Meant to Be?

Summary: If you truly love something let it go, if it was meant to be it would come back to you. What a lie! It never comes back. Right?

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did than I'd kill Sasuke…not that I don't like him…he's my favorite character…but he deserves to be killed by Naruto…

Warning: I eat people.

Note: Reviews are nice. Flames are fine to. Constructive criticism I give you a golden star and a sasunaru cookie! Have any ideas suggestions? Review me to tell me! This is sort of fluffy, but it sort of has to be to contemplate for the not fluffiness later in the story.

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Chapter 7: Guilt Tripping

Our evil journey to the Land of Waves began. It turns out that team 8 had already left the day before us. So we should be catching up with them soon. Of course the only reason I am there is because Kurenai has a bun in the oven and well she isn't fit to go on missions yet.

As we travel past places we were on our first mission here, I think of my past, and all the stupid things I've done. Some of them rash but effective, like blocking the needles from Haku, and almost dieing, then the stupidity of taking a dead man's sword, or even allowing a fellow team mate to do so. I feel pangs of guilt once again…for what I did. I assume we'll be visiting Zabuza and Haku's graves…only to find Zabuza's sword, zanbato, gone. I did allow Suigetsu to take it. I don't even know if Team Hebi is alive now. I just hope Karin's dead actually. What a pain. (1)

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto calls from across the trees. We are traveling through the trees this time. It's much faster and more efficient seeing as you don't waste as much energy. That's what I've always thought anyways. Kakashi turned his head towards Naruto. I could only see mask and headband though.

"Hmm, Naruto?" Kakashi answers. My ears perk up attempting to hear their conversation.

"Umm, Kakashi, I'm not sure…but could we…ummm….maybe visit Haku and Zabuza's graves? I just, want to pay respects. I feel kind of terrible after all the bad stuff that happened…you know?" Naruto mumbles just loud enough for me to hear. I feel as if the wind is knocked out of me.

"Yeah, Naruto! That's actually a very great idea!" Sakura exclaims her green eyes sparkling. Sai nods not completely understanding…but enough to know that this is not his place to make a comment.

"I guess we could. But this should be a unanimous decision…Akemi what do you think?" Kakashi asks, probably sensing my awkwardness in this whole situation. I shrug my shoulders and smile.

"I see no reason not to pay respects. Maybe we'll get to see the Great Naruto Bridge," I flash a fake smile at them all. Naruto grins happily at me and gave me a thumbs up. I didn't know what to do, I've never acknowledged something like that, so I turn away blushing. Sakura, who is on my left, stares at me.

"You're blushing, Akemi," she points out. Instead of snapping like I normally would have I speed up my pace so no one can see my face. I concentrate on my movement and feel the wind blow through me. In this new outfit I feel cold. It just doesn't cover as much skin as my old one did. I look around and I see the sun is beginning to set in the sky. The sky glows orange, and it looks as if a giant orange is sinking down below the horizon. This scene is really relaxing.

I look forward and see a branch that will be the next one I step on. I realize too late, that the branch is higher than I thought. My shin makes a bone-shattering groan as it collides with the branch and I feel myself falling. Lucky, I have leg armor but I don't think it made so much of difference. I brace my body for impact and close my eyes. We are pretty high off the ground. Just when I think I'm about to hit the ground I land in someone's arms. Naruto must've caught me. I slowly open my eyes waiting to see my blonde rescuer; to see it's Sai instead. I grumpily cross my arms and wait for him to put me down. Which he doesn't.

"Sai? Thanks for catching me, but I think you can put me down now," I huff at him. I'm all against his pale naked stomach now! Gross….

"Are you sure Akemi-san?" Sai articulates slowly but respectfully. He's really learned a lot since I almost killed him at Orochimaru's lair. Maybe he isn't as bad as before, but he still looks like he walked out of some sick stripper gay bar. No offense to gay people though, because I'm totally gay…I think. I wouldn't consider myself gay right now…I guess I'll call myself heterosexual for now.

