Look At Us Now

By ValkyrieWarrior

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

I just have to say sorry for taking sooooo long to update. I have been really busy and also, I suffered a major case of writer's block.

Summary: Sasuke is finally back, but something feels terribly off. Will Naruto be able to figure it out before it's too late?

I want to thanks those who reviewed my story. THANKS.

templar132, I want to say thank you. You are awesome! Thanks for beta reading this and your support.

Also, thanks for your support.

Onward...

'thoughts'

"talking"

Inner-self/Kyuubi

Flashback(s)

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Previously

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"You want to save her, right? Well, in order to do that, you have to stay away from her."

To save Sakura means that he had to stay away from her.

"It's up to you Naruto-kun. You could kill her, or you could save her." Kabuto finished. Soon, he was gone, leaving Naruto behind to think about his options.

If he stays with Sakura, she would die because of him. If he left Sakura, he would die inside without her.

'You're choice, Naruto-kun.'

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Chapter 7: Broken Hearts

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Naruto stood motionless in the middle of the living room, evoking on the past event that had just taken place. He didn't know what to think, it had all happened so fast.

He wanted to run after Kabuto, but he was frozen on the spot where he stood helplessly.

'There's a poison running through her veins, Naruto. A poison that only you can activate.'

Kabuto's words echoed within his mind, driving him wild and furious.

Why did he become weak all of a sudden? He could have knocked him out, he knew it. But...the moment he heard Sakura's name, all strength had left him.

"Sakura." He said with a trembling voice.

Naruto's breathing was getting heavier and heavier. He just wanted to sit down and contemplate on what just happened. For some time, he just stood there, lost in his thoughts.

The ringing of his clock snapped him out of whatever it was he had fallen into, and so he walked over to the chair and sat down.

'You will kill her, Naruto. You will kill her.'

The words kept coming back, firm on making him miserable.

Were those words that Kabuto said just words? Could he have lied to make Naruto this way?

He didn't know. There could be a chance that Kabuto was just messing with him. Maybe Kabuto was just that sick and twisted.

'That has to be it, he was just bluffing!' Naruto thought.

But, did he really want to risk the chance of hurting Sakura just because he thought Kabuto was faking it? He couldn't. No, he wouldn't risk that. Sakura meant everything to him, and without her, there wouldn't be much to live for. Sure he would still have his friends, but...Naruto doubted he would be happy without her there.

Naruto sat there a bit longer. Why not just ask Tsunade to cure the poison in Sakura? She is the greatest medic Konoha has around, so who better to do the task than her? It would have been a bright idea, but fear got the worst of him. Say he goes to Tsunade and tell her everything, what makes him so sure that Kabuto would not come back for revenge? What if Kabuto could just as easily activate the poison as he so claimed that Naruto could? What would stop him from doing so? Kabuto wouldn't congratulate him for out-smarting him, no, he would come back with something more devastating.

Naruto couldn't go to Tsunade for this, he didn't want to jeopardize the only chance he had to save Sakura.

He had no other choice.

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"How does this look?" Ino asked her friends as she held up a blue top.

"It's okay, but I still think that the purple suites you more." Sakura replied.

"Yeah." Tenten added.

The girls were out shopping at Konoha's only shopping center. They all wanted to just get out and spend the day together and usually that meant shopping.

"Alright." Ino placed back the clothing. She started to look around for more again when she spotted a nice kimono on display. "Hey Hinata, look at this."

Hinata turned at the sound of her name. "Huh?"

"This would look so cute on you!" Ino grabbed one and rushed to Hinata's side. Once there, Ino immediately pulled Hinata into a dressing room, forcing her to try it on.

While Hinata was occupied by Ino, Sakura decided to look around the store some more. Tenten was too busy looking around herself, so Sakura really had nothing better to do.

