Konoha Crush
Along the way pakkun informed naruko, sakura, and shikamaru that they were being followed by nine oto nin. Upon hearing this, shikamaru stayed behind to lay an ambush for the nine oto ninja while pakkun, naruko, and sakura continued to go after sasuke.
After a bit pakkun, sakura, and naruko caught up with sasuke. When they did, they saw that gaara was about to kill sasuke. Before gaara could land his attack, naruko rushed forward and kicked him in the face knocking him back.
'Jesus christ what the hell happened to him?' Naruko thought. Sakura was kneeling next to sasuke who was lying down and shaking with his curse mark activated. Sasuke slowly lifted his head and said "what… what are you doing here?" 'He's… he's losing control again just like before.' Sakura thought worried. Sasuke got on his arms and knees while making a bunch of groaning noises because of how much pain he was in.
"Sasuke hold on" sakura said then thought 'kakashi-sensei said that there was nothing to worry about.' After that sasuke passed out. "Sasuke!" Sakura shouted worried. "Sakura." Sakura didn't reply. "Sakura!" Naruko said but the second time naruko called her name she said it a bit louder.
Sakura annoyed looked at naruko and said "what do you want?" "Grab sasuke and get out of here I'll take care of this" naruko said. "What… no I'm not just gonna leave you here" sakura said. "I'm sorry but I don't recall asking you to do so. Look sakura listen closely because I'm gonna say this one. last. time. grab sasuke and get the hell out of here! Get him back to kakashi-sensei and get that the curse mark under control!" Naruko demanded. 'S-she knows about the curse mark… but how I didn't tell her anything' sakura thought shocked.
I learned about the curse mark from pervy sage. One day while I was in the infirmary I heard a couple of people talking. They were talking aloud so I heard what they were talking about. They were saying that the person we fought in the forest of death was actually one of the three legendary sannin orochimaru and I heard what he did to sasuke.
After I found out about what happened when that asshole knocked me out it sort of explained what happened to him when I woke up. I tried asking sakura about the markings on his skin but she always brushed it of saying things like 'what markings? I didn't see any markings on his skin' or 'you're probably just seeing things.' I'm not as dumb as people think I am. Also like kakashi-sensei sakura is a bad liar.
It was obvious that she wasn't gonna tell me so a couple of days after I meet pervy sage I told him about what happened in the forest of death and the weird marks that would appear on sasuke's skin. He told me a couple things about it and he told me that it was called a curse mark.
Gaara started giggling then said "so you want the pink haired girl to leave and take sasuke with her huh. Well then" Gaara dashed past naruko. "You'd better be prepared to take him back as nothing more than a lifeless corpse!" Gaara shouted. Gaara dashed toward sasuke attempting to kill him but before he could sakura stood in front of sasuke with a kunai in her hands trying to protect him.
As gaara got closer to sakura he was going to attack her but before he could naruko body flickered in front of her and kicked gaara sending him back a couple of feet. When he landed gaara griping his head in pain as he remembered his uncle Yashamaru, someone who he thought cared about him.
This bought naruko and sakura some time. "Sakura go now!" Naruko shouted. Sakura nodded and put away her kunai, put sasuke's arm around her shoulder and left. After they left naruko took off her jacket and tossed it aside thinking that it's just gonna get in the way. She then took down her pigtails and tied her hair into a ponytail.
Over with sasuke, sakura, and pakkun, after a bit, sasuke started to regain consciousness. When sakura saw this she stopped running and placed him down as gently as she could. When sasuke regained consciousness he noticed that naruko wasn't with them. "Where's naruko?" Sasuke asked. Just as sakura was about to open her mouth to answer sasuke's question, pakkun beat her to the punch. "She stayed behind to fight gaara while we got away" pakkun said.
Hearing this sasuke got mad stood up and shouted "and you guys just left her to deal with gaara by herself!" Sakura stood up and said "I tried to stop her but she wasn't taking no as an answer." "You idiots!" Sasuke shouted before running off. "Sasuke wait!" Sakura shouted then ran after him.
"What the hell were you thinking! Naruko isn't strong enough to take on gaara by herself! That sand freak is gonna kill her!" Sasuke shouted worried. Sakura didn't say anything she just put her head down. 'Why does he sound so scared and worried about her? I know that naruko's our teammate and she's up against a powerful opponent but from the way he acted it sound like she's dying. I doubt he would react this way if it was me fighting gaara instead of naruko. I don't get it why is he so worried about her.' Sakura thought about it for a bit she then looked at sasuke and came up with something that made her wanna cry. 'W-wait is sasuke and naruko… in a secret relationship? N-no that can't be it. Sasuke knows how much I like him and so does naruko they wouldn't do that to me… would they?' Sakura thought.