"Yes, I'm positive, Sai," I mutter through gritted teeth. Sai shakes his head and stops on a branch to put me down. The rest of Team Kakashi stop as well. Sakura looks at me with a concerned expression and begins to examine the shin that had the collision. Even through the armor it appears it was bleeding. When Sakura took the armor off and there is a gash. The blood from it's not normal.

It's black and as soon as it touches outwards of your body it burned holes in the wood and then disappears into gray smoke. "Akemi? Tell me do you have a medical condition? Or something? I've never seen this before. It's like your blood doesn't even exist if it's not in you or on you. But you didn't collide to hard did you?" Sakura muses.

"I'm a perfectly normal person. I don't know what could possibly be wrong with me. It feels the same as all of my other cuts. It hurts just as much. Maybe you should try healing it. That would be nice, Sakura. Nope I was sure it was a normal branch, but a normal one can't cause so much damage can it…"

"I'd like to, but I could worsen the conditions if I try to heal it. Your leg could have to be amputated if something goes wrong. I've never even heard of black blood before let alone acid blood. We don't even know what it does to other people. I mean look what it did to the wood. Akemi I don't even know if I can bandage it, it might deteriorate the bandages. I don't know what to do," Sakura explains her face full of tension and anxiety. Her eyebrows are knitted together and her forehead beholds wrinkles like only a large forehead would.

"Umm, Kyuubi has healing powers. Perhaps I could maybe transfer them? I don't really know. I can ask Kyuubi," Naruto suggests. I'm shocked. I never knew Naruto was so open about Kyuubi. I mean the only reason I know is because I saw him and dissipated his chakra. But that being so wouldn't his chakra have no effect on me if my power will dispel it?

"You can try, I guess," I tell him. He nods. He takes a kunai out and rolls up his sleeve.

"Naruto, I don't think that's a good idea, you know that. Your healing power, every time you use it, you know you shorten your life. I don't want you to hurt yourself. Really Naruto, please. You know the long term damage it will cause!" Sakura cries to Naruto. Naruto shakes his head no at her.

"It's my decision to help Akemi. Besides it's just going to be a scratch and Kyuubi will heal it. Akemi's my friend. I'd do the same for all of you, except for Sai maybe. Please. You've got to let me. I don't want to lose or have someone be hurt because of my incompetence," Naruto says a grim expression set on his face.

"I'm not going to die. I'll be perfectly fine. It's just cut. At least today," I say fading out towards the end. I grab the kunai from Naruto's hand and begin cleaning my gash by taking out all the splinters and other gunk with the kunai. It hurts but it's worth it. The cut already looks a little better. Than I grab Sakura's bandage and test it. The blood dissipates it…but there's not enough blood anymore for it to disintegrate all of it. Kids don't do this at home.

"Let's make camp here," Kakashi points out the small clearing below. Naruto decides it's his turn to help me and picks me up bridal style. He leaps down the ground but discovers that he can't accommodate my weight with the force of gravity on my side and collapses with me on top of him. I scramble to get off and he looks as if the air was completely knocked out of him.

"Moron, you need to get stronger," I tease. He just huffs and quietly begins to set up my camp for me seeing as standing on my own is not exactly an option. After twenty minutes of set up, Kakashi has the first watch. But we're not tired enough to sleep yet. We sit around the fire and prepare food. Naruto of course brought instant ramen and is now cooking it over the fire; he put his canteen water in it.

Sakura is eating some crazy diet bar. I do remember her saying she was on a diet…I brought a bento box, and am eating Onigiri that I had made for me. After a while Sakura goes to sit next to Naruto. They keep laughing and smiling at each other. It's like they're sharing a secret joke and I'm not allowed to hear it. I feel my insides boiling. Even though I can stand Sakura, I can't stand her right now. What gives her the right to laugh with my Naruto? He's mine.