She saw nothing of interest in the room, which was filled with endless racks of feminine clothing. Not that she didn't want any of it, it was just that something seemed to be drawing her attention away from it all. Minutes of aimless walking, Sakura found herself inside another store. The walls were occupied by wooden shelves, which held a variety of things, some were head bands and some were scrolls. In the middle of the room there was a table with different types of weapons; like shurikens, kunais, and senbons. Sakura looked around, not particularly because she was interested in what she was seeing, but because something was calling out to her. She didn't know what, but there was something in the room that was drawing her in. She walked to the back corner of the store, finding nothing much in there either, just shelves of consumer items. She was about to turn and leave when something caught her eye.

On one of the shelves, she saw a necklace.

Sakura walked over to it and picked it up. The necklace wasn't much, it was a simple accessory with a simple design, but what really caught her eye were the two flames engraved on the stone. They were side by side, one was red and the other blue. Sakura turned the stone around and on the back of it was a swirl. It reminded her so much of Naruto.

"There you are forehead!" Sakura turned around after hearing Ino's voice. "We've been looking for you."

"Sorry you guys, I kinda lost track of time." She apologized. Ino just stood there while Hinata weakly smiled and Tenten nodded.

"Ready to go?"

"I just have to get something." Sakura said before she grabbed the necklace again and headed to the register.

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Sakura walked into her room. It was starting to get dark and the weather was getting colder and colder.

She walked over to the window and shut it closed, cutting off the chilly breeze

"Have I ever mentioned how much I hate winter?" Inner Sakura said, hoping to start a conversation.

'Once or twice. Yes.'

"Well, I don't like it."

'Better get used to it then.' Sakura advised her. On her way back, Sakura noticed a folded paper on her desk.

She unfolded it and began reading.

'Sakura, meet me at the park.' She looked at the paper, turned it over and scanned the back.

"That's it?" Inner Sakura was a little surprised by the brevity of the note.

There was nothing else written on the paper, except the note itself and the name of the person who sent it.

'Naruto never writes me letters like these.' Sakura found it a little suspicious that Naruto would start doing so when all his life he never once approached her like this.

"Maybe he was in a rush, or he couldn't find you." She offered to Sakura.

'Possibly.'

Sakura looks at her clock and realized that it was ten to seven.

'Oh crap.' Sakura rushed to her drawer and took out a tiny box.

She grabbed a coat and within seconds she was gone.

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The air blew past as it carried the freezing wind with it. The sun had already set, but still some light remained.

A gloomy young man was sitting on a bench in the middle of a desolate field.

He was looking down on the ground as he sat there. There was no one else there except him.

His dreary presence caused everything to die around him. The animals that usually grazed the land were gone, hiding from the dull world outside. The tree that stood beside the bench was withering, preparing for the long sleep it was about to take. Even the grass was dead, due to the unpleasant climate it was being subjected to. Everything seemed so obscure in the dusk.

Nothing was alive.

Naruto sat there quietly. How could he possibly do this? He knew he had no choice, but that didn't make it easier. How could he look at her face and see her heart breaking in front of him?

'It's for her own good,' he kept telling himself, 'it's for her own good,' but even that didn't help. It wouldn't help him feel better because he was still breaking her heart. Even with him knowing this, it still made him feel terrible because she doesn't know. To Sakura, it was a break-up, a simple and ugly break-up. She didn't know what Naruto knew, so she's going to think that there is something wrong with her, that she's not good enough for him. She would blame herself for it.

Naruto didn't want that, but what else could he do?

He couldn't stay with her because staying with her now would be worse that breaking up with her. How could he possibly live with knowing that she died because of him? It tore him up and drove him mad! He wanted to scream at the top of his lungs, punch a brick wall repeatedly until his hands bled. He wanted to run home and weep like a child to no end.

Naruto sat there as his body shook and a tear fell from his eye.

'What are you doing? You can't be like this, you have to be strong.' He told himself while he wiped the tear away.

'You've got to,' he was about to cry, 'got to be strong for her.' Naruto said to himself, trying to hold his composure.

It made him feel slightly better. Only slightly.

