"I'm begining to hate Hinata more and more!"
Sakura jumped from branch to branch in the direction of the Kamquat village. She didn't even know why she had such a grudge with Hinata. She didn't feel like this in the begining , but the less time she spent with Sasuke, the angrier she got with the young Hyuuga. It wasn't even her fault and Sakura told herself that continually, but that never stopped her ill feeling towards Hinata.
Sakura felt her head become light and yawned, She was tired. She went almost 2 days without sleep, and another because she hadn't fallen asleep in Sasuke's bed until he came in and slept next to her.
She recalled their meeting after that night, and tears stung her eyes, she never felt so hurt in such a long time.
**********flashback***********
Sakura pulled the covers off her body and streatch, she looked around for her Sasuke but he was nowhere to be found.
She dragged on her clothes and walked into his kitchen to see him sitting at the table, deep in thought.
"Goodmoring Sasuke." She chimmed and made to kiss his cheek, he pulled away and gave her a strange she couldn't judge because she'd never seen it before.
"Sasuke whats wrong?" She pulled pulled up a chair next to him, she was beyond concerned for her lover.
Sasuke sighed and turned his head away, "Look Sakura I don't think it's such a good Idea that we see each other like this anymore."
"W-what!?" She mumbled. Had she heared right? Did Sasuke just tell her he didn't want to see her anymore?
She was supposed to be angry, she was suposed to want to rip his head off her shoulders for putting her through all of this and then to throw her away, but she wasn't, she was confused. What made him change his mind so readily, he wasn't like this last night. Sure they had a fight, they always fought but it never ended like this.
"Sasuke, I-I don't understand." She reached out to touch his arm but he snatched it away and stood up.
"Whats not to understand?! You can't live here anymore!"
Now she was mad, "What do you mean! What did I do to you that was so wrong, I did everything for you.
I even risked my freedom so you could have what you put me through the pain of watching you get engaged to another woman and now your going to tell me to get out?!?"
Sakura watched his face with death in her eyes, she blinked back tears, he couldn't see her cry she didn't. She shed enough tears for him. But she couldn't stop the tears from reeling down her face. She closed her eyes tight and turned away.
"If you want me to go Sasuke-kun...I'll go." Her voice was soft and quivered but it was still angry.
"Sakura please, Im not saying we have to end what we have, I'm saying it's too dangerous for us to live together."
Sakura turned back to face him, she immedatly recognized the look on his face, the expression she couldn't identify before was pain, he looked like that for most of their childhood and when he came back he erased that look off his face. Sakura never thought of it again ,she ereased it too, she didn't want to see Sasuke look like that either.
"I just wish you would understand, Im doing it for us. What would happen if Hiashi came here or Tsunade or Naruto or...Neji."
Sasuke spit out the last name with so much venom it made Sakura flinch back.
She thought about what he said and he ws making a very good point. She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off.
"I still need your help, I need you to go to the Kamquat village and get there as fast as you possibly can, don't stop don't rest don't do anything just go and keep going. Keep an eye on them, make sure she doesn't do anything stupid, you know how dangerous that village is so don't let them get hurt!"
"Whats the big hurry all of a sudden?" She asked sarcastically wiping the tears off her cheeks and out her eyes.
"Why are you still here? You were supposed to be gone yesterday." He shot back and left the house.
He poked his head back in and said one morething to her. "Don't go out the front door go out the back!"
********End flashback*********
She was now a liability, his dirty little secret, she always was but he never allowed her to feel like that. What made him care so little now.
Sakura fought of her tiredness and kept gliding from one branch to another, she didn't want to be a disappointment and make him even more upset with her.
She approached a clearing and saw a shadow standing there. It was more like an apparition than a person because of how open they left themselves.
Sakura felt a chill run down her back, but calmly shook it off, there was no such things as ghosts. She had encountered much worse in her life as a ninja.
The shadow waved her in when she drew even closer, it was dark so she still couldn't see who it was. She wasn't going to stop for this stranger, person or spirt, she was moving on.
"Hello.....SAKURA." The voice made her stop dead in her tracks, she nearly fell to the ground by how surprised she was.
Sakura stayed a good distance from the person before slowly moving in.
"You've got a lot of guts comming here Menaka, You should have just stayed out of it!"
Sakura was now close enough to see the young girls face. She dropped all her gaurd, there was nothing to fear from her.
"You've got a lot of guts trying to decieve the Hyuuga's, you and Sasuke!" Menaka mocked her tone arrogantly.
Sakura narrowed her eyes and looked at her with a vicious glare.
This child figured out their secret, and at the worst possible time for the pink haired Kunoichi.
"You are sharper than a box of knives,you foolish little girl." Sakura hissed through her teeth.
Menaka was brought aback, but held her ground tight and didn't flich.
"You and Sasuke are using Hinata to get into our clan and trying to get Naruto out of the way, well it won't work they aren't going to give up on each other so easily."
Sakura chuckled at the audacity of this little before her. She really didn't know who she was dealing with or the amount of damage she could be placing on herself.
"You think you have everything figured out don't you? Well you don't! You don't know half the story, and no one will be able to find out because you won't be able to tell anyone."
She tightened her fist and held it up before her. "It's a shame Menaka I really did like you, you were so naive and stupid it was hard not to feel sorry for you."
Menaka swallowed hard when she saw Sakura's fist glow green, the shadow cast on her face made her look even more menacing.
She mustered up as much courage as she could, she didn't need to be afraid of Sakura, she was just another girl...another girl Ninja.
Sakura pulled her fist back to gather up momentum, she was trying to intimidate Menaka, she wasn't liking how the little girl showed no frear of her whatsoever.
She wasn't planning on hurting Menaka, Sakura just wanted to reinstate her superiority by inciting fear in her.
