CHAPTER 3, Crumble
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Naruto lies back in the grass, staring up at the sky. Suddenly he hears a giggle and a pink blur seems to pass through the corner of his eyes. "Huh?"
Naruto rises into a sitting position as his blue eyes meet another pair of blue eyes. Before him is a young girl with long pink hair and deep blue eyes. "Yay! You're awake! Play with me."
Naruto ruffles his eyebrows in confusion. "Who are you?"
The girl giggles out. "Mommy was right, you are funny."
"What's your name?" Naruto asks.
The girl smiles. "Yuriko."
Naruto smiles. "That's such a beautiful name."
The girl face seems to light up brightly. As Naruto asks his question again. "Who are your parents?"
Yet suddenly as the girl begins to speak, there is an overwhelming smell of Sakura petals blocking out Naruto senses and he pulls himself awake.
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Naruto feels a heavy weight against his chest as the scent of Sakura petals drives the dream from his mind, jogging the memory of last night into his brain. Naruto looks down at Sakura who is sleeping peacefully in his arms.
"I'm the luckiest man alive."
"Eh shut up." A grumpy fox growls as he lets out a loud mental yawn.
"Why are you so tired fox? You didn't do anything. WAIT YOU DIDN'T!"
"No, no. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to fuck that sweat ass of hers. But while you were busy screwing your mate, I was stuck in some strange forest with a funny little pink haired girl trying to entertain her."
"Yeah I think I met her, cute little girl."
Kyuubi rolls his eyes. You can almost see the sarcasm in Kyuubi's voice
Naruto stares down at Sakura when he feels her moving. "Good morning Naru-kun."
"Good morning Sakura-chan."
Sakura looks up into Naruto's eyes. Her dazzling green eyes staring back into the sapphire blue of Naruto.
Suddenly Sakura looks at the clock on the wall. "Oh shit! I'm late for work Naru-kun."
Naruto removes his arm allowing Sakura to rise from the sheet. "I'm sorry to leave in such a hurry Naru-kun."
Naruto shakes his head. "It's okay Sakura-chan. I know how baa-chan is. But why do you keep calling me Naru-kun."
Sakura smiles. "Because it sounds cuter."
Naruto grabs Sakura's bare ass as she jumps out of bed. "Naru-kun, stop that."
Naruto gives her a foxy grin. "A goddess is hard to resist."
Sakura gives Naruto a glare. "I'm already late enough Naru-kun." She turns her glare into a grin. "Then again, if I'm already late, no harm in being a little later." Sakura says as she shakes her hips walking into the bathroom. Naruto quickly leaps in after her.
The two make love once again in the shower, completely exhausting all of the hot water as they finish in a cold shower.
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Sakura arrives at the hospital over 2 hours late. Tsunade leans against the wall, her precious metal coffee cup already bent and squashed from her grip.
"Where have you been Sakura? You're over 2 hours late."
Sakura hands her head low. "Sorry Tsunade-sama, I was at Naruto-kuns place."
Tsunade glares. "I sent Kakashi over there and he didn't get any response. What the hell could you have been doing?"
Sakura blushes a deep shade as neither her nor Naruto had heard Kakashi knock over Sakura's moaning.
"Sakura please, release Sasuke. He said he wanted to talk to you before he left. After that you have the day off, you look exhausted." Sakura nods her head as she heads into Sasuke's hospital room.
She sees Sasuke staring out the window. His cold onyx orbs seemingly lost in space. "Sasuke-kun you wanted to see me?"
Sasuke nods his head. "Hai, I wanted to tell you something Sakura-chan."
Sakura looks at Sasuke. "Hm."
Sasuke looks to Sakura. "Sakura-chan. When I was all alone out there, I realized something. I realized that I had fallen in love with you. Every moment I thought of you, every painful lonely moment I spent thinking of you. How I missed you. How I had to force myself to push you away for your safety. Sakura-chan I love you."
Sakura doubles back on her feet as she bumps into the wall in surprise. Sasuke leaps from the bed, pressing himself against Sakura. "Marry me Sakura-chan."
Sakura freezes stiff. Finally her dream has come true. Sasuke has confessed his love to her. He even asked her to marry him. Her childhood fantasy seems to be right in front of her blocking out every thought of Naruto, yet she could not blurt out a yes. She only responded with, "Sasuke… I... I need to think about it."
Sasuke smirks before leaving a stunned Sakura to slide to her knees as he walks off.
Sakura remains in the trance for over an hour. Eventually she controls her flood of emotions as she walks out of the hospital heading through town.
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Sakura continued to walk as she felt Ino smack her across the face. "YOU BITCH! HOW COULD YOU TEAR NARUTO'S POOR HEART OUT LIKE THAT!" Ino screamed in a furious frenzy, ready to beat the living daylight out of Sakura.
Ino rears her fist back just about ready to let another punch fly as Sakura mumbles out in a stunned daze. "Ino-pig, what are you talking about?" Sakura asks confused in why her best friend just gave her the smack from hell.
"MARRYING THAT FUCKING UCHIHA! WHAT DO YOU THINK I AM TALKING ABOUT?!." Ino screams out.
Sakura rubs her cheek "What are you talking about? I haven't even answered him.".
"That's not what I heard and I heard it directly from the snake's mouth." Ino says just about ready to smash Sakura into the ground again.
Sakura looks up at Ino, confusion flooding her face. "What are you talking about Ino? I never said yes to Sasuke-kun…I told him I needed to think." Sakura said trying to calm down her friend.
"That's not what Sasuke said to Naruto." Ino said calming down a little more.
"Huh." Sakura says still confused with why she was on the ground.
