If you thought I was Sakura bashing before...(and I reaaally wasn't...)...you may not like this chapter. I tried very very hard to be realistic and I dont think I did too bad a job of it at all!...
If you're in the majority of Naruto fans then you hate Sakura or at least dont care what I make her do so WOOT!
At long last, here you go--this chapter has been looooong due. Enjoy.
-!Kitsune!
"Sasuke-kun.. I guess you've already heard.." she began. Sasuke sighed a little.
"Yeah." He didn't lift his eyes from the floor.
"I.. so I need to talk to you. Seriously. About…the past few years.. and…us."
Chapter XXVIII
Confession
She paused and waited for any input Sasuke might have. Sasuke kept his hands folded and his eyes to the floor.
"I need Naruto here…I.. don't want to do it alone.." Sasuke found himself thinking. Getting no feedback, Sakura continued.
"Sasuke-kun…did you ever…ever at any point in time…have any amount of attraction to me…?" she asked slowly. Sasuke took a deep inhale and slowly let it go. He knew the questions would gradually get harder.
"No…" He answered quietly. He glanced up at her, and she didn't look very surprised, but only slightly hurt to have heard it out loud finally. She nodded.
"Why.." she asked very simply next. Sasuke looked all the way up and stared at her. He didn't want to come off harsh, but he didn't know how to talk to Sakura at all. He was so un-use to being around her at a relaxed level that he barely knew how to relate to her. "I'm…focused, Sakura. For years my mind has only been on one thing…and that was killing Itachi." He admitted plainly, keeping his voice quiet and low. They continued to make brief, hesitant, awkward eye contact. Kakashi, from his vantage point, could tell that they were operating on such a superficial, plastic level in front of the other that it was almost laughable. If only the situation weren't so serious. Sakura shook her head.
"Why? Why, Sasuke-kun? Why couldn't you focus on anything else? I was right there! Right there all that time, waiting to help you! To make you stop thinking about all of that!!" Sakura suddenly exclaimed, and Sasuke kept his head turned elsewhere. When she finally stopped, he looked back up.
"I didn't want help. I still don't want it." Sasuke murmured darkly. Sakura paused for awhile, knowing what she needed to mention next, so she went for it.
"Naruto. You let.. Naruto help you. You let Naruto into your inner being…Somewhere I've wanted to be for years and years.. and he comes along and.. and just takes a place in your life.. no effort.. no struggle.. you had let him in from day one.." She nearly whispered. Sasuke looked up, slightly irritated at Naruto's name leaving her mouth.
"So what." He snapped. Kakashi sighed, not daring to interfere, but afraid that Sasuke would get defensive at Naruto's mention. Tears began to surface in Sakura's eyes, and Sasuke kept his eyes averted.
"So what? So I'm your teammate too! So, I'm always caring about how you're feeling, what you're doing! So—So Naruto use to hate you and I NEVER did!" Sakura had almost reached a level of shouting. Sasuke kept his frigid expression, not phasing once. "He never hated me.." Sasuke said slowly. "He always understood.. always cared.. always pushed me.. even though he didn't know it on the surface that he pushed me.. I didn't know what persistence was until I met Naruto-kun." Sasuke said, staring at his hands and softly clenching and unclenching them to release the building tension in his body. Sakura felt anger rising from deep inside her.
"Persistence!!! I chased you and chased you! I never ever gave up caring for you!" Her voice broke in mid-sentence. Sasuke looked up sharply.
"But did you work at being a Shinobi!? Did you grow at all!?? Did you show me you were worthy enough to carry a family name like the Uchiha clan??" Sasuke shouted. Kakashi's eyes widened as he stared, as did Sakura's. Sasuke went on, by now fully irritated at her clueless thought patterns.
"WHAT did you think I was attracted to!? Were you even listening that first day, when Kakashi made us tell about ourselves?! NO! You were busy being a little school-girl with no goals but stupid crushes. I had but two goals in my life, to kill that—BASTARD Itachi, and to revive my clan… I have a legacy to leave, how would I do that with someone who isn't focused on leaving a legacy?" Sasuke blurted all at once. Sakura had frozen, and stared at him in disbelief. Sasuke was showing more emotion toward her now than any other time that she remembered. She felt guilt. A strong, stinging guilt.
"I.. I ignored that.. he's…right.." She knew in her head that loving him was illogical if she never paid attention to those things, but her heart was broken—torn—shunned…and jealous.
