chapter nine: jade
Bring your love, baby
I can bring my shame.
.
.
.
Twenty-three-year-old Haruno Sakura was currently spending her time working as a nurse in a children's hospital in Tokyo. She lived in a quieter part of the city, resting in a charming one-bedroom apartment that included herself and a calico cat called Yoshi.
But because she lived alone, there tended to be a pang of longing that stirred in her belly at the most unusual of times. She had somewhat of a boyfriend, but his presence was unfortunately secondary to that of Uzumaki Naruto. Despite her breaking his heart two years prior, he was the only person who was able to make her feel whole and empty, all at the same time. They hadn't spoken in weeks—hadn't seen each other in months—as Sakura usually found herself very busy, but she had finally gotten some time off and decided it was best to visit her friends.
When she had gone to see Uchiha Sasuke—whom she favored even more than Naruto—his lavish penthouse had been empty, which was strange because he usually worked from home. She then assumed that perhaps he was ignoring her, as she had called multiple times before driving to his place. However, this was customary Sasuke behavior and she tried to swallow the bubble of dread it had created in her throat.
Luckily, Naruto was home, and she had opted not to let him know she was visiting, wanting to surprise him. And that was a very terrible idea.
His eyes were like blue saucers, red-rimmed from sleep. His feet were bare and he was shirtless with grey sweat pants over his legs. She scrutinized his half-naked form without reserve, a small smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth. She didn't bother trying to conceal her attraction for him.
Naruto shook his head, eyebrows furrowed in amazement at the sight before him. "…Sakura?"
Sakura gave him a smile so bright he blinked from the glow. "Can I come in?" she asked, a familiar mischief twinkling in her eyes.
He stared at her a good six seconds before shaking his head to clear the confusion and then nodding furiously. "Of course, what—what was I thinking? Yeah, come in, come in." He opened up the door only enough for her lithe body to fit through and softly closed it behind her, running a hand through his hair.
He couldn't take his eyes off Sakura.
She was still undeniably gorgeous with her piercing jade green eyes and bright pink hair. It was a little shorter than he remembered, but still pushed back with a metallic headband that matched everything she wore. He looked down her body: her thin shoulders, small chest, flat stomach and long, lean legs. Her hips were still narrow, back still straight in her tank top and jean shorts, and the memory of his hands gripping her taught, white-pink skin flashed in front of his eyes before disappearing. He rubbed his cheek and looked down at the floor, suddenly warm in the face and very troubled.
Sakura grinned widely and spun around, wisps of pink silk strands dancing.
"This house is still beautiful," she said, grinning at Naruto. Her lips, the same hue as her hair, stretched over white teeth. Naruto chuckled. He used to love the way she smiled. Her canines were too short, her front left tooth was turned in—only slightly—and a thin line of her gums would appear if she were laughing hard enough.
He had loved it all. He had loved her so much.
"How'd you know I was here?" he asked, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his sweats.
She fell into the couch, crossing her legs delicately and spreading her arms in a stretch. "I was reading Shikamaru's blog and he mentioned that you were staying at your place in Ukiyo to work on some sort of project. Thought I'd pop by, since it's been a while."
Briefly, the word "project" left a bitter taste in his mouth, but Naruto pushed it into the back of his mind, suddenly whirring. "I'm sorry, what? The blog? The goddamn blog? You read Shikamaru's blog?"
Sakura picked up a fashion magazine from the coffee table and thumbed through its pages. "Yeah, of course. Don't you?"
He scratched his head and smacked his lips together in a very feminine manner of annoyance. "Mhm. Sure do. Can't get enough." He wondered for a few seconds just how much of his personal life was plastered on Shikamaru's blog, but another glance at Sakura soaked up the moisture in his mouth. "So you…came all the way to Shiragiku—just to see me?" he asked.
Sakura smiled softly. "C'mon, Naruto, it's a pretty short drive. But, yeah. I missed you."
Feeling himself blush, he opened his mouth to respond when she interrupted him, curiously looking at the cover of the magazine that was in her hands. "Didn't know you read Vivi, Naruto," she said, staring at him in a surprised manner. "Trying to keep up with the latest fashion trends?"
He paled, and then reddened terribly. "O-Oh—that? That's, um, not…not mine. I think."
Sakura cocked her head to the side with a frown. "You think?"
