A/N Thanks for over 80 reviews! I'M CRYING!
And thanks for the lovely reviews last chapter. I'm amazed by the response towards Sakura's anxiety, I thought people wouldn't like that for some reason. But you guys did (well, the people who reviewed did). I CRIED!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 35
"I can't believe he said that!" Sakura slammed her fist onto the counter at the Yamanaka Flower Shop. What she was saying was in reference to Sasuke's comment the day before, about him reviving his clan using Sakura. Using her as if she were his object or play thing.
In response to his comment, the pinkette became a stuttering mess. Even moreso than Hinata around Naruto. Not knowing what to do, she ran out of the apartment as if her life depended on it. At training earlier in the day, the three genin didn't speak of the prior event.
"I know!" Ino growled, throwing some flowers onto the shelves roughly. With a serious expression, she turned to her friend. "You want me to kick his ass?"
The question made Hinata snicker into her hand.
"No! I mean, yeah! Um... I think?" The cherry blossom put her hand under her chin in deep thought. "I know!" An idea struck! "Use your Mind Transfer Jutsu and give him a wedgie!"
"Yes!" The blonde snapped her fingers and pointed at Sakura as if she were saying "That's the one!" Stomping away, Ino swung open the door to go find Sasuke but an orange blur knocked her onto the ground. "Ow!" She cried as she fell to the floor, pushing Naruto off of her after she had landed.
"Sakura-chan, it's terrible!" Naruto cried, eyes wide in terror as he explained to her what he had been up to. "Teme and I thought it would be funny to hide Kakashi-sensei's book but I forgot where I hid it and I didn't tell Teme where it was!"
"Holy shit." The three girls said in unison.
"Naruto-kun, we'll hide you in here." Hinata told him, ushering him in the back of the store. Usually, she would have mumbled it in Naruto's prescence but this was a serious, life or death situation. Sakura felt their chakra signatures disappear.
"I can sense Kakashi-sensei, he's on his way here!" The blonde announced.
"Quick! Act casual!" The pinkette exclaimed. Ino ran behind the counter and posed with her arm pointing in the air. Sakura froze herself in the motion of placing a bouqet on the shelf. "Wait." She turned to her friend, confused. Realising what was wrong, they switched places.
The son of the White Fang sauntered into the shop, acting as if he weren't out for blood. "Sakura." He began, stalking up to the counter.
She panicked. "Sorry, do I know you?"
"Where's Naruto?" Her teacher ignored her question.
"You're asking where Naruto-kun is?" She asked. "As in... Naruto-kun? You mean... Naruto-kun?"
"Stop stalling."
"Um..." She didn't know what to say. But then she had an idea. She was a very petty person and - after her conversation with Ino and Hinata - her anger at Sasuke was still lying there.
Claiming me as if I were his toy...
"Asshole." Kokuo commented, anger radiating off of her voice. After all, girlfriends stick together. Sisters before misters and all that.
"Just between me and you..." She whispered to her sensei. "I heard he hid the book in Sasuke-kun's apartment. And that it was Sasuke-kun's idea."
Kakashi could detect a lie in an instant normally. But his prescious book was on the line and he jumped at the chance of finding it. So, without another word, he left the store, intending on visiting the Uchiha.
"Naruto, Princess, you can come out now!" Ino called after a few beats. The two genin walked back into the front of the store and Naruto thanked them for hiding him before scurrying off at a rapid pace, claiming that he was supposed to meet Jiraiya at the Hot Springs. No one commented on the fact that they were meeting up at the Hot Springs.
"How was training?" Sakura asked her friends.
"Neji-nii-san and Otou-san have been teaching me how to do the Rotation." Hinata replied. "It... It's really hard."
"I'm sure you'll get it down." Ino told her, offering a smile of encouragement. "I was sparring with Chouji and I used my blade. He wasn't very happy when I cut his potato chips bag and they all spilled to the floor." The Team Ten kunoichi explained.
Sakura chuckled and then remembered the fight the three of them had during the Crystal Contest. Hinata had used her attack she had developed before the Ash Village mission: the Heavens Dance of Hazy White. Ino had developed a poisoned chakra blade - but she could take the poison out whenever she wanted. To the Pinkette's surprise, the Pig had been training under Shizune who had taught her that ability.
Now, Sakura had been training under Tsunade. Ino had been training under Shizune. Hinata had been training alongside Neji and Hiashi. Naruto had been training under Jiraiya. And Sasuke had been training under Kakashi to work on his Sharingan. Not to mention all of the other members of the Konoha Twelve were hard at work.
God, it's crazy how far we've come...
"Would you two stop fighting for, like, five seconds?" Sakura groaned as Naruto and Sasuke were, once again, at one another's throats. This time, the arguement was about how Naruto thought Sasuke was staring at him and joked about taking a picture. It resulted in Sasuke responding that the picture would be banned from the world for "being too ugly."
"He started it!" The two boys yelled, making the cherry blossom growl. Ignoring the two of them, she began to set up the three tents a fair distance away from the fire.
Before, Team Seven would only bring two tents - one for Kakashi and one for the genin. But, one day, Sakura complained about being a lady surrounded by boys so now, each member had their own tents while one person was on watch.
Team Kakashi were on their way back from a mission at Suna. It was nothing special, just a mission to strengthen the alliance they now had. One thing that surprised Sakura was that Suna still didn't have a Kazekage, apparently they were waiting for someone to grow older. She had met up with Temari while there. The Wind User had asked about Shikamaru with a pink tint to her cheeks. The cherry blossom teased her which only resulted in awkward jokes in response about her and Sasuke.
