Sorry for the SUPER LONG ALMOST ABANDONED UPDATE.I just had the biggest urge to start writing this again so here I go.
I re-read all of my other chapters and realized that I actually enjoy reading my own story and I want to find out what happens next!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
So, here goes nothing. Hope you enjoy.
They had finally got around to eating, but no one seemed much interested in it. Why? Why did this have to happen. And to someone like her? Sakura had come out of her room after a short, but much needed, rest. She moved like a wraith around the kitchen preparing food that they knew they should eat, but couldn't bring themselves to. The silence was deafening as the information that they had received from a few hours ago processed in their minds.
Point 1. Sakura was from the future and had traveled here so that she could fix all of the wrongdoings that had happened (such as all of them being killed)
Point 2. Sakura had a 10-year-old son named Satoshi and Hinata had a 10-year-old daughter named Suzume who were the children of Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki.
Point 3. Sasuke Uchiha had given Sakura his mother's ring so that she could believe that he cared for her, but in the end revealed that she had been chosen to carry his child so that he may have an heir if he died.
Point 4. That same man had followed Sakura back in time so that he could take over Konoha and had given them an ultimatum of 3 days.
Point 5. Because of Sakura and Sasuke's messing with the time stream, the fabric of time is currently unraveling and the future is changing.
WAY TOO MUCH TO TAKE IN AT ONCE.
Even if they were trained to be elite ninja someday, that was still too much for a bunch of teens to handle. Heck, it was too much for anyone to handle.
Eventually, it got to be too much and one of them couldn't stand it anymore.
"Raaah! I'm gonna go crazy –ttebayo! We can't just sit here and do nothing! We gotta do SOMETHING!" Naruto's furious cerulean eyes scanned the room and searched through each of his companion's eyes. "Come on you guys! Think! There's gotta be something, anything, we can do to help Sakura-chan!"
"And what do you expect us to do Uzumaki? Rush into the Uchiha's lair and go all out kunai flying? We'd be killed in instant." Neji's face held no emotion and he stared passively at the wall behind Naruto's head.
Naruto growled none too softly as he looked at all of the people sitting at the table. One look into a pair of soft translucent eyes calmed him down though.
He threw himself back down in his seat and pouted at the unfairness of it all. Sakura didn't do anything and the whole world was punishing her. It was all that, stupid bastard Sasuke's fault. Naruto looked across the table and glared at his teammate and rival. Sapphire and Onyyx clashed. At the exact same moment, each of the boys stood up, kunai raised. There would most likely have been a battle if Sakura hadn't intervened at the last second.
"That's enough!" the two genin froze at the sound of her voice and gulped. It was soft, but deadly. "What do expect us to do Naruto? Kill Sasuke-kun? That wouldn't sove anything because the time stream would most likely collapse and even if I found my way back home, I'd have lost my son either way."
"Wait, Sakura," This time Shikamaru spoke up " Even if it meant losing your son. Wouldn't it mean that everyone else would be alive?"
She turned her head and her peircing gaze made him so uncomfortable that he had to look away. "A life, doesn't equal another person's life Shikamaru. Yes I would have gained everyone else, but the point opf coming back was to prevent the loss of ANYONE. That includes Sasuke-kun." No emotion was heard in her voice and the only sign of turmoil or any stress she was under were in her hands. they were white as a bone and she had to make an effort to unclench them.
Sakura gave a soft sigh as she took a seat and buried her head in her hands, forgoing the the emotional shield she had put up around herself. "I don't know what to do. I wanted to help out and make eveything better, but I ended up making things worse." she sighed again. "So what do we do now?"
Surprisingly it was Sasuke who spoke up. "We can't give up. Like the dobe said, there must be something we can do." He looked earnestly at her, silently telling her all that he couldn't say out loud. He wanted to help. He didn't want to end up like that. He... wanted her to know.
She looked at him witout saying anything, judging him and studying his face. The other looked on silently. Closing her eyes, Sakura nodded to show that she understood and stood up again.
