Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
.:. Note .:.
Okay there are a lot of things that will need to be cleared up before I begin this chapter. This entire story takes place AFTER Pein invades Konohagakure and almost destroys it. Meaning that yes, Naruto has mastered Sage mode by now, and Sasuke is still technically MIA.
I'm trying so hard to stick with the plot line of the actual series while giving it my own twists, so if some things are confusing you guys, don't hesitate to mention it. I've been answering a lot of questions and I will try my best to make this chapter as detailed and clarifying as possible. :)
The rest of my Author's notes are at the bottom.
A rather large group of shinobi were scattered about throughout Naruto's office, some standing while others sat. The entire room was amok in chaotic searching, the floors and surfaces all covered in countless different scrolls and documents, as well as maps, graphs, and charts. The large office's occupants included the Rukodaime Hokage—Naruto, of course—as well as Sakura, Shikamaru, Gaara, Shino, and Neji.
Drawers filled with different documents were hanging open and everyone was busy at work forming their strategies for an upcoming mission to The Earth Country. The current mission at hand was to find documents – anything humanly possible regarding the past shinobi wars, hopefully giving them perhaps an idea of what their enemies strengths and weaknesses are, seeing as most of them had been involved in at least one of the Great Shinobi Wars.
Sakura sat in a corner surrounded by scrolls of different sizes. Some were open while others were still folded up and unread, awaiting to have their contents surveyed. Naruto scowled in frustration as none of the nin—whom had all been held up in that office for the past five hours now—had been able to find anything of valuable information regarding the enemy villages, or past wars for that matter.
Where in the hell were all of the documents of the past mission reports? Where were the witnesses statements'? The accounts of the events from the villagers? Where the hell was anything of use?!All of these questions lingered throughout Naruto's mind as the shinobi searched the room top to bottom for something of use.
Shikamaru noticed Naruto's frustration and a large part of him was agreeing. He knew that Naruto was wondering where their jackpot-of-all-records lie, as he himself was asking the very same question. The room was silent for the most part, alongside the occasional rustle of papers, the shuffling of feet, and the long exasperated sighs coming from different directions. Finally, breaking the silence, Sakura shouted out holding a scroll up in eye level as she glanced down at the contents.
"I found something on the Second Great Shinobi war!" She exclaimed excitedly, glad to finally have found some source of documentation that the damn war even took place (which she had begun to doubt from the lack of records).
She supposed it made a little bit of sense though. Perhaps the hokage's of the past had destroyed all accounts of the war for the very same purpose that they were searching for them? Perhaps they didn't want any secrets to be learned from it? No, that couldn't be it; it just wouldn't make any sense for them to have done that. They had probably just hidden things pretty well, or wrote them in codes or something.
Shikamaru glanced sternly at her, silently urging her to read whatever bit of information that she had managed to find. She nodded her head in a silent understanding before clearing her throat to speak. She glanced down at the older looking document, the paper tan in color from age and wear.
"Well, it isn't much but, it says here that, 'The Second Great Shinobi World War involved a majority of the shinobi villages and countries. During this war, Konohagakure, led by the Third Hokage, had fought against Sunagakure—which at that time was most likely being led by the Third Kazekage—as well as Amegakure—led which had been being led by Salamander Hanzo. Eventually, Konohagakure were the victors of this war.' Man, you guys would think that they would put some more details in it since we actually won the damn war, eh? Anyways, what do you think guys? Is it useful or not?"
Shikamaru nodded his head in a silent yes and she smiled triumphantly in return before neatly rolling the scroll up and handing it to him. Shikamaru then placed the scroll in a small pile filled with several other scrolls similar to it, all containing information that they had deemed "useful".
There hadn't been much that was useful though, to be honest. A few scrolls summarizing the wars that had once taken place was as far as they had gotten, and Sakura's newly-discovered scroll was no exception. However, on an upside, it was the first useful documentation regarding the Second Great Shinobi War, as all others had been regarding the Third and most recent one. Information regarding the First Great Shinobi War had yet to be found.
