A/N 100 REVIEWS! That's like... three digits. Whoa. Thank you so much! I remember when this story was on three reviews, it's grown so much.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 44
Spending three days with Naruto and Ino made Sakura want to kill herself. They were both the loud, the loudest people she knew, they argued a lot and there was one issue after another. The problem they were dealing with now was that Ino wanted to pick out a flower she had heard about. This certain goal resulted in a very long hunt for the specific flower, angering the Yamanaka's teammates.
"It'll just take a second!" She yelled at them, her head in a bush and the sound of leaves rustling around could be heard. She yelped when she got pricked by a thorn.
"You said that ten minutes ago!" Sakura called her out, earning a middle finger in response - the blonde's hurt finger. She ignored the rude gesture and decided to help her friend find the flower she was looking for, as she wanted to leave soon.
Naruto grumbled at doing the Yamanaka a favour but walked over to a different area to begin his search. They were in a deep part of the forest outside of Konoha. The sun was covered by the tall trees and there were piles of leaves scattered around the woods, being creased by the people walking over them. And then, the pieces were left forgotten in the dirt. Vines stretched down from the trees, annoying the Ino-Naru-Saku trio as they searched for the flower.
"Um... A little help?" The boy asked after a few minutes of searching. The pinkette looked over to where she heard his voice and saw him tangled up in some vines. They restricted him from moving as he flailed about, trying to free himself from the restraints. Sakura didn't ask how it happened, she just sighed and cut him free with a kunai.
"Um... Yeah, me too." Ino said, who was also messed up in the vines.
"Idiots..." The cherry blossom muttered but she was smiling. They were funny idiots. "How did you manage to do this?" She asked as she cut her free, receiving a harsh glare from her friend.
"We all wish we could have the last two minutes of our lives back!"
Eventually, they made it to a desert. The sand stretched for miles beyond their view and the scorching solar rays heated up the back of their necks. The trio put on their straw hats to protect themselves from the sun and walked in the direction of Sunagakure. Naruto's incessant complaining was irritating to no end. The only way Sakura got through it was by imagining burying him within the sand and leaving him there. It put a smile on her face.
"What's that, in the distance?" Ino asked, going onto her tippy toes as if that would help her figure it out. In front of them, a cloud of sand was rapidly coming towards them. They stopped in their tracks, wondering what it was.
The cloud disappeared and revealed three men on a contraption that looked like a boat. They all wore clothes that covered all of their bodies except their eyes. It covered them like bandages with sand stuck on them.
"Alright, kids," The one in the middle complained once they stopped. His voice was deep and he spat on the ground. "Give over all your belongings or we'll take them by force." The three men jumped off of the boat-like structure and stood in front of them, in a threatening composure.
"I'll handle this." The Kyubi's host announced, taking off his bag.
"I don't think you've ever heard about teamwork." Sakura replied. "There's three of them, three of us. Do the math." She suggested.
"I got this!" Ino screamed suddenly, forming a few hand signs. Ninja Art: Covered With Flowers! The wind picked up as purple flowers clouded their vision. The three bandits were trapped within, unsure of which direction the Konoha ninja were in.
Ino wasn't done. Cherry Blossom Clone Jutsu! Two more Inos popped up and they all formed yellow chakra scalpals before running into the collage of flowers. The blonde boy and the pinkette watched as the flowers dissipated. Their teammate was walking over towards them, her clones drifting away as well. The men were stuck in place, shaking slightly.
"W- what did you do to them?" The boy asked, his voice shaking.
"Paralysis." Sakura replied, a tad impressed. Ino gave her a thumbs up as she beamed with pride. "Well, let's knock them out and tie them up. I'll send a messenger bird to Suna to collect them." She took out a scroll and a bird was produced in a white cloud.
"You got it, boss!" Naruto yelled, slamming his fist into one of the bandits' face. The girls also knocked out one each and they left them in a pile on the floor. The Gobi's host sent the messenger bird to the Hidden Sand, happy that they were close enough for some ninja to retrieve the bandits. "Huh? Ino-chan you dropped something." The Dobe noticed something on the ground and went over to pick it up, alerting the others as he did so.
