There's something strange happening. I was checking my stats, cuz I'm weird like that and I care about stuff like that, but yeah. Check this out.
Chapter 1: 4 Reviews, 1459 Hits
Chapter 2: 4 Reviews, 797 Hits
Chapter 3: 7 Reviews, 700 Hits
Chapter 4: 4 Reviews, 510 Hits
Chapter 5: 3 Reviews, 272 Hits
Hmmm….odd, don't you think? Any reason why my hits are decreasing at a rapid pace? Is it the story? Am I doing something wrong? Does the story suck? Is it moving too slowly? Am I posting the next chapter at the wrong time of day, and people don't see it? AAAAAAAAAAAAH! Sigh. This is disconcerting.
Ok, just to clarify this next chapter, this all takes place on the same day that Naruto did all that stuff last chap.
Read and Review PLEASE! I can always count on Maye Uchiha to review for me! thumbs up
Chapter 5
Sakura's POV (A/N: Betcha almost forgot about her, eh?)
"You leave in tomorrow Naruto. Will that be enough time for you to pack your things and say your goodbyes?"
"H-hai! Frankly Tsunade-obaachan, I don't really have many things to pack! Or many people to say goodbye to…"
Sakura had her head flush with the door to the Hokage's office and was eavesdropping on the conversation between Naruto and Tsunade.
Tomorrow…then I'll have to get revenge on Naruto by then. Even though Sasuke won't admit it, I know that he wants revenge on Naruto just as bad as I do!
"I'm sure all of the rookie nine will miss you"
"As if" Sakura muttered under her breath as she slunk away from the door. She began to think about all the ways she could get revenge on him.
Maybe I'll hurt him…yeah! I'll hurt him, just like he hurt Sasuke-kun! Wait, he always just heals after a nights sleep. I want him to suffer for a while so that he'll be truly sorry for what he did! OK, what if I get him to fight Sasuke-kun? Then Naruto will definitely lose and Sasuke-kun will get his revenge! Yeah!
With these thoughts, Sakura left the Hokage mansion and sought out Sasuke. She found him in the training grounds that Team 7 often frequented. She watched in starry-eyed awe as she watched him train.
Sasuke started out in a crouch with a blindfold on. 30 meters in front of him was a wooden post. Sasuke reached into his weapons pouch and threw two handfuls of shuriken at the post and then sped off towards it. Every shuriken made contact with the post, and Sasuke appeared next to it and made several complicated taijutsu combinations that made Sakura squeal. Finally, he jumped back and grabbed his right wrist and pointed his right hand down into the ground. He got into a crouch and lightning began to form at his palm. The sounds of birds filled the clearing, and Sasuke lunged forward. He ran at the post at high speeds and thrust his palm into the post and screamed.
"Chidori!"
At this moment, Sakura had a brief moment where she imagined seeing that Chidori plunge into Naruto's chest instead of the wooden post. This vision was only made more potent by the aftermath of his Chidori on the post, completely obliterating it, splinters littering the ground everywhere. After his attack was completed, Sasuke took off his blindfold. In his eyes Sakura noticed something strange. It was like he was haunted by something. He grabbed his right arm and fell to his knees, staring at his right arm. Sakura got worried and ran towards him.
"Sasuke-kun! What's wrong!" she squealed as she reached him, falling to her own knees as she brought her body close to his.
"So-so much blood…it's everywhere! Can't you see it! I just killed Naruto! Oh my god! There's so much blood!" Sasuke brought his hands up to his head and grasped the sides of his head while he rocked back and forth, moaning and whispering to himself.
"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura was beginning to get worried. She had heard about symptoms like these, and they were the after effects of severe psychological trauma. "Sasuke-kun, snap out of it. You didn't kill Naruto. There isn't any blood"
He slowly turned his head to face hers, and she froze at his contorted face. "It's…all my fault…I…killed….OH MY GOD!"
"Wake up Sasuke-kun!" she squealed, closing her eyes tightly and slapping him. Sasuke woke up out of his trance and looked up at her.
"Sakura? What do you want?" he asked coolly, as if nothing had happened.
"Wait Sasuke, what just happened? What was all of that weird, scary talk about blood?"
"…" Sasuke just glared at her, making her feel insecure about herself. Why does he do that? Doesn't he know how much his rejection hurts me?
Sakura hid her true feelings and remembered why she was really there.
"Sasuke-kun! I thought of the perfect way to get revenge on that baka Naruto!" she exclaimed. "You see, first we…"
"First, we do nothing," interrupted Sasuke. "I don't know where you got the idea, but I really have no use for getting revenge. It's pointless. Except for revenge on my brother, that is"
"How can you not want revenge after what he did to you Sasuke? He hit you! He broke his promise to me! He promised to bring you back to me, but he didn't! Kakashi-sensei did! And that was after you kicked his butt!"
