A/N: So The next chapter should have a lemon in it, so if that makes you uncomfortable then at least I warned you haha. This is a really dark chapter, I decided to move the story in a darker direction since that's how my mood has been lately. Make sure you r&r!
Chapter 7
Sakura and Naruto walked up the stairs of the apartment building to his floor, but when he got to his door he froze, the door had been forced open.
"Naruto…" Sakura said, pointing to the broken doorknob.
"Stand behind me." Naruto said, as he pulled a kunai out of the waistband of his pants where he always kept a spare just incase. Sakura grabbed tightly onto his other arm and he slowly opened the door and turned the light on. There wasn't anyone there, but the apartment had been torn to shreds.
"Oh my god." Sakura said, stepping over a chair. "Someone's been in your apartment." She said.
Naruto searched the bathroom as Sakura walked towards the kitchen. After a moment of searching the shower and drawers he heard Sakura's scream from the balcony.
"Naruto!"
Naruto ran out to the balcony to see Sakura had turned a ghostly white as she pointed to something to the left of the doorway. Sakura covered her mouth in livid fear. A dead corpse hung from the roof and dangled, swinging in an eerie semi-circle. It looked exactly like Naruto.
It had been there for a few hours and already had flies swarming around it.
"Naruto…!" Sakura said, then pointing above the doorway. Above it, written in blood was the words: I will come for you, Jinchuuriki!
Sakura burst out into tears. The water dripping off of her hair mixed with her teardrops.
"It's just a cruel joke Sakura…" Naruto said, taking her in his arms.
"That's you up there! Don't you see!" she said, pointing to the corpse.
"I'm right here, Sakura." He assured her.
"I… I… I…" she stuttered.
"Baby…" Naruto said, taking her in his arms. "Look at me, it's me, that's just the work of someone who tried to make him look like me."
"I… I thought it was you…" she murmured, crying uncontrollably into his chest. Suddenly someone burst through the door of Naruto's apartment. "Naruto!" It was Shikamaru, Kiba, and Hinata.
"We heard Sakura scream! What's going on?" Shikamaru asked as he ran out onto the balcony. Naruto was holding Sakura tightly in his arms, she was sobbing uncontrollably.
"Oh, shit…" Shikamaru said, looking over at the body hanging from Naruto's roof.
Kiba stopped Hinata before she followed him outside. "Don't go out there, Hinata." He said, grabbing Hinata and pulling her into the apartment.
"Kiba, you and Hinata need to go wake up Lady Hokage." Shikamaru said, "Tell her what happened, and tell her that if she needs Naruto or Sakura then they're going to be staying the night with the Nara clan."
--
Sakura sat on the porch of the Nara family's home, her arms wrapped around her knees, she was staring out into nothing. She hadn't spoken a word since they had arrived. She was currently wearing one of Shikaku Nara's oversized shirts and a pair of shorts borrowed from Shikamaru's mother, Yoshino Nara.
"You need to talk to her, man." Shikamaru told Naruto as he watched her sadly out the window.
"I don't know what to tell her." Naruto said. "She feels unsafe, and I can't offer her that kind of comfort if it's me they're looking for."
Shikaku shook his head. "Tsunade-sama is probably going to deploy ANBU."
Shikamaru crossed his arms. "ANBU will really raise alarm, especially if they're constantly around Naruto's home."
Naruto nodded and continued to watch Sakura. "I just wish she didn't have to get dragged into all this."
Shikamaru rested his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "It's not your fault."
Naruto smiled sadly at Shikamaru. "Yeah, I think I'd better go talk to her."
Shikamaru nodded. "Sure go for it, take all the time you need."
Naruto thanked Shikamaru and grabbed a cup of tea that Yoshino had prepared. He carried it outside and frowned as she jumped when the door closed.
"Hi." He said, dumbly as he sat beside her, she didn't say a word.
"Here, I brought you some tea." He said, placing it on the wood step by her feet. In one swift movement she kicked it away from her.
"Sakura…" Naruto said, as the teacup went flying into the grass. She stretched her body into a smaller area, clinging onto her legs and hiding her face in her shoulders. She began to cry softly.
"Talk to me, Sakura."
"I… I've seen corpses before. I'm a medical ninja for god's sake." She said, hiding her face in her knees. "I've been around blood and violence ever since becoming Tsunade-sama's apprentice."