"The scroll!" The girl wearing purple shrieked, patting herself all over. "Is that it?!" She was terrified.
"Yeah, it-" He paused, frowning at the object in the sand. It was open, most likely because of the chaos, but he could see his name written on it. It was upside down but he still knew it was his name. "Huh?"
"Naruto-kun, don't read the scroll!" Sakura reprimanded him, running over to where he was. They were forbidden to look at its contents, it was such a basic rule for this type of mission.
"But it says my name!" He yelled back. Opening the scroll a bit more, before she could take it away from him, he froze upon reading its contents.
"Naruto-kun...?" The pinkette couldn't help it. After gauging his reaction, the scroll had peaked her curiosity.
"No one has to know." An annoyingly familiar voice whispered in her mind. She shook her head, ridding herself of the voice, and took the scroll from her shocked teammate. Unconsciously, she read its contents aloud.
Name: Naruto Uzumaki
Date of Birth: October 10 XXXX
Blood Type: B
Mother: Kushina Uzumaki (Deceased)
Father: Minato Namikaze (Deceased)
Status: Jinchuriki of the Kyubi
Naruto Uzumaki is a genin of Konohagakure. He failed the Ninja Examinations three times before passing his fourth under special circumstances. During the attack on Konoha by the Nine-Tailed Fox, the Yondaime Hokage battled the beast and sealed it within Naruto. Kushina Uzumaki, the previous jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails, died too, most likely because her seal was weak during childbirth. Due to his Uzumaki clan heritage and the Kyubi, Naruto has a large source of chakra but poor chakra manipulation. There have been times where he has displayed usage of his Bijuu chakra, reaching the one tail level of his Bijuu Cloak. However, he is unable to manipulate all of the Kyubi's chakra.
Sakura stopped reading then. She felt as if a boatload of information had been thrown over her. Ignoring all of the data about Tailed-Beasts, the scroll explicitly stated who her friend's parents were. Her heart was pounding in her own chest and she had no idea what the hell her teammate was feeling.
Ino had a stunned expression also, not expecting the boy to be the son of the Yondaime. "N- now you have an even better chance of becoming Hokage!" She exclaimed with a shaky start. It was a poor attempt to lighten the mood, but it snapped the boy out of his thoughts.
"I- I'm fine." He stuttered, digging his foot into the sand and staring intently at his fingers. "But the scroll says a lot about me, right?"
"Yeah," Sakura began as she opened the scroll up even more, eyes buldging out of her head after she did so. "There's even-"
A sniffle cut her off. She snapped her head up and saw that her fellow jinchuriki had tears in his eye. At first, it seemed that he was going to try and hide it but, eventually, he gave up and started bawling. Ino and Sakura put their arms around him as he sobbed. However, it was obvious he wasn't sad.
They were tears of joy.
Naruto was happy for a moment but it quickly morphed into anger. He was fuming that the truth had been hidden from him for so long. Realising they would be unable to calm him down, the girls decided to set up camp. They would reach Suna the next day.
Wrapped in blankets, Sakura stared out at the levelled sand in the dark, chilly night. She could never live in a desert, everything was so boring to look at. The odd cactus here and there was exciting, but if plants were going to be her only piece of enjoyment, then she was glad she lived in Konoha.
Looking over at the tents, she lingered over her male friend's one. She was glad he discovered who his parents were, despite their ill fate. Knowing them seemed to be enough for him and she was happy that he looked at the scroll, even though it was against the rules. He would have never found out and he had a right to know. They were his parents whom he had never met before! Of course, she believed that there was a reasonable excuse for why the truth was kept from him.
Now that she thought about it, Naruto being the son of Minato Namikaze made sense. He was said to have defeated the Nine-Tails in battle but actually sealed it within his son. If he sealed it, how had he died? The pinkette shook her head. It's not like he can tell me. She thought.
