Naruto

Chapter 10: Farewell

"I'll never see them again. I know that. And they know that. And knowing this, we say farewell."

-Haruki Murakami

Sakura's hair stuck to her face and neck as the rain came down harder and harder. She didn't know what to do and wished she had a little bit of help at least. She stepped up closer to the tree and slowly reached out to touch the trunk.

The bark on the trunk was oddly smooth feeling and she could feel deep sadness coming from the tree. It's a strange thought but this feels as if she's having a mid-life crisis a bit early. "What do I do?" She asked herself for the thousandth time since being left alone.

Sakura watched sadly as more Sakura petals fell from one particularly strong wind. If she wanted to get anything done then she would need to focus and think.

She sat back down on the muddy ground and went in the same pose that she and Inoichi did to get where she was now. She took a deep breath feeling her muscles unwind as her surroundings slowed.

It was strange the rain no longer pelted her and she wasn't freezing anymore. She didn't know if the storm stopped or just froze. Would that be considered stopping the storm? She asked herself.

She opened her eyes and could see visible raindrops frozen in the air. She wasn't sure what happened all she did was calm her raging mind down. Was that the key to stopping the storm and rebuilding her tree?

"Finally you stopped the storm." Behind the tree came a black and white version of herself with the words inner on her forehead. For once she was happy that her Inner showed up she hasn't heard from her double since she started her training with Tsunade.

"Inner where have you been?" Her black and white twin sat down on the ground with her back against the tree. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply the smell of fresh earth assaulted her nostrils.

"Where else? Here of course." Her relaxed posture was quickly broken when she was shaken by the real Sakura.

"W-why didn't you stop me talk me out of killing him?!" Once again the rain fell and the storm was approaching even faster but Sakura didn't care. All she cared was knowing the answer as to why her doppelgänger didn't stop her. All the copy did was sigh as it started to rain once more.

"I'm your deepest darkest thoughts everything that you never expressed out loud is who I am. You want to know why I didn't say anything?" Sakura nodded tightening her grip on her shoulders.

"Because you secretly wanted him dead. Even when you were making your way to his location you wanted him dead. Don't try to justify it as a mistake or you wanting to ease his pain. You wanted him dead so Naruto wouldn't have to suffer and keep that silly promise. You knew that the Uchiha lost his way but you couldn't break it to Naruto." Inner started laughing as Sakura lets go from shock.

"It's despicable really that you'd rather kill the Uchiha then tell Naruto the truth." Her annoying laughter got louder and louder echoing throughout the field. "The best part is that now he hates you!"

Sakura fell to her knees her nails digging into her flesh creating tiny moons in her skin. "What happened to us?" Inner stopped laughing to look at the girl in front of her closely.

Softly she spoke, "you stopped needing me."

"..."

"Look in order to stop the storm you have to come to terms with everything. I'm not saying you have to move on as if nothing's wrong but just be honest with yourself." Inner got up and rested her forehead against Sakura's

"Repeat after me...I meant to kill Sasuke Uchiha." Sakura shook her head still in denial she felt that if she said those words then she would lose. Lose what? She asked herself.

Again Inner repeated those words, "I meant to kill Sasuke Uchiha."

"I can't say those words-I-I..." Inner grabbed both of Sakura's hands.

"I meant to kill Sasuke Uchiha." Blank black eyes met shiny green eyes. She broke eye contact once she realized that Inner was a part of her whether she liked it or not. In a way, Sasuke was the reason why she had an Inner. Due to hiding who she really was from him, her actual thoughts formed and made a being. What was she fighting for? Why was she in denial? She threw her hands up in the air admitting defeat.

"I meant to kill Sasuke Uchiha." A bright light came through the stormy clouds that just a second ago poured down rain on them. The light vanquished the darkened world and the flowers on the ground sprung up.

"Good now let's make new memories and grow this tree back together." Sakura noticed that Inner's body began to look transparent. That's when it hit her that Inner was starting to fade away.

"Wh-what's going on?" Inner smiled down at her brightly the black color was fading away and was being filled with color.

"The Uchiha was holding us back now we can become one." Her smile turned sinister as she faded away right before her eyes. Sakura clutched her head still as confused as when she came here. Did she complete the task the storm is gone but the tree has yet to regrow?

