Chapter 9 | The Truth

(A/N: To those who have followed this story since 2013… thank you so much. I've been writing on this website since 2009 and my literacy has taken lapses. I've recently stumbled upon this uncompleted fic and read it feverishly. Needless to say, it left me with a pressing desire to finish it so I hope I can do you some justice with this long awaited closure. Enjoy! )

Sakura paced uneasily throughout the Lost Woods. The moon hung high above her head, it's sickly pale yellow casting an eerie saturation over the world. Her heartbeat drummed slowly and deeply with each passing second, echoing the ticking of a bomb she anxiously waited to sound off.

Soon, she reassured herself, She'll be here soon.

Silently a dark figure arose from the long shadows. The nervous Haruno experienced an almost immediate increase in her heartbeat and keenly watched as the figure revealed itself in the dim moonlight.

"Sasuke," She breathed with slight relief, "I thought you went to your dorm?"

Something wasn't right. Sakura's emerald eyes noticed the slant in his posture as they quickly trailed to a rich sanguine spot located on his lower abdomen. It was there her heartbeat pulsed with a piercing intensity that then dropped all at once. She swallowed the knot in her throat and regained composure. In a matter of seconds she was by his side with her soft hands soaking in the blood to better examine the wound.

"I… didn't see her..." He croaked, "From… the shadows…"

Sakura's eyebrows furrowed. "This is too much," She firmly exhaled, "She hurt you because of me". A green glow of chakra started to soothe the raven haired ninja's lesion. Without words he placed his hand on the kunoichi in an attempt to comfort her, yet it proved futile. By just the slight touch of her skin he could feel her blood begin to boil.

When the wound ceased in secreting blood, Sakura gently placed Sasuke at a nearby tree. His body was frail and he began to lose consciousness from exhaustion. After placing a soft kiss on his forehead, Sakura clenched her fist. She turned around and in undeniable rage she shouted:

"Show yourself, Yume!"

The violet eyed offender stepped forward with a disturbing expression of insanity. An uncontrollable smile spread across her face as she creeped closer towards her blossom haired nemesis.

"And then there was one," Yume murmured.

"What did you do to Ino?" Sakura demanded. Despite the alarming uncertainty of her friend's safety, Sakura stood strongly with the clench of her fists throbbing.

"Oh, well, she had a little accident…" Yume snickered, "You never know, she could be closer than you think."

"This has gone too far, Yume! Ino-chan and Sasuke-kun should never have been thrown into your game. This was between you and me!" Sakura seethed.

"My game? You think I've been playing some silly game of chess with your precious loved ones as pawns? Don't flatter yourself brat, everything that has been done is a result of my brilliant calculations." Sakura noticed the imbalance in Yume's stance. She knew something must have triggered the drastic loss of the salutatorian's usual cool temperament, and she was determined to find out.

"Human beings aren't just existential entities you can submit to psychologial phenomenons. Your so called calculations are just assumptions based on your own self proclaimed knowledge of the human condition." Sakura sharply retorted.

Yume frowned, not expecting to hear such an eloquent and calculative thought. She had almost forgotten Sakura had rightfully earned her spot as number one, but that didn't matter now.

"Don't get smart with me Haruno. You… you took away everything from me!" Yume shouted.

"I understand you're upset with the rankings…" Sakura said calmly, "But you're smart enough to know that people are more than just the categories they're placed into. I never saw this as competition, I genuinely-"

"IT'S NOT JUST SCHOOL!" Yume howled, any sense of stability slipping from her.

Alarmed, Sakura observed as Yume subconsciously pulled out a bloodied kunai from her pocket and tightly grasped it in her fist.

"What did I do to you that makes you hate me so much, Yume? Please… I need to know. I need to know the truth." Sakura softly inquired.

Tears soon started to drip from Yume's eyes as she faced down.

"I… I was going to be Tsunade's apprentice." Yume unveiled, her voice breaking.

"On the first day of school, my parents arranged a private meeting with Lady Tsunade. They had already decided from the day I was born that I would become a medical ninja, and the prestige of my clan led them to believe she was destined to train me.

"I'll never forget the uncertain look on Tsunade-sama's face as she studied me. She probably thought to herself: 'Poor kid, having to obey the orders of her parents blindly'. I could tell she knew my parents wouldn't take no for an answer, so she offered them a deal instead. If I would graduate as Konoha's Boarding School for Girls' valedictorian, she would proudly claim me as her apprentice and the whole village would know. My parents left that meeting certain that I would accomplish just that. Years and years of studying meticulously for every quiz and every exam… Shutting out friends just so that I would have more time to get ahead on assignments and even refusing the chances of finding love… I strived day in and day out to be number one.

"But then there was you. You, who came into class everyday with a bright smile on your face. Effortlessly acing tests left and right while having all our classmates wanting to be your friend…

"You even got a job at the hospital and got to work closely with Tsunade! Your parents didn't have to help you meet her, you just went and did it on your own! I felt like I was given everything I needed to succeed in life but you… you had everything I wanted."

Sakura stood completely shocked. Tears began to lightly trickle down her cheeks as she allowed the weight of Yume's story to resonate within her.

"Yume-chan… I had no idea…" Sakura whispered.

"You even had to take away the one person in the world I thought would understand me. My parents always talked highly of the Uchiha clan, but I never knew I would actually fall in love with their heir. Sasuke… you just had to have him too, didn't you?!" Yume cried out as she fell to her knees in emotional defeat. She shamefully buried her head with her hand and wept loudly. Sakura had never felt more pain from anyone. Instinctively she made her way to her crying companion and embraced her sorrowfully.

