Disclaimer:
If I owned Naruto, would I be writing a fan fiction about it?
Full Summary:
When our favorite ninja's reach the rather odd age of nineteen, they find themselves facing some of the most challenging, hair-pulling, fearful trials after Sasuke's one year girlfriend, the pink-haired kunoichi, Sakura disappears. He returns from a mission to find Tsunade stressed, Ino blubbering, and a few pissed off shinobi. There is a new enemy to the hidden villages who is currently in a bad state of health, so the Leaf takes the lead in search for the med-nin. If they find Sakura, will she be the same or looking to fix a mistake?
Chapter 10Flowers Can Be Chosen Now
"Run!" Pale arms flew in front of her face as the explosion went off, the force of it picking her up off of her feet and throwing her through the swinging doors. She did a few summersaults until she skidded to abrupt stop when two hands were placed on her.
The ringing in her ears was loud, and when she removed her arms and took a look at herself the red splotches that decorated her clothes were not welcoming. The recollection of what just happened left her in confusion to say the least.
"What did you do?" She looked up to find the source of the voice that was captured by her vibrating eardrums.
"Sasuke-kun…" She blinked at him, staring at that angelic face contaminated with an expression she couldn't quite place. But as he raised a questionable eyebrow Sakura couldn't contain the goofy yet nervous grin that broke out over her features.
"I uh…."
Reaching down he touched one of the blobs of red and then brought the substance up to his face. He stared at it for a few moments before sniffing it and finally licking it, as if it was dangerous and would poison him.
"Tomatoes?"
"I knew you liked them so… Heh, how 'bout we watch some television?" He gave her a deadpanned stare as he looked up at the doors she just burst out of, suddenly letting go of her and standing up straight.
"What did you do?" Sasuke was starting to get angry.
"I uh… How 'bout we go out to eat? I'll just go get changed." Sakura quickly pushed herself up, trying to get as far away from the Uchiha as possible, but as luck would have it she was suddenly jerked to a stop when he latched on to her wrist.
"Sakura." Now the demanding voice.
"I sorta… blew up your kitchen." Biting her bottom lip she decided to go with plan: look cute and act indifferent. Turning she was going to attempt to give him a look that said 'but who cares' but it took all she had not to burst out laughing.
Uchiha Sasuke was shocked, gaping like a fish out of water. His stotic demeanor was shattered and he actually looked like he wanted to cry.
"You did what?!" Okay, so angry wasn't the right word… pissed. Infuriated. Full of rage. He had his eyebrows knitted together, glare in place, and mouth set in a firm frown, the whole shebang. These were terms that better suited the boy at the moment, but to be perfectly honest, Sakura didn't know what he was getting so worked up about. It wasn't like she wasn't going to clean it.
"Surprise..."
O.oo.O
Green orbs were slowly revealed as her eyelids began to lull open. The moment the bright light hit her pupils though she closed them again, the pain of the sudden illumination being slightly overwhelming. Giving it a few moments she tried again only to be met with whiteness filling her line of vision. No dungeon, and another thing, she was comfortable. 'Did I really die?'
A breeze swept in and curtains began to flutter over her head. 'What… curtains… Where am I?' She looked to the window and raised an eyebrow, but with the expression change she felt a tug on her cheek. Reaching up she felt a tug on her hand and immediately stopped in her actions, a panic beginning to boil in the pit of her stomach. Was she still in that place?
Looking at her hand expecting to see chakra strings she relaxed only slightly when she saw the IV petruding from her hand. 'So I'm in a hospital. I wonder which village.' She reached up to her face to feel what had tugged on her skin earlier and felt the soft gauze hiding her scar from the world.
Finally pressing her hands against the bed she made the move to sit up, allowing her a view of the outside world, but when the sheets tugged she looked down to see a pair of ninja boots propped up on the foot of her bed. Her eyes eagerly followed the limbs that those feet were connected to all the way up to the person's head of hair.
There sitting in a chair next to her bed, with hands intertwined over his chest, fast asleep with a book providing shade was Kakashi-sensei. Sakura stopped and stared, never once in her life so happy to see that damn orange book. Tears welled up in her eyes and began to spill without even so much as a warning and all she could do was lie there and silently cry as she stared at the man.
He shifted, obviously stirred by the movement Sakura caused and pulled the book to reveal the only visible eye and stared back at his ex-student before it crinkled into a smile. "Sasuke won't be very happy. When we finally get him to leave you wake up. Imagine that."
Sakura ignored the intense pain stabbing at her side and sat up completely, almost jumping on her sensei as she threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. The IV had been tugged out of her hand, but she didn't care. Kakashi was slightly shocked at her actions, and the thought of mentioning that she had surgery only two days ago crossed his mind and he opened his mouth to protest her violent movements. The moment he felt the dampness seep through his clothes on his neck and shoulder he stopped.
The girl was shaking like a leaf and he didn't even want to know how hard she was crying. Slowly the copy-nin wrapped his arms around the girl and returned the embrace, but he couldn't help the awkwardness he felt with the human contact. But he wouldn't dare push her away. Kakashi knew that Sakura needed to know that he was real and have a secure feeling and set aside his feelings of familiar distance. This was all he knew to do.
"You're safe Sakura, don't worry."
O.oo.O
"Don't act so mad. If you had just cooperated then this wouldn't of happened." Neji couldn't help but smirk at the three before him. They were sitting there tied back to back each with sour looks on their faces. Neither Sasuke, Ino, nor Naruto had left the room more than they had to. They had stayed next to Sakura the entire time anticipating her waking up, and by the middle of the second day they started to get snappy.
