Fourteen (PG-13)

Are disclaimers really necessary?

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

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The air was crisp, and the night, pleasant, much like it always was after a storm. Clouds partially obscured the full moon, causing silver light and black shadow to dance intricately on all things below and around her. Cool, moist ground squished between her toes, and the light wispy garment she wore rippled in the soft breeze. Though the night was unusually chilly, it was not unpleasant.

She found herself walking a trail she had trod upon many times before, usually coming this way to reflect on the day's lesson, or just simply, to relax. Tonight though, memories were being restless.

For almost two years she had been here, and who knew what had happened back home during that time.

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Sakura squinted, trying to make out exactly what the blob moving on the horizon was, it seemed to be human, but if that was a man, he was quite misshapen. Slowly, surely it was coming closer, and she noticed that it was most definitely not a man.

It was two.

One was being carried on the shoulder of the other, whoever it was being carried was obviously not in good condition, as arms and legs swung involuntarily with no signs of resistance. Rushing out, she hoped she could be of some help.

The arms and legs were broken without a doubt, and the amount of blood on the orange pants was almost nauseating.

Orange Pants?

Oh my God. Naruto!

Sakura stood agape, after waiting many restless nights for the savior of her beloved; this was not how she had expected to meet him. Riding triumphantly on the shoulders of someone, yes, but not like this. He looked like a broken porcelain doll wrapped in a container of flesh, shattered beyond repair, and truth be known, she could tell the analogy was not far from the truth. He had never looked so rough. Crusty blood matted his clothes, and the skin that wasn't covered, had a bluish black tinge to it. Only his face had a peach hue to it, and even that was faint.

"Quit staring and get some help."

She barely registered the voice. The speaker's face was hidden behind Naruto, or rather what was left of him, it was obviously male.

The whooshing of wind and the sounds of feet hitting the ground were all the warning she recieved before two Anbu appeared between her and the man.

"We'll take the boy."

The man grunted as he hefted Naruto over to the two Anbu, and a split second later two blurs were heading deep into the village. One towards the hospital, and the other, towards what appeared to be the Hokage's tower.

Naruto...

She turned to face the mysterious man. "Did you..."

No one was there.

She stood there, alone, in front of the gate the lead into the Hidden Leaf; a small breeze shuffling the decaying leaves on the ground around her.

Where's Sasuke-kun? She wondered as she stared at the horizon.

The soft trampling of feet pulled Sakura from the mire of her thoughts. Facing the village, she saw Hinata running towards her.

"S-Sakura." The winded girl manage to stutter. "W-was that N-Naruto-kun?" Her Byakugan was still activated.

Someone has to be strong.

"Come on Hinata. I'll tell you on the way there."

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Making more noise than they should, the two girls barged into the reception area of the hospital, clearly surprising the lady behind the desk.

Sakura was panting quite heavily, and found herself leaning against the desk for support. "U...zuma...ki...Naruto..." She managed to stagger between breaths.

Keystrokes could be heard behind the desk slash support wall. "There is no Uzumaki on file."

Sakura's hand involuntarily shot to her head and ran down her face. She was somewhere between agitated and pissed. "Like hell, there's not. Check again. U-Z-U-M-A-K-I.. He was just brought here."

The receptionist took a deep breath. "Ma'am, if he was just brought here, he's probably in the ER, thus, he will not have been entered into the system yet."

Another surge of anger flared through Sakura. "BUT..."

"Be quiet Sakura, we're in a hospital." The reprimand was gentle, yet quite firm. She turned to see her teacher, with an apparent look of worry written across what little she could see of his face. "Come with me."

Finally.

"Are we going to see Naruto?"

A small nod was all she received before he started down the hallway. The next thing she knew they stood before a set of double doors. Kakashi lightly tapped the door three times, and a few moments later the doors opened to reveal a chaotic scene.

As she entered the room, She saw the Hokage furiously running her hands over Naruto's body, which looked far worse than Sakura remembered, now that more was exposed, the extent of his damage was easier to see. His chest seemed to be sunken in places, and with the darkness of the skin, she knew there was heavy internal bleeding as well.

A moment of pressure breaks her gaze from her teammate, but in an instant it was gone. What was that? Another one?! What the hell is going on?!

"S-Sakura?"

She leaned close to Hinata and spoke softly. "You feel it too?"

"I-I think it's Hokage-sama?" Hinata whispered back. She turned her attention to the Hokage, who had her hands on his chest, and sure enough when she would press on Naruto's chest, something would press against Sakura..

