Standard disclaimer applies.
As stated in the previous chapters, this is SasuNaru and yaoi. In addition, there is a huge chances of OOC and much to our apology, this is unbeta-read.
The reason for the delay of update is not because of our procrastination but because, we kept on missing each other.
Chapter 7: Feroce
Naruto let out a shuddering sigh and clenched his eyes tightly closed. His breaths became shallower when he felt the tip of Sasuke's erection brushing against his sensitive and stimulated entrance. Subconsciously, he was almost holding his breath for that moment when he would be penetrated with his lover's hot and pulsating rod.
"Come with me," he heard Sasuke growl. Because he had least expected it, especially in the situation they were in, Naruto opened his eyes and stared at Sasuke. Did he hear him right?
"Say that you'll come with me and I'll continue this." I'll give you all the pleasure that you want.
Naruto's heart clenched. He had heard him right.
Sasuke said it again. This time, more demanding and it didn't help the fact that his tip was pressed against that particular area of his. The torture of a lifetime where sex was concerned.
The blond swallowed thickly and with sheer effort, he pushed Sasuke away and swung his legs over the side of their cot. His nails dug into the crumpled blanket as he willed his lust to calm down. When he finally felt his desire wither away somewhat, he sighed, "I want you. Yes, I do, but," he looked at the scowling Sasuke over his shoulder, "that doesn't mean I'll sell them out for my pleasure." His orgasm shouldn't be that expensive. No pleasure should be this expensive.
He was about to stand up, but pale arms wrapped around him from behind and the next thing he knew, his sweaty back was pressed against Sasuke's sweaty chest.
"Don't go." It was no longer a demand but a plea and Naruto clearly heard it. Should he listen to him? What good would come out if he would?
"Stay with me tonight and I won't ask anything."
Sasuke sounded so sincere that he needed to see his face, so he turned around and found his friend looking at him expectantly.
Sasuke is still so pure.
Naruto relaxed against him. "I'l probably regret this," he whispered.
Laying light kisses on a left tanned shoulder, Sasuke replied, "I doubt it." He heard the blond snort, but at least he didn't protest when he pulled him back to lay with him. Both of them lay on their side, spooning, Sasuke's arms still around Naruto's waist.
"Can we?" he asked him a moment later after silently attempting to endure the discomfort caused by his half-erected state. Besides, with the blond pressed against him like this and with their scents combining, he couldn't cool down. He smiled against the blond's nape when he heard an affirmative reply.
It wasn't long until both of them were heavily panting and straining against each other. Naruto's eyes fell shut. It wasn't Sasuke moving in and out from his body that was driving him wild or the intensity of his thrusts. It was the man's panting that was ringing loud and clear in his ears and all because Sasuke's mouth was nestled next to his ear. All the changes in his pants, despite how small they were, were registered in his mind and flowed through him like an aphrodisiac.
He let one of his hands to join Sasuke's which was wrapped around his erection. He twisted his head to press their mouths together while moaning into their kiss. The telltale tightening of his abdomen was already there and he informed Sasuke by gripping the man's butt to give him more momentum in his furious thrusting.
So close.
Naruto...
-SasuNaru is love-
Ino looked around for her prey and when she didn't find him, she let out an irritated sigh. "I swear, Sakura, Naruto took after Kakashi-sensei. He's almost two hours late."
All the remaining rookie nine were at the barbecue house for a small get-together probably their last until the threat on Konoha was thwarted. Or killed.
Kiba huffed. "It seems like he became a stranger since he came back from Demon Country."
"It must be hard for Naruto-kun especially that it's Sasuke-kun," Hinata quietly stated. "Can you imagine what you'd be like if you and Shino-kun are in their shoes?"
While Shino didn't react, Kiba seemed to pale. "Don't say such things, Hinata," he lightly begged while waving his chopsticks.
"I'm sure Naruto will arrive soon. He's probably at the training grounds," Sakura said.
"That's what you always say. Do you have any other excuse aside from that?" Ino asked.
"You seem to know a lot about him and his location," Chouji stated while chewing.
If Sakura didn't blush, Ino wouldn't have noticed anything strange. The blond smirked and poke her friend's flushed left cheek, letting all their companions know that she was affected by Chouji's words.
"You're blushing pretty well, Sakura," Ino teased. "Could it be that you-"
"Of course not!" Sakura protested and another image of her former teammates flashed in her mind. Dammit! Why did these images remain in her head even now?
