Fallen Petals
by Diana-san

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 13

Sakura opened her eyes. Her emerald green eyes met with a plain white ceiling. She tried to move but her whole body was numb with pain. She could tell that a day went by since the morning sunshine shone through the window.

'What happened?' she thought sleepily.

Suddenly, all her memories came rushing back to her. Images flashed before her eyes.

"Because, I wanted to see if the Haruno's prized daughter can fight."

'He knows them!'

"Hn. You're just like them. Easy prey to kill."

'It was him. He killed them.'

Tears formed as they cascaded down her face. 'How could he?'

'I couldn't beat him. Without my chakra, I was useless.'

'I have to find him. I need to know the truth.'

'He did this to me. To my family.'

'He needs to pay.'

A door opened and it made a slight sound as it banged against the wall. Sakura shifted her position to get a clear view of who was at the door.

"How are you doing?" the person who walked in asked.

Sakura said nothing. She just stared at him with bitterness in her eyes. "He killed my parents," she said scornfully.

"I thought so," he said as he placed a tray of tea in front of her.

"Five whole years. I never knew who it was."

The dark-headed boy nodded as he poured tea into a cup.

"They were just on a regular mission. And he killed them," Sakura said bitterly.

He placed the teapot back down on the tray.

"Why?" Sakura asked to no one in particular.

"I don't know why," the raven-headed boy said.

Sakura gazed up at the ceiling. "So, why did you come back?"

"What do you mean?" he asked

"Don't try to pretend that you don't know." Sakura looked directly into the dark obsidian eyes of the boy. "Sai."

He said nothing. Then he looked up and smiled at Sakura. "I knew I was going to have to answer that sooner or later."

Sakura returned her gaze at the ceiling. "Everyone thought you left and betrayed Konoha."

Sai said nothing in response.

Sakura gazed out the window where a scroll with the word "Friends" was sitting in front of the window. "I couldn't do anything to stop him."

Sai looked at Sakura with a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"Without my chakra, I didn't stand a chance against him," Sakura said as if talking to herself.

"Sakura…"

"Why am I so weak? I thought I gotten stronger but it was all a lie. My whole life is a lie. Everything that I've been doing was for nothing," Sakura said bitterly. "Nothing."

Sai remained quiet as he looked out the window where Sakura was staring at.

A sudden movement from the bed Sakura was resting on made Sai jumped up as Sakura got off the bed and started to walk towards the door.

"Wait-you're not strong enough," Sai called out.

Sakura's legs began to wobble and gave in as she collapsed down on the ground. "You're right. I'm not strong enough. That's why I need to get stronger."

Sakura started to stand up again. She made her way out the door despite Sai's continued protests. When Sai tried to stop her with his hand, Sakura merely glared at him. "Don't, Sai. Let me do what I have to do. Don't worry about me. I was never any part of your concern to begin with."

Sai looked stunned. "What do you mean?"

"You never cared then so why start now. Just leave me alone." Sakura wobbled her way down the hallway of Sai's apartment.

When Sakura could finally walk stably, her movements got faster as she found her way in front of the Hokage tower.

'I need to train harder.'

Sakura knocked on the door and Tsunade's voice ranged out telling her to come in. Sakura opened the door slowly and stepped in.

"Tsunade-sama," Sakura said quietly. "Do you have time to train me?"

Tsunade looked at her apprentice. The battered up cherry blossom stood in front of her. A look of determination was written all across Sakura's face.

"Why do you ask all of a sudden?" Tsunade asked, questioning her.

Sakura hesitated to say anything. "I just thought…it would be good for me to learn new ways of attacking when my chakra level is down. Just in case."

Tsunade folded her hands together and rested her head on top. "I see."

It was silent as Sakura waited for an answer. Suddenly, Tsunade stood up. Tsunade waved to Shizune who was standing besides her and told her, "I'm going to be training Sakura for a while. Shizune, can you handle everything?"

Shizune protested, "But Tsunade-sama. This isn't a time to be slacking off on your work. There's paperwork to be done and also…"

"I know. That's why I'm taking a break," Tsunade said cheerfully. Tsunade walked out and motioned for Sakura to hurry.

The door closed behind the Hokage and her apprentice as Shizune sighed. Shizune slid to the ground and looked at Tonton, Tsunade's pet pig.

"Oh Tonton, what am I going to do?"

"Byui!" Tonton said in response.

They both sighed.

