CHAPTER 25

Between Right and Wrong
(正邪の間で Seija no Ma De)

Being careful with the tubes filled with Nariko and Miyuki's blood, Sakura sat down by the DNA analysis machines and pulled out two sets of glass slides. Putting the blood tubes of inside of an empty test tube rack, Sakura opened a drawer that had a full box of latex hospital gloves in it and pulled two out for herself so she wouldn't contaminate herself with any blood spills. Although this was highly unlikely to happen, she could never be too careful when it came down to medical procedures. Better safe than sorry is what she always said.

After tying her hair up into a small ponytail, Sakura had went to the sink to wash her hands for standard procedure for the test. When she dried her hands with a clean hand towel, Sakura put on the latex gloves, she had reached into a cabinet above the sink to get two plastic pipette eyedroppers to use in order to extract the blood properly. Walking back to where the machine was, she carefully placed the items on the table and turned the machine on. Sakura typed in some codes and numbers to get the proper setting for it and the machine started up.

Picking up two of the four glass slides, Sakura placed them into the tray of the machine. Being as careful as she could, Sakura took one eyedropper and placed the tip inside a blood tube and extracted a small amount of blood into the instrument. Being cautious, she squeezed the tip of the eyedropper onto the glass slide and with another slide, she pressed both pieces of glass together and the blood spread into a wide circle between the two slides. With the other tube of blood, she repeated the same process and when both samples were on the tray, she pushed the tray inside the machine and it began to beep repeatedly.

'I never used this machine before, but the way that it's set up, it will determine who the parents are by genes. If I'm right, then approximately half of all genes between a parent and the child will be identical. In other words, 49.5% of the genes will be from both parents...'

The medic nin couldn't help but feel more and more condemned by doing this DNA test. Her conscience was in a fight between wanting to know the truth and not wanting to know. She also knew that doing this test without the girls' permission would truly upset them or in Nariko's case, she would be extremely pissed off if the ravenette ever caught wind of what she was doing. Not only that, doing this could possibly destroy her friendship and trust she has with Naruto. During the past few months, the bond she had with the blond was slowly beginning to crumble and she didn't want to ruin what little friendship she had left with him.

Now, she was stuck with an impossible choice: either go through with the DNA test or turn the machine off and pretend that she had never done it at all. She...she just wanted to know who the girls really are. The three months that Nariko had been here in the village and after seeing Miyuki for the first time, this only tipped her further in the direction of wanting to find out the truth even more. Sakura has had enough of the mysteries, the secrets, the fighting, everything. She just wanted to finally get an answer, so it could put her mind and everyone else's mind at ease.

From outside the examination room, the sound of squelching footsteps and soft humming echoed through the empty halls of the hospital. The voice belonged to that of another female that worked in the hospital right along with Sakura. She has a fair skin complexion and wears her light blonde hair in a high ponytail with a wide fringe covering the right side of her face. She has light blue pupiless eyes and wears a short, purple, sleeveless blouse, fishnets over her elbows and knees, an open purple apron-skirt over a shorter, black skirt, with short fishnet shorts underneath that showed her distinctive figure.

The young girl's features were graced with a mirthful expression and she smiled brightly. "Man, today was absolutely fabulous! I wonder if Sakura wouldn't mind going to lunch with me on her break so I can tell her the good news!" The blonde quickly picked up the pace and hurried to the room to where Sakura was in.

When she got to the room, she swung opened the door and peeked inside. "Hey, Sakura! Guess what? I finally got a date with someone really special and I thought we could go to-" The blonde never got to finish the sentence on account of what she witnessing. Sakura had a machine running and she saw two blood tubes and the patient documents spread out on the table. The girl's hand had lost it grip on the doorknob and fell numbly to her side.

Sakura had turned around and her eyes widen in shock at the sight of her closest friend and rival, who had just walked in on her conducting the test. There was no way that the medic nin can come up with an exception excuse for this and her mind had locked up on her. "Ino...what...what are you..."

"Sakura..." The blonde made her way over to her, wanting to get an answer out of her. "...what...what are you doing...?"

