Chapter 10 — Team 8

Team 8 strolled back into the village after another long mission. It was midsummer, the sun beat down overhead, and the three members of the team were visibly relieved to be home. But the fourth one, Naruto, hung his head, hooded his eyes and leveled a dark look at his surroundings, as if he were mad at the very streets, trees and walls that made up the only home he'd ever known. But it wasn't what was in front of him that was the trouble. It was what was missing.

Naruto did not know when he noticed. But at some point in those long summer months he realized he had not seen the Sand nins in a while. And almost immediately he had the sinking feeling that they were gone…and with them Sakura.

These thoughts preyed on him as the hot days stretched out. He stubbornly forced himself not to count the days since he'd last seen her.

Naruto couldn't decide how the knowledge made him feel. Angry? Jealous? Left behind? He couldn't decide. He told himself he shouldn't feel anything at all, then ruthlessly stamped out the nagging emotions.

Shrugging the dusty knapsack higher up on his shoulders, Naruto saluted to his adopted team and turned off for home.

Ever since seeing her with that damn Sand guy, he knew he hadn't felt right. That strange, uneasy out-of-balance feeling, the one that sent him rubbing the back of his neck as if easing an ache he just couldn't quite reach, was creeping back in. But this time it was even stronger.

He had long ago accepted that she'd chosen Sasuke. Even though he discovered that he hated to see their blossoming relationship after he and Sakura had grown so close in the years that Sasuke was gone, part of him grudgingly acknowledged that this was the way it was meant to be. This was what they'd work for. This was what he'd planned.

But for Sakura to up and leave with someone else…. It was…unthinkable! She should be sitting and waiting in the village, working away doing…well, whatever it was she did in the hospital, like she always did in the past, until Sasuke got back.

But another thought sprouted in his mind, growing like a tiny shoot from the seed of a memory. Sakura said things change. People change. And that it was a good thing.

Those words still brought up a zing of anger, but now, thinking about it again, he wondered if maybe she had meant something else.

Bah, people don't just change.

He swung hard on the rusty banister of his apartment building and vaulted him himself up the first few steps. Fresh anger pushed him on.

That was just a talk. Look at where she is now! She'd abandoned her village to go off with some dude from the Sand!? How was that change good!?

He slowed, pounding the steps as he went. He still couldn't believe she'd just up and left with someone else. It was unthinkable. Though not nearly as unthinkable as Sakura giving up on Konoha. The flattery of a good-looking dude, all foreign and new and interesting, he could understand. But leaving Konoha? Never in a millions years.

Well, he guessed that was just one more thing he was wrong about.

Naruto sighed deeply. He had to admit that he didn't know anything about the two people he had long considered his closest friends. And nothing had turned out the way he had expected it to. Sasuke and Sakura were gone, apparently, and now his days were consumed with Team 8. It wasn't bad. It was just…different.

But remembering the last times he'd laid eyes on Sakura…. A new brand of anger had awoken inside when he'd seen the way that Sand medic looked at her. It made him jumpy and surly. Only Hinata's sweet, soothing conversation seemed to cool him off. She was so kind it was hard to be angry around her.

He guessed it was anger that was making him feel so off balance. After all, how could Sakura move away without at least telling him first! And he'd seen no little pink note on his door.

He would know…he'd been secretly looking for them since they stopped showing up like clockwork. And the hollow feeling he felt now, knowing for sure she was gone, was way worse than when he discovered she'd stopped leaving the little missives.

Naruto trudged up the last steps deep in thought. Months had passed, plenty of time for him to move on…but frustratingly, each time he reached his door it was like a wound reopened.

His mind wandered back to the day the notes stopped. He had noticed it immediately, even though nothing had changed. His door still had the same peeling brown veneer it always had, the same broken door knocker, abused into oblivion by some former tenant, and the same rusty lock. But there was no pink note.

The key still stuck in the lock as usual. Yet when he swung the door open, there was no note to discover inside. Frowning, he stepped inside and closed the door slowly behind him.

