I now realize that I will be putting all these up at the same time. Ah well, at least it'll partially make up for the times that I never signed on. I just thought of this conclusion at 12 or 1 in the morning…I hope it makes a bit of sense.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Suna (Kazekage's Building)
Sasuke's POV
I opened the door to his room and observed it. It had a wooden closet in the corner with a bed adorned with green sheets beside two large windows. A pitcher was placed on a bedside table. There was another door that led to a bathroom equipped with a narrow shower, a toilet and a sink. The room was basic and simple, much like a live-in hospital room. The windows were open with the curtains fluttering in the wind. I trudged over to the bed and put my heavy backpack down near the end of it, it made a low thud as it fell. Ugh, my shoulder felt unbearably stiff when the heavy burden was relieved from it. I can't believe I had fought with it on my back for so long. As I got up, my wrist cracked a bit and sent a flare of pain up my arm.
"Ouch," I winced," This actually hurts…"
After washing up and changing, I laid down on my bed. For some reason I couldn't sleep even though the gentle wind was blowing in from the window. Surprisingly, it wasn't very hot; it must be these cement walls. Instead of forcing sleep upon myself, I stared at the ceiling. It was totally blank, except for a spider crawling along the edge. As I watched it scurry away at my presence, I finally got some time to do my thinking.
What did he want? I didn't mean Naruto, when I fought him, I could watch someone else, someone strange yet somehow familiar. I had sensed that somehow, he was assessing my skills. One thing I knew for sure was that Naruto was not going all-out on me. That was certainly insulting. All my life, I had looked down on him, just like I had looked down on everyone. This sudden outburst didn't really change my point of view though. He was obviously tricked into this, but how? I analyzed the past few weeks; none of us had done anything wrong or provoking in that case.
ping
Eh? A kunai? With…a note attached to it? My heart started to beat erratically as I pulled it out of the wall. It was written in messy, but perfectly legible scrawl. One that could only belong to one person. Sakura.
' meet me on the roof '
Eh? I was really confused now. She never wanted to talk to me before, why now? Wait, I get it now…she wants an explanation. Of course, Naruto's not here and she wants to know why. How ironic, usually I'm the one that disappears. Now that I'm back, it seems like it was Naruto's cue to disappear.
I carefully got up, trying not to make any sort of contact with my wrist. This is truly annoying, I hate getting hurt.
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on the roof
Sakura's POV
I demand an explanation. Ever since I saw Naruto take off with that tall man, I had always wondered why. Theories were running everywhere in my mind. Maybe they had dispatched Naruto to go and find out the location of the enemy's stronghold. Maybe he got lost and a friendly stranger had picked him up. He certainly was dumb enough, after all. Maybe….whatever…I knew that I was only trying to hide the truth that was so plainly laid out before my eyes. He had betrayed us and left on his own. I still couldn't believe it, maybe he was tricked. Now that, was a possibility.
"Hey."
I whirled around to find myself nose to nose with Sasuke. When did he get here?!
"Oh, hello Sasuke-kun. How's your wrist?"
He grunted, and muttered:
"It's been better."
"Um…do you want me to heal it for you?"
"No, your chakra is already low, I don't want you collapsing on me. Too troublesome."
"You sound like Shikamaru-kun!"
"No, it's just the truth. Besides, you're married now, what would the other's think if they saw us together on the roof and you collapsing on me?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
His cold eyes revealed a glimmer of what seemed like sorrow. His icy lips barely moved as he looked at the black sky.
"Yeah…right…"
A few minutes passed without either of us exchanging a word as the stars shone overhead. Suddenly, I remembered why I had asked him to come.
"Sasuke?"
"Yeah?"
"I was wondering…"
"…where Naruto is, right?"
"Yeah…"
At this, he looked down at the ground as if he wanted to the ground to crack open so he could jump in. This disappeared after a mere second. Without looking at me, he put into words what I was afraid to think of.
"He left. And that's all there is."
His emotionless voice dropped to a whisper as he thought of Naruto. I was shocked. Up until now, I had never permitted myself to think the unthinkable. That he would leave. It couldn't be true. It just couldn't! Then I remembered where I was, it would be shameful to show emotion in front of him. Shinobis weren't supposed to have emotions. Never.
I sucked in my breath and cleared my throat.
"What happened?"