Each step echoed as Sakura followed after Tsunade. They remained silent the whole way down but Tsunade often looked back at her student who was staring at the ground.

'What happened to you Sakura?' Tsunade thought.

They arrived at the training grounds and when Sakura step foot in it, a shiver was sent down her spine.

'Just less than a day ago, I could have been dead.' Sakura thought.

Tsunade turned to her apprentice and pointed to some tress in the distance. "I want you to try to control your chakra when you hit that tree."

Sakura stared blankly at Tsunade. "That's easy."

Sakura walked up to the tree and raised her fist packed with chakra. She punched the tree and it fell over. Sakura stepped back triumphantly.

Tsunade smiled. "Oh yea. And don't make the tree fall."

Sakura frowned. "But-what am I suppose to do then? Just punch the tree?"

"Exactly."

Sakura scratched her head. "And how is that suppose to help me?"

"It's to better control your levels of chakra. Even if your chakra is near dangerously low, you can still try to maintain a minimal amount of chakra to make a significant attack," Tsunade explained. "But, most of the power comes from your own personal strength combined with the minimal chakra amount which will provide for a nice attack."

Sakura grinned. "Okay then!" Sakura concentrated as she turned her attention to the tree. She started to do fast punches and hits on the poor defenseless tree. With each hit that she gave, the tree started to sway. Pieces of bark flew off as the dent in the tree got deeper and bigger. Sakura took one final punch and the tree fell over.

Sakura breathed heavily as she tried to catch her breath. Blood stained her hand as she started for the next tree.

Tsunade was about to tell Sakura to slow down when a certain blonde showed up besides the Godaime. Naruto smiled his signature smile and strolled off to where Sakura was training at.

"Sakura-chan!" he called out to the cherry blossom.

Sakura paid no attention to Naruto but mumbled a brief hello as she continued to bombard the tree with countless hits. Blood began to trickle down her fingers as she continued to punch the tree.

Naruto stared at amazement at Sakura. When he noticed the blood though, he started to panic. "Ay! Sakura-chan, you should probably heal that-"

"I'm fine," Sakura interjected.

"But-"

"Don't worry Naruto."

Sakura stopped when the tree fell down. 'Next tree.' she thought.

Naruto frowned. "Sakura-chan! You're going to faint if you keep overworking yourself."

"I'll be fine!"

Tsunade walked over to Naruto and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Don't try to persuade her out of it. It's no use," she said quietly.

Naruto turned around angrily. "Tsunade-baa-chan! How could you make Sakura do this! She's going to get herself killed if she keeps going on like this!"

"Naruto!" Tsunade scolded. "If you don't understand the situation then don't tell me what to do with my student!"

"But-"

"Don't worry. Sakura will be fine," Tsunade assured.

Sakura continued to attack the tree. With each hit, more and more blood trickled out. When the tree finally collapsed down, so did Sakura.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto cried out and he ran over to his teammate. He cradled her head in his lap as tears formed in his eyes. "Sakura-chan!" he cried out again.

Sakura opened her eyes and looked up into the sea blue eyes of the blonde. "Naruto," she said weakly. "Why are you crying over something so small?"

"Sakura-chan…"

Sakura gave him a small smile. "Don't be a crybaby Naruto," she teased lightly.

Naruto dried his tears with the sleeve of his right arm. Sakura sat up and looked around her surroundings. She counted the number of trees she managed to knock down. 'Nineteen.'

Sakura sighed. 'Just one away from twenty, too.'

Sakura slowly got up and began to walk. She turned her head and looked at her teacher and teammate. "C'mon, let's go home. I have to bandage my hand up."

Naruto grinned and ran up to Sakura while Tsunade smiled and said that she needed to get back to her paperwork.

"I bet Shizune is going crazy just about now," Tsunade remarked. They laughed as the funny thought crossed their minds. Tsunade waved good-bye to the two ninjas as she walked back to her office. Sakura walked ahead with Naruto trailing after her.

"Eh, Sakura-chan. Does it hurt?" he asked worriedly.

Sakura shook her head and smiled reassuringly. "No, it only stings a bit," she lied.

Naruto nodded in relief and placed his hands behind his head so that he was in his relaxed mode. "I wonder when Team 7 can do missions together again."

Sakura smiled as she told Naruto, "Not for another month until Sasuke gets off probation."

"A month, huh?"

Sakura nodded. "Until then, I guess we have to stick with doing missions with the other teams."

"I hope I won't have to work with Shino."

