The Rest Is Silence
She had heard the news first. When she filed the mission report she heard shadowed whispers in the room; Umino Iruka, a Chuunin and instructor at the pre-Genin academy, had been killed. Sakura herself had never known the man well; kunoichi spent most of their pre-Genin years in a separate class for female shinobi. However, she was not ignorant to the fact that Naruto saw the man as something akin to a brother, or a father.
She had left the room without a word.
A sick feeling began to well up in her stomach as she walked alone. How would she tell Naruto? Should she tell him? If he learned of the death from someone else, but found that she knew; would he be hurt? Perhaps it was in her best interest and Naruto's to break the news as soon as was acceptably possible. Whenever that happened to be.
Sakura tried to hide her apprehensive face when she returned to Naruto's apartment. She found him on the couch, sprawled and already asleep. She gently nudged the blonde shinobi awake.
"Naruto..." she wasn't sure what to say when he shifted into wakefulness. The look of contentment on his face when he first awoke faded as he took careful note that Sakura was avoiding eye contact. He shifted into a sitting position, allowing her to take a seat beside him. Sakura suddenly leaned forward and kissed him with a startling lack of fervour, and pulled back soon after.
"I- I... Naruto, I'm so sorry," she wiped away a hasty tear of her own and embraced him cautiously,
"About Umino-sensei... Naruto, I'm so sorry."
End ChapitrePost-Mission Analysis The next chapter is longer. I'll post it soon, please bear with me on this chapter, my fics are notorious for slow starts.
