This Changes Everything

by Ichigo-chan-SUGOI

Just when Sasuke thought he had finally figured out his feelings for Naruto, a serious wrench is thrown into their relationship. Can he hold on to Naruto and still cope with all of the new factors in his life? (sasunaru - shounen ai)

9. We Both Know Something More

"This Changes Everything" - by Ichigo-chan

Chapter Nine: We Both Know Something More

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(sorry about the format change - for some reason this place dosen't want to support asterists (the little stars) anymore Oo;)

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Ichigo: HELLO! We're BACK! Can you believe it!!! No? Me either!

Sakura-kun: Chi!!! Hi all!

Ichigo: Sakura-kun and I had talked a few times about picking back up on this fic, but, with school and then work, it got pretty hard to do.

Sakura-kun: But we're back now!!!

Ichigo: Only cuz you're sad about YOUR writing...

Sakura-kun: ehhhh... TT

Ichigo: She got a, particularly vexing, review on one of her stories... now she's all like "Lets work on yours again!" Bahh... XP

Sakura-kun: ((SOB SOB SOB))

Ichigo: It's ok... ((pat pat))

Plot Summery (again - you think I'd quit putting this in here! ) - The relationship between Sasuke and Naruto has changed a lot over the years, especially now that they both seem to have come to the same realizations. However, Sasuke finds himself unable too runaway from links to his past - especially those in the form of a strange, tragic, second generation, missing-nin. To find out more about himself, his brother, and to save a life, Sasuke has to decide just how far he's willing to go - as well as what, and who, he is willing to leave behind.

Now, about this NINTH chapter - This chapter really DID hang us up, cuz Sakura-kun kept damn-well sending it BACK! This was a difficult scene after all - as it's Sakura and Hoshiko's first formal encounter, so we both had quite a few debates about how it should go. In the end - I'm pretty happy with it! Hehehe!

Chapter Summery - Sakura meets up with her new student, only to discover that it wasn't exactly who she thought.

Warnings - hmmm, language maybe? I don't think so - um, nothing really.

(Once again, this is my disclaimer: "not mine")

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At the bridge, Sakura found the last person she'd expected - but in hindsight, the one who she should have supposed it would be - the missing-nin girl, Hoshiko.

"Um, hello." Sakura greeted the intimidating, dark haired, girl uneasily.

Hoshiko - perched atop the bridges railing - stared morosely into the river below, and didn't so much as look up at Sakura.

"You're the one, Hokage-sama, meant for me to meet, right?" Sakura inquired hesitantly.

"Yeah." Hoshiko muttered; the coldness in her voice sending a shiver up Sakura's spine.

"Um, well, I'm Sakura." Sakura continued uneasily, unsure of how to approach her.

"I know." Hoshiko snipped at her.

Sakura laughed uneasily at Hoshiko's sharpness. It wasn't that she wasn't afraid of her per-say, but, perhaps all of Ino's talk had gone to her head. Sakura hadn't met her face-to-face before, and she WAS a missng-nin after all.

"Um, I'm afraid I don't know your name." Sakura confessed.

"Hoshiko."

"Um, well, Hoshiko, Hokage, told me you needed help with your chakara control?" Sakura went on, trying desperately to start some sort of conversation.

"She seems to think so." Hoshiko sighed, looking thoroughly unimpressed, as she jumped down and stood in front of Sakura, hands folded bitterly across her chest.

"Umm, well -" Sakura stammered, searching for words, and feeling more then a little intimidated.

"She really expects YOU to teach me?" Hoshiko smirked, as she watched Sakura stumble over her words.

"What? Why not?!" Sakura asked, caught off guard by her rude tone, "I'm one of the best in this village you know!" Sakura scowled at her.

"Ooo, a little snappy are we?" Hoshiko laughed - amused by Sakura's pretentiousness.

"Not at all!" Sakura snapped at her, "Now do you want me to help you or not?!"

"Whatever." she sighed, pushing her hair out of her eyes and leaning back against the railing as though she could care less.

"Apparently you're not so lippy to Sasuke-kun." Sasuka huffed, crossing her arms angrily.

"Uchiha-sama?" Hoshiko, inquired, brightening at the sound of his name.

"Um, yeah-"

"It doesn't matter." she cut her off. "I saw you with him the first time."

"Yes, well, we're on - well, WERE on - the same team." Sakura explained.

"And so, that makes you - what?" Hoshiko stared at her blankly.

"I'm - I'm his firend!" she floundered.

"Oh?" Hoshiko smirked, tapping her lower lip with her finger smartly, "So, I'd imagine you think you know him pretty well then?"

"Yes." she nodded, quite affirmed.

"Naruto-san too?" she smirked, quite certain that the obsequious, pink haired, girl was oblivious to the full extent of their relationship, as she had seen it.

"Of course."

"You would be surprised some times - how little you really know about the people you are closest to." Hoshiko prodded at her, verbally testing the limits of her patients.

"And what sort of wisdom is that, coming from a girl who's lived in a tree all her life?!" Sakura scoffed at her.

"I bet there are at least a few things I know about Sasuke-sama which you don't." she leered at Sakura, with a smug little smile on her lips.

"HA! I bet!" she laughed, feeling both confident and irritated.

