CHAPTER 14
Sakura woke up to a maniacal and malicious laughter on the background. She jerked up into a sitting position and looked around frantically. She was in the middle of a forest with trees so large, not even a fraction of the sky could be seen from between the treetops.
"AHAHAHAHA!"
Sakura sharply turned her head to look towards the direction where she had heard the voice. She didn't see anyone there, but it made sense because it echoed in a way that suggested that the owner of the voice wasn't close. Sakura frowned a bit and stood still for a moment deciding what she should do. In the end, her curiosity got the best of her and she headed towards the laughter. After a while, the foliage cleared a bit and she managed to see a sight that chilled her to the bone.
Sasuke was clutching at the hand around his neck while his legs dangled in the air. The hand belonged to none other than Orochimaru, who was laughing hysterically at the genin's failed attempts to break free of his hold. Sasuke thrashed and twisted, trying to lay a kick on the sannin, but to no avail. Apparently, he noticed that someone else was present, because he turned to look at Sakura. His eyes met with hers and she was struck by how deeply terrified he seemed.
"Sakura!" his horrified expression made her stomach clench in distress. "Help me!"
With those words, she was broken out of her reverie and launched towards their location. Sakura ran full speed, her legs working to the point of pain, but she didn't seem to be getting any closer. As she ran, the forest between her and Sasuke seemed to stretch further and further. No matter how much she ran the distance between them didn't change!
Orochimaru turned to briefly look her in the eye and smirked viciously. Sakura just knew that he was mocking her for her futile attempts at helping the young Uchiha. Suddenly, the snake sannin opened his mouth more than should've been humanly possible and two fangs came into view.
"NO!" Sakura yelled just before Orochimaru bit down on Sasuke's neck.
Orochimaru looked up at her once more as he kept his teeth rooted into Sasuke's skin and then let the boy fall to the ground before melting away. Sasuke landed with a thud and started shaking. Sakura was somehow able to reach him and raised his body to lean him on her chest. He was having such a terrible convulsion, that she was barely capable of keeping him in place.
"Sasuke! Listen to me!" Sakura called to him in desperation. However, the shaking didn't subside and Sakura noticed that her chakra was suddenly unavailable. She couldn't heal him without it! He was clearly not reacting well to the cursed seal. She had to do something!
Abruptly, Sasuke's shaking stopped and Sakura knew that such fast changes never meant anything good. She looked down at him and noticed that he was holding his throat in a tight grip. He opened and closed his mouth a couple times trying to breathe but failing. His black terrified eyes met with Sakura's emerald ones and she held his free hand tightly. She knew there was something that she could do, even without chakra… but she couldn't fucking remember! She was probably the best medic nin after Tsunade, yet she couldn't remember how to help Sasuke!
"Sasuke!" she choked between tears.
The young teen's eyes started losing focus and the grip of his hand on his neck loosened. Sakura shook him a bit, trying in vain to keep him awake. Slowly, his already pale skin turned even paler, to the point that it became white. Sakura's hands trembled as she held her loved one tightly to her chest. First she had allowed Sasuke to die in the Fourth War. She had watched him bleed to death, because he hadn't wanted to live like that and she hadn't known how to convince him otherwise. Now, when Sasuke had asked for her help with pleading eyes, she had done nothing. She had simply stood there and watched him die.
Sakura watched in shock as Sasuke stopped breathing and his hand dropped to the ground next to him. She looked back into his unblinking eyes and knew that she had failed. Again. He was dead.
"No, Sasuke! Not again!" she yelled between sobs. "Don't do this! No!"
Sakura jolted awake and sat up sharply. The first thing she discerned was that her head was throbbing like hell and her mouth was incredibly dry. Also, there was a generalized pain on her face and abdominal area. Her breathing was ragged and her whole body felt sticky. With wide eyes she looked around and saw that Sasuke was sitting right next to her. Alive.
"Sasuke!" Sakura said and wrapped her arms around him without thinking twice. "You're all right!"
"Hn." Sasuke answered shorty, but Sakura could tell by his rigid posture that he was slightly taken aback by her sudden display of physical affection.
She quickly retracted her arms and intently observed him trying to locate any wounds sighing in relief when she found none. Sakura looked around and saw that they were in some sort of cave and that it was night.