But Ino wasn't listening while she continued, "Well, Hinata, here's your new rival."
Hinata smiled. "You're wrong, Ino. After all, Naruto-kun has his eyes on Sakura for a long time now." She knew that, but it didn't stop her heart from aching. She had lost the battle even before it had even begun.
Sakura let out a sigh. If only they knew, but they didn't.
"So Sakura, it's -"
"Wait, Hinata. You're wrong."
"I'm late, aren't I?" a new voice asked, cutting off Sakura and interrupting the drama that was unfolding.
Everybody whipped their heads to look at Naruto who was grinning from ear to ear.
"I took a shower after training."
Liar.
Everyone believed that but Sakura, who bowed head lower to hide her face which was completely red, but Ino had seen.
"You're paying because you're late," Ino said and the rest agreed. She grabbed a tanned hand just as Naruto was moving to find a seat. "Sit here," she told him offering her seat beside Sakura's.
Shino's eyes darted at Hinata, pitying her. In his opinion, Ino's offer was unnecessary. Shikamaru shared the same opinion as the silent man, but unlike him, he understood that despite their antagonism towards each other, Sakura's happiness was Ino's.
Naruto glanced at Sakura. He didn't understand why, but she was giving off bad vibes, making him wonder if it was okay to take the offered seat. Having no choice seeing that all the seats around their table were being occupied, he sat on the offered cushion while hoping that he would get home alive.
-SasuNaru is love-
"Thanks for the treat," called out the rookie nine members to Naruto as they stepped out from the barbecue restaurant. Most of them either left one by one or as a group to their own itinerary, leaving the blond alone.
Naruto scratched the back of his head and sighed. The peals of laughter coming from his left caused him to turn towards the noise..
Ino and Sakura.
Sakura.
Without any hesitation, he made a dash to catch up with them. "Sakura-chan," he started, "do you have something important you have to do now?"
"Yes," Sakura replied at the same time that Ino said, "No."
Sakura glared at Ino who continued, "She's going home. Walk her home, okay?" She gave Naruto a thumbs-up sign and shot him a grin before leaving.
Sakura had her hard gaze focused on something to her left while Naruto looked at her, his hands inserted into his pockets. Awkwardness had never been this thick between the two of them to the point of suffocation.
The blond cleared his throat. "Sakura," he nervously said.
Hearing her name, the pink-haired kunoichi tensed. She sensed that Naruto was going to ask a question and before he could, she leapt to a rooftop. She was about to jump to another one when she felt a hand wrap itself around her wrist.
"Why are you running away from me?" she heard him ask. His voice was full of hurt and confusion. "What did I do wrong? You've been acting strange whenever I'm around." It wasn't an observation, but a fact. Even in his obliviousness, he noticed her change in behavior.
"Sakura..." A plea.
The kunoichi mentally took a deep breath and spoke loud enough to be heard by Naruto only. "I saw it. On that rainy evening... you and Sasuke." And Naruto's hand loosened its grip on her wrist and a second later slipped away. She turned around, guilt evident on her face.
Naruto remained immobile, eyes wide with horror and face pale.
"I was so worried about you that I followed you that night. I wish I didn't. God, Naruto, I meant it." She was so desperate that she was close to going hysterical. Watching them was like an act of betrayal... an intrusion of privacy. "I didn't know. How was I supposed to know that you and him..."
Unlike her, Naruto was strangely calm. In a sense, he expected something like this would happen. After all, nothing remained a secret. "Sakura," he said and his eyes were sharp for anything that would belie her answer to the question he would ask. "You didn't tell anyone about this, right? I don't want Sasuke to get hurt."
Sakura bit her lower lip. She hadn't expected this kind of reply. Her heart clenched painfully and her throat constricted. She let out a shaky breath to maintain whatever control she had on her emotions. "You... when... Why? Why are you going this far for him? Can't you see that he is destroying you?"
Bonds shouldn't lead anyone to self-destruction.
That was what he said and yet, here he was- What was he thinking? His bond with Sasuke was not ordinary. It was all-consuming, demanding and like molten lava, destroying anything in its path. He knew that. He knew it all too well because he had been burnt... consumed by it and he loved it. "Then let him. I don't care." He had long crossed the boundary and unbeknownst to Sasuke, he had went with him from the start and without his permission.