Hoshiko was smirking now, but not so much at Sakura, as at the way she was so blatantly obvious. Even Hoshiko - who was more or less a stranger to human interaction - could read Sakura's feelings like an open book.

"ANYWAY!" Sakura finally went on, changing the subject, "What's this special condition of yours that Hokage-sama told me about?"

"Huph, she seems to want to make my business common knowledge." Hoshiko scowled.

"Look, it's not as if I'm going to tell anyone," Sakura pointed out, hands firmly on her hips, "But if you don't tell me I can't help you!"

"Fine! No need to get and get upset about it!" Hoshiko snapped back at her.

"Well?" Sakura asked again, after Hoshiko had sat silently a while.

"Alright." Hoshiko sighed reluctantly, "You see this?" she began - lifting up the thin mesh covering her, more or less, exposed, flat, stomach.

"Yeah." Sakura nodded, looking down at her large, dark, tattoo.

"Well I didn't put it here." she said flatly. Sakura just looked up at her with a raised eyebrow - not understanding what the significance of that fact was.

"It is a seal! A curse! A big fucking pain in the ass!" Hoshiko finally yelled at her angrily, as though it should have been obvious.

"Whoa, what? What sort of curse? Who did it to you?" Sakura backed off, trying to get a hold of what she was yelling at her.

"It was left to me as a gift." Hoshiko sighed bitterly, letting her hands drop back to her side.

"A gift? From who?" she asked, bending down to examine Hoshiko's mark more closely.

"From a missing-nin. Perhaps you have heard of the Atkatsuki?" Hoshiko grinned.

"The Atkatsuki! They put a curse on you!?!" Sakura gasped, wide eyed with shock at the mention of the criminal group to which Uchiha Itachi had been associated.

"Yeah. It was a punishment -" she smiled subtly, as though she were proud of herself, "for not complying with one of their wishes. They thought it would serve me better then simply killing me and being merciful."

"What do you mean? What did you do?"

"I don't think that's really something I have to tell you." Hoshiko said sternly, her momentary smile disappearing.

"I - suppose not." Sakura nodded, a bitter little scowl on her own face.

"Anyway," she continued, "whenever I exert my chakara this stupid fucking mark acts like a stigmata and bleeds. So much so - that if I do it too much, I'd probably die from fucking blood loss."

She said it so plainly, and angrily, and Sakura was more then a little disturbed by the idea.

"But, why - would they do that to you?"

"Like I SAID," Hoshiko reiterate bitterly, threw clenched teeth, "It was a PUNISHMENT."

"Fine fine - " Sakura shook her head, trying her best to keep from getting mad. The two girls stubbornness not helping to sooth the situation much.

"Whenever I get upset or feel threatened my chakara wells up - it's totally erratic and pretty powerful, so it's saved me a lot, but - there's not much I can do about commanding it." She admitted, sighing to herself as she explained, "It looks like static when it happens. Almost feels like dark, little butterflies form in my stomach and then -."

She stopped then, holding her stomach firmly. Sakura stood there quietly, unsure of what to say or do.

"And it can't be undone?" she finally asked.

"They tell me not." Hoshiko shrugged, as though it were less of a problem then it really was.

"So, you can't use your chakara, voluntarily?" Sakura questioned, rather intrigued.

"Well, I can, but only for so long. And as far as 'that technic' is concerned., I can only do very little I suppose -" offering up a demonstration, she closing her hands into the seal of the dragon - shutting her eyes tightly she drew a deep breath and centered herself.

It wasn't long before she began to feel that familiar hot feeling rushing into her cheeks as she closed her hands palm to palm, concentrating on her breathing, and attempting to control her chakara as she channeled it into her hands.

Sakura watched, wide eyed in anticipation, as a faint blackish glow began to surround her long, thin, fingers. Never opening her eyes, Horshiko began to slowly open up her hands, like the pages of a book - revealing a dark, static, mass; flickering and twitching like a half-wounded butterfly.

"Sugoi..." Sakura muttered under her breath, leaning in to look closer.

"Ehh!" Hoshiko gasped, doubling over in pain and grabbing at her stomach, as the dark static moved its way up her arms.

"Whao! You alright!?" Sakura rushed over to her side and forced her to sit upright, exposing her now bleeding stomach.

"See what I mean?" she said through clenched teeth, "I can't keep it like that for more then a few moments."

"Well then," Sakura said with a smile, as she helped the raven haired girl to her feet, "we'll just have to think of something."

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To be continued -

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Ichigo: Well?

Sakura-kun: I like that part.

Ichigo: I'm still unsure about those two.

Sakura-kun: Hence all the stalling.

Ichigo: No, the stalling was YOUR fault - if I remember correctly.

Sakura-kun: Eheheheheheheh - heh - eh ((hides))

Ichigo: Good gawd - ANYWAY.

Sakura-kun: ((meep))

Really, I'm just not sure what's going on at this point. I've written the good majority of this story, but, the long time off has thrown my brain around a lot. It'll be a while before I can set myself strait enough for these little messages again! HEHE!

What to expect in later chapters - Hells if I can remember! I haven't worked on this story in ages! LOL! jk, jk - Naruto takes on the responsibility of babysitting the angry, claustrophobic, Hoshiko, and everything goes to hell after that! EHEHEH! So stick around for more! We WILL be updating soon! And more shouney-good-times ahead for sure!!! (I know your mind)