Just another short chapter to help the story progress. (: Next chapter will have Sasuke's point of view on everything, probably.
Hope you enjoy, and leave reviews... Give me suggestions on how to keep things going, stuff you would like to see, ideas, so on and so forth. All is accepted. Thank you!
Sakura stood to the sound of a knock, running a brush through shoulder length hair as she approached her door, pulling it open. Karin had become a bit of a regular in her home, but she honestly didn't mind. The woman was nice company, and right now she could use someone to talk to. Naruto was on her couch, asleep, and though he might have thought she wasn't around see, she had been there to find him crying. Something about seeing Naruto of all people… Cry? It was absolutely heartbreaking. Even more so since she couldn't just hug him and try and comfort him and figure out what triggered it. That would probably kill him more. The only thing she could do was leave him so he could hopefully fall asleep. Thankfully he did.
"You look tired." Karin noted, nudging her glasses up her nose as she stepped in past the pink haired girl, immediately finding the issue there in the living room. That boy. She really hadn't talked to him much, but talking to Sakura she knew a lot about him, and the situation between him and Sasuke.
Because Sasuke never talked a lot, none of their group knew much about his background other than the fact he came from the Hidden Leaf and was Orochimaru's favorite. To know that someone like Naruto, so warm, so happy, so kind-hearted was desperately clinging to someone who was so cold, so evil, so horrible… She didn't know what to think of it!
Karin blinked as her arm was pulled, looking to the girl who was suddenly tugging her into the kitchen. "He just fell asleep a little while ago, I wanna make sure he doesn't wake up." She explained, allowing the redhead not even a second glance back at the blonde as she was dragged into the dining area. She understood though, and just shook her head, wandering passed the other girl and taking a seat down at Sakura's table.
"Did something happen?" She was curious, but from the looks of Sakura, she was clueless.
"I… Don't know. I saw him walking through the village this morning like the living dead… He told me he couldn't sleep." The containment center was in the opposite direction of where he had been walking from however… Had he paid a visit? Had it gone badly? Then again, no visit to Sasuke ever went well for anyone. But it had been so early in the morning! On top of that, when Sakura got a good look at Naruto, he saw how his hands were red, bleeding. He had to all but force the blonde to just give her his hands so she could help fix them! He refused to tell her the cause though. Had he finally snapped at Sasuke? Had he hurt him? She wouldn't blame him.
"Something Sasuke related, I'm sure." Karin sighed, pushing a hand through her red hair as she sat back in her seat, watching as Sakura walked around the kitchen. She appeared to be preparing lunch, but Karin was confident that she was just trying to keep herself busy. Just a week or two ago it was Naruto that was trying to keep Sakura together, now it seemed to be the other way around- yet Karin wasn't completely sure Sakura was capable of doing that. Not because she couldn't handle it, but because she was having just as hard of a time… But lately she seemed to be doing the slightest bit better. That was good.
"Probably…" Sakura breathed, as she started making herself a sandwich, filling it with all she wanted. "We all thought things would we better after Sasuke came back…" Sakura lowered her gaze to her lunch, biting her lower lip for a moment, before sighing, "Seems like things got a lot worse around here." She raised her sandwich to her lips and took a bite, feeling Karin's eyes on her. She must have understood.
"Well, it's only been about a month or so, right?" Karin suddenly spoke up, watching as Sakura chewed her food, turning slowly to look back to the red-head. "You can't expect things to just happen in an instant." Karin stood from her seat, pushing her chair in before stepping forward. "You just have to be patient and hope for the best." She sounded so confident, but Sakura wasn't so sure if that would end up being the case, "Time heals all wounds, right?" Karin gave a small smile, and Sakura couldn't help but smile back and nod her head.
"You're right. I'll try." Sakura promised, only to hear her name being whined from one room over. Had it been any other situation she would have rolled her eyes and told Naruto to go fuck himself, but right now… Hearing her name being whined like that made her feel as if Naruto was somewhat better. It was comforting in a strange way. "You hungry?" She called back to the emotionally fucked over blonde, who gave a soft grunt in response. She was going to take that as a yes- if only because there was never a real moment where the boy wasn't hungry.