"Okay, let's go then. The Hokage needs to be informed of all of this and with his help, we might be able to come up with a plan. we can't let Sasuke-kun of the future get away with this. We'll have to be careful though, he said that we had three days, but he's not above attacking us seperately as incentive to surrendering sooner."
When they arrived at the Hokage's Office, Sakura once again took the lead and strode in. The spark in her eyes practically dared any of the ANBU gaurding the Sandaime to just try and stop her, as if they were doubting that she was the true thing and not Sasuke in diguise. But they should be smarter than that.
When the 9 people walked through the dor, the Hokage lifted up his head and sighed in relief that they were all unharmed and all right for the most part.
"Well? Something must have happened. I can see it on your faces."
They all looked at each other and then at Sakura, feeling she should be the one to explain it to him. She nodded softly and looked the kindly old man in front of her.
A kindly old man who is head of the village don't forget.
I see you decide to show up once again Inner.
Somebody's got to make sure you don't screw up.
Who says I'm gonna screw up?
You already did dumbass. Don't you remember? That's why we're in this mess in the first place.
"Sakura-chan?" Sakura snapped out of her mental argument with her Inner to find everyone in the room staring at her. Her face turned a deep red and she turned away in embarrassment.
"Sorry. I just got lost for a second there."
The Sandaime let a small smile grace his features and motioned for them to find a comfortable spot while positioning himaself in a more comfortable position as well, because he suspected that the tale he was about to hear would take a long while.
At one point or another, everyone had nodded off but Sakura. She sat on the balcony of the tower on the roof and watched the beautiful sky as the sun rose.
"So pretty."
A murmur of agreement behind her startled her. She hadn't expected anyone this early so she had let her gaurd down.
Stupid. When will you learn to stop making mistakes like that?
Swiveling around to brace herself for whoever was there. She was sure that it wasn't an enemy or they would have already attacked her, but what she didn't expect to see was the lone survivor of the Uchiha Massacre standing behind her with such a calm and (was that gentle?) look on his face after what he must have gone through in this last DAY.
"Sasuke-kun. You surprised me." She let a warm smile come onto her face as a morning greeting to him. He narrowed his eyes at her and 'Hn-ed'.
"You know, if you're going to pretend that you're happy and that everything is going to be okay, you might want to do a better job of it. Otherwise, why bother?"
Sakura gasped at looked at him. He stared back at her passively and slowly walked past her to the balcony, taking in the sight she had just currently been enjoying. She looked at the back of him, trying to discern his thoughts and her features relaxed. A soft and content smile, one that she hadn't allowed herself to have for a long while, made its way onto her face.
Sasuke nearly jumped when Sakura looped her arm through his and looked up at him with such pleading eyes that, for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to pull away. Something he might have done a few weeks ago, or yesterday more likely. She took this as a sign of acceptance and when she closed her eyes and leaned against his shoulder ever so slightly, she could almost believe that everything was normal. That the war hadn't happened. That she hadn't traveled back in time to save the lives of many of her friends. That she hadn't compromised her son's life in exchange for something that still might not work.
Almost.
If everything were normal and she had succeeded, she wouldn't be here with Sasuke-kun. He would never have let her get this close. And yet, a small part of her appreciated this. The fact that he let her get this close when he normally shunned all contact with others. Sakura tilted her head up to look into his face and blushed a deep red when she saw he was looking at her as well.
"W-what? What are you looking at Sasuke-kun?" Sakura quickly averted her eyes reverting back to the old "fangirl" Sakura for a second.
He shook his head softly, murmured a "nothing", and made to leave. Sakura felt slightly disappointed that she had ruined the peace. Sasuke looked at her flustered face a moment longer and, on impulse, leaned forward slightly, brushing his lips against her forehead. Leaning down even further, his lips trailed down to her ear and he whispered "Don't worry. I'm not going to turn out like him. Either of them." Quickly Sasuke walked away, his face shaded so that Sakura could not see. She was left there at the balcony, shocked at what had just happened.