"Ino, I...I just..." Sakura started slowly, trying to find the right words to explain her actions, but she couldn't find. Her mind couldn't register any words to give any kind of explanation to her friend. "I can't deal with this. I...can't wait anymore for an answer. Too much has been happening and I need to know who Nariko and Miyuki are in order to get to the bottom of this..."

Ino couldn't believe what she was hearing. Sakura was actually something like this...and without anyone knowing? "Sakura, do you have any idea what you are doing? Look, Sakura, I know things have been rough for you these past months, but there is no need to commits these kinds of acts to try to find out what's been happening..."

Sakura chuckled weakly at her friend. God, she felt so pathetic at this point and she wanted nothing more than for this conversation to end. From hearing the blonde's statement, the medic nin lowered her head slightly in contempt. "Ino, you picked this time to give me the speech about rectitude and honesty?"

Ino noted to herself that Sakura was going to go through something that seemed almost deceitful, but the blonde would not stand by and let her walk in the direction of betraying her trust with Naruto.

"I'm trying to stop you from making one of the biggest mistakes that you could possibly make. I've seen your behavior lately. You've finally came to terms with your feelings and you truly love Naruto. But now that Sasuke-kun has returned, you feel somewhat threatened by him being around Naruto again. You fear Naruto getting hurt more than anything in the world and you'll do anything to protect from that. That's why you made that promise to yourself to fight Sasuke-kun in order to protect Naruto's compassion from being destroyed by him, knowing that you can't possibly win. In a sense, it was your way of wanting to finally put an end to Naruto's agony. Am I right?"

Sakura paused for a moment and she closed her hands into fists, clenching them tightly. The pinkette's lips quivered in nervousness and anger from Ino being correct with her assumption.

"So, I ask you this question. Are you doing for his sake or are you doing this for yourself?"

From that question alone, there was absolutely no way that Sakura could hold back the strength and the will power that kept her emotions under control. A small tear trickled on the bridge of her nose and it silently cascaded to the tip and it dropped on the tiled floor and soon after, many more tears reflecting her feelings splashed and splattered unto the floor.

"Ino, you know what the sad thing is about all this..?" Sakura sniffled, trying to stop herself from continuing to weep. She looked up at her Ino with a dejected smile as the tears continued to flow from her sea green eyes. "The whole time...I already knew who they were.."

The blonde's eyes had widen from the pinkette's presumption. Was she serious about what she said? Did she really known all along and had not said anything to everyone? Judging from her expression, it seems that she spoke the truth. "Sakura...you..."

"I didn't want to believe it. Even when proof was right before my eyes, I just..didn't want to..."

It was bad enough when Sasuke had left the village 4 years ago, making her and Naruto feel unbearable pain and having to deal with losing the one that she always loved. Afterwards, her love for Sasuke had completely deteriorated and felt nothing more for him and when she finally figured that he was not coming back, she deemed him a lost cause. And now...she had lost her chances with Naruto as well...this is way too much for to handle...

At that moment, Sakura's silent weeping turned into loud sobs and she soon collapsed onto the ground and broke down entirely. The blonde had no idea that Sakura was going through so much distress all by herself. Sakura was so good at holding things in and keeping it to herself. If Sakura hadn't broke down in front of her the way she did, Ino probably still wouldn't have known how she was really feeling. Ino knelt down to comfort her and she hugged the medic nin, rubbing her back with soothing caresses and shushing her gently.

"Shhh..." the blonde said in between stroking Sakura's back. "Everything's gonna be okay. I know it will..."

The two girls just continued to hugged each on the tiled floor in the examination room, not caring if someone was to walk in on them and assume it to be something else. Now that she knew, Sakura would not let Naruto deal with such a trial by himself. She would make sure of that...no matter what...

XxX

The sun was already setting and nightfall was slowly approaching. The loud laughter of Naruto Uzumaki could heard throughout the village and he was feeling a whole lot better than he was a few hours ago. Naruto and Shikamaru were walking down the street, enjoying each other's company. The two shinobi have had a rough day and it felt good to just relax and let loose. Even if it was only for a few minutes.

"Man, Shikamaru, you are really awesome! You certainly gave those old buzzards a run for the money during that meeting! I don't think I ever seen anyone take down their opponents by just using fierce words of justice. You should study under Ibiki Morino and be an interrogator or something! But then again, you wouldn't want to do that because it would be too troublesome and boring to you." The blond explained while crossing his arms over his chest with a wide grin. Naruto looked over at his friend and saw the embarrassed expression on his face.

