Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's affiliates.
M.
The Henge
Chapter 7
xox
"What do you mean I won't be going on the retrieval mission?"
The heavy tone of the room fueled the young kunoichi's anger, the possibility of not saving her best friend hadn't been an option. Whether or not it would be saving, he was out there alone and she couldn't stomach the thought that the knuckle head could be…gone.
"You heard me, I need capable medics here in the village — not on a wild goose chase."
"Wild goose chase?!" Sakura implored, "that's Naruto! He's my teammate, not just someone that I hardly know!" the strain in her voice rung closer to a whine — and she hated sounding like a petulant child that wasn't getting their way, but she refused to back down.
"Sakura, do you understand that the Akatsuki were the ones that attacked him? The same group that almost killed you last week and destroyed half of our village," Tsunade tried to reason — if not by logic than by fear.
Unfortunately for her, Sakura didn't fear death — not at the cost of saving those she loved.
"Which is a perfect reason why I should be out there trying to find him!" Sakura clenched her fists — the leather gloves she had lost during her fight with the two Akatsuki members had been replaced lovingly by the shopkeeper that had ran away from her fight and commended the bravery she displayed — although kind words, they only reminded her of the long road she had ahead of her.
"Are you a tracker?" Tsunade reprimanded, "and do you think you have the capabilities to handle a situation where Naruto might already be apprehended by the Akatsuki?"
Sakura's chest clenched, it hurt to think of the possibilities that surrounded where Naruto could be and why there hadn't been any news from him — it had been over a year since she had last seen him disappear along the horizon past the village gates while she stood back idly with Kakashi-sensei, but she could still remember the rawness in his fighting.
Could he handle himself against them?
If they extracted the Kyuubi….
It frightened her, and it tore her heart to pieces even thinking about that outcome — but Sakura knew that Naruto would fight until he had nothing left before he let his dream of becoming the Hokage slip out of his fingers.
His determination alone kept her faith that he was somewhere safe.
"I don't, but I'm not going to stay here in the village while Naruto is out there. I do have the capabilities of saving his life if I needed to — and that should be enough to put me on the team to go after him," Sakura explained simply — and her words must have temporarily changed her Hokage's judgment because a look of understanding crossed her shishou's face — only to be replaced by the firm lines of her brow creasing in annoyance.
"No. — Our tents are filled with patients, Sakura. Your duty is here — and I'm not going to argue with you any longer about it, I have already assembled a team to find and bring Naruto back—"
"Shishou-! I have to go. He's my friend! And not just anybody, my teammate! I can't live with myself knowing I'm staying here when he could be in a ditch somewhere!" she nearly yelled, the ferocity of her words made her nose burn and eyes water, it scared her to think that she could be out there saving his life — like he had done countless times for her, and even made the ultimate promise of bringing Sasuke back because of her negligence — and she couldn't even go save him when he needed her?
"No, and that's final."
Sakura bit her lip to keep herself from saying anything else, she would go anyway.
Kakashi's firm words ghosted themselves in front of her — those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.
The pink-haired medic remained eerily quiet, and her shishou must have caught onto this when she began to walk away without being dismissed.
Tsunade narrowed her eyes dangerously at her apprentice's retreating back, "by my orders you will stay here, and you will work saving the people that are here in our village — if you leave in the night and I find out that you're missing — which I will, — don't doubt the fact that I will register you as a missing-nin and your name will be put into the bingo book by morning, understood?"
Sakura froze and wrenched herself around to stare at her shishou in disbelief.
In the past two days two of the people she admired the most had forbidden her from aiding them — she wanted to point to the fact that it was a lack of skill that was forcing them to forbid her from helping, but she had to try and look at the bigger context of the situation.
Tsunade kept a level face, Sakura didn't understand why she was being so severe — how could she try and prevent her from helping her friend? It hurt, and the same dismissal that her sensei had given the day before echoed around her.
Half of her — the rebellious side that still sprouted on rare occasions when she really couldn't make a decision told her to go anyway — she would find him even if she had no clue as to where his last location was. The other logical side of her that became a voice of reason told her to stay here — they would find him and bring him back, she would explain to Naruto why Tsunade wouldn't let her go, he would understand.
