Okay, well I had an idea for how I wanted this story to keep on going and it seemed really good so I'm updating. The idea came to me after I read Sarah Dessen's Dreamland and for what I had as an idea, it seems good. Also since this was the first idea that came to my mind I get to update earlier. Lucky you! Take it as an apology for the other times I took MONTHS to update. Anyways, please enjoy chapter 7 of Get Out, Get Away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Get Out, Get Away

Chapter 7: Therapy

She was going to try again, she really was, but first she decided she needed to recover.

Time doesn't heal all wounds.

Right, she knew that, but hopping out of bed to go down to the park just to get yelled at again, didn't sound logical or even possible to Sakura at the moment.

The second she had gotten back from the park that day, she locked herself in her room, trying not to let herself cry. She failed. The next day Tenten had managed to coax the girl out of her room for meals, but that was it. For the past three days Sakura refused to leave the walls of her room, unless to eat.

Except for today of course.

Her mom had invited her over for dinner. At the time Sakura had half a mind to refuse, but once she was pointed out that she still had yet to see her father, she was guilted into going. Now she sat in her usual seat, listening to the silverware scrape the fine china as her family ate in silence.

Sakura would look up every now and then to see her parents exchanging a look, tilting their headS or motioning their eyes in their daughter's direction, just like they always did when they had something to confess to Sakura. The same thing happened when they told her Grandma died, Dad lost his job, Mom might be pregnant, and worst of all… the talk.

She could only imagine what "good" news she was in for.

"Sakura…" Her mother's voice was cautious, just like it always was in these situations. "We have to tell you something."

Sakura lowered hEr fork and wiped at the corners of her mouth before raising her head to lock eyes with her mother who sat across from her. "Yes…"

"Well… your father and I were thinking and talking this over and…" Her mother paused, casting a look of uncertainty to her husband, who urged her to continue. "And we think you should take… therapy."

Everything stopped, even the scraping of silverware, and time stood still. Sakura stared blankly at her mother, not believing what she had just suggested. Therapy? THERAPY!? Therapy, in Sakura's mind, was for crazy people, mentally unstable, paranoid. She wasn't any of those things, she was just… abused.

Was it really that bad?

"Mom, I—"

"Now, don't freak out Sakura, but therapy is—"

"I'm not going to therapy." Sakura bluntly stated, her eyes narrowed at her parents as she looked between them, making her decision clear. "No."

Therapy included, therapist. Therapists were the devils who dressed up like a kind person who really just pried and pried and pried, trying to get into your heads. They wanted every little detail of every horrible event that has ever happened to you. The wanted the nitty gritty on everything you tried to forget. They wouldn't be helping her. No, they would just be inducing her with more pain. She didn't want them in her head. She didn't want anyone in her head.

"Sakura," her mother tried again, her voice noticeably softer, trying to get her daughter to see things her way. "I know it doesn't sound like a good thing, but—"

"No, it doesn't sound like a good thing."

Her mother inhaled deeply, trying to keep calm. If she didn't know how sensitive this subject was, she would have already blown her top."I was watching a talk show, and therapy really helped—"

"God, Mom! Everything isn't out of a talk show! Those are different people, not me. Therapy isn't going to help."

One thing that hadn't changed in her mother over the pass four months was the lady's obsession with talk shows. She loved seeing how people from the low of the low, in the dirtiest of rags, in the worst situations, overcame and stood tall in the end. Call it an optimistic way of thinking, but Sakura saw it as insanity, an unhealthy obsession.

"I know, it sounds crazy, and the way all those movies make it seem, it's the worst thing on the planet, but Sakura," Mrs. Haruno locked eyes with her daughter. "You have to go through the past, so you can get rid of it. Keeping it all bottled up inside… it's not doing anything good for you."

Sakura shook her head. She could feel the burning of tears in the back of her eyes. "No. I don't want to go." Relive everything she went through in the past four months? And knowing how therapists work, they'd want to do a deep cleansing and will probably want to go back even further to where Naruto was involved. She shook her head. "No."

"Sakura… please. If you keep living with what happened to you… you'll just make it harder on yourself. You need to go so you can learn to let it go." Her mother reached her hand out to grab a hold of Sakura's clenched one. "Please."

Sakura continued to shake her head. "No. No, no, no."

"Sakura, you—"

"No, Mom!" Sakura snatched her hand back from the warmth of her mother's and glared at her parents. "They're just going to try to get into my head! I don't want to go!" she looked back and forth between her parents with desperation for them to see things her way. "Is it really that bad? He only… I mean he just… I don't want to go through it again in my memories."

Sakura's father who had been sitting through the argument with a stony face glared harder at his daughter's tears. That… that bastard had caused so much harm to his daughter, one of the two girls he had sworn to protect with his life. Now, she couldn't even go to therapy because he had messed her up so bad. He clenched his hands into tight fists. He was going to kill that worthless piece of flesh the second he laid eyes on him. He had nearly killed his daughter, why not repay the favor?

