Hi all :D It seems like a lot of you are starting to piece together the story, which is great xD Some of you are pretty close, and I'm sure it's all just a matter of time before all of you piece together Hinata and Sasuke's little story I'm a little down that reviews have plummeted, but what can you do :) Those of you that do make it all worth it Thank you guys, I truly appreciate each of you Enjoy!
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Chapter 14 – The Hand That Let Me Go
It was dark outside, but darker in here – the inner working of a Haruno Sakura's bedraggled mind. Heaving a sigh out of the innermost pit of her stomach, she reached into her old toy box, dug beneath the various bunnies and kittens, and produced a shiny red bottle: Strawberry Hill. Personally, she thought it tasted like rubbing alcohol with a hint of salt and strawberries. But it was all the clerk was willing to sell her with her fake i.d.
Yanking out the cork, she tipped her head back and let the fiery contents seep into her body. She could feel it swim straight to her head, where it danced with her brain and created all sorts of crazy thoughts.
Sighing, yet again, she opened her window and leaned over the edge, releasing a small hiccup, almost giggling for reasons unknown. She drank, she drank, until she felt a low humming in her head. Delighted, she multiplied her intake until her brain was numb from any thoughts that delved past breathing.
All attempts, however, at numbing herself were shut off as she caught wind of something just outside of her window. She knew that car – that shiny black Evo. She had dreamed of sitting in the car, evening going so far as following that car. There was a prickle of joy that rippled through her; that is, until she wondered why his car would be in front of her house.
Now, Sakura was no fool. Hopeful, irrational, obsessive, but not a fool. There was no reason for Uchiha Sasuke and his shiny black car to be outside of her house. She leaned halfway out of her window, which was most definitely a health hazard considering that her room was on the second floor. Still she lunged her body out the window, peering into the car.
Her pleasant half-buzzed drunkenness melted away in an oncoming storm. She felt the bubbly carelessness melt away and once again she was sharp, in a perpetual state of clarity and detest.
Perhaps she had had too much too drink, and her nightmares were materializing before her eyes. Perhaps it was someone else – a common, faceless whore. That, even, was preferably to her current presumptions. However, as Sasuke came out of the car and opened the door for a black-haired sister of hers, Sakura melted away into superman.
Superman could fly – and she did. Sakura tumbled out of the window, plummeting into bushes that did little to cushion her fall. Ignoring the throbbing of her back, she crawled upwards like the resurrected dead, making her way towards them.
He held out his hand; she blushed, taking it. She made to take off her too large coat, and Sakura watched with utter scorn as he silenced her movements with his hands, shaking his head.
But all of this was nothing, until this very moment, where all movement had stopped. Except for the crunching of her deranged curiosity, the world and all around them stopped.
Time was never invented; speech? Obsolete. They simple stared at each other, open-mouthed, speaking words to each other without moving their lips. She broke the gaze to hide a stray tear – he wiped it, making no indication of moving his hand from where it loosely cupped her face. And the gaze was maintained. They stared, that was all, but there was much in that single stare that Sakura felt herself rise from her pain.
She crunched in a few places, but disregarded her own body as she stalked towards them. Still they had not noticed her, even as she was only an arm's length away. And for once, Sakura felt the pain of being invisible.
Pain she was wholly unaccustomed to. Without a spare thought she slumped in between them, shattering their broken intimacy. She seized Sasuke's arms with a quiet desperation, limping from the pain that had now caught up with her from her descent into rapture.
Hinata disappeared to her, but she could clearly see the detachment in Sasuke's eyes. She shook him, but he was stone. He stared at her with such blatant indifference that she felt a broken cry escape from her lips. Sakura parted her lips to speak, but the words died in stillbirth as she collapsed onto Sasuke.
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Mr. Haruno answered the doorbell with mild annoyance to find something he was entirely unprepared for.
Uchiha Sasuke stood on his doorstep:
One daughter slung carelessly against his arm, and the other, obscured by the boy's tall stature. But he could clearly see her hand, held protectively in Sasuke's.
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Eyes wide open, but mind wide shut-
She was awake.
"Damn."
Maybe it would have been better if it would've stayed dark forever. She wouldn't have had to wake up now, and see them see her with eyes that only judged.
"I'm fine."
"Sakura, what happened?"
She turned away from them, staring at the blank hospitals walls, that had become her life. Nothing. What did she have now?
They all thought she was crazy. They all thought she needed help.
"I'm just fine."
"Dr.?"
"She's going to be just fine, Mrs. Haruno. Other than a sprained ankle, she's perfectly fine." He shook his head, as if nothing made sense. "Frankly, I'm surprised that's all she sustained."
Their voices were like a roaring in her ears. She whined, clamping her hands over her ears. All eyes turned to face her, and she blinked away the bright lights from her puffy, swollen lids.
"Hear that? I'm fine! Now leave."