Wouldn't he?
Betray her village to save her friend.
An ultimatum.
A third side of her spoke up — it warranted a reason why they wouldn't want her to go. They were both powerful shinobi and respected across the countries for a reason — while she could only claim that people recognized her for her hair color — and then mocked her for it.
Filled with doubt, she left the meeting room to head back to the medical tents and find Shizune for assignment. On her way, she passed by the leveled buildings that had been struck the hardest during the bombing, familiar buildings and shops that she frequented throughout her life — gone. The people — gone.
The times when her mother had dragged her to the shopping district had always been unpleasant, but ever since she had started working at the hospital and training with Tsunade — she found herself getting lost in the streets and buying from familiar faces.
Some of these shops and buildings had been around since the construction of the village — she glanced sadly towards the Hokage monument — despair wasn't an accurate word to describe the hollowness she felt in her heart. Counting herself lucky, Sakura mulled over her decision.
No wonder Ino had that forlorn look on her face when she visited her, after only a day Sakura felt like crumbling just by walking through the pummeled streets. What would Naruto have done during the attack? She couldn't shake the resentment she felt towards her shishou, but she couldn't just stay here.
They had lost Sasuke once — now her best friend and Sensei were out of the safety of their village while — ironically — Sasuke sat in a jail cell in the village. She sighed diminutively, the trek to the medical tents took only a few minutes — but by the time she arrived she could hear the groans of pain and hushed discussions amongst the nurses and medics.
"Sakura-san!" one of the nurses ran up to her with a clipboard pressed to her chest, "Shizune-san wanted me to tell you that you would be helping the surgical team today — we've been managing well enough with our rounds, but Yumo-san just fainted and he was in the middle of a procedure on a patient," the woman huffed in one breathe — clearly fatigued herself.
Sakura glanced around the filled tent that seemed to stretch for a mile, patients filled the cots — they had to resort and put some of the mildly wounded on the floor — and there were multiple tents dedicated to the severity of patients. Every medic in the premise shared the large bags under their eyes and clear fatigue from working night and day to help the wounded since the time of the attack.
With even less workers than before, Sakura understood why Tsunade needed her here.
Not because of her lack of skill.
But because of her growing capabilities that were needed here.
Naruto would have to understand.
"Of course," Sakura nodded and followed the nurse to the surgical tent — curious eyes glanced at her as she walked by, she grabbed a spare doctor's coat from one of the racks in the back of the tent and shrugged it onto her shoulders.
She entered the sectioned off surgical area — Naruto would understand.
xox
Kakashi never liked to think metaphorically, and if he did — he did it at the expense of annoying others. Usually as a method to deflect from his own arbitrary actions — and most of the time he normally had Icha Icha held comfortably in his hand when he did, so it fit in context of what he was doing.
However, this time — he did not have Icha Icha in his hand, nor was he doing it at the expense of others, unfortunately.
"I hate to state the obvious — but it looks like we're stuck between a rock and a hard place," he said simply.
Literally.
Three heads turned to him incredulously, one being Yugao who looked as if she could rip his head off for such a contrived statement while Shikaku and Shikamaru looked at him like he was missing his head — which in the position they were in could be a possibility.
"I can't believe you!" Yugao hissed at him, she probably wished she hadn't accepted his offer to come on this mission — truthfully, he wished he had stayed in the village. Or alternatively, at least have his pink-haired student hissing obscurities at him — at least her threats to disembowel him were empty.
"I don't think this is the time to speak so freely, Kakashi," Shikaku ground out evenly, the normally cool man never seemed to get openly frustrated, but to be honest — Kakashi hadn't expected this outcome either.
Voices in the distance alerted them of the trio that would be returning to their campsite and a hushed silence washed over their tense conversation.
They had located Hoshigaki Kisame and Hidan, who had met up with Kakuzu — Kakashi clearly remembered their faces from their battle — the Akatsuki members had momentarily left their makeshift campsite thrust deeply in the harsh terrain of Earth country. The chase after Kisame had led them far past the outposts in the uneven and barren mountain sides that made the winters of Konoha seem tame.
