A/N at end of the chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 43
It concerned Sakura how long Hinata had been asleep. Everybody assumed she would be up by now, yet the girl hadn't moved an inch. She still lay on her hospital bed, almost lifeless. But she was alive, she was going to pull through, she had to.
The pinkette entered the room with a balloon. Ino was already inside, fiddling with the petals of flowers she had brought in to replace the ones from the week before. They were the rare, expensive kind that would take her mother so long to find. But Hinata was worth so much more.
"You bring the flowers, I bring the balloons. I think we got this right." Sakura said, walking into the room and tying the string of the balloon onto the headboard of the bed. After this, she sat down on a nearby chair.
"Forehead, I haven't seen you in a while." The blonde replied, sitting on another chair on the opposite side and kicking her feet up on Hinata's bedside desk.
"I saw you yesterday." The cherry blossom dryly responded.
"Oh, yeah. That was you..."
A silence took over the room as they looked at their comatose friend. They stayed like that for a few minutes, not a single word uttered until Sakura couldn't take it any longer. "How's your training going?" She asked.
"I thought you'd never ask." Ino sprang up from her chair and formed a hand sign with a smirk. "Cherry Blossom Clone Jutsu." Two more Inos popped up beside her, all three of them striking a pose with a sense of pride.
Sakura returned the smirk. "You finally learnt it."
"Well, two is my limit. But the goal is to make as many as Naruto-kun can."
"I don't normally say this, but that's an impossible goal."
Somebody laughed. Somebody that wasn't Ino nor Sakura. They were stunned, eyebrows raising to their hairlines, as they looked at each other. Slowly, they turned their heads to the bed to see Hinata's eyes barely open - but still open - a small smile on her face.
"Hinata!" They cried, running over to her.
Hinata had woken up. It was a joy to hear for most of Konoha. Even Sasuke was told, though he did not even know she was in a coma to begin with.
The Hyuga had some trouble remembering what had happened but, once she recalled the mission, she expressed her concern for their teammates. Her friends reassured her that everyone was fine and that Sasuke had been brought back to Konoha.
Hinata was the second person Sakura had directly told about Inner Sakura, the first being Kakashi. Her reaction had been expected - she was completely confused. But she showed support for the pinkette, telling her that there was nothing to worry about. That was funny because all she did was worry about the Grey Sakura.
Neji, Hiashi and Hanabi arrived as soon as they could, to see her once word had gotten around that she had woken up. Sakura and Ino gave them some privacy. Shortly after, the members of Team Kurenai arrived to see her, expressing relief that their teammate was okay. Also, Naruto had come to visit her, offering a free ramen coupon for when she was allowed to eat at Ichiraku again. Her cheeks went pink as she said they could eat together. Naturally, the clueless boy thought nothing of it and agreed whole-heartedly.
Things were getting back to normal. It seemed like life was on a pause. However, Sakura knew that it wasn't for long. There was always this dark threat looming around the corner, and it felt like she was already in the middle of a fight. With a shake of her head, she ignored the feeling.
The Grey Sakura jumped from tree to tree, blood splattered across her form. Corpses were spread across the field behind her. It was their own fault, their goal interfered with hers.
Inner had just about enough with the threat they posed to her goal. Something had to be done and Outer wasn't going to do anything about it.
She laughed at how utterly weak the light side of her was as she continued fleeing the scene of numerous dead Sound and Stone ninja.
One day, Ino and Sakura were both called in to see the Hokage. Tsunade and Shizune were both standing in front of the desk and they almost looked excited about something.
"Um... Shizune-shishou, Godaime-sama. You sent for us?" The blonde questioned them upon arriving, walking in alongside the pinkette. The latter, too, was curious as to what they were called in for together.
"We have gifts for the two of you." Shizune answered, a big smile on her face. Tsunade walked to the side of the desk, revealing what she had been standing in front of.
There, on the desk, sat two small slugs. Both were white but had different colour streaks running down their backs. One had three pink stripes and the other had three purple stripes. They were both the same size, the size of human babies, and the tentacles on their heads twitched upon seeing the girls.