A few nurses complained about the three and how they had been yelled out when they were checking up on the pink-haired ninja. Tsunade asked repeatedly if they would leave, then moved to ordering, then threatening, then finally called the ANBU to have them forcefully removed. That was where Neji came in along with Shikamaru, Sai, and Tenten.
It had taken more than the four of them to get the three ninja's tied up, but it only required the four of them to keep watch. Ino and Naruto had been taken down with a rather… loud protest, while Sasuke had just been destructive, having hospitalized almost an entire squad with a few broken bones.
It was touching in a rather odd way that they cared so much. Not to say that the others didn't, but they still had enough sense to go home and rest to retain their privilege of visiting.
"You guys are so stupid." Sai smiled at the three of them and continued to insult them as a messenger ninja walked in the holding room, heading towards Tenten. After whispering in her ear he turned and headed off, leaving the weapon's specialist to contemplate whether or not she should share the news.
"Let them go and let's get going, Sakura's awake." That seemed to catch Sasuke's attention and shut everyone up. Shikamaru undid their bindings and Sasuke was gone in a flash, leaving the others hot on his trail.
O.oo.O
She jumped and tightened her grip around Kakashi as the door flew open, not caring whom it was. She didn't want to lose the feeling of security, and she was afraid that if she let go she was going to find out it was nothing but a hallucination or genjutsu and she would wake up with four walls of stone surrounding her.
Kakashi though had other plans as he gripped her arms and slowly released her hold on him. "It's okay, Sasuke's here."
It pained the said boy to see her like this… afraid. The mention of his name though she did let go of their sensei and looked at him with puffy eyes, tears still flowing from them. Kakashi got up, leaving the room for the sake of privacy and closed the door behind him, leaning against it. If anything he could get them some time alone from the two blondes he knew were going to show up any minute now.
O.oo.O
They just seemed to stare at each other, onyx clashing with tear-stained emerald. But before he registered any actions in his mind he found himself wrapping his arms around her waist and holding onto Sakura with absolutely no desire to let go.
He heard her crying and all he could do was press his lips against the top of her head, the smell of strawberry shampoo filling his nose as he offered what comfort he could. She felt so fragile and all he could think to do was stand there. Little did he know that it was more than enough.
Sakura had taken fist-fulls of his navy blue shirt and closed her eyes, that scent of forest only causing her to cry more. She knew she was home, and she didn't care how she got there. The medic-nin had never thought she would get the chance to touch Sasuke, smell him, hug him, kiss him, run her hands through the surprisingly soft charcoal locks or get lost in the black pools of bliss he had for eyes. Just being this close left her with a happiness she didn't even knew existed on the earth's plain.
"I'm so glad I'm home." Sakura's words came out with a struggle as she began to calm down, and as she slowly peeled the side of her face away from his shirt that had been soaked by her tears she looked up at him, and offered a relieved smile. "I love you."
A ghost of a smile graced his expression for a few moments as his eyes softened. "Aa." He leaned down, giving her a short and chaste kiss. But that one kiss had felt more passionate than any thing she had ever felt from him before. It beat being held after a night of making love, or any time she would catch him staring at her out of the corner of her eye. It beat their first date, the first kiss, the first time held her hand, hell, it beat any other moment she had ever had with Uchiha Sasuke.
As she gripped his shirt tighter about to kiss him again he shook his head, releasing his hold only enough to pick her up, bringing her back to the hospital bed. He set her down on the mattress, placing the warmth of the sheets back over her small body and kissing her gently on the forehead before taking his place sitting next to her on the bed.
The moment was short lived as the door burst open for the second time that day, Kakashi stumbling in and falling over as Ino and Naruto shoved into the room, the others filing in after them and stopping when they saw Sakura.
Ino didn't waste anytime of moving to the unoccupied section of the bed and throwing her arms around the girl. Sobs racked from the bride-to-be as she kept on muttering things like "Thank Kami." Followed by a " we can choose flowers now," or "don't scare me like that."
Naruto was next, trying to find a place he could fit in as well. Ino was latched on, taking up one side of the bed, while Sasuke was sitting on the other side, his fingers interlocked with Sakura's and a look that said there was no force in heaven or hell that was going to get him to move. So, the kyuubi took the only remaining spot left, he crawled on the bed and moved in between Sasuke and Ino and straddled Sakura, claiming his moment of hugging as well.
Any other time this would of probably been extremely awkward, but Sakura didn't care. If she could she would be giving everyone in the room right now a hug, but if this was the best she could do, like hell she was gonna push it away.
She was home.
O.oo.O
Author's Note:
No, this is defiantly not the end, so don't think it is. I think I'm only about halfway through right now, so we still got a ways to go. But, as I'm always saying at the end of each chapter, I'm really sorry for the late update. I got a job and they had me working not even a day after school was over! And now, I've been constantly working without so much as a breather and I'm stressed out! Being a waitress is an evil, evil job!
Anyhow, I'll try to update in a week or so, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry if it was a little bit short, but either the next one or the one after that is going to probably be very, very long.
On another note, this chapter is dedicated to a very awesome person that sent me the longest review I've ever gotten. Lillfia seriously made my month will all the great things she had to say and I wanted to thank her soooo much for it. So thanks Lillfia I love ya to death!
Review and I'll give you a virtual high five. You know you want one.