'Promise'

Chapter 9: The Broken Bond.

"So we're in a genjutsu..." Sakura pouted. "And obviously, this is her stinking genjutsu, so we're not getting out of it with a normal genjutsu release." She growled, staring at the ceiling.
Her anger was starting to build.

Sasuke was still vaguely smiling. "Hinata, what do you see around us?"

The Hyuuga heir drew her eyes away from the ceiling, and started scanning the area around them. "What you would normally see in a genjutsu. Hazy chakra all around us, although its red instead of blue. And apart from Naruto and Kyoko a few floors up, everything looks like it stretches for miles in every direction."

"So blocked in, and with no way out." Sasuke chuckled.

Sakura was beginning to get really annoyed. Not only she could she not go and help Naruto and punch Kyoko in the face, she was trapped with a chuckling Uchiha.

"What the hell is so funny!?" She yelled at him, even though she was standing right next to him. "We're trapped, god knows what kinky things Kyoko's doing to Naruto up there and you're laughing!"

At Sakura's words, Hinata looked up with her Byakugan-activated eyes and kept a watchful eye on the her love and his captive. "They better not being doing anything up there..." She murmured silently to herself.

"What's so funny Sakura, is that you haven't noticed what's going on yet." Sasuke sat down on the floor, leaning back and laying down. Sakura slowly began taking deep breaths. Her temper was beginning to give.
"Fine then, genius. What is going on?" She snarled, her hands balling into fists.

"We're in Love Hina."

Both Sakura and Sasuke turned to Hinata, who looked surprised for some reason. Sakura wore an expression of complete confusion, whilst Sasuke smiled.

"Well done Hinata. We're in Love Hina. Or..." He looked back at Sakura. "We're following it's story."

"Following it's story?" She still didn't quite follow. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Sasuke sat up, this time looking serious. "It means, we're going through Love Hina, just like the characters from the original story did. I don't think we will go through every aspect of the story. Just the major plot points."

"When you look back at the time we've spent in this world already, we've been through a few of the key events in the story. For example, Sakura getting jealous of Kyoko fawning over Naruto and dunking her face into hot sauce. Okay, sure Naru never dunked Mutsumi's face in hot sauce, but I'm sure Naru was jealous when Mutsumi did something weird with Keitaro."
Sakura turned away, trying to hide her embarrassment. It had been yet another classic example of her losing her temper and doing something outrageous.

"I was not fawning over Naruto... I was just..."

"Sasuke, have you read Love Hina? I mean, the whole thing?" Hinata asked timidly, interrupting Sakura. She used to think Sasuke was the kind of guy who was too manly for Love Hina. Now she wasn't sure what to think anymore. What happened to the old, brooding Sasuke who never seemed to smile?

Coughing in an attempt to hide his embarrassment, he started talking again. "As you can probably recognise, we're in the Annex scene. Where Naru had to try and fight her way through the Annex to rescue Keitaro from Kanako. However, the magic power of the Annex threw just about everything it had to stop Naru. Even her friends from the apartments tried to stop her, as the Annex did something to their minds. It took Naru, Keitaro and finally even Kanako to go against the power of the Annex for it to finally be over."

"He really has read the whole thing..." Both Sakura and Hinata thought, worried that it had mentally damaged him.

"So what does that mean?" Sakura asked. "What do we have to do!?"

"It means we have to leave our fates to Naruto, one of the girls that he cares about and Kyoko, or as we like to call her back home, the Kyuubi." Sasuke looked away. "We can't go against the power of the Annex, it's too strong. We need Naruto to free us from this one."

"What!?" Sakura blanched. "We can't do anything from here!?"

Before Sasuke could give a reply, Hinata interrupted them. By whimpering.
With her Byakugan active, she was staring through the ceiling towards the upper floors, where Naruto and Kyoko were.

"Hinata? What's happening?" Sakura didn't like the reaction Hinata was giving from what she was looking at. "Hinata!?"

"Naruto's still tied up. And Kyoko's k-kissing him..."

