Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 10

Sorry for the late update, but I will be starting school soon, and won't be able to update as frequently as i'd like however i will do my best to update whenever i can. Please bare with me.

and this chapter will give insight to who Akiko is to the Haruno family.

This story is approaching the climax

The two shinobis walked down the dimly lit streets of Konoha in silence. Sasuke occasionally glanced at the girl beside him. It was puzzling to see the forever smiling Haruno Sakura unable to sleep. He remembered the first over night mission he went on with team 7 when they were still genins, her and the dobe slept like logs. This was Sakura we're talking about, she doesn't have any problems, or at least she shouldn't have any problems. She was probably the most sane out of team 7. She had a happy childhood with loving parents or at least that's what he was aware of.

"I'll walk you home." Sasuke spoke up as he motioned towards her apartment building.

'Home.' Sakura internally scoffed. Like she had one. "Nah, I'm going to the hospital."

An unhappy look crossed Sasuke's face. "It's 3 in the morning, no one's dying in the hospital."

"I have mountains of paperwork, so might as well finish them since I can't sleep." Said Sakura as she tucked her hair behind her ear. Smothering a small yawn that was building up.

"Hn, whatever." Seeing how the girl wasn't going to change her mind, Sasuke pocketed his hands and headed off in the direction of the Uchiha compound. "Just don't go overboard"

Was he showing the human emotion-concern? Sakura gave a small laugh. "I'm the medic Sasuke-kun, I know what I can handle."

Giving her disbelieving look, he bade her goodnight.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun come to the Hokage tower around 6 or 7 and bring Naruto with you. I'll see if I can get a mission for us." Sakura called after the retreating Uchiha. He replied with a wave of his hand.

Another yawn escape the medic's lips. Damn was she tired. How she wanted to just lie down and die, but too bad her office was about as clean as Naruto's room. Mountains upon mountains of paperwork scattered across her mahogany desk and all over her couch. Sakura sighed, honestly sometimes she felt like more of a clergy than a doctor. Grabbing her coffee mug, she took another gulp of the rich brown liquid. With another sigh, the medic grabbed another folder, opening the tatter cover of the folder, she glanced at the documents in it.

Tsumura Akiko

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Status: In transition to Anbu. Sakura's eye's widened at this. Akiko was getting promoted to Anbu? Why? How? Last time she checked to even be considered for Anbu, one needed recommendations from family members, and if memory serves her right Akiko lost her parents 4 years ago. Frowning Sakura continued to read her file.

Reason for admission: Received minor injuries from the last recon mission. Stay duration was 3 days, made a full recovery and is eligible to be sent on missions

Signature needed from head physician_

Sakura grabbed a pen and signed the paper, before she shuffled through Akiko's other past records. Poisoning from senbons, minor abrasions, and other miscellaneous injuries. Nothing to serious. Sakura frowned, judging from her injuries and the missions she's been on there was no way she was qualified for Anbu. Hell, she's been on more B and A-ranks than S-ranks. Sakura needed to ask Tsunade about this promotion. It just made no sense, if Anbu was this easy then Sakura should have been one ages ago.

Slamming the folder closed, Sakura moved on to the next file. The more she thought about it the more pissed she got. Why was it that everyone around her was being promoted and she was still stuck here? Neji was being promoted to Anbu squad leader, Shikamaru was getting into the Anbu squad, TenTen was getting promoted to senior Jounin, and Ino made it into the interrogation unit. Then there was her. She's been stuck in this same position for the past 2 years. Growling Sakura grabbed another folder. All these promotions around her was doing nothing but reiterating what her parents had said to her.

She was no one special.

Granted that she made it to Jounin at a relatively young age but that's about it. She had no special affinity unlike her two teammates or like her brother. Karin had better chakra sensing then she did, and she was the burden that her parents didn't want.

She was like the little match girl only she didn't even have matches.

Tossing the folder into the pile in front of her, she reached for another. Mumbling a string of curses she continued to slave over the reminder of the files.

It was 7 before Sasuke managed to drag the blond idiot to the Hokage tower. Sasuke brow twitched as he remembered the tedious morning he had. He knew how the blond wasn't much of a morning person, so he decided to wait till 6:30 before getting the dobe. Yet, when he arrived on the blond's balcony he witnessed something that made him want to gouge his own eyes out.

"Sasuke, about this morning...um…" A flustered blond stuttered as he trailed around the twitching Uchiha.

