A/N: Well, I'm getting some spare time to write, thank God! I hope you enjoy, and thank you to all of my awesome readers. This chapter is pretty much just going to be focused on sasusaku, just so you know what to expect. I felt like our characters needed a bit more of themselves in the story. I digress, enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters, just the plot to this story.
Three days had passed since the day Sakura had last talked to Sasuke. It was like she was living with a stranger, which, she kind of was. It was bothering her a lot more than it should have. She would stick with her regular routine: training from sun up to sun down, breaking only an hour for lunch. She had seen herself improve slightly over the past three days, which made her satisfied. At this rate, she'd be back home in no time.
But she couldn't shake the anger she had for Sasuke, no matter what. Here he was, living with her, and of course never saying a word to her. 'Maybe if you would learn to bite your tonuge...' Inner Sakura rolled her eyes. 'So maybe it is my fault. But still...'Sakura sighed. 'I guess I shouldn't have expected anything else.'
Although, she never dreamed the day would come when she would actually live with Sasuke in somewhere other than her fantasies. Of course, they never went quite like this. She wasn't complaining, though. Sakura wasn't here for Sasuke, and regardless of what he used to mean to her or even still meant, she wasn't going to let herself be distracted. She just saw it as one more person she would have to prove herself to. And, though she would never admit it, it was nice just being near him...even if they were angrily ignoring each other. His presence was so oddly peaceful, and yet so angering all in one.
She lay on the grass and looked up at the stars, letting the breeze cool her heated body from training. Feeling the soft blades of grass under her, she sighed. Doing this reminded her of training with Naruto. Every night when they decided they were done, they would lie on the grass together and watch the stars until Naruto whined that he was going to die of starvation if he didn't eat soon. Sakura closed her eyes and smiled; she missed her kyuubi friend dearly.
"Sakura-san." Sakura's eyes shot open.
"Nani? Katsuyu? What are you doing here?"
"I have information for you from Tsunade-sama. It's urgent," Katsuyu warned as Sakura took the scroll.
"Kai!" Sakura said, releasing the seal. As she read the scroll, her jaw dropped and her eyes widened.
'No...'
This could not be happening.
Naruto could not be missing. Kidnapped... It just couldn't happen. Whoever took him was going to pay, big time.
"Katsuyu. Go to Tsunade-sama. Tell her I have received the information and left immediately."
"Yes ma'am!" Katsuyu shouted, about to leave.
"One more thing before you go, Katsuyu," Sakura warned.
"Nn?"
Sakura's face grew dark, the intent to kill present on her face.
"Tell her I won't come back without him."
"Hai!" was the last thing Sakura heard before she saw Katsuyu leave.
She ran at full speed to the house, accidentally flinging the door off of its hinges and throwing it to the side. She made a mental note to fix that if she ever came back.
Running to "her" room, she made no time to close the door as she switched into her ANBU Black Ops uniform. Sakura held her mask in her hands as she ran into the kitchen to put a week's worth of food in her pack. Thank Kami she had decided to premake lunches so she wouldn't waste time while she was training... It saved her at least thirty minutes she didn't have to spare now.
She ran back to the room with all of the food, checking her pack at least three times to make sure she had everything she would need. Now it was time to check her weapons pouch.
'Scrolls, check. Senbon, check. Kunai and ninja stars, check...' She mentally listed.
"What are you doing?" She heard Sasuke's apathetic voice speak out for the first time in three days. Had she not been so frantic, she would have notice her heart flutter slightly at the sound of his smooth baritone.
"Naruto has been kidnapped," she said without looking up. Mentally going through her checklist of everything one more time before zipping up her pack and putting it on. Sakura grabbed her mask and cloak off of the neatly made bed and turned to look at Sasuke. "I have no time to waste. You're coming or you're not, but either way, I'm going to get him."
Sakura ran past Sasuke and to the front door, dressing in her cloak and hiding behind a mask resembling a cat, putting her boots and gloves on. She retied her hair to secure it, pulling her hood over her head to hide her identity completely.
Sasuke rolled his eyes as he ran to the room he'd been staying in, packing his things. It was never like Naruto to be unable to get himself out of trouble, so she shouldn't be so worried, but then again, it was Sakura.
But that was the thing... It was Sakura.
She wasn't strong enough to save him on her own anyway, so he didn't know why she even thought he would let her go alone. She would die; what a foolish girl she still was. Did she not know that someone strong enough to take Naruto was already out of her trying range? She should have just left it alone and let Naruto fend for himself. But Sasuke knew that she never would, which was exactly why he zipped up his pack and ran out into the clearing.
She was already gone, but she wasn't far. He could still feel her chakra close by. But he would need to hurry... If he took too long to catch up it would be too late.
Foolish Sakura, she was going to get herself hurt before she even got there. She should have just waited. If she did that, it would only take them longer to get to Naruto. Here she was again not thinking straight. Sasuke pushed chakra into his feet and ran in the trees to catch up.
He could feel himself closing in on her, and as he did, he could feel his annoyance with her rising. He felt as if he could scream at her, but that was too troublesome. He already had to be by her nonstop for Kami-knows-how-long; he didn't need to make it any worse than it already was.
Sakura slowed but didn't stop once Sasuke caught up, not uttering a word.
It was like this for an hour before he finally spoke up.