"Why does any of that mean that Naruto can have such a presence in your life and I can't??" Sasuke paused and waited out what she had to say, making a ditch effort to prolong giving her the answer to that question. Sakura stood up now, staring down at him, awaiting his answer. "Well?? Sasuke-kun why couldn't you EVER love me?!?" She began to choke tears, and stood there silently writhing in her own shame and rejection, deafened by Sasuke's silence and tortured by the loud beating of her own heart. Kakashi silently kept watching, his own body tense, realizing that team 7 was falling, and falling hard to it's destruction. He then heard soft footsteps behind him, and he looked up as Naruto paused beside him, staring at the scene; Sasuke leaning forward with his elbows against his knees, glaring passively at the floor while Sakura stood before him, dripping tears within his line of vision. Her hands trembling, she dropped them to her sides in defeat.
"I don't know why I'm so upset with you.. I always knew that you never loved me.. but I thought.. I thought that maybe if I tried hard enough.. you would.. grow to…" She faltered as her words became unspeakable through the curtain of tears. Sasuke sat there remaining as icy as he possibly could, but both Naruto and Kakashi looking on could tell that there was at least some compassion. As Sakura went on crying and Sasuke glanced up at her, Naruto gave a quiet sigh and slowly approached the two from behind Sakura. Kakashi almost wanted to look away, but he knew he had to see what was going on in order to pick up the pieces later. Sasuke and Naruto weren't going to break; it was Sakura that was headed for a shattering. Sasuke looked up, the pounding of his heart inside his rip-cage easing steadily as Naruto neared them. Sakura didn't notice his presence until Naruto sniffed a little bit, and she turned around, eyes red with tears, arms crossed over herself as she stared at him. He looked exhausted, first of all, in a white t-shirt and his orange pants, barefoot. He paused for only a moment near Sakura, then slowly and hesitantly sat down on the couch beside Sasuke, staring at the floor himself, his innocent blue eyes fixed upon the rug under Sakura's feet. She watched Sasuke sit up from his leaned position and look at Naruto, who looked back silently, lightly nibbling his bottom lip.
"You alright.." Sasuke whispered to him. Naruto nodded slightly, and they both looked back up at Sakura. Sakura took a step back from them.
"Even now.. Even now you warm up to him when all he did was just walk in—"
"Sakura." Sasuke interrupted, sitting up straight. Naruto felt his breath hold in his throat, and Sakura asked the question long coming.
"Obviously.. there's something Naruto knows about you that I don't.. something that links you two to each other.. Something that keeps me out.. as far out as possible. What…is…it. Why are you two so close to each other now?? And what does it have to do with me and you, Sasuke??" She finally asked. Sasuke took a deep breath.
"We have to tell you something…important…" Sasuke began far quieter than Sakura had ever heard him. Naruto spoke up before she could pose any questioning.
"Something.. that.. um.. that we started to tell you before…but.. we never told the entire story…He still erased your memory...though.." Naruto added. Sakura was too stunned at the entire evening's happenings to even be angry about that fact. She only shook her head and waited, not bothering to wipe the trail of tears staining her cheeks and running down her chin and neck.
"What.. what is it…" she choked out, not having the slightest idea of what they could be wanting to tell her. She scoffed bitterly in her mind at the miniscule hope left inside her that maybe, just maybe they were going to tell her that Sasuke's actions toward her were all lies. All a cheap façade in order to hide the fact that Sasuke was in love with her, so deeply that—
She paused right there, not wanting to think about it too long because she was steadily losing hope in any good coming out of the scene in front of her.
"No.." she whispered as it suddenly became painfully obvious to her even through her soul's persistent denial. Right now, the two in front of her, their close proximity, all the hints, all the disappearances, all the touches and flirts and blushes and changes in the three of their lives together in the little house as team 7. The mystery of a million pieces was suddenly clear as day just before Sasuke took a deep breath.
"I'm…I'm so close to him.. I never was to you.. because…I fell in love with him.." Sasuke's voice was a hoarse, suppressed whisper.
The wash of anger that overcame her nearly made her see red, but the wave of heartbreak that accompanied it forced her to sit down in the chair behind her as her hand flew to her chest, and her tear filled eyes now gushed bitter tears. Sasuke noticed that she wasn't staring at him. She was staring at Naruto.
Naruto with his big blue eyes.
Naruto with his messy yellow-blonde hair.
Naruto with his damned Kyuubi spirit locked away inside him.
Naruto with his god-damned happy-go-lucky, everything's peachy, attitude.
Naruto with his stupid, stupid, idiotic pajamas that made Sasuke-kun compliment him.