Turning around, Sasuke closed his eyes. "Just...don't" Placing his hand on the handle of the Hokage's office, he pushed open the door. "Go in"

Walking past Sasuke, Naruto looked at the Uchiha. "It's just that Hinata finally returned from her mission and we were just…"

Sasuke felt his sharingan activated. "Just shut up!" He roughly shoved the blond into the office.

"What do you two want?" Tired honey colored eyes looked up from her desk. Her hand reached for her sake glass.

"Didn't Sakura tell you?" Sasuke replied, his eyes scanned the room for signs of their pink haired teammate.

Taking a sip from her glass, Tsunade gave the male in front of her a dead pan stare. "Do you see her here?"

Sasuke gave the busty Hokage a glare.

"So I repeat my question, what do you two want."

Naruto replied this time. "We want a mission for team 7, you know for old time sake." His blue eyes shining brightly.

Tsunade folded her hands under her chin, and peered at the two shinobis in front of her. "Shizune, hand me the mission scroll."

The quiet brunette gave a small nod, as she grabbed the file from behind her and gave it to the Hokage. Tsunade, unraveled the scroll, and scanned it's contents. Rolling the scroll back up, she tossed it at the two males in front of her. "A-rank, simple assassination of some cloud rogues near the border of kumokagure. Now get out"

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"TSUNADE-SHISHOU"

The wooden door slammed against the room of the office. Four pairs of eyes snapped at the new person in the room. An angry pink head stormed into the room.

"Sakura-chan" Naruto waved at his female teammate. Barely casting a glance at the kyuubi container, Sakura roughly shoved the blond out of her way.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!"

Tsunade sighed. She couldn't get a moment of peace could she. "What now?"

Pulling out the folder from her blue messenger bag, Sakura slammed it down on the desk. Same splinters formed on the desk. Tsunade traced the newly formed cracks on her new desk.

"Anbu? Anbu?!" Sakura seethed. Tsunade, opened the file and looked at the information in front of her.

"So?"

Sakura growled, throwing her hand up in the air she started pacing. "I've been on and successfully completed more S-ranks than Tsumura, and I'm not even in the running for Anbu. Hell, I haven't even had a promotion in the hospital for the past 2 years."

Closing the folder, Tsunade stared at the furious medic. "Sakura you need recommendations from your parents for Anbu, and you're already one of the senior medics." Tsunade watched as the medic halt to a stop, her eyes lowered to the ground.

"And that's all I'll be, right? Senior medic? Senior Jounin?" Sakura drew in a breath. "What about Akiko, her parents are dead, so what, did their ghosts file the recommendations for Anbu?"

"Your parents gave the recommendations." Tsunade carefully studied the myriad of emotions that crossed the kunoichi's face

"What?" Sakura's raised a brow. "She's not even their child."

Tsunade frowned, didn't she know? "Tsumura-san was engaged to your brother, and your parents filed the recommendation about a year ago."

The young medic's head snapped towards the Hokage. "She's what?!"

"Sakura why do you care so much, you never even wanted to become Anbu, and you never complained about your position at the hospital."

Sakura opened her mouth and then shut her mouth again. It's true she never wanted to become Anbu, she was too emotional for the Anbu black ops squad, and she never minded her place in the hospital. However, she just wanted to be acknowledged by someone. She just wanted someone to tell her that she's worth something. That her parents were wrong about her. That she was someone special. Taking a deep breath, Sakura stared at the Hokage through hooded eyes. "Forget it, I was out of line. I'm sorry."

"Sakura, if you want to be an Anbu, then I'll consider you for the position, and I can see if I can promote you to a higher position in the hospital."

Sakura's eye's hardened. She wanted acknowledgement not pity. "No, I was out of line Tsunade-sama. I'm aware that team 7 has a mission." Her eyes flicked at the scroll in Sasuke's hands, wanting to change the topic.

"Yes."

Sakura gave a bow, and turned to quickly leave the office. She was done. Naruto and Sasuke quickly gave the hokage a bow before following their fellow teammate.

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Tsunade frowned. She had trained Sakura from when she was 13 and to her Sakura was like the daughter she never had. Sakura always told her everything, yet judging from the emotions displayed by her today, Tsunade was very aware of the fact that she was hiding something from her.

"Bring me more sake." Tsunade mumbled as she motioned for Shizune to get her more alcohol. She just knew. Today was going to be a bad day.

As the team arrived at the gate, the sun was just peaking over the horizon. The sound of birds filled the village, a soft warm breeze carrying the scent of freshly mowed grass filled the streets. Readjusting her messenger bag, Sakura turned towards her two male comrades. "What's our mission."

Sasuke handed the scroll over to the agitated medic. Opening it, her green scanned it's content. "Ok, we should be able to reach Kumokagure by mid afternoon. Let's go." With that said, the team headed off.