After a bit of running in the distance they stopped and saw that gaara has fully transformed into Shukaku. This caused sasuke to worry even more. Sasuke and sakura started running again but a bit faster this time hoping that he'll be able to make it in time before that monster kills her. 'Damn it just hold on for a bit longer dobe. I'll be there soon. Don't you dare die on me!' Sasuke thought.
Upon arriving where naruko and gaara were sasuke and sakura were surprised to see naruko standing on a giant toad's head with cuts on her arms. There was one thing about the blonde that only sasuke noticed. On naruko's hand it had the word 'blood' cut into the back of it and the cut on the back of her hand was glowing crimson red. 'What the, what's going on with naruko's hand?' Sasuke thought.
Naruko was standing on Gamabuta's head with her head down and panting. Her arms were pretty sore from using her blood jutsu and she was also a bit dizzy. Naruko was getting tired but she couldn't stop now. 'Sasuke, sakura I'll protect you both I promise this on my life' naruko thought then looked at gaara.
The fight went on for a while. Most of the time sasuke and sakura weren't sure if the girl fighting gaara was actually naruko. Naruko managed to get close to gaara as she was going to attack him but she couldn't because gaara used his sand to restrain her arms. Quickly thinking naruko head butted gaara as hard as she could.
Blood spilled from their foreheads as well as destroying Shukaku's form. Both naruko and gaara landed on different trees. Even though they were both exhausted they managed to jump at each other intending to exchange one final blow. Naruko managed to to punch gaara in the face.
Both gaara and naruko fell to the ground. Gaara landed flat on his back while naruko landed on her stomach. After she landed her hair tie broke letting her hair down. Using the last ounce of her strength naruko managed to stand up and started slowly limping towards gaara. Seeing this gaara started to freak out thinking that naruko was going to kill him.
"You know you and I aren't so different hated, alone, unwanted ever since I was a child. I was just as alone as you were. I know that feeling. I've been there, in that dark and lonely place. It's been that way for years but I kept holding on to hope that one day I would find someone who would accept me. It took years but it was worth the wait. I found some people who care about me. They're important to me. I care about them more than I care about myself and I'll do anything to protect them. That's why I'll never give up even if it means I have to kill you… but I'd rather not do that" naruko said. This greatly surprised gaara "W-what?" Gaara said.
Naruko looked at gaara and smiled at him and said "From the looks of it it looks like you've got two people in your life that care about you." This surprised gaara even more. "I can see that temari and kankuro care about you deeply and I can see that they wanna protect you. That's why I don't wanna kill you. No matter what you are a there is at least one person in this world who cares about you and I want you to see that you're not alone. You'll never truly be no matter what you do or what happens. That's not gonna change. Just like my friends did for me. I'm sure that they can rescue you from your loneliness if you'd just let them" naruko said in a soothing voice.
'Temari and kankuro care about me' Gaara thought surprised. He then looked up at the sky and thought about what Yashamaru said to him a long time ago. 'Well love is the heart's desire to serve someone who's precious to you to watch over them like my sister did… for you gaara.' 'Love, is that the thing that makes her so strong?' Gaara thought.
Once naruko was next to gaara he looked at her again. As she knelt down, gaara's eyes widened in shock as naruko placed a gentle kiss on gaara's forehead. Pulling away naruko looked at gaara one last time before passing out. Gaara directly looked at naruko's face and saw that even though she's out cold she's still smiling. 'Her smile, it reminds me of Yashamaru's' gaara thought.
Sasuke and sakura jumped in front of naruko the same time temari and kankuro jumped in front of gaara glaring at one another. "That's enough it's over" gaara said. The four of them looked at gaara. "But gaara" kankuro said. No one said anything for a bit. 'I never thought I'd see this, he's had it' kankuro thought. Kankuro then put gaara's arm around his shoulder to help him stand up while sasuke pick up naruko. Both teams stared at each other for a bit then left. While team seven made they're way back to Konoha naruko had that same smile on her face the whole time.
Meanwhile over with the sand siblings as they made their way threw the forest temari and kankuro heard gaara say in a shallow voice "temari, kankuro… I'm sorry." This surprised both of them. "Don't worry about it" kankuro said.