Child of the Leaf

Chapter Fourteen

by operadeglace


Bolt was disgusted with his father.

For thirty minutes, the youngest Uzumaki son sat on the roof of the Hyuuga clan complex, scowling at the greatest Ninja in Konohagakure as he discgracefully grovelled at the feet of his Aunt.

"Just… just let me talk to her."

Bolt could tell that having the leader of the entire village begging on your door step was something that made his Aunt Hanabi very uncomfortable.

"Please, Hanabi, its all just a big misunderstanding."

The clear eyed woman grabbed him by his arms and helped him to his feet, smiling warmly, albeit very nervously.

"I'm talking to her on your behalf, big brother. But, you know your close relationship with Uchiha-san has always been something that has worried my big sister…"

Naruto pauses his tearful sniveling to look at her curiously.

"Which one?"

"Both of them..."

"But, they're my friends!"

"Naruto, you married my sister… she should be your most important friend."

Unable to bear a moment more of the scene taking place before him, Bolt slides down the tiled roof and hops over the back wall, desperate for a change in scenery. As he landed in the dusty street, he took a deep breath before shoving his hands in his pockets and continuing to walk to the outskirts of the city.

His mom had ignored his dad's pathetic pleas and hauled a load of their clothes and other items all the way across town to the Hyuuga compound, where she promptly shut the door on her husband. The whiskered boy remembered the conversation that followed between his mother and his Auntie…

"He lied to me… he said she was just a silly crush! That she meant nothing to him!"

"Sakura was pregnant long before he fell in love with you, 'neechan… he is a good man and you need to forgive him."

"No! You don't understand how this feels!"

"Calm down, Hinata. You're just in shock-"

"NO. I see the way he looks at her. I heard what he said about his other son… you should have heard him…"

"Hinata, stop this. Naruto loves you and your children."

Bolt heard his mother start to laugh strangely, almost hatefully.

"He said if he knew about Sakura's son, he wouldn't have married me…"

"…"

The weirdo kid with the huge forehead in the hospital… he hated him so much. If it weren't for him, who knows? Maybe he'd be flying a kite with his father by now.

Suddenly, Bolt heard a loud 'BOOM!' on the other side of the outer wall of the village.

"What was that!?"

Rolling his sleeves up, Bolt commenced in climbing the wall, using his favorite route via long, branches extending from a tree that grew flat against the bricks of the wall. Once he was at the top, his eyes narrowed immediately as he surveyed the forest in the distance.

There was an odd column of smoke rising from a clearing.

Swiftly, the young ninja scaled down the bricks and to the ground, touching down momentarily before sprinting towards the strange cloud of smoke. Once he was able to breech the treeline, he found himself on the site of a recent explosion, which was the source of the plumes billowing into the air. His blue eyes flitted to the tree roots, spotting white strips of paper seals and trip wires.

"Are these… traps? Konoha doesn't set traps outside the gates anymore…"

Bolt whispers to himself as he treads softly on the freshly torn earth. Among the piles of smoking tree trunks and rocks, he saw something move. Squinting his eyes to focus his view in the blinding sun light, the young shinobi was able to make out the form of a young woman. She had bright red hair, and it looked as if she was injured as she staggered towards him.

"Hey, you! It's not safe here! Didn't you see all the—" Bolt was so distracted by the girl that he didn't see the wire that caught onto his left ankle.

"..tripwires…"

The boy turns in fear as he hears a large snapping of a branch the held a vast number of shuriken which were now on their way to leave holes in his small body. He hunches into a frightened ball and closes his eyes in terror, awaiting his doom… which after a moment, never came.

Opening one cerulean eye, he was able to see that he was protected by a barrier that seemed to consist of dozens of children's dolls. Prying open both eyes, he saw each of the toys moving shucking off the shuriken from their bodies with metallic clatters onto the smoking dirt.

"Are you alright?"

He hears the young woman's voice break through the mound of dolls.

"Of course I'm alright. I'm a ninja…" Bolt says with a sudden burst of confidence. The confidence melts away as the dolls grab him and lift him into the air, twisting him around to show him that they were actually puppets manipulated by the girl… whom he found to be very attractive.

AND cool.

AND attractive.

AND a ninja.

AND very, very attractive.

AND… falling very fast to the ground..?