Before Mrs. Haruno could say anything, Mr. Haruno took her shoulders and pushed her out the door. Sighing, the rest all followed suit. Temari groaned. "Four hours I have been back in Konoha, and now you're practically kicking me out the door!"
Once their trampling had trickled to white noise, Sakura felt the voices, the questions swarm into her head, and she almost regretted their absence. Still, it was a good thing they left. They would ask too many questions; right now, they were far too dangerous for her to handle.
…Had she really done it?
It was as if someone had taken her memory, rewinded, and recorded over that incident. Had she really jumped?
If only it had been higher-
Fuck! Fuck! Sakura shoved her head underneath her pillow, jamming it into her ears. Anything to silence that overbearing silence.
She paused, panting – she really was that drained. And over the sound of her hummingbird heart, she heard footsteps. Slow, heavy, footsteps. And they felt as though they were crushing her own body. She would've yelled at them to go away – go away and disappear but the warmth on her shoulder quickly silenced her. The warmth flooded into her shoulder, seeping into her every fiber. Curious, she did not protest as the pillow was ripped from her, and felt an indescribable weight collapse onto her at the bright blue eyes that met her.
"…Hey?" He scratched the back of his head, acknowledging the ensuing awkwardness. It had, after all, been nearly a week since they had even had visual confirmation of each other.
"So uh…pretty crazy thing you did there…heh, heh…"
…No one ever said Uzumaki Naruto had choice words.
"I mean, jumping out of windows…"
…Where was a hose when you needed one? Because he was just adding fuel to the fire.
"And, and accusing Hinata of being lesbian. I mean, really, no one really bought that. Especially, with Sasuke-"
"Who are you to say his name! Don't say Sasuke-kun's name!" Sakura had snapped up in the heat of the moment, and was now wincing as she hissed, clutching her ankle. She has curled up in pain, but felt herself unraveling at the warmth. Though his hand were large and blistered, he peeled her fingers off of her anger with alarming gentleness, and picked up her leg by the calf with his thumb and index finger. Naruto grabbed a pillow and settled her leg onto it with an ease that contradicted his clumsy nature.
"Does it hurt?"
Numbly, she nodded wordlessly.
He began fluffing her pillow, and stopped. She blinked, finding his face alarmingly close. Uncomfortably close. His hand rested on her shoulder, but he didn't seem to notice.
"W-What?" The brightness of his eyes was blinding her, but they had her locked – she could not so much as blink.
"Sakura."
Sighing, he shook his head. "Where'd you put Sakura?"
He got up and made to leave; to her horror, it filled her with more panic than she was comfortable acknowledging.
"W-What do you mean!"
Naruto paused in the doorway, and seemed to weigh some things over before turning around, sighing as he held his face in his hands. "Sakura. When, uh…when you're all better, we'll talk."
"No, tell me what you mean!"
"You're not well. Your leg. Um, your head..and-"
"I will never be okay!" she sobbed, as the walls around her composure cracked, like the cracking of her defeated voice. Naruto clamped his mouth shut, and sighed with all the tiredness in the world.
"Why?"
"Because…" He raised his brows, urging her to explain. She groaned in frustration, throwing down her pillow and simultaneously screaming in pain. "Because I can't stand the way everyone is babying her!
Naruto's ocean blue eyes froze into ice – steel ice, and he turned away from Sakura. She tried to sit up, craning to see his face. Anything to look at, other than his back.
After all, Naruto was the last person she expected to turn their back on her. It left a bitter stain in her mouth, and swallowing her pride she slowly lifted her hand, reaching for his arm. In the very last moment before she could reach him, his hand wordlessly snatched her, holding it suspended in midair.
"All my life…all my life Sakura. I spent all my life being an orphan. What was my name? Didn't matter. Because I was an orphan. That's me. No no no, don't feel sad for me. That's not why I'm saying this."
"Look at me, just look!" she pleaded, but he was closed to her mind controls.
She heard the tears in his eyes, and the hand that still strangled hers shook with the effort to retain composure. "I had a talk with Sasuke. And, I thought I had it tough. I did. But Jiraiya adopted me, and I've had him ever since. Don't say she's being babied. She has never been babied over, and she's been alone since she was four. Four, Sakura. What were you doing when you were four? Wearing pink Prada diapers?"
Why was he doing this to her? Why couldn't he just moon over her like he always did?
"Why can't you just, why do you have to, why-"
"Can't I listen to you? Praise you? Tell you everything in the world is at your beck and call?"
Softly, he gave her hand a little stroke, before letting it fall. Sakura had the vague sensation of plummeting down from the top of the highest building, watching his face grow smaller and smaller is it looked down at her.
"Because that's what did this to you."
That's what destroyed you.
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Honestly, at this point I don't know what will become of our Naruto and Sakura. I really hadn't planned for anything to happen between them, so I'll just have to let my fingers do their thing, and see where things go from there. Thanks everyone for reading, and I think we are at least halfway through this!