Switched
Chapter Four – In Danger of Dieing
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the other non OC's in this story.
Summery: What if the royal son and a peasant girl are "accidentally" switched at birth? And what if they eventually fell in love? AU.
Sakura sighed, "Well, it turns out that my parents had two sons and never a daughter," she looked around at him, a small smile on her face, "You see, I was found by a guard up at the palace when I was an infant, the day a baby girl was born to the Haruno family."
"What does this all mean?" he asked, blinking sleep out of his eyes.
"Sasuke, I think someone switched us at birth. I think you're the second son."
"Impossible."
"Who else could it be, Sasuke? You look almost exactly like Itachi, you were--"
She was cut off by a low growling in the bushes behind them. Sasuke went pale. He leaned forward and slowly slid his knife out of his boot. He turned and was face-to-face with a giant gray wolf.
Sasuke swiped his knife at the wolf's face, cutting it's noes but nothing more. Sakura gasped, jumping up from the log and stumbling over her traveling cloak. She made a loud 'thump' sound when she hit the ground. Sasuke barely turned to her, keeping his eyes on the wolf, "Run, Sakura!"
Sakura looked shocked, but didn't move expect to stand.
"Don't die because of me!"
She looked around at him, wide-eyed. She frowned, wanting to touch him in some way to show that his life wasn't worth throwing away for hers. Sakura restrained herself from her instincts.
"Don't die, Sasuke!" she made sure he nodded before she turned and ran out of the forest, back to the safety of the town.
Sasuke gripped the handle of his knife, "I promise to come back alive. I'm not going to die at the hands of a dirty mutt!" he shifted his feet, awaiting the hungry beast to attack him.
The gray dog jumped, hitting Sasuke in the chest with it's huge paws and bowling him over. He quickly covered his neck with his arms before it could grab his neck and tear out his throat. It lashed at his face. Blood flowed freely from his skin. One of the wolf's claws cut over his left eye. He caterwauled in pain, having seemed to forgotten the knife that was still clasped in his hand.
Sasuke pushed the great beast off of him, holding up his knife at ready this time. His blood continued to flow from his face and dripped down onto the grass, but a huge gash where a scar would one day form was bleeding the most. He began to feel faint at so much blood lose.
When the wolf jumped at him again, he plunged his knife into it's neck. He heard the gagging inside the wolf's throat before it fell limp, taking Sasuke to the ground with it because he had not let go of the knife handle.
Sasuke gasped from where he lay with the dead wolf on the ground. He coughed up blood and slowly realized that he was fading into unconsciousness.
&&
That morning, Sakura swung her traveling cloak over her shoulders. She didn't want to go to South Konoha, but her adoptive parents were making her. There was one thing she had to do first. She picked up the knife from the table and stared out the window at the raising sun. She sighed quietly and left her bedroom, slowly walking down the hall toward the servant's quarters.
She knocked on one door and a feeble voice answered. Sakura opened the door and found a shy looking girl sitting next to the window, "Hinata!"
Hinata looked around and smiled, "Good morning, Princess--"
"How many times have I told you not--"
"To call you Princess Sakura. Yes, sorry. Good morning, Sakura-san." she stood up, fiddling with her apron.
"Hinata, take that off, we're going on a mission!"
"Mission?" Hinata questioned, blinking lavender eyes.
"Yes! Is there a way out of the castle that my family doesn't know about?"
"The garbage shoot and the underground servant's passage, but Sakura-ch--"
"We'll take the underground servant's passage! Which will be forever known from now on as USP!" the pinked haired woman said, grabbing her friend's wrist and leading her out of the room, "Where is it and where does it lead?"
Hinata sighed, "Follow me."
The blue haired servant lead her to the kitchen. The kitchen staff looked on curiously as Hinata pulled up a trap door from the floor. Sakura turned to the head chief, "I'll give you and all your underlings 100 gold pieces if you keep this a secret."
The kitchen staff all nodded greedily. Sakura smiled and jumped down into the underground passage way with Hinata. It was dark, dirty, and even worse, filled with rats. One scurried over her foot and Sakura almost screamed. "It's filthy down here!" she whispered to her friend.
Hinata smiled slightly through the darkness, "It hasn't been used for nineteen years." she told Sakura.
"Nineteen years?"
"By some one in a dark cloak. That's what my mother told me when she was showing me this place." Hinata looked around at Sakura and saw that she was frowning, "Are you OK, Sakura-chan?"
"Hm? Oh, yes. I was just thinking about something. Now, where does this lead to?"
"A store in the market place."
"Then let's hurry!" Sakura grabbed Hinata's wrist and pulled her friend behind her until they reached a ladder. Well, ran into a ladder.
Sakura slowly got up from where she had fallen, rubbing her forehead, "That hurt!"
Hinata giggled, "Come on, Sakura-chan, just up the ladder." the blue-haired woman grabbed a rung on the ladder and began to climb upward. Sakura followed.
They crawled out of the trap door, surprising a yellow-haired woman who was holding two roses.
"Sorry to intrude!" Sakura told her, "We'll be going now!" she grabbed Hinata's wrist again after the trap door was shut and ran out of the flower shop.
"That was... odd," Ino murmured, narrowing her eyes after the two.
&&
Sasuke could hear his name being called. He could feel a hand on his bloody cheek, another pushing his blood soaked hair out of his eyes. He stirred and flinched when someone accidentally touched his left eye. His right eye fluttered half-way open. All he could see was a blur of pink and green. He didn't know how long he had been there.
"Naruto's... house... near... Get... Naruto."
The voice that answered back was so familiar, but he couldn't remember who it was who was speaking to him.
"I'll bring him here, Hinata, there's a stream nearby, it's clean, wash his wounds."
His world went black again.
&&
Sakura ran through the trees. She ran like she was running from the castle guards. Like there was absolutely no turning back. Which there wasn't. There was no time. Sakura had to find Naruto. She had to. If she didn't, Sasuke could die.
"NARUTO!" she screamed, tears spilling from her eyes, "NARUTO! WHERE ARE YOU?"
&&
Hinata ripped of her apron and tore off a piece of it before running to the stream. She soaked it in the cool, refreshing water and hurried back to the injured man. She pressed the wet cloth against his bloody face, trying to remain calm at the sight of all of his blood.
She gently whipped down the right side of his face, hesitating to touch his left eye.
&&
This was a hard chapter to write. I have no idea why. I think it is because of the Sasuke and wolf fight. I'm not very good at writing fighting scenes. Heh.
Hope you like! Thanks for reading!