"What happened? Where are we? Where is Naruto? Does anyone need to be healed?" Sakura said without taking a single breath in and moved to stand up.
"Stop. Stay still." Sasuke scolded and she suddenly felt thirteen again – truly thirteen. "Naruto woke me up when you were already unconscious, so we decided to find shelter. We've been here since yesterday at noon and you've been unconscious all this time. Naruto is asleep right now and I'm taking the second watch. Also, healing somebody else? Are you an idiot? Have you taken a look at yourself?"
At his words, Sakura lowered her gaze and then quickly assessed her own body. Her face was swollen and there were sharp pains here and there, meaning that she had not only bruises but other wounds as well. However, someone had already properly cleaned and bandaged the wounds on her face. In addition, her upper stomach was hurting as well from the wound that Orochimaru had inflicted on her and that she had barely healed.
"Who cleaned my wounds?" Sakura pointed to her face.
"I did. Don't you think the dobe would've screwed up at least a bit?" he half joked.
"Thank you." Sakura smiled and Sasuke returned a small one. Her heart almost stopped at the sight. "Well, my stomach it not in bad condition. I just need to heal-"
Her words were cut short by a barely audible crack at the entrance to the cavern. Sasuke quickly stood up and motioned for her to sit down once again. He swiftly and silently bounded to the opening of the cave and looked out for a long time. Sakura's heartbeat was erratic. Was it Orochimaru? Had the poison already left his system? The chakra draining effect was meant to last at least a couple of days, so he shouldn't be… but her estimate could be off in his particular case. He was one of the strongest shinobi alive, after all. Sasuke turned around and walked back to her.
"All clear. It was just a bird."
"Are you sure?" Sakura frowned and looked back towards the outside with a frown.
"No one can fool my eyes." He said reassuringly. Sadly, this did nothing to make Sakura's worries go away. "So, can you heal it?"
"I have only recovered a small part of my chakra, but it is enough to treat this." Sakura said and looked down to her blood stained shirt, which was now sticking to her wound. "Why didn't you clean this one? The fabric is now stuck to it."
"Tch. The dobe." Sasuke clicked his tongue. "He kept blabbering about how we couldn't trespass on your privacy as a girl and such. I didn't think it mattered, especially given the circumstances… Right?" he trailed off a bit, silently asking her opinion on the matter – probably wanting to know in case something like this happened again in the future.
"Of course. We are shinobi; there's no room for such doubts when it comes to an injury." Sakura answered. She had always thought that way in every mission she had been at in her past life. Still, this was Sasuke and he would always be different to her. However, Sakura didn't want him to find out that she cared, so she sighed and took a hold of the hem of her shirt. She slowly tugged it upwards wanting to reveal her wound, but the fabric was incredibly stuck to her wound. After all, it had been over 12 hours since the fight. "Ah-."
"Here, let me." Sasuke said and pushed her hands back to her sides.
Sakura wordlessly allowed him to and wondered if he would've ever offered to help with that in her past life. She watched intently as he took out a canteen and poured water over her shirt, right where the injury was. He softly rubbed his hand on top of her stomach to make sure that the wound became moist. He then leaned closer so that he would have better access when detaching the fabric from her wound. One of his hands started tugging at the edge of her shirt and the other sneaked under her clothes to help separate it from her skin.
If Sakura's mind hadn't been flooded with worries about Orochimaru coming after them, she would've been quite flustered at their interaction. She would've shivered at the feel of his hands working under her shirt and at his closeness. But it wasn't the case. Sakura's eyes kept darting from Sasuke's hands to the entrance of the cave, her muscles tense and ready for battle if necessary. Finally, the shirt detached from her injury and Sasuke raised it up to her ribs.
"There."
"Thanks." Sakura said and started cleaning and healing her wound without a second thought. As her hands glowed green on top of her stomach she sighed. "I'm sorry that I've been keeping the three of us stuck here."
"Don't be. You saved us back there." Sasuke waved her off and then seemed to hesitate for a moment. "He was incredibly strong. How did you even defeat him?"
"I didn't. He was beating the crap out of me – as you can see – and then he suddenly decided to leave."
"What? Why would he do that?" Sasuke furrowed his brows.
