Previously on The longest year ever:
Sai and Sasuke won't work at the kindergarten anymore.
Sai made multiple paintings in request of the kids, once he had a, somehow, large amount of paintings he went to Sakura's apartment. To Naruto's dismay, Sakura had given Sai a key to her apartment and not to him.
Sasuke finishes what Saya had been doing for Sakura, bribes the ANBU watching him and goes to the hospital for a quick night visit to Sakura. He leaves the teddy bear on Sakura's bedside table.
Suna shinobi were in a pinch, the Grass nins had tricked them and poisoned most of the shinobi. Kankuro is fighting exhaustion, as is Temari. But at the last moment, when Temari is about to be stabbed in the chest, a wave of sand covers everyone and traps all of the grass nins. Gaara uses his jutsu and crushes the enemy, keeping his shinobi safe.
The girl in the darkness is in despair, not remembering anything about herself. Orochimaru speaks to her briefly, and, with a mischievous smile, tells her he will help her, which isn't at all reassuring.
I am sooooooo sorry for the late update, but i've been a bit busy with school and all, so please don't kill me!!
I worked really hard to make this chapter, so i hope you enjoy it, and of course, review when you're done!!
by the way, i was thinking of change my pen name to something like kaori-chan, what do you think?? should I??
The girl in the darkness stared at the pale man in fear.
"What are you going to do??" she asked while backing away, the man merely smiled and, in a swift movement, was in front of her, holding her down, a hand settled on her forehead.
"I told you already child, I am going to help you." He chuckled darkly as her body shook in fear.
"Let me go." She screamed and tried to back away from him, but he held her arm forcefully and pushed his hand to her forehead not at all gently.
"Don't be so feisty child." He mumbled in annoyance.
The girl started to feel dizzy, and everything started to spin for her.
"What's… happening to me?" she spoke the last part in a whisper and then everything went blank.
Chapter 11 – Acquaintances and White roses
The Kazekage stood at Suna gates waiting patiently for his siblings to arrive.
"Kazekage-sama, are you sure it is wise to go to Konoha just to-" He glared at the elder man from the council, and the man instantly shut up.
"Our problem with grass was solved, Suna is peaceful and not under any kind of threats." He stated, to which the elder man 's look began to become stern towards the young Kazekage.
"And, it's not a 'just', it is my duty to check on my friends when something is wrong, and Sakura is my friend." The elder man was about to say something else, but decided against it.
"Very well then." The man muttered rather un-heartedly and walked away, somehow pissed.
"Yo."
"Hey!" Came the greetings of his siblings as they landed next to him.
"Man, that old man sure is a pain." Kankuro muttered.
"Geez, can't they give it a break once in a while." Temari muttered.
"Anyhow, let's go." Gaara said, not really in the mood to discuss the members of the council, whom he thought of as a royal pain in the rear.
"YOSH!!" Temari and Kankuro cheered and the 3 siblings started to run towards Konoha.
She blinked her eyes to adjust to the light.
"Wait… light??" she looked around to see a green clearing surrounded by sakura trees, the sun high in the sky, a few birds flying, other chirping, but something in this picture was missing.
"There's no wind." She slowly sat up and looked around, there was no one in sigh.
"Where am I??" she asked to no one in particular and got up.
She looked around in suspicion, Orochimaru was a tricky bastard. She slowly started to walk around, and as she walked through the sakura trees she saw a group of people, she approached them, but they didn't seem to notice.
They never see you.
A voice in her mind said in a hissing tone.
You're nothing to them.
The voice continued.
They probably don't even know who you are
The girl looked around, trying to see where the voice came from, but it came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.
The Sandaime Hokage, the Godaime Hokage Tsunade, the toad Sannin Jiraya, you know them, but they don't even know you.
The voice continued and the girl clenched her fists while looking at the 3 people sitting in the grass talking, words and sounds she couldn't hear.
She took a few steps forward and tried to touch Tsunade, but as soon as her fingers were about to touch Tsunade's shoulder, the 3 in the grass dissipated in a light greysmoke.
"What…??" the girl looked around again and saw yellow mischievous eyes observing her in the shadows of a tree.
Your fear… I can almost taste it…
The voice said mischievously and the yellow eyes disappeared.