"So what are you going to do Sakura-chan? After everything that you and I have been through you're going to kill me?"
Sakura stopped for a moment, and cocked her head to one side, . "Kill you? Whoever said that, im not going to kill you I already said I like you too much."
"What?" Menaka furrowed her brow, she was almost sure that Sakura would try to get rid of her, she was a servant girl who found out the details to her plan, She would be easy to finish off and no one would miss her.
Sakura moved even closer to Menaka, she held on to her hand and whispered in her ear. For someone who used their brain a whole lot Psycological damage was the way to go, and Sakura knew the exact subject that could bring Menaka to her knees, or possibly to her and Sasuke's side.
"How would you like to have Hinata, Hiashi and the whole main family wait on you for a change? Your whole life you lived to serve them, and they don't give a rats ass about you. I can change that, Sasuke and I could change that."
Menaka tried to back up, she didn't want to hear things like that because deep in her heart she so desperatly wanted it to come true, Sakura took hold of the other hand and pulled her back in against her will.
"They would have to adress you as their superioir, they would have to reprot to you whenever they left the perimeters, and that horrid caged bird seal on your head would disappear!"
Menaka stopped struggling, she couldn't believe what she was hearing, Sakura was offering her a chance to be rid of her prison. How could she pass something like that up? She blinked the thought away.
"T-theres no way! You're a liar the caged bird seal can never be removed, ever!" She went back to wringing her hands out of Sakura's grasp.
"Says who,the main family, why would they tell you about it. The whole point of the seal is to keep you and your kind from ever succeeding beyond thoes high Hyuuga gates."
"Please Sakura-chan, don't tell me these things, why do you have to go there with me?" Menaka had tears in her eyes as she listened to Sakura point out every miserable part of her tormented life.
"Its not the first time you are hearing this is it, Im certain not."
"NO!" Menaka fell to her knees, still trapped in Sakura's embrace with tears pooling down her face, "Neji please! make her stop."
Sakura raised an eyebrow, "Neji?" Before she had time to register, she felt a sting in her arm and instantly dropped Menaka's hands.
"Thats enough Sakura, Shut up now!"
Neji suspended form above in the tree's, he'd heared everything and he was really pissed off, any normal human could see that.
"I-Im so sorry Neji." Menaka sobbed, "B-but what she was saying was...I wanted to believe her so bad and-"
"It's alright Menaka, it was easy for her to decive you like that, besides I got enough information from her."
Sakura cradled her arm that was now of no use to her. She glared at Neji, "You let this little girl go through all of that for Information?"
Neji snarled at her, "You mentally tortured her for no reason!"
"I only did it to bring you out of your hole! I knew someone was here with her, I just couldn't fighure out who it was. She was too brave to even think of taking me on alone that was the dead giveaway."
"Sakura I always expected better from you, You let Sasuke brainwash you into doing somthing so rediculous, It is completly beyond me."
"He didn't brainwash me into doing anything, Im helping him on my own free will, I'm doing it for him because..." She trailed off, her eyes beging to water again.
Neji stood before her waiting for her to continue, Menaka was now behind him hesitantly peeking around his shoulders at Sakura.
"Because?" Neji probed, "Because you love him right?" he asked sracstically,or as sarcastic as Neji could possibly ask.
Sakura nodded her head slowly, she was pathetic, just the mention of Sasuke's name was going to make her feel useless until he acknowleged her again.
"Is that why he said you weren't imortant to him this morning?"
Sakura snapped her head up with confusion written all over her face, "What are you talking about?"
"I went there this morning to confront him about this fony wedding and your dealings with Menaka,
and he said that I was out of my mind and had no idea what I was talking about, that you and him weren't together and since Hinata came into his life you weren't important to him anymore!"
"This morning, it was you?" Everything was begining to make sense now, Sasuke didn't really mean what he said at all, it was Neji who drove him to do it.
Neji and his nosiness, were all Hyuuga's Natural born medlers?
Sakura inhaled through her nose, she sat quiet for a long time internally contemplating something the other two didn't know about, finally she spoke.
"Neji, I'm sorry about all of this, Menaka I'm sorry too, I never wanted anyone to get hurt, I didn't expect this much trouble would come out of this."
"Do you really expect me to forgive everything you've done because you apologized?" Neji was insulted, what kind of man did she take him for?
"Will you just hear me out?!? There is is a good reason for why Sasuke and I are doing what we are doing, just listen to me...please."
"Why are they all weak?" Naruto laughed, looking around at all the limp bodies that were lying around him and Hinata. "I didn't even break a sweat."
Hinata observed the same things too, they were all weak, if the two of them even tried just a little, all the men would be dead. Luckily they only suffered from some minor broken bones and maybe a few concussions. The only thing truly damaged was their pride.
Naruto and Hinata walked through,the real gates of the kamquat village with ease. Contrary to what they expected there was no one to be seen.
The village was vacant.
"I thought you saw people and animals and stuff."
"I did I saw human chakra, and some that wasn't human, I assumed it was a horse or an ox or some kind of labor animal."
"Well they couldn't have cleared the village that fast could they?"
"I don't know."
They searched the village discreatly, not really knowing what they were hiding from or what they were looking for.
It was extremly empty. It gave them both chills. This place was like a ghost town...How would they fight gohsts? They were only ninja's for goodness sake.
"You don't have to hide! I know you are here."
Naruto choked on his breath. That slithering snake like voice that haunted his dreams for so many years invaded his ears again.
Hinata stopped in her tracks she knew this voice well too.
"Don't you remeber me? Come now it hasn't been THAT long has it?"
"Orochimaru?!" The two of them gasped simultaiously.
Oh no orochimaru? what is he doing in my village?? He needs to GTFO...no?... oh well
R&R ^^