Sakura sighed and turned away from the tree she was ready to leave and her exit was where she first entered at. One last time Sakura inhaled the fresh scent. She would probably never understand the workings of the mind and how she's able to smell the flowers. With one more look over she opened the door and walked into the bright light heading out of her mind. But what she failed to notice was the tree slowly turning black starting from the roots making its way to the trunk steadily.

X

Sakura eyes fluttered open and she took a deep breath to make sure she was where she wanted to be. "Sakura did you stop the storm?" She flashed Inoichi a grin which could only mean one thing. She did it. "I knew you could do it."

Inoichi held out a hand to help her stand up. "How do you feel?"

She thought for a moment pondering over how she felt, "free." Sakura looked up at the sky and saw the sun was now high in the sky telling her it was sometime in the noon. She didn't plan on spending most of the day in her mind but it couldn't be helped.

"Great you've been in there for quite a while I'm sure you're hungry." Ino's mother said. It was the first time she noticed the woman since leaving her mindscape not only was she standing there but also Ino herself.

"Are you still leaving?" She said sadly already knowing the answer to her own question.

"Yeah." Ino sighed and walked closer to Sakura.

"If that's going to make you happy then who am I to try and stop you." Ino hugged her best friend tightly. "Just don't end up like..."

"Don't worry I'm not." Ino didn't know how Sakura could be sure of that but she would trust her friend. And if she does turn into Sasuke she'll be there to knock some sense into the pinkette. The two pull away with content smiles on their faces.

"Sakura why don't you eat lunch with us." Ino's mother suggested after the touching moment between the two long time friends. Sakura nodded and followed the Yamanaka family back inside to eat.

X

Tsunade and Naruto quickly arrived at the hospital and immediately went to Moegi's room. They needed an explanation and they needed it now. Without knocking the Hokage barged into the hospital room. Her face was all about business.

About three nurses were making sure The Genin was comfortable and awake for the Hokage's questioning."I got it from here check up on her teammates." The nurses nodded quickly from her tone of voice and scattered like cockroaches.

"How are you feeling Moegi?" Tsunade asked the girl while reading her charts. The listed all of her symptoms one by one in her head. Broken arm, mild concussion, broken ribs, a lot of blood loss from a stab wound. How the girl was awake was beyond her.

"Tired..." Moegi would have said in pain but due to a number of painkillers they gave her she was feeling quite numb. No matter how tired she was she had to tell the Hokage everything.

"You'll be able to sleep after you give me a mission report." Naruto watched and listened closely as Moegi nodded to the agreement.

"The mission was a success we were coming back from the mission that caused all of this. Ebisu-sensei." She said sadly as tears fell from her eyes.

Flashback

"That mission was way to easy for a C-rank," Konohamaru grumbled at the fact that they escorted someone yet there was no action.

Everyone just ignored the boy since they were use to his complaining. The mission didn't take too long since they were still in Fire country. "You should be happy that we even got a C-rank mission," Ebisu said from the front of the group which awarded him a glare.

"Konohamaru-kun look at this mission as a preparation for future missions."

"It would have been more interesting if instead of the old geezer we got a beautiful princess and we had to protect her from deadly Samurai." Moegi rolled her eyes it wasn't the first time they heard their teammate go on and on about the type of mission he wanted.

For a few more minutes the two bickered back and forth until Ebisu suddenly stopped walking. Udon was the only one who seemed to notice their sensei suddenly stop. "Ebisu-sensei?" The dark haired boy questions. His worried tone caught the attention of his other two teammates.

Before either one could say anything their sensei quickly yelled. "Get down!" As quick as possible his students hit the deck as a barrage of kunai fly over them where their bodies previously were.

"Is everyone alright?" His only answer was silence since they were stunned at what just happened. "Be alert." His students nodded with determined looks.

Slowly and cautiously everyone stood up their eyes wide open looking for any sign of their attackers. "There!" Moegi shouted pointing to a masked person in the trees.

"That mask..." Before they could think about it any longer the mysterious stranger was going through hand seals at breakneck speed.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu." A big ball of blistering flames was headed towards them and left so little time to react. Luckily everyone dodged just in time but wasn't completely unscathed.