"Shino-san? Why not?"

"He creeps me out."

Sakura laughed at his response. She noticed that the sun was about to set and remembered that she was suppose to go see Sasuke to give him his check-up.

"Naruto, I have some things to do so you go ahead and leave, okay?" Sakura said as she ran off.

Naruto watched his pink-haired teammate run off into the distance. Naruto wanted to call out to her but didn't when saw that she was out of reach.

"Oh well, I guess it's time to go to Ichiraku for some miso ramen!" Naruto said happily as he strolled off to his favorite ramen shop.

Sakura continued to run as she reached the Uchiha mansion. 'I hope I'm not too late.'

Sakura cautiously walked to the front door and knocked softly. She was surprised when the door swung opened. She called out Sasuke's name but no response came back. Sakura decided to proceed in and she scoured the halls for Sasuke. Frustrated with having found nothing, she decided to sit down in the dark hallway and bandage her hands since she didn't get a chance to do it earlier.

Sakura opened up the medical kit she brought with her from home and automatically found the bandages. She stood up to get a better view of her hands which had blood stains all over.

Sakura sighed. 'It's hard to wrap your own hand by yourself.'

She began to slowly wrap the gauzy material around her right hand to make sure that it was secured tightly around her hand and up to her wrist. She was just about done when a sudden sound made her look up from her hand.

All of a sudden, a hand slammed above her and forced her to back up into the wall. A kunai was placed right under her neck and Sakura winced when she felt the smooth metal up against her skin.

"Who are you?" a familiar male voice questioned.

Sakura's eyes widen when she heard Sasuke's familiar voice.

"S-s-Sasuke," Sakura stuttered.

"Sakura?" Sasuke asked. He lowered the kunai down and released Sakura from his death hold. Sakura slid down on the ground and a small ray of light from a window shone against her face to reveal her emerald eyes.

She placed her hand on her chest which she could hear pounding from the sudden surprise attack. When she had calmed down a bit, she gazed up at Sasuke.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!" Sakura exclaimed loudly at Sasuke.

Sasuke remained stoic as ever when he calmly explained, "A person appears in my house unannounced, what do you expect me to do?"

"At least check to see who it is before you kill the person!"

Sasuke tilted his head and said coolly, "I did ask who you were,"

Sakura massaged her temples. "I meant to ask BEFORE you place a deadly weapon under their neck."

Sasuke smirked and replied back, "You're a ninja yourself. You should have sensed me when I walked in."

This comment irked Sakura. Instead of thinking of a comeback, she merely turned her head and looked away from Sasuke. Sasuke smirked but stopped when he saw Sakura's bloody hand that she didn't finish bandaging up.

He knelt down besides her. "What happened?" he asked.

Sakura turned her gaze back at Sasuke and looked to where he was questioning at. "Oh this?" Sakura said. "It's nothing. I just trained too hard and this happened."

The raven-headed boy sighed in despair. "You should be more careful next time," he scolded at her.

Sakura looked away and said, "Since when did you care?"

"Since, you're suppose to be taking care of me and yet you can't take care of yourself."

Sakura looked down at the floor. "Sorry," she said softly.

Sasuke sighed in frustration. "Here."

Sakura looked up. Sasuke had extended his hand out.

"Um-"

"You can't bandage your hand by yourself so I might as well help you," Sasuke said.

Sakura nodded meekly and handed the bandages to him. Sasuke began to unroll the bandages and started to wrap the gauzy material around Sakura's right hand.

"Thank you for caring enough to help me," Sakura said softly.

"I'm only doing this so you can get out of my house faster," Sasuke replied.

"Ah. Sure, whatever you say."

Sasuke finished bandaging her right hand and began to work on her left hand. Sakura raised her right hand to admired Sasuke's nice wrapping skills.

"You did pretty well wrapping my hands," Sakura remarked. "Are you sure you're not also a medical-nin as well?" she joked.

Sasuke smirked. "If I was, you would be out of a job."

Sakura laughed. "As if."

Sasuke finished bandaging her left hand and then stood up. Sakura held her hands out in front of her to see how Sasuke did in bandaging both her hands.

"Hey. Stop admiring your hands and hurry up and do your thing already," Sasuke said.

Sakura nodded and got her medical kit. She opened it up and said, "Let's go sit down on a bed or couch or something."

Sasuke nodded and walked to his room. He gestured to Sakura to follow him. Sakura stood up and picked up her medical kit and ran up to Sasuke.