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Suna, 7:00a.m.
Kiba & Hinata's room
Hinata's POV
I woke up to sunlight coming through my eyelids. What? Where am I? I quickly sat up and looked around. Sunlight was streaming from the open windows as a slight breeze flowed through. Careful not to wake Kiba up, he must've fallen asleep while talking to me last night. Oh well, it's not the first time that I shared a bed with him. I slipped on my pale lavender shirt and put on a light purple short-sleeve jacket. Taking off my silky pajamas, I put on a pair of lavender pants that came to just below my knees. I took out a fresh roll of bandages and wrapped them around on arms and lower legs before I slip my shoes on. I tied my hair into a ponytail and walked quietly out of my room. I opened the door slowly to find myself face to face with the Kazekage.
"O-oh, h-hello, K-kazekage-s-san."
"Just…Gaara…"
"Th-thank y-you, K-kaze-I m-mean G-gaara-san."
"…"
That was really frightening. His skin looks so pale and his eyes were always outlined with that black stuff. I closed the door behind me and walked down the hallway. I felt his light tea-green eyes follow me. It was a bit unnerving. He didn't follow me, but for some reason I felt like someone or something was following me. I shuddered a bit and continued walking down the hall after taking a quick glance behind me. Sure enough, there was a third eyeball following me. It was probably just making sure I didn't get attacked…right? After I walked out of the building, I felt that the eye was gone. My tensed shoulders relaxed and I let out a breath that I never knew that I was holding. I walked with a more comfortable gait and proceeded down the road. I haven't been to Sunagakure before and it didn't look like much.
There weren't really and trees, except for some dry and hardy ones here or there. The parks consisted of wooden swings and a sandbox. I wondered why they even needed such a thing, the whole village was filled with sand. As I walked through the streets, I felt numerous pairs of eyes staring at me. Unexpectedly, my face flushed pink. It's uncomfortable when everyone stares at you because you have no pupils and had pale skin. I observed the streets; there were general stores, grocery stores, restaurants, ramen stores, bars, and just no flower shops. And the only place where water was free was at the wells located throughout the city and your own sink.
A warm breeze blew through the town and some sand had come with it. Some got stuck in my eyes and I rubbed them out. Looking up from my feet, I realized that I had arrived at a set of swings. I walked over and sat on one. It swung slowly and it reminded me of something….
"Look at him! He's the only one that didn't pass the test!"
"I know, and did you see the marks on his face?"
"He must be that demon child—"
"Shhh…don't say anything more, it's forbidden…"
The two women then vanished into the crowd and away from the lonely boy slowly rocking on the swings. The wind blew some leaves up from the ground and carried them over to his feet. This was the worst day of his life, he was so sure that he would pass the exam this year, but he didn't. Why?
A little girl stared at the boy from afar. She was the heir to the prestigious Hyuuga clan. But unlike most of the other clan members, she was very shy and gentle. Also, she hd taken a quiet liking to the "demon-child". To her, he was a normal boy, not a demon, but someone who had the fire that pushed him to try harder than anyone else. As she peeked at him from the corner, her heart had filled with sympathy for that boy. She knew what it was like to be looked down upon, to be hated. No one else should deserve that kind of treatment, especially him. He worked so hard.
How was she so sure? Because she had watched him grow, observed him throughout the years. Every time, she left her own training to just watch him try and fail, try and fail…over and over again. This was her own secret, something that she wouldn't share, her own little peaceful love.
"Hinata-san?"
I snapped out of my daydream and looked up to see Temari-san staring down at me. My heart immediately started to calm down, I was so relieved!
"Y'know, if I was an enemy, you would've been dead already," she teased.
"I-I'm s-sorry, T-temari-sa-san…"
"Sorry for what? I was just making some fun. Besides, we need some of that around here."
I smiled, she didn't even know how much I needed that. The memory I just had of Naruto made my heart ache again. He was so nice and good then, what went wrong? Without warning, my eyes clouded over and a single tear rolled down my cheek.
"Hey! Don't start crying, Hinata-san!"
"I-I'm, s-sorry..I w-was just th-thinking ab-about N-na-narut-to-k-k-kun…"
"Don't be sorry about that, okay, Hinata-san? Speaking of Naruto-kun, where is he? What happened?"
