Underneath Her Skin 15
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
RxR
Picking Up The Pieces
It was a week later since that night and she has yet to get out of her apartment and barely got out of bed. Her phone continuously rang but she didn't bother to pick it up. It was early morning on a Monday as she slept on. That was until a loud banging could be heard from her door. She groans but still doesn't get up to answer the door.
"Sakura it's us." She knew exactly who it was at the door but still laid there blankly.
"Sakura-chan please just open the door we've been worried about you. Sasuke even went as far as asking Itachi what happened to you. Tsunade Baa-chan is threatening to throw you in juvenile if you don't come back to school today. You make school much more bearable and whatever you're going through we'll get through it together." The people on the other side of the door waited and just as they lost hope the door finally opens. The sight that greeted them was horrifying.
"S-Sakura-chan!" Naruto hugs the thin pale and kind of smelly girl in his arms. He was relieved to see that she was ok and more or less in good shape. It was obvious that she went through some traumatic experience that made her cry until her eyes were red. "Please come back."
Sakura looks at all of her friends passing over each genuine expression directed at her. "Naruto, Shikamaru, Gaara, Sasuke, Temari, and Tenten what are you guys doing here?" The sound of her voice was groggy as if she hasn't drunk a glass of water for days.
"To get you back on your feet." Sakura sighs knowing that they weren't going to leave anytime soon so might as well get back into the swing of things.
"Fine, I'm going to take a shower feel free to roam." Sakura rubs her tired and red eyes. She walks into her room and slam the door behind her.
"Is she really going to take a shower?" Temari asked the others. They shrug deciding to look around the small apartment. Everyone but Naruto and Shikamaru hasn't been in the apartment before.
For someone who's been in their same apartment for a week, the place was pretty clean. The apartment brought memories back to Naruto and he missed them so much. "Sakura sure does know how to decorate," Tenten mutters referring to the blank walls and no pictures.
"I imagine Sakura being the type of person to move around a lot," Shikamaru says from his spot on her couch trying to catch a few Zs.
Meanwhile, Sakura was under her shower with water falling down her face which she hasn't felt since a week ago. Hizashi's death ate at her every time her eyes were open. His blood still littered her hands and no matter how much she washed her hands she could still fill the blood.
Sakura must have lost track of time because one minute she's relaxing the next there's pounding on the door. "Come on Sakura we're going to be late if you don't hurry."
Sakura sighs and turns off the shower once out she dries herself off. Sakura puts on undergarments and a pair of sweatpants and a tank top she also brushes her hair and puts it up in a messy bun. Sakura grabs her phone and bag after putting on a pair of shoes and walks out of the room.
"Alright, I'm ready." Everyone's head turn to her as she walks out looking refreshed.
"Uh, Sakura-chan it's pretty cold outside." Sakura looks at them and saw that they had pants and jackets on. She groans and goes back into her room to find a jacket.
The group walks to school in silence neither wanting to ask Sakura the question that was on their minds. "Uh, Sakura you didn't miss much."
Sakura doesn't say a word continually worrying them. The group arrives at school and goes their separate ways since they were late to school. "I'll walk you to wherever you're going," Naruto says.
Sakura walks away stuffing her hands in her pockets not caring at all. Before going to Kakashi class she needed to visit Tsunade first.
"Sakura I need to know what happened?" He didn't ask earlier in case she didn't want to tell them. "We're friends before anything else and I just want to help you."
"I'm just not ready to talk about it." Naruto understood and respected her decision to tell him when she's ready he just hoped it wasn't going to be too late.
"Is Tsunade here?" Sakura asks Shizune the assistant. Shizune looks up at the girl who made Tsunade worry so much over the week.
"Y-yes you can go on to her office but I'm afraid you're going to have to get to class Naruto." Naruto sighs angrily before agreeing.
"I'll see you in English Sakura-chan." From the look on his face, he was worried about her and she awarded him with her first smile (despite it being extremely small) of the week.
Once Naruto was gone her smile drops and she turned back to the black haired woman who observed her closely. "What?"