It's all your fault. He loved you, he could have been yours. But no, you decided you want some pedophile to give you power. The little voice in my head argues back at me. I ignore it but feel guilt gnawing at my insides as I watch them flirting together. Deciding I can't take this disgusting display anymore I turn my back to them and activate my sharingan to try to examine my cut.

It's not a normal cut. The chakra isn't right around it. My blood isn't blood; it's like a powerful substance full of chakra of some sort. I'll have to ask Ryota about it when he pops in to visit. I look back up at them, Sakura is feeding him. I imagine my cut is boiling with anger and jealousy from the seeing those too acting all mushy and disgusting.

I feel a finger on my shoulder. I turn forgetting my sharingan is still activated and glare at the person, who is Naruto. His expression is full of fear and shock. I immediately deactivate it and he relaxes. He wipes invisible sweat off his forehead and stares at my eyes in slight confusion.

"What?" I ask keeping my voice light and full of innocence. He stares at me incredulously.

"I swore. I swear I just, saw, I think. IthinkIsawthesharinganinyoureyesbutitcouldjustbeatrickoflight. Tellmeitisn'ttrueandthatyoudon'thavethesharingan!" Naruto mumble very quickly so even for me it was hard to decipher what he had said.

"Repeat very slowly and clearly. All I got was I thought I saw a kitty cat," I laugh at him. I hope I didn't frighten him too much actually I do, that lovesick puppy deserves it!

"Okay. Whoo. I said, I think I saw the sharingan in your eyes but it could just be a trick of light. Tell me it isn't true and that you don't have the sharingan! Cause then you would be like Sasuke's relative…and that would be so…" Naruto cries. He stares at me and plays with my face checking that I don't have contacts in.

"No, it must have been a trick of light. I think that you should get some sleep so you will be awake for your vigil!" I say pushing Naruto away from me. He nods and crawls over to his sleeping bag and settles into his bed.

I yawn I'm tired too. I clamber into my sleeping bag and wait to fall asleep. Lucky for me my leg still hurts a bit but not enough for me not to fall asleep.

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The next morning I awake because someone is shaking my shoulders. I blink my eyes open and Naruto is staring at me. The sun isn't up and there's a light fog over the ground. It's early in the morning. I sit up and groan. My leg is still a bit sore. I look around everyone is still sleeping. The crazy dobe woke me up for nothing!

"What do you want?" I shout. He puts a quieting finger to my lips and I feel a blush climbing back up my cheeks. I slap his hand away and lay back down my face in my pillow. Naruto pulls me back to a sitting position and picks me up. Now I'm riding piggyback style.

"We're visiting Haku and Zabuza's grave. I'll tell you the story of what happened on the way there. Last night I snuck around and found it, it's a while out…but I'll get there is less than thirty minutes," Naruto tells me. I don't complain. I can't exactly escape and crawl back to camp.

"What about the others?" I ask.

"We're going to visit again later. But I just want you to see something weird. I picked you because you wouldn't make a big a deal about it, like Sakura-chan," he explains. He picks up the pace and continues to speak…but I don't know what he's saying. I'm too intoxicated by him and his rameny honeyish smell. I find myself drifting to sleep again.

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"Akemi! Were you even listening to me?" I feel someone poke me. I open my eyes and see I'm on the ground and Naruto's poking me. I slowly sit up and scratch my head sheepishly. Of course I wasn't listening I was sleeping.

"What? It doesn't matter does it…if you really cared you would have made sure I was awake. So that's the grave?" I ask knowing the answer. He nods slowly. He walks up to the grave and places a bunch of green things on Haku's grave and he places a kunai on Zabuza's. He bows his head and prays for a while. After that he stands up and turns towards pulling my hand so I can pay my respects to the dead. (2)

"What are those?" I point to the pile of what looks like green crap. Naruto smiles at me and laughs.

"I'm surprised you don't recognize these. These are herbal medicines. When I met Haku in the forest, when I thought he was a girl, he was collecting these herbs to help Zabuza. I thought he was prettier than Sakura when I still thought he was girl," Naruto explains quietly.