In the blink of an eye, Sakura had crossed the distance between them and grabbed a fistful of his jacket. "Put more value on yourself, dammit!" She leaned forward, her forehead brushing against her knuckles. "Naruto..." He was so far from her and perhaps this person in front of her was just a shadow of what Naruto would be like if Sasuke had stayed.
It's all your fault, Sasuke-kun.
Tears falling. Sobs wracking her body. Naruto, This is the only favor I will ever ask of you... Bring... bring Sasuke-kun back... I'm sure the only person who can save him is... Naruto, only you.
Sakura, I will bring Sasuke back for sure. This is the promise of a lifetime! He was grinning. Giving his word as a ninja.
"Forget about my lifetime promise. I shouldn't have asked you." In a way, Sakura blamed herself because there was no one else she could place her blame on.
With his clammy fingers, Naruto held Sakura's wrists while he explained, "It had nothing to do with that." His eyes fluttered close for a short moment. He let out a long breath, fanning few pink hair-strands. Then he admitted, "Well, once it did, but even if you didn't ask, I'd still do the things I did."
Be content of what you had taken from him. Don't take more of him because... then... I won't have anything of him.
Sakura leaned back to look into doleful blue eyes. "Dammit! Why?"
"Because I want to save him. There are things that we misunderstood about the Uchiha clan and Sasuke and things we didn't know about him. But now that I know, I want to save him and I'll keep trying." I have nothing else to do... on this path... straight ahead... There is only Sasuke. Only him and I believe that when I stretch my hand, I'll be able to touch him and then finally... save him.
Her grip on his coat tightened, her knuckles slightly white. "You and him-"
A blush tainted tanned cheeks. "That? I don't know. One moment he... I... we... things just happened and suddenly we can't stop. It's pulling us towards each other." This was the first time he admitted his helplessness against the force between him and his dark-haired friend out loud.
Despite all the things Naruto had told her, Sakura still couldn't understand. But even if she did, what she would now ask of him wouldn't be any different. "Please, stop chasing him. You've done enough."
"There is no enough for a friend."
"You have dreams," she reminded him with quiet desperation.
"Saving him is one of them," he replied with conviction.
Sakura sighed. Naruto was too far. He was unreachable with her words. When did he stray from her? "The elders... if they find out-"
Naruto stepped back from her, but his hands were still wrapped around her wrists with rough affection. "I don't care. Not even death can stop me."
Sakura gaped at her friend. This wasn't selflessness or stupidity but-
"This is madness. You're insane."
It was quite ironic that the words he flung at Sasuke were being flung back at him, and by Sakura no less. Sakura whose eyes were as desperate as his were few years back, and it hit him that there was a possibility that Sakura would be just like him and it would be his fault. His and Sasuke's bonds had sucked everything. He couldn't allow this. He couldn't let her get involved. He gripped her shoulders tightly, "I can't be saved... I don't want to be saved so don't try. Don't join this madness."
"I won't," she promised, but that was because even if she wanted to join, she couldn't. This madness was their bond itself. "But I won't tell-"
"Sorry to interrupt," the new voice caused them to jump away from each other in surprise.
"Genma!" Sakura said, chest slightly heaving and eyes slightly guilty.
Genma smiled. Young love, he thought. He felt guilty for intruding on them, but an order was an order. "Tsunade summoned the both of you to her office. The priestess has arrived."
-SasuNaru is love-
Shion shifted her eyes to the other side and tried not to squirm underneath the gaze of one Hatake Kakashi, much to Tsunade's quiet amusement.
Tsunade never asked for the purpose of her visit. One look at the priestess' face and she knew. Unfortunately, it was obvious that Naruto was completely oblivious to her feelings.
"They're here," she said when the door was opened.
Shion turned around and her gaze immediately went over Sakura who was the first one to step inside. Her heart skipped a beat.
Naruto.
Before a smile could settle on her face, her gaze was filled with blood. Naruto's blood. Then darkness descended on her like a heavy cloak.
Thanks to his quick reflex, Kakashi had caught the unconscious priestess.
"Shion?"
"Shion?!"
..Naruto..?
-SasuNaru is love-
When Shion came to, she found herself lying on a bed.
"She's awake," she heard someone said. "I'll get her a glass of water."
She pushed herself to sit. Why was she on a bed? What happened?
"Hey, you okay?" Naruto said. Seeing him made her remember the bloody scene that had came to her.
The village was in flames and ruin. Naruto was fighting against a dark-haired shinobi on a rooftop. Then suddenly, the latter had cruelly pierced Naruto's chest with his right hand and the blond fell limp just after his eyes had dulled from red, to dark blue.