Shikamaru just chuckled a bit from Naruto's rambling. "But...you did most of the talking, Naruto. I just pointed out what they were doing was not following the proper procedure on handling criminals..."

"Even so..." Naruto started, trying to find the right words. "...if it wasn't for you, it probably wouldn't have went so well. Shikamaru, I'm gonna ask you again."

From hearing the sudden change in tone in Naruto's voice, Shikamaru stopped in his tracks and turn around to face the blond shinobi. He already knew where this was going.

"You're not gonna let it go until I tell you, right?" Shikamaru asked, hoping that Naruto would not ask that question again, but to much of his dismay, the blonde answered him with a sharp nod. He sighed in defeat, knowing that the blond wouldn't say no. "Cripes, you're still as persistent as ever..."

"Because..." Shikamaru said, putting his hand into his pockets. "...I was doing what I believe was right..."

Naruto tilted his head to the side from his reply. It was a simple answer. Clearly, it was way too simple of an answer for Shikamaru, but was that really the only reason? "Shikamaru, you put your shinobi reputation on the line today. If things would have backfired, you could of suffered serious consequences for your actions. Why did you do it? Why would you put yourself in that kind of predicament?"

"Like I said before, I did it because it was the right thing to do." The genius answered as he looked up to the red orange sky and simply smiled. He was envying the clouds even more than he usually would, changing their colors every day and night without a care in the world. Shikamaru also knew that Naruto was not going to get what he was talking about the first time around, so he decided to continue with his explanation.

"I heard about what's been happening lately. Your teammate has returned on his own free will after he has defected the village. Forgive me if I can't really understand how you must be feeling right now. But when someone I know continues to push themselves for the sake of saving their closest friend, there's no way that anyone can simply ignore that. If I were in your shoes, I would have done the same thing for Ino and Chōji in a heartbeat..."

Naruto turned to his friend from hearing the genius say that. "What do you mean?"

"Sasuke was someone I was never really fond of. In fact, I don't like him at all and I still don't like him. Don't get me wrong, Naruto. I am not one to shun a person, but do I believe that everyone deserves a second chance at trying to turn their life around. No matter how far a person has fallen, as long as there is one person that still believes in them and is still willing to try and help them, that's something worth fighting for in my opinion..."

"You're right..." Shikamaru had made a clear and valid point. Anyone who had a sense of nobility would do anything in their power to try and help the people they cherished.

"Pull yourself together, Naruto. The fight is not over yet. You still got a lot of work to do if you want to save him. Besides, I've already done my part to help out the future king of this village. He just needs to do the rest..." Shikamaru winked and started to walk in the opposite direction, making his way home to his household to help out his mother.

As Naruto watched his friend descend further and further down the road, he couldn't help but smile contently at what the genius had said to him. Shikamaru had that much faith in him and because of that, his determination and fortitude had been revitalized by the shadow user's words of encouragement.

"Thank you, Shikamaru..."

He quickly remembered that the elders had granted him the chance to see Sasuke the night before the trial and maybe...just maybe talk some sense into Sasuke. Naruto knew that it wouldn't do any good to try talking to him, but that never stopped him before and it wasn't going to stop him now. Naruto needed to know why Sasuke, his best friend had been acting so strangely. Sasuke was usually quiet, but he had been too quiet. It was almost...eerie. As if uttering a single word could make him feel so apprehensive and it shook his normally cold disposition...

'Sasuke, you're gonna tell me everything when I come and see you in six days. I don't care if you try to ignore it or try to sidestep the subject, I'm gonna get to the bottom of it whether you like it or not...'

The blond clenched his fist closed and he was even more impelled than ever to save Sasuke from being execution. In six days, Naruto was going to make the raven talk to him...no matter what it took...

* * *NEXT CHAPTER SYNOPSIS* * *

The next special chapter of Changing Fate is:

Sai's Family Roots
(サイの家族ルーツ Sai no Kazoku Rūtsu)

Sai begins to wonder what things be like if he ever had a family or even knew about his family members. Fortunately for him, he will get a surprise of a lifetime...