The Lost Souls

Chapter 14, The Ties That Bind

Part Two

Sakura gave a small smile to the group; she thought she might give them a chance, she would try to be nice. As she walked back she looked at the ship that had survived everything and so had the gawking members.

She cracked a nervous smile and jumped on the ship, her clothes dripping wet and her hair sticking to her thighs. She scratched the back of her head and closed her eyes in a Naruto like stance.

Karin was first to recover from what they all had witnessed. "W-Who were those guys?" Karin asked in a nice way, or as nice as Karin could get. She respected the girl now, and was even becoming envious of her, but she wanted to figure a few things out before she just accused her.

"Um I've fought a few of them before, they're Akatsuki wannabes! The Akatsuki has been planning a future for themselves and the organization so young individuals join and train, they run all the little jobs that the Akatsuki doesn't have time to do. Like finding new hide outs, delivering messages, killing people in their way." Sakura said and looked at the material she was holding.

"Well sail for another few hours, were only two hours away from shore and then..." her voice filed her as she thought about The pain Naruto must be in right now.

"Well rest." Sasuke intervened and continued for her, almost telling and being very obvious to her that they would be resting and not going straight there.

She nodded but her smile didn't return she could only think of Naruto, images of Naruto all bloodied and wounded, screaming out to her, desperately trying to get free. She blinked away the fearful tears and moved away from the group, and towards her backpack, she pulled out clean clothes and a long scroll.

"Hey pinky! What's in that scroll?" Suigutsu asked, trying to cheer the sulking girl up.

She said nothing as she flipped the scroll open and rows of weapons flew out all drawn in the scroll, he looked at it with interest.

"Huh? Cool drawings...!" Suigutsu tried to sound interested and hide his disappointment. She rolled her eyes, he reminded her do much of Naruto it hurt. Suigutsu looked into her eyes and he swore he could see sorrow and regret.

"T-They're not drawings. They're... Well let me show you." She said and bent down, her hand sunk into the aged paper and grasped the weapons, the picture moved like it was being held and it glowed a white gold, she carefully pulled the weapon out and it appeared in her hand.

The most interesting part was that the weapon was shinning, it was coated in a thin layer of gold. She smirked at the power that the single weapon gave off. She then dropped the weapon back into the scroll and pulled a string as the scroll rolled itself up, she picked up the golden lined scroll and tossed it back in her back pack.

She then pulled out a pair of shorts, they were blank and had pink thread, she grabbed a black and pink shirt that cut off a few inches above the normal hemming, she pulled her shirt over her head, Sasuke turned around with a blush decorating his cheeks, Suigutsu tried to gap at her but Sasuke grabbed him and pulled him around. Juugo politely turned the other way, Karin stared at the girl that was readjusting her bra.

"Oh come on! Why does Karin get to stare at her but I don't!" Suigutsu growled to Sasuke. The Uchiha sent him a icy glare, it didn't affect him to much because Sasuke wasn't... Well, Sasuke.

She turned around after she was dressed and noticed the three boys with their backs turned and their necks red, she saw Karin staring at her and then up in the air like as hadn't been gawking.

"H-How did y-you heal y-your-self... While you were I-in the middle of F-fighting those guys?" Karin asked and tried to keep the amazement out of her voice.

"Oh that! It was nothing, quiet easy actually. Once you reach a certain level of healing... Ummm with Chakra.. You can build up chakra in your cells, like a second supply, and if your wounded it reconstructs the body." Sakura said and tried not to offend the girl when she said Chakra, she knew Karin healed with her blood.

"Is there anyway that... I-I would be a-able to do that?" Karin asked in a shy voice. The boys lot interest and went up the stairs to the steering wheel, they spoke quietly and listened in and out of the two girls conversation.

"I don't think so. Not unless you learn the basics of Chakra control and then healing Chakra it would take years to cover, and even harder because your older now, when I learned I was thirteen my brain was still developing but now that we're older it's harder for us to learn new things..." Sakura pondered and blurted out a few facts that shocked them all. Her intelligence was one of the things that baffled everyone.

"She's different from all the other girls..." Suigutsu said quietly, as he eyed Sasuke carefully.

"Hn." Sasuke responded his jaw tightening, he didn't want to talk about Sakura. Especially not when she was fifteen feet away and could figure out that the were speaking of her, and not with Suigutsu.

"Look I know you don't want to talk... But I saw you earlier in the water... With her. She made the infamous Uchiha smile..." Suigutsu said and waited for a reaction, he saw Sasuke relax and took it as his sign to continue.