"Who knows." Sakura shrugged at his question and then pushed her shirt down. She put her chakra coated hands to her head to try to lessen the headache that was washing over her once again due to her usage of chakra and the remaining after effects of the snake poison. "I just hope that he doesn't come back soon. I can't fight like this."
"If he does, or anyone else for that matter, then Naruto and I will do the fighting." Sasuke answered and Sakura opened her mouth to protest, as expected, but Sasuke cut her off. "It's already been decided."
Sakura didn't say anything else and watched him for a second. His obsidian eyes were slightly brightened by the moonlight streaming into the cave and Sakura couldn't help but feel out of breath at the sight. If she hadn't been soaked in dried blood and sweat, the scene would've been almost romantic. He didn't seem to think anything of her silence, because he finally stood up, turned away from her and started walking out of the cave.
"Get some sleep. You aren't taking any shifts tonight." He said and walked away from her. Sakura laid back down and looked towards the entrance of the cave a couple times, fearing that Orochimaru would find them while she slept. Despite her worries, she fell asleep in a minute, exhaustion taking over her once again.
Sasuke sat down on a rock at the entrance of the cave and watched the surrounding forest with a straight face and a hand on his kunai. He had been feeling quite perplexed with Sakura's reaction during the fight with that freak – whoever he was. Her willingness to stand in front of him and fight instead of him had almost been as unexpected as the older nin's presence. When had she become so protective of him? Of course, he had known Sakura for a while now and he already knew that she had a habit of putting others before herself. However, this had been different. It was as if she had expected something terrible to happen to him if she didn't step in. She had seemed so adamant on protecting him that it had shocked him to the core. He had never seen her act like that, not even during their fight with Zabuza.
Sasuke had been born and raised in a conservative clan and it was normal for males to dominate and protect females. So, on one hand, his pride was hurt a bit by her protective behavior. On the other hand, it had given him a slightly warm feeling in his chest. He had been on his own for so long that he had forgotten how it even felt to rely on someone else. It was a small difference, but it significantly diminished the heavy feeling weighing on his chest.
Long ago, he had decided to carry his burdens by himself and find his own path. He would become the independent and self-reliant man his father had expected him to be. However, as the hours passed during his watch duty, he wondered what it would be like to share things with others. To rely on them – his friends, not that he planned on telling them that anytime soon – with whatever was troubling him. Would sharing his thoughts and issues with them feel as reassuring as when Sakura steeped in front of him to protect his life with such fervor? The thought of doing that was oddly scary, but it also triggered something within himself that felt like he had taken off part of a heavy load. Maybe, just maybe, he would rather have that solace instead of his clan-built ego. A small smile tugged on his lips as he twirled the kunai around on his finger.
When the first rays of the sun appeared on the horizon, Sasuke suddenly became agitated. Something felt off, and even though he wasn't an experienced shinobi, Sasuke trusted his instincts. He shifted his body in a careless manner and furtively picked up a rock from the ground. He put a hand behind his opposite arm and looked over his shoulder and into the cave, throwing the small pebble right into Naruto's nose. The blonde spluttered and sat up, looking around himself in confusion. He looked at Sakura, who was still sound asleep, and then as Sasuke. They locked eyes and he seemed to immediately get the message.
Sasuke turned around to observe the forest and heard Naruto's footsteps nearing from behind him. When Naruto was standing next to him, Sasuke stood up and crossed his arms over his chest in a defying manner. If there was an opponent out there – something he was sure of – and they didn't get his message, then they were either stupid or cowards. If the opponent knew that they were there, what was the point of hiding?
"It seems the kid noticed us, huh?" someone spoke from behind a tree. Soon, a man with a furry coat and bandages all over his face appeared from between the foliage. Two other shinobi, another teen boy with spiky black hair and a girl with long straight hair, appeared next to him. Sasuke immediately recognized them, not only because of their Sound forehead protectors, but also because they had been the ones to attack Naruto and Sakura just before the first phase began.
"You want our scroll, don't you?" Naruto spat, clearly remembering them too.
"Oh, not just that." The spiky haired one smirked. "We want you to hand over the pink haired girl as well."
"What?!"Naruto hissed and jerked his arm out in front of him in defiance.
"Well, we don't actually need to take her away. We were just told to get rid of her." The girl smugly smirked.
"There's no way we're allowing you anywhere near her!" the blonde was furious.