"Uh oh..." Sasuke glanced at the ceiling too, even though he couldn't see through it. He was more worried about the two girls reactions. "um, don't..."

"I'm going to kill her!" Sakura screamed, glowing with bright blue chakra. The killer intent coming from her was beginning to scare him, even though he wasn't a stranger to strong levels of chakra.

"Sakura! You're going to kill us!" Sasuke stood up, standing in a defensive stance.

But she couldn't hear him. Her eyes were reflecting the blue light from her energy, and all she could hear was the roar of chakra in her ears.

*******

[Three days earlier]

Tiptoeing from her bedroom, Sakura moved silently down the hall. The rising sun was poking throughout the apartments, giving the halls a faded orange colour.

Stealthily sneaking past Shinobu's room, she stopped when she got outside Naruto's room. It was strange, but her heart was beating really fast, and it felt like it was ready to burst right out of her chest. She hadn't felt this nervous in a very, very long time.

Sliding the door open, she saw Naruto resting peacefully on his futon. He wasn't wearing a shirt, so she could see all of the contours and muscles of his well-developed chest. It didn't do much to help with her already thumping heart, and the rage of the butterfly's in her stomach.

Moving forward, she kept the noise she made to a minimum. She was by Naruto's side in no time.
She could hear him breathing, she watched his chest rise and fall with each breath. Looking at his face, she was surprised at how peaceful he looked. The ninja was always on the move, never slowing down for a second. She never saw him look so peaceful when he was conscious.

"Oh Naruto..." She sighed.

She didn't know why. But she really wanted to get into the futon and snuggle up next to him. Apart from being close to him, she'd love to see the surprise on his face when he woke up. He would probably panic, and think he'd done all sorts of things with her. Her innermost consciousness giggled. She was really mean sometimes.

Suddenly, an even better idea came to her. She needed to wake him up anyway, and this would be way better than simply slipping into his futon.
It would be even easier to do, seeing as she was only wearing a shirt and some cotton panties.

Slipping her leg over his body, she straddled his torso and put her hands on his chest.

"Wake up, sleepyhead!"

She deliberately made her voice high and as cheerful sounding as possible. It served to grind him into consciousness, causing him to grab his pillow and stick his head underneath it, mumbling about insensitive woman.

Smiling at her success so far, she lightly slapped him on the chest.

"Come on, get up!" She tried to inject some immaturity into her voice. Realising that he was stubborn enough to sleep through it, she grabbed his pillow and threw it across the room. The morning sun hit him square in the face and he began rubbing his eyes in irritation.

"Kyoko, come on, another five minutes, seriously..." He growled, his blue eyes starting to show underneath his tired eyelids. He tried to turn around and sleep on his front, crossing his arms and promptly began snoozing on them. A moment later, he looked up at the balcony, a surprised look in his eyes.

Rocking forward and backwards slowly on his back, she said happily. "Kyoko isn't awake yet dummy. That's another thing you two seem to have in common. You can both sleep through the chaos in this place."
"Well, they are connected, in a way..." She thought slowly. "I guess some of Naruto's personality traits must have rubbed off onto her..."

Looking back down at him, she noticed he was still in a state of tired confusion. Growling in mock frustration, she began softly hitting his back with her fists. "Come on! You are so lazy!! You'd sleep for a month if I didn't make the effort to come in here and drag you out of bed."

Underneath her, he seemed to have finally woken up. Or at least he was awake enough to provide a sarcastic response. "I wouldn't exactly call this dragging me out of bed Sakura. It seems more like you want to keep me in it."

Her chance had arrived. Seizing it with both hands, she tried to inject as much sensuality as she could into her voice.

"Maybe I do."

She felt his entire body tense underneath her. Her internal self was loving his reaction, and she was getting more and more excited by the way her attention was making him react.
Deciding to step things up a notch, she shifted her weight and moved her body so that she was now lying on top of him, her arms over his, with her chin leaning on his shoulder, making sure that he could feel her rapid breathing, right on his neck.