Karin found herself chuckling a bit at the exchange- being here made her happy. She thought she had been happy with Sasuke… and the two other boys, but… Here it was warmer. Calmer. She felt happy.
Naruto brushed a hand through his hair, messy with bed-head, his eyes tired-looking regardless of the fairly decent nap he had managed to take at Sakura's. Though it seemed to him no matter how much he slept, he still felt absolutely exhausted. He was physically and mentally worn down to the core. "Naruto!" Said blonde's head snapped up to find the face of his past teacher smiling at him happily. The man always seemed to show up when he was feeling down, but right now? Naruto was once again taking it was a good sign that what had occurred early this morning was all for the best. Even more so since Iruka proceeded to offer him ramen in exchange for a little catching up, and there was never a moment he didn't want to talk with the man, he was nice and a big part of his life. How could he refuse? Especially with Ramen on the line. By the end of lunch, Naruto was feeling boosted, Sasuke was lifted from his mind for the most part, he was nothing more than a whisper in the back of his head, annoyingly pecking at him. He easily brushed it off though, as more and more distractions came his way. Shortly after Iruka had parted ways with him, he had run into Kakashi… And somehow, he had a feeling the man knew what Naruto had done. Kakashi was very good with seeing through people, and he was sure he himself was as see-through as glass.
"What'cha holdin' behind your back, Kaka-sensei?" Naruto peeked over his teachers shoulders, both of them, and each time the other mans hands switched from side to side to avoid the blonde seeing.
"Nothing, nothing. Nothing you should concern yourself with." Kakashi was rounding the blonde ninja, keeping his back turned away from him at all times.
"A-ah! Are those flowers? You have a date, don't you!" Naruto was laughing hard, and Kakashi couldn't help but join in.
"They are, but it's not what it seems!" The silver haired jounin quickly excused himself, before finally revealing the bouquet of red roses. Naruto gave him a skeptical look, and Kakashi just sighed.
"Ino apparently saw me with a friend of mine yesterday, and she thought we were on a date- so when I passed her shop earlier she forced these on me and shut the door." Naruto burst into laughter at the explanation… Kakashi couldn't help but laugh as well. After hearing from Sakura a short while ago, it was nice to see he still he had it in him to laugh. Then again, Naruto was Naruto, he was king of coming back to the top within moments after falling down to the very bottom. He would be fine, Kakashi was confident in him. As was Sakura and the rest of the village who noticed the blonde to be a bit off ever since yesterday. Maybe today would be the start of a recovery… He just hoped it was true. Usually a person had to reach the very bottom before they could rise again- he just hoped Naruto wouldn't fall back down again.
However, the distractions could only continue for so long until the streets of the Hidden Leaf were empty, and it left Naruto alone. He managed to bring himself home, and save a possible break down for that point. The entire day he was able to avoid thinking of him… but now that he was alone, it was hard to avoid. But strangely enough? He felt… Kind of light. As if doing what he had done had relieved him of some stress. He sat himself down in his bed, slowly taking his sandals off, then stripping from his shoes and pants, leaving himself in his boxers. He sat there for awhile, just staring at the ground. The temptation to go and visit the contained Uchiha was strong, to apologize for the way he acted, to take back what he said- but what would that do for either of them? Sasuke probably didn't give a fuck either way, and Naruto would only ruin himself further by breaking down now… He felt like a recovering drug addict, currently fighting off the temptation now that he was alone and it was at its strongest point. Acceptance was the first step? Well, in that case, he accepted the fact that he was selfish, that Sasuke he was his problem and he was bringing it upon other people… And now that he accepted it, he had to give up on the rouge ninja. And that was exactly what he would do.
He would be fine. So long as he stayed with his true friends, and stuck with people who cared for him. Yeah, he would be fine.
Hope you enjoyed! Review and all that! I have a vague idea of where I'm taking this, but I need stuff for the in between so please help me so I can incorporate things you want to read into the story.