"Sakura, Sasuke told Naruto that you and him were getting married. Naruto had a huge breakdown in front of everyone. He even punched Kakashi in the face." Ino said letting out a sigh as she clearly caught onto Sakura's confusion.
"Wh-Why...?" Sakura asked not clearly sure if she was asking why Sasuke said that to Naruto or why Naruto flipped out so much.
"Why would Naruto not come to me and ask if it was true?"
"Maybe because how you kept calling Sasuke-teme –kun. The way you reacted when he kissed you. Oh and the fact that he's always felt second best to Sasuke. We all saw you drooling over him yesterday."
"That's not true."
Ino breaks Sakura conversation with her innerself "You honestly didn't give him an answer did you?" Ino asks in a serious voice.
"No." Sakura responds as she tries to wrap her mind around what's going on.
"Heh...seems Shikamaru was right, Sasuke knows how to low blow... Kami I want to kill Sasuke." Ino turns to Sakura. "We better try and get Naruto the truth before he ends up doing something he'll regret."
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Naruto's apartment was a complete mess. There were holes scattered around the places, things broken and torn sheets ripped. Nothing was spared the wrath of Naruto. On the ground lay a shattered Konoha headband next to a broken ring.
"Holy shit...this place looks like a war zone." Ino says as she steps through the massive hole that connects the inside from the outside.
Sakura looks around, her eyes wide with disbelief that this was even an apartment. It looked more like Swiss cheese. As she steps forward she hears the crunching sound of metal under her foot.
"Huh...?" Sakura says as she looks down, moving her foot. She can clearly make it out to be a destroyed headband and what really catches her most was a finely crafted gold engagement ring. She could not even find the words for her confusion.
"Could my innerself have been right…?" She asks herself as she stares at the shattered headband and ring drawing Ino's attention.
"Hmm, what's this?" Ino says as she picks up a piece of the headband. "I may not have Shikamaru's intelligence, but if I'm correct...lets pray I'm not correct." Ino says glaring at the shattered headband.
"Sakura...please go get Hokage-sama." Ino says in a dead serious voice. Sakura nods her head, still confused about everything as she battles her innerself once again.
"I told you"
"Okay...but why does Naruto's place look like that."
"Maybe because for the first time he couldn't hold in his emotions."
"What do you mean?"
"Come now...you are honestly telling me you couldn't see Naruto's fakeness."
"His fakeness?"
"Sakura, every time he was hurt he would smile. The more pain the bigger the smile."
"..."
"When he returned from the first teme retrieval mission was one of the few times he ever frowned..." Inner Sakura flashes a image of the return mission. "You'll notice all the pain and sadness locked on the inside of his eyes. How long his frown seems." Sakura immediately notices the sadness in Naruto's eyes
"You're saying he was always like that."
"Pretty much... He did give a few genuine smiles when around you, but most of the time when others were around they were fake."
"..."
"..."
A long silence breaks between her and her innerself as she reaches the Hokages office to see Tsunade's office with two giant holes leading inside. Her desk was completely destroyed, papers all over the place.
"Tsunade-sama" Sakura ask in a clearly nervous voice.
"What the hell do you want...get out of here. You're the cause of this." Tsunade said in a clearly hurt voice mixed with anger.
"I don't understand..."
"You and that stupid snake bitch." Tsunade says ramming her fist into a filing cabinet.
"I didn't even give Sasuke an answer..." Sakura says in a scared voice.
"Like I should believe that. I know how much you chased after Sasuke, and I saw how you looked at him when he came back." Tsunade shouts as she clenches her fist realizing she is out of things to destroy. "Damnit, I'm going to break you next! Argh! GET OUT!"
"I didn't give him an answer. I swear it." Sakura says as tears fill her eyes. "I don't even love Sasuke anymore." Sakura mumbles out as Tsunade calms down a little.
"For some reason I believe you Sakura...but try telling that to Naruto." Tsunade says as she lets out a sigh, trying to hold back her anger to strangle a certain snake summoner.
Suddenly a bloodied and battered Kakashi appears in the room, nearly falling through one of the holes Tsunade left in the floor. "Hokage-sama..." Kakashi coughs out as he tries to fight through his pain. "Naruto..." Kakashi takes a deep breath. "Gone." Kakashi says, again trying to control his breathing enough to talk.
Finally he says everything he can in a few long breaths. "Naruto...he ran out of the village...me and Jiraiya tried to stop him...Jiraiya needs emergency medical treatment...or death." Kakashi says as he passes out. Sakura catches him as he falls backwards. Before she can even look up Tsunade is gone.
Sakura looks down at her sensei as she tries to fix up some of his wounds. She can tell they were intended to kill, not to disable, as most of his wounds were near his heart and lungs striking at his vitals
Sakura feels her insides seem to ache in pain as her heart crumbles.
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"How could she...? How could she...? I though she finally had fallen for me...we even started dating...even started kissing...she told me she loved me…she made love to me...was I just a play thing...? Was I always second best...? Just something to pratice on till he came back?" Naruto asks himself over and over in his head
"Kit...might I suggest we figure out where we are going."
"WHO CARES? SO LONG AS I DON'T HAVE TO SEE THEIR FACES AGAIN!"
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(Nothing is truely perfect nothing is absolute... Life is never as perfect as one can belive.
Just to let everyone Know Naruto is leaving the village without asking Sakura if everything is real... I mean crap I'd probably freak like him and run away. But to answer the question why he doesn't 1.) It plays into the story plot. 2.) He's in to much pain to see her. 3.) Well if you read it clearly and know Naruto well enough you'll understand that he has in inferiorty complex with Sasuke. Thank you, Thank you thats all for chapter 3. I will post up chapter 4. Tomarrow... Right now... I must go to college I spent all night preparing these... Just great.)