Is that Chakra!?!?

The chakra from the Hokage could literally be felt. Sakura had never experienced anything like this, hell, she had never even heard of anything like this...

A hand slipped into hers, and was startled, but nonetheless grateful. The small trembles coming from the hand makes her wonder how hard this must be on Hinata. Having to see the boy you like, fighting for his life, or rather others fighting for it, because he is unable to, in front of you. It must be hard.

"Goddamn that Sasuke." She heard Tsunade mutter.

Sasuke did this? How would you know?

The glare from the woman made Sakura realize that she had spoken her thoughts aloud.

"He did it, let's leave it at that."

She had forgotten Kakashi was even there, his whisper warning her not to broach the subject any farther.

But it wasn't the warning from her teacher that made her want to stop asking questions, it was the black lines that appeared on the Hokage's face, lines that were similar to those that appeared on Sasuke.

"Kakashi. Get me some pills from the Akimichi clan."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

One moment he was there next to her, a moment later he wasn't.

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The minutes passed by, and the girls could do nothing but watch as Tsunade continued her treatment on Naruto. With every passing second Sakura, could feel the hold on her emotions slowly slip away. She knew Hinata must be having a hard time as well.

"Hinata..."

"I want to stay Sakura."

No stuttering. No pauses...no weakness. She couldn't help but be impressed by the strength the girl was showing.

"Alright, Hinata."

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Tsunade finally stopped and leaned against the table where she had been intensely working. "He's stabilized."

Sakura wasn't sure how long it had been since she had entered the room, though she was sure it had been hours ago. Her body hurt, from muscles being taut the entire time, the last few hours being the some of the most tense she had ever experienced.

"O...ba...chan." It was more of an exhale, than a whisper. Sakura looked at her teammate incredulously.

The Hokage's head popped up and was greeted by partially open blue eyes, and the faintest hint of a smirk.

"...you look like...crap..."

"You ungrateful bastard!" Tsunade exclaimed as she threw her arms around him.

"Ow."

The laughter in the room was a welcome sound indeed.

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"Morning, Naruto." It had been a couple of days, and this was the first chance she had to be alone with him. She didn't miss the pained look that graced his features when she entered.

"Sakura-chan." He mumbled.

"How you feeling?" Knowing what she really wanted to ask was How's Sasuke?

He looked away from her. "I-I'm s-sorry...Sakura-chan. I tried. He doesn't want to come home."

Was I that obvious?

She could only nod, as tears started to form, and eventually drop from her eyes. She had braced herself for this moment, trying desperately to believe that Naruto wouldn't return with Sasuke, but damn Naruto and the glimmer of hope he brought whenever he did anything, after all, didn't everything he done work out in the end?

But now...the absolute finality of Sasuke's return home was apparent, she no longer had the little glimmer of hope to light her path.

He's never coming back.

She felt the emotional wall she built for herself begin to crumble and threw a hand to her mouth. Naruto couldn't see her like this, not when he needed joy and happiness. She was on the verge on collapsing, vomiting, and who knows what else. So, she did the only thing she thought she could do.

She ran.

Naruto would be crushed at her lack of concern for him, she did care for him, that was for certain, but at this moment she knew that it was not that she didn't care; it was that she couldn't care.

Not when she had just lost the driving force in her life.

She could always apologize to Naruto tomorrow, but today she would cry for the one not here.

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She mourned a little harder and longer than she had intended to. The days passed and she grew more tired than she ever believed she could ever feel, but at least she felt something. The weakness was better than the sorrow she'd felt before. Oh, she still felt it, though any relief from that pain was welcome.

A knocking from the front door broke her state of semi-consciousness.

"Hokage-sama!" She heard her mother exclaim.

The Hokage, here?

Obviously she was here to see Sakura. She was getting a little tense, this would be the first real conversation the girl had with the woman. The deep feelings the Hokage had for Naruto were obvious, as they had been seen together quite a bit, and he did speak about 'Oba-chan' quite fondly. Rumors said that he had even been learning a few things from her, despite the fact that she had only been Hokage for a few weeks now. Sakura didn't know exactly what the woman wanted to talk to her about, but because of the woman's fondness for her teammate, she had a pretty good idea that it was going to be about her visit with Naruto, and the not visiting after that.