"He sent you, didn't he?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes at them. He didn't have any proof, but it didn't require great analytical skills to suspect that the snake guy had sent them. He rapidly glanced into the cave and saw that Sakura was still passed out. She had finished healing only an hour or two ago and had ran out of chakra once again. He knew that she was in no condition to fight, which meant that this fight would be two against three.
"Your guess is correct." The girl stepped forward. "So if you don't want any more problems with him, you better do as we say."
"Fuck off!" Naruto took a step closer too and started making hand signs. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Four other Narutos appeared next to him and Sasuke eyed their surroundings wearily. They would have to fight and defeat them as well as guard the cave where Sakura was in. Naruto sent his clones forward, who tried to kick all three sound nin simultaneously, but they were immediately dispelled by the group's taijutsu.
Sasuke hadn't wasted any time, after activating his sharingan, he quickly appeared behind them. He aimed a kick at the one with the furry coat, but he turned around just in time to block the Uchiha's attack. The girl was on him immediately and tried to punch him in the jaw, but Sasuke quickly dodged and jumped back a couple meters. He had to keep his distance from them, because from what he had seen back then he would lose if they caught him with their attacks.
On the other side, Naruto started fighting the spiky haired nin while keeping his distance. Sasuke was glad that he too had noticed that close combat would be dangerous. Naruto was trying to win the fight with kunai and shadow clones, but he didn't seem to be getting anywhere, since the Sound nin was skillfully dodging all of his attacks.
The furry coated nin was soon circling around Sasuke, working with the kunoichi to surround him. Sasuke turned around in order to run away from the center of the circle, but the girl threw a handful of senbon his way to stop him. Sasuke quickly made a decision and kept going nonetheless, because being surrounded was a far worse outcome than being pierced by a few senbon. With the help of his sharingan he managed to dodge most of the needles, but one of them scratched his arm and made a shallow cut.
He circled back towards the girl, since she had yet to use any special attacks, and took out a kunai. He tried to slash at her throat, but she blocked the attack by bringing up her own kunai. He then kneed her in the gut and took a hold of the wrist of her armed hand. Sasuke's kunai flew towards her stomach once again, and his attack would've connected if a strong kick hadn't hit him on his lower back. As he was pushed a couple meters back, he was satisfied to know that his kunai had managed to leave a shallow cut.
"Be more careful." The furry coated nin reprimanded and the girl nodded in affirmation.
On Naruto's side, the fight was stuck in a repeating loop. He made clones to attack the sound nin, which were dispelled every time, and then tried to injure him with long range weapons. Naruto looked over to Sasuke with worry, knowing that he had to finish this fight quickly to help him out, and then he suddenly remembered something. What he and Sakura had done back at the first fight with Zabuza could also apply to this battle.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Naruto's clones dashed towards his enemy who almost made a bored face at the old tactic. However, he didn't expect one of them to be the real Naruto, so when he punched Naruto and it didn't poof away, his eyes widened in realization. Sadly for the Sound nin, he had already lowered his guard, so Naruto's punch hit squarely on his jaw. The spiky haired nin was thrown back and landed on the floor messily. When he finally managed to sit up, Naruto was on him once again and punched him in the face.
This time, Naruto got on top of him and straddled his lower body as his fist repeatedly connected with the Sound nin's face.
"You want to kill Sakura-chan?!" He yelled. "Like hell I'm gonna let ya!"
Sasuke's opponents realized that Naruto was beating the crap out of their teammate, so the girl immediately ran to his aid. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his now lone opponent, and yelled a warning at Naruto without looking his way.
"Naruto, watch out!"
His opponent didn't allow him any more talking and stepped closer to him, raising his guard. Sasuke took his chance at a one on one fight and quickly took out some gum string from his pouch. He swirled it around for a moment making a net connected to a bunch of shuriken. He threw two shurikens at a tree that was behind the Sound nin and then dashed forwards. As he made a circle around his opponent, the foreign nin's eyes widened in realization as he also ran in the same direction as Sasuke with a confident look on his face. Sasuke knew that he wanted to engage in close range combat and inwardly smirked.