"I didn't kick his butt"
"What?"
"What don't you understand? Naruto beat me"
"But…how? There's no way he…he must have gotten lucky. There's no way he could beat you Sasuke-kun! You're way cooler than he is!"
"Luck? Luck! I just challenged him again this morning. He would have killed me if the ANBU didn't stop him at the last second"
"He did what!"
"Are you deaf? Just…leave me alone Sakura. You're…annoying"
His words pierced into Sakura, who always had been insecure about her role on Team 7 and worried that she only held them back and was an annoyance. She had spent many a sleepless night sitting alone in her bed crying because she knew she wasn't strong enough.
He turned from her and began to walk back to the shattered training post. Sakura glared at his back, but reluctantly began to walk away. She would have to find another way to exact her revenge.
Sasuke looked down at the post. Amidst the shattered wood there were several shuriken on the ground. Seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven… He looked up at the forest behind the obliterated post and saw a single shuriken embedded on a tree. He had missed the mark on one of his throws. Seeing this, Sasuke kicked himself mentally and cursed Naruto for taking his source of power away.
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Sakura walked around the village, hoping to come by some type of inspiration. She looked up at the sky where the wind blew around the fallen leaves in small whirlwinds that carried the leaves through the streets of Konoha. It was autumn in Konoha, and as usual, it was beautiful. Konoha was actually beautiful any time of season. Summer was full of greenery, spring always had beautiful flowers blossoming, and fall had a darker feel to it, yet still had the awe striking view of the village filled with the falling leaves of the many trees of Konoha. Even winter was beautiful, even though the leaves that gave Konoha its name were absent.
Sakura watched the people walk through the streets, some hurrying, probably late to some important meeting. Others walked at a leisurely pace, just enjoying the fall weather. Her gaze followed the paths of many shoppers as they entered various shops, some were ninja equipment shops, others restaurants. But one shop caught her eye.
As she entered, a small bell rang delicately and a blonde girl entered from a back room.
"Hello, how can I help...Oh, it's just you Sakura" she said, sticking her tongue out at Sakura playfully.
"Hello Ino. How's it going? Your team as lazy as ever?"
"At least I don't have the most annoying ninja on my team"
"Yeah…listen, that's why I came here. It's about Naruto"
"What about him? I heard he brought Sasuke back, you should be pretty happy"
"Happy? After what Naruto did to him? I won't be happy until I get revenge on that baka! Now listen, I was wondering if you wanted to help me get revenge on Naruto for Sasuke…"
Ino cut her off. "Wait a minute Sakura. Why are you trying to get revenge? Just because of a few bruises on Sasuke?"
"They were more than just bruises, but, yeah! Are you in?"
"Sakura…I thought your little obsession with Sasuke was just a phase, so I played along. The truth is that I can't stand that cold-hearted bastard. He betrayed our village. Why can't you understand that?"
"No! Sasuke-kun would never do that! He was tricked I bet! Or forced! Yeah! I heard that he was carried in some sort of barrel, probably to keep him from escaping!"
"Sakura, are you really so blinded by your infatuation that you can't see what's happening right before your eyes? Shika told me what happened. He went because he wanted to go"
"That can't be true!"
"Sakura…"
"If you aren't going to help me, then this trip was useless!" yelled Sakura as she stormed out of the store. The small bell tinkled again as the door shook from being slammed.
Sakura…
Sakura marched out into the street with renewed resolve. She decided to see if she could find out what really happened on that day at the Valley of the End.
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Sakura peeked through the door of the Hokage's office. Sleeping peacefully and snoring slightly was the young looking woman, her face partially hidden by the stacks of documents on her desk. Shizune was out, probably for a while due to amount of work that she had left for Tsunade to take care of.
Sakura snuck silently into the room, and slowly tiptoed her way to Tsunade's giant oak desk. She reached out a hand, but at that moment Tsunade began to grumble about how much work an imaginary Shizune was heaping on her.
"Shizune, why do I have so much work? Why can't you do it? Why can't Sakura do it?"
Sakura winced, knowing that the next time Tsunade saw Sakura, she would have armfuls of papers for her to work on. Nonetheless, she had a mission for herself to do. Again, Sakura reached out an arm cautiously and slowly opened up a large slide out drawer. She reached into it and pulled out a small silver key and left the room, just as silently as she had entered it.
After Sakura had escaped the office, she breathed out a sigh of relief and headed towards the Hokage library. The Hokage library was a very important room, though very dusty. It held the details of every mission ever taken by a Konoha shinobi and the outcome. In addition, it had scrolls containing information about every ninja in the village, listing their missions, missions completed, strengths, weaknesses, and other biographical information. This was mainly why it was off limits to anyone without the Hokage's personal permission.