What they hadn't expected was for them to return so suddenly, and Kakashi's quick thinking had forced them into a small enclosure barely a foot and some change in width, but the split in the mountain allowed all four of them to squeeze vertically in between the grated rock — and they had been stuck like this for hours.
Unable to move — unable to speak without alerting the people they were supposed to be gathering information from, and they refused to move. For the mission — their literal tight spot worked quite favorably, but even his legs were beginning to burn since he had to hold himself up to make room for the others to fit.
He could tell the others wanted to burn him alive for this impractical spot — but Kakashi had been taking the conversations of the Akatsuki and mentally jotting down the important information. As seasoned shinobi individually, the three men all knew not to speak about important business delegated to their missions involving the Aakatsuki — but nothing had been spoken that could help Konoha.
"Shut the fuck up, Kakuzu!" Hidan blanched in the distance.
By this time, Kakashi had counted fifty 'fuck you's' from the one that wielded the large scythe in the past five hours. Normally accompanied by an insult, Kakashi was surprised the other two members hadn't told him something in retaliation.
"Shut up, we need to leave soon to go collect our bounty," a deeper, more baritone voice responded - clearly ignoring the thrown insult.
"Like hell we are, we just traveled two fucking days to meet you here for our meeting with Leader—"
"Since when did you care about our meetings?" Kisame baited Hidan.
"I don't," Hidan fumed, "but I'm not going to collect some useless fucking bounty in the middle of fucking nowhere with that asshole."
"You should care, it looks like Deidara and Sasori may have caught the Kyuubi," Kisame said, the twined elation in his voice made the air go stale around the four Konoha shinobi hidden obscurely in the rocky terrain.
All eyes stared at one another, and it took a lot of self-preservation for Kakashi to remain still. His hand subconsciously twitched, and Shikaku stared at him and numbly shook his head — forbidding him from making a move.
They caught Naruto?
Kakashi couldn't understand how they could have possibly found out about his location, unless that woman had given the coordinates before Sasuke took the book back — and furthermore he doubted Jiraiya would have allowed that to happen to his pupil. But listening to the unknowing men, they wouldn't needlessly lie about something like this.
A mixture of raw anger and anxiety coursed through Kakashi.
If they had Naruto, then by nighttime they would have extracted the Kyuubi from him…He held his breathe to count down from one hundred — methodically, he forced himself to focus on his mission — it could be postulated rumors, the swordsman did say may. He couldn't risk their mission for the sake of impulsive behavior — harsh lessons over the years had taught him otherwise.
Shikamaru lowered his head and trained his focus on the rock wall before him — at one point another Naruto had affected a lot of the people around him, and Kakashi would be a vehement liar in denying that becoming Naruto's sensei hadn't brought him out of a dark, apathetic place in his life.
"Oh shit," Hidan broke through with an appreciative whistle, "then that's why Leader summoned us so quickly."
Kakuzu huffed, eternally annoyed with his obtuse partner, "you're a fool — if that had been the case then we would have all been arranged to meet in the River hideout."
The sound of heavy footsteps coming in their direction forced the Konoha shinobi to remain eerily still — halfway expecting that their presence had been noticed — it took a few seconds for them to realize that Kisame had decided to take a leak away from the campsite. Kakashi relaxed the tension in his shoulders — all of them had been ready to spring into action if they had been caught, but there was a reason he chose this team.
Cold and calculated - methodical, even.
He could see the wheels turning in Shikamaru's head — probably along the same idea that Kakashi had. Kakuzu just supplied them with a plethora of information in one sentence, which meant that if they hadn't been summoned to a base in River…than they hadn't captured Naruto yet.
"Oi, Kisame!" Hidan called after him, ignoring Kakuzu's statement, "where the hell is Itachi?"
All ears strained to listen.
Kakashi thought back to his confrontation with Sasuke.
"Who knows, he doesn't tell me anything about his plans — "
"Leader-sama is calling us," Kakuzu cut into their dry conversation.
Kisame sighed and finished before returning back to the duo, and a new silence placated the campsite —
Unyielding silence.
What were they doing?
They waited.
Nothing.