When the Oto nin was only a couple meters away from him, Sasuke threw the other shuriken at a tree on the opposite side of him. The net stretched behind the shinobi in a semicircle with Sasuke in front of him. He must've realized that Sasuke's aim was to prevent him from running back or to the side, because he stopped dead in his tracks.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"
Just before fire erupted out of Sasuke's mouth, the furry coated nin jumped closer to Sasuke. He must've known that there was no way out and decided to risk it all as he raised his arm to use his own technique. Fire washed over the Sound nin who let out a loud scream of pain. Sadly, Sasuke also was hit by the nin's invisible attack and it caused him to fall to his knees. When the fire subsided, Sasuke forced his body to stand and stumbled towards the groaning nin. He did his best to keep a clear mind as he tied him up with what was left of the string; he didn't want to risk him getting up again. It took him a while, since his head kept pounding and his vision was blurry.
Naruto was currently trying to avoid getting hit by his opponents' attacks, but couldn't find an opening at all. His male opponent was pretty slow due to the beating he had received earlier, but the female was fast and sharp with her attacks. Whenever Naruto got close enough to the already half beaten shinobi, she would throw a senbon at him and stop him midway. Whenever he tried to attack her, the boy would come to her aid and he was forced back.
Sasuke was looking at Naruto's battle from the sidelines and willing his body to come back to its senses. If he joined Naruto's fight like this, he would become a burden more than an asset. He watched for a couple of moments as Naruto helplessly tried once again to beat both shinobi. Suddenly, the spiky haired nin looked his way and recognition shone in his eyes. He stopped fighting with Naruto to launch at Sasuke and the blonde widened his eyes.
"Sasuke! Move!" Naruto yelled as he blocked another attack from the kunoichi.
Sasuke gathered all his strength and stood up straight, but another wave of dizziness washed over him and he fell to the ground. The teen was getting closer to him at a fast rate as he took out a kunai. Sasuke felt his heart rate go wild at the sight and his whole body tensed. Was he going to die like this?
The Sound shinobi was only a second away from reaching Sasuke when his head jerked forward and he fell to the ground. Sasuke was shocked when he saw a kunai deeply imbedded in the nape of his neck. He doubted Naruto had such good aim from such a distance. He looked up and widened his eyes just as Naruto cheered.
"Sakura-chan!" The blonde smiled and then aimed another kick at the black haired girl he was fighting.
Sakura was heavily panting at the entrance of the cave, but she was also grinning widely. Sasuke locked eyes with her for a moment and felt a smile tug on his own lips. Even through his near death experience and dizzy head, he felt quite glad that she was up and walking around.
Sakura closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them once again. Another kunai was in her hand in a split second and she threw it towards the remaining enemy with excellent timing. The black haired girl was forced to block Sakura's attack and Naruto was on her in a heartbeat. He took ahold of her neck and slammed her on the ground violently. The air was knocked out of her lungs and, as she gasped for air, Naruto's strong punch connected with her cheek. The fight quickly ended after that and Naruto finished tying her up.
"Naruto, search them thoroughly." Sakura said and Naruto did. He immediately found their scroll and held it up.
"It's an earth scroll!" He cheered. "We did it!"
"Put it away, dobe. We don't want another team suddenly stealing it away." Sasuke said after finally managing to get to them while stumbling.
"Yeah, yeah." Naruto put it away and then pointed at the Sound nins. "What should we do with them?"
"They were after me, right?" Sakura said.
"Yeah. How did you know?" Naruto asked.
"I woke up to you yelling just that, Naruto. I'm sorry that I didn't intervene before. I was feeling terrible and wanted to reveal myself only if necessary." Sakura said.
"It was the smartest choice." Sasuke nodded at her. "They would've attacked you immediately if they had seen you were up."
"About what to do with them... considering what they were actually after, we should kill them." Sakura frowned. "But I would rather not do that."
"Me neither." Naruto said without hesitation. Then both of them turned to look at Sasuke in silent question.
"I don't know if it's smart to let them live." He sighed. "First of all, that man we faced yesterday was interested in me and now he seems to want Sakura out of the picture. Also, he's unbelievably strong. I'd say he's even stronger than Kakashi, who is a high rank jonin. We cannot be careless when dealing with anything related to that man."
"I know." Sakura said and looked down at her hands. "I know that the proper course of action is getting rid of them. But they're out cold and probably will fail this exam. I wouldn't feel comfortable with the blood of unconscious people on my hands."
