Disclaimer: Don't kill me – I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 12: Confessions
Jiraiya and Tsunade were faced off against Orochimaru and Kabuto. All three of them were reaching their limits, and it was only a matter of time before the winners and the dead would be determined.
Tsunade took a chakra scalpel hit from Kabuto, and while his hand cut into her abdomen, she grabbed onto his wrist and punched with as much chakra as she could spare and punched him square in the jaw. She heard his neck crack and she released his arm as his body went flying back toward Orochimaru. Coughing up blood, Tsunade was already activating her genesis rebirth technique she had been powering up for some time.
Now all who remained was Orochimaru.
Jiraiya used an earth technique and Orochimaru found himself starting to sink in mud. Quickly hardening the mud to hold Orochimaru in place, Jiraiya charged up a powerful rasengan with his remaining chakra and rushed straight in for the killing blow.
Orochimaru struggled, but his body was failing him and he knew he wouldn't be able to escape in time. He attempted to call the kusanagi, which had been flung away previously in the battle, in order to counter, but Tsunade grabbed the sword and held it with her strength before it could reach Jiraiya. It looked like nothing would stop the imminent attack on him now. Even so, a large grin spread across Orochimaru's face.
Just as Jiraiya was nearly within reach of Orochimaru, out of the corner of his eye he saw Kabuto get up in a flash and slide in between them. Tsunade also caught this and immediately took off in a sprint, but she was too late. Kabuto slammed his palm into Jiraiya's chest, effectively stopping his heart while just evading the rasengan himself. But Tsunade had finally reached them, and did the only thing she could. She gave Jiraiya a hard shove in the back, which was just enough to add to his momentum for his body to fall forward and pierce through Orochimaru's chest with the rasengan before it disappeared. As Kabuto tried to maneuver around the falling Jiraiya, Tsunade quickly swung the sword around and killed him for sure this time. And to not take any chances of regeneration, she also chopped off Orochimaru's head, which was still grinning as it flew through the air.
Breathing heavily with exhaustion, Tsunade quickly pulled Jiraiya's arm out from Orochimaru's body and laid him gently on the ground. She looked up to see the medic team quickly running toward them, along with a number of the higher level ninjas. I guess the rest of the battle must be over now, too.
"Come over here now!" she called desperately to the top medic present. "His heart's been stopped, we have to get it going again if we're going to save him. I want you to try to get his heart pumping again by creating chakra pulses," she explained to him quickly as she was already trying to heal the physical damage in and around his heart. "And someone find Sakura and get her here RIGHT NOW!"
"I think she ran over to where those summons were," a ninja spoke up.
"Great. Get her then," she ordered as she continued healing her comrade.
About 5 minutes later, Sakura arrived on the scene. Without even looking up, Tsunade commanded her, "You have the best chakra control, take over trying to start his heart beating again."
Without a word, Sakura replaced the other medic and kneeled down next to Jiraiya. Molding chakra in her hands, she started pressing down on his chest in regular intervals, allowing a little of her chakra to pass through to his heart each time.
As the two of them continued trying to revive him, Kakashi noticed that Sakura's complexion was becoming more and more pale by the second. Lifting the forehead protector, he observed her chakra and saw that it was getting dangerously low. There was a high concentration around her abdomen, he assumed for the baby, but there was a scant amount left in the rest of her system.
"Sakura, you need to stop," he warned solemnly.
"No, it's almost there, I can feel it. Just a little longer," she replied without ceasing the pulsations.
Tsunade looked up at saw how pallor Sakura really had become. "It's ok, we gave it our best," she soothed as she pulled her hands away from Jiraiya's body. We've been doing this for too long now, there's no hope to revive him now, she thought.
"Just a little more," her voice strained out as she kept giving more of her chakra.
But Kakashi couldn't let this go on any longer. "Sakura!" he called out as he leaned down and started to pull her away.
"No!" she shrieked as she reached out and gave one last burst of chakra into Jiraiya's chest. The older man suddenly coughed as his heart had finally begun to beat on its own again.