"You seem... different kind of depressed." Sakura sighs then goes to the office she was familiar with ignoring the older woman.
Tsunade was doing some work in her office for the military ball coming up in a few months. That was until she heard a knock on her door. "Enter." Low and behold her favorite troublemaking student Sakura Haruno. Like Shizune, she observed the thin girl before her that she nervously shuffles on her feet.
"Hm I was going to give you a lecture but it looks like you already got one." Sakura sighs relieved that Tsunade wasn't going to lash out at her. Unfortunately, it seemed that Tsunade wasn't done talking just yet.
"I'm going to treat you like a regular student now Sakura. If you miss over twenty days of school without a good reason juvenile will be waiting for you. If receive 3 or more tardies from any of your classes, it's detention. You may leave." Sakura sighs for what felt like the tenth time that day. Still she doesn't say anything she just walks out and Tsunade silently watches her.
Meanwhile, in Kakashi class, he was going over some Shakespeare before Sakura opened the door and sat down at her desk. The lively room immediately dampened as the depressed girl came in. "Sakura haven't seen you in a week any excuse." She looks up at him in his eyes shaking her head no. Kakashi groans but nonetheless goes back to teaching as she stares blankly out the window. It was pretty obvious that she wasn't all the way there.
The bell for the next class finally rang which for her was Asuma's class. She picked up her bag and walked with her head down to her next class. Every person that tried to speak to her was ignored she just wanted to be left alone. Her mood plummeted when she saw Neji Hyuga walking up to her looking just as depressed as she.
"I-I heard about what happened to Hizashi," Sakura mutters unable to look him in the eye.
"Saturday." Sakura looks up in his eyes confused.
"His funeral is Saturday and I think he would want you to be there." His father seemed to take an interest to her and to a certain degree him too.
"And so would I." Neji clears his throat nervously as he finally came out and said it.
"Uh yeah sure I'll try to make it where is it exactly?" Neji gestures to her phone she gives it to him and he puts his number in her phone and her number in his own.
"I'll text you the information later." Sakura nods and smiles despite the guilt creeping down her back. Ok, see you later in gym?" Neji nods and walks to his own class.
Even though she felt guilty talking with Neji and how he seemed so calm made her feel much better. Don't get her wrong she was still depressed but just not as much. You could say she almost had her cocky attitude back.
She arrives just in time to her relief and the room was switched around. Instead of rows of desks they were now in groups with 4 desk each. "Am I missing something."
"We're doing a project you haven't missed much, groups of 4, project on different types of government which requires heavy research. We'll work on this in class and as homework this week. Be prepared to present." Sakura mouth was open in shock as she took in all that information. She was gone for a week.
Sakura sits in the one empty seat near her friends. She was glad that they actually saved her a seat or even wanted a depressed pink haired girl in their group. "So which type of government did you guys pick?"
"Anarchy," Shikamaru says.
She shrugs fine with it and they start discussing the project more and how they were going to present the information.
X
The rest of the day flew by until she got into her Health class with Jiraiya. "Ah, Sakura welcome back I was afraid we would have to start the project without you which is why I postponed it just for this day." Jiraiya grinned happily as the class groaned as he once again brought up the baby project. Everyone was dreading the project and secretly hoped Sakura wouldn't come back so he could forget about it.
"Now we have the groups I believe but in order to get a baby, we have to come up with the genes." Jiraiya passes out a sheet of paper with different characteristics on it like hair type color eye color skin color even eyebrow shape.
"Fill out this paper and write on a small slip of paper whether it's HH Hh or hh on the slip of paper and with your partner put it in a plastic bag shake it up and randomly chose one of the slips. On another sheet of paper write down your baby's traits. Questions?" No one said a word nor raise their hand.
"Good, I'm sure everyone in here has taken biology so it should be easy. You can start." Everyone moved around to sit beside their partner. If she remembered correctly Naruto was her partner.
"Hey, beautiful." Sakura smiles up at him it's been a while since he called her that and she was actually happy he did since she wasn't feeling beautiful.