"Do you think they won't come to get you after the exam? Because they probably will." Sasuke pointed out and seemed quite frustrated.
"Maybe." Sakura nodded. "But I'm willing to take that chance."
"Don't be an idiot, Sakura!" Sasuke growled and fisted his hands on his sides. "If you don't want to kill them, I will. I'm not risking both our lives for some ridiculous sense of ethics of yours. We are shinobi after all, so you better get used to killing."
"Hey, don't talk to her that way!" Naruto stepped in between and Sasuke flinched at the realization of his own outburst.
"Sasuke, let's not pick a fight. I think you're right, shinobi do kill for a living. However, I think the path of a shinobi isn't meant to be reckless or indiscriminate killing. We kill to protect our villages, our close ones, and to defend ourselves when we're under attack. Do we kill civilians? Do we kill anyone who might become a threat later on? Do we kill people who are completely defenseless and have no chance to fight back? I think there's a thin line between being a shinobi and a murderer and we should be careful not to cross that line."
Sasuke and Naruto stayed quiet for a long time, both taking into account what Sakura had said. Well, Sasuke was, because Naruto had clearly always agreed with her and was widely ginning.
"Tch." Sasuke finally gave in and clicked his tongue. "All right. But if they come after us later on, you'll be the one to blame."
Sakura walked towards the sound kunoichi, who was lying on the ground and was still conscious. Sakura kneeled in front of her and moved her hand to her face. Her hand closed around her jaw in such a tight hold that it almost cracked and then she inched closer to her face.
"Listen to me, and listen well." Sakura hissed with a coldness in her voice that none of the boys had ever heard on her and that sent a shiver down everyone's spine. "If any of you dare come after us again, I will destroy you in the most painful ways imaginable. I will pull out your nails and break your fingers. I will cut your body where it hurts the most and pull out every tooth in your mouth. I'll fuck with your head so much that you will be begging for death. Do you understand?"
"Y-yeah." The girl stammered.
Sakura sharply released her face and stood up. She dusted her hands and walked back to her teammates. Of course, her threats were empty - she would never torture a person, unless it was completely unavoidable - but the girl didn't need to know that.
"We should get moving. Sasuke, how are you feeling?" Sakura asked. "Do you need to be healed?"
"I'm feeling better, so no I don't." Sasuke said, finally gathering himself after watching Sakura threaten the other kunoichi with such ease and cruelty.
"How about you, Naruto?" Sakura turned to the blonde, who hadn't even seemed to notice it was slightly out of character for a newly graduated genin to make such threats.
"I'm as good as new." He smirked and Sakura returned the gesture.
Of course you are.
"Now we have both scrolls, so I think we should try to avoid fighting as much as we can." Sasuke pointed out. "I suggest that we slowly make our way to the tower and try to avoid crowded areas."
"Why not go there as fast as we can?" Naruto pointed out. "It would be better to get there sooner, right?"
"First of all, we don't know if we will be allowed inside before the whole five days have passed." Sasuke explained. "It would be too dangerous to attract attention and then be stuck out there surrounded by enemies."
"Also, I am still low on chakra and Sasuke is still a little shaken by his encounter. I'm guessing he will be back to normal by the afternoon, if not later." Sakura added. "Our best chance at passing this exam is becoming invisible and avoiding other teams until the last day. We still have a whole day of hiding ahead of us, so we better start by masking our chakra."
The three masked their chakras before picking up their stuff and leaving their hiding spot. Sasuke was pretty good at hiding his signature, which wasn't unexpected since he was usually good at everything he did. Naruto's chakra masking abilities were terrible, and his chakra signature was barely smaller than before. This also didn't come as a surprise to Sakura, since she knew that suppressing or controlling his chakra with the Kyuubi as a guest couldn't be a walk in the park.
Team 7 moved slowly and stealthily through the forest for the whole day. They skillfully managed to avoid any contact with other teams. Sasuke's tracking skills allowed them to keep track of the paths that had been recently used by others. Sakura's sharp senses and her chakra sensing abilities helped them stay away from crowded areas. Naruto's stamina allowed him to, every now and then, get a bit ahead and have a look. When night finally fell, and after a long discussion on where to spend the night, they had decided on an area on the top of a rocky cliff. Yes, it could be a slightly showy spot to hide, but it allowed them to clearly see their surroundings for at least a hundred meters in every direction. They had decided not to build a fire and eat some berries that they had picked on their way, as not to draw any unwanted attention. It was their last night after all, so they had to be extra careful; if their scrolls got stolen that night, they probably wouldn't have another chance to get them back.