Tsunade looked down at him, tears stinging her eyes. She couldn't believe it. Her relief quickly transformed back into concern, though, as she saw her student's body go limp in Kakashi's arms. "Someone tend to her now!" she shouted immediately and a few of the medical staff quickly started examining her as Kakashi carefully laid her back on the ground.
The last thought that had gone through Sakura's mind right before she passed out was, I'm glad that I was able to do this for Naruto.
When Sakura next opened her eyes, she found herself in the Konoha hospital. Blinking a few times to clear her vision, she saw that her parents, grandparents, and Naruto were all sitting around her. Her father gently tapped his wife who had fallen asleep in her chair. Sakura was starting to feel a little uncomfortable with everyone staring at her in silence.
"Thank goodness you're awake," her mother finally breathed out. "I'll go get the Hokage-sama."
"What happened?" Sakura asked, her memory of the last events before she blacked out a little fuzzy.
This time Naruto spoke up. "You fell into a coma."
Sakura suddenly sat up straight. "Is the baby ok?" she cried out anxiously.
Her grandmother leaned in and placed a hand on her arm as she replied, "Yes, you and the baby are both all right."
Sakura heaved a sigh of relief as she tried to dredge up the memories from right before she passed out. "Oh, what about Jiraiya-san? He's ok now, right? I think I remember hearing him coughing right before I passed out, so he's all right…right?" she asked with concern.
Naruto answered her. "Yeah, he's fine, Sakura-chan. But you shouldn't have-"
"Good, I'm glad," she replied happily as stretched her stiff arms. She was restricted, though, as she noticed a tube inserted in her left arm, probably delivering nutrients while she was in the coma. "I'm sorry I worried everyone. How long was I out?"
"Just about 4 days," she heard a voice say from the doorway. She looked over to see Tsunade and her mother entering the room. As Tsunade approached the bed, she requested, "Would everyone mind leaving the room for a bit? I'd like to talk to Sakura alone."
"Sure," her father replied. Every stood up and took turns giving Sakura a kiss on the cheek, except for Nartuo who just smiled and gave her a thumb's up, before leaving the room. Sakura couldn't help but feel a little uneasy being left all alone with her teacher.
"Haha, was that really necessary? I mean, what do you have to say that you can't say in front of everyone?" Sakura laughed nervously.
"Sakura. What you did back there, well, do you realize you could have lost your baby doing that? I know you were trying to help, but you need to take better care of yourself. While trying to save one person, you put another in danger. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"But it all worked out in the end, right?" Sakura tried to convince Tsunade and herself. "And I never took chakra away from the baby. That's probably why I passed out because I wasn't taking any from it for myself."
"Yes, but doing so you could have lost it from your body going into shock and falling into a coma. You're lucky we weren't far from here and that we were able to treat you along the way." Tsunade let out a sigh as she pulled up a chair next to the bed and took a seat. "You really are a foolish girl, you know that?"
"Yeah…I know. I don't think about what I'm doing sometimes. But I just-"
"I have a question for you," Tsunade interrupted her. "How did you know Jiraiya was about to revive from what you were doing?"
Sakura shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it was just this sense I had that the chakra pulses were starting to get a response."
"Do you think you what you were sensing was his chakra?" Tsuande asked cautiously.
"I really don't know how I knew, I just knew. I guess you could describe it like that."
"Well, if that's the case, then you have an amazing sensitivity to others' chakra. In fact, it would be something I've never actually witnessed in person before," she spoke seriously. "And it's something I'd like to work on developing with you." Then dropping her voice a little and changing the subject once again, she asked, "So what happened with Sasuke? He escaped, if you didn't know."
Sakura turned her head away from Tsunade and pretended to look out the window. "..." was Sakura's only response.
"Did you talk to him at all? Naruto told me that Sasuke had said that he won't return to Konoha until after he's completed his revenge. Did he say anything to you?"
"Well, back when I was re-sealing the curse seal, he said that he regretted ever coming to me in the first place, and that he'd never do it again."
"I see. So it looks like there's not much chance of him contacting you again." She watched her student's reaction closely.