Naruto continued scowling at the wreckage of his office, though his concern wasn't towards the mess. It was the time taking to find anything useful in the heap that Tsunade-baa-chan had actually called "organization".
You would think that the Godaime would have at least kept everything in a neat order or something, but everything was instead jumbled up and out of order. Some other documentations had even gone missing, which concerned Naruto greatly. He really would have to get one of his underlings to organize all of this stuff later on. For now, he wasn't worried about that as there had been a much greater task at hand—Find Something Useful.
Hours passed throughout the slow, agonizing night, as the shinobi had managed to turn the entire Hokage's office into a giant train wreck. The pile of scrolls had grown greatly and there had been about thirty different documents in it now. Shikamaru looked down at the pile carefully and cleared his throat loudly, trying to get everyone's attention.
"Oh man, what a drag," Shikamaru whined a bit as he looked down at two separate piles, the scrolls having been re-organized and separated by the war that they refer to. There should have really been three piles, one for all three of the Great Shinobi Wars, but for some strange reason – unknown to them all – No such documents about that particular war had been located.
"What is it Shikamaru?" Sakura asked as she glanced up from the filing cabinet she had been re-sorting through trying her best to reorganize it better than it had been previously. Shikamaru brought the tip of his thumb towards his mouth and glanced thoughtfully at the empty spot located beside the two small piles of documents.
"We've been through this entire office," he began as he glanced around the room at the faces of his subordinate shinobi whom had stopped their searching to glance up at him, giving him their undivided attention.
"We have searched this entire office, and yet all that we have been able to find is documents on the Second and Third Great Shinobi Wars," he paused to sort his thoughts and words before continuing.
"Even with that said, we have yet to find barely anything about the Second and Third Wars and have come up with absolutely nothing on the First. Don't you guys find that to be a tad bit odd? I mean, judging from all of the information we already know, Konohagakure no Sato had been a part of all three of these wars, and yet there are little-to-no documents detailing them."
Everyone paused a moment, obviously allowing his words of logic to channel through their minds before they all nodded their heads in unison. Shikamaru let his hand drop to his side as he stuffed both of them in his pockets.
"Perhaps the documents had been accidentally destroyed. You know, from like a natural disaster or something?" Ino cut in as she entered the office unannounced, causing everyone to look up at her in surprise.
"Hey Ino, what are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked raising an eyebrow at the blonde who simply shrugged her shoulders.
"Things have been moving slow at the hospital so I figured I'd stop here real quick to see how the search was going. But, after what you just said, there isn't much progress being made, is there?"
Shikamaru shook his head 'no' and let out a long irritated sigh. "It's so weird though, I mean, okay – suppose what Ino said was right, then why is there documents dating back to the founding of the village. There is unlimited information about the early disputes between the Uchiha clan and the Senju clan, as well as Madara Uchiha's battle against Hashirama Senju at the Valley of the End. If there had been some sort of 'disaster', wouldn't those have been destroyed as well?"
"You know, Shikamaru has a point," Neji spoke, "the whole 'natural disaster' idea would certainly be correct had it not been for the founding documents."
"So then, what do you guys think happened to them?" Naruto asked looking up from his hokage's desk at the shinobi whom had struck up the conversation. Shikamaru, whom was biting on his thumbnail deep in thought once again, remained silent for a moment before he finally spoke.
"Well, my guess would be that either A, someone either had stolen the documents, or B, somebody either had destroyed the documents themselves or had the documents destroyed for them. Either way, this whole thing looks like a cover up, but none of the former hokage's nor the elders council members are alive now to confirm or deny the notion."
"Who would want to destroy Konohagakure's document's though? Any official village documents are heavily guarded and it would take someone on the inside to even be allowed withing the vicinity of them." Gaara responded.
"Maybe that's just it," Shikamaru stated as he began to pace back and forth slowly in front of Naruto's desk, his mind working top speed to calculate a theory that would hopefully seem correct to all of the mystery that had been created from these missing documents.
