An extra thought then flashed in Sakura's mind back then, prompting her to ask the blonde man," By the way, Naruto, why did you use to act that way back then?" She had not given it much thought, since back then Naruto was the most annoying kid she knew so she knew better than to get involved with him, but since the matter had resurfaced in the present it was a good a time as any to know. Additionally, there were some things that Sakura felt needed to remain where they had been left, in this case the past.
Yami listened patiently to the girl, his eyes constantly shifting from her to his front, and once he was sure that she was done talking, he decided to reply. It was an answer that he had not expected after all, but he nonetheless found it amusing since it brought back a certain sense of nostalgia. He slowly extricated himself from the sitting position he had taken beside the girl, taking Sakura slightly aback, but before she could manage to recompose herself in time, Yami had placed himself in front of her. Her heart skipped a beat as she became aware of how intently he was looking at her at the moment, now in a position where he could see how much she was struggling to keep her gaze averted from him. The fact that he sported crimson eyes at the moment, whilst still in Naruto's body, helped little, as she felt his current glare a tad more intense than when he was with his usual cerulean eyes.
He smirked a little at her current predicament and then said, in a slightly upbeat manner, "To tell you the truth, I had the biggest crush on you back then, so there were times where I used to get nervous about approaching you." This response surprised Sakura, so much that she found herself staring into his red eyes moments later, her earlier sense of fluster abated. Her mouth was slightly parted, her mind reeling with what she had just been told and her eyes regarding the man before her to see if there was any hint of a lie in what he had just told her. From what she could see, however, he still retained his calm disposition, as if trying to display the genuine nature of his confession. And why wouldn't he be? Sakura was well aware of Naruto's affections for her, she had been for a while now, and however, she was not sure when exactly they had started. It made her slightly curious, if she were to be entirely honest with herself. Perhaps this was the answer she had been looking for a while now.
"You're…lying," the words were out before she could stop them, expressing the small doubt that still lingered in her mind. Somehow the whole matter seemed a deal too good, since she had to remind herself that Naruto wasn't, well, currently himself at the moment. There was still the minuscule chance that the new Naruto would be lying to her, although for what benefit exactly she could not say.
Inside Yami, of course, the reaction from the real Naruto strangely enough, mirrored that of his teammate outside. His eyebrows were arched slightly; his hands folded at his chest, as a small "Wha-"idly escaped his mouth. He had never exactly wanted to reveal to Sakura something like that, as he thought of it as a ridiculously trivial matter. They were well past that point in their childhood, and besides, he had no qualms over what had happened back then, since he was sure that he had done every action possible to display his affections for the pink haired girl. To Naruto, actions spoke louder than words.
"Besides," Sakura continued, this time in a slightly subdued voice. Yami batted one of his eyes in mild surprise. Had he said something that unbelievable? He let the girl continue, curious as to what she was going to deny his affirmations with this time," there was nothing that was attractive about me back then. There would be no reason for you to develop a crush on me!" Her voice sounded extremely flustered at the moment, making Yami wonder whether he may have said too much.
To this last statement, Yami closed his eyes slowly, then wordlessly, slightly leaned his torso forward to place a kiss on the pink haired girl's forehead. The feel of his lips on her forehead made Sakura widen her eyes in surprise, as she also became aware of the heat emanating from the man before her. If she wanted to, she could reach out her hand and touch him, but it was hardly the time for that. Her insides squirmed with heat as she hastily pushed her body backwards, separating herself from Yami. Yami looked at her with slightly widened eyes, but the small smirk on his face portrayed the amusement he felt from Sakura's reaction just then. Honestly, this girl was way too many levels of interesting.
Placing her hand to her forehead, Sakura could feel the slightly wet feeling that lingered from Yami's impromptu kiss, causing her cheeks to erupt with a new wave of scarlet. Her insides squirmed a little more this time as she realized that what had happened just then was by no means a fluke or a figment of her imagination. Focusing on the man before her with her emerald eyes, she asked him, in a slightly high pitched tone, "What…..what did you do that for?!" Haruno Sakura did not take kindly to people openly referring attention to her most insecure feature, her large forehead, but somehow with Naruto she felt as if she could not get her usual fits of anger with him. She was still overwhelmed by the fact that he had kissed her forehead, something that she had wanted Uchiha Sasuke to do to her in the past, but with time that had become but a fleeting fantasy.