"Seems that way," she said sullenly. "My memory's a bit fuzzy, though. I remember running over to where Naruto and Sasuke-kun were, but I can't remember what happened after that."
"Well, get some rest, and I'll send your family and Naruto back in. Let me know if you remember anything else."
"Ok, I will," Sakura complied with a weak smile.
"Oh, and by the way, no one outside your family, Kakashi, Jiraiya, and I know that you're not really married to Naruto. So continuing that marriage as a real one is still an option for you." Sakura just nodded as Tsunade left the room.
As everyone re-entered the room, she thought to herself, I only have until tomorrow to figure out what I'm going to do and how I'm going to do it.
At her stubborn insistence, Sakura was released from the hospital the next morning. She then had spent the morning with her family since she had yet to actually talk with them about her situation with Sasuke. Although she refrained from revealing the arranged meeting to Tsunade, she decided to tell her family the truth and begged that they not say anything until she had gone, and that despite whatever protest they could come up with, she was leaving to meet him. She explained this was something she had to do, but reassured that this trip would be much less dangerous than the one he had just returned from. When asked why she wanted to do this, she responded that even after everything, she still loved him and believed that it wasn't too late to save him from the dark path he's chosen to go down. And even if she couldn't dissuade him, at least she could make sure he wasn't going down it alone.
"I know this probably sounds crazy to everyone," she said, "but I can't just stay here and do nothing. I have to do something, whatever it is I can."
"Sakura, this doesn't sound crazy," her mother spoke up, "this is crazy. I'm not going to just let you leave."
"I'm not asking your permission," she stated. "I was hoping by telling the truth and explaining everything that maybe you'd understand," Sakura replied levelly.
"But-" her mother started to protest but was cut off by her husband.
"I think there's no point in arguing, hun. She inherited your stubbornness after all," her father pointed out gently.
"And I think you indulge her too much. She shouldn't be running around who knows where with him, he should be here taking care of her," her mother heatedly replied.
"I agree, that he should be here. But that's obviously not going to happen on its own, now is it? She made the decision to marry him, and if she thinks it'll do something for her to go with him, then that's her responsibility to take care of. These are part of the consequences of her decision," he explained his point of view calmly. He then turned and asked, "What do you think, Grandfather?"
"Well, I think she was a very foolish girl for making such a rash decision, but if I recall, she's not the first in this family to do something like this when it comes to love," Sakura's grandfather implied.
"But I didn't choose someone who was allied with the enemy of this village," her mother countered. "I may have been rash but I didn't choose someone so dangerous."
"He's not dangerous to me," Sakura spoke quietly. "And he tried to kill Orochimaru, and he provided us with all the information we would need to plan a successful attack."
"That doesn't make up for what he's done," her mother replied. "The way he left, and the way he's abandoned you."
"But he's not abandoning me if he's willing to take me with him. And weren't you the one who said we can't understand what he's been through and that he probably has a reason, whether good or bad, for the things that he's done now. Well, I'm trying to give him a good reason to come back."
"At your expense, though!" her mother cried out.
"Do you think I haven't gotten anything from him? He helped shape me into the person I've become. I was selfish and vain and he taught me to be better than that; he criticized me when I needed to hear it and raised me up when I was depressed; and it was because of him and for him that I became truly strong. If there's anything I can do now to help him in return, I'll do it because I still believe in him with all of my heart."
"But what about Naruto?" her mother asked, lowering her voice from the previous pitch.
Sakura paused to think back about how Naruto had always been there for her, had also supported her, and was someone she could rely on. She also wouldn't have been able to find her strength if it weren't for him. It would be easy to just stay here, to forget that Sasuke was the father and go back to living with Naruto. It would be better for her, but it would go against her heart. "I'm going," she declared finally.
Her mother was about to protest, but Sakura's grandmother stopped her. "I think we are not going to change her mind on this, so I think it is best to support her choice, which is a brave one, rather than have her leave without knowing she has people here who believe in her and are anxiously awaiting her and her husband's return."
Her mother finally relented, and walking over and hugging her daughter, she spoke through her tears, "Just come back to us, ok? I'm not ready to lose you yet."