"Your chest will be pierced by a hand and you'll die," she said without any preamble.
Naruto remembered what Shion had revealed to him. While her death prophecies of people around her were accurate, they were signs of her own impending death. Because Naruto knew this, he was more worried for her than for himself. He hadn't died when she predicted his death for the first time, right? So what were the chances that he would this time?
"Is your life in danger?" Naruto asked her urgently.
Shion shook her head. She would have known if it was.
Naruto was confused. "If it isn't, then why?"
The priestess hung her head to hide the blush that crept on her cheeks. What she didn't tell Naruto was that any priestess could see the death of a person she was in love with as if preparing her for the pain so as not to disrupt her service.
"Shion!" Naruto grabbed her left hand out of insistence.
"I don't know," she snapped back and freed her hand, too aware of his touch. "All I know is that you're going to die!"
Her voice or to be exact, her words stopped Sakura from turning the doorknob.
The pink-haired kunoichi remained outside, waiting for the priestess' next words, but there was none. There was just silence. She knocked once and with a smile on her face, waltzed in with the glass of water she was ordered to get for Shion.
-SasuNaru is love-
Sakura stepped out from the administrative building later than Naruto did, but the blond, as they agreed, was waiting for her.
From a distance, she saw him reading a small of piece of paper before he hurriedly tucked it in his pocket. Perhaps it was the sudden change of his look or his posture or both that told her it was from Sasuke.
You'll die.
Sakura almost missed a step. Shion never mentioned the exact details of his death and she never had a chance to ask her because the priestess became standoffish. However, she had a feeling that Naruto's death had something to do with Sasuke. Whether he was slain by Sasuke or was executed because of his tryst...
"Sakura-chan!" came Naruto's cheerful voice, snapping her out of her thoughts. "What are you standing there for? We have to go. I still have to train."
You're a liar.
"You're not the only one who has plans, Naruto," she replied when she caught up with him. "I'm gonna meet up with Ino."
I'm a liar too.
They were both liars for someone who thought less of them.
Sakura followed Naruto into his apartment to retrieve the scroll that Shion came for. Luckily, the three of them managed to convince Tsunade to let Shion stay at Sakura's house, where she could read and research about the seal without anyone's knowledge. None of them, not even Naruto himself, knew why they were keeping this scroll a secret from everyone, especially from Tsunade. It wasn't like they were doing anything wrong, but keeping it a secret felt like the right thing to do.
Sakura chuckled while an embarrassed Naruto grabbed his growling stomach.
"I'll make you ramen," she offered sweetly. "Surely, you have time for that."
Her friend grinned affirmatively.
-SasuNaru is love-
"I gratefully partake," Naruto said cheerfully as he grabbed his chopsticks. He inhaled deeply, taking in the smell of his ramen. He grinned at the amused Sakura before digging in.
"You know," Naruto started, eyes suddenly fond, " I shared ramen with Sasuke once.."
Sakura looked surprised because she expected him not to talk about Sasuke. After all, he was his dark secret.
"He doesn't like ramen, but that time, he was happily slurping with me." His eyes darkened with loneliness. "And to me, nothing had ever felt so right."
Her face softened with pity and comfort. "Naruto..."
The blond smiled at her, but his smile didn't reach his eyes. He yawned. "Sakura... I think-" He yawned again and blinked blearily. "I think... I'm sleepy."
"Eh? You're sleeping on me?"
He gave her a sheepish look. "Let's continue this talk later. I still have to train." He pillowed his head on his elbows. "Sorry, Sakura," he mumbled seeing her worried look. He always made her worry... always. She was slipping from his eyes and he was too sleepy to entertain a certain nagging thought. "So sorry." Sasuke.
Sakura looked at Naruto's sleeping face. With slightly trembling hand, traced his face. Affection was on her visage while she tucked few hair-strands behind his ear. He was like a brother to her, she would do anything to protect him. Anything including mixing sleeping powder in his ramen. She took out the small capsule which was now empty, its contents having long been mixed in the ramen soup and running through her friend's system. "Sorry, Naruto," she said and crushed the capsule while she was leaving.
Within few minutes, Sakura was on her way to meet Sasuke.
-SasuNaru is love-
Sasuke's lips pursed. Even before he looked up, he knew who his guest was and he wasn't pleased. Thoughts of Naruto betraying him swirled in his mind, making him teeter between rage and indifference.