"We can't let Kyoko keep you all to herself now, can we Naruto?" She whispered softly into his ear. She could still feel all of Naruto's muscles tense. It was like he was in a state of panic or something. Grinning softly, she let her head drop on the futon next to him, just so that she could look into his face. He turned around to look at her, their faces inches apart.
Even though this was what she had planned, she still felt slightly nervous when he was so close. She was very tempted in just screwing the plan and giving him a kiss straight away.
But she still wanted just a little bit more fun with him first.

She watched as his face slowly began to blush redder and redder. She giggled.
"It seems like somebody's enjoying themselves."

She slowly began rubbing her leg up and down his leg. His face blushed even harder as his hormones went into a frenzy.
While she was doing this, she moved closer to him and whispered into his ear.

"Kyoko and me. We're the same.
We both like you Naruto.
Sadly though, we both can't have you for ourselves."

She stopped moving and looked at him, straight in the eyes. She smiled softly. "Sooner or later, you're going to have to choose. And not just out of Kyoko and me either."
Hinata suddenly flew into her thoughts, reminding her how hard it was going to be to keep him all to herself.

His bright blue eyes looked so confused. And slightly panicked. Internally, she tried not to giggle at him. It was a serious moment. She didn't want to spoil it.
She moved closer to him. Close enough to feel his short- rapid breathing. Close enough so that he could feel her nose rubbing softly against his.

Her heartbeat was running a marathon. And she was sure her face looked as red as a tomato.

"Naruto..." She said softly. She closed her eyes and leant forward, gently kissing him.

"I love you."

She leant in for another kiss, cupping his face with her hand.
She felt lighter than air, and suddenly realised her inner self had shut up completely.

Breaking apart softly, she noticed how he looked, almost disappointed it was over. Smiling softly, she slowly stood up off of him.

"Sakura..." He had sat up in his futon. With a giggle, she realised he was pretty much awake now. Plan successful.

"I'm not letting Kyoko take you away from me." Turning around to face him, she smiled. "Believe it." She winked and cheekily stuck her tongue out at him, surprising him with his own catchphrase.
Walking over to his door, she slid it open and peeked outside. She couldn't see anybody, so she turned around to face him.

"Breakfast is ready, so get up, get dressed, and get your butt downstairs." She blew him a kiss and left his room, her mind in a complete frenzy. Giggling to herself the whole way downstairs, she wondered how long it would be before he managed to make it downstairs.

*******

As soon as the hallway was clear, a shadow moved away from the hidden crevice it had been hiding in.
Hinata stepped into the light, her Byakugan activated, as well as a look of fury spread across her face.

"You're right Sakura. It's not just you and Kyoko he's going to choose between. He's got me too." She clenched her hands into fists. "I'm not letting you take him away from me either."

Turning the opposite way to where Sakura had gone, she began making her way downstairs, aware that she was going to have to control her temper over breakfast. Not like she had a temper to begin with. This was just her having a bad day.

*******

Breakfast had been a disaster. Not only had she dunked the target's face into hot chilli sauce, she had almost punched the freaking Kyuubi in the face!
Naruto had tried protecting her, which made her feel about ten times worse, and to add insult to the injury, Hinata's little speech had left her completely depressed.

Talking to Kyoko afterwards had been easier, and a lot less frightening than she had actually expected.
She had expected the wrath of the Nine-Tailed Fox. She hadn't expected a sob story, and about an hour's worth of hugs from her.
What's worse, she never expected Hinata and Shinobu and Su to join her in the room, make amends with each other, and then create some mad fan club for Naruto.

Which had to be the stupidest idea ever. Not only did it make her feel about five years old, it wasn't going to work anyway.
She was sure that everyone else in the room had been thinking the same thing when they agreed to share Naruto, until he actually made a decision on who he cared for the most.

There's no way in hell I'm sharing Naruto!!

Well, that's how she had felt anyway.