She took a deep breath and raised her head, staring at Naruto in the face. "But when I saw you, or someone who looked like you, tied to that rope, hanging dead. I…I couldn't take it."
"But it wasn't me, Sakura."
"But for a split-second, I would have sworn I was looking at the dead-body of the one boy that had always been there for me."
"Sakura… I'll always be there for you."
She smiled sadly. "I know, and I feel stupid for reacting this way, I'm a kunochi, I'm supposed to be strong."
Naruto took her hand softly. "Well then, take some of my strength."
She nodded and then wrapped her arms around his neck and he held her, softly fighting to give her strength.
--
Sakura sat up in bed that night. She had been given Shikamaru's room while Shikamaru and Naruto were both sleeping in the living room on mats. She couldn't sleep, she constantly saw Naruto's dead corpse whenever she shut her eyes.
She slid off of Shikamaru's bed and walked barefoot down the hall to the living room. There she saw Naruto and Shikamaru playing Shogi on the floor. She stood there watching them for awhile until Naruto sensed her presence and looked up.
"Sakura…" Naruto said, standing up.
"I…I couldn't sleep." She said.
Shikamaru looked at Naruto, standing. "I think Sakura would rather stay out here, which means I get my own bed."
"Thanks Shikamaru." Naruto said, and Shikamaru gave him a thumbs-up as he walked out.
Sakura walked up to Naruto and sighed. "I'm sorry for being such a bother."
"You're not a bother." Naruto said, rolling out the mats that they were going to sleep on.
Sakura sat on one of the mats and waited as Naruto sat down beside her. She kissed him softly, and touched his arm.
"I was looking forward to tonight, because I thought we could… well you know…" she said.
Naruto looked down at her, sadly. "Yeah me too, it's too bad we didn't make Shikamaru stay out here."
Sakura's eyes widened. "Naruto!"
He smiled. "I'm just kidding.
He laid down and she laid on his chest, he put his arm tightly around her.
"Good night Naruto, I love you." She said, and he kissed her forehead.
"I love you too."
Sakura fell asleep feeling comforted and safe. Naruto stayed up until he knew she was well asleep.
--
Sakura and Naruto began to clean his apartment. "Well it looks as if no one stole anything." Sakura said, putting his dishes back on the shelf. Naruto nodded.
"It was like their only purpose was to scare me."
Sakura nodded and set up the picture frame of Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke, Naruto and her. She frowned as she stared at the picture.
"I wonder if Sasuke knows who did this."
Naruto came up from behind her and wrapped his arms around her torso. "I don't know, but it looks like to me, everything in here is finally clean."
Sakura looked over at Naruto's wall clock. "We need to go see Tsunade-sama now."
Naruto huffed. "Man, I don't wanna have to deal with granny Tsunade right now…"
"We'll have to do it eventually."
Naruto sighed. "Fine, let's go…"
They walked through the village hand-in-hand towards the town center. Many people whispered and pointed in their direction.
"Damn it, these people need to stop staring." Naruto said, walking on.
"Just ignore them, I'm sure they've heard many rumors about last night." Sakura said, wrapping her hand around his arm and resting her head on his shoulder.
"Tired?" he asked as they walked on, she nodded.
"I didn't get a good rest last night."
"Yeah, me neither." He said as they walked up the steps to the Hokage mansion. "Let's get this over with."
Naruto knocked on Tsunade's door.
"Enter."
Sakura and Naruto came up to the desk, surrounding her was Shikaku, Iruka, Jiraiya, Kakashi, and Yamato. They were caught off-guard by the crowded office.
"Tsunade-sama, you requested us?" Sakura asked and Tsunade pointed to two chairs.
"Take a seat you two." She said.
Naruto and Sakura sat.
"The six of us," she said, gesturing towards the people around them. "Have been up all night considering our options."
"Options?" Naruto asked.
"The person who did this wasn't playing a stupid joke, Naruto." Shikaku said, leaning against the post. "Whoever did this meant it as a warning."
"But, that doesn't make sense, why would they go to such lengths to scare me? Why not just kill me?"
Tsunade sighed and crossed her fingers, her elbows resting on the table, she seemed to be in deep thought. "We assume that their first plan was to kill you."
Sakura's eyes widened. "Then… why?"
"Sakura, you and Naruto went out with friends last night, correct?" Kakashi said, leaning on the desk.
Sakura nodded. "Yes sensei, but we were only gone for maybe a couple of hours."