The girl ran, and ran, until another group of people appeared.
Oh, more people, maybe you know them too.
The voice came again, and the girl stared at the people sharing a picnic.
"Anko… Genma… Izumo… Kotetsu… Shizune… Tonton…" the girl whispered.
Once again, you know them all… but do they know you??
"They do??" the girl asked hopeful for a positive answer.
They don't, what would a child like you be good for anyway?
The girl shook her head.
"No, you're wrong." She stated and walked closer to the group, this time, she was just a few centimetres away when the group disappeared in flower grains.
"Where-" the voice interrupted her.
They went away, they don't want you around.
The girl shook her head and started to run again, maybe this time the voice would go away… she hoped so.
She stopped when she saw another group of people.
Oh… a famous and strong group of Shonobi, they defend Konoha and their allies, but you can't even defend yourself, you always end up hurt.
The girl sniffed and looked at the large group of people sharing sweets and tea next to a lake that suddenly appeared.
"Asuma… Kurenai… Gai… Shikamaru… Chouji… Ino… Hinata… Kiba… Shino… Lee… Neji… Tenten…" she whispered their names and took a few steps, stopping far away, just watching them.
Once again child, you know them, but they don't know you. You'll always be indifferent for them, just a mere incognito civilian.
"No… no…" she whispered and contained the tears that wanted to fall, then taking a step forward, the group of people disappeared in small tree leaves, the lake disappeared as well.
An insignificant defenceless useless girl, that's what you are.
The voice hissed, the vibrations of each word hitting like hard rocks thrown at her
"NO." she screamed, everything around her started to spin, the trees started to fade away in spirals and the grass turned into sand, the green clearings surrounded by sakura trees disappeared and were replaced by an endless desert.
Face the facts, you're nothing.
The voice hissed again, some tears fell down her eyes. She shocked on a sob and fell to her knees, her eyes looking at the sand, her hands buried in the warm golden/orange substance.
"I'm… not worthless… I… Am I??" she whispered between soft sobs as a group of 6 appeared walking towards her. She looked at them in hope. Hope that they would stop and tell her who she was, so she would know, so she would know if she really was useless like the voice said.
More important people, you're not even worth their time.
The girl let more tears fall from her emerald eyes and kept staring at the people.
A red haired was walking in the front, leading the way, poker face on, clothes black, a kanji tattoo on his forehead, eyes of jade.
"Gaara… the Kazekage…" she whispered.
Behind him and blabbering things she couldn't hear was a blond, a grin on his face, whiskers on his cheeks, clothes in orange and some black, eyes of light clear sapphire.
"Naruto… He wants to be Hokage…"
Behind the blond were a grey haired man, hitai-ate covering his left eyes, one hand in his pocket, the other holding the Icha Icha book open so he could read.
"Kakashi… the copy ninja…"
Besides him was a man, his hands in his pockets, hitai-ate on his forehead, eyes calculating, a smile on his lips and he spoke to Kakashi.
"Yamato… he has the mokuton…"
Besides Yamato were 2 siblings, one blond, hair in 4 pony tails, wearing a black kimono and a huge fan on her back, the other was wearing black, short spiky brown hair, scrolls on his back.
"Temari and Kankuro… she masters the wind with her fan… and he's a great puppeteer…"
And they all don't even know of your existence.
The voice commented mischievously.
The girl stared in hope, but as the group got closer to her, they disappeared in a swirl of sand and petals.
Worthless.
"No."
Insignificant.
"No, you're wrong."
Useless.
"No… no."
Weak.
"I… no… no…" the world around the girl started to swirl around her, fainting into darkness once again.
Pathetic.
"I'm… I'm not…"
Annoying.
"I…" she couldn't say anything, somehow, that word hurt her, a lot.
And ugly.
"I…" once again she had no words, those 2 last words, it was as if she was being stabbed in the chest over and over again.
The world she had been in turned into endless darkness once again, and all she could do was cry, and cry… and cry, because she didn't knew who she was, and because that voice was right about her.
Away from the girl stood Orochimaru, observing her with a victorious smile, enjoying the way she was suffering.