" I know you may counter with some bullshit like, 'it's not my body! She doesn't mean anything to me, it's was one time, or I don't care.' but the reality of it all is, she made you smile and laugh for a while... You were generally happy, so why not stay happy, Why cover up?" Suigutsu asked the Uchiha.

"They don't need me anymore. She's grown strong... she doesn't need me." Sasuke said and Suigutsu sworn he could hear a little emotion in the desperately icy voice.

"They may not need you but they Want you. They chased after you for three years. Least you could do would be to try and reach out to her, while she's here." Suigutsu sighed as he tried to break the barriers.

"Hn... I'll consider it." He said with a smirk and that made Suigutsu smile.

"Tell me her story..." Suigutsu said trying to stay on topic.

"Mmm... We grew up together. I met her the first time when I was Six. The girls would go with this woman teacher who would teach them about picking flowers and herbs, while the boys learned about weapons and beginners Jutsu. "

"We would all meet in the same classroom at the end of the day and then be dismissed, she was shy and quiet. Some of the other girls and popular boys would bully her because they claimed she had a big forehead." Sasuke said with a small frown.

"One day, one of the other girls stood up for her, and they became friends, she started to fit in and show off her forehead, she started to stand up for herself. When we were seven we all entered the academy. After many years of learning we were finally assigned teams."

"Being twelve and new Genin, there were only nine of us that had been Ninja qualified. The Rookie Nine, were what we were known as." Sasuke said and smirked before telling his story.

"Naruto Uzamaki, Sakura Haruno and I were all on a team. When Naruto heard the news that he was on a team with Sakura he yelled in excitement, he had a huge crush on her back then... When Sakura heard I was on her team she was excited and Naruto was unhappy. I was stuck with two idiots." Sasuke said and smirked at his previous thoughts. He looked out and saw Sakura leaning against the railing, her face neutral and eyes shinning, while her hair blew behind her making her look stunning.

He looked away and started to speak again. "We had Kakashi Hatake as our Sensi, he was always late, and had a porno book out. He was relaxed and acted like he didn't care about what happened but he would have died to protect one of us. Then there was Sakura, she was clingy and weak back then, until we took the Chūnin exams did she become a vital member of team seven, she protected me and Naruto when sound ninja were trying to kill us, while we were unconscious."

"She protected us with her life, and ended up cutting half of her hair off to save my life. One of the sound ninja's had held her captive by her hair, she took a kunai and released it on her hair, she blossomed at that moment..." Sasuke said and looked at the beautiful girl with long hair and incredible features.

"Then there was Naruto, he could be the biggest idiot the world had ever seen but he was inspirational, he wouldn't give up no matter what we went through and he spread his determination through us all. He grew stronger and stronger, he pushed me to grow stronger. I didn't know he had the Kyuubi in him until I left, until I had my own demon inside of me." Sasuke said with a frown, as did Suigutsu.

"When I left I saw Sakura, she was in the way and I knocked her unconscious and left her on a stone bench..." Sasuke said with guilt in his voice.

"As I traveled throughout the years I always heard rumors, they were either about her and her infamous strength or the infamous Kakashi, or the new leaf turning over by the future Hokage." He said and took a breath.

"I heard one rumor on a nice day, the rumor was that Sakura Haruno had surpassed the fifth Hokage. She had already surpassed the fifth in the medical field but now she fully surpassed her by mastering and improving her inhuman strength and mastering the jutsu that regenerates blood cells."

"The rumor of the next generation had begun with her. Not with Naruto, and not even with me but with 'Konoha's cherry blossom.' She had turned a new leaf over, had touched people, and brought peace." Sasuke said and sighed.

"Then Another day I heard a rumor about, Sakura Haruno killing Sasori of the Akatsuki. I couldn't believe it, it didn't seem true, that someone so weak, so naive, that three years ago needed someone to constantly protect her had killed an S-class criminal. I knew she had gotten strong but this was a reality now." Sasuke spoke in a surprised tone and a bitter humor.

"Months passed before I heard the last rumor. I heard that Team Kakashi was on The move again, they were searching for me... Unfortunate before they found me, Oruchimaru drugged me and took my body." Sasuke said and gritted his teeth.

"After a few dreams she found her way into Hell. She figured out that she was the hybrid prophecy child everyone had been waiting for, and she realized this was no dream, she knew i was really dead. She brought me back to life... I don't know why she did... But she did, and now here we are." Sasuke said and thought about it for a moment.

"Naruto would have hated me if he knew I had the opportunity to bring you back... And didn't." She said and looked at him, he and Suigutsu were both surprised she had heard the conversation. She smirked at them, and looked away.

"There's still hope for you. I wouldn't lose hope for Naruto and you that easily." She said and looked him in the eye, a message went between the two.

'Don't quit on us yet.'