As they leaped from tree to tree, silence followed them like a fourth teammate. No one said a single word, not even Naruto. After years of experience with dealing with Sakura, Naruto finally learned when to be quiet and when to press on a matter. One wrong step and he could find himself embedded in the trunk of a tree. So when Sasuke decided to speak, Naruto internally cringed.

"You want to be Anbu?" His tone was doubtful.

Sakura turned and glared at the Uchiha. "Are you saying that I can't? That I'm too weak?" Her voice came out as a growl.

"You're too emotional for Anbu. For them mission comes before comrades." Sasuke replied unfazed by the girl's tone.

Naruto stared at his two teammates, expecting Sakura to snap at Sasuke, but instead the girl stopped in her track and turned towards them. Naruto and Sasuke both stopped as well, staring curiously at the girl.

Sakura lowered her head. What was she doing? This was the first time team 7 was officially on a mission and she was letting the thing with Akiko ruining this bonding moment with her team. "I want to apologize."

"Sakura-chan-" Naruto began, but Sakura cut him off.

"I know this mission means a lot for all of us, and my behaviour is really bumming out the mood." Sakura gave a small laugh.

Engulfing the girl in a hug, Naruto smiled into her hair. "It's ok, we all have bad days."

Mumbling another weak apology, Sakura loosely wrapped her arm around the blond.

"Alright, lets go and finish this mission." Sakura offered a weak smile, as she gently nudged the blond off her.

"YOSH! LETS GO KICK THIS MISSION'S ASS!" Naruto fist pumped the air, Sasuke smirked.

Sakura never gave much thought to dying. She knew that as a ninja, death was always going to be there, hanging over their head like a knife waiting to drop. However as a medic, death was something to elude, something to fight against, that was what Sakura was taught to do. Ever since training with Tsunade, she learnt to do deal with death. She learned to do everything and anything to try and stop death. She learned to value another's life, and she knew how important her own life is, especially in a battle, but if her parents have taught her anything recently, it's that everything she believed about herself was false. Her life had no value.

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It was mid afternoon before they arrived on the outskirts of Kumokagure. Concealing themselves on a nearby tree. Sasuke activated his sharingan to scan the area. "There's 12 rogues."

Naruto cracked his knuckles, a grin spread over his face. "Let's go kick some butts." He prepared himself to launch out of the tree, only to be stopped by a small hand. Angry green eyes glared at him.

"Naruto this is your first mission as a jounin, and as shinobi's of our caliber we have plans to follow that would help with the success of the mission. So relax, and think of a plan so we can all make it home alive." Sakura angrily whispered at the blond

"Dobe." Naruto turned his head and glowered at the unamused Uchiha.

"Shut up, Teme, besides Sakura-chan you're overestimating them" The blond pointed at the group of rogues. "This mission is a piece of cake."

Chakra spiking, kunai ready in hand, and a loud battle cry. Naruto jumped out of the tree and straight toward the congregation of rogues. Sasuke gave an exasperated sigh, before following after the blond.

"I'm going to kill him, after this I'll kill him." Sakura muttered, and more colorful words flowed out from her mouth. Putting on her fighting gloves, she followed after her two idiotic teammates.

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Explosions erupted from within the rogue ninjas compound. Roughly 30 kage bunshins surrounded the area. Sakura watched in awe as her teammates fought through the mass of enemies. The sound of bunshins poof-ing and chidori filled the clearing.

"Heh, aren't you in the wrong place, little girl?"

Sakura whipped around just in time to see a cloud shinobi charge at her with a kunai. Twisting her body to the side, she barely missed the attack. Gathering chakra to her fists, she punched the ground. A look of shock flash across the cloud shinobi's eyes. He clearly underestimated this kunoichi.

"You little bitch" Performing a series of hand signs, a hail of senbons rained down on the girl. Emerald eyes widened. Shit. Hastily she pulled out a kunai from her ninja pouch and tried to deflect as much of the needles as possible. However, a few unsuspecting ones embedded themselves into the medic's shoulder. Wincing in pain, Sakura threw herself at the enemy, her fist ready to strike the ninja, but before her fist made contact she felt a numbing sensation spread down her arm.

"Like my little gift?" a sneer crawled up the nukenin's face.

"NARUTO, SASUKE-KUN, DON'T GET HIT, THEIR WEAPONS ARE LACED WITH POISON." Sakura bellowed at her two teammates, as she tried to stop the numbness from spreading. Once she felt as if she temporarily stopped the poison, she prepared her next attack.