Naruto with his, no longer nor will ever be hers, Uchiha Sasuke.
She lashed out at Naruto in her mind, his fists gripping the seat cushions until her knuckles turned white. Kakashi stood up carefully, prepared to jump in and interrupt anything out of order from happening, and still watched as Sasuke and Naruto became visibly unnerved at her silence. Naruto opened his mouth to speak, but she spoke first. "You're lying.." she murmured shakily, her eyes still firmly fixed on Naruto. Naruto then lost his short temper.
"We're not lying!" he exclaimed in disbelief, and not at all sensitive to her unstable appearance. "I love Sas—"
"DON'T you say it!!" Sakura suddenly snapped, flushed in the face, on her feet within a second. Sasuke slowly stood up as Naruto quickly jumped to his feet.
"I.. am in love.. with Sasuke."
The resonating 'slap' that followed instigated a deafening silence. Naruto didn't even bother to look back at her, but kept his head turned as he took gentle breaths to ease the momentary stinging. Sasuke tensed but then of course immediately realized he couldn't hit Sakura and nor did he actually want to; he was only reacting to Naruto being hit. But any guy that would have done the same thing would have been bloodied on the floor. Not that Naruto would have needed his help in any other situation. Sakura stood, her hand paused in it's frozen stance from having crossed Naruto's reddened cheek. Naruto stayed still for the longest time, until Sakura finally spoke again in sobs.
"Why do you look so dramatic?!? You stole everything I ever wanted in life!! You're living my dream!! MINE!" She screamed, and more stiff silence followed.
"I….hate… you…Uzamaki Naruto…You damned nine-tail demon!! That's ALL YOU ARE TO ME!!" She screamed at the now frozen blonde, and as she fled the room, tears splashing behind her and leaving a trail to the dark night outside, Kakashi suddenly made his entrance, his hand to Sasuke's chest, pausing the immediate rash action that was forming in his stance. Sasuke stared after her, eyes wide with blind anger, anger for her rage directed toward the wrong person. He then suddenly forgot about her, thoughts of anger pushed aside with sudden realization of Naruto's feelings. Someone who had become a part of a substitute family for Naruto, though he hadn't treated her like it recently, had just reduced him light-years back to his tortured past.
"Naruto…Naru-kun.." Sasuke questioned, coming closer quickly, not liking the still silence that Naruto stood frozen inside of. Kakashi stood quietly at a careful distance from the two, while Sasuke stood in front of Naruto, making him look up.
"She didn't mean it. Don't think about it. We had to tell her.. we knew she would.." Sasuke paused, his sentence silencing in hesitant relief as Naruto donned a half smile. "It's fine.." he murmured, taking a deep breath and letting it out. For the first time in what felt like forever, he wasn't sure if Naruto was telling the complete truth. The light sound of falling rain-drops could be heard through the open door to the dark outside, and the gentle pattering soon became a throbbing roar of downpour. Kakashi wordlessly walked off into the rain, following Sakura's remnant of chakra, leaving Naruto and Sasuke alone to talk. Sasuke sighed deeply as he stood in front of Naruto, close to him, his hands on either side of Naruto's cheeks, their foreheads together though both of them had their eyes shut. Sasuke felt Naruto's hands circle his waist.
"You took the brunt of that.." Sasuke whispered solemnly. Naruto sighed shallowly. "Yeah…I…didn't think I would.. it's not my fault you love me.. Is it?" Naruto asked quietly. Sasuke felt his heart aching with fondness toward Naruto's characteristic display of innocence.
"Of course it isn't…don't think that way. It's not a 'fault'." He reassured. "But.. I would guess it makes sense…seeing you with me.. it's hard for her.. so.. to her, you're everything holding her away." Sasuke said, trying to calm his anger at the pink-haired girl by trying to understand her. Sasuke opened his eyes partly as Naruto's warm lips met his. The kiss suddenly reminded Sasuke—
"Hey.. aren't you hurting?" He asked, delicately tracing his fingers down Naruto's back. Naruto narrowed his gaze and smirked a little.
"Sasuke…teme.." he murmured affectionately. Sasuke grinned just slightly and let his arms slide around Naruto as he let out a sigh of comfort.
"I'm so tired, Naru-chan…" Sasuke murmured, his head laid on Naruto's shoulder. Naruto yawned widely, nearly losing his balance and falling backward with Sasuke's weight against him, but Sasuke had him supported around the waist within the next second.