"Sakura, eh?" he stated, his voice dangerous and spiked with calloused coldness.
Despite the man's cold welcome, Sakura remained steadfast, almost aloof and reckless, but that was because she already had made up her mind.
"Naruto had nothing to do with this," she said and she could have sworn that the stiffness in his shoulders left him. However her next words made them stiffen once more. "I drugged him to sleep." Inwardly, the kunoichi smiled at the loathing gaze she was receiving. Naruto might mean something to him after all if that was the case. She reminded herself not to push too many buttons...not to make the former Konoha shinobi any more annoyed than he already was. "I'm worried for Naruto. I'm scared for him."
Sasuke arched an eyebrow in infuriating indifference. Sakura clenched her fists. He was always demeaning everyone and everything, especially Naruto. "You deeply care for him then," he said in mockery.
She scowled. "Yes. I value him more than you ever will."
"But he values me more than you." Although he stated it, he knew it wasn't true. If Naruto value him more, he would have come with him.
"He has dreams!" She was close to stomping her foot. While Sasuke might be as stubborn as Naruto, she believed that Sasuke was more logical than their blond teammate.
"I have mine too."
"Then let him go, Sasuke." A plea. Her plea. "That's all I ask of you. This is all I will ever ask of you."
Sasuke snorted. So dramatic. "He is not bound to me nor have I imprisoned him. Besides, I have more to lose than he does."
Sakura's jaw tensed at that statement. More to lose? The nerve of that guy! Her first reaction was to demand him to explain when revenge became more important than a dream of protecting a village. Most importantly of all, the lives of all the innocent people. However, Naruto's words stopped her.
There are things we misunderstood about him and his clan...
"Then let him go," she replied curtly.
"Tell him to let me go."
Sakura's scowl darkened before her words lashed out from her mouth, unbidden. "It's your incapability to cut your bonds that he is this way!"
Sasuke's eyes widened slightly. Nobody had ever said that to him before. Even he himself hadn't thought about it until now, and he didn't appreciate it. His lips curled into a distasteful snarl.
"Has it ever crossed your mind that you will destroy Naruto's dream by destroying Konoha? Won't you regret it?" she yelled.
Won't he?
"Why would I?"
Sasuke's eyes widened while he drew a sharp breath when Sakura appeared right in front of him, her right gloved fist pulled back. In a nick of time, he quickly moved away and put a distance between them. Even though he missed the attack a hairsbreadth away, his left cheek tingled with slight pain. He regarded Sakura when she straightened up and turned to face him. Her green eyes were dark with ferocity. She was serious. She would kill for Naruto and that observation made his heart clench. Painfully so.
"Do you know who you're up against?" he obnoxiously asked her while he extracted his hands from the dangling sleeves of his kimono.
Sakura snorted. She certainly knew and she even chided herself for being infatuated with him during her younger years. She had been naive, but not now. Not anymore. She lunged again just as Sasuke did the hand signs for a summoning technique.
Sakura was barely surprised at the snakes that shot out from the ground. She leaned forward, leapt upward, let herself free-fall and thrust herself sideward as she expertly maneuvered her way away from them and once in awhile, slashed the snakes whose fangs were dangerously too close for comfort.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. He couldn't help but be impressed at the kunoichi's smooth movements. She was so different from her genin days. She had grown and he wondered if she was the strongest among the kunoichis of their batch. But that strength... how far would it take her? A wicked smirk graced his face. In a split second, snakes shot out from his sleeves and they were reflected on emerald eyes.
Sakura dug her feet on the ground before meeting the snakes halfway. She grabbed a kunai from her pouch, twirled it around her pointer finger before using it to behead a few of the summoned reptiles. She propelled herself off the ground and jumped on a snake when another attacked her. With quick timing, she reached out and wrapped a hand around its mouth, snapping it shut. She swung herself upward and all the snakes rose up, following suit.
Beads of Sakura's sweat together with the snakes insides fell to the ground as the kunoichi maimed them one after another. In a split second, she managed to glance at her enemy and the smirk on the man's face angered her. With a battle cry, she thrust a kunai into the biggest snake and pulled it down with her.
The snake thrashed in pain, but she remained firm...and cruel. There was a sadistic gleam in her eyes when her gaze met Sasuke's.
Take that, bastard! her inner self shouted.