Sasuke opened the door and walked in with Sakura following right behind him.

Sasuke sat down on his bed and waited patiently for Sakura to start his check-up.

Sakura rummaged through her kit and pulled out a long syringe. "Okay, let's get that shot going, shall we?" she said cheerfully as she squirted a little bit of the liquid out.

Sasuke's eyes widened when he saw the long needle. "Y-you're actually going to give me a shot?"

Sakura nodded and looked at Sasuke. "What's the matter? Are you scare of shots?"

Sasuke looked away. "N-no."

The pink-haired kunoichi smiled as she stepped closer to Sasuke. "Ok then. Give me your right arm."

The raven-headed boy sighed and reluctantly gave his right arm to the medical nin. Sakura held his arm gently in her left hand and held the syringe up high.

Sasuke shut his eyes closed as he waited for the painful needle to be injected into him. When it never came, he opened one eye in surprise.

"Well?" he said.

Sakura was sitting down on the ground with her right hand over her mouth to cover her muffled laughs. The syringe was placed down on the ground besides her. When she couldn't hold the laughs in anymore, she released her hand from her mouth and burst into laughter.

Sasuke looked at Sakura with a confused look. "What's so funny?" he demanded.

The kunoichi let go of his arm and rolled into laughter. "You should have seen your face when I was about to give you the shot. You were so terrified!" she said in between laughs.

Sasuke frowned. 'So, it was all a setup?'

He picked up the syringe that was lying on the ground. He looked closely at the liquid and saw that it was only water. He stared down at Sakura who was still in laughter.

"Hmph."

Sasuke bent down and grabbed Sakura's arm. He raised the syringe and his eyes glinted. Sakura stopped laughing and saw the syringe in Sasuke's hand.

"Hey," she started to protest. "What do you think you are doing with that?"

He squirted a bit of the liquid out. Sakura gasped as she tried to struggle out of Sasuke's grasp. She started to scream. "Let me go! Don't you dare try to stick that needle into me!"

Sasuke smirked. Then, his face was almost touching Sakura's face. Sakura was afraid to breathe when she found herself so close to Sasuke.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to stick this needle in you."

Sasuke backed away, giving Sakura room to breathe. Sakura sighed in relief.

"But, why did you try to trick me in the first place?" he questioned her.

"Because, you scared me half to death when you placed that kunai up against my neck."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Fine. We're even," he said. "Now, are you actually going to give me a check up or what?"

Sakura nodded and smiled. "Hai."

She went to her medical kit to place the syringe back into the kit. Sasuke went to sit back down on the bed. Sakura extended her hand out to Sasuke. "Give me your arm and I'll check your chakra levels."

Sasuke did what she asked and gave his arm to her. Sakura held it gingerly in her own hands as she examined the upper and lower parts of the arm.

"So," Sakura started. "Did you ever accomplish your goal?"

Sasuke looked down at his bedroom floor. "No," he stated.

Sakura nodded silently. "Then why did you come back?"

"I didn't. Naruto found me the day I was battling against Itachi. I never knew what happened between the time I fell unconscious and when I woke up in the hospital."

"Oh," was all Sakura said.

"Does this mean…" Sakura said. "Does this mean you are going to leave again?"

Sasuke remained quiet for awhile. "Maybe," he finally said.

Sakura released his arm from her grasp so suddenly that Sasuke leaned forward a bit in surprise.

Sakura looked down. "Sorry," she muttered.

"Hn."

"Well, it seems that everything is okay. You should continue to rest and not do any strenuous activities and soon you can do missions again…" Sakura said. "…if you're planning to stay that is."

Sakura got up abruptly and grabbed her medical kit. "Well, I should get going. It's almost nightfall."

Sakura rushed out of Sasuke's room. "Good bye," she said.

Sasuke stared at the retreating figure of his former teammate.

'I wonder what's gotten into her.'

Sakura sighed when she stepped out of the house and onto the streets. The cool breeze blew softly against her cheery-colored hair.

'So, Uchiha Itachi is still alive. I wonder if Sasuke's going to go after him again'

Sakura pondered over this thought as she continued to walk. 'I wonder if Orochimaru is alive as well.'

The cherry blossom shuddered as she thought about the creepy snake man. 'I sure hope he's dead.' she thought as she hurried on.

In the distance, at the top of the mountain where it overlooked the village of Konoha, a man stood and watched the peaceful village. 'Such a peaceful village. No wonder it's weak.'