Her flustered tone just then only served to amuse the red eyed man more, as he chuckled softly," Heeh, so you have this side to you as well. In case you haven't realized, I just answered your earlier question. Or was it one?" His chuckle stopped momentarily then gave way to a smirk, "That's one thing I really liked about you back then."
The pink haired Medic still regarded the man before her with widened eyes, her hand still placed on her forehead and shifting uncomfortably in her current position. Inside Yami, however, a certain blue eyed man could not exactly admit to being happy at what his dark counterpart had done just then. His eyes were fixated in the roof his current compartment and his hands were folded at his chest as he tapped on his elbow repeatedly. "You bastard….." he mused under his breath.
"Pipe the fuck down man; I know you've always wanted to do that. I just saved you much needed trouble," Yami remarked to him, clearly aware of the growing irritation Naruto was feeling. He was finding far too much amusement with Sakura at the moment to be preoccupied with his host's whims, which in themselves were petty.
In the cage next to Naruto, the Nine Tails nodded in affirmation, keeping both his eyes closed," Can't argue with that, kit."
Restoring his attention to the girl before him, who had considerably calmed down by then and looked to be in a calm disposition, Yami said in a slightly sleazy manner," Wanna know more about what I liked you back then?"
The pink haired girl knew that continuing this discussion would churn on further embarrassment in her, so she had to stop this charade as soon as she could. She could not deny that she felt elated at the fact that there was someone in her childhood who at least paid some form of attention to her, no matter how much of a self-centered kid she was, but somehow this did not feel the time to pursue this conversation. Removing her hand from her forehead and restoring it to her side, she decided to change the flow of things," And me…..what do you think has changed about me since back then?" It seemed a silly question at first, but since Sakura had been trying to change herself for the better, she wanted to know whether there were any discernible differences from back then.
Yami returned to his original seating position, his hands now folded at his chest as he closed his eyes and released a low hum. He tilted his head from side to side, trying to think of how to answer the question that had been posed to him. Sakura watched him, as she made herself comfortable on her new position, biting her lower lip as she braced herself over what answer she would receive. Normally, if it were Naruto, of course, she would not be as jittery, but this was a side of him she had never seen before. Of course she would be nervous.
Opening his eyes and keeping them focused idly in the air around him, Yami responded," Hmm, if there was one thing that changed, it was that we talk more comfortably now than back then, plus you don't consider me a plague anymore." He then flashed a grin at her, unaware of the shock that he had sent through Sakura's body with that one remark. The pink haired girl stared at him numbly. She could not tell whether the grin that he was showing her at that moment was genuine or sarcastic, but coupled with his reply, it seemed to lean more to the latter. Never had she expected Naruto to tell her something so bluntly, and with such a mocking expression to boot. Normally she would have already lashed out at him with a good punch or two to the head and laugh off the entire matter as one of his jokes, but this time, she found herself unable to react in any manner. Sakura knew, she had for a long time now, that she had treated Naruto horribly in the past, and it was something that still haunted her to date. Even if things had improved tremendously between them, a small part of her reminded her daily of how she was a mean person to the one who treated her best in the world, and she resolved that she would never ever put him in such a position again. Hearing such a thing from his mouth currently riddled her with guilt, such that she was rendered speechless for a few minutes.
"You know….it was just…my feelings for Sasuke back then blinded me how nice of a person you were," Sakura uttered weakly. Why am I trying to justify myself? I already hurt him back then, doing this now won't change anything. "Although I didn't particularly how you used to perform pranks on anyone and everyone back then," she adds in a tone indicating finality, but her voice was a tad more confident this time. At least she could vouch for herself in the second part of her statement.