"Hey ready to get started?" Naruto excitedly nods and plops down on the chair beside her. He wouldn't admit it but he was actually excited about having a baby with Sakura. Not in real life not that it wouldn't be cool or anything just he...
Naruto shakes his head before he went anymore crazy with his thoughts. They immediately started writing down their traits in the sheet Jiraiya gave them. By the end of class, they were done and already had their baby' traits.
"It's a boy with blonde hair." Sakura felt relieved that their baby wouldn't have her hideous pink hair. Good thing it was just a doll or else he would also have her huge forehead.
"We dodged a bullet there almost had a boy with pink hair." Naruto touches a strand of her pink hair that escaped her messy bun. He missed touching her intimately and hoped she felt the same.
"I wouldn't really mind you have beautiful pink hair." Sakura blushes and puts the strand Naruto touched behind her ear. It was hard to resist him and she still regretted breaking up with him. Sometimes it didn't seem like they were broken up the way they constantly flirt.
Luckily the bell rang which meant that it was time to go home. "I'll walk you home."
"No need." She said but Naruto wasn't taking no for an answer. Sakura groaned and trailed behind him to her own apartment. Their walk was pretty lively he tried his hardest to make her smile and laugh.
They reach her place faster than any of them expected but the most unexpected thing happened when she felt him crash his lips on her. She tried to pull away but couldn't with Naruto heavyweight keeping her between her door and his body. In the end, she gave in and kissed him back with a hidden passion that has been locked away for a while.
Naruto deepens the kiss and lifts her up by her bottom as she unconsciously wraps her legs around his waist. His lips trail down her neck leaving her skin tingling and on fire. She let out an audible moan "stop." She moaned as she stared at the wall in front of her. She wanted it but felt she wasn't ready she would be disobeying her orders.
She unwraps her legs from his waist and tells him to stop once again. It seemed that Naruto was in his own little world as he planted kiss after kiss on her. He went as far as unzipping her jacket exposing her tank top. He kisses lower to her exposed cleavage still ignoring her cries for him to stop. Just as he was about to lift her shirt up a flash pushed him from her then punch him.
Sakura gasp as the one who stopped Naruto was Neji Hyuga currently exchanging blows with Naruto. "Stop!" She grabs a hold of Neji and pulls him off of the blonde. He acknowledged that she wanted them to stop fighting. They both had busted lips and bruised eyes. She scowled at the two teenagers before her glaring at each other. Sakura unlocks her apartment and pushes them inside. She gets some frozen peas from her freezer. She hands them both a pack and gets a wet towel to fix up the bloody mess called their lips.
"Neji what the Hell are you doing here?" She sits down beside Naruto and helps clean up his busted lip.
"I asked Tenten for your address and wanted to stop by to ask you a few questions. Then I heard you telling this idiot to stop and I guess I just reacted.
Sakura focuses a little too much on the wound as Naruto's deep blue orbs watched her closely with hunger in them. "I'm sorry Sakura-chan I should have stopped when you told me to."
Sakura sighs and meets his blues with her greens. "It's fine I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it." Naruto grins brightly and with his free arm and hands pull her on his lap.
Neji observed the couple closely comparing his relationship with Tenten to their relationship. "Naruto please Neji is sitting right there." Sakura gets up and goes to clean up Neji's lip.
"Aw come on Sakura-chan," He whined outwardly.
"We're not even together." Sakura with another wet cloth cleans Neji's busted lip also.
"You guys aren't together?" Sakura shakes her head no leading to more questions Neji had.
"Then wha-"
"We have our moments." Sakura says automatically even if she wanted to get back together with him it was just impossible. So instead, they stick to harmless flirting that one time it just got out of hand.
Naruto scoff at her straight forward answer, "please she likes me yet won't date me." Sakura rolls her eyes and observes the two.
"Are you friends now?" They look at each other than shrug. Sakura sighs once again regretting even being nice to them. She called it rewarding them for cheering her up a little. "Hey, Neji are you and Tenten still on that break?" Neji nods unsure why she wanted to know that information.