"Sakura," The two women snapped their heads in the direction of the deep voice that came from the head of the table. "I know you don't want to do this, but you have got to let this out of you and it's not like you can talk to a friend or somebody you know about this." His eyes softened as he looked at Sakura's tear stained face. "It's easier to talk to a stranger sometimes. Please, Sakura, we just want you to get better."

She wasn't sick, or mentally ill. Didn't they see that? She wasn't foaming from the mouth or looking over her shoulder every five seconds. She was just… abused. She didn't want to relive the worst times of her life when Sasuke's eyes rolled back and his snarl grew loud. She didn't want someone prying around in her head, for they might discover some of her deep secrets. Secrets are meant to be kept.

She looked at her mother's pleading face and her father's pained expression. She had hurt them so much already, and her will to say no suddenly vanished.

"It's only three times a week, honey."

Sakura looked down at her plate, not wanting to meet the gazes of her parents.

"Okay."

-0-0-0-0-0-

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Tock.

Sakura sat in the room in the cushioned seat across from her newly appointed therapist, Daisuke. He was a man who was around his mid-thirties, but the gray was already beginning to show. He sat with his notepad open, waiting for the pink haired girl in front of him to speak.

Sakura listened to the slow ticking of the clock, willing it to go faster. She tugged on the edges of her long shirt sleeves, making sure to cover the bruise that wrapped around her wrist. She fidgeted in the seat as she waited impatiently for the clock to read one o'clock, granting her permission to leave this hell hole.

One of the drivers had dropped her off at the location her mother had given her, and for the past hour she'd been sitting in her seat, silent. She agreed to show up, but she said nothing about speaking. No, she could just sit in complete boredom in entire silence for the next months, or however long she was supposed to sit here.

Finally the clock chimed at one, and Sakura shot up, gathering her bag and shrugging into her coat. She then paused her hasty movement to look at her therapist.

"I'm sorry, to have wasted you time."

Daisuke smiled lightly at his new patient. "Ah, no worries, I'm still getting paid," he laughed a bit and Sakura let a ghost of a smile appear. "But really though, your mother told me about your hesitance to come," he smiled kindly at the girl. "The fact that you came is improvement enough."

Sakura looked at her therapist for a second before nodding slightly and turning to move to the door, her hand on the cool silver of the handle. Before she disappeared through the door though, she turned.

"Thank you."

And then she left.

-0-0-0-0-0-

"So how's therapy going?" Tenten asked Sakura as she shuffled through the racks of the store, searching for a nice shirt in her friend's size. They had finally gone on their shopping trip and Tenten was determined to fit Sakura in with an entirely new wardrobe.

Instead of one of the driver's picking Sakura up from her therapy session, Tenten had showed up behind the wheel of a sleek Mercedes to steal her away for an afternoon filled of shopping. It had been a normal session though. Silent. It was her third and they hadn't gotten further then getting Sakura to sit down in the cushioned seat.

"Oh, you know… the same." Sakura weakly offered, shuffling through the clothes for something warm and long sleeved for the wintry season and to cover all her scars.

"Mmhmm," Tenten nodded, understanding that the two had sat in silence again. She really wanted Sakura to confide in her, but as long as she was seeing someone it would be okay. Still, she would actually have to talk the man.

A forest green piece of cloth caught Tenten's eye at the moment and she reached out to grab it, checking the size on the tag. Yep, it was just right for Sakura.

"Here you go!" Tenten announced cheerfully, thrusting the shirt at Sakura. "I just have a feeling it'll fit you perfectly."

Sakura eyed the shirt uneasily. It was short sleeved, tight around the bust and v-necked. It was nice, and she knew it would shape her perfectly, but it would also reveal a lot. And she wasn't talking about her cleavage.

"I don't think—"

"Oh, come on Sakura." Tenten held the shirt out to her closer. "Please, please, please. Just try it on then. Pleeeeeaaaaase."

Sakura looked into her friends pleading, puppy dog eyes, and she bent a little. She would just try it on for a second, say it fit wrong, and take it off. She wouldn't even have to show Tenten the shirt.

"Okay… But I'm only trying it on."

Tenten smiled and clapped her hands as Sakura took the shirt and headed for the dressing rooms located in the back of the shop. "It's going to look great on you."

Tenten had lied.

The shirt looked horrible, sick, disgusting. The shape of it, no, but the places where there was lacking cloth was all wrong. Bruises that were in the process in healing were a sick color of yellow. Some bruises were still a fresh shade of blue black and scars that weren't disappearing anytime soon curved above her chest. It was sick looking. A disgrace.

Tears burned the back of Sakura eyes as memories filled her brain. Snarls of anger, lengthened and sharpened nails, bared teeth, darkened eyes, the pulsing of that damned mark.