Just as expected, of course she would ask that. I never had a chance to tell her, after all. She probably wanted a good explanation right away. I took a deep breath and started to tell her about what happen two days before.
"They're gone! Sasuke and Naruto…they're gone!"
He turned around to face Hinata.
"Activate your byakugan, Hinata, let's find them!"
"H-hai."
She crinkled her eyes for a second and bulging veins appeared alongside both eyes. Lifting her head, her lavender eyes scanned the area with her byakugan. At a cluster of trees to the north, she stopped and nodded toward that direction.
"Th-that way."
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"Hn!"
Sasuke grunted as he dodged the fully formed Rasengan. Leaping back onto a nearby tree, he sent 10 kunai flying toward his assailant as he performed the Dragon Fire Technique along the invisible wires attached to the lethal weapons. Fire jumped and traveled along the strings roped around the kunai. The so called "victim" smirked, this would be so easy. He jumped and appeared behind Sasuke.
"You'll never beat me."
"Grrr…"
Suddenly, Sasuke's already fully activated Sharingan eyes turned Mangekyo Sharingan.
"I was going to save this for later, but now, I'll use it to finally knock some sense back into you---TRAITOR!"
Obviously, the blond was taken aback.
"Wh-when did you gain the M-mangekyo?"
"The person I looked up to betrayed me, I threw my life away for revenge, then I lost the most precious person to me. Now---my best friend has betrayed me and his village, how could I not gain the Mangekyo after so much suffering?!"
Roaring, Sasuke drew his Kusanagi sword and channeled One Thousand Birds Current into it. His face appeared emotionless as he leaped through the air. The other followed and Sasuke appeared behind him as he sliced his empowered sword toward the other. The blond looked back in surprise. Bad move. Sasuke's Mangekyo was activated and that was no good situation.
"SASUKE! WHAT THE H--- ARE YOU DOING?!"
A familiar voice tore through the midst of fighting.
"N-naruto!"
Finally, Hinata's byakugan had found them. Sasuke glared at Naruto and screamed to them.
"GET AWAY!! Can't you see? He's evil, that's not the Naruto we know---that one is gone. GET AWAY! I wont let you die too!"
Kiba and Hinata gaped at Sasuke. When did he turn into this? The Sasuke they knew was cold and bent on revenge, now he was willing to sacrifice his life for them? It was unbelievable, but strangely, they didn't feel that he was lying, maybe he had really changed. But…why?
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! GET OUT, NOW!"
At that moment, Sasuke's genjustu released and Naruto fell as his Mangekyo was replaced by regular Sharingan. Slowly, Naruto got up and snarled.
"This isn't over, Uchiha."
Dark clouds formed around him as he disappeared.
"D-do y-you g-get it n-now..?"
From her lack of expression, I gathered that she understood. She didn't say a word, just stood there, her shoulders shaking. I know what that felt like, like my heart was breaking into a million pieces, like my heart was being pulled out of my chest..
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Temari's POV
That can't be true. It shouldn't be.
Even though…I don't know him well…I know he wouldn't ever betray his friends like that.
Move dammit! Why can't I move? I just need to do something, to something to get away from this feeling in my heart. Why does it ache? The last time it hurt like this…was a long time ago…
I don't want to think about that anymore.
That wasn't Naruto, it must've been someone else. A doppelganger? A clone?
--------------------------------
On the Roof
Sakura's POV
The sun's so hot…is it morning already? I can't tell, I don't know if I care anymore….Sasuke told me everything. I couldn't focus, it couldn't be true.
Naruto would never do anything like that. Never.
My heart hurts, it aches, it feels like it's being ripped apart. The last time I felt like this…was when Sasuke left me on the bench….a long time ago.
I don't want to think about that.
Naruto's loyal, he's a good friend, he would never, ever betray us. Sasuke must be lying. He has to be.
Everything else but that. Naruto would never do such a thing. Never.
There must be a reason.
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Temari's & Sakura's POV
Anything.
It. Just. Can't. Be. Him.
Move. Dammit.
I need to run, to get away from this pain.
To be continued...
Uh…yeah. that was pretty much chapter 16. This fanfic will be ending in 4 more chapters. Then I hope that you'll read the sequel. The final ending will be in the sequel. Clue: I don't believe in happy endings. Just a warning.
PLZ REVIEW!!!!!!!
moonlight haku