Kakashi motioned towards the break in the wall that he could crawl through, he pointed upwards to it and mouthed that he was going to look. He could see Yugao bristle unhappily with his decision — but after being her captain for years in ANBU she trusted him and remained silent, Shikaku and Shikamaru nodded and shifted slightly to allow him space to inch his way above them.
He reached the top break in the wall and eased himself through. Concealed among the rocks he crept forward until he could oversee them sitting among one another, eyes closed…Were they meditating? Kakashi could clearly see the hum of energy transferring around them..He took a few more steps forward and planted himself around the corner of a boulder.
Their rings glowed…Had they transferred elsewhere? — the only other people that used that hand seal were the Yamanaka clan, which meant that they were using a mind transfer technique.
They're having a meeting somewhere else…
Kakashi pieced together the information and clasped onto it. From what he figured — while completing separate missions they met up in an undisclosed area and used this advanced technique to communicate.
Genius.
This organization wasn't a strung together band of mercenaries that had a half-hazard plan. Kakashi eyed the hand seal they were making — they had a formulated, detailed plan. It became a matter of what they were going to do next so Konoha could intercept.
The attack on their village would not be taken lightly, he had little idea of what Tsunade had planned in retaliation — but they needed key pieces of information before they would succeed.
So he waited.
Nearly twenty minutes passed before Kisame opened his eyes, Kakashi kept himself obstructed behind the rocks, the Kirigakure swordsman shifted samehada next to him and stretched his shoulder blades, "looks like we won't be needing to go to River, ne?"
Kakuzu crossed his arms in front of him, "good — we still need to collect that bounty and it may take a few days."
Hidan groaned, "what's the fucking point of sending them if they can't even fucking catch a stupid kid?"
A shallow breathe that Kakashi had been holding released — the ease of anxiety that had crept on him momentarily dissipated — Naruto was alive, even better — he hadn't been captured yet. The Akatsuki were accelerating the rate in which they were trying to capture the jinchuriki, he could only wonder what would happen if they managed to capture all of them.
Kisame chuckled, a small grin revealed razor sharp teeth — "I'm not surprised. Deidara is too reckless and that kid is pretty headstrong."
"Headstrong?" Hidan questioned, "you met him before?"
"Once," Kisame responded, "Itachi and I confronted them and the white-haired Sannin a while back — the kid is uncontrollable."
Kakuzu thwarted himself from the conversation — obviously agitated they were still talking about the mundane and not preparing themselves to leave.
"No shit," Hidan shifted his scythe in front of him, "then that just leaves what? Four bijuus left? Including that kid?"
Kisame grunted in agreement, slowly lifting himself up and stretching his legs, "well I'll leave you guys to it, then. — I have to meet up with Itachi."
"So you do know where he is," Kakuzu's deep voice permeated the space in between the three Akatsuki members.
"Bold of him to miss a fucking meeting," Hidan narrowly agreed with Kakuzu's assessment.
Kisame shrugged his shoulders, "he isn't my responsibility. I'll be meeting up with him and then the rest of you in Amegakure in a few days," he finished, deflecting any knowledge of his partner's whereabouts.
Bingo.
Hidan scoffed in retaliation, "tch, whatever. That fucker thinks he's better than everyone, anyway."
"Hurry up, Hidan — we only have a few hours left," Kakuzu's voice strained to maintain control of his anger, hurrying his partner for the benefit of collecting a hefty rewards for the merchant they were supposed to capture.
"Calm the fuck down, I'm coming!" Hidan snapped at him.
The three men kicked out the fire and began to leave the campsite. Obviously, they didn't care if anyone followed their tracks — nothing was roaming through this forest that was more threatening than three S-class shinobi who were famous throughout the country and even more notorious in the bingo book.
Their voices began to fade into the distance — lost in the rock that surrounded the area and further along down the mountainside until they disappeared completely.
Kakashi crept back to the crevice where his team was still waiting for his direction — he glanced down at their expectant faces and motioned for them to get out, "looks like we found what we needed."
Now the real question of what happens next worried Kakashi.
xoxo
The last four hours had been hell, and that would be a mild statement — if Sakura had a choice in the matter.
Four hours of intense surgery could numb the mind — and she loved the feeling of getting lost — fixing someone, because by her nature she wanted to help people, saving her friends or patients, it became knitted into the fabric of her character.