"You say that, but didn't you secretly like some of his pranks, like the one he did to Kakashi-sensei on your first day as Team Seven," Naoki spoke up, alerting Sakura to her Inner personality's presence. It had been a while since she had heard her speaking. Her heart almost leapt into her mouth from the sudden surprise, but she did her best to hide it from the red eyed man sharing her company. "Idiot, why did you appear now?! Don't you see I'm in the middle of something here?" Sakura reprimanded Naoki. The inner girl shook her head in dismay, then said, "Sure, if being in a dilemma counts as something noteworthy. True to Naoki's words, the air in the tree house had become filled with tension, and the man before her seemed not too eager to speak anytime soon. He looked as if he were spurring her to speak up, wondering what excuses Sakura would come up with. This realization did not make the pink haired girl feel any better.
"You know it would be better if you were just honest and apologized, right?" Naoki told her host, bored as to why she was not going for the most veritable route. A simple hearty apology would obviously suffice, but Haruno Sakura wasn't exactly that simple of a girl. "It's not that easy," the Medic responded to her inner voice, in a subdued tone like earlier that displayed her currently down spirits. The Inner girl looked at her for a few minutes, choosing not to say anything, before she finally said, "If you can't apologize now, you can always find another time, I guess. I mean I think it will really help the current tense situation between you two, my own opinion anyway."
Opposite the pink haired girl, Yami arched an eyebrow in surprise, finding himself mildly surprised as to what his ears had caught on to. He smirked under his breath, pleased as to what he had discovered, keeping his eyes fixed on Sakura, who seemed to be slightly distracted. She did her best to hide it, of course, but one thing she was not aware of was that Yami was slightly more observant than Naruto when it came to picking up on subtleties like what the Medic was currently doing. "There's no mistake. This girl….."The smirk on his face gave way to a slightly mischievous smile, which went unnoticed by the blue eyed man in him.
Sakura had concluded her conversation with her inner self, partially glad for the small distraction as she was given a chance to calm herself down, but once brought back to the situation at hand; she realized that she was still unsure of how to proceed. She needed more time to cool off. "Uh, Naruto, I'm sorry about this but I need to get back to work," she said to the red eyed man, in as coherent a voice as she could muster. This is okay. The way I am now, I can't even hold a proper conversation with him.
With that, she exited the cabin without as much as a backward look, leaving in her wake an extremely amused person. Still, he could not hide his slight disappointment that the conversation had ended up a tad bit prematurely, so he rubbed the back of his head with one hand. "Aw man, she left. And I still wasn't done talking to her," he shot a glance backwards to the entrance of the tree house, where only a faint breeze was heard, as he reveled in the emptiness of the room. Plus there's still the matter of the voice I heard coming from her earlier….
Naruto, on the other hand, was absolutely livid with the man. Throwing his hands in the air and letting out a curse, he voiced, in a slightly raised tone, "You done fucked up now, you know. Now I'm sure she'll never talk to me again because of you! Ah, what should I do?!' He proceeded to scratch both sides of his head with his hands in a show of panic, fearing that his Dark counterpart might have gone a little bit too far in the conversation with the pink haired girl. If that was the case, then it would take a long time to repair the broken relationship between him and Sakura. The cerulean eyed man shuddered at the thought of what would happen the next time he would try to approach Sakura, well, in his normal state this time.
"Calm down, Naruto, don't get your knickers in a twist," Yami voiced to the man, trying to ebb away the worst of the man's fears. He wasn't particularly worried like Naruto, of course, but one thing he knew is that he needed to find Sakura as soon as possible before she returned to her working station. What she had said to excuse herself had been a white lie that he had seen through; however, originally he was the one who had taken her from her tent impromptu. Her going back was completely justified at that point.
The blue eyed man did not want to hear any of Yami's prattle at the moment. "I don't wear any knickers!" He protested, his clenched fist shooting at thin air above him.
"It was a metaphor you half-wit," the Nine Tails remarked from inside his cage, this time one of his eyes open as Naruto's loud protests had robbed him any chances to sleep, for what was the umpteenth time that day. The great Fox was almost getting used to the intrusions upon his napping time. He released a sigh in exhaustion, then talked to the person outside," So, what will you do now? The little Missus is gone." The tone of his voice sounded slightly dead beat, but he continued," Or that's enough for the day?" He inquired upon the man.