"I'm so sorry, Yume-chan… Everything you've had to endure… I'm so sorry…" Sakura trembled, understanding now the origins of Yume's malevolence. She could feel her heavy heart desire to wrap Yume in nothing but apologetic love.

"No, Sakura-chan, I'm sorry. I've been so lonely for so long… I should have just come to you from the start." Yume whispered as she placed the hand she used to bury her face over Sakura's back in a mutual embrace. "You're a true friend." The ebony haired ninja extended her other arm into the air, and with the kunai still clenched firmly within her hand, aimed it over the Haruno's back.

"Thank you, Sakura," Yume said in a sudden icy tone, "FOR PROVING ME RIGHT ONCE AGAIN!" She screeched, forcing the kunai down.

"SAKURA!" A second Sasuke screamed, emerging breathless from afar.

It was too late. Yume had successfully landed her blow. Before her a blood soaked Sakura kneeled, her eyes widened in disbelief. Immediately clots of blood shot out of her throat from the direct hit on her back as her body slammed onto the floor. Yume backed away with a newly triumphant grin on her face.

"I must say, I'm rather perplexed by how you ever managed to come out on top of me, Haruno," Yume snickered mockingly, "You are so easy to manipulate."

"Yu...me…" A dying Sakura croaked, blood quickly escaping her.

"You bitch!" The second Sasuke raged, swiftly moving to attack but abruptly stopped by an invisible barrier.

"You see, human beings are just entities I can submit to psychological phenomenons with. It's pretty easy, actually. All I had to do was break down the character traits that make you weak and use them to my advantage.

"Having you split from Sasuke was the first step. See, when you're out in the woods all by yourself, it naturally creates fear. You become uneasy and begin to imagine things that aren't there. Like that person you thought was Sasuke under the tree over there? Yeah that was actually step two: Making you believe that your precious boyfriend was seriously injured. That, my dear, induces rage. Of course I could never be physically strong enough to beat Sasuke, but Ino on the other hand..." Yume trailed off as the wounded Sasuke under the tree began to fade as the real Ino took place, "...was much easier to take on."

"As I calculated, Sasuke wouldn't actually go to his dorm but try to follow you into the woods. That was also an easy step three; all I had to do was section off our part of the woods with an invisible barrier you can't see until you're a certain number of meters away. That would at least buy me enough time to do the final act.

"Now, I never really thought of myself as an actress, but needless to say it was enough to fool you. I preyed on your characteristic of empathy to pull that sad story bull off and you played right into it just as I thought you would." Yume walked towards Sakura and squat down to further antagonize her.

"Did you honestly think you were going to win? I expected more intelligence for someone with such a huge head." Yume scoffed.

"You… mis…" Sakura wheezed heavily.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Yume frowned, disappointed. "You know you really shouldn't talk. You haven't got much time left." The devilish girl turned away and was about to stand up when she heard Sakura for a second time.

"You… mis….cal…" She breathed, but harder.

"Really, this is sad. Please just accept you are no match for-"

"YOU… MIS...CAL…" Sakura heaved.

"I what?!" Yume demanded.

"YOU MISCALCULATED!" The Haruno roared as the bloodied body before Yume vanished with a cloud of smoke. Instantaneously Sakura pierced from under the ground, delivering a sharp and rigid blow to Yume's face as she fully erupted.

The hit sent Yume vertically up in the air, only to slam hard back into the earth, forming a deep dent. The barrier holding back Sasuke broke and he rushed towards the fallen ninja in wrath, but Sakura was quicker.

Delivering quick yet firm throws, Sakura continuously beat Yume's face into the ground.

"I… believed… you! I wanted to help you!" Sakura cried, tears starting to spill from her eyes with each strike. "You made me believe Ino was dead! Sasuke was hurt! You made me feel sorry for you! You tried to kill me when all I wanted to do was forgive you!"

Sasuke quickly pulled Sakura back before she could further break Yume's bloodied face. She breathed heavily, cheeks still stained with tears, and waited for Yume to speak.

"When did you… How did you…" Yume mustered without much breath.

"I noticed you pull out the kunai while you were crying," Sakura revealed, "So when you covered your face I hid underground and created a copy above for good measure. A good ninja never looks away from their opponent."

Yume had no more words. She lay in utter defeat. Sakura decided to speak again.

"Your story was true. I didn't read your chakra levels but I felt it from inside you. Nothing you said was made up. You may have hated the way I lived all these years but you forget that I'm human too. I didn't just make it to rank one without working hard. I too made sacrifices. And Sasuke-kun… well when I met him I wasn't even trying to date. It was Ino and Naruto who made me go on our first date. I didn't think I had time for friends or love either.

"You spent all this time envying and obsessing over someone else that you never reflected on your own life. Maybe if you did you would have noticed that you also have a best friend that's willing to do anything for you. And that there's someone in school who likes you for you. Haruhi-chan and Hiro-kun… you never gave them a chance to help you.

"The truth is… you're exceptionally smart when it comes to studying people, Yume-chan. But who you should have paid closer attention to was yourself."

Sakura walked over to the sunken kunoichi once more and knelt beside her. Hovering her hands over the beaten face, she once again used her healing abilities to soothe and repair the worst damage she inflicted. She then lifted her up onto her back and quietly turned to Sasuke.

"Can you please carry Ino-chan and follow me to the medical wing?" She softly asked.

The walk there was bathed in silence.