Sakura hugged her mother back, also starting to cry, "Thanks, Mom. I love you."
"I love you, too, Sakura," her mother answered in reply.
Eventually, after giving everyone a hug and a goodbye kiss, and telling each of them that she loved them, Sakura left the apartment. She still had a few hours before she had to leave in order to meet Sasuke in time. And even though she had conveyed bold confidence in front of her family, she honestly didn't know if she could actually leave Konoha behind. In a lot of respects, it would be a lot easier just to stay.
(Track 12)
Sakura took a seat on a bench. The very bench on which she had conversed with Sasuke the first day they were formed into a team; the same bench on which Sasuke had laid her down the night he had left. Propping her elbows on her knees, she buried her face in her hands. It was a little after 7, so she had less than an hour left before sunset, and she still didn't know who she should tell about her leaving, that is, if she could convince herself that she really wanted to leave. She wanted to be with Sasuke, felt she should be with him, but the thought of leaving everything and everyone behind for the unknown really was overwhelming.
She had stopped by Ino's place, only to discover that she and Temari were having a rant-fest. Apparently both of them had been rejected by Shikamaru, and now the commonality brought them together as friends. After leaving those two by themselves to exchange their complaints over a pan of brownies, Sakura found herself just wandering around Konoha. She stopped by the ramen shop where Naruto often dined; she sat on the swing outside the academy for a while; she visited the memorial stone and the training logs for a bit. And now she had come to this bench.
"Hello, Sakura-chan!" a voice interrupted her thoughts. Sakura looked up to see a bright and smiling Naruto walking toward her. She waved him over and he took a seat on the bench next to her.
"Naruto, I have something I want to ask you, and please answer me honestly," she spoke gravely.
The smile that had been plastered on his face was gradually replaced by a more serious one. "Sure, go ahead," he replied.
"Are you mad at me for not telling you about Sasuke-kun coming to visit me? I wanted to so many times, but I had made a promise as part of the agreement."
"Agreement?"
"I never told you this, but he actually asked me to marry him first. I have the rings right here," she explained as she pulled out a necklace from underneath her shirt that had two wedding rings strung on it. "And he said one of the conditions was that I couldn't tell anyone, and not wanting to pass up the opportunity that he had actually contacted me, I agreed. But even so, you must be mad at me."
Naruto took a few minutes to process this new bit of information. "Sakura-chan, I could never be mad at you," he finally spoke.
"Then if you aren't mad, I'm sure you're still feeling hurt. You should be. I had kept it from you all that time. I'm so sorry for everything. I kept it from you, Naruto, just like I had kept from you about the curse seal 3 years ago."
"Sakura-chan," Naruto only spoke in response, trying to push down the hurt feelings he was feeling.
"Naruto, I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around him and cried into his chest. "Please forgive me," she whispered through her tears.
"Of course I do," Naruto replied, but Sakura's mind was already distracted as her mind recalled that Sasuke had said those same words to her the last night they had spent together. As she heard footsteps approaching, she quickly pushed herself away from Naruto and dried her tears. She smiled at the passerby, although Naruto was too distracted by Sakura being upset to make a greeting himself.
In an attempt to make her feel better, he tried, "You know, I deceived you once, too. So you don't have to feel so bad about doing it to me."
"You did?" she asked. "When?"
"On this very bench. During lunch on the day we were assigned as a team. I attacked Sasuke and tied him up, and then met you here pretending to be him. I only wanted to find out what you really thought about me, but that was still wrong of me to trick you like that."
Thinking back to that day, Sakura exclaimed, "So then that was you who I almost kissed?"
Naruto looked sheepish as he vaguely responded with, "Yeah…"
Sakura burst out laughing. "And then you didn't come back then, right? That was really Sasuke the second time, right?"
Naruto nodded, not sure what to make of her laughter.
"No wonder he was acting so different! I could really be stupid sometimes back then. Well, I can really be stupid sometimes now, too. I mean, look at what I got myself into," she spoke with a smirk as she chided herself for all her folly and stretched back and rested against the wall behind them.