Did that just happen. It can't have right? What am I doing? What did he do? What's going on?
Sakura had officially gone off the deep end. Her knees buckled from underneath her and she clutched her hands to her head.
OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!
Sakura tried to calm down. She closed her eyes and took deep calming breaths. Too much was happening too fast. She turned her head in the direction that Sasuke had gone. A hysterical laugh bubbled up inside her chest, threatening to spill out and she unlatched her hands from her head only to clamp them over her mouth. She closed her eyes tightly again, wanting to... wanting to what? She tried fixing her mistakes.
Sakura let out a big sigh and readjusted her position so that her head was leaning against the rail of the balcony. An image of Sasuke floated to the top her mind and she let it stay there. She concentrated on it and it grew more clearer. The only problem was that the image was from the back, so she really had no idea whether that was Satoshi or Sasuke she was thinking of. Even though Satoshi is , from the time she left, about two to three years younger than Sasuke, they look very much the same from the back.
Sakura tilted her head back and looked at the sky, her sunrise all but forgotten since Sasuke came up there. When she thought of Uchiha's, when she thought of Sasuke, it was impossible not to think of her son as well. It sometimes threw her off a little, but sometimes, when she looked in Sasuke's eyes, she saw emerald eyes identical to her own instead of dark onyx ones. She saw a gentle and loving smile instead of a grim line or infuriating smirk.
God. She wanted her baby back. She wanted to hold him in her arms and kiss his head and be assured for a moment that there are good things in this world to live for.
She shook her head softly and stood up, stretching. How long had she been up there? The others must be waking up soon and they would be hungry. They would also have to decide what they would do now with only 2 days until the ultimatum Sasuke had given. Looking out to the sky once more and holding the image of the clear blue in her mind, she let a solitary tear run down her face.
"Sasuke-kun. I know you're trying your hardest not to become like that. It must be hard for you knowing that you turned out like him, but a part of me believes that this will work. With sheer force of will and time, I think you will make sure you won't turn out like that.
But when all of this is over, is it alright for me to say that I still love you?"
"Sakura-chan! Where have you been? On the roof? How come? I'm really hungry. Let's go and get some ramen." Sakura chuckled sftly at Naruto's words.
"I think that's a fine idea. Why don't you all go and get something to eat? You all need your strength and when you return, then we can discuss the situation." the Sandaime looked kindly on every face in there and smied at them, making shooing motions. Naruto grinned widely and grabbe Hinata's hand, speeding out of there like someone had told him there was no more ramen. The others followed him at a slower pace. Sakura was the last one out and before leaving, she turned aruond to look the Hokage in the eyes. He nodded at her unspoken question and relief filled her eyes. She had faith in him. She had faith that they would get through this.
But something she didn't account for was the unexpected, something or someone she had completely forgotten about in her haste and with Sasuke showing up.
Orochimaru.
"Orochimaru-sama. We have a guest. And he has come with some interesting information."
Orochimaru smiled evilly, feeling the massive amount of evil energy approaching him. He had just been refining his plans in capturing Sasuke Uchiha. He hadn't expected the Chuunin Exams to be postponed indefinitely and that had thrown off everything he had thought of. Another way to to obtain the famous Uchiha clan's Sharingan must be found.
Needless to say, he was quite surprised to see a grown up version of the number one Rookie in Konoha walking up to him with such power flowing through his veins.
"Well well." He hissed "What have we here? Sasuke-kun? No. Or are you?"
The Sharingan holder lifted his eyes up to the snake sannin's, tomoe spinning rapidly.
"I've come to offer you a proposition."
Orochimaru grinned evilly, tongue lashing outto lick his lips.
"This should be. . . interesting. Let's here it." A slow and dark chuckle rumbled from deep within his throat.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to speak.
'Kay, I'm cruel and left you with a cliffhanger, but I really want to upload this.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'm sorry if it's not all that good. But we FINALLY got a little Sasusaku in here somewhere. Sasuke is realizing his feelings for Sakura but isn't quick to admit it.
Please Review. I do love reviews!