The blonde man got off the wooden surface he was seated on, shaking the dust off his clothes. Without a further word to the two within him, he set off back in the direction of the village, intending to chase after the pink haired girl. Luckily enough, they had not ventured too far into the forest with Sakura, so a few minutes later of leaping through trees and branches, he found himself at the edge of the forest and the village was a stone's throw away. Before he could take off from the tree he was on and graces the village with his presence once more, however, Naruto spoke up to him once more.
"Wait," his voice was calm this time, a stark contrast to how livid he had sounded before. He had managed to recollect his composure once more, luckily, relieving the Nine Tails. Yami paused in mid motion as he was about to leap off a tree. "There might be ANBU still lurking around in the village. And you know that at the moment you aren't exactly a face that's wanted in the village, right?" He voiced his concerns to the red eyed man, who listened intently. That did not stop him from leaping off the tree and entering the village square though, having seen a faint shade of pink in the street ahead of him, that was quite populated. Naruto was bewildered, and just as he was about to protest once more, the red eyed man cut him off hastily," It's okay. None of them are around. I just saw Sakura a few paces ahead of her. If they were still here they would have already confronted her and taken her to the Interim Hokage. They probably went to search outside the village.
The distance between Yami and Sakura decreased by the minute, unknown to the girl before him as she simply walked on nonchalantly, in no hurry to return to her working station. Just as he was about to take a few more steps to reach her, however, his attention was diverted to the crowd of nearby girls that were giggling and enjoying each other's company. He paused, regarding the girls, an idea springing into his mind.
"What's wrong? Why did you stop?" Naruto asked the man, a bit disappointed as Sakura was literally in front of them but the red eyed man had paused prematurely.
Yami smiled a little mischievously, then said to the blue eyed man," I just thought of something golden." With that, he proceeded walking towards the group of girls, much to Naruto's confusion and Kyuubi's feigned boredom. He realized moments earlier what the red eyed man was planning to do, something which he did not exactly find intriguing. Naruto, on the other hand, was growing increasingly confused the nearer Yami inched to the girls," What are you planning to do?" He asked the man a bit weakly; sure that he would not love the answer one bit.
"Just something to spice things up a little," Yami remarked confidently, as he called on the attention of the girls. The effect was instantaneous. Squeals and giggles erupted into the air as the crowd of girls flocked around Naruto, or at least, who they thought was Naruto, the village hero. The red eyed man shot smiles at each of them, who seemed to now be in a competition as to who was going to converse to the man first.
"Uh….." Naruto said, still lost as to what Yami said.
"Will you learn to read the situation a bit more you numbskull? Basically what I'm doing is just using the unexploited appeal you have over everyone in the village as the Hero to get me some ladies," Yami said impatiently, a bit irate as to how his host was a bit slow to catch on things like this.
"Hey don't call it unexploited! And besides, I thought you hated the villagers. What's the deal with getting all chummy with them?" Naruto said rather dull, not exactly impressed by his dark side's intentions regarding the citizens.
But of course I hate the villagers silly, but well, I don't mind all the extra attention we are getting these days," Yami said, shaking one girl's hand and causing her to erupt in a fit of giggles as she made away from the crowd to go and narrate the story of how she had greeted the hand of the hero, Uzumaki Naruto, to some other soul.
"You really are a narrow minded guy you know that," Naruto mused under his breath, the sentiment going unnoticed by the one in current possession of his body. He added on a bit urgently," How does this help with what we are currently engrossed in?"
"Tsk, tsk, my dear Naruto, let me teach you one important thing you need to know about women. Never chase them. Make them come to you," Yami retorted in his currently emphatic voice, something which slightly pissed off Naruto. Except you was totally chasing Sakura-chan earlier, he thought, deciding not to burst the man's bubble? He bobbed his head curiously to one side, curious to continue the current charade he was having with his dark counterpart," How do you know this about women?" He asked curtly.