What she didn't expect, but had slowly adjusted to was the fact that no matter how hard she tried, no matter how much training she put in, or how many books she studied into the long hours of the night — you couldn't save everyone.
The surgery was supposed to be simple — an amputation of an infected foot. Sakura had done this surgery before, but upon further inspection she had noticed that the infection had already spread further into the man's body. Furthermore, the pain medication that had been administered to him earlier that morning by one of the nurses had caused an allergic reaction that halted the surgery.
They had stopped the allergic reaction with an antihistamine, but the stalled surgery only further perpetuated the infection into the man's lungs. Sakura would have asked Tsunade or Shizune for advice on what to do — but all bodies were currently preoccupied. Did she want to risk doing the surgery when his body was already weak — or let the infection continue to foster?
One of her first executive decisions had been to continue with the surgery and get him on a different antibiotic to treat the infection in the meantime.
Well.
The antihistamine from earlier that morning had thinned his blood — and during his surgery no amount of cauterizing his blood vessels had helped. To stop the bleeding she had to spend another hour carefully using a higher density chakra needle to stop the bleeding — at the expense of wasting some of her own chakra.
The next problem arrived when they began to lose him.
He had lost too much blood in such a short period of time.
By raw determination, they were able to do a blood transfusion which took another hour.
After that, he had been stabilized well enough for her to finish the amputation and send him off to recovery —or so she thought—- when his fever and heart heart skyrocketed shortly after — her first thought had been that he had another allergic reaction to the anti-biotics, but his body was rejecting the blood.
Sakura used her last hour with him to keep him alive while the nurses and another doctor worked feverishly to supply him with enough blood — but she had been pressing on his chest when his shaking body began to stop.
They lost him.
To kidney failure due to his immune system rejecting the blood.
Sakura left the room once he was gone to bite her lip and hold back tears.
The frustration of wanting to keep him alive and everything going terribly wrong.
As a medic, as an empathetic person— she hated losing patients.
One of the nurses came out of the surgery room and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Would you like for me to tell his wife, Sakura-san?"
Sakura didn't want to ever know the pain of losing the people she truly cared about — and it wouldn't be right for anyone other than her to explain to his wife what happened — it was her fault.
The face Sakura wore before when she walked into the waiting area outside of the tent notified the wife immediately because she started weeping nearly on site. Sakura caught the woman from collapsing and couldn't do anything but slowly explain what went wrong during his procedure.
Worst five hours of her life.
Sakura had taken a break after that — and let a few tears fall out of frustration and guilt.
Shizune walked up to her and pulled her into a soft hug unexpectedly, away from the other nurses and doctors in an unused tent.
"It's ok," she murmured, "one of the nurses told me what happened. You did the best that you could have done in that situation."
She nodded her head numbly, so much had happened in the past week alone and still not knowing where Naruto was killed her inside. Kakashi being here would have made things marginally better, but she didn't even know where he was right now either. To add this on top of it, being disclosed in the dark and simply not knowing about the people she truly cared about was taking it's toll on her.
"It's horrible losing patients, and it doesn't get any easier — but I don't think Tsunade-sama or I could have done any better."
Sakura pulled away and straightened her shoulders, "thank you, Shizune-san. That means a lot coming from you," she said softly.
Shizune offered a sympathetic smile, "you should really be proud of yourself. You haven't stopped and this is really your first time working individually as a medic. Why don't you go take a break and get some sleep and come back later tonight?"
She didn't want to stop.
The pink haired kunoichi steadied herself, "no, it's ok. I've already taken too much time off, I'll be good to go in a few minutes."
A flap opened up the tent to reveal Genma standing there, "hate to interrupt you ladies but I need to escort Sakura-chan to the prison."
A curious and confused look must have crossed her face because Genma felt inclined to explain, "Sasuke has requested to see you."
For a terrifying moment her stomach dropped.
Why would he be requesting to speak with her?
The time she had spent with him last had left a clear impression on her that he wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. Even more, she didn't have time to think of his imprisonment after hearing about what happened to Naruto and focusing all of her energy in the medical unit. As of now, Sasuke was the least of her worries — he was safe and in the village, she had other things harboring her attention.