It had been a couple of hours, but Sasuke had come to visit her after what had happened. He hadn't been angry, which was a surprise to her, seeing as how she had almost failed the mission.
He had come to explain to her that the mission's progress was moving forward quickly, and that it was only a matter of time before their plan would come into action. He also had the nerve to make a smart-ass comment about what had happened earlier, something about her temper getting worse with age. But he said he didn't mean it after she had threatened to beat him up.

He was turning more and more into Kakashi-sensei lately. She wouldn't have been surprised if he read those stupid books Jiraiya wrote.

No. What was troubling her more than anything at the moment, was Hinata.
She could just tell that Hinata had about as much intention to keeping to the fan clubs promise as she did.
Which only meant a lot of trouble for her in the future.

*******

She didn't understand.

Looking at herself in the mirror on the wall of her bedroom, Hinata watched herself as tears rolled down her face.
She didn't understand. She thought Sakura and Naruto would, at best, be best friends.

She thought that, after what had happened between Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto, love wouldn't have come as easily as it had.
She had always known that Naruto had always had a huge crush on Sakura since the Academy days. Those were the days where she lived in hope that Naruto would be hers forever and ever. That nobody except her actually cared enough about Naruto to actually like him.

Growing into a teenager had quite suddenly hit that dream firmly on the head. Especially after Sasuke's disappearance and subsequent return to the Leaf Village. Everyone's opinion on Sasuke had changed as soon as he returned. Branded a traitor by some of the harsher villagers, his former team mates, the people who had actually known him had accepted him back, although they were wary of him.

The worst was Sakura. The first day he was brought back, she had been overjoyed to see him.
However, only around a week later, something had changed. She wouldn't talk to anyone. She seemed depressed, or sorrowful. Like as though a part of her had died.

That was when she noticed. Noticed that the feelings for Sasuke weren't there anymore. Almost as if she had learned a terrible secret about him.
Which was roughly around the time Naruto and Sakura had started hanging out together more.

But even Naruto had matured, and wasn't constantly asking Sakura out on dates. Something that neither Sakura or Hinata had failed to pick up on.
Sakura was worried that he didn't like her anymore, that she'd been too harsh over the years, or that he might have fallen for some other girl while he had been off with Jiraiya.
Hinata was worried that he just didn't like anyone anymore. Or that he might've fallen for some other girl while he'd been off with Jiraiya.

Either way, Jiraiya wasn't in either of the girl's good books at the moment.

Wiping the tears away from her eyes, she had decided.
Decided to confront Sakura about her feelings directly, and show her how she felt.
And then, they would confront Naruto. It was all down to him.

*******

The sky had turned a ruby red. The stars had already begun to pop out, making the twilight sky look beautiful.
Just like the night Kyoko had arrived.

Sitting on the roof, watching the sun slowly sink below the horizon, a certain pink-haired kunoichi was all alone, left only with the thoughts of a certain, blond ninja.
Her eyes were reflecting red from the dying sun, her head was leaning on one of her arms, which was leaning on one of her knees, whilst the other dangled limply from the roof.

She was so wrapped up in her own world, she didn't hear somebody come up from behind her.

"Sakura."

Without turning around, she answered the girl behind her lifelessly.

"What is it, Hinata?"

The other kunoichi sat down beside her. After a few moments of silence, Hinata spoke up.

"We have to talk Sakura. About Naruto."

Sakura didn't say anything. She could already guess what Hinata wanted to tell her.
Taking her silence as a sign that she could continue, Hinata carried on.

"We... we both know we like Naruto. And, I realise that whoever he picks in the end... is his choice. I'll be happy that he's happy.
But until then, we have to wait and see..."

"So what's your point?" Sakura muttered.

"Well..." Hinata watched as the sun finally disappeared over the horizon. She looked sad, as though something painful was going to happen.

"For years now, Naruto's been a big part of my life. Without him, I wouldn't have survived half of the experiences that I've had. And I'm sure that, seeing as he was your team member, you could probably say the same thing. Right?"

Thinking back to the tough times that they had gone through together, Sakura nodded silently. Without Naruto, she could think of numerous occasions where she wouldn't have survived.
Seeing her nod, Hinata carried on.