Well, he thought as he dropped his pack, it was bound to happen.

But he did wonder if maybe she'd just forgotten. He sat down to eat, trying to forget it himself.

He did a good job forgetting too, all the way until he came home from his next mission. Coming in late at night, tired and dirty, it wasn't until Naruto stepped up the last step and looked down at his door that he remembered. Sakura's notes….

But in the buzzing yellow light from hall fixture he could already see that there was none there waiting for him. The door was empty. It looked as dirty and tired as he was.

Naruto swung open the door, again mildly curious to see if something had been shoved under his door.

But here was no note on the cracked old tiles. Thought so, he told himself ruthlessly. Naruto slammed the door and flung himself into bed without a bath, telling himself it didn't matter.

But as he closed his door for his next mission, the notion became as persistent as the notes themselves had been. He looked at the peeling veneer as he locked the door and wondered if he'd find a note here when he came back.

Angry with himself, he jerked the key out of the lock and quickly left.

But there was still no note when he returned.

A few more missions passed. They were a few more comings and goings when she would have had an opportunity to drop by. But still nothing.

Naruto would never admit to anyone that he'd even walked down the hall one day, looking sharply at the wind-blown leaves to see if there were any edges of pink paper fluttering in them. As if the hands shoved firmly in his pockets to stop himself from digging through the leaves would have stayed put if he'd really seen anything. But there was nothing. Shoulders slumped, he trudged back to his apartment, mad at her for forgetting, and mad at himself for still noticing.

He threw himself even harder into missions to help him get over these lingering feelings, telling himself that one day his door would go back to looking like a door. Not like it was permanently missing something.

Because this was what he wanted, right? To move on with his life just like she had moved on with hers. After all, she sure wasn't thinking about him right now.

Naruto shook himself of the thoughts, stepped up the last step and tugged his keys out of his pockets. He got all the way to the door without looking, but as he put the key in the lock and twisted — once, twice — he pulled up his head. The dull grain of cheap wood veneer in front of his eyes told him what he already knew. There was nothing waiting there for him.

He pushed open the door without emotion and closed it silently behind him.

He knew he could've asked Tsunade to confirm that she was gone. Or hell, even Kakashi. But he refused do it.

He wouldn't even to use his Sage powers to verify it. Instead he told himself she was either in the village or she wasn't. And either way, what did he care?

However, without even realizing it, he began to watch for her in the crowds, subconsciously looking for a flash of pink among the vendors and food stalls. He peered up at the solemn yellow hospital building as he passed with Team 8, trying to imagine she was in there, working, like she always had been.

But that off-kilter feeling followed him like a shadow.

Confirmation finally caught up with him a few weeks later, when he was out with Team 8 hunting some rogue nins on the western border of the Fire Country.

They were using a specialized jutsu to expand their numbers, leaving traces of chakra and human activity all over the place and throwing them off. Akamaru and Kiba had been tracking them for a while, but Naruto believed they were no closer to finding these guys than they were five hours ago.

He dropped down onto the grass, crossed his legs and raised his hands to enter Sage mode. He located the signature of the infiltrating nins with ease.

And then, without even trying, he reached out to find Sakura. Just like he always did. Brushing up against her chakra the way he had done a thousand times before. It was as natural as breathing.

But her chakra wasn't there. The others flickered effortlessly forward. Kakashi, Tsunade, and so many others, all familiar, some with names, some without. But the one he knew best was gone.

He refocused and expanded his awareness, encompassing the forest around him, then Konoha, then the countrysides of the Fire Country.

But hers still wasn't anywhere. He wasn't even sure now if he could define it. It was always just there.

He blinked back out of Sage mode, feeling hollow.

Hinata smiled down at him. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Uh…no," he said quietly and shook his head.

"I told you to let me handle it," Kiba said from astride Akamaru. "You shouldn't listen to him so much Hinata. Come on Akamaru!" Kiba and Akamaru shot off into the woods, guided by Akamaru's upturned nose sniffing out a fresh trace of their scent.