"They're slugs..." Ino pointed at them, a confused expression on her face. "Like... slugs." She continued, offering riveting information to the conversation.
"Like Katsuyu-sama." Sakura said, eyes sparkling at having her own summoning companion. She had seen how the slug had fought against Manda, Orochimaru's summon. This meant that she would have her own fierce ally to battle alongside her one day.
"When that pervert, Jiraiya, told me he taught that idiot, Naruto, the Summoning Jutsu, I thought it was only fair for my student to know it as well." The Hokage explained.
Shizune continued. "So we waited for the birth of another slug, to be your companion, Sakura-chan. But then, they ended up being twins so we thought Ino would like a summoning slug as well."
"And they just happened to have pink and purple stripes... Convenient." The Yamanaka smiled at the coincidence.
"My summoning partner, Tsuna-sama, has green streaks running down her back." The poison-expert replied. "It happens to be my favourite colour as well."
Everything happens for a reason. The pinkette thought.
"This slug thing cannot replace me. I will not allow it." Kokuo said, angered at having to share Sakura's attention. "There is only one creature allowed to annoy you on this planet and I was here first!"
There's enough me to go around. She replied to the Gobi.
"At least I'm always here!"
Yep... Always. Great.
"What are you two going to name them?" Tsunade asked the genin, two scrolls in her hands. The cherry blossom walked up to her slug - obviously the one with the pink stripes - and poked them softly on their head.
"Sakura-hime!" The slug chirped, their tentacles moving playfully. Once they got older, they would develop tentacles on either side of their cheeks.
Sakura quite liked being called a princess. "Pinku." She said, naming her new partner. "Pinku-sama."
"Seriously?" Ino asked, rocking her new slug friend in her arms. "Then I'll call you Murasaki. Saki for short." Saki mumbled something, almost a blush appearing on their face.
The sannin handed the two girls their summoning contracts for the slugs and the girls signed without any hesistation. They spent a little more time talking to their new friends before they poofed away, back to Shikkotsu Forest.
Tsunade and Shizune then taught their students how to perform the Summoning Jutsu.
Days passed by without anything really happening. Soon, those days turned into weeks, which turned into months. Before she knew it, it was Sakura's birthday.
With the Konoha 12 being so busy, it was rare to see so many of them all in one day. The pinkette noticed how everybody seemed more grown up. Maybe it was because she was getting older - fourteen seemed a lot older than thirteen - but it was like everything changed before her eyes.
There were wardrobe changes that she never noticed before. Chouji was now wearing a red suit with plated armour. Not only that, he was growing out his hair. Another person who had changed his outfit was Neji, who wore a white kimono shirt with white, loose sleeves. Shino got a bigger coat that had a hood. Sakura had said it looked nice and he practically jumped for joy that she had noticed it. Well, he did the Shino version of jumping for joy, which was a small smile and a remark about her being a true friend.
What was most shocking was the changes with her own teammate, Naruto. He had been the first to wish her a happy birthday, arriving at her house early on in the morning. The biggest difference was his height, he was taller than her. Due to his growth spurt, he bought new clothes. The same clothes, but bigger in size. It had never occured to her how much he had changed.
She wondered how different Sasuke would look. It seemed as though she wouldn't find out since he still was not allowed any visitors (she also wondered of she actually wanted to visit him).
She didn't do much for her birthday. Kakashi took her and Naruto out to eat, she received some presents from friends (not Tsunade since Pinku was her gift - she knew it wasn't and that her master forgot but she chose not to mention it) and had a sleepover with Ino and Hinata.
It felt odd, celebrating something about her when she didn't feel like celebrating at all. Months had passed and she hadn't heard a single thing about Inner Sakura.
Something had to be going on.
"Oba-chan! What's the mission?! You said you have a mission for us! Are we going to save a princess?! Are we going to fight evil robots that want to take over the planet?! Are we going to stop an invasion?! What's the-"
Naruto was silenced by two smacks to the head by Ino and Sakura. The boy yelped, grabbing onto his head in pain. "Annoying..." The blonde muttered as the pinkette nodded her head in agreement.