"Wha!?" Bolt screeches as he and the puppets crash to the earth next to the red headed girl who had suddenly fainted. He untangles himself from the wooden dolls and scrambles to her side, holding her hand.

"No way! Don't die! We're going to get married and have like ten kids when we grow up!" Bolt sobs dramatically, acting much like his father, although his childishness was acceptable due to him actually being a child. Footsteps can be heard pounding in approach.

"Bolt! What are you doing here!?" Konohamaru yells as he grabs his pupil by swinging an arm around his waist. "It's dangerous! Can't you see there are explosives and tripwires EVERYWHERE!? What is wrong with you!?"

Bolt kicks his legs into the air fruitlessly.

"Let me go! I have to help my girl friend!" The younger blonde twists angrily in his sensei's arms.

"Girl friend..? She may be the one who set those traps! Who is she?"

"I dunno! She… she saved my life." Bolt says quietly as he calms down enough to have Konohamaru set him down. Several anbu alight on the tree branches as well as Shikamaru and Chouji who appear on the ground.

"Shikamaru! The perpetrator got away. Seems like he was after the girl."

One of the anbu states from his perch atop the tree. Shikamaru kneels over the fallen girl and inspects her person to deduce her personal information.

"Hmmm. Kumotaka… Ayaka. She hails from Sunagakure." He says simply, rubbing his bearded chin slightly.

"You're a genius, Shikamaru!" Konohamaru and Bolt circle the pony-tailed man in admiration.

"How did you know exactly who she was so fast..!?"

Annoyed by their reactions, Shikamaru held up a hand to stop them.

"It was written on the inside of her jacket. Her parents must really be over protective of her if they put her name on all of her clothes…"

"How did you know her parents are overprotective..?" Bolt's eyes shine with more admiration of his father's assistant.

"Still so cool, Nara-san."

"You idiots! I just told you I simply read the label on her clothes!"

"That's why he's your dad's assistant."

"He's gonna be my assistant when I become Hokage…"

"I'm gonna be the next Hokage, you little punk! So he'll be MY assistant."

"In your dreams, Sarutobi-sensei!"

"Ugh, you're both so troublesome… I'm going to take this girl to the hospital. Meanwhile, you two morons can carry the lady's puppets for her…"

Bolt and Konohamaru groan simultaneously as they lug huge arm fulls of dolls and trail after the intelligent Nara who carries the injured Ayaka.

A pair of calculating, golden eyes intently watch them from afar…

It was rather drafty in the hospital. After all of the years which she worked in the large building, Sakura never once felt as cold in it as she felt at the present moment. Maybe she really was getting sick.

Her eyes stayed shut as she struggled to force her body to sleep.

Turning restlessly in her hospital bed, Sakura began to shiver. To make matters worse, she started to think about her husband, and that always made her spirits sink further into the coldness.

'Sasuke… where are you?'

Goosebumps prickle on the surface of her skin.

'Why don't you write your daughter? She needs you… I need you…'

Her body curls into itself, her fetal position caused by her want of warmth that the thin sheets of the bed were not affording her.

'How am I going to explain Shinachiku to you? Will you finally leave me for good?'

The Uchiha matron unexpectedly feels warmth encompass her entire body up to her neck, easing her tension and jogging her out of her negative thoughts. Easing her emerald eyes open, she spies Naruto's familiar white Hokage cloak laid over the length of her personage.

The calming smell of cedar wood and a faint hint of ramen broth surrounds her, recalling to her mind a cherished and treasured time long ago, with a certain whiskered boy…

She spies, on the table next to her bed, a bowl of tiny oranges, with the bringer of the oranges hunched in a chair nearby. Naruto's face was red, and his eyes looked puffy, as if he was crying before he fell asleep.

'I still bring him pain… how can I stop hurting him, when we are tied together in this way?'

Sakura reaches her out and tenderly strokes her hand through his soft blonde hair.

"After all these years, I… I still love you. "

She smiles sadly as Naruto purrs involuntarily in his sleep, his body reacting to her caress.

"But, for the sake of both our families, you must never know."

Cuddling beneath the warm coat, Sakura leans back into her pillow and falls easily into a deep sleep.

-The End of Chapter 14.

-Story by ODG


Sorry for the drama. This story calls for a lot of it, so I needs ta do it.

If you hate NaruSaku and you are reading this... why? Do you not know how to read? Pay attention in school! Stop leaving hate for me, it'll only fuel my NaruSaku fire...