Sakura found herself in front of the door an took a deep breath, preparing herself for doing something that, if caught, could get her into some major trouble. But right now, the only thing that mattered was finding the truth and getting revenge. Sakura inserted the small key into the lock and turned it. The door easily swung open and she stepped inside, closing the door behind her. Immediately, she searched in the new records in order to find the mission details of a recent mission: the rescue mission led by Shikamaru. She found it with some difficulty, as the folders were sorted by leader, and Shikamaru only had one mission led under his belt. On the cover of the folder read the line "Classified." But Sakura paid it no notice and opened it. She began to read the mission details first.
"Mission assigned to Nara Shikamaru to follow and rescue Uchiha Sasuke."
Rescue! That means he was captured! Ino-pig was definitely wrong! Inner Sasuke pumped a fist in the air and beat down an imaginary Ino. She then began to read the actual summary of the mission.
(A/N: this is basically a recap of what happened, so if you know already, you can skim or skip)
"Mission Details: Uchiha Sasuke has been taken by sound nins, and presumably being taken to Orochimaru. The mission is to follow the sound nins and to rescue Uchiha Sasuke.
Participants of Mission: Nara Shikamaru (leader), Inuzuka Kiba, Akamichi Chouji, Hyuuga Neji, Uzumaki Naruto, Rock Lee (unofficially involved)
A second force of shinobi was sent as backup: Gaara of the Desert, Temari of the Desert, Kankuro of the Desert
Mission Result: The primary group was sent after the four sound nin and Uchiha Sasuke, who, apparently, defected to the Sound in order to gain power promised by Orochimaru."
No! That…can't be true! Sasuke would never… She continued to read.
"Akamichi Chouji was confronted by Jiroubou of the Sound four. Chouji was able to be the victor, but at a high price. He consumed the three, supposedly lethal, soldier pills that are the prize possession of the Akamichi Clan. The result was devastating power used to defeat Jiroubou, but also the complete exhaustion of every energy source in Chouji's body, including fat, calories, protein, and some muscle tissue.
"Then, Hyuuga Neji was confronted by Kidoumaru of the Sound four. Hyuuga Neji was also able to be victorious, but barely. He suffered multiple wounds that pierced entirely through the body, and had a severe case of chakra depletion.
Nara Shikimaru paired up with Tayuya of the Sound four. He was later aided by Temari of the Desert and was victorious, but sustained no extreme damage, only a broken finger (self-inflicted).
Inuzuka Kiba confronted Ukon of the Sound four. He too was victorious, only through the help of Kankuro of the Sound four."
So much destruction…so much pain and suffering. How could all of this happen? Was this really your fault Sasuke-kun?
"Rock Lee faced Kimimaru and was also victorious, largely through the efforts of Gaara of the Desert.
Uzumaki Naruto finally fought Uchiha Sasuke at the Valley of the End"
What could have really happened there that could make Tsunade-sama hide it from us?
"Sasuke, propelled into a curse seal induced rage elevated himself physically to a final point of level two. Uzumaki Naruto too activated his power (see Kyuubi) to battle the curse seal. In the following battle, both shinobi were rendered unconscious, and were returned to Konoha."
(A/N: little document thingy over)
Sasuke-kun…how could you betray us all like that? I-I…loved you. How could you betray the village, how could you betray me? Still…how did Naruto beat you? I know he's not as strong as you…See Kyuubi? What does that have to do with Naruto? Sakura looked through the ninja profiles and finally found Naruto's, an especially think folder.
"Uzumaki Naruto:
Parents unknown (see Yondaime)
Class 6 Ninja (see Kyuubi)
Distinguishing Abilities: Rasengan, Kage Bunshin"
Sakura was confused by all the references in his profile, but continued on, puzzled.
"Biographical Information:
Soon after his birth, the Yondaime sealed the Nine-Tailed Demon fox, Kyuubi, into the belly of Uzumaki Naruto."
Sakura in surprise threw the folder across the room and yelped. What! But…how? How could he…? But, how!
Sakura was shaking like a leaf, trying to figure out the meaning of the words she had just read. Obviously this was some lame joke by Naruto, replacing his old folder with a prank one. But the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. How he healed so quickly, how he had so much chakra, even the whisker like scars on his cheeks. How could she miss it? It was so obvious, now that she knew the truth. She could now even explain the sadness hidden by his smiles that she often noticed, but took no thought of. But now she knew what she had to do.
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Good? Bad? Tell me if I'm doing something wrong! Btw, srry bout that whole document thing. It got kinda boring, even for me. Won't happen again, believe it! Don't worry though, next chap will should be much better! Read and Review! Please! Im going to try to get the next chappie in by the weekend. Be prepared!