"Medic nin?" The nukenin mused. Sakura ignored him, instead she focused on forming chakra scalpels with her hands.

"You know you talk to much?" Disappearing in a whirl of leafs, Sakura reappeared behind the rogue, and in a clean swipe she slit his carotid. Blood gargled out before he fell slack on the ground.

It seems like this little display of hers attracted the attention of the rogue's fellow teammates. In a flash 3 nukenins surrounded her. Sakura smirked. Now that's more like it. Getting into a defensive positions she waited for their attacks.

"Tell me, what's a pathetic little girl like you doing here? Shouldn't you be at home cooking or cleaning?" One of the man leered.

'A burden'

'Not special'

'Karin is more talented than you'

'It should have been you to die on that mission'

Sakura frowned. Why was she thinking about this right now? Damn it she should be focusing on the battle. While in her thoughts, she failed to notice the kunai aimed at her left arm. The sharp pain snapped Sakura out of her revere.

"SAKURA-CHAN" Sakura saw Naruto give her a worried look, as he was defending against his own opponent.

"I'm fine, focus on your own opponent"

Growling Sakura pulled the offending metal out of her arm, wincing as blood spurted out. Forcing chakra into the weapon, she threw it back at the enemy, it grazed across his shoulder. "YOU BITCH"

Sakura watched as he preformed a familiar series of hand signs. A large land slide of mud hurled itself in the girl's direction. Punching the ground, Sakura managed to create a crater just in time to contain the mud.

Smirking, Sakura threw a barrage of kunais at the three cloud ninjas. While they were distracted by the oncoming attack, Sakura launched herself at one of the enemies, chakra scalpel in hand she pierced it through the shinobi's stomach. "One down." She said as she tossed the ninja to the side. Turning around Sakura attacked the second enemy. Once she was close enough to one of them, she delivered a kick at him, however before her kick collided she felt something dig into her back. Letting out a gasp of pain, her foot missed the intended target. From her peripheral vision she caught sight of the third enemy. 'Damn how can I have missed him'

'Failure as a ninja' Her parent's words presented themselves in her head.

Digging her shoes in the ground, Sakura deflected another kunai. This time she tracked both enemy ninja's position. From her sight, she saw another rain of senbons headed towards her, while the enemy in front of her hurled the same attack at her. 'shit, how the hell am I suppose to dodge this?'

'it should have been you to die on that mission'

'If you had any sense, you should have wiped your existence of this earth'

Sakura stayed rooted in her position deflecting as much as she could, and ignoring the pain that shot through her every time one of those senbons she couldn't deflect stabbed through her. She was panting by the end of both attacks, senbons stuck out from her almost making her look like a human porcupine. Wiping the small trail of blood that trickled from her mouth, she lifted her arms up again in a defensive position. Waiting for her opponents to attack, when they made no such movements, she gave an audible snarl. "Come at me you bastards!"

"Are you sure you're in any position to fight?" One of her enemy's scanned the girl's current state.

'Burden, weak'

Sakura raised her leg and slammed it into the ground, as the enemy jumped backwards to avoid the attack, she pumped chakra to her feet and chased after him. Thanks to Lee's training, Sakura managed to chase up to enemy in no time. She watched as the nukenin's eyes widen, Sakura smirked, lifting her hand she landed a chakra filled punch at the ninja's face, a sickening crunch was heard.

During this whole scuffle, Sakura yet again forgot about the third enemy. What a great ninja she was. A mouthful of blood erupted from the medic's mouth. Sakura looked down. Is that a blade sticking out from my chest? Another bout of blood spilled out from her mouth, as she fell to the ground.

'Burden, weak'

'it should have been you to die on that mission'

'If you had any sense, you should have wiped your existence of this earth'

What the hell was wrong with her today? Ever since that night with her parents, she had this pit of despair float in her stomach. She did everything so carelessly. The sparring with Sasuke, the outburst in the Hokage office, and her lack of attention to her surroundings during this battle. This wasn't like her. She was never this out of it in a battle.

It was then she heard a scream, weakly she glanced around. It wasn't her teammates, they just had scared expressions plastered on their faces. 'So I screamed, eh?' Looking down again, the blade that was once protruding from her chest was missing. 'Son of a bitch pull it out didn't he?' With just enough strength she turn around just in time to catch sight of the enemy charging at her again. Closing her eyes, she awaited the final blow, but it never came. Slowly cracking open one eye, she saw a familiar katana exiting the enemy's body, the sound of 1000 chirping birds could be heard. Sasuke-kun

"Sakura!"