Moegi was in awe at the size of the fireball but that was the least of their concerns since the ball of fire was causing a forest fire. "Ebisu-sensei why are they attacking us?"

Unfortunately, Ebisu didn't have an answer he was just as confused as his students. "I'm not sure but just be careful we can't fight them." Everyone nodded despite their fears their eyes shone with determination. He was a proud sensei.

"Formation E." His team once again nodded as they got into formation. Udon started off by setting up trip wires as fast as possible while Konohamaru distracted the masked man with clones. The key to formation E is to trap their enemy or enemies so Ebisu could quickly finish them off.

Unfortunately, it didn't go exactly like that after Moegi sets up the paper bombs they were instead somehow able to pinpoint the location of them all and use them against the team.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw the paper float by her as she just left the spot she put the paper bomb. Moegi didn't understand how it was able to follow her. Sadly she didn't have much time to think or duck for cover since it detonated right then and there. The force of the blast sent her body flying through a tree head first knocking her out.

Flashback interrupted

"I'm sorry but I'm unaware of what happened while I was out but when I awoke-"

Flashback

Groaning Moegi woke to familiar black eyes staring at her with concern. "K-Konohamaru-kun?" Her vision was slowly getting clearer but she wished it didn't from what she saw.

"A-are y-you ok -M-Mo-Moegi?" Her own eyes widened with disbelief as she looked up at her teammate. A look of horror took over her features when he coughed up blood on her shirt.

Faintly she could hear metal clash against metal but all she could focus on was the boy who was suffering before her. "Th-they tried to k-kill you." Did he protect me?

She looked down at his torso which had a nasty long cut that looked purplish. "Konohamaru Moegi Ebisu-sensei has ordered me to get you two out of here." Moegi shifted her gaze to the left where her other teammate stood with his own wounds.

"We can't leave. We have to help Ebisu-sensei." He kept repeating while looking down at the forest floor. Trying not to succumb to the pain.

"Konoh-"

"No! Did you forget what Naruto-nii-san taught us about leaving our comrades behind? I refuse to let him down." With some difficulty, he stood shakily on his two feet. "If you want to be lower than scum by all means leave but I refuse to leave without Ebisu-sensei."

They were awestruck Konohamaru was literally hanging on by a little piece of string and he was thinking he was going to save Ebisu-sensei. "But y-you w-were poisoned."

"I don't care! I'll die before I leave behind our sensei!" Moegi suddenly stood up hearing that Konohamaru was somehow poisoned.

"What!? How!?" No one responded to her question. "Answer me!?"

"Konohamaru had to take down another ninja and in the process got poisoned." Moegi and Udon caught Konohamaru before he could fall and make his wounds worst.

"Although my mind is telling me to flee and never look back my heart is telling me to stay and fight with Ebisu-sensei." Udon looked back and forth between his other two teammates and silently made a decision.

"I agree we got to help Ebisu-sensei. Konohamaru you have to sit and relax or you'll...die." Konohamaru nodded as his two teammates gently set him against a tree to rest. He had full faith in them that they'll return back with Ebisu-sensei.

He was wrong.

Flashback end

"We noticed the fighting had stopped and that Ebisu-sensei was on his knees in front of the masked man." She tried to wipe her tears but it was an endless flow. The horror scene that was before her would forever haunt her.

"Ebisu-sensei's legs were broken so he couldn't move he saw us before the masked man did. His last words were run. Before he was blasted in the chest leaving a gaping hole. We just barely got away but not without some injuries. H-how is Udon and Konohamaru-kun?"

Naruto was also curious since Tsunade didn't tell him. "The poison was safely extracted thanks to Sakura and Udon was healed up good." Naruto flinched when she said that name.

"Moegi one more question." She could tell that the pills were kicking in and if she didn't ask her question then. Well let's just say 5 bottles of Sake wouldn't let her forget it.

"What did these masks look like?" It took the girl a moment to process her question but she did answer.

"ANBU." She slurred drifting off.

"Rest Moegi." As if that was the magic word she was asleep hopefully in a dreamless sleep.

"What the hell is going on?"

Xxx

This took way to long to do because I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with the Flashback. I didn't want to dwell on the fighting because they barely have any attacks. I wasn't in the mood to make up some jutsu. So RIP Ebisu but who are people in the masks?