Stupidly, she asked, "why?"
Genma gave a careless shrug, senbon hanging lazily out of his mouth, "didn't say —but he's now allowed strict visitation rights pre-approved by the Hokage, so I figure you're one of the few people he's permitted to speak with."
She gave a hesitant glance at Shizune, who in turn nodded her consent, "go ahead — and after take a little time off to get some sleep, please."
She mildly agreed to the terms and docked her doctor's coat on a hanger before leaving with Genma, heart palpitating wildly in her chest.
xox
She arrived to the prison taking brisk steps — the closer she got, the more her heart felt like it might explode. Genma dropped her off at the front with two prison guards and wished her good luck. She would have reciprocated with a dry comment but she was exhausted mentally and physically, and the last thing she had expected was a request from the one person that confused the inner workings of her head.
Sakura stepped aside to allow the prison guards open the array of intricate security doors that she had lost track of in their descent further into the belly of the prison— truthfully, she had never been to the prison except to drop off files at the reception desk, but the calls from the inmates were more daunting than she would have imagined.
"He's in a maximum security cell," one of the guards leading her explained, "there will be two ANBU stationed outside of the room, but he's completely chained — unless the guy is a wizard he won't be able to harm ya."
You'd be surprised…
He had probably asked for Kakashi-sensei first, but seeing that he is out on a mission she was the next best bet for someone to speak with. Not that she minded, he made it clear he didn't want her interfering with his life…But then why did he help their village during the attack?
What did she expect?
She could safely assume that the only reason she was being allowed to visit him was because he helped fight the Akatsuki when they arrived — otherwise she was sure that when the time came, he would get an unfair trial.
She would need to thank her shishou, or whoever made it possible for her teammate to get a small sense of justice.
They arrived to steel doors that had two ANBU standing guard in front of it, rat and bird mask in place. They stepped aside to allow her through, the other two prison guards warned her and gave her the usual … 'if anything happens, just yell. Don't say anything about the village, etc.'
Slowly, she entered the room to witness a sight that made her heart bleed in sympathy.
They had him chained to the wall, seals marked over his hands and chains — chakra markers that effectively nulled his ability to use chakra. Handcuffed to boot, what killed her was that they kept him blindfolded — a seal imprinted firmly over his eyes, stopping his use of the sharingan.
Were they really this afraid of him?
"Sakura," he initiated, which threw off her strong demeanor.
She wasn't prepared for this.
Fortunately, he couldn't see the way her hands were shaking — or the nervousness in her legs.
"You wanted to speak with me…Sasuke-kun?"
She forced herself to sit down on a brick bench connected to the opposite side of the wall, but her leg wouldn't stop moving.
"Why are you nervous?" the question slipped out of his lips undiluted, so easily that she immediately stopped her leg from twitching.
Shoot-!
How did he notice these types of things while not being able to see her?
"I..I just guess I didn't expect you to call for me, is all…" she remedied, because it was the truth. Of all people, she had expected that she would be the last on his list.
He didn't say anything in response — this was the Sasuke she was accustomed to. Few words, even less explanation, leaving her to fumble awkwardly to try and talk to him with whatever she wanted to speak about while he remained silent.
"Where's Kakashi?" Sasuke asked her — so she had been his second pick.
Of course.
"He's on a mission, Tsunade-shishou sent him a few days ago," her voice quivered minimally, still unsure of where her sensei was — or if him and his team had been caught.
Silence placated the stark room of his cell, he kept his face straight — giving her a view of the lower half of his face because of his blindfold, it pained her to see him like this, and it hurt to think that he would stay like this — covertly kept in the dark until they decided on what to do with him.
"I wanted to thank you," Sasuke began, directly initiating her heart to thrum unsteadily.
"F..For what?"
"You helped me in the forest, and I never said thank you," he said, his words were matter-of-fact, and like usual they lacked the aliveness that he once had — the sheer determination that he once held steadfast seemed to be missing.
She gripped the hem of her paneled skirt, pushing her nerves away from the situation, "sure you did," she murmured.
Why was he bringing this up now?
He gave the smallest hint of a frown, obviously confused with what she meant — but she remembered the words clearly because they still haunted her and drove her to become better.