"That's actually the real reason I'm here. I think she and Lee went on a date the other night and I want you to ask her about it." Sakura stares blankly at Neji she was basically a messenger.
Sakura pulls out her phone and scrolls through her contacts. She presses the contact name panda-chan and press call then puts it on speaker.
"Hello?" Sakura clears her throat and puts on a false smile.
"Hey, Tenten quick question." There was silence for a minute before she finally responded.
"Sure Sakura what's up." Being the blunt girl she was she immediately asks her question.
"Are you and Lee a thing?" Almost immediately she replies.
"Hell no you know me and Neji is a thing. Why do you ask do you have a thing for Lee?" Neji quickly covers Naruto's mouth before he could say anything.
"Uh no just asking since I heard you two went on a date." Tenten bust out laughing loudly as if someone told a joke.
"Hanging out with your friends is now considered dating? Hehe." Sakura glares at Neji who looks away nervously.
"I have a question for you are you and Naruto a thing or what I heard you two had se-"
"Well see you tomorrow Tenten. Bye!" Sakura hangs up quickly before Tenten could say anything embarrassing.
"See Neji she still has feelings for you so go get her Hyuga." Neji nods with renewed confidence he walks right out of the door with her frozen peas. She shakes her head and tosses the towel on the table.
She didn't even want to see Naruto's reaction but it became unbearable when he constantly cleared his throat. "So people think we're an item..." He had a huge shit eating grin on his face. He pats the empty spot beside him happily. He wanted to continue where they left off and since she admitted she likes it didn't feel bad for wanting to make out with her.
"Naruto we talked about this." Nonetheless, she still finds herself sitting down beside him.
"You talked I listened, this time, you're listening I'm talking." Sakura groans and listens closely to his next words.
"I know you like me and I like you but the only thing keeping us apart is the Akatsuki am I right?"
"If I'm not mistaken you did say you loved me. I guess the rest is correct." She had her own grin on as she watched his cheeks redden.
"Right right anyway, since we feel the same about each other we shouldn't let something like the Akatsuki stop us from dating. Hell, they don't even have to know." Sakura sits up and rubs her temple. She didn't know what to do about their relationship but the reason the Akatsuki wanted them to break was because of not knowing much about Naruto.
Sakura sits back and leans her head on his shoulder as he wraps an arm around her. "I'll think about it if you tell me everything about your past.
Naruto looks down at her with emotional cerulean blue eyes. He hated his past it was full of nothing but pity and sadness. But if it helped their relationship then so be it.
"I had a mother and father named Kushina and Minato. We were pretty happy my mom was a stay at home mom taking care of me and my dad was in charge of the police force." She thought that name sounded familiar Minato trained Rin, Obito, and Kakashi.
"Everything was ok until my 8th birthday evidently my parents were driving to get my birthday present. As if on purpose a sleek black car crashed into my parents own car. By the time the ambulance and police came to my parents and the driver of the car was nowhere to be found. The police told me that they passed away but Jiraiya told me the truth." It was more like ease dropped on his conversation. She could see him trying his hardest to hold back tears as she opened old scars. Sakura intertwines their fingers just to let him know she was still there for him.
"Instead of being put up for adoption Jiraiya decided to take care of me until I was old enough to take care of myself. Not that he was here a lot in the first place. I also didn't tell you the truth about these whiskers or a lot really. I looked to getting into trouble a lot ya know acting out a lot until I met this man and played a prank on him. Least to say there was a lot of blood. He put three cuts on me each of my cheeks to make it look like a fox. So to hide the nasty scars I just got them tattooed." She never realized how much he went through. She always threw herself a pity party since she never knew her parents and the closet adoption she ever had been completely canceled. He had a loving family but ended up losing them she could only imagine how that felt.
Sakura straddles Naruto and wraps her arms around his shoulder and pulls his face to her shoulder. She has never comforted anyone a day in her life yet as she acted on Instinct it seemed to do just the thing she wanted. "Thank you for telling me that Naruto I'll give you another chance." She pecks his temple and lets him just hold her. She would have to tell Madara about what she just heard. She also needed to get her shit together she was definitely getting to soft. But for now, she's contempt with being with Naruto.