She let go of the kunai and pulled herself back just as a vengeful snake was ready to snap her into two. She made an acrobatic move, gained balance on a snake's head and finally, managed to get at Sasuke from behind. She heard the sound of her fist crashing against his back and even the telltale sound of his spine breaking.
Panting and slightly surprised to having beaten him that easily, she watched as her former teammate slumped to the ground.
Was that it? she thought. Eyes still wary and body still tensed, she straightened up and flexed her hands. Wanting to make sure that he was really dead, she took a step forward just as she felt something scaly and cool slithering around her ankles. She looked down and her eyes widened. But why? Its master was dead or was he? Her gaze flew to Sasuke's corpse and she paled to see it slowly splitting apart, sticky greenish liquid oozing from the cut. She recoiled upon seeing the large snake coming out from the corpse which had now become a snake skin. The ground between her and the snake cracked and torn apart when the animal pulled the rest of its hidden body into view, showing to Sakura that what was wrapped around her legs was the end of its body.
The snake bared its fangs and in a flash, shot forward and tightly wrapped its body around Sakura, preventing any movement, even a slight struggle.
Tight, Sakura thought the moment breathing became an issue, and it didn't help that she was being held above the ground. With less supply of oxygen, she felt like her head was shrinking, but she refused to die. She couldn't die. Naruto...
"How's the view from up there?" a voice asked from below, causing emerald eyes to dart to the ground.
Sasuke.
Sasuke remained nonplussed, calm and collected. He lazily looked at her, assessing her. There was just fierce determination and stubbornness in her eyes so similar to Naruto's that it was quite amusing. However, he didn't have the time to be amused. He could kill her. He had every right and reason to do so. After all, she was just one of the leaves of the tree that was Konoha... a wisp of flame of the fire that was Konoha.
His killing aura was there, even Sakura could feel its intensity. However, before he could manifest it into a command, he remembered Naruto's distance and sad face whenever the subject of his friends being killed was brought up and then the sex between them becoming less satisfying. He thought that killing Sakura at that moment when he still had unfinished business with the blond would do him no good. Sakura's untimely demise by his hands would drive him away and he didn't want that.
"I can kill you, Sakura. Right here. Right now."
Sakura never doubted that and she was willing to die if her death would be the sword that would free Naruto from this madness. Kill me then, her eyes told him.
"But," Sasuke continued without a hint of sentimentality as he started wavering like heat vapor, "that will upset the dobe." Having said that, he disappeared without a trace. And a second later, so did Sakura's scaly prison.
The moment her feet landed on the ground, Sakura fell forward on her shaky hands and knees as she hungrily took in big gulps of air. Sometime between her coughing and wheezing, her tears fell to the ground.
What had she been thinking? What made her think that she could save Naruto? That she could get rid of Sasuke without making the blond upset? Her ego. Her ego had done it all because she couldn't accept that Naruto had left her. He abandoned her on the same day that Sasuke had left. She was too late. Too damned late.
She clawed at the ground before she let out a fierce cry of loss.
-SasuNaru is love-
When an emotionally exhausted Sakura returned to Naruto's place, Naruto had just woken up. The first thing that came to his mind was his meeting with Sasuke.
"Sakura," he started while he was pushing his seat backward. The rest of his words died in his throat the moment his friend raised her eyes to his. He saw disappointment, fear, exhaustion, vexation and dear God, even guilt. Did she? Speculation clawed inside him, but he was scared to confirm. There was no way Sakura would do it, right? There was no-
"Sasuke," she muttered, but to him, it felt like she shouted it. It was too loud... too clear and upon hearing it, coldness tumbled down on him.
Sakura who was scared beyond reason for Naruto's reaction, threw herself at him. She was awkwardly kneeling between his legs, arms wrapped around his waist and face buried against his stomach. Between sobs, she murmured incoherent words of apology.
For a moment, Naruto gaped at her, stunned at her action. He looked pained hearing her cry; feeling her tears wetting his shirt and feeling her sobs wracking her body. Seeing her like this, there was no way he would let her be pulled into and swallowed alive by his and Sasuke's destructive whirlpool. He just couldn't. Sakura shouldn't suffer like this.
Slowly, he raised his hands and gently combed his fingers through her hair. With eyes clenched shut, he whispered to her over and over again, "It's fine. It's okay."
But what was okay? What was fine? He no longer knew.
Somebody, tell me.
TBC
A/N: Madness? THIS. IS. SPARTA! As stated by K-chan.