"Ask that big ball of fur next to you," Yami said, averting his attention to the group of women before him. He glanced to the end of the street with one eye, pleased to find that the ruckus he had arbitrarily caused had drawn the attention of the pink haired Medic who he had his eyes on. She seemed to have forgotten all about her earlier destination, as she leaned on the fence of the street, whistling to herself. Her arms were folded at her chest, and occasionally, she would steal a glance towards the direction of the crowd, her eyes coming to rest on the blonde man who was the centre of attraction. Yami was not careless enough to let her find out that he had caught on to her stealing looks at him, since he knew immediately she found out she would storm off in a fit of embarrassment and possibly jealousy. Women were a bit easy to read sometimes, the red eyed man surmised, with a small chuckle.
Hesitantly, Naruto shifted his eyes to the fox resting in the cage next to him, wordlessly asking him what Yami meant. The Nine Tails let out a growl of displeasure, then said, in a bored tone," My former two hosts were females. Do the Math, Kit." Naruto raised an eyebrow, trying to fathom why for the love of all that was good, the mighty Nine Tails would share such a ridiculous tale to the embodiment of his hatred and negative emotions. Perhaps loneliness did weird things not only to people, but to beasts too.
"Hey, hey, Naruto-san," one of the girls started, her voice bubbling with excitement and her eyes shining as she talked to the village Hero for the first time. Yami broke his gaze from the others and regarded the girl, who squealed in excitement. She recomposed herself, and her face now beaming as she stared into the man's crimson eyes, she asked him, "What happened to your eyes? Not that I mind the new look, since it's sexy as all hell, but the other blue one was kinky too." The girl said, eliciting a chuckle from Yami. Naruto was rendered speechless, and the Nine Tails could only say, "Great. Now look at the people he's drawn here."
"Darling, I simply wanted to try a new look. These here are simply contacts, "the red eyed man said as he neared the girl, causing her to fidget where she stood. She was a girl of fair beauty, with dark hair that ran all the way to her waist.
"Hmph, as if," Sakura commented under her breath. Fortunately, she could still hear everything that sourced from the small crowd that had gathered, although a small part of her told her that the new Naruto was doing this on purpose. She ignored it and resumed her attention on the crowd, deciding that if anyone asked her what she was doing idling on a wall; she would pass it off as waiting for someone.
"But if you want to see the old me that badly, of course," he covered his eyes with one hand, uncovering them the next second. The squeals and shrieks of excitement that surfaced from the crowd this time were higher than the first time, causing Sakura to squirm uncomfortably on her rested position. She was equally as amazed as the others, however, as before her currently, stood Uzumaki Naruto, with his eyes restored to their original color of cerulean blue.
It went without saying of course, that Uzumaki Naruto was blown away by what he had just witnessed likewise. His mouth was wide agape, his fists clenched towards his chest in amazement, staring into the ceiling speechlessly. The Nine Tails could not help but smirk under his breath at this sight. "Wow! How did he do that?" Naruto asked no one in particular, unable to hide his amazement at such a sight.
"Your eyes, kit," the fox said as he looked at the young man's face.
"My eyes?" Naruto echoed, touching his face absently with his hand. Understanding a fraction of a second later what the fox meant, Naruto proceeded to look into the water surface beneath him, and his own reflection looked back at him with red eyes. He nearly leapt out of his own skin. "Ah!" He pointed a finger at his own reflection, and then protested, "He changed the color of our eyes somehow!" Kneeling so as to have a closer look at his reflection, he placed one hand under his chin in thought. "But I have to admit it is kinda cool," he added under his breath.
While he was still regarding his image, however, the eye color shifted back to his usual shade of blue, causing him to be surprised for the second time in a matter of minutes. So Yami undid his trick somehow. Naruto was tempted to ask the man later on how he had performed such a feat.
"Tch, just a damn parlor trick, kit. Don't get your hopes up over learning such a worthless technique," the Nine Tails said, as if reading the thoughts that coursed through Naruto's mind just then. That little remark did little to diminish Naruto's new found interest, so he simply remarked dreamily, "I wanna learn how to do that."