"The night you left…You said thank you to me."
"He left her unconscious on the bench…"
The words of the nurses flitted through her uneasily, because although she could still feel the shallow breathe of his that tickled the back of her neck, and the weight of his words that touched a place deep within her, she didn't remember him holding her or putting her on the bench — she just remembered that next morning someone woke her up and she had tear stains on her cheeks.
Just the words and his presence remained with her.
"I know," he said, "but I was thanking you for something else when I left."
Her chest squeezed — the room felt immeasurably warm.
"You remember?" she gasped — for whatever odd reason, she had thought that having bothered him that night and trying to convince him to stay, he would have simply forgotten. That moment remained important to her and a turning point in her life, immeasurable in terms of how it affected her. Avenging his family and getting stronger had been his priority — not her.
"Why are you bringing this up now, Sasuke-kun?" the question left her before she could assess why she would ask him.
But years of trying to understand him forced her to this uncertain point.
It seemed odd for him to thank her now…He offered her an explanation the week prior. He mentioned the bonds of the past, but she didn't understand what he meant…But now, he was thanking her for something else?
"I've decided to help Konoha, for now — and I wanted you to know."
Just the other week he was vehement on leaving — and now he wanted to help them?
Her forehead creased in agitation, he never made any sense.
"You told me the other week that you would kill me if I tried and stopped you, I'm not dumb enough to think that you of all people would have a sudden change of heart in a span of a couple of days, Sasuke-kun."
"There's things you don't understand, and I can't explain it to you," he stated firmly, but the small frown and shift in his voice warranted her to want to believe him.
"I always ask you to help me understand, because I want to help you Sasuke-kun. I've always wanted to help you, but you never give me the time of day to understand you," she remained stubborn, too exhausted and tired to try and plead with him — this time he would need to try if he wanted her help.
"Why do you try so hard for me?" he asked her, the question was simple — but her words got caught in the back of her throat.
Before…It had been simple, she would have poured out her love for him and expect him to catch it. She would have cried, because she loved him with her entire being at one point — she would have gone to the ends of the Earth if he had asked her to.
The gentle hug and kiss her sensei gave her before he left drew her attention away from the question.
Until.
"Because I care about you," she said, "have you not realized that yet?"
"You and Naruto are the same," Sasuke said, turning his head to the side to reveal the pale side of his neck. Instantly, her eyes tore to the spot that she had seen Orochimaru bite him in the forest, forever changing their paths in a moment that catapulted the very dynamic of their team.
Except the curse mark was gone.
The mark had been replaced by the smooth, pale skin of his neck.
"How are we the same?"
Please help me understand, Sasuke-kun.
"You guys never know when to quit."
The words stung, but she felt herself swell in annoyance.
"Better than leaving your teammates, and nearly killing Naruto," she shot at him, her words tasted vile, but she refused to let him demean her and Naruto for wanting to save him.
"I didn't ask you two to help me, I told you from the beginning that I had my own path…That I'm an avenger."
She clearly remembered the first day during the bell test, when he opened up to her.
Sakura kept her voice low, she knew that Sasuke hadn't told them about his brother yet, and she also knew they were keeping a clever ear in on their conversation.
"Then what are you now?"
His body went rigid, if only momentarily — he must not have expected her to say that.
But what was he?
If he had killed his brother, then what was left for him?
Is that why he was helping?
He didn't say anything.
And for a brief moment — she saw the young boy that she had first seen in the academy eating tomato onigiri, before the massacre had occurred. When he would fight Naruto in designated spars — and she would watch helplessly as Naruto spewed words at him and Sasuke turned his back on him. The same boy that would walk home by himself, and on one occasion she had seen his brother meet him halfway to the compound when she had been walking home…And the look of endearment that lit up his face.
Like when he had been sleeping, an innocence softened the clench of his jaw, his shoulders dropped, and he kept himself inverted and his head hung.
He looked…Tired.
"Naruto is missing," she decided to interject, because at least someone that had been in the premise of their lives needed to know this beside her.
Sasuke remained stoic, if not for the clench in his jaw that returned, "how do you know?"
"Tsunade-shishou told me," she sighed softly.