He looks up into the silent field as he tries to think about anything except for the event to come. He tried thinking about the first time he received a ninja head band, he thought about his days in the academy, how he would always get in trouble when he was out training with Jiraiya, anything but her. But he found that the solitude provided by his heart and mind drew him back to thinking about her.

He hears the footsteps of someone approaching so he turned around.

There was Sakura walking towards him and she was smiling.

Her presence and the way she was smiling, he didn't know why but, it made him feel better. It made him smile.

For a brief second. Soon, he remembered why he was there and his spirit died once more.

"Hey Naruto, why did-" Sakura stopped talking. She noticed Naruto's face. It was different, it wasn't happy like it always is. Like it should be. "What's wrong Naruto?"

Sakura was motionless, terrified to come any closer. She was afraid. Naruto would never look like this unless something horribly wrong had happened.

Naruto walked towards her. "Sakura-ch-... Sakura." He said limply.

"We need to talk."

The omission of the honorific brought a chill to her spine. "What's wrong Naruto? Has something happened?" She asked him with so much concern in her eyes.

It broke his heart.

"No, nothing happened." He said in the same manner as before.

Sakura seemed to lighten up a bit, but she was still concerned, something was disturbingly wrong.

Naruto looked around, looking at everything except for her eyes. "Do you want to sit down?" He asked, looking at the bench.

Sakura was still worried, she had no idea what was going on with him and it terrified her so much not knowing. They walked to the chair and sat down.

They fell into an awkward silence.

Sakura was too afraid to say a word while Naruto was too busy trying to avoid eye contact. So she waited for him to say something.

"Sakura," Naruto begins, "I want..." He tried to say it, but he found out that it was harder in real life than when he had practiced it.

"Naruto?" She grabbed his hand and squeezed it, silently asking him what the problem was.

That made him feel even worse than he already was.

'I can't do this.' He told himself.

He pulled his hand back.

Sakura was confused as to why he did that, but it mostly hurt.

He rejected her.

'Why is he acting like this?' She asked herself.

There was another moment of uneasy silence.

"Naruto, what' going on? Did I do someth-"

"I want to break up."

"..."

Now the silence was deafening. Only the chilling air made a sound as it breezed. Everything around them seemed to die even more.

Did she hear him right? Did he just say what she thought he did?

"What?" She asked him as if she didn't hear him correctly. Well, she didn't want to hear what she heard.

Did she do something wrong?

All of a sudden, she felt heavy, almost nauseous.

Naruto couldn't look at her in the eyes because he was afraid to see what she was feeling.

"I don't want to be with you anymore." He said it as convincing as he could make it. "I don't want to see you anymore."

It made him feel like a jackass saying these things to her. He wanted to punch himself for doing so.

"What are you talking about, Naruto?" She asked him, hoping that it was just some bad joke he was playing with her. But the way he said it, the way he was avoiding her made it all real.

"I can't believe what you're saying." Sakura said.

Naruto wanted to tell her so badly that he had no other choice...but he couldn't. It was as if an invisible barrier has placed itself between them, blocking him from her.

"I thought you loved me?" Her voice was shaking.

"I do, I do love you." He said desperately as he finally looked her in the eyes.

"Then why are you saying these things?" She yelled back. Her eyes were starting to water.

"..." He couldn't answer her.

"Naruto why are you doing this?" Sakura was crying now. Letting her emotions go as she tried to plead reason with him.

Naruto wanted so badly to hold her and wipe her tears away, but doing so meant giving up. So he sat there not showing that he cared. Hiding from her what pain this was causing him.

Naruto got up and turned his back to her. "Don't cry Sakura, I'm not worth crying over."

Her sobbing only got worse.

"Nar-ruto, yy-you ddon't mean this. Tell me you don't mean it?" She couldn't hold the tears anymore.

Naruto stands with his back on her. "I do."

Her heart shattered.

Naruto felt sick and disgusted with himself for doing this to her. He didn't want to stay there any longer because the more he stayed the more it hurt. He began to walk away, but Sakura did something that caused his broken heart to disintegrate into millions of pieces.