"My plan worked perfectly." He stated to himself and chuckled lightly as the girl cried, and sobbed, and sniffed.
2 weeks later (5 and a half months since Sasuke returned to Konoha)
Tsunade looked at the 2 people in her apprentices' room, 2 boys, trained not to show emotions, yet they were both there, keeping the pink haired girl company, even if said girl wasn't actually aware of it.
Making up her mind, Tsunade entered the room.
"You 2 should go home and sleep." She recommended, they had been in there for almost a full week without getting out.
"I'm not going anywhere." The raven haired male said bluntly. Tsunade narrowed her eyes at the boys' lack of respect towards her, the Hokage.
Seeing she was about to snap, the other boy intervened.
"With all due respect Hokage-sama, but I'd rather stay here watching over Sakura-chan than to be away." the calm stoic teen said calmly, and Tsunade did calm down and let the bluntness of the raven haired teen slip off.
"Still, it's not healthy for anyone to be locked up in a room." She insisted.
"Just shut up with your concerned speeches you old hag, I'm not leaving this room until Ugly wakes up." Tsunade glared at Sai, and the other boy in the room sighed.
"Can't you stop snapping at people you idiot." The boy muttered and shook his head.
"Shup ut." Sai muttered back. The 2 locked eyes and glared at each other. Tsunade rolled her eyes, ever since they met, they didn't get along too well.
Sai scoffed and turned away to look outside muttering something in the lines.
"…thinks he's so good… Kick his ass some day… stupid ranks…"
The other male in the room shook his head and sat down in the chair next to Sakura's bed.
"Her injuries healed well." The quiet boy mumbled as Tsunade started doing the daily check-up.
"Indeed." Tsunade replied. "But her condition doesn't seem to improve further than that." The Lady Hokage sighed and looked at the boy seating on the chair.
"You should go back, the council won't be pleased if you stay here too long." She commented, to which the red haired boy shrugged.
"With all due respect to them all, but I don't really care about what they think Tsunade-sama." Tsunade gave an understanding smile and then mentally listed what she had to do to Sakura.
"I need to change her bandages, so you 2 go for a walk outside." She ordered.
"Very well." Gaara got up and walked to the door. "You're supposed to come too idiot." Sai glared at Gaara's back.
"Say that again you freak." He hissed and followed the red haired outside. Gaara shook his head.
Tsunade chuckled at the 2 teens behaviour, Gaara acted completely out of character near Sai, those 2 were always fighting about something, not physically, it was rather in words and threats.
The Lady Sannin looked down at her apprentice and sighed, it had been almost a month since Sakura was in a coma. During those 3 weeks, Naruto had been unusually calm and composed, Sai had been showing too many emotions, like expressing his extreme annoyance at Sakura's fan boys that always wanted to visit her, Gaara, well, he had been with Sakura since he arrived Konoha and Sasuke… Sasuke.
Tsunade had kept giving him small missions, like clean gardens and help people out, and he had done it, but he almost never spoke, only when strictly necessary. No one had put another chakra binding on him, but he didn't seem to use his chakra anyway. And there was something she didn't quite understand, why had the ANBU reports about him been lacking information, it was usually a 3 to 5 hours blank during the nights, but it still bothered her, especially since she had seen Sasuke going away from near the hospital a few nights before, and she hadn't seen any ANBU.
She shrugged all of her thoughts off and started taking off Sakura's bandages, her stomach, back, neck and arm had had burns from her jutsu, but they were healed now, except for the seal in her right lower arm, that didn't plan on going anywhere, Tsunade wondered if it was ok to leave the seal in her apprentice, but she couldn't actually do anything since she had almost no knowledge about Sakura's jutsu.
She decided that since Sakura's injuries were healed she didn't need to bandage her anymore, but she still wrapped the pink haired girl's chest, since her bra had accidentally been cut off when she had arrived to the hospital, and Tsunade didn't want anyone, even if not intentionally, to see the girls' breasts.
She redressed her apprentice and then checked her vitals, Sakura could breathe alone since a few days, the seal had been stable for 2 weeks and Sakura's organs seemed fine, only her brain seemed to lack response since the teen was still in a coma.
She decided to take all the machines, except the heartbeat measuring one, out of the room, since they were no longer needed, and so she did.