Naruto stood dismally and brushed himself off. Hinata stayed by him, watching him with concern.

"The ones we're after are in that direction." Naruto pointed about 45 degrees to the right of where Kiba left. "There are only four. We should be able to handle them." He started walking, head down.

"A-Are you ok, Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah. I'm fine," he said in a monotone, not sounding fine at all. Shino and Hinata fell in behind him without a word.

Kiba and Akamaru crashed through the woods in front of them, going far past the straight-line path Naruto was walking. "Akamaru has picked them up over here!"

Ten minutes later they crashed back into view. "They've changed course, it's more this direction."

But Naruto never wavered. And eventually, with Kiba and Akamaru zig-zagging in front of them, they apprehended their suspects.

When the lights of the village finally loomed back into view, Naruto thought they looked cold to him. The walls and the huge gates all seemed tired and empty.

The lingering feeling stayed with him as he went back to his apartment. He'd never noticed the cracks in his building before or the tangled mess of wires that strung from each corner. The way the gutters had pulled away from the roof which no one had bothered to fix or the years-old grime around his door (barren of pink notes, of course) which no one had bothered to clean.

The key stuck in the lock the way it always did, but this time, it bothered him.

He roughly pushed back the door and stepped into the darkened apartment. It was stale with old air.

Everything was exactly where it had been left or dropped. Nothing had changed. Even illuminated by the single yellow slant of light from the window, he knew where everything was.

He felt weird. Like he'd outgrown the tired old room. Instead of feeling comforted, he felt suffocated.

His stomach growled once. Of course there would be no food here. He couldn't remember the last time he bought supplies, probably on one of the short breaks between missions.

He decided to go to Ichiraku's for ramen. The thought of food and company was buoying.

Naruto swiveled and stepped out the door, but shoved his hand back inside to flip the light switch on. It was a trick from his childhood, so he wouldn't return to the loneliness of a darkened room. He was a little surprised he'd thought of it again, and now of all times, but he was certain he didn't want to come back to darkness, so he quickly shut the door.

Naruto ate and began to revive under Teuchi's cajoling. Feeling better, he went home and slept. But when he awoke the next morning, laying in bed and staring out at the endless grey sky, the not-quite-right feeling was still with him.

He had almost a week before his next mission. But now, none of the mindless tasks he'd assigned himself seemed appealing. The endless training and scouting, and even meeting up with Team 8 like he had been had lost its luster.

He flopped over, staring out at the dingy room. He didn't think he could bear more of Kiba's surly comments, even when it was balanced by Hinata's kind attention.

When did things start bothering him?

He pulled himself out of bed and started his day. He'd find something to do.

But the day dripped by slowly. He saw people he knew, ate, threw his shuriken for a few hours, then went home and stared at the walls until he could no longer stand it. He ended up at Ichiraku's for ramen late at night. The next day it started over again. And he couldn't shake the hollow feeling.

By the end of the the third day, he knew something had changed. It wasn't the same as it had been as a child, when no one looked at him and everyone hated him. People were friendly, and he had plenty of friends…so why was he so tired of everything. Why did he feel aimless?

He didn't look too hard for answers. Instead he forced himself to go through some daily routines akin to Lee's until it was time for the next mission.

By the end of his time off, the break in the monotony was a relief.

Team 8 waited at the gate for him. Or rather, Hinata waited, smiling shyly. Kiba and Shino wouldn't leave her behind, so they had to wait for Naruto too.

Shino nodded politely, but Kiba offered his usual gruff greeting. "Can't you be anywhere on time? Sheesh, let's get going."

Hinata smoothed it over, hanging back and walking next to Naruto. "Naruto-kun, Kiba-kun is just impatient to go. But we'll have a great mission, I'm sure of it!"

Naruto smiled sideways at her. "Thanks." Hinata blushed, curled a tendril of her long hair around her finger and smiled shyly back.