"So you aren't mad at me then?" Naruto asked her.
"Please, I think what I did was a little more serious than what you did. It was a long time ago, so just forget about it. But are you mad at me?"
"I already said I wasn't."
"Right," she responded. She looked over at him and stared straight into his eyes. "So do you forgive me then?" He met her gaze and nodded to indicate that he did. Naruto really is a great guy. I was content living with him all those months, well, aside from the times when he drives me crazy, and then of course there was that one night. "Naruto?"
"Yes, Sakura-chan?"
"Can you meet me back at your apartment at 8 tonight? There's something I want to tell you."
"Sure," he answered.
Sakura stood up and called back to him as she starting walking away, "Thanks, Naruto! I'm feeling much better now." And I know exactly what I'm going to do.
Sasuke drifted in and out of sleep in his room at the Good Luck Inn. At one point, he turned over to his side and discovered Sakura was sleeping next to him. "How'd you sneak in?" Sasuke questioned, trying not to sound surprised as he wondered how she managed to not wake him up.
"Through the window," she murmured without opening her eyes. She swung her one leg over and across his waist before pushing herself up, straddling him. Staring down at him, she told him, "Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions, and I want you to answer me honestly."
"Ok," he complied, although he wasn't exactly sure why. Maybe it was her intense gaze.
"Good. First question: Would you return to Konoha if I asked you to?"
"No."
"Tell me why."
"Because I don't belong there. I have to fulfill my revenge first."
"Why?" she questioned from on top of him.
"Because no one understands why I have to do this; everyone was just encouraging me to forget about avenging my clan. And also, that way no one can get hurt because of it either."
"What if I told you that everyone understands now, that they'd even help you if you came back. What if I said they have a higher chance of getting hurt with you away from them? Then what would your answer be?"
"Still no."
"Then there must be another reason. What is it?"
"I can't face everyone after the things that I've done. I don't belong there anymore, I'm too far gone."
"I see. You mean like trying to kill Naruto for the MS?" Sakura leaned down and started kissing his neck.
"Yes, that was the worst. I can't face him after that."
"And what exactly is Naruto to you?"
"He became my best friend."
"Would you consider him a brother?" Sakura questioned through kisses.
"No!" Sasuke answered immediately. With a little less vehemence, he added, "I can't. Not until I kill my real brother. I have to take care of that first."
"And then you can face Naruto?"
"I don't know. I tried to kill him, Sakura. Do you understand that?"
"Yes, but I think the real question is whether Naruto understands why you did it and how you feel now."
"Maybe," Sasuke relented. "If I thought he could forgive me, I might want to see him then. But there's no way he would."
"And what about me, what do I mean to you?" she asked as she stopped kissing his neck and lifted herself back up slightly so she was only centimeters from his face.
"Sakura…"
"Why did you come back to me?" she asked as she proceeded to kiss the other side of his neck.
"Because I wanted to try to produce an heir before it was too late," he answered.
"Was that your only reason?" she prompted him, as she moved from his neck up to his cheek.
"Maybe there was more."
"Maybe?"
"With the curse seal, I don't know how much I had been manipulated at that point."
"You had to know something."
"I know I thought about the night of our parting a lot. The way you begged me to stay. How you confessed that you loved me and would do anything for me. Those words never left me."
Once again ceasing with the kisses, Sakura faced him again. "Sasuke-kun, Naruto and I both forgive you. I forgive you for everything, just like you asked me to. Now, tell me how you feel about me," she ordered.
But instead of replying, he quickly closed the gap between them as his lips met hers. He lifted his hands up and caressed her face as he continued to kiss her desperately. That is, until there was a knock at the door. Sitting straight up in bed, he quickly realized that he was alone in the darkened room. The sun must be just about set, he thought as he tried to shake away the vivid memory of the dream.
Sasuke quickly put on a shirt as he cautiously walked over to the door and slowly opened it.
Naruto hurried up the steps of his apartment building. He was a few minutes late, and hoped Sakura wouldn't be too mad at him. He quickly opened the door, and found her sitting at the kitchen table.