"What? You mean that it was an inside job?" Naruto asked confusedly. Shikamaru stopped his pacing and looked up at him with an expression that clearly was indication that he had figured something out.
"Exactly. Nobody would suspect it as Konoha hasn't been in need of those documents. Had the documents been taken and/or possibly destroyed after they had been filed away, nobody would really need to look at them because the village had been at peace for quite some time. If this was done form the inside, the documents could have been replaced with fake ones, such as the summarized versions that we have thus far come up with."
"Shikamaru's right," Sakura cut in.
"I mean, all of those document's had one thing in common, which was that each contained simply the basic details of the wars. The information was summarized to basically state that 'war was declared, we fought, we won, a few other places won equally with us while others had lost, a few peace treaties were made, the end'. There hadn't been a single thing that was too specific, but rather it was all extremely blunt, if ya ask me."
Everyone nodded hesitantly in agreement and Shikamaru responded to Sakura's statement.
"Exactly. So the questions we should really be asking now are—"
"Who stole the documents," Sakura cut in.
"Why they stole them," Naruto interrupted.
"Were they covering up something," Neji stated.
"What would they have to cover up," Gaara added.
"And when did they disappear in the first place," Shikamaru finished, emitting everyone to nod with him in agreement. Shikamaru scowled.
"This is so troublesome though guys. The only people who could possibly know one of Konoha's secrets are the ones who were witnesses to the events that had been being covered up. But anyone alive that long ago is either dead of old age, was killed in action, or exiled from the village and is well into their old age as it is."
"So what do we do?" Sakura asked.
"The only thing we can do – we have to find a name of all of the persons exiled from Konoha; find out if they are still alive and if so, hunt them down; and then ask them what they know ourselves."
Everyone practically raised their eyebrows at his statement. It made sense to pursue missing nins, but at the same time, it would be next to impossible. The mission would be B-Ranked at best, and Naruto's best bet for shinobi whom could be spared for a mission while still protecting themselves is…
"So you summoned me, Boss?" Konohamaru chimed with a grin stretching from ear to ear as he entered the hokage's office, Moegi and Udon following closely behind the Chuunin. Oh yes, he certainly would be getting his first official mission as a Chuunin and he just knew that it was something awesome, judging from the urgency of Naruto's request to Ebisu for the three to be brought to his office.
Naruto scowled a bit at the mere thought of having to send his youngest chuunin out on such a dangerous mission where they would be extremely vulnerable to being attacked, ambushed, or possibly even killed by enemy nin. But these three were the only ones who weren't doing their part in assisting him with rebuilding the village back to at least half of what it once had been.
Everyone else was either training to do something, doing some sort of political work, or fighting off enemy attackers. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. He could spare one of his subordinates working directly to help him out, right? Besides, this mission would be simple enough, so it wasn't as if there was too much risk involved!
Naruto inwardly grinned as he looked up from his desk at his newest and most recently appointed Jounin, whom had been leaning on the oak desk as they all awaited the arrival of his apprentice, along with his own teammates.
"Shikamaru," Naruto spoke looking at said man whom was leaning against his desk lazily with his hands stuffed in his pockets.
"Hm?" Shikamaru asked looking back at Naruto, his eyebrows raised.
"Can you go with them on this mission as their captain? You have more experience and I really don't want to send them out alone. I've got a very eerie feeling about it, ya know?"
"Oh, come on Boss! We can handle this ourselves you know!" Konohamaru complained scowling at his teacher and friend with a look of pure unsatisfied frustration.
"No, Konohamaru. It's way too risky."
Just as Konohamaru was about to further protest, he looked up at Naruto's stern gaze, clearly receiving the message loud and clear that any argument would not be advisable right now. Submitting to the hokage's demands, Konohamaru reluctantly agreed, but not before declaring the role of team leader to himself, and thereby appointing Shikamaru as simply just a member of the team.
Shikamaru would have protested that too until Naruto gave him a look that simply told him to silently go along with it, but still lead the team as indirectly as he could. He didn't feel like dealing with Konohamaru's complaining right now and he wondered a bit how Kakashi had put up with his own for so many years.