But Naruto couldn't hold it. He turned and looked darkly at Kiba's back as he bobbed down the path in front of him. Naruto didn't know if he was feeling particularly stung or if Kiba's barbs were more sharp.

Even Hinata's sweet chatter couldn't raise his spirits as he had come to rely on in the past. This mission wasn't starting out well. And he had pinned his hopes on this to pull him out of his dull mood. He scowled at Kiba, blaming it on him.

And indeed, Kiba did seem out-of-sorts. He was gruff to Naruto and completely disregarded any suggestions he made about paths, trajectories or supplies.

Naruto confirmed it when he pointed out a clear campsite close to a stream. Kiba overruled it with a grunt.

"No, too exposed," Kiba muttered, barely looking at the site.

Naruto grit his teeth. It was the only flat land around.

"There's a better spot over there," Kiba said, pointing to a thicket of woods.

Naruto pounded a fist against his thigh, remembering why he'd never liked Kiba, even when they were in Academy. He was hot-headed, stubborn and would go to any length to prove he was right, even when they had to walk through a half-mile of scrub woods to a flat campsite instead of taking the one in front of them.

"K-Kiba-kun," Hinata interrupted, sliding between the fuming pair, "maybe Akamaru can help us sniff out the best spot. He senses are so sharp, we should let him help out…."

Akamaru let out an uncertain whine from beside Kiba's thigh.

But Kiba was placated. He smiled angelically into Hinata's face. "Yeah, good thinking Hinata." However the toothy grin he shot past her shoulder at Naruto was anything but friendly.

Naruto twisted his mouth into a scowl and followed them without a word away from the stream and into the woods.

They set up camp, built a fire and prepared their food in silence, but the peace didn't last.

"You should know," Kiba announced, taking a bite into his fish, "that we like to catch our food on missions. Not eat from a carton like you do." He said it as if it was a criminal offense.

Naruto sat forward over his cup of instant ramen. "What the hell? This is just a short mission. I don't eat it all the time! You know that!"

"Yeah, well I don't think you should bring it on any mission! Look at the trash! It would be easy for someone to find us, and Akamaru can track the scent of that garbage from a mile away!" Akamaru whined at the sharp tone of his master and put his head on his paws.

"Since when have you had a problem with it? No one else does!" He glanced at Hinata and Shino but they were busy inspecting their own skewered fish. "What the hell is the matter with you anyway?"

"Nothing's the matter with me! I just figure if we're stuck with you, then you might as well start acting like part of Team 8. And stop bringing out that crap!"

Naruto squeezed the cup and growled. Noodles pushed out of the top then sucked back in.

Shino sighed and Hinata said in her most soothing voice, "Kiba-kun, maybe we should wait until later to talk about what we all like and don't like on missions—"

"No," Kiba snapped back at Hinata. "She's gone. And we're stuck with him now." He shoved a branch deeper into the fire, sending up an explosion of sparks. "So it's time he started acting like Team 8—"

"What the hell are you talking about," Naruto said from across the fire, his voice dangerously low. "Who's gone? What do you mean stuck with me?"

"Sakura! She's gone to the Sand. For good! So since there's no more Team 7, you've glommed onto us," Kiba said, jabbing his finger into his chest. His voice dropped a notch. "But let me tell you something, I won't let you drive our team apart."

Shino heaved a deep sigh, threw his half-eaten fish into the fire and stood up. "I'm going to go see what bugs I can find around here."

Hinata pressed her fingers to her lips and looked to each one. "Shino-kun, don't go…. Kiba-kun, please…. Naruto-kun, he doesn't mean it like that."

But Kiba was on a roll after releasing his long pent-up anger. "Oh yes I do! And he knows exactly what I'm talking about."