"And by think, I mean I know, I just—it's—I'm borrowing it from—"
She laughed out loud, tossing the magazine back on the table and standing to move in front of him. "Jesus Christ, Naruto, don't have an aneurysm. If you're interested in the latest gossip, it's fine with me." And then her jade green eyes went soft and glassy, just like Naruto's heart. "I'll still love you," she assured with a small grin.
His stomach did a strange clenching motion. "Sakura…"
Sakura's eyebrows rose, as if she were waiting for a witty, flirtatious reply, but suddenly her eyes were no longer on Naruto, but instead directly to his left. Her saccharine, glitzy smile slipped.
Walking down the hall, hands balled together and twisting in what appeared to be acute nervousness, was a young girl with long black hair and eyes like liquid stars. Her skin was smooth alabaster, cotton shorts and a short-sleeved T-shirt showing off elegant, petite limbs. Sakura's eyes widened a fraction in surprise. And underneath the shock laid a small hint of unjustified fury.
Ah, she thought, putting a strand of hair behind her ear. There's someone else.
Naruto cleared his throat and eased away from Sakura a bit. "This is Tenshi," he said, scratching the back of his head.
Sakura put a hand to her chest. "Sorry," she laughed, trying to be charming. "I'm Haruno Sakura, a friend of Naruto's."
Tenshi slowly took in every detail of Sakura's person, her eyes narrowing cynically. Because she was so fearful that Naruto was on the verge of leaving her, she was immediately resentful and suspicious of another beautiful woman.
"What are you doing here?" she questioned.
Sakura looked towards Naruto, who was staring at Tenshi with a tight mouth. "Just…visiting," she said unsurely.
And then Tenshi asked honestly, without banter, "To fuck?"
"Tenshi," Naruto said warningly.
She turned a steely, hard gaze towards him, her nervousness ebbing away to be replaced with immeasurable anger. She then turned back to face Sakura. "He's persistent," she said with a forced, closed-mouthed smile. "Good luck leaving this place."
Sakura looked at Naruto with an expression of pure confusion and he reddened, grabbing Tenshi by the wrist and excusing them both. He dragged her back into the bedroom and closed the door behind him, leaning back against it with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed into thin, blue slits. She copied his position, and they stared at each other for a few moments before he asked, "What the hell is your problem?"
Tenshi growled, "Who the fuck is that girl?"
"She told you already. Her name is Sakura."
"What is she to you?"
"A friend, all right? She's just a friend."
Tenshi bristled. "Don't lie to me."
She watched the base of his tanned throat as he swallowed and knew that there was something more than friendship lingering between him and the girl.
"We, uh…" he began, "we were together a few years ago. But that's been over, and for a long time, too."
But rather than feeling triumphant that she had been correct about their supposed connection, a dark, unsettling grip formed around her guts, nearly unhinging her. It was if all the breath had been squeezed from her lungs, leaving nothing around her wildly beating heart except for two pink, shriveled masses of flesh.
"Did you love her?" she whispered.
Naruto hardened. "Why does it matter?"
"It matters to me."
"To you?"
"Yes, to me."
He laughed cruelly. "Explain to me how it could possibly be any of your business."
Tenshi's cool composure began to crack. She firmly pressed her mouth together as the familiar sensation of stinging tears spread behind her eyes.
"Move," she commanded, pushing him out of her way. She tore open the bedroom door and stormed down the hallway into the guest room, closing the door behind her.
Naruto sighed, firmly pinching the bridge of his nose. "Fuck," he cursed, walking back into the living room where Sakura was standing worriedly.
"Jesus Christ, Naruto," she whispered. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah!" he said brightly, forcing a smile. Sakura saw through the façade with practice and ease. "We just—we fight sometimes, you know? Couples fight."
"Couples fight, yes," she agreed, cupping her hand around his bicep. "But are you okay?"
He looked at her. Focused solely on her. In her twinkling green gaze, he saw everything he had lost; everything she had given up. Their love had been gentle and pure and innocent.
But it had never been real.
"Let me get you something to drink. Tea?"
"Naruto—"
He deftly loosened her grip and headed into the kitchen, holding back a sigh when he heard her footsteps behind him. He braced his hands against the counter and shook his head.
"Sakura, it's fine. I promise."