"Okay guys, then it's settled. Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon – you guys leave first thing tomorrow evening. We need to give everyone here some time to rest throughout the day since we've been pulling an all-nighter."
The three young chuunin nodded their heads in understanding and left the hokage's office. Once their chakra could no longer be detected, Naruto finally returned to the previous task at hand.
"Okay guys, now that that's settled, where were we? Shikamaru?"
"Well, all that's mainly left to do in the meantime until tomorrow would be organizing what little information we have uncovered, and we can add on to the timeline once tomorrow's mission is over." Shikamaru responded.
Everyone nodded their heads in a hearty agreement, relief washing over their exhausted faces and Shikamaru picked up a giant poster board.
"Sakura, can you read me some of those scrolls summarized as best as you can?" Shikamaru spoke again, urging the woman towards the stack of scriptures and scrolls.
"Hai!"
Sakura randomly picked a scroll up out of the pile. Unraveling it, her eyes scanned the contents before she spoke.
"Akasuna no Sasori defected over twenty years ago from Sunagakure no Sato. Years after his defection, he had abducted, battled, and defeated the Third Kazekage of Sunagakure no Sato. This event was likely to be one of the leading causes of the Third Great Shinobi War, at least, on Sunagakure's side."
Gaara nodded his head in agreement, having been previously informed of the incident and recalling the details he had received, which had generally been the same as what she had just read. Sakura neatly sat the scroll in a nearby basket, reminding everyone that it had already been read of, but was still of use. Shikamaru finished writing Sakura's summary down on a scrap of paper before pinning it to his timeline on the bulletin board. Sakura picked up another scroll at random and began to read it's contents.
"Sixteen years ago, after the end of the Third Great Shinobi War, the Kyuubi attacked Konohagakure. Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, sealed the fox into his newborn son, Naruto. The Nine-Tails as well as the Eight-Tails, Kirabi, are the only two known remaining Bijou to have not been extracted by the S-Rank criminal organization, the Akatsuki."
Shikamaru wrote the summary down on another blank scrap of paper before quickly pinning it after the last event, because it was more recent. Just as before, Sakura safely discarded the scroll into the basket and pulled out another. Shikamaru readied his pen and a fresh sheet of paper and she began reading.
"Over eighty years ago, the world was in a time of war and the ninja clans were nothing more than assassins for hire for the various feudal lords." Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at her, to which she shrugged.
"That's all that it says here." Shikamaru shook his head and continued writing before placing the new note beside the Third Kazekage's abduction summary.
They continued doing this throughout the entire night. Naruto had just fallen asleep at his desk at around four in the morning. Neji was almost at the same point, his pale white eyes lidded heavily with exhaustion. Sakura was pinching herself occasionally to keep herself from falling over where she stood, and Shikamaru was wired on caffeine, though his "caffeine high" was slowly wearing off as the hours passed them all by.
Finally, they were finished. It took all night and late into the early hours of the morning, but sure enough, they had everything organized in terms of a timeline of the Shinobi Wars and Shikamaru had already come up with a plan. It was risky because of the circumstances involving Rain and Naruto's relations to the Fourth Hokage, a fact and secret that if revealed, could lead to future assassination attempts.
They needed a peace treaty with Cloud, that was definite. Any attacks that would be made upon the village in the meantime would be handled as quickly as possible, which meant that Naruto would have to go into Sage mode a bit more frequently than he normally did. The girls—as in, Ino, Tenten, Sakura, Hinata, and Temari—would have to keep their strength up.
Hinata, Temari, and Tenten would begin medical training as soon as Sakura's full chakra reserves were restored and they would have to pitch in at the hospital. Sakura's health was at risk because of her frequent drainages of her chakra reserves and it would eventually take its toll on her overall health and lifespan if she didn't avoid driving her body down to empty.