Sakura shuddered, her entire body feeling the scary chill and she quickly removed the shirt, pulling on the shirt that was more her style. Long sleeved and not low cut. Nothing showed.

She pulled the door to the dressing room open to see Tenten waiting on the bench outside and her brunette friend brightened.

"So, how did it fit?"

"It was, um, it was a bit clingy actually," Sakura mumbled moving back to the front of the store, dumping the shirt on top of a shelf of t-shirts as she kept moving.

"Hm, well I 'm sure they have it in another side," Tenten stated following her through the store. "I can just ask—"

"Actually, I'm kind of beat," Sakura broke in, stopping in front of her Tenten. "Can we just go home?"

Tenten looked at her friend and for the first time realized the mistiness in her eyes. She slowly nodded as Sakura snapped her vision away. "Okay… Let me just pay for the stuff we got already."

After paying for the four pair of jeans and seven t-shirts with long sleeves and a few with sayings they had bought for Sakura, the two friends made their way out of the store and out into the car.

"So, since Neji has to work late again," Tenten growled, obviously not happy with her husband's busy schedule. "How 'bout a movie night. I mean, I know we're, like, twenty something, but who says we can't still have fun."

Sakura laughed lightly at her friend. "Okay. So what movies do you have in mind?"

Tenten started the car and pulled out of the parking lot, into the busy streets. "I was thinking a variety night. Horror, Comedy, Drama, Romance, Action, and of course, Disney. You know, everything."

"So how about…Taken?"

"Oh! That's a good one. And for romance the Notebook."

"A classic," Sakura nodded in approval. "For horror, Halloween."

"Of course, and for Comedy..." The two looked to each other, grins spreading across their faces as they communicated by using their telepathic powers.

"WAYNE'S WORLD!"

The two laughed as Tenten came to a stop at a red light.

"You do realize that we might be the only people in this entire city who still find the absolute stupidity of that movie hilarious?" Sakura asked through her laughter.

"That's what makes us unique." Tenten commented laughing a bit, as she relaxed in her seat. She looked over at her friend who was smiling. God, it was good to see her friend finally smiling. "Alright, and for drama we can do—"

"WATCH IT! I'M WALKING HERE!"

The two girls snapped out of their movie planning to see a tall blonde crossing the street parallel from them, his middle finger up and directed to a driver who was a bit over the line.

Sakura stopped breathing at the sight of Naruto crossing the street. His bright blue eyes reflecting the sun light, blonde hair moving with the wind.

Perfection.

A string pulled at Sakura's heart as she watched Naruto make his way down the street, at a light jog. He was obviously late, and by the looks of what he was wearing, he had to be late for work. She suddenly felt the urge to hop out of the car and follow him.

Tenten looked at her transfixed gaze with worry. Just when she was laughing she had to see Naruto, and that was bound to drop her into one of her 'lock me up in my room' moods again. Damn Naruto, Tenten silently cursed her blonde friend.

"Sakura…" Tenten tried uneasily, hoping to grab her friend's attention.

Sakura snapped out of her stupor. "Huh?"

"You, um, you still up for movie night?"

Sakura looked at her friend and then back to Naruto's retreating back. Time wasn't going to heal anything. She needed to grab a hold of her chances every time one appeared. She then looked back at her friend's hopeful face. She couldn't lose anymore friends though. Leaving them behind proved to be a mistake.

"Yeah," she smiled slightly at her friend. "So what were we doing for drama?"

Tenten smiled at her friend, surprised she wasn't going to fall into one of her moods. Maybe just sitting in silence in those sessions was actually doing something.

The light turned green and Tenten pulled forward.

"Well, I was thinking…"

-0-0-0-0-0-

"Good afternoon, Sakura," Daisuke said, smiling as the pinkette entered his office and found her seat in front of his desk. "How are you this afternoon?"

"I want him back."

Daisuke paused, blinking twice, shocked that the girl was actually speaking. He then quickly turned from the page in his notepad where he was drawing his boss dancing with his pants on fire, to a clean sheet. He then cleared his throat before speaking.

"That' a normal feeling after leaving an abusive—"

"No… I want N—" Sakura paused when she realized that even after all the days she spent crying over him, she still had yet to have his name roll off her tongue. "I want Naruto back."

Daisuke's brows furrowed. "Who's Naruto?"

"My best friend."

-0-0-0-0-0-

And I shall leave it there. To be honest I thought I was only going to write about half of this and come back tomorrow and finish it. Well, the sooner the better, so here you have it. An apology for the last long update.I got this done mainly because I had the idea. Next chapter is a bit foggy. I think I'm going to have Tsunade come in and Sakura get a job. Yeah, I think I'll take that idea and run with it. Anyways… please REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!

~Kimiko888~