Recap
"So Sakura can you tell us anything about Haru town gym?"
"Well people say its one of the best fighting gyms in the world." Lee's eyes widen, "The leader, works with his pokemon day in and day out. He runs, exercises and trains with them. Some people say he even battle with them."
"Whoa, what a weirdo."
Sasuke smirked, "Hn, like your one to talk, dobe."
"SASUKE!!!!" Lee turned to Sakura, he had to know the name of this leader.
"Youthful Sakura, what is the gym leaders name."
Sakura thought for a minute, "I think his name is Might Gai." Lee cried out of happiness, his tears like waterfalls on his face.
"Oh, Gai-sensei. After all this time, I your youthful student will meet again!!!!!!!" Lee screamed.
"Um…" Sakura turned to Sasuke.
"Gai was Lee's teacher when he was younger, but he left after a year or two, returning to his gym." Sakura nod, "Alright, its getting pretty late. We should get some rest so that were ready for tomorrow." Everyone nod and made their way to there bag.
"Night everyone." soon everyone fell into a deep sleep, with dreams filled with wishes, laughter and fantasies, well almost everyone.
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A small pink haired girl hugged herself tighter as tears ran down her face. She let out a scream when a piece of burning timber fell next to her. She cried harder.
"Sakura-sama! Sakura-sama!" the child looked up, trying to locate to source of the voice. "Sakura-sama, where are you." the girl perked up, she knew that voice.
"Rei-onii-san!" she small voice called out as she got up and started searching through the fire.
"Sakura-sama!!!" through the smoke the little girl saw someone running towards her. She ran as fast as her little feet could take her.
"Rei-onii-san!" the girl wrapped her small arms around the young mans waist, crying, "Onii-san, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I didn't listen to you!" the man just hugged the fairy like child.
"It's alright, Sakura-sama, its alright." When a piece of flaming wood almost hit them, the man let his instincts kick in. He had to bring this girl to safety. The man quickly maneuvered through the burning building, it could fall at any second, he had to make this quick. After what felt like an eternity, they found the exit, quickly running to it the man couldn't help but feel something was off. A loud creak was heard, breaking out in a cold sweat, he quickly ran to the door, throwing the girl out of the building before a large beam fell on top of him.
Sakura tried to run back, but was held back by a pair of arms. "Rei-onii-kun!!!" she cried out, but she knew it was too late. Her brother, the one who held her back, tucked his precious imouto head under his chin, not wanting her to see anymore. The sky cried with the child, her family around her. She buried her head deeper into her brothers chest, crying harder.
Sakura shot up, desperately trying to catch her breath. Tears ran down her face as she watched the scene play over and over again in her head. She let out a quit sob, not wanting to wake anybody up. "Rei-kun, I'm sorry."
"Sakura." she jumped,
"Sasuke-kun, gomen." she looked down trying to hide her tears, a hand grabbed her chin, making her look up. Sasuke saw her tears and frowned. He gentle wrapped his arms around her, bringing her into a comforting hug. Sakura froze for a bit before she returned the hug, crying softly in his chest. Sasuke petted her hair as he listen to her cry, his arm tighten it hold on her. They sat like that for a while.
"Sasuke most importantly you must protect her smile." her father's voice played in his head. Sasuke looked down at the little blossom, noticing that she had fallen asleep. His eyes soften as he laid her down on her sleeping bag, making sure that she was warm before placing a soft kiss on her forehead.
"I promise I'll protect you Sakura, you and your smile." he whispered into her ear making her lean closer to him. Sasuke brushed away a strand of hair away from her face before returning to his sleeping bag.
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The next day
They were all walking to Haru town, you could feel the excitement coming off Naruto and Lee.
Naruto ran ahead and jumped on a rock "I cant wait to get my first badge, soon I'll be one step closer to the top! And you all shall bow down at my greatness." Sakura giggled as she watched Tenten pull Naruto down.
"Che, in your dreams." Neji stated. From the corner of his eye Sasuke could see the look on Sakura's face, even up to now the lost of her friend and body guard still haunts her. Sasuke suddenly stopped, everyone watched as he took off his sweater, leaving him in a sleeveless black shirt and baggy pants. He put his sweater over Sakura, who looked at him funny, before pulling down the hood, covering her hair and some of her face. Sakura under stood and slipped her arms through the sleeves before zipping it up.