It was shocking, how powerful the Hokage were. How they died protecting their village. Sakura wanted to die protecting her village, as did Naruto (well, she assumed). She smiled as she looked away from her fellow jinchuriki's tent. He'll make a good Hokage someday...Thinking about the scroll made her remember something. Before she noticed Naruto crying, she had seen that there was a section in the scroll about her. Now, cheekily using the Dobe's logic, she was allowed to look at it. She took it out quietly, scared that Tsunade would hear her, come over to her and beat the living shit out of her. Slowly, she opened up the scroll and read what it said about her.
Name: Sakura Haruno
Date of Birth: March 28 XXXX
Blood Type: O
Mother: Mebuki Haruno
Father: Kizashi Haruno
Status: Jinchuriki of the Gobi
Sakura passed at the Academy with high written scores but low practical scores. Since then, she has made a drastic improvement. While on a C-Rank mission with her father, Sakura was abducted by Iwagakure Shinobi and taken into a secret base. The location of the base was discovered by Kakashi Hatake (her jonin instructor) and his teammate, Mighto Gai. After rescuing her, she was discovered to be the host of the Five-Tailed Dolphin-Horse. She has exibited control over its chakra, utilising it in battle and referring to it as "Kokuo-chan." However, she has yet to enter the Bijuu Cloak. Despite having low chakra, the Bijuu has not taken control over Sakura as of yet. Her seal appears on her back - the Earth Golem Seal. It is a weak seal used by Iwagakure, and had the potential to unseal with Sakura as the host. Due to the danger she posed towards Konoha, Sakura was not taken to the village immediately after she was saved. But, after a few days, it was believed that her seal remained stable and the Sandaime Hokage ordered for her to be taken into Konoha's hospital. Her seal still remains stable, however, it needs to be strengthened.
Sakura scratched her head. She had a lot of thoughts about this.
She just realised how little she was told about the incident, when Kokuo was sealed within her. She didn't ask about it much, not thinking there was anything to tell. Now, she wondered what the relationship between Iwa and Konoha was like. The Leaf had their jinchuriki but the Stone had attempted to kidnap her. Were the villages on bad terms before or was this completely out of the ordinary?
Additionally, she was unimpressed with how the writer portrayed her relationship with Kokuo. Her friend was not an "it," she was a lady who used she/her pronouns. And she was not going to take over her body, they lived together in harmony.
"Oh, Sakura-chan, your anger is unnecessary and adorable." The Gobi teased her host.
I mean, it's unfair. Nobody knows you like I do! She replied.
Furthermore, Sakura was unaware of what the Earth Golem Seal was. She had never heard about it and did not know there was a seal on her back. When they were back in Konoha, she would have to ask Ino or Hinata to check for her. It was also strange how she had not been told about the "danger" she posed towards her village. She and Kokuo would not destroy the Hidden Leaf, what would they gain from that?
Sakura unwrapped the scroll even further to see if anything else was written. There was a small note at the end.
Thank in advance for exchanging information with us, Kazekage-sama - Tsunade, Godaime Hokage.
Why was her master giving information like this to the Kazekage? And, if it was an exchange, what was Konoha receiving?
With a pounding headache, Sakura put the scroll away. She just wanted to go to sleep now and Naruto would be waking up for his watch soon.
"Let's go!" Naruto yelled as he ran through the sand, running in the direction of Sunagakure. His teammates walked behind him, not bothering to catch up. "I wanna see who the new Kazekage is!" While that was exciting, he mainly wanted to go back to Konoha and ask Tsunade about his parents. That would only happen once they completed the mission.
"It's so early." The blonde girl yawned. "Do you ever wonder what he'll be like if we give him coffee?" She asked.
"The world will end." The cherry blossom replied and laughed. "But... I'm excited to see who's Kazekage as well!" She said, punching her friend on the shoulder before running off.
"Ow! Hey, wait for me!" The pinkette laughed as she caught up with the Kyubi's host, leaving Ino behind. "Ooh... Just you wait when I catch up! I'll paralyse the both of you!"
And off they went, heading for the Hidden Sand, giggling and having fun. They had no idea what would be in store for them.