Naruto squashed his cup and slammed it into the dirt beside him. "Oh yeah!? Well why don't you enlighten me since you're the expert, because I have no idea what—"

"I was there! With Sakura!" Kiba laughed as if it was common knowledge. But Naruto blinked, still not understanding. Kiba turned deadly serious. His voice dropped to a harsh whisper. "I was there, when you fooled Sakura into believing she loved you. And then you dumped her!"

Naruto looked like he'd been slapped. He gaped in stunned silence. But it only fueled Kiba's protective anger. His eyes flashed with a feral gleam. "So don't think for one minute that I'm going to let you do it again with my team."

Naruto scrambled to his feet, sputtering angrily, "What?! That's between me and Sakura— Why would I ever—"

Kiba leapt up with a growl and thrust an finger accusingly over the fire at Naruto. "It was always 'Sakura-chan this' and 'Sakura-chan that.'" His sharp canines glinted in the firelight. "Well, you're not going to come in here, lead Hinata on then break her heart. I'm not going to let you drive our team into the ground like you did yours!"

Hinata jumped up, eyes darting anxiously between the two.

"Naruto-kun," she said, raising her hand to him as if to stop a fight. "I'm sure Kiba-kun didn't mean it that way. Maybe he just heard it wrong." She turned to Kiba and outstretched her hand at him. "Kiba-kun, Naruto-kun would never hurt Sakura—"

Never looking at her, Kiba growled at Naruto. "I didn't hear him wrong. He said he hated her—"

"I never said that, you idiot!"

"You said she was a liar!"

"I didn't say that!"

Hinata interjected breathlessly, "Na-Naruto-kun wouldn't—"

"And I didn't say I hated her!" Naruto continued, stumbling over his words. "I said I…I hated liars…or something like that…. But she knew what I meant!"

"Oh yeah?" Kiba laughed. "She knew what you meant?!" Kiba threw his arms wide and yelled up to the canopy, "Oh good! Cause that's worked out so well for you, hasn't it?!"

Naruto balled his fists at his sides. The top of his chest heaved with angry pants.

"Na-Naruto-kun…? Sakura-san loves you?"

Kiba snorted and slung his hands on his hips. "Not anymore! She's gone to the Sand with her new boyfriend."

Naruto's glare turned murderous.

"Naruto-kun, did you really say those things?" Hinata slowly pulled her hands back to clasp them in front of her chest. She stared into the fire for a moment, looking deeply troubled. "I…I've never known Sakura-san to lie about anything. Maybe it was just a misunderstanding…?" She looked up at him, eyes round and hopeful in the flickering light. "Perhaps you can patch it up when she comes back—"

"She's not coming back." Kiba leveled a cold look at Naruto. "And if we're stuck with you, then I don't want you treating Team 8 the way you have your own team. Your old team."

Naruto hooded his eyes, lowered his head and let out a long, slow breath that sounded more like a growl than any human noise. The firelight cast deep shadows in the hollows of his face. When he finally spoke, his voice was ragged with restraint.

"Yeah, Hinata, I said that stuff. Or something like it. But she understood." He took another breath. "I was just mad that she was trying to get me to come home. That's all." Kiba snorted his disagreement. Naruto ignored him. "I wish I hadn't said it, but it's in the past. I can't change it now."

Never looking up, he took a slow step back away from the fire. "And you don't have to worry about Team 8. I won't burden you any longer." He swung away, scooped up his cup and went back for his things.

Hinata gasped at Naruto's retreating back, then threw a sharp frown at Kiba.

Kiba rubbed the back of his neck, looking somewhat apologetic, but when Hinata tore off too, Kiba protested loudly.

"Hinata, quit worrying about him. You're with me…uh, I mean, us! Team 8! Let him go back and deal with his own problems. He's just been using our team to run away from 'em. Hinata!"

She ignored him and quick-stepped through the darkness catch up with Naruto.

"Naruto-kun," she said at his shoulder when he stopped at his tent. "He's just angry. We don't want you to go. We love having you on our team. Kiba-kun will cool off, he always does."