Outside, another wave of excitement had burst over the girls anew as 'Naruto's' eyes resumed their current shade of red, growing increasingly blissful that they had the lucky fate to cross paths with him on that day. The pink haired Medic, however, found it increasingly difficult to maintain her calm disposure after all the noise that had grated on her ears from the group of Naruto's fangirls. She closed her eyes in an attempt to steel her nerves, and then began chanting her own mantra. It was all made up on the spot though.
It's okay. That's not Naruto. He just happens to have the same face.
It's okay. That's not Naruto. He just happens to have the same face.
It's okay. That's not Naruto. He just happens to have the same face.
On the fourth try however, one of her eyes darted open in sheer curiosity, since she wanted to know whether the entire ruckus had died down. She knew it would hardly be possible though, so witnessing Naruto with his usual shade of blue once more threw her entire mantra down the drain.
But they have the same face! Her brain screamed at her, making her realize the futility of her own mantra. It wasn't helping at all.
"If you're jealous you can just go and intervene. I don't see what the big idea is," Naoki spoke up to her, disrupting her thoughts that were already in disarray.
"I'm not jealous," Sakura immediately retorted, glad that her inner voice had showed up at that moment since she needed someone to vent steam off. "It's just that….it bothers me to see Naruto like that. All different and stuff."
The statement was partially true, of course, since Sakura was not sure how things would be with Naruto from that point on, with him not being the same. The moment that answer escaped her lips, she realized that she somewhat missed the big goofball of sunshine who was always by her side to make her days brighter. This side of Naruto was a side that she never knew he had, which made her slightly wonder whether she knew him as well as she thought she did.
"Hmm, I understand what you mean, Sakura, but that's not all there is to it, right?" Naoki regarded her host, her voice brimming with concern. She liked it better when Sakura was honest with herself, since she believed that was when she was the happiest. To this question, Sakura remained eerily silent, her attention taken by Naruto and his antics.
"Girls, you wanna see more?" Yami asked the crowd of girls, which proceeded to outburst in sheer glee. His attention still was on Sakura, and seeing her tapping her elbow impatiently made him realize that he was winning the small battle of endurance he was having with her, amusing him to no end.
"You're horrible you know that," Naruto told the red eyed man, finding the act of being in that crowd exhausting. He wondered how his counterpart was able to deal with all that attention at once.
"I know you are but what am i?" Yami retorted, this time in a child-like voice. Naruto noted he was having way too much fun at the moment.
"What are you, a kid?" The Kyuubi mused under his breath, something he made sure the current owner of the body did not hear.
This was it for Sakura. She had already reached the limits of her patience, extricating herself from the wall she was rested on and proceeding to march towards the crowd before her. A vein was throbbing on her forehead and she was fuming with anger.
Yami did not miss this sudden course of action. This did not mean that he intended to end his fun just yet, of course. He placed his hand to his mouth, then voiced to the crowd before him," Hey guys, my girlfriend is on her way here." Groans of dismay and disapproval erupted from the cluster of girls. The dark haired girl looked backwards to the source of footsteps, finding it to be a certain pink haired girl approaching. She remembered her vividly, from the time when she hugged the Village Hero in front of all the villagers after the tragedy with Pain.
"Yo, Sakura," the blonde man waved at the girl, flashing her one of his trademark smiles. This did no service in quelling the girl's growing irritation, as she was now staring daggers at him. "What took you so long?" He added on.
"Again with no 'chan' suffix to her name," Naruto wondered. It did not bother him as such in the beginning, but the more he heard Yami calling her name, the more it did not sound so familiar, in the same affectionate manner he was used to calling her over the years.
"Deal with it, chump," Yami said, effectively silencing the man.
Becoming increasingly aware of Sakura's open hostility as she approached him, Yami turned to the group of girls once more, who did not seem overly eager to leave him just yet. Well, the action flattered him, but if they did not leave soon, they would probably be in for a rude awakening. "My girlfriend's got really bad temper girls. She might not take kindly to finding her boyfriend surrounded by all these beautiful babes," he muttered to them. The compliment did not go unnoticed by the girls, as they all flashed smiles at him, but realizing that he was expressing concern for them, they decided to honor his wishes and all dispersed from the area, leaving him and Sakura.