She hugged him. She fell on her way due to the fact that she was so distraught, so she held him around his legs as she sat helplessly on the cold ground, crying her eyes out.

Naruto wanted to turn around and pick her up, say he was sorry for saying it. He wanted to hold her and kiss her.

All the things he wanted to do so badly but couldn't because of a simple liquid, which drove him insane. He knew every moment he spent with her was a moment in which she died little by little.

So he wanted to just say it and leave, no explanations whatsoever. But, there was something within him holding him back, telling him that he couldn't possibly leave her like this. He didn't know exactly what the poison would do to her, but he does know that he can't leave things with Sakura this way.

All he wanted now was just one last moment with her.

"Naruto, what did I do wrong?" She held him tighter. "If we have problems then we should talk about it."

Naruto couldn't hold it anymore. He started to cry.

"I mean- that's what- that's what ppeople do when tth- they hhave problems. They talk about it." She was crying so hard that it was almost impossible to understand what she was saying.

"Do you not love me? Did I do something you didn't like?...Was I not good enough?"

That was it. He didn't care if every minute he spent with her meant she died even more. He couldn't live with her thinking that.

He turned around and sat on he ground with her.

"Sakura," he cupped her face with his hands, "don't ever think that!" He said with a demand in his voice.

He wanted to tell her that there was nothing about her that he doesn't love and not a moment he doesn't cherish...but he didn't. He couldn't.

"Listen to me when I say that there is no one better. No one." He said the last two word with great emphasis.

"Then why?" She looked at him with teary red eyes, her voice still hysterical.

No answer.

Her tears started streaming down again with every question he doesn't answer.

Then impulse kicks in as she closes in to kiss him.

It connected.

She poured out all her misery in that one kiss, hoping to save what she was losing. He didn't make a move to stop her, so she kept going.

Their tears mixed as they kissed each other, both wanting to forget everything else and just getting lost in the moment.

She was kissing him forcefully, trying to hold on to him.

He was kissing her just as passionately. His mind was telling him to go, but his heart was telling him to hold her.

For a moment they were in their own world, forgetting about what had just happened before. For a moment he forgot about the poison and just focused on kissing her. For a moment, he was happy.

But then he pulled back.

'I can't Sakura. It will only make things worse.'

"I'm sorry." With that said, Naruto stood back up.

"Naruto please, you don't mean this! Please don't leave me." She was running to him, trying to cling on. She didn't care about her desperation anymore. All she knows and wanted is that she was not going to lose Naruto.

She felt so many things all at once and it was all too familiar. She didn't want to go through this again. Once was enough for her, she didn't want to be sad again. All of this just made her remember the first time her heart was broken. That time in this very same spot where she tried holding on to him too, when she thought that maybe he will stay for her.

But just like then, she couldn't hold on.

"You should go, Sakura." Naruto said to her.

"I'm not leaving."

"Sakura..."

"I'm not going, Naruto. You can't do this. Do even know what you are saying?" She fought on, not giving in.

"Sakura..."

"You don't know what-"

"JUST LEAVE!"

Sakura became silent.

Naruto never yelled at her. Ever.

"..." She tried saying something, but his last words were too hurtful. She felt completely horrible, distraught, and sick to her stomach.

She couldn't do anything else. She had lost and now she had to leave him.

Sakura thought she couldn't cry anymore, but then another wave of tears streamed down her face. She couldn't stand being there anymore. Every moment she stayed was making the pain worse and worse.

"I'm sorry, Sakura." Naruto turned around to face her, but found no one there. He looked around, but she was gone.

'She must have run away.' Naruto couldn't bear the thought that he had just said those things, done those things to her.

Naruto turned to leave, but on his way he spotted a box lying on the bench. It was the box Sakura was holding on to earlier. Naruto picked it up.

'I'm sorry, but,' Naruto turns to walk home,

'I had no other choice.

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End of Chapter 7.

That's it for now. I will update before the week is over. i already have the next chapter written, so it won't take a while.

Again, sorry for taking so long and thanks for your support.

Oh and review.

Bye

Rena