"Do you have any idea where you're going? How do you know he's gone?"
Sakura gave Sasuke a side glance under her mask, but nothing more before answering his inquiry.
"Tsunade-sama wrote to me via summon. She said it's been reported that he's been missing approximately a week by the time I would have received the scroll. Kakashi-sensei summoned Pakkun to search for Naruto. We are to meet Kakashi-sensei and the rest of the search team just east of here, about a day's travel," she answered flatly.
Sasuke only nodded, unsurprised by Sakura's sense of direction and her uncanny ability to retain information. She'd always been the smartest on the team.
They ran for what seemed like forever, and Sasuke was beginning to grow tired and could tell that Sakura was growing weak, too. But he'd have to admit, he was very impressed by her stamina. Of course, he'd never tell her that. She would just let it go to her head... But, then again, maybe not, because she didn't seem to be the same Sakura he had left on the bench all those years ago.
Wasn't he trying to be a better person anyway? Maybe, but he decided that didn't necessarily mean that he had to be more kind. Besides, she probably wouldn't care anyway.
Sasuke's thoughts were interrupted when his female companion jumped down from a tree onto the ground. He followed suit. Without looking up to him, she said, "Kakashi and his team will be too far out to meet us tonight. We have half a day's travel left, so we'll camp out here for the night."
He watched as she laid down her sleeping bag and could see the hurt and worry in her eyes. Sasuke made his own sleeping bag just across from hers and set up a fire in the middle of the two. When he was done lighting the fire, he sat down back against a tree and closed his eyes. Sasuke realized the run here was a lot more tiring than he had originally thought, and that maybe he was right about being wrong about Sakura.
"Here. We missed dinner."
Sasuke opened his eyes to see Sakura standing in front of him with a handful of food in his face, which he gladly took, finally noticing his appetite.
"Arigatou," he said before taking a bite. Sasuke secretly loved when Sakura cooked instead of him. It reminded him of his mother's cooking that he missed so very much. He decided that was one nice thing about her.
Sasuke spared a side glance at her, noticing the depression on her face, and felt a pang in his chest. He used to get that feeling every time she cried around him when they were younger, so he knew what it was... He was hurting for her. Or, maybe this time, he was hurting with her. Because his best-friend/rival had been taken from some stranger, and Kami, if he didn't have things to make up for with Naruto before he died. Plus, he still had to beat him one last time...
"You know," Sakura started, "I didn't think you'd come with me."
There went that pang in his chest again, except this time it was ten times worse. A twisting of his heart so bad he almost shook from the pain. And yet, he couldn't blame her, because he had been a traitor for seven years. Someone they had tried to save, but refused to take their helping hand. And now his comrade was in trouble and it was expected for him not to help. 'This is why I need to change,' he thought to himself as he squeezed his eyes shut.
"I wasn't going to let you get yourself killed," was all he said to hide his thoughts.
But he knew Sakura could see right through that, because for whatever reason, she had always been able to. She could never breakdown his walls, but she never had to if she could see right through them. And even so many years later he didn't doubt that she would be able to see past his lies, which is why he had to come up with something, fast, to distract her.
"You've gotten better stamina." Really? That's all he could come up with. But, hey, she smiled a little, so he supposed it worked.
She smiled a sad smile, but it was a smile none-the-less. "I told you, I'm not the same kunoichi I was back then." And that was all she said before she got up to lay on her sleeping bag. "I'll take first watch. You rest," she said.
Before he realized it, Sakura had woken Sasuke up and it was his turn for watch. He hated this part, it was so monotonous, and left him only with his ever-wandering thoughts.
Sasuke watched Sakura as she slept, noticing her eyebrows narrowed in distress. He took a moment to study her features and finally noticed how mature looking she had gotten. Sakura was actually quite beautiful now. He would be surprised if she hadn't had someone back home.
He remembered whenever he lived in Konoha, in the genin days, he'd always known that he was going to pick Sakura for his wife. But once Orochimaru promised him power everything changed, and suddenly restarting his clan hadn't been as important so long as he had power to kill Itachi.
And now that everything was out of the way, there was only one problem left... He still needed to rebuild his clan.
Sasuke shook his head. No, he couldn't be having thoughts like this. He didn't need to be distracted by her, not now. There were more important things to worry about, like getting Naruto back and how the two of them were going to do that. Thank Kami Kakashi and whoever else was coming to meet them up. Maybe he'd just split up with them and get rid of Sakura and all the feelings she brought him for good. So Naruto could be free and Sasuke could go back to his comfortably uncomfortable, miserable life of solitude.
Yeah, that sounded terrible, but he'd have to take it, because it would end up being that way whenever she went back to Konoha, anyway. He figured he might as well take the easy way out.
He closed his eyes and thought of the missing kyuubi boy. Sasuke couldn't lie and say he wasn't worried, because even if he did, it would be of no use. He didn't want to lose another loved one, and if Naruto died, there would be no way of Sasuke hiding it...he had already lost too much.
He let out a loud, heavy breath. "Naruto, you better not be dead. I still have to kick your ass."
A/N: Alright! Interesting ending, I know. But very Sasuke, in my opinion! Sorry for any mistakes, it's late at night and I'm very tired. Anyway, please review (if you would like) and I hope you have enjoyed what you've read!