"It's a C-Rank mission the three of you shall take alone." Tsunade began. "We're short-staffed on chunin and jonin but I trust the three of you-" She looked at Naruto and then corrected herself. "But I trust two of you to take leadership and effectively comeplete this mission."
The girls snorted when the Godaime corrected herself, shooting glances at an oblivious Naruto. "What?" He asked them, tipping his head to the side.
"Nothing..." Ino replied as she stifled another laugh. The boy frowned but dropped it.
"What's the mission, Tsunade-shishou?" The cherry blossom asked.
The Hokage took a scroll out of her desk. "This is a very important scroll." She said, her expression was serious. "As I am not allowed to tell you what is in it, even though I want to, you have to take it to Sunagakure without sneaking a peak at it. Understood?" They all nodded. "You leave in the morning. Get rested, you have a three day long trip ahead of you."
"What a boring mission..." The blonde sighed.
"I could give you the Tora mission instead."
"What?! No, I love this mission! So amazing, ten out of ten!"
Sakura's nightmares got worse after the events at the Final Valley. They had similar themes to the other dreams she had before. She would kill people as Inner Sakura, she would use Kokuo's chakra to destroy the village and she would attack anyone who got in her way.
The most horrifying dream was one where she wasn't Inner Sakura. Instead, a Grey Sasuke formed a Grey Chidori and attacked her. It was even scarier than his Second Stage Curse Mark.
The dream she had the night before the mission was the strangest. She was at home, walking through the hall when she heard a sound. Turning around, she came face to face with Inner.
Sakura gasped, moving backwards. Inner inched towards her, a deranged smile on her face. "It's just a dream, Sakura... Wake yourself up." She told herself, pinching her arm.
"No... It's not." The Grey Sakura lashed out, gripping Outer's neck and holding her against the Coloured Sakura struggled against her dark side's power, unable to free herself.
"W- what are... you d- doing?" She asked, unable to breathe.
"I'm surprised you still haven't figured out what I am or what I want." Inner said, whispering into her light side's ear. "I'll give you a hint... I'm a symbol of your deepest and darkest desires."
She vanished and Sakura jolted awake on her bed, her hand immediately moving to her neck as she coughed harshly. Her heart was pounding, she couldn't hear anything. Her parents were in the room, concern etched onto their faces as they asked their daughter if she was alright.
She couldn't breathe, she couldn't focus on anything. So much had happened and she couldn't take any of it.
So she sobbed into her mother's shoulder, not knowing what else to do.
"You okay?" Ino asked Sakura in the morning, her eyebrows knitted together. They were at Konoha's gate, waiting for Naruto to arrive so they could leave for Suna.
"Yeah... Just didn't sleep well." The pinkette answered. It wasn't a lie, she couldn't sleep after what had happened. Her parents stayed up too, playing random board games with her despite them all having missions or being busy the next day.
"Is that it?" The blonde questioned, believing there to be more to the story than her friend let on. The cherry blossom only nodded in response so she shifted the conversation. "Princess was so annoyed that we got a C-Rank mission and she's only allowed to D-Ranks." She laughed.
Sakura chuckled as Naruto ran towards them. "Sakura-chan, Ino-chan! I'm here!" He shouted.
"Alright!" Ino cheered. "Ino-Naru-Saku, let's go!" She ran out of the gates, her teammates following behind her. They both thought about how terrible that name was, but they decided that it was best not to kill the Team Ten ninja's buzz.
A/N Slugs are hermaphrodite, so I referred to them using they/their pronouns. Hope that wasn't confusing.
Thanks for answering my question on the last chapter.
So, I think I've decided that Sakura will not be in a pairing - which I 100% love. But, I can still put the other characters into pairings. What do you guys think about that? They'll just be minor pairings and you won't hear about them a lot. Just let me know what you think because I know how bothersome it could get once pairings are introduced, but I think if it's not the main character, then it should be fine, right? And I won't mention them a lot, just fleeting moments where they come up in a conversation casually.
ILikeFoxes828: That's what I was thinking, it would add something to the story. However, not everyone is going to like it since I never warned them at the beginning. That's why I'm conflicted as to whether I should add them or not. Although, I don't want a pairing for Sakura. I think people want her to be independent - an idea I like.