Sakura took the first guard shift, since neither of her teammates had gotten much sleep during the previous night. As Naruto and Sasuke slept next to each other on the most guarded part of their hiding spot, Sakura sat on top of a high rock. From there, she could see all around her for miles and feel the wind on her face. The moon casted a yellow light on every tree and on the rivers that crossed the forest. Hours later, Sakura felt movement behind her and turned to see that Naruto had woken up and was walking towards her.
"It's still twenty minutes until your shift, Naruto." Sakura frowned.
"I know." He said and sat next to her. They sat in comfortable silence for a while, the only sound around them were the crickets and the night animals that roamed around the forest beneath them. Suddenly, and after seemingly being in deep thought, Naruto spoke up. "Hey."
"Hm?" Sakura mumbled with her eyes still on the scenery.
"What happened before I woke up yesterday? You were healing me when I woke up and then you passed out, so I didn't have the chance to ask."
"Oh… you had unleashed a… different kind of chakra. It was orange and bubbly and incredibly strong. Orochimaru seemed to be weary of it, so he left. It kind of hurt your own body as well, so when you passed out I healed you."
"Oh. That." Naruto looked down at his hands and nervously played with them for at least half a minute. "Sakura, you could be in danger some day and it's also not fair for me to keep this from you…. So, you should know this. I… I'm a monster." He whispered as his voice almost broke. "I have this demon sealed inside me, I'm not sure what to do with it, but I sometimes wonder if it's safe for you guys to be around me."
"I know." Sakura smiled and Naruto raised his eyebrows at her, not knowing exactly what she meant. "You have the kyuubi sealed inside of you, right? Biju's are usually sealed inside newborn babies and you were the only person that was born on the day of the attack." Naruto frowned and was about to question how she knew that but she cut him off. "I came to that conclusion after reading some scrolls about the history of the village and seeing how the adults treated you. However, Naruto. Please know that you are not a monster. If anything, you are a hero. You've taken in the burden that was weighing on the village's shoulders and have been struggling with it on your own. Also, I'm sure that such a responsibility will never be too much for you, because you are strong."
"I am?" Naruto widened his eyes with slight disbelief.
"M-hm." Sakura nodded. "In fact, I believe you are one of the strongest people I've ever met. I really admire you for that."
Naruto was quiet for a couple seconds and then, suddenly, his arms were around her. Sakura hugged Naruto back so that he could put his head on her shoulder and tightened her hold when she felt him shake a bit.
"When I found out that I had…" he took a deep breath in. "That demon inside me… I was terrified. All of my life I had always been alone, and figured that I would be hated and casted aside for the rest of my life too. After all, who could want to be even remotely close to a monster?" Naruto stopped for a while and Sakura felt his tears soak her shirt. Her heart broke a little at his words. "I didn't know what to do to get recognition, to get affection. I was just a child, Sakura. It was so hard…"
"I know." Sakura felt tears form on her own eyes and she softly caressed his back.
"Hearing you say that I'm not a demon… that it's all right to be like this. It's such a relief." He buried his head further into her shoulder. "I was terrified of what your reaction would be when you found out. You know what, Sakura? Your friendship is by far the best gift I've ever received."
Sakura chocked on her own tears and held him tighter. She took a deep breath in and spoke into the side of his head.
"Me too. You're the best friend I could ever ask for. I'm also grateful for your friendship and I will never leave you alone for anything in the world." Sakura smiled.
When Sakura's shift was over, she didn't immediately leave. She sat next to Naruto in a peaceful silence until her eyelids started dropping. She then walked back to her spot and laid down next to Sasuke relishing in the feeling of his body heat on her cold body and his soft breathing. Sakura hadn't slept that good in months.
A/N: Well, here it goes. This chapter was mostly character development and only little action. I hope that you guys like what I did with it.
I want to thank my beta MonochromeAce for her quick revision!
I also want to thank all of you who review and follow for your continued support, as always. Your feedback helps me find out what you like the most and also gives me ideas.