"You really like getting on people's bad sides don't you?" Naruto remarked, as without saying anything, Sakura grabbed the man's hand and led him into the residential areas of the village. Originally, Yami had offered his arm for Sakura to hold on to so that the two would walk back into the village as any normal couple, but the Medic wasn't exactly in the mood for something happy go lucky. She brushed of his courtesy, not caring at all whether he was serious or simply joking, and took his hand in her own. Her grip was somewhat stronger than what would be considered normal, causing Yami to wince slightly in pain before following suit after the girl.
"There's a reason he's called your dark side, Naruto," The Nine Tails replied to the cerulean eyed man, to which he received a brusque nod.
The two soon reached Sakura's residence, as the pink haired girl figured that it was the nearest place available where she could take Naruto, plus it would offer privacy for the long talk they were going to have. Sakura proceeded to take him into her bedroom, where she locked the door behind her, letting go of his arm and allowing him to make himself comfortable on her bed. Normally she would have been giddy at the sight of Naruto in her room, since she was curious what remarks he would give regarding the place, but at the moment she was still livid at him. He had been the cause of her bad mood that day, with it starting uneventfully and now seemingly ending on a bad note.
Placing her hands on her waist, she started, in a slightly raised voice, "What's the big idea? What's your deal? Why did you have to resort to something so petty to draw my attention?" The questions poured out like water from a running tap, and Sakura sounded dangerously close to lashing out any minute. Her anger had reached boiling point, and she was already doing everything in her power to retain her composure. It was working well so far, although she was not sure for how long she would retain that façade.
Naoki simply giggled at Sakura's burst of anger. "I knew it, you were totally jealous!"
Like the last time the Inner person had spoken to her, Sakura ignored her this time. Her beef was with Naruto and Naruto alone. The red eyed man regarded her silently with his crimsons glare, and then held a hand up. Sakura was slightly confused, and thinking this was part of his ruse to make her angry again, nearly marched the length of the room to beat the living daylights out of him, before he beckoned for her to come closer with his outstretched hand. She complied; at least glad that the conversation seemed to be heading somewhere, then placed herself next to him along the length of the bed they were seated on.
"Before I answer your many questions, there's something I need to check on, Sakura," he told her, in a surprisingly stern tone. She nodded hesitantly as she looked at him in affirmation. Suddenly, Naruto inched his face closer to the girl, nearly causing her heart to leap out of her mouth and her hands to fidget at her sides. Yami placed one hand at the back of Sakura's head, drawing her closer, and while her first impression told her that he was going in for a kiss, he simply touched his forehead to hers and closed his eyes as if in concentration. A small blush erupted on Sakura's cheeks, and a gasp escaped her throat at the sudden contact, before she relaxed and allowed herself to trust in what he was doing at the moment. Whatever it was.
"What's he up to this time?" Naruto asked, as he focused on the scene showing to him.
"Naruto, don't you hear it?" The Nine Tails asked his host in a slightly baffled tone. His ears were perked up, and his eyes were darting around the premises as he searched for the source of the sound he had picked up earlier. The blonde man sharing the beast's company looked at it in a puzzled manner.
"Another voice? I don't particularly hear anything," Naruto replied, but just as the last word escaped his lips, he heard it. The sound of giggled filled the air surrounding Naruto and the Tailed Beast, prompting them to look towards the source of the sound. In the middle of the waterlogged area, something began materializing itself, first from an orb of light, then moments later the silhouette of a human stood before them. There was something extremely odd about it though. It held an awfully close appearance to an apparition.
"Sakura-chan?"
A/N: For those of you who might be a bit confused as to who Yota is, he's a character who appeared in a filler episode, who befriended Naruto, Sakura, Kiba, Shikamaru, Choji and Ino. Check him up for reference. The forehead scene with Dark Naruto and Sakura was inspired by a similar scene in Fairy Tail, with Zeref and Mavis, but I felt as if it was a fitting way for what I'm going to explain next chapter (No spoilers yet of course). Anyway, I'm really sorry for the delay in this update, but I hope this chapter was satisfying enough. Till next time then!