She leaned back next to him, crossing her arms over her chest. "I believe you," she said quietly, watching as he pulled a mug from a cabinet. He pushed against her hip to move her to the side in order to retrieve a spoon, sliding open the utensil drawer and brushing his fingers against the silver. However, his attention was immediately captured by a piece of paper that was sticking out slightly from the back of the drawer. Frowning, he pulled it out as far the hinges would allow, only to discover it was not a piece of paper at all.
It was a photo. A photo of a man with red hair and sea glass eyes.
Sakura watched him with cautious concern as angry veins bubbled to the surface of his temples.
"Naruto…?"
"You have to leave, Sakura," he said, plucking the photo from the drawer and slamming it shut. Sakura flinched at the noise, confusion branded on her delicate features.
"Leave? I—what the hell's happening? Why are you so upset?"
"Something's come up," he explained ambiguously, still staring at the photo. When he finally did at look at her, the sweetness in his eyes had melted away. "It's not a good time."
Her mouth opened in protest, but he turned on his heel and walked out the kitchen towards the bedroom Tenshi had closed herself in. He swung open the door with so much force that the knob left a small dent in the connecting wall.
Tenshi was situated on the bed, and upon his abrupt and unwelcome arrival she stood to her feet, her body braced for whatever ill-contempt he was currently harboring. He walked forwards until the tips of their toes touched before holding the photo in front of her face. After a few seconds, when he sure that she was wholly aware that she had been caught, he ripped the picture to pieces right in front her nose.
A strangled, throaty whine erupted from her lips as she dropped to her knees and ran her hands over the shredded bits of Gaara's face.
"Why would you do this?" she whispered, voice going taut with the rush of tears. "Do you know what this means to me? Do you have any idea?"
"Who the fuck is that?" he hissed. "Why the fuck are you hiding this type of shit from me?"
Tenshi wiped her face and stood, bracing her shoulders. "You wouldn't understand, Naruto. You wouldn't understand any of this if I told you."
"Really?" he said, stepping closer. "We're gonna play that game? Try me."
"I hate you," she seethed between clenched teeth. "I wish I'd never met you."
He noticeably swallowed. "Take that back."
She said nothing, opting to bend to the floor and attempt to collect the ruined the photo.
Naruto, however, would not allow it.
His hand wrapped around the entire width of her forearm, heaving her back to her feet and yanking her towards him. Tenshi became riled, her frustration, fear, and insecurity from the prior night creating a palpable rift between them. Everything was spilling over the edge and neither one of them was prepared for the flood.
"You should've just left me at the Villa!" she screamed, using her free hand to punch against his chest. "You should've never been there, Naruto!"
He held her still. "If I hadn't been there, you'd either be dead or still fucking random men for money!"
"Oh, fuck you!"
"Fuck you!"
"You're no savior, you conceited piece of shit! You saw your chance to play hero and you took it! I don't owe you a goddamn thing!"
"Bullshit! You owe me your fucking life and we both know it!" He pushed her against the nearest wall, ignoring her wails of protest as their feet crunched over the torn picture. He had a solid grip on the tops of her arms, pressing his thumbs into the soft of her skin, desperate for answers.
"Naruto," she warned, "get off of me. Right now." Her hissed command only engaged him further, spurring his theory that she was refusing to acknowledge he had helped her because she was withholding information about something important. In his mind, her defensiveness was bred from guilt, and he was determined to pull the truth out of her.
"You're sleeping with him, Tenshi!" he said. "You're sleeping with him and you won't even give me the courtesy of knowing!"
"No! No, he never touched me!"
Naruto's expression turned incredulous. "You expect me to believe that?"
Her eyes went dark. "And you don't? Why? Because I'm a whore?"
"Because you're a liar," he growled, stepping so close to her their noses brushed. "And I don't fucking trust you."
"Then that makes two of us," Tenshi spat, wriggling out his hold. She backed up closer to the other side of the room, but he followed her, cornering her near the closet. He had a look a puzzlement etched into his features.
"What? What is that supposed to mean? You don't trust me?"
Tenshi tried to contain her anger, but she was shaking with pent up fury and agitation. "Stay away from me—"
"Not until you tell me what the hell you're talking about."
"That girl! I fuck up once and suddenly there's some new bitch around? You think you're clever but you're not—"
"Sakura is my friend," he snarled. "Only my friend. And I would never hurt you the way you did me. Ever."