Another mouthful of blood was spat onto the ground, Sakura felt herself collapse into a pair of strong arms. The scent of after shave mixed with freshly mowed grass filled her nose.

"Sakura!"

Sakura almost smiled, so this is what Sasuke smelt like. At least she'll die knowing what he smelt like.

"SAKURA-CHAN!"

Ah, if it isn't Naruto.

"I'm s-sorry Sakura-chan, this is my fault"

Sakura frowned, why was Naruto blaming himself, it's not like it was him that stabbed her. Weakly she turned her body to face her two teammates.

"Sakura!"

"Sakura-chan!"

Opening her eyes, she made out the blurry worried and petrified expressions of Sasuke and Naruto. Weakly she placed her hands on the cheeks of her two teammates. "Why do you guys look like that? I'll be fine." She broke off in a fit of coughs, small droplets of blood sprayed onto Sasuke's face. She knew she was a horrible person for lying. She wasn't going to be fine. She knew the last attack was fatal, and it was a miracle she was still talking. She was dying and she knew and accepted that. Though she wanted...no needed to at least say goodbye to her boys.

"Sakura don't talk, we're-"

Interrupting the Uchiha, Sakura continued. "D-d-don't blame yourself Naruto, it isn't y-your f-fault." She coughed again. "Sasuke-kun, I know my current situation i-isn't the g-g-greatest and t-t-this is g-going to s-sound chee-cheesy, but e-even af-after everything you've done, I just want you to know t-that you will always be my Sasuke-kun."

"Sakura-chan" Naruto was openly crying. "Please don't talk like this anymore, please don't talk like you're about to die."

"Promise me that you two will take care of each other." She weakly finished. Giving them a weak smile, she coughed up more blood before unconsciousness took over.

'I can finally be forgiven' With that thought, she welcomed the suffocating darkness.

Sakura Haruno had given up.

The two males, sped home to Konoha at break neck speed.

Sasuke's eyes was void of any emotion, but his movements were stiff. While Naruto wasn't scared to show his emotions, tears flowed down his face, and fists clenched by his sides.

When they made it back to the village, to normal civilians they saw nothing, but for the trained shinobi eyes, they could just barely made out the silhouettes of the last Uchiha and the Kyuubi container.

"DOCTOR! WE NEED A FUCKING DOCTOR!" Naruto shouted as he and Sasuke broke through the Konoha hospital door. Alarmed nurses turned to the commotion. Gasps were heard in the now frozen lobby of the hospital.

"GET US TSUNADE, NOW!" Red feral eyes glared at the nurses.

"R-right away, Uzumaki-san" One of the nurse answered before she poof-ed away to get the Hokage.

At this moment a group of nurses wheeled a gurney toward the Uchiha, trying to pry his hands off the pink haired girl in his arms. When he felt the tugs, his sharingan blazed at the nurses.

"What the fuck are you doing?" His voiced came out in a menacing growl.

"W-we need to take her to the ER" one of the nurses replied, obviously scared.

"Where's Tsunade?" His voiced lowered into an even more frightening and menacing tone.

"She is right here. What is the problem-" Tsunade word's died in her mouth. It was only moments ago when her nap was interrupted by a frighten nurse that appeared in her office, going off about kyuubi, and dying and Uchiha. Following the nurse, Tsunade had bustled into her hospital, only to find Naruto seeping Kyuubi chakra while growling at her nurses, and an Uchiha that looked like he was going to set this one particular nurse on fire with amaterasu. She was prepared to scold them for causing another scene in her peaceful hospital, before her eyes fell on the curl up figure, struggling to breath in Sasuke's arm.

"You, you and you prepare an OR, Uchiha let go of her or I swear to god I will break both of your arms off. Get as much O neg as possible." Tsunade ordered the stunned nurses and doctors around her. "And you two, calm down."

Tsunade watched as Naruto take a deep breath before his eyes slowly returned to their cerulean color, and Sasuke's sharingan deactivate. It pained her to see two of her best shinobi's crumble into a mess in front of her. As soon as Naruto calmed, he slumped on one of the plush chairs in the lobby, and broke down sobbing. While Sasuke fell beside the blond, even though he wasn't crying his eyes were hollow, he didn't seem to notice the dried blood on his face, or maybe he did but didn't care.

"The enemies weapons were laced with poison" The blond Hokage turned to the Uchiha, his voice sounded so empty.

"Thank you." With that said, Tsunade rushed after the injured girl and into the OR.

She stand corrected.

Today was indeed a bad day.

Angsty chapter...but maybe it'll cheer up soon?

as always please review.