X
"Itachi how's my favorite new Akatsuki member?" Itachi stood before the leader of the Akatsuki on his daily update of their favorite new Akatsuki member.
"Depressed." He didn't have much to say about her since he hasn't seen her in a week for he was on another mission. The mission was to try and gather information on the Bijuu leader.
Madara smirked behind his hands he had to admit he didn't expect her to be the reason for two of their missions to be a success. Perhaps she wasn't as useless as he originally thought.
"Can't have that can we?" Itachi shakes his head no he hoped Madara wasn't going to do something to the pinkette. "Itachi what do you think of Sakura?"
"She's a pretty strong individual and I feel I've trained her well. I'll admit Yahiko and I were planning on killing him but it seems Sakura wanted to do it instead." Itachi felt pride being the one who trained the teenager.
"That wasn't her first time killing someone so why did she react like that?" Itachi thought for a second about the question for a minute.
"Perhaps in that short time, they talked she became close to him. She does have the ability to become friends even with her enemies." Madara grinned he had the perfect mission for her and it was another important one.
"May I ask what you plan to have Sakura do?" Madara gets up from his chair and walks around the desk to stand before Itachi.
"Itachi I see you like a son that's why I tell you these things but lately, I'm questioning where your loyalties lie." Itachi looked shocked he didn't do anything that made Madara question his loyalties to the Akatsuki.
"When I say loyalties I mean Sakura or the Akatsuki." Itachi now saw what he meant Sakura was like a little sister to him. "But I know that without you Sakura wouldn't be as useful as she is now, so keep up the good work. I'll personally tell her what her next mission is and it involves a pesky Bijuu rat in our city or should I say beetle."
Madara sits back down and lights a cigar. "Cheer her up we're going to need her later." Itachi bows and leaves the room he lets out the breath he didn't realize he was holding. Madara was getting far too suspicious for his own good. But all he knew was that he had to get to Sakura and inform her of what was going on.
X
Meanwhile, with Sakura and Naruto they were fast asleep on the couch with clothes all around. They didn't go too far since they still had their underwear on. Sakura awoke to urgent knocking on her apartment door. She quickly finds the closest item of clothing and quickly put them on.
"Coming. Coming." She opens the door a tiny crack and saw Itachi waiting impatiently at the door. She slips out of the door to talk to him outside of her apartment.
"You actually answered this time." He looks down at what she was wearing it was pretty obvious that the shirt wasn't hers but the sweatpants were. He could smell the ramen on her and knew that meant bad news.
"Yeah uh what's up?" Itachi noticed how anxious and not depressed she seemed compared to the last time he saw her.
"The guys and Konan are hanging out later you know how it's hard for all of us to be off on the same day." Sakura nodded repeatedly it was obvious she just wanted him to go away.
"Is that it?" Itachi narrows his onyx eyes but nonetheless he nods. Before she could turn away and head back inside he quickly grabbed ahold of her arm.
"You and I both know that if Madara finds out you're disobeying an order he'll beat you within an inch of your life." Sakura shrugs his hand off and openly glare at him.
"Any other day I would have actually given a fuck but for once in my fucked up life, I deserve some happiness. I finally have someone who loves me unconditionally and that's hard to find-"
"And when he finds out about everything you've done the good bad and ugly. Do you really think he'll still love you "unconditionally"?" Sakura glared down at her bare feet. He was right but she didn't plan on telling him that.
"Guess I'll just have to keep it from him as long as possible." With that being said she shuts the door in his face. She quietly walks back over to the couch and to her relief he was still asleep. She lays back down on the couch just to enjoy his close proximity and warmth.
But unknowingly to her Naruto was actually awake and heard bits of their conversation. No one told Sakura but the number one suspect of Hizashi's death was the Akatsuki. He would find out the truth from her the good the bad and the ugly. For now, he would just relax.
X
Later that day Akatsuki was at a sleazy bar drinking and enjoying their selves. No one questioned whether Sakura was coming or not. Instead, they chose to not dwell on it and drink until they couldn't drink anymore.