Everyone finally left the office around seven that morning and headed back to their respective homes. Naruto and Sakura, ridden with exhaustion, practically dragged their exhausted bodies to their apartment. All they'd need was a few hours of sleep and they could be rejuvenated.
Finally, the rounded the corner and saw the apartment building, to which they let out a long sigh of relief. They walked up the stairs and opened their apartment door, before treading back towards Naruto's bedroom.
Naruto and Sakura couldn't find an ounce of rest, despite their sleep-deprived bodies' protests and so, engaged in a casual conversation. They began talking over the nights events, both equally glad to have found resolve after everyone's hard work and efforts and then things shifted to a topic Sakura was dreading to be brought up.
"Why did you stop me the other night?"
Sakura inwardly groaned, knowing that she would have to give the blonde a honest and full answer, just as he deserved one. She knew it had been bothering him but he had yet to mention their little "moment" the other night.
"I was…afraid…" She replied calmly, though her mind and heartbeat begged to differ. She was certainly not calm on the inside, because the feelings of fear by simply talking about it made her panic a bit. Sasuke was…well, what the hell was Sasuke then? A crush? Love? Fondness? A family-like bond? She honestly did not know anymore.
If it WAS just a crush, then why did his betrayal and defection from the village break her up inside as badly as it did? After all, it wasn't as if they had ever been anything than beyond friendship. She supposed, however, that since she had mistaken her infatuation with him for being love for so long, the lesson learned had sunken in deep enough for her to want to avoid falling for someone again.
"Afraid?" He asked still not in full understanding. She nodded her head in agreement before sighing in defeat. She might as well explain everything.
"I was afraid of getting hurt again. I don't know what I felt towards Sasuke back then, I mean, I thought I loved him but now I highly doubt it was love. I cared deeply for him but that's about it. I guess I'm just afraid of being abandoned again."
Naruto stared at her in surprise.
"So, you're afraid of being abandoned?"
Sakura shrugged. "That would be my best guess. I mean, that is something that truly does scare me all of the time. I don't wanna have my heart broken and I don't want to die alone."
Naruto chucked a bit causing Sakura to furrow her eyebrows in confusion.
"What's so funny?"
"Heh, I've been alone all of my life, Sakura-chan. You think that I wasn't afraid to…Afraid to fall in love with you back when we were kids?"
"Naruto…"
"…Because I was afraid, Sakura."
"Huh?" Sakura asked confusedly.
"…I was scared to death of loving anyone because I never had any family around growing up, at least not until I met you, teme, Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei, and pretty much everyone we knew after that…Before any of that, I was completely on my own. For years, I never knew who my parents were let alone what had happened to them. All that anyone ever told me was that they were dead. What was worse was that the entire village hated me for some reason and I never understood that either. When I met you guys, I finally felt cared about for the first time in my entire life."
Sakura smiled sadly. "I don't see how you could feel cared about, at least from me, because I was so horrible to you when we first met…God, I was such a bitch…"
Naruto put a hand firmly on her shoulder causing her to look up at him. His gaze down at her was sincere and serious.
"Hey, don't say that. You've never been a 'bitch', Sakura-chan. I understand anyhow. You liked the teme and…I was in your way."
Now it was her turn to put a hand on his shoulder.
"You were never in the way, Naruto. I was to just blind to see what was there for me all along and Sasuke would never be what I needed him to be. I was too stupid to see how much you cared for me and I was too damn weak to force myself into ever noticing anything that I did have until the thing I wanted left without a second glance back at me."
Naruto said nothing but allowed her to continue, sensing she had more to say as her hand began trembling.
"When you came back without Sasuke that one time, back when I begun training under Tsunade-shishou, I vowed never to be weak again. But I failed myself because I have been so weak up until this point and I was too weak to finally open my eyes up and see you. But here we are Naruto and even still I tried pushing you away and now? Now I have absolutely no idea why."
"Hey, Sakura-chan, will you do me a favor?"
Sakura resumed her gaze back at him, her face holding a questioning expression that urged him to continue asking her the favor.
"Give in."
