Can any of you see what's happening to Sakura? Like, mentally?

If not, it will be explained eventually. I wanted Sakura to be a lot bigger part of the plot.

I'm not going to switch point of views here, just keep it at Naruto. It may be Naruto for a long time, then Sasuke for a long time, or blah…I don't know.

If you can't stand anything happening between Naruto and Sakura, skip it. It never goes farther then friendship!

The dream plagued me the next morning.

It was a dream…It's not like dreams you have when you sleep ever actually happen. They're just things your mind puts together, depending on your mood. Maybe it had just happened because I was in a bad mood.

I couldn't understand it very well, either. Their were two things I didn't get. Who was the fake me, and how did Sakura…

I shivered at the thought.

Sakura was my light. The one thing that was keeping me happy. If something like that happened to her, I don't know if I could go on.

Keeping the dream in the back of my mind, we set out for the rendezvous.

While that wasn't the last thing I remembered doing, I was missing a huge chunk of my day. I remember some things that happened, but I don't know how I got to where I am. I must have been knocked out. That's what Sakura claimed, anyway.

The first thing I remembered doing was hiding while Yamato met the spies. Then the spies turned out to be Orochimaru and Kabuto, and I flipped. I'm still pissed about it. I remember coming out of hiding,

And that's where I'm lost.

The only thing in my memory after that was waking up. I woke up to the bridge we had met them on being ripped off one side, and dangling into the pit. There was a huge crater in the landscape, at least 5 miles across. It was bare, and all plant life had perhaps been disintegrated. The spies were gone, Sai was nowhere in sight, Sakura had a wound on her arm, and I felt sick.

"What happened…to this place?" I muttered.

Yamato opened his mouth to say something, but Sakura answered first. "Orochimaru knocked you out, and we fought him, that's all!"

She didn't sound convincing at all. It reminded me of when I passed out during the Chunin exams, the only difference being she was making up excuses, not just leaving me in the dark.

"Damn, it must have been brutal! I can't believe he got away!" I decided playing along would be best. She looked upset, so pushing it might make it worse.

"I sent a clone after him. If he survives long enough, we could even find out where they're going." Yamato mentioned. "And Naruto, Sai is with them as well."

I blinked at him, then shook my head. "He went to watch the clone?"

"No…Plain English would be the best. He betrayed us."

The words came out, and I didn't even have to stop to consider them. I believed them without question, and now I had to know more. My expression and tone turned angry immediately. "I knew he was bad news! What did he do!?"

Sakura answered, she must have already known. "Yamato suspects he has a side mission, that was secretly assigned to him before we left. Apparently he's a member of the root ANBU. The undergrounds that don't work under Tsunade."

Yamato continued. "We don't have any idea what that mission could be, but we do know he somehow aligned himself with Orochimaru. Now he's with him."

I clenched my fists. "Damn him! Not only was he a disgusting little-"

I stopped talking. My head spun and my legs decided not to hold me up. I didn't understand why, or what was going on when it happened, but I collapsed headfirst. I tried to catch myself on my knees, but I fell flat when that failed.

"Naruto!" Sakura came down beside me, and flipped me over so I was face up. She held my head and shoulders up in her arms.

The dizziness faded, but it was suddenly hard to breathe. My whole body ached.

"Why am I…like this?" I managed through pants.

She just shook her head, and turned her head to Yamato. "I know we should pursue them now, but…" She began hesitantly. We both knew that only Kakashi would let something like this slip. Things like this weren't supposed to be aloud on missions.

"He has enough strength to get back to the village on his own." Yamato answered. He sounded like he meant it.

Sakura's eyes widened. She turned further around and screamed, "Kakashi wouldn't do this!"

"I know." His voice sounded softer now. "Kakashi use to be my captain. He would always laugh and swear that he'd protect us."

Sakura's eyes lowered sadly, and I looked back up at her.

"You have to start being the ones to protect, and not be protected." Yamato concluded.

She looked like she would cry, and she moved her back arm to let me go. I grabbed her wrist on the arm in front of me. She turned back surprised.

"I'm good. I feel alright. What sense would there be in turning back, now that I've gotten this far?" I grinned and squeezed her hand.

She didn't smile back. Her expression never changed as she helped me up. I knew I had missed something bad while I was "knocked out."

That and maybe a mixture of something I was missing completely.

"Alright, lets hurry. No more losing time!" Yamato ordered.

I would find out soon enough what Sakura wouldn't tell me from Yamato.

I realized before I found out, however, that Sakura didn't know. Sakura didn't know about Kyubbi. About the monster that lived sealed inside my body, the one that had tormented the village nearly sixteen years before.