"We have reasons to believe that the person meaning to cause Naruto harm, went to his apartment, saw that Naruto wasn't there, and knew he couldn't stay around so he decided to set up a warning to cause chaos." Kakashi said.
"The body that was made to look like Naruto was a fake, it wasn't even a real body." Captain Yamato said.
"The reason they chose that form of trying to scare Naruto has us somewhat puzzled though." Jiraiya said, finally speaking up.
"Why?" Sakura asked.
"Because seeing Naruto's own dead body wouldn't scare him as much as seeing the dead-body of someone else. As soon as he would have seen it he would have known it was a fake." Jiraiya explained.
"What's your point?" Naruto asked.
"The point is," Tsunade said, looking at Sakura. "Is that the person that did all this wasn't trying to scare Naruto, they were trying to scare Sakura."
Naruto and Sakura fell silent as realization fell upon them.
"Which means," Iruka said, his arms crossed. "That whoever did this knows Sakura lives with you, and he knows that you're important to Sakura."
"Shit." Naruto said.
"Which presents a problem." Kakashi said. "Since this person knows about your close relation to Sakura, it means that this person must be from this village, so it rules out Orochimaru's gang or Akatsuki."
Sakura froze. The person who had done all this was in their village… They could have passed him on the way here.
"It seems as if this person isn't only targeting Naruto anymore, but Sakura as well." Shikaku said.
Naruto pounded his fist on the armrest, cursing.
"What do you want us to do?" Sakura asked, a tiny stutter in her voice.
The whole group looked in Tsunade's direction for guidance. She sighed. "Everything we told you is only speculation, we have no proof, for all we know it could just be an old geezer who doesn't like the jinchuuriki living in his village."
Naruto's eyebrows furrowed together.
"So we can't really do anything, but we want you two to be on the lookout incase this person decides to make a move."
Naruto and Sakura nodded. "Right."
"Just for a precaution I am going to assign you to a new apartment by the end of the week." Tsunade said and Naruto and Sakura nodded.
"Okay, that's all."
Sakura and Naruto stood.
"Thank you, Tsunade-sama." Sakura said.
"Dismissed."
--
Sakura and Naruto walked through the streets of the village towards home. The sun was setting and Sakura stood closer to Naruto than normal. The streets were completely vacant, not one person was outside.
"Are you scared?" Naruto asked and Sakura nodded.
"He could be watching us right now." She said, shivering.
"I'm not going to let anything happen to you." He promised.
"I'm worried about you." She said, grabbing his arm.
"Well don't worry, I won't let anything happen to me either." Naruto said, laughing.
She didn't smile. "I'll protect you."
He looked over at her. "You will?"
She rolled her eyes. "Naruto I can hold my own in a fight."
"Trust me, I know." He said, holding his hands up in defense. She crossed her arms and walked ahead of him.
"Hey, c'mon Sakura." Naruto said, running to catch up with her.
He put his arm around her as they continued to walk along. She leaned into his shoulder, feeling quite content.
They made it back to the apartment, but when they walked up the stairs they saw the door open. Sakura had been walking somewhat ahead of Naruto and saw the open door first. A man slowly walked out.
She froze as she looked into the man's Sharingan eyes. He wasn't Itachi, Sasuke, or Kakashi. Who was this man? She turned to Naruto but when she had turned around, he was gone.
She looked down the end of the stairs and whispered Naruto's name.
"He's not here." A voice called, and she looked up, it was an oversized man that towered over her. She pulled out a kunai and pointed it in his direction.
"One more step and I'll slice you to bits." She seethed.
The man laughed. "You're cute."
"What are you doing here? Where is Naruto?"
"I thought if anyone, you would have gotten a good look at Naruto last night." He said and Sakura suddenly froze, the dead image of Naruto appeared in minds eyes without her being able to control it.
"No… I was talking to him just a moment ago." She said turning around, Naruto still wasn't there.
"Nope, he's not there."
"Who are you?" she asked.
"My name is Bokki, I'm a big fan of yours."
Sakura held up her kunai. "Save your flattery, what did you do to Naruto?"
The man laughed maniacally. "I'm a big fan of yours."
Sakura starred confusingly at the man. "Yeah, I got that, now answer my question!"
"I'm a big fan of yours."
Sakura ran up to the man and shoved her kunai into his neck. "Listen you stupid tub of lard! Tell me where Naruto is NOW!"