"Come on…let's go to bed.." Sasuke murmured, giving Naruto's hair one last stroke before taking Naruto's hand in his. He soaked in the feeling of Naruto drawing closer, hugging to his arm and rubbing it up and down as they slowly made their way to Sasuke's bedroom. They entered quietly, shutting the door behind them, crawled into bed and settled into each other's embrace in the center, Sasuke nestling his cheek against the silken blonde hair against him. Naruto gave a tired moan of comfort, and within mere minutes was sleeping in his lover's arms.
----------
Sasuke awakened rather peacefully; more peacefully than he ever had in his life, he felt he could say. A bright beam of sunlight had conveniently alit itself in a brilliant halo about Naruto's yellow-gold mop of hair. The window must have been left cracked open, Sasuke noticed, because the entire room was filled with fresh, clean, just-after-the-rain air. He bent his stiff knee, careful to not move any part of Naruto, who was still in his arms and sleeping like the dead. He had to lay there awhile before he dared try to move and awaken the beautiful form on top of him, but Naruto soon saved him the trouble. Sasuke watched, like a lover of nature observing a rare wild sight, as Naruto rubbed his eyes and slowly woke himself. The blue eyes blinked open, then turned upward to look at him. They then closed in a cheery smile.
"Ohayooo Sa—Sasuk—" the Kitsune paused to yawn, then didn't bother finishing his greeting as Sasuke followed up with one of his own. They kissed intimately good morning, and Sasuke sat up in bed while Naruto energetically hopped up, bouncing on his knees over Sasuke who was still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He wanted badly to follow Naruto's example of insisting on being cheery.
"Sasuke! Sasuke guess what we should do today.." Naruto murmured, suddenly straddling Sasuke's lap, making Sasuke pause and stabilize him by grabbing his hips. Naruto giggled lightly at Sasuke's touch and began playing with Sasuke's silk-like blue-black hair by the fistful.
"Let's move my stuff over here.. into your room.." Naruto purred to him. Sasuke looked up briefly to receive Naruto's wanting kiss, and he faintly smiled.
"Of course.. whatever you want.." Naruto grinned uncontrollably. "Hehe! Yes!!" Naruto exclaimed loudly, and Sasuke slowly climbed out of bed after Naruto bounded effortlessly out and through the door, instantly down the hallway. However, as he stood, he felt the familiar stinging in his shoulder. Sasuke stopped in his tracks, slowly reaching over the original curse seal on his shoulder, rubbing it.
"Not today…not when he's so happy." Sasuke told himself, and ignored the pain entirely, walking away down the hall to Naruto's room.
----------
He watched the blonde busily gathering things into one haphazard pile in the center of his bed, dashing about the room, finding things he had no clue he had…Blonde. Blonde dobe. Sasuke couldn't help but notice the blonde hair more for some reason. He found it so appealing that lately he couldn't take his eyes off of it.
"Naruto…?" he asked quietly, gingerly leaning himself on the doorpost. Naruto turned and smiled at him while he kept working.
"Yeah, Sasa-kun?" He answered. Sasuke scratched his head.
"What's.. the next stage in our relationship…?" he asked slowly. Naruto tried to think about it, but gave up within seconds.
"I don't know.. I'm not a good judge of things like that." he answered honestly. Sasuke smirked and shook his head. He should have known that Naruto wouldn't know the answer to that.
"You're the one that's good with things like that, koi. You know, deep stuff. And, like…stuff everyone wish they knew." Naruto said while he folded shirts. Sasuke came all the way into the room and helped him fold.
"I don't know this one." He said after a few seconds. Naruto gave him yet another cheery grin.
"That's okay Sasuke-kun, we don't have to know." He said rather wisely. Sasuke blinked and mulled it over.
"Huh…"
"Hey Sasuke?" Naruto asked next.
"Why do you.. think Sakura took it so much worse this second time.. that other time, before you blanked her memory.. I mean it was bad, but.. it wasn't like.. that.." Naruto paused and waited for Sasuke to give his own input. Sasuke watched the mildly hurt expression on Naruto's face.
"Well first of all.. I don't really know.. maybe it's because after the first time we weren't as careful.. she noticed more things.. and then she felt more left out than normal." Sasuke proposed.
"And second of all…she won't hate you forever Naruto…You can hide all you want but there's no way what she said to you didn't hurt. But it's okay." Sasuke comforted, reaching over as Naruto stopped folding, and brushing the back of his fingers along Naruto's cheek. Naruto forced a smile and nodded.