I had considered this once before, and decided it would be best to never tell her. I didn't know if she would accept what I was as easily as Sasuke, and I needed her.

And if even if she could, Sakura had always seen me as me. She would probably be afraid of me.

When we were running through the thick woods of the land of fire, passing out into the border of the land of wind, I got dizzy again. Sakura noticed, but I caught myself before I could loose footing. We didn't need me to be slowing the group down.

Then it was her. She had grabbed a branch to flip up higher, and she suddenly reached down and clenched her shoulder. She started to fall. Our hands nearly connected so I could pull her up, but Yamato got her before she hit the ground.

She was suddenly in an immense amount of pain. She squeezed her arm and growled through grit teeth. Yamato set her down against a tree, and she began to explain without prompt.

"I just got wounded by Orochimaru…it's not horrible…Nnh!" She clutched at her arm and tensed.

"Sakura!" I leaned forward, but she had gone back to pants.

Yamato looked from me to her, and then back at me, and then stood up. "Being the only medic, Sakura must rest. Naruto, you come with me and plan." I didn't want to, but I did with some shooing from Sakura.

He walked out of earshot from Sakura, and then stopped. "Whoops, my clone." He reached up for his headset, and listened.

I stood patiently and waited, but it must not have been anything interesting, because he looked down. "So Yamato, what do we do now?"

"Oh, before that, you need to know what happened before you woke up earlier."

I waited. It surprised me, but I thought he must have wanted to say something from the beginning.

"The one who wounded Sakura's arm wasn't Orochimaru. It was you."

I only thought about the words, not the how or the why. I believed him straight away. I had hurt Sakura. I had done that to Sakura. Sakura, my light.

Then it came back. I remembered a time when I was out with Jiriya, and he made me mad. He was doing it on purpose to see if I would release the Kyubbi. I did, and the next thing I knew after that was Jiriya was ripped open. He said that I had reached the fourth tail stage, and lost my body. I never remembered anything when I calmed down.

"You look terrified." Yamato mentioned when I wouldn't speak.

I tried to straighten my face. "So the bridge and the crater…That was me to?"

"Yes. You don't remember because your body was being completely run by the Kyubbi. Sakura didn't understand. She kept saying that was a monster, not you." His expression got grimmer. I knew mine got worse as well. "When she finally realized that it was you, she was hysterical. She ran up to you in that form and tried to make you stop. You slashed her arm. Then when I got you out of that state, she healed the burns left on your body. She said to fool you into thinking it never happened."

Kyubbi. I can't believe you.


She got in the way. You obviously don't remember WHAT Set you off. Orochimaru kept calling Sasuke, "His."

…

I know.

"Sakura." I turned back so I could see her. Kyubbi's chakra was so negative, it must have left a poison. I had grown immune to it.

"She didn't want you to know, because she knew it would hurt you. She said she had never known about the monster." Yamato said softly.

I felt like I could cry. "I didn't want her to hate me like most of the others."

Yamato didn't say much else, just finished with, "You must use your own strength to get by. Do not rely on the Kyubbi for help."

Sasuke had been the only one my age who had ever found out about the Kyubbi. He had also been one of the only ones to not judge me because of it. All he saw was me.

I had to know if Sakura would see just me, too.

Yamato must have been reading my mind. "We'll head out once you've spoken to her. Don't take too long." He said sadly.

What do I say? I'm sorry I wounded your arm? Maybe I could start with I'm sorry I never told you. Or, I'm sorry I am the way I am.

She looked up before I got all the way to her. She smiled slightly. "My arm seems okay, now."

I nodded, and stopped next to her.

"Naruto, are you alright? You-" She stopped talking. I half fell to a sitting position beside her, burying my face in my hands.

"Sakura? You don't hate me do you?" I choked.

I could hear the surprised expression on her face when she spoke. "What makes you think that?" She was nearly whispering.

"Yamato told me the whole thing." I breathed. "Everything that happened. When I transformed into that." I tried to keep my voice even. I knew it couldn't be working well.

She didn't speak for awhile. I thought maybe she was afraid of me. Finally a few minutes passed, and she said, "I do the exact opposite of hate you, Naruto. But-"

I looked up slightly, and she now had a face identical to mine revealed. "But?"

"I-I was so scared. Not of you. For you. I didn't want to believe that was you…But when I did, I wanted to make you stop. I didn't know what would happen to you." Sakura shook her head as she spoke.

"I'm sorry I scared you, and I'm sorry I hurt you." I whispered.

She didn't need any more explanation of exactly what I was, or why I was. She just wanted to know that I would be alright.

"I forgive you," She leaned forward and grabbed both my hands. "Please don't do it anymore."

"I never will." I replied.

I didn't promise.