"Sakura, you have first watch." Kakashi told her, closing his book. His tone was a bit... curt. He had found out that Sakura had lied about Sasuke being guilty of his book's disappearance. But only after he dragged the Uchiha's body underground did he find out. Luckily, Naruto remembered where the book was - in his jacket (the pinkette beat the crap out of him after that).
Later in the night, only the sound of the fire burning and the insects buzzing could be heard. Sakura was drawing on the ground, a long stick in her hand. Absent-mindedly, she drew a beast with five tails.
What do you look like, Kokuo-chan?
"You know what I look like." The bijuu replied.
No, I've never seen you before. Sakura didn't know how to get back into the sewer - or the Blank Space as Kokuo called it. And all the times she had been in there, she had never actually seen what Kokuo had looked like.
The Gobi grunted. "Hmph. Funny."
So... The cherry blossom trailed off.
The beast replied, a tad defensively. "Maybe you should worry about those nightmares of yours."
How am I supposed to do anything about the nightmares if I don't know what they are actually about? It's not like I can talk to anyone about them, they'll think I'm crazy. And, if the Grey Sakura represents a traitor, who could it be?
"Calm down, Sakura-chan." At her friend's warning, Sakura realised that she had begun to breathe rapidly. She paused and found herself, urging herself to breathe in regulation. Once she succeeded, she popped one of her prescribed pills in her mouth and sighed once she swallowed it.
"I'm running out." She commented. "Need to get a new prescription."
"Who are you talking to?" Sasuke had startled her with his question.
"You scared me!" She exclaimed, hand on her chest as she looked at the Uchiha. He was wearing a cloak and his hair was going in different directions, he had just woken up.
"Who are you talking to?" Sasuke repeated his question, adamant for her to answer it.
"Um... Myself." Sakura replied, standing. "It's your shift now, right? Well, goodnight." Quickly, she darted into the vacant tent and wrapped herself in her sleeping bag.
Back at Konoha, a week later, Sakura continued trying to learn Lightning Style. She had been trying for so long yet no sparks had shown up. Her patience was thinning and she was tempted to sell her soul to the devil in exchange for the nature release.
"Wind Style: Wind Dragon Jutsu!" The wind picked up on Training Ground Seven and formed into a dragon. It roared and charged into the water, causing a wave of water to jump up and rain down on Team Seven.
"Well done, Naruto-kun!" Sakura cheered, ignoring the fact that he caused the entire team to get wet.
"Now to move onto the next one..." Kakashi said, although his tone suggested he was quite proud of his student.
"Alright! People are going to bow down at my MAD ninjutsus, believe it!" The blonde yelled, doing a bit of a happy dance. He was stopped when his sensei threw a yellow scroll at him. Grumbling at being interrupted, he scanned the scroll's contents. "Huh?" He wondered aloud. "Flying Raijin Jutsu? What's that?"
"A teleportation jutsu." The silver-haired jonin nonchalantly replied.
"No way! Can you teach me it?!" The jinchuriki asked, a fire lit in his eyes.
"No." His face dropped. "Only because I don't know it. I'm testing to see how well you can learn a jutsu on your own, Naruto."
"I'll learn it, believe it!"
"Isn't that the technique the Nidaime and the Yondaime knew?" Sakura questioned her sensei. He smiled at her in response. "You'll know a Hokage's jutsu if you learn that, Naruto-kun."
"Yeah! I'll be one step closer to becoming Hokage!" His glee seemed to be so infectious that all of Team Seven broke out in smiles - albeit Sasuke's was a bit hidden.
The student of the Fourth Hokage turned to his female student. "How is Lightning Style coming along?" He queried. She growled at him and stomped away, leaving a confused Kakashi behind.
"It's probably THAT time of the month." Naruto said to Sasuke.
"Hn." The Uchiha agreed.
"Bye!" Sakura yelled to Naruto and Kakashi after dinner at Ichiraku. They waved and said their farewells in response. Sasuke had gone and left already wordlessly, or so she thought.
Turning around, the Uchiha was standing there and he was staring at her.
"Something wrong, Sasuke-kun?" The pinkette asked him. Why does he look... weird?
"What happened to you on that mission?" The Sharingan User asked after a few beats of silence.
"Pardon?"
"Don't act stupid, Sakura." He all but snapped. "The mission with your dad. Where something had interfered."
Was this what had been bothering him? Was this why he gave her odd looks at times? Hadn't he asked this before?
"N- nothing happened." She stuttered. "I'm fine."
"Kakashi knows. Ino and Hinata know. Hell, even the Dobe knows!" He yelled the ending. "I've waited long enough for an answer."
"Maybe you don't have a right to know!" Sakura responded, feeling the need to defend herself.
"So you trust them more than me?"
"I never said that!" The cherry blossom exploded, her breathing now irregular. She took a moment to calm herself before speaking again. "Is all this because of what happened at Naruto-kun's place? Is this because I rejected you?"
"You didn't reject me." Was Sasuke's reply.
"Take silence as a no." She retorted icily.
He nodded slowly but did not relent. "What happened on that mission?" She sighed exasperatedly but he continued. "You attitude changed, you suddenly got stronger and you and the Dobe got even weirder."
"If I don't want you to know then, you should respect my decision." Sakura calmly said. She turned on her heel and proceeded to walk away, fuming.
But his hand gripped onto her arm, preventing her from walking away. "I want an answer."
"Let go of my arm, Sasuke." The lack of the honorific was heard but no comment was made on it. And her command fell onto deaf ears. So, she did what she would have done to anyone who would not let go of her.
She pulled Sasuke towards her, and let her fist fly into his cheek. He stumbled backwards, slightly shocked (and also glad that she didn't use any chakra).
He glared at her before stalking off. Sakura replied by glaring at his back before walking in the opposite direction.
A/N Shizune be like: AAIIIIEEEEEEEEE!