"You didn't get put on the retrieval team?"
He sounded surprised.
At least someone believed in her abilities around here.
"No, the Hokage refused when I asked her. If I had left anyway, she would have registered me as a missing-nin," the hurt she still felt due to it made itself present, and she found herself suddenly realizing how she had the habit of always heedlessly telling him things.
Sasuke made a small grunt and kept his voice shallow, "Naruto is still alive, the idiot wouldn't die so easily."
Sasuke still believed in him, and Sakura did too.
The refreshing nature of their conversation unsettled her, and although Sasuke helped confirm her faith in their blond teammate, it still made her stomach churn unhappily at the host of possibilities of what could be going on outside of the walls of their village.
"Why did you help us, Sasuke-kun?" she needed to understand, this three-sixty by her teammate didn't make sense, and for someone that rivaled Naruto in the stubborn department, it still left her uneasy to hear him speak to her like this — so freely, even though ironically he was in chains.
"I told you already, I plan to help Konoha for the time being," his forward statement threw her off, like she was supposed to just understand what was going through his head.
"You said last wee-"
"I said I would be leaving, not harming Konoha — that was your assumption," he shut down her argument and it made her frown in displeasure, if only because he was right.
Sakura frowned and stayed quiet, she wanted all of this to makes sense, but it never did when dealing with him. He was two faces of the same coin — and at any given moment those faces flipped and she had to deal with a new one.
He could be telling her the truth…Or he could be softening her so she can vouch for his innocence, a year ago she would have thrown herself at Tsunade's feet to grant his forgiveness, but a peculiar, speculative eye pressed itself on her.
It also hurt to know that her ultimate faith in him had been shook.
"I'm not asking you for anything, Sakura." The way her name rolled off his tongue had always made her stomach warm, and this time she noticed the small goosebumps that raised on her arms.
She still remained quiet, until the words found her and she hesitantly gathered up enough courage — "I just wish I understood you better, Sasuke-kun."
It looked as if he was about to say something, and her breathe hitched to hear -
One of the ANBU burst into the room, effectively dropping whatever Sasuke was about to tell her, "time's up. — I will escort you out, Sakura-san."
Had that much time gone by already?
She stood up slowly and turned her back on him, he wouldn't say anything — she shouldn't expect much of him, and now she was left with even more uncertainties than before.
She wished her sensei was here…The familiar face that nearly confused her as much as Sasuke did.
"Come back tomorrow."
His voice hooked her, and she reeled herself to look at her chained teammate in mild shock…The first person that had caused feelings that she couldn't accurately explain, the one that had affected her the most…And his words weren't a request, either.
He wanted to see her.
"Okay."
xox
That night, she lay on a spare cot in the medical unit - with no home to return to, her parents were staying in the displaced civilian tents - she didn't want to make the crowded area even more crowded and decided to sleep here since she would be waking up in a few hours to make more rounds. Her body felt exhausted, but unconsciousness refused to take her with it.
Her thoughts remained on Naruto - until they drifted to Kakashi, and then reverted back to her conversation with Sasuke.
The three men in her life that caused her more pain and joy on extreme scales.
She touched her lips softly, remembering the chaste kiss her sensei had left her with - and the mountain of emotions that Sasuke dragged from her.
In reality, she wanted her team back.
But Sakura was learning that what she wanted most, the normal days of their team bustling through the village and the happiness that they all shared, may never return.
Sleep refused to take her that night.
Author's Note:
Just want to say thank you to everyone that has followed/favorited this story!
Special shoutout:
To the Guest and Karen — Thank you for such inspiring reviews that last chapter, your kind words really motivated me to kick me into gear and crank out this chapter, I really appreciate it.
I was feeling a little down, last chapter I only received two reviews for a story that people are reading to completion, with 7K+ views — so it was little disheartening to see the response was so small before those two reviewers inspired me again. If you guys enjoy this story, let me know what you're thinking, what you like or don't like, what I can improve — what you're excited for, etc.
It takes only a few seconds to leave a review on a story — and that leaves such a good feeling with us authors who are taking the time to write these stories.
Of course, you're not being forced to — but I just wanted to put that out there.
Thank you!