The man's mouth suddenly opened wide and shrieked a pitch higher than her ears could take. She held her ears closed as best she could but it still hurt. She felt her eardrum puncture. She screamed in agony, she tried to move away but it only made the pain worse.
Suddenly the pain stopped and she looked slowly up to the man she had just ran from, his face was melted and looked demented. He opened his mouth slowly.
"I'm a big fan of yours."
Sakura leaned back and looked terrified as she scrambled for the stairs. She didn't know who this person was, but she needed to run for her life.
"Don't leave me Naruto!" A voice screamed in her brain. The voice belonged to her but she didn't think it or say it.
"If you want me, then take me." The voice said again.
"I only survived because Naruto was with me."
"Of course I love you Naruto!"
Sakura covered her ears and screamed as loudly as she could, trying to get the sound of her own voice out of her head. She began to violently rip at her hair. She knew what had happened but couldn't control her own body, she had been stuck in a Tsukuyomi Genjutsu. She tried her best to force herself out of the jutsu but it was too difficult.
"Sakura…" Naruto's voice called, and Sakura took a relieved breath, she turned towards Naruto's voice, but when she did she saw instead of him, his dead body was now talking to her. His once cute perky cheeks were now caved in, and his face was colorless. His eyes were clouded. He looked horrifying. Sakura covered her mouth and tears dropped out of her eyes and onto her cheeks.
"Naruto…"
"I hate you." He said in his exact voice. The dead-body of Naruto approached her.
"No please, don't come any closer." She begged, but his bony hands grabbed her wrists.
"I hate you!" he said, using one arm to hold her hands and the other to spread her legs apart.
"No… what are you doing?" she asked, crying harder.
"I hate you!" he said, pulling her shorts down.
She closed her eyes. "Concentrate my chakra."
Suddenly she appeared back in real time. She felt as if she had been gone for ten minutes, but it was if she hadn't ever left. Fear struck her like a knife and she fell to her knees.
"Sakura?" Naruto asked, his hands touched her arms.
"Don't touch me!" she screamed, pushing his hand away and crawled to the middle of the hallway, her arms wrapped around her knees, still right outside of Naruto's apartment.
"Who are you?" Naruto yelled, lifting his kunai in the man's direction.
"Don't look into his eyes…" Sakura whimpered from the corner.
Naruto froze. "I… I know you, you're the blind man of the village, the one who walks around with dark sun-glasses and a cane."
"My name is Bokki actually, but it's sweet that you remember me, jinchuuriki."
Naruto gasped. "Then you're the one who left that dead copy of me on my balcony."
"Right you are, my child."
"Why? Why did you do that if you knew I wouldn't be afraid of it?"
"I did it for Sakura, I've been watching her for the past two weeks, ever since she got back from that failed mission. She's an interesting specimen."
"Specimen? What did you do to her?"
"She got caught in my Tsukuyomi Genjutsu, I didn't torture her too badly, but it was enough to shake her up." He said, gesturing to Sakura who was shaking. "If you look into my eyes on the other hand, I won't be so lenient."
"Why Sakura?" Naruto asked.
"Haven't you figured it out lately? It's because of you. Every amount of pain and suffering Sakura's even gone through was because of you!"
"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked, his arm dropping to his side.
"You promised to bring Sasuke back to Konoha years ago, remember?"
Naruto crossed his arms.
"You never kept that promise, meaning Sakura had to live her life alone, with out the one person she truly loved. You caused that pain. Every mission that she went on with you, she cried over you when you were turned into the nine-tailed fox, she cried when you allowed Gaara-san to die. She's had to cut binds to all of her family, her parents, her neighborhood. She sacrificed it all to be with you, and where has that gotten her? Tortured, shaking on the floor."
Bokki walked over to where Sakura was sitting and she shrunk back into the corner and buried her head in her arms.
"Yep, it seemed as if I really messed her up good this time around."
"Get away from her…" Naruto said. "Why are you doing this to her?"
The man crossed her arms and Naruto concentrated on not looking into his eyes.
"Because, Uzumaki Naruto, I want you to realize, that everyone you'll ever get close to, is going to suffer, just like Sakura."
"N…Naruto… Don't listen to h….him." Sakura stuttered. "I…I love y…you."
The man pulled back at kicked her hard in the face. "Stupid girl, loving a monster," He got close up to her face and yelled. "His corpse almost raped you!"