Her face sunk. Naruto watched her eyes fill with tears and tried to feel guilty for making her cry but he couldn't. He watched the column of her smooth throat as she swallowed, saw her fiddle nervously with her hands to stop them from shaking.
"Naruto, I-I didn't mean to—Sasuke was—"
"What? Sasuke was what? What the fuck is he to you? He talked about you like he knew you or something."
And when she folded her lips together and lowered her eyes to the floor, Naruto realized the truth. "You do know him," he said slowly. "You fucking know Sasuke."
She went slack, trying to come up with the proper words to describe exactly what Uchiha Sasuke was to her. He was more than she just someone she knew; at one point in her life, he had been her everything.
"I was eighteen," she started. "I met Sasuke at the place I was, um, working at the time and we just—just really liked each other. We were…close." Tenshi closed her eyes tightly, and when she opened them again, she saw that Naruto's were sparkling with tears.
"Oh, my fucking God," he said in a strained whisper. "You loved him, didn't you?"
She cast her head down, suddenly ashamed that she had once regarded Sasuke so highly now that she realized what a truly selfish person he was. "Yes," she said. "I loved Sasuke."
"Sasuke?"
Both Tenshi and Naruto looked towards the opening of the guestroom door. Sakura, it appeared, had not left at all.
"Sorry," Sakura said, "but it's just—I just overhead—you know Sasuke?" she finished, looking directly at Tenshi, who appeared to be holding her breath.
She did not answer Sakura, choosing instead to look back at Naruto. His eyes were cast to the floor, the apples of his cheeks and neck blushing red in embarrassment and discomfort. He was avoiding her gaze. He was not in any position to defend her. His emotions were in a frantic frenzy, his blood congealing in his veins at the mention of his former friend. He could not fathom how things had turned out this way.
Tenshi knew she was breaking his heart. She was breaking his heart, and so hers was breaking, too.
She remembered her past self, eighteen and terribly enamored with Sasuke, her belly swollen with the aftereffects of their broken love. She imagined it would have been a boy; a pale little boy with black hair and dark grey eyes. She also imagined she would have loved him very much.
The abortion had been a long, painful process. Tenshi could recall how eerie the sounds of her own screaming were as they reverberated off of every surface in Orochimaru's Snake Room. He had taken it upon himself to hold her down as a yakuza henchman who had practiced medicine for a year and half bent between her forced-apart legs and carefully scraped the unborn child from her womb with a wire coat hanger and a wooden spoon.
Sasuke had been tied up, gagged, and made to watch.
When it was over, Orochimaru had gingerly untied Sasuke's bindings before he playfully slapped his cheek.
Tenshi had vomited and fainted soon after, but she could vividly remember watching Sasuke sob. She buried what little was left of their baby in an old shoe box in a nearby wood a few days later, after Orochimaru had made her clean the blood and fetal tissue smeared across the walls and floors of the Snake Room.
Sasuke, by then, had gone his own way.
Tenshi, in turn, had been forever changed.
"It's complicated," she insisted, looking between Naruto and Sakura. "It's—I could never—I can't explain—"
"What it is he to you?" Sakura persisted, her jade green eyes glazed over with fresh tears.
"What's he to you?" Tenshi countered softly.
Sakura faltered. The tears began to steadily slip down her cheeks.
As he watched the altercation, the aura around Naruto noticeably changed. "Sakura," he started, "Please. Please, just…go."
A compressed cry escaped Sakura's lungs as she pressed her hand against her face. Her brows drew together in acute pain as she nodded quickly and then disappeared from the threshold. Naruto waited for the sound of the front door closing before he looked at Tenshi. Her face was pale. Her eyes had gone glossy. Inside of her body where he could not see, the ruby red ventricles of her heart had ruptured and split.
"What happened?" he asked, his throat tight and dry.
Tenshi brokenly shook her head.
"Tell me what happened!" he demanded. Sasuke had managed to crawl into her, and it seemed his presence had done irrevocable damage.
She took a shuttering breath. "T-There was…a baby."
"What did you say?"
"Me and S-Sasuke," she cried. "We h-h-had a baby."
Naruto's eyes were wide and remorseful. "Then where is he?"
And when Tenshi shook her head again, her body trembling with sobs, he knew, this time, that she genuinely had nothing left to say.
Yikes!
Sorry it's so short. I know you guys are mad, but better late than never, right? I see all of your messages, all of your support, and I love you all. Stay tuned. The adventure continues...