As soon as Tsunade cam out of the room she sighed in relief, Sai and Gaara weren't there, she supposed they had gone to have dinner or something, but she was relieved they had gone out of the room. She knew they cared for their friend, but she also knew that they couldn't just close themselves inside a hospital room, it wasn't at all healthy.
After putting the machines in their due place, Tsunade walked to the main floor of the hospital and went into her office, it was like her Hokage office, except in this one she only dealt with medical matters.
She sat down in the chair and started to write the improving on Sakura's file, and after a few minutes she felt a presence on the outside of the office. She kept her work, and the presence kept there, and she knew it wasn't at all for her that the person was there, said person was there just to watch Sakura.
Tsunade walked to the window and looked down to see a raven haired teen sitting on a tree branch in front of Sakura's window. She looked further and frowned, there weren't any ANBU near him.
She was about to say something when she saw him get up and walk to the window. She kept quiet and observed him silently.
He opened the window and knelt in the window sill, Tsunade could vaguely see (she was already half way out of her window, a bit more and she would fall) what the teen was doing, but she still registered what he did. And it somehow shocked her.
The cold, heartless, not caring, ice hearted Uchiha Sasuke had just left flowers in Sakura's bedside table, and then, with a low sigh, he disappeared in a swirl of green leaves.
Tsunade couldn't believe her eyes, was that really the boy that had slaughtered Orochimaru and his men?
She closed her window and, just to make sure it wasn't her brain playing tricks on her, she went back to Sakura's room. And there they were, in Sakura's bedside table, neatly tied in a navy blue ribbon, 2 roses, not the red roses she often knew were offered to Sakura by her fan boys, the roses in her bedside table were pure white roses, their white clashed with the darkness of the room.
Tsunade frowned, there hadn't been any ANBU nearby, but her look softened as she took a small glass vase and put the roses in it, one thought in her head.
"Sasuke cares about her."
Now she understood why there weren't any ANBU around, Sasuke didn't want anyone to know he visited Sakura, so he, she supposed, bribed the ANBU o be able to.
What she was curious about was, where had he gotten the roses, she knew the Yamanaka flower shop didn't have white roses with such a pure white.
After giving Sasuke one hour for whatever he had been doing, the ANBU returned to watch him, to see Sasuke standing in the roof of his house looking at the sky. The ANBU landed in the other side of the roof, facing Sasuke.
They stayed in silence, and as the wind blew, Sasuke spoke.
"I have something to ask." The ANBU raised a brow under his mask.
"And what might that be exactly?" Sasuke looked down at the ANBU.
"You helped Kakashi train Naruto right?" the ANBU nodded.
"And your point is??" Sasuke's look changed from blank to serious, determinate and fierce.
"Help me train." The ANBU stared at Sasuke, for such a person to ask him something, to ask anything to anybody, it had to be something he had been dwelling with himself for a while now.
"Why?"
"I have my reasons, and your abilities would help." This particular ANBU just watched him, how could he know so much when he hadn't been here to see, especially about the training Kakashi and himself had done to Naruto.
"Why? Why now?" Sasuke stayed quiet and looked back at the sky.
"I don't want to be controlled by the bastard I already killed." Sasuke said and threw something at the ANBU.
"A scroll?"
"Open it." The ANBU opened the scroll and as he started reading his eyes widened. He stared at Sasuke.
"Where did you get this?" he demanded.
"When I killed everyone in the base, I took all the scrolls and written information Orochimaru had." Sasuke paused and looked at the ANBU. "I thought that what that scroll contains should be with you since it concerns you Tenzou-san."
"He certainly knows how to play his cards, and to even know my name and not just the codename Tsunade-sama gave me…"
"So?" Yamato stared at Sasuke for a while, pondering on what to do, until he decided.
"Fine." Sasuke nodded as Yamato put the scroll on his pocket. "But on one condition." Sasuke nodded once again.
So?? was it ok?? i really hope so...
-sigh- well, i have a few ideas for the next chapter, but i'd like your opinion...
who would you like to be the trigger to Sakura's awakening:
a) Sasuke
b) Sai
c) Sasuke and Sai
please tell me, i'd help me a lot.