It wasn't that she was mad at him. She couldn't be mad at him, she had, after all, failed the same task long before he did. It was just whenever she thought about going to see him, thoughts of Sasuke would bring her emotions to the surface more violently than when she tried to think of nothing at all.

Mumbles could be heard from downstairs but she couldn't really make anything out. A few minutes footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs and a few seconds later a light knocking at her door.

Might as well get this over with. "Come in."

The door creaked open and the Hokage entered her room. Sakura looked at the proud, confident woman walking towards her with a lithe grace she had never quite seen before, The woman was truly astounding. Eerily beautiful, despite rumors saying that she was well over fifty years old.

"Ohiyo, Haruno-chan."

Wincing slightly at the formality, Sakura tried to relieve some of the tension. "It's just Sakura, Hokage-sama." After all, it wasn't everyday that someone was reprimanded by the Hokage; she needed to make this as gentle as possible.

The small smile on the woman's face came as a surprise to her.

"Well then, it's just Tsunade. This conversation is between two women, not between Shinobi and Hokage."

This wasn't going nearly as bad as she thought it would.

"I bet you're wondering why I'm here."

Sakura gave a small nod. "It's about Naruto, isn't it?"

"Well...that's one reason, but it's really just a minimal part of why I'm here. You really shouldn't have left him alone then. Sure, there were other people there, but you're his teammate and you weren't there for him, except to hear about Sasuke. You hurt him pretty badly, and though he didn't say it, I'm pretty sure he felt betrayed, and just in case you didn't knowl he had just been tossed off of a cliff by his other teammate."

Sakura had never felt worse in her life.. "I know, but I could have done nothing for him, he was trying to recover, and I'm sure my crying wouldn't have made him feel any better."

"That may be how you would feel, but remember we're talking about someone who was twelve before he had a friend. He would have appreciated your company, no matter what condition you were in. You of all people should know how he was treated, as you treated him that way yourself, but that's enough about that." Sakura made a mental note to go see him as soon as Tsunade left...and after she made herself presentable.

"With Sasuke, I know what you're feeling right now."

Somehow, she just couldn't believe her.

"I too have wasted myself away on a bed wallowing in sorrow. But you have one thing going for you that I did not."

She was looking for any light that might shine upon the darkness that had become her.

"What was that." she softly asked.

"At least your man is alive."

True.

"I tried desperately to save the one I loved, only to have him die in my arms, talking about his dreams. Do you have any idea how hard that was? I'm sure you've got an idea though."

Sakura nodded. The woman was right, Sasuke is still alive.

"Luckily for me, someone guided me in the right direction, and now I'm going to guide you. I've talked with your parents about it, and they've agreed, but you have to go of your own accord or else this will never work."

What the hell is she babbling about?

"I'm going to give you the chance to become stronger Sakura, so that when you finally meet Sasuke, which I am sure you will, you can show him the woman you've become. Twelve is far to young to be thinking of love, he's not going to go to another woman in two or even four years, so you've got plenty of time to prepare. Well?"

The chance to become stonger, and impress him? Realization hit her. She's giving me a chance to try and save him.

She pondered for a few moments. "I would have to leave the village, wouldn't I?"

"Yes, you would, but it would only be for as long as you feel like it."

"How far away?" she asked.

"Water Country."

"I'm going to the Village of the Hidden Mist?" Thoughts of living in another village intimidated her.

"You're not going to the Mist, just to a place inside the country of Water."

"When would I leave?"

"As soon as you say goodbye to those close to you."

A few moments passed. "Where's he at?"

Downstairs, waiting for you to get out of this bed. He mentioned something about ramen."

"He's so dumb." she laughed as she wiped the tears that threatened to overflow from her eyes.

"Isn't that the truth."

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And here she was now, walking a path in the middle of the night thinking about times long since gone. A smile gracing the features that were so forlorn in memory.

"I've not only gotten stronger for you Sasuke-kun, but also for you, Naruto.

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Author's Notes: I apologize for the delay. I went on a trip, and then the day I got back, I had to work, and I've worked everyday since then. Subsequent chapters (hopefully!) will not take as long to post.

Damn, this chapter was hard to write. All emotion and no action makes me a dull boy...

Anyways...Thanks go to my one reviewer, Innocent Sakura, whose comments were nice. I was going to post Sasuke's chapter first, but since you asked about Sakura, I gave her to you. I don't do requests, but this one didn't affect the story flow, so I thought I'd do it just this once.

Anyways, Enjoy!