"But its not only in battle that I've needed Naruto. There's never been a dull day in my life that I can remember with Naruto in it. Not one of those days I've shared with Naruto have ever been boring."

Somehow, she found herself nodding to everything Hinata was saying. Life without the knuckleheaded ninja was too hard to imagine.

"He made me feel special, and he made me feel stronger, and he made me more confident in myself." Hinata sighed. "And I think that, if I ever lost that part of my life, I wouldn't know what to do..."

Subconsciously, Sakura was still agreeing with Hinata. They shared more in common than what she originally realised. At least, they did when it came to Naruto.

"But..." Hinata said softly. "If that's the case, then I can't let anyone take Naruto away from me."

"Not even you, Sakura."

Facing Hinata, Sakura looked shocked. Hinata wasn't normally this aggressive. Was she?

"But, Hinata..."

Hinata stood up. "The time will come when he will have to choose. Choose between you, me and..." Anger flashed in her eyes. "Her."

By 'her', Sakura assumed that she meant Kyoko. She wasn't letting Kyoko take Naruto away from her either. But what Hinata was saying was beginning to worry her. A lot.

"But until then Sakura, I'm not going to let you steal him away from me. Even if you are my friend." And with that, Hinata walked off the roof and into the Hinata Apartments.

Watching her walk away, Sakura didn't know what to think. This mission had gone way past 'just saving Naruto'. This mission was something personal for Hinata. And for her too.

"Hinata..."

*******

[Present Day]

"Sakura!!" Sasuke tried to yell over the roar of chakra that Sakura was letting off. But it was no good. Sakura couldn't hear him.
He had to think of something, fast! Before Sakura did something drastic.

But before he could do anything, Sakura's chakra suddenly disappeared. Sakura herself had been flung from one end of the room to the other.
Lifting herself up onto her arms, a small trickle of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth, she looked up to see Hinata, in her Gentle Fist stance.

Silence was all that could be heard for the next few moments, as Sakura and Sasuke both stared at Hinata. With anger in her eyes, she stood up straight from her Gentle Fist stance, staring hard back at Sakura.

"Hinata...why did...?" Sasuke looked between the two girls, sensing that he had missed something major between the two of them.

Sakura slowly stood up, vaguely aware that the chakra network inside her body was acting strange. Hinata's attack had messed up one of her chakra points.

"Hinata! What the hell?" Sakura yelled. She was beyond angry. This stupid rivalry for Naruto had gotten completely out of her hand. Wiping away the blood from her mouth, she clenched her fists.

"You weren't going to stop unless one of us did something." Hinata said quietly. "I'm sorry Sakura." Her expression softened. A small tear slid it's way down one of her cheeks.

Unclenching her fists, Sakura looked at the ground. Losing control like that, it was her fault to begin with.

"It's okay Hinata. I should be the one apologising."

Looking back and forth at the two girls, Sasuke was now convinced that this wouldn't be the last time something like this happened on their mission.

Hinata walked over to Sakura. "I'll sort out your chakra." She said miserably. Sakura nodded, allowing the kunoichi fix her chakra network. After a few moments, the fix was finished. Hinata looked at her, with a worried expression. "I'm really sorry Sakura."
Giving her a hug, Sakura shook her head. "You've got nothing to apologise for, Hinata."

"Now, lets go get Naruto." She smiled.

As soon as they had separated from their hug, a loud explosion erupted from the ceiling above them. Wood splintered and the sound of heavy metal objects crashing through wood echoed all around them. A crack ripped through the wall next to them, and widened.

A staircase was behind the broken wall.

"Naruto!" The three of them yelled, running through the wall and up the staircase. The explosion must have been Kyoko. They had to save Naruto!

Now, sorry for the long wait for this one guys, I hope it was worth it ^^.

And also, I've got to address one issue here.
The summary does say a Naruto/Shinobu pairing. Whilst that in the end, it might happen, that's not a definite thing yet.
So it could be Shinobu. It could be Kyoko. It could be Hinata, Sakura, Naru, Motoko, point being, it could be anyone.

Have fun ^^