Author's Note: Yes yes yes….i know: it's been far too long a time for an update. I'm sorry.
My only excuse is that I've been working very very hard towards my college work
You should see my bedroom right now…got about 500 pounds worth of audio equipment set up hehe
Mixing desks, 8 track recorders. Keyboards…I'm in heaven.
This is the reason I have been neglecting my duties to you all.
I need a good swift kick up the ass to spur me along and get work done hehe.
I'm sorry to everyone who's been awaiting this chapter.
I'll try and make it up to you.
No ifs…no buts…and no maybes. I've let you down.
But I made a promise to not let this fic go unfinished…one I intend to keep
Be Strong KonohaChapter Seven - The Hospital
Hinata's eyebrows rose in confusion
'what has Sakura-chan done this time?' Hinata thought, wondering what Sasuke meant.
"whoa….you two certainly changed…last I saw: she was fawning over you and you were trying to pull off some mild indifference to her." Naruto exclaimed
"Naruto…Sakura and I…we had a fight. Two years ago…infact; it was before you left!" Sasuke admitted. This knocked Naruto back a few paces.
"wait wait wait wait wait…you've been angry at Sakura for two years?" Naruto said confused. Sasuke subtly shook his head.
"Other way around mate." Sasuke chuckled ironically. "…apparently I got too arrogant for her taste and she snapped."
"You hard-headed idiot! ...you BLOCKHEAD!" Naruto shouted suddenly, causing Hinata to yelp. Sasuke's face contorted.
"What the hell do you mean? Calling me a blockhead? You're a blockhead."
"come ON Sasuke, you had to have seen that coming. Always trying to be a cold manipulative bastard, ofcourse you were going to drive people away…" Naruto sighed "…did you apologise to her?"
Sasuke looked at Naruto with some tired confusion
"Have you ever met me?" Sasuke asked sarcastically
"okay….apologising isn't your strong point, but you must have tried to mend the fence surely?" Naruto pried…Sasuke looked away evasively.
"you idiot!"
"yeah yeah….enough about me. What about you? Surely you must have a tale to tell?" Sasuke shifted attention from himself. Naruto was baited
"absolutely! Had a fantastic adventure, I've been all over the five great nations. Hell….I've even got most of my sight back from the chakra sense…"
Naruto began to ramble. Hinata was listening intently, Sasuke didn't mind hearing about Naruto's trip, but he also wouldn't mind getting out of the room.
The blonde story teller was in the middle of describing an incident involving Jiraiya, a bottle of Sake and a well built female samurai
"So…Jirayia takes a swig of his bottle and waddles up to this women that I was sure could take on our Anbu with her nail file! To say nothing of her swords. He gets up to her and says…"
"Knock knock!" A female voice dripping with sweetness came from the door. Sakura daunders into the room with a big grin on her face. "…Hello Saske-kun…how are we today?"
The room's temperature dropped a few degrees…Naruto was sure. Hinata swore she could her Sasuke growling.
"Two-hundred feet Sakura!" Sasuke began "…you pushed me over a Two Hundred foot cliff" Sasuke was fuming. Sakura seemingly didn't notice
"I know….wasn't it fun?" She said, still smiling. Sasuke started to grind his teeth
"I hope your first child has a head as big as yours…that's gonna be painful" Sasuke said daringly. Sakura's smile froze…not a muscle in her face budged for a minute. The room was deathly silent, even the birds had stopped singing. Sasuke gulped, knowing that he had gone too far and he would pay.
"You're right…that is going to be painful" Sakura approached Sasuke's bed and reached for one of his injured legs, her impressive strength would be more than enough to inflict a massive amount of pain to his already weakend limbs
"Wait!" Sasuke shouted. Her hand stayed. "…I'm sorry"
The three other occupants of the room stood and stared at Sasuke.
"Has he ever said that before?" Hinata asked
"I don't remember him even apologising" Naruto said.
"alright!" Sakura said, looking even more proud of herself than ever before. She took a seat and put her feet up. "….so you heard what's been going on then Naruto?" She asked as if nothing happened.
Sasuke's face clearly bore a "What the hell just happened?" face.
"er…yeah. Totally. Snake guys gonna attack again right?" Naruto was vastly confused with the turn of events in the last minute.
"I've just come from Tsunade…we've got our orders." In an instant…tension in the room broke, bringing everyone down with it. It was getting closer and closer to the attack. "…we're to report to area four and escort the group there to central. There we take them out in the tunnels and to the rally point."
"Now?" Naruto asked softly. Sakura shook her head.
"The first groups are going at sun fall tonight, under the cover of darkness…we're to meet our group at nine o'clock. Taking into account the journey to central, time to travel the tunnels, the distance to the rally point and ultimately how fast the group can travel -Can only go as fast as the slowest member- we're looking at arrival in the rally point just after three o'clock."
"Six hours? No way it'll take that long." Sasuke said. "…are all groups going to take that long?"
"I don't know Sasuke…all I was told was what we needed to know." Sakura said.
"What about me?" Hinata asked timidly.
"Sorry Hinata-chan…don't know about you. You're going to have to find Shino. I saw him at central getting a similar scroll." Saukra said holding up the scroll where she got her information from.
Hinata nodded.
"I better be off then." Hinata stood up. "…I'll see you all later"
She stopped before she took a step towards then door. She quietly chewed her bottom lip for a second before turning round and giving Naruto a kiss she'd been waiting to give him for an eternity. In mild embarrassment Sakura started twiddling her thumbs and Sasuke started looking from something on the bedside table.
Slowly and reluctantly, Hinata pulled away and whispered an almost inaudible
"I love you." Naruto smiled and nodded. Silently; Hinata left the room.
On the outside of the door, Hinata took a long deep breath. She smiled anew and quickly made her way out of the hospital to look for Shino.
Back inside, everyone had regained their composure. Sakura was smiling.
"She's missed you."
"I missed her." Naruto retorted. "…how're you doing Sasuke? You going to be up for battling the forces of evil to keep your villagers safe?" Naruto asked playfully.
"still got a couple of aches…but I'll be ready for anything."
"Even the reunion of team seven?" Sakura joked. Her male companions smiled
"we'll be fine" Naruto added "…we're not the kids we were back when Kakashi was testing us." He laughed
"Remember when Kakashi stuck Naruto up the ass…that will stay with me till the grave that will." Sakura said smiling.
"That bloody hurt" Naruto exclaimed.
The room went silent.
"A lot of people are depending on us." The seriousness was dropping everyones spirits.
But before they could begin to question their abilities…Naruto jumped up out of his chair.
"We can do it…it's what we're trained for. It's what we've been training for the last two years. And now we're back together!"
Sakura grinned and stood up also.
"Aint no one gonna stop us! We're team seven!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes
"And we can take on the world." Sasuke said in a dead pan voice. Naruto and Sakura turned to face him, just seconds before they both burst out laughing.
When they had settled down. Naruto uttered something.
"I missed you guys"
Sakura took a breath.
"We missed you too Naruto-kun" She beamed. "…right Sasuke?"
Sasuke did a very subtle nod but refused to say anything.
Naruto and Sakura expected nothing more,
he didn't need to say anything.
Author's Notes: no excuses. No nothing. Just one big fat apology.
We're just getting started.
Am gonna strive for at least an update a month from now on!