Naruto froze, his eyes widened. "What?"
Sakura whimpered and cried. "No… No… I love him…"
"What's going on?" Naruto asked.
The man stood to his full height. "While she was caught up in my Genjutsu she imagined your dead-body was raping her."
Naruto's eyes widened. "You… You did that to her?"
"The Tsukuyomi Genjutsu decides the most painful course of torture a person can handle without committing suicide, and then lets the person imagine it is happening to them."
"You… You made the image of my dead body rape her? You… You animal!" Naruto yelled.
Naruto made a hand-sign. "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Hundreds of clones appeared all through the hall, in the apartment and on the grass below. Their expressions mirrored that of their creator, anger.
"You ever touch her again and I'll rip you apart!"
"You bastard, get away from her!"
"You're dead now, idiot!"
"If you lay one more finger on her, I'll send you to meet your maker!"
"I've just about had enough of you!"
Ten of Naruto's shadow clones attacked in that moment. With about twenty more attacking behind them. Bokki hadn't said a word, but just suddenly in one swoop he made half of the clones disappear.
"Is that all you've got?" Making the rest of the clones disappear, Naruto sat back in shock, this person was powerful.
Suddenly Naruto heard screams behind him. Choji, Sai, Shikamaru, and Ino approached them, running up the stairs.
"Ino, go alert ANBU!" Shikamaru ordered and Ino nodded, heading in a separate direction.
Sai, Shikamaru and Choji ran in front of Naruto, each setting a supporting hand on his shoulder as they passed by.
"Well what do ya know, it seems the Jinchuuriki has friends after all."
"Damn right he does, who is this guy anyways Naruto?" Shikamaru asked, putting his hands up in defense.
"He says his name is Bokki, don't look straight into his eyes though, he has the Mangekyo Sharingan you'll get caught up in a horrible Genjutsu if you look him straight in the eye." Naruto said.
"What happened to Sakura?" Sai asked as Shikamaru plotted his first move.
"She looked into my eyes…" Bokki said, with a little laugh. "As much as I'd love to stay, I really can't be stopped by ANBU again, I'll be back for Sakura though, I'm not quite done with her yet." He said, but as soon as he reared back to kick Sakura once more, everyone made their move.
"Shadow Possession Jutsu!" Shikamaru yelled, binding him with his shadow.
"Partial Expansion Jutsu!" Choji said, making his hand expand that wrapped around Bokki's body and held him still.
Sai ripped out the blade attached to his back and shoved it in Bokki's face.
"You're not going anywhere, pal." Shikamaru said, with a smirk on his face.
In the next moment five different ANBU members popped out of thin air approaching the group.
"Well, it seems I really must be going!" Bokki said and in one swift movement forced himself out of both jutsus and disappeared. Shikamaru and Choji fell back in pure shock.
"How did he…?" Choji asked. "How did he escape?"
Shikamaru sat back, shocked. "It was as if he didn't even have to work that hard to get out of our jutsus!"
Naruto slowly walked over to Sakura, she was still curled up in the corner staring at nothing.
"Naruto, I know you want to go to Sakura, but you have to explain what happened to the ANBU." Shikamaru said, stopping Naruto by placing a hand on his shoulder.
Naruto closed his eyes in frustration and formed a hand sign, calling a shadow clone. "Go explain everything to them." He said dumbly as he faced Sakura again. She looked like she would never be the same again.
"Sakura…" Naruto said, approaching her slowly.
She looked up at him and forced out a half of a smile. "He's…. gone…" she shivered.
Naruto pulled off his jacket and wrapped her up in it. She seemed to be comforted by the scent of him and the warmth of his jacket on her cold body.
"I'm going to take you to Granny Tsunade, she can help you." Naruto said, picking her up carefully and lifting her into his arms. She was still clinging onto his jacket but he smiled a bit when she cuddled into his black t-shirt.
"I… I love you." She murmured.
"I love you too, just hang tight okay, I'll get you there as quickly as possible."
A/N: To the people who has addressed that Sakura might be a bit too helpless in this story I just want to say that she won't always be that helpless (even when Kakashi was caught in that jutsu he was pretty shaken up so i was just being realistic to the main story) so to all the Sakura fans out there I just want to say, don't worry Sakura will get her chance haha.
Okay...
NOW GO REVIEW!! :-) Thanks all!