She blinked her eyes several times in confusion. Give in? What does he mean by give in?
"What do you—"
"Just give in. Don't be afraid of me, Sakura-chan…I know that you've been hurt by the teme but…I promise, I'm not like him. I will never hurt you. If you give me your heart, even just a little bit, I'll protect it with my life. Just like I protect you and this entire village with my life. That is a promise of a lifetime Sakura-chan."
Naruto flashed her his trademark foxy grin and she just looked at him in awe. Truth be told, however, that Naruto's words instantly made Sakura's heart sink to her stomach.
She knew that he would never hurt her, but even so, she was still afraid. A part of her wanted to be with someone, to be truly happy and love someone unconditionally without a single worry. But it wasn't so simple. She didn't even know if she loved Naruto, at least not like that. How could she ever know, however, if something kept holding her back from trying to let him inside to see her soul for the flaw filled being that it was?
"Oh, Naruto…I know that you're not him. You're more of a man than he'll ever be. At least you've never ran away from a challenge. Sasuke was nothing but a coward for what he had done to Konohagakure and to us."
Naruto furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. If it wasn't Sasuke that had left the kunoichi before him in fear of feeling love again and giving her heart away, then what was the problem? As if reading his mind, she answered his confused expression.
"I never loved Sasuke, Naruto. But that doesn't mean he didn't hurt my heart all the while. You're different and maybe that is what has me afraid of trying again, ya know?"
Naruto nodded his head slightly before making deep eye contact with Sakura, her jade orbs staring back at his blue ones deep in thought.
What was Sakura afraid of anyhow? Maybe it wouldn't hurt her if she let Naruto in. After all, he was the one who had always been by her side, no matter what. It wasn't as if he were a stranger. Hell, he was her best friend.
But a womans heart is so delicate and doubtful. It is raw with many feelings—pain and anguish; love and hatred; compassion and resolve. Because of all of these strong emotions and feelings, it was something that could be considered more fragile than glass, more delicate than a feather, and more sensitive than anything beyond reason. Once that very heart is hurt badly enough, it can freeze up and vow never to feel such pain again.
One does not truly know the hurt of a woman scorned unless they are either that woman herself or the one who has hurt her. Sasuke was the one who inflicted the deep wounds in her heart from her childhood crush and loss of a friend, but now, she decided to finally just let go. She wanted something—someone—in her life and here was Naruto offering to be that person. Should she turn him away?
Absolutely not. So, for once, Sakura gave in to her temptation and said 'to hell with it all'. She pulled Naruto into a deep, passionate kiss, which he eagerly returned.
Placing a tanned hand behind her pale and slender neck, Naruto cradled her to lay back on the bed and get more comfortable, his body climbing atop of her own and placing a knee between her legs with the other on the opposite side of her small figure.
He towered over her delicate form, his hands roaming up and down her sides hesitantly, practically screaming for her permission to continue. She granted the permission with a curt nod and a small smile, which Naruto returned with his famous foxy grin.
Suddenly, somebody was heard frantically pounding on the front door of Naruto and Sakura's apartment. Both of them parted from their intimate positions and ran towards the door to see a frantic looking Ino.
"Sakura! We need you at the hospital, now! Several of our shinobi have been severely injured by a group of Otogakure ninja! I'm almost out of chakra so come on, we need to go now!"
Sakura's eyes widened as her brain processed the information that Ino had just given her. She wondered to herself what the hell was going on, but Naruto managed to beat her to asking the question.
"Ino, calm down. What happened exactly?" Naruto shook Ino who was in shock and staring wide-eyed ahead at him, her expression pale and frightful.
"Look…" Sakura whispered, her eyes widening in shock as she pointed her index finger in front of her.
A/N: Sorry for the sudden ending (and the lemon interruption), I'm getting writers block on this story and like I have no idea right now where I'm taking this. Next chapter should be a decent battle scene, as well as the beginning as Konohamaru's Team's mission with Shikamaru and some other things like that. It wont have too much NaruSaku development, however. Sorry ahead of time.