"You guys look pathetic." Multiple heads turn to the younger pinkette who blushed in embarrassment.
"Ahh you actually came I thought you would be with your new little bitch friends." Deidara slurs drunkenly a bit jealous and upset. All of the Akatsuki acted differently when drunk and it was hell when they're drunk together. Deidara tended to be an ass when drunk/high.
"I'm glad you came, babe." Sasori flirtatiously smirks her way. The red head tended to get a bit flirty. By a bit, she meant a lot. "Come over here and sit on my face." Sakura punches Sasori in the face and takes his seat. Yahiko laughs overly loud at the display of violence.
It was surprising that everyone wasn't drunk like for instance Konan, Itachi, and Nagato. Even Kakuzu was drunk.
"So you're not still upset and depressed about that mission?" Konan asks.
Sakura sighs Konan was like a big sister to her and often give her advice despite her quiet and preserved personality. It was rare that Konan ever gets wasted but when she does she loud and brash.
"At the time I was upset but now I've accepted it my hands have his blood on them forever." Konan gives her a sad look and rests a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"With time, it comes easier." Nagato says from the other side of Konan sipping on what she presumes is water.
"I highly doubt that." Sakura herself orders a beer. Even though she was young they still gave her drinks probably because of her relation with the Akatsuki.
"You're ruining the fucking mood bitch!" Hidan drunkenly yells the only difference that came with him being drunk was how loud he got.
Sakura sighs she just wasn't feeling the mood. "I got to go I'll see you guys later."
"leaving so soon?" Itachi was behind her probably getting ready to tell her something. Lately, their relationship has been rocky it seems like something or someone is changing them both.
"Yeah I'm still not completely back to myself." Sakura stands up and gets ready to leave.
"I think you should stay for a bit and loosen up Sakura." Nagato says very rarely telling someone to loosen up.
She wasn't as close to Nagato as say Yahiko but he was the one to go to for an intelligent conversation. "Yeah well I'm meeting up with someone lat-"
"One of your OTHER bitchy friends!?" Sakura sighed it was probably best if she leaves before Deidara caused even more commotion. So without another word she leaves without even a glance back. She could faintly hear Deidara yelp out of pain.
She needed a break she wouldn't be surprised if she had gray hair before she reaches 40. Sakura reaches into her jacket pocket and pulls out a carton of cigarettes. No matter how many times she told herself she would stop something always brought her back.
She lit up a cigarette finally able to take a long, soothing drag she thought that everything would feel ok, she exhaled and let the nicotine eat away the edge of her worries. The smoke curled up too soon evaporate in the air. "Do you always smoke that cancer stick." Sakura rolls her eyes another person telling her not to smoke. She was well aware of the effects it has on her body.
"Do you always stick your nose someplace it doesn't belong." The random person scoffs from behind her. From the tone of the voice, it was a female and it sounded really familiar.
"Snappy." Sakura finally had enough and decided to face the annoying person. Her glare fades as soon as she realizes who she was chatting to the whole time. "I've been looking for you Sakura."
"R-Rin?"
X
An inconspicuous person walks into the police station owned by the Uchiha. The person asks for Sasuke Uchiha receiving a suspicious look from the police officer. Nonetheless, they make a call it was a good thing that Sasuke was in helping his father with the station.
A couple years back there was rumors and speculation about the police station being corrupted. Even going as far as saying that Fugaku purposely got three officers killed.
"What is it?" Silence ensued between Sasuke and the person who requested him. The person pulled down his or her hood revealing blonde locks and bright ocean blue eyes filled with determination.
It was Naruto Uzumaki.
"Sasuke I want to help you take down the Akatsuki."
Dun dun dun cliffy. So Naruto wants to take down the Akatsuki but the question is why? Let's discuss this chapter. I wanted to make it feel as if Sakura's changing obviously for the best since she rejected getting drunk with her "family" I didn't want her to recover so quickly which I do feel she has over the death of Hizashi but don't worry because next chapter is the talk between Rin and Sakura, narusaku get their fake baby, and the funeral.