"Do you know what? Once they find Sasuke's body I promise to give him a funeral. I'll try and put him on the fallen heroes stone. I know they probably won't want to, and Sasuke's body might be mutilated…I'll try anyways. I think he'd have liked that. What do you think, Akemi? You said you knew him really well didn't you?" Naruto asks me. I don't know what to say. As much as I was Sasuke, I don't even recognize myself sometimes.

"I guess he'd like that. But he wouldn't want to bring shame to all the fallen heroes, by putting a traitor's name on the stone."

"I don't know about that. I think he was hero. I always looked up to him. But I think I've finally let go of him. He's not coming back. I decided it's better to stay in the present than linger in the past. I tried to teach him that. It didn't work though," Naruto sighs.

"Well, I guess we should go back to camp now," Naruto picks me up and we head back. As we approach the clearing smoke is rising from the ground and it is impossible to see through it. Naruto pushes his way through. And puts an explosive tag on the ground. He sets me down by a tree and stands by me waiting for the tag to go off. When it does the smoke is blown in different directions making our camp visible.

The camp is destroyed. Burned to the ground. The remnants of our stuff are covered in a large layer of soot and probably ruined. Naruto walks into the mess and calls, "Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan, Sai?"

A figure appears soot covers them and it inches towards him. It's a mutilated body! She's tied up and burnt, but she'll definitely live. "What happened?" I shout. Mind you I'm still propped against a tree. Naruto unties her. Her mouth was covered so she begins to cough like crazy.

"Akatsuki. I think. You've got to help me! Bring me back to the Land of Waves! Just across the Great Naruto Bridge. Please…they're all in danger…my team, we have to save them! Please!" the burnt figure clung to Naruto as if her life depended on it.

"Akemi, what do you think they did?"

"I'm not sure. It wasn't like a usual attack. They took hostages I bet, or they would have left something for us to follow. Kakashi-sensei, might've managed to escape but I don't know where. Sai and Sakura might be being held hostage. I'm not sure. But there aren't any tracks of them leading away. They must have been kidnapped. Do you think we could go to the Land of Waves…it could help. Maybe we could find team 8. If we meet up with them it will be easier to find Sakura and Sai and Kakashi. They are the tracking team." (3)

"Are you okay, though? Do you have any injuries or anything?" Naruto asked the girl.

"I think I'll be fine. Please I need water though. Please take me to the Land of Waves," the girl begged.

"Akemi, do you think you can walk? I can't carry both of you," Naruto called to me.

"I'm fine. The Land of Waves is where we were supposed to work with and ask questions there. Also don't think rashly, Naruto…we don't want to walk right into their trap that would be very very bad. Besides they're being held hostage because they want you. They are only after jinchuuriki. They might have seen more features of the Akatsuki members. Maybe we can find Kiba and Shino there," I suggest. Naruto nods in agreement.

"Well then let's go. I think I'll be fine on my own. We don't have to go that far." It's all my fault. I should've been on watch instead of at the grave. It was my watch wasn't it? I feel horrible. People could be killed because of this. I'd never be a good Chuunin. I think I'm fine a genin.

Stupid and ignorant.

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Only 18 days till I die again…

Notes:

– zanbato translates to mean literally horse cutting sword

– often in Japanese culture they put the late person's favorite food on the grave. Seeing as Naruto and team 7 didn't get to know them well…it makes sense to put something they might have used in their life.

(3) – they are the tracking team…all the teams are put together for a reason. Team 7 – an all around even team, team 8 – tracking, they all have some sort of jutsu of kekkai genkai used for tracking – Kiba's dogs, Shino's bugs, Hinata's eyes. Team 10 – weakest team, they are the trapping team – not a good word, but the techniques they have are for ambush. Team Gai – a fighting team. Lee's taijutsu, Neji's gentle fist thing, Ten Ten's weapons.