The light from the fire was a distant glow through the trees, but it was still enough to see by. Naruto silently packed his things and shrugged on his small pack.

He was still angry at Kiba, but he couldn't ignore that hollow feeling creeping back in.

"He's right," Naruto said, speaking more to himself than her. "What good am I to someone else's team if I can't even keep my own team together?" He looked around the ground, numbly scanning to make sure he'd missed nothing, but his scattered state of mind had him going over everything a few times. Even though there was nothing left but leaf litter.

Finally, with a deep breath, he adjusted his straps and finally looked up at Hinata.

Hinata clasped and re-clasped her hands in front of her. She tipped her head, eyes soft with sympathy. But a little wrinkle of worry marred her smooth forehead.

Naruto looked into her faced and hoped she would say something so soothing, something so placating, something so un-Sakura-like it would make everything better….

And at that moment her realized maybe he really had been running away—

Hinata bit her lip and slid her eyes away. "If Sakura-san said she loves you," she mumbled, looking like it cost her something to say it, "then she must. She wouldn't lie about something like that."

This didn't make him feel better.

He sighed. In the distant glow of firelight, Hinata looked astonishingly pretty. Her hair was a glossy black against the creamy curve of her face. Her finely wrought eyes were fixed on him again with sweet concern. A soft blush touched the apple of her cheeks with pink at his inspection.

But….

Naruto crushed his eyes shut and rubbed a hand down his face as another painful realization crashed down on him.

She just wasn't her.

So even though Hinata was standing in there in front of him, beautiful with all her open-hearted kindness, it just couldn't reach him. It was only Sakura. The way it had been since he first saw her at academy.

He knew it was the same way for her…she had loved someone since their academy days too. Just not him.

Naruto hoisted up his pack. "Sakura loves Sasuke. She always has. People don't just change—" He stopped, cringing at the dreadful irony of it all.

Hinata gave voice to what he would have liked to ignore. "But if she's gone to the Sand with someone, then maybe she's gotten over Sasuke."

That thought didn't make him feel any better either.

But Hinata smiled brilliantly as if the matter had been resolved. "I'm sure she'll be happy. So you don't have to worry about her. And then you can stay!" She paused for a fortifying breath, looked down and back up again, and bit her full lower lip. "I-I'd like for you to stay."

Naruto blinked once, then smiled in pained understanding.

"Thanks, Hinata-chan. But I…. I think I should go," he said gently. "I have a lot to think about. But thanks. For everything. You're really a sweet girl." He patted her arm awkwardly and stepped around her. "Besides I don't want Kiba chewing me out any more over you."

She laughed nervously, glancing back through the trees to the fire. Kiba's silhouette still stood on guard, hands on his hips, watching in their direction and waiting.

Hinata curled her hair behind her ear. "Oh Kiba-kun is like that about everything."

"Everything maybe," Naruto said with a wry smile, "but not everyone." He turned away. "I'm sure I'll see you when you get back." He stuck his hand to the side for a quick wave, then he disappeared into the darkness.

Author's notes:

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! So, something the manga doesn't go into, for obvious reasons, is that Sakura's confession and Naruto's subsequent rejection of her feelings is done in front of a crowd. Well this is fine if things work out well for them. But if not, Naruto's strong feelings and sharp words might come back to haunt him. I think it would be reasonable for Kiba to be protective of his teammate who has a crush on Naruto, seeing how Naruto treated his own teammate when she confessed her crush.

Oh and there was a line in there with Naruto describing Kiba. "Naruto pounded a fist against his thigh, remembering why he'd never liked Kiba, even when they were in Academy. He was hot-headed, stubborn and would go to any length to prove he was right, even when they had to walk through a half-mile of scrub woods to a flat campsite instead of taking the one in front of them." After I wrote it I thought it could easily describe Naruto as well! Hahaha! They're both hot-heads!

Thanks so much for the reviews, faves and alerts! Glad you're enjoying the story! More Naruto next chapter. Please read and review!