The second chapter...hope you enjoy :D
Naruto: A New Tale
Chapter 2
Naruto tensed, prepared to attack. His legs left the ground as he attacked his opponent...
Sakura blocked her opponents first attack and grabbed one of her own kunai with her other hand.
She was about to counter-attack when she noticed something.
"Naruto...?" she asked surprised.
"Wait a second... Sakura?"
The two dropped their weapons and stared blankly at each other.
Just as Sakura began giggling at her silly error, a kunai suddenly flew out of nowhere and was headed straight for her.
Naruto, not knowing what else to do, leapt in front of it, to protect her.
Blood spatted onto Sakura as she stared in horror at the scene before her.
Naruto stood in front of her, with a kunai deep in his chest, and beyond that stood a silhouette, facing them.
Sakura paid no attention at all to the silhouette, but instead focused on the boy in front of her.
"Oh my god... Naruto!" yelled Sakura.
Naruto turned to look at her and showed a weak smile.
"I'm...okay... Sakura...chan" he said, but you could easily see it was taking all he had to keep from collapsing.
A tear formed at the corner of Sakura's eye and ran down her face to fall slowly to the floor.
Many more followed and soon it was like a heavy downpour of rain.
"Naruto..." she sobbed.
"It's... okay..." he looked like he was about to say something else when he fell to a heap on the ground and blood pooled around him.
"Naruto... Why?" she cried.
The girl knelt beside the blonde, as even more tears spilled from her eyes.
She picked up his hand and squeezed it, at the same time searching for a pulse.
Tears came down even faster and stronger when she realized he had no pulse.
That was when she took notice of the person in front of her.
Her eyes filled with such sadness and hate, she glared at the man.
"If you're as weak as him, neither of you had, have or probably ever will have a chance of bringing me back to Konoha"
That's right. The person who had just killed Naruto was none other than their former teammate and reason for the mission, Uchiha Sasuke.
Sakura froze. "Sasuke...you did this...why? Why kill Naruto? Tell me why!"
Sasuke's expression didn't change one bit as he looked at the grieving girl.
"I shouldn't have to tell you. Besides, you should be happy. Didn't you say once before how annoying he was?"
"That...that was before" she said defensively.
"He died protecting you...and you never truly appreciated him. What a sad way for his tale to end" Sasuke said with no emotion in his voice.
All of a sudden, Sasuke appeared behind her.
He muttered something inaudible into her ear, and she gasped in shock.
With that he left, leaving Sakura, a bloody and crying mess.
She hugged the blonde's body tightly and wept.
Laying him down she attempted to use her medical nin-jutsu to heal him, but no matter how hard she tried, his pulse wouldn't return.
She kept trying however, until all her chakra was gone.
The girl panted heavily as her vision blurred and she collapsed next to the boy.
Tsunade had been worried all that day.
She just knew something bad would happen.
Why, you ask? It's because, today she had won the lottery.
For a normal person, this was great... But for Tsunade, it was a bad omen.
She stared at the pink ticket in front of her, worried about what might happen.
That was when the door to her office flew open and revealed a flustered Shizune.
"Tsunade-sama, please come quick! Sakura has returned!"
At that, the fifth Hokage stood up and quickly followed Shizune to the gate.
Sakura was heavily panting, barely managing to stay conscious as she carried the blond boy back to Konoha.
The village gate was in sight, but the girl wouldn't make it that far, as she fell to a heap on the ground, unconscious.
Sakura awoke with a start to see a completely white surrounding.
'Is this heaven...' she asked herself.
She surveyed her surroundings a bit until it finally sunk in.
Konoha Hospital. That's where she was.
All the memories of the mission came flooding back all at once, and water formed in her eyes, dripping onto the bed.
"Sakura-chan... Why are you crying?"
She turned around with a start, only to find a pair of azure blue eyes, filled with worry.
She took in the familiar blonde hair and orange ninja clothes.
'This is a dream. I am dreaming.' she thought to herself.
"Sakura-chan...?" he asked again.
'He looks real though... and if this is a dream, why am I in pain?' her right arm was numb and she had a killer headache.
"Na-Naruto..." she managed to squeeze out of her throat.
Tears were steadily flowing from her eyes and there was now a little puddle on the bed.
She was so upset, that without thinking, she threw herself on Naruto.
Naruto froze, in shock.
He then recovered and hugged her tightly in return, reassuring her that it wasn't a dream.
"Sakura-chan, what's wrong? You can tell me." he said.
He sounded so alive. How was this even possible?
"Na-Naru-to" she coughed out in between sobs.
"You were d-dead" she told him.
"I was what?" he said, surprised.
Then Sakura pulled back from their hug and launched into the story of their mission.
At the end of the story Naruto hugged Sakura tightly again.
"So...that's what happened in your genjutsu..." he muttered.
"My what? You mean that whole thing..."
"Well no, we really did attack each other, but after that, Sasuke trapped you in a genjutsu and you passed out."
Tears kept flowing, but this time in relief.
After she had stopped crying and wiped all her tears off her face, she couldn't help herself but to ask, "So what really happened?"
Naruto suddenly couldn't look into her eyes and instead he looked intently at the wall.
"Naruto...?" she questioned softly.
"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan...I failed again..." he said barely audibly.
Sakura wondered what he meant for a second until it clicked.
"It's fine. I wouldn't have been able to bring him home either."
For the first time in a long time, she didn't really care that Sasuke wasn't back in Konoha.
Naruto seemed to notice this too and was about to say something when the door was suddenly slammed open.
It revealed a silver haired man.
"Yo" he said casually as he walked up and leant against the wall.
"Kakashi-sensei!" said Naruto with a smaller smile than usual on his face.
Kakashi seemed to notice this, and what he also noticed was the water all over Sakura's sheets that was also streaking her face.
"What happened here?" he asked.
His eyes showed worry.
"It's a long story..." Sakura told him.
"I don't mind, I like long stories. Tell me."
Sakura sighed as her and Naruto retold the story of their mission.
At the end, Kakashi asked Naruto to leave for a few minutes so he could talk to Sakura.
Naruto, of course, obliged and left a very confused Sakura and a smiling teacher in his wake.
Kakashi sat on the end of Sakura's bed and smiled at her.
"After hearing all of that... I've come to a conclusion" he stated to her.
This just made the girl even more confused, wondering what he meant.
"Sakura...you have feelings for Naruto don't you?"