"Yeah.. I know. Plus I have more to be happy about than sad!" Naruto gave a more genuine smile then, and Sasuke could see by watching his eyes that he had a habit of pushing away hurt and sadness and willingly forcing happiness. He wondered if that was a good thing or bad thing. Suddenly Naruto stood up and cheered.
"Okay!! Let's bring this first bunch of stuff to your room!" Naruto exclaimed.
----------
Naruto wiped his forehead with his sleeve as he looked around his and Sasuke's room. "Whew! Finally done." Sasuke came up beside him and they both looked around, and Naruto then started giggling at the sharp contrast of Sasuke's dark colored things with his own loud, bright items; Sasuke's black comforter blankets and Naruto's lemon yellow throw pillows—Sasuke's very practical things on the desks and dressers, such as pens and organizers and a comb, and Naruto's things, stuff like silly string and graffiti cans and handheld games mixed into all the practicality. Sasuke came up beside him and threw an arm around Naruto's waist. "Hn. Looks good." He agreed as Naruto nodded in approval of the space. Naruto turned to face him excitedly, his hands coming up to rub Sasuke's shoulders.
"What next? What else can we do now that we couldn't before?" Naruto asked. Sasuke shrugged and just stood there admiring Naruto.
"Not sure. We'll think of them as some more time passes." He told Naruto. Naruto began bouncing.
"It's only morning! We have so much time what should we do? Let's do something!" Naruto was exclaiming. Sasuke felt himself tiring just staring at Naruto.
"First.. let's calm down. Second.. I think I need to eat.." Sasuke realized as he suddenly felt dizzy. Naruto suddenly looked like he'd committed a crime.
"Gah!! Sasuke why didn't you say so earlier!?" Suddenly Sasuke found himself being pulled quickly down the hall into the kitchen. As Naruto made him sit down he suddenly felt like he was about to starve.
"Whoa.." he gasped, weakly laying his hand on his stomach.
"See what happens when you don't do what I tell you?" Kakashi suddenly had appeared out of nowhere, and Naruto jumped, exclaiming briefly before going right back to what he was doing with extreme dedication. Sasuke swallowed, his vision blurring.
"I'm about to pass out.." He said quietly.
"Naruto toss me something. What's going on is almost like having low blood sugar." Kakashi said. Naruto momentarily flung a fruit in his direction and went on preparing breakfast. Kakashi caught it and gave it to Sasuke, who practically attacked it.
"You woke up with pain didn't you.." Kakashi said to Sasuke, low enough so that Naruto couldn't hear. Sasuke sighed while he chewed.
"Yah, thought so. Didn't wanna' ruin Naruto's happiness so you didn't tell him. Well as these seals get more and more aggressive you're going to want to be eating good stuff nearly every 3 hours to keep your energy up. Otherwise the energy those seals will be eating away at is going be your chakra." Kakashi warned again. Sasuke swallowed and nodded.
"Yeah.. got it." He resumed eating while Kakashi got up to help Naruto make food for everyone else also.
"Wait…" Naruto remembered just as he was setting a plate of food in front of Sasuke. "Sakura.. where is she?" he asked. Kakashi sighed deeply and stood up straight.
"Well.. I found her and talked to her.. or tried…she's not really too good. She came in and got dry from the rain and all last night, but she left again early this morning. Most likely she's back at her own home." Kakashi said.
"But.. she'll come back, right?" Naruto asked, sitting down with his own food. Kakashi shrugged.
"I'm really not sure Naruto. I'm leaning toward the idea that she will eventually.. but I don't know what its going to take for her to do that." Kakashi admitted. "Maybe we have to go talk to her." Naruto said to Sasuke as he stared at his plate. Sasuke sat still and quietly ate, not appearing to be feeling any type of remorse whatsoever. "Maybe."
So Sakura was HAAARSH with the whole hating Naruto eh? yes yes I know...
Even if you hated this chapter, don't worry, as I constantly stress, I'm very realistic I believe, and Sakura is not going to be a lone outcast hated for all eternity okay??? Stick around, keep reading, dont hurt me. Lol.
and no I did not forget about those dna samplers in their skin. I'll get back to it trust me. :)
ALSO PLEASE READ BELOW...
I'm nearing the end of my chapters that I've already had pre-written. It will probably take me around 2 or 3 weeks to update from now on, especially with the schoolyear ending and summer coming up. (YAY) I'll try hard to be fast, but I can guarantee nothing except the fact that I wont leave you hanging!! Stick with me please, I promise I'll deliver eventually!
-o0Kitsune0o