"Teme, what are you doing." Naruto asked.
"We cant let anyone know that Sakura's with us, at least for now. So when we get to Haru, you better keep your mouths shut." Sasuke informed them, mainly Naruto, who shook from the threatening look on Sasuke's face. "Good lets go." Sasuke walked ahead, Sakura holding onto his arm.
"alright her your keys for you rooms, I hope you enjoy you stay here." Nurse Shizune told them. Naruto looked at her,
"Hey who did you get here before us, it took us almost two days to get her from Kira city." the nurse looked at him for a bit.
"Oh Kira city, you must be talking about my 3rd cousin." She gave them a quick smile before returning back to her desk.
"Hey why do you get to share a room with Sasuke-kun!?" Ino shrieked pointing to Sakura, who was still wearing Sasuke's sweater. Sakura just ignored Ino and opened her room, Ino growled and made a lunge at her.
Tenten grabbed the back of her shirt, "Ino, he's her body guard remember." but Ino didn't let up. Tenten sighed then looked around, "Hey where's Lee?" indeed, the green spandex wearing boy was gone.
"Bushy brows, I wanted to battle the gym leader first, you cheater!!" Naruto called out running down the hall and out the center.
"Oi, Naruto wait up." Kiba ran after him. Neji, Tenten, Shino, Hinata, Choji and Shikamaru fallowed Kiba. Leaving Sakura, Sasuke, Ino and Karin. Karin blushed she was alone with Sasuke, Ino went to drop off her pokemon and Sakura was in the room, finally her chance had come.
She looked down at her feet, trying to act cute and shy, "Ne, Sasuke-kun, I was wonder, if you wanted to go and get something to eat later." she blushed. Sasuke gave her a hard look, "No." he said bluntly, making tears appear in her eyes. Mentally Sasuke scoffed only Sakura tears effected him.
"Karin, leave me alone, I'm not in a good mood right now." he said before entering his room, leaving a distressed Karin in the hallway. Karin stared at the green door, she could hear Sasuke and Sakura talk softly from the other side. Slowly Karin's sadness turned to rage. Ino came back and saw Karin's shoulders shake with rage.
"Hey, what's with you?" Karin looked up,
"We, need to talk."
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"Aw man, I cant believe that we went all the why to the gym only to find out the leader isn't even there." Naruto complained as he and the other made their way to their rooms. Naruto gripped his hair, "Arragh, I could have been tri…" a large bump formed on Narutos head.
"Oi, shut it, Sakura's sleeping." Sasuke, who came out of his room, looked at everyone. "Did you battle the leader?"
"No, he wasn't there. He left a sign saying he was up in the mountains training and would be back tomorrow." Kiba informed him. He looked at Lee, who looked a little down.
"What's wrong with him?" he asked jabbing his thumb to the spandex wearing boy. The others just shrugged.
"Hey are you guys hungry?" Tenten asked, earning a nod from most of them, "How 'bout we go out to eat?" 'sure's' and 'what ever's' were her answer. She walked up to a door and knocked. "Oi, Ino Karin, were going to go out to eat, are you coming or not." Karin and Ino shortly emerged from the room, "Are you coming Sasuke?"
"No thanks Tenten. Sakura and I already ate while you guys were gone."
" K, see you later then." the group left. Sasuke walked back into the room. He frowned, Sakura was on her bed, sweating and turning, she looked like she was have a bad dream.
"No, stop…stay away!" then she screamed. Sasuke rushed to her side and tried to wake her.
"Sakura, Sakura, wake up." Her eyes snapped open, tears falling, "Shhh, its alright." he brushed her tears away before he brought her to sit in his lap, caressing her hair. He tucked her head under his chin, "I knew coming to this town was a bad idea." Sasuke sighed. "Hopefully we can get out of here soon." Sakura shook in his arms. "Will you be alright?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine, I'm sorry I dragged you into his Sasuke. Its just hard for me to let go of the past." she mumbled out. Sasuke silently nod, continuing to hold her.
11 years from today, Sakura's first body guard, Rei was killed in a fire when a falling beam pinned him down. Every since then Sakura has always blamed his death on her foolishness and yet in Rei's dying words, he told her he never regretted anything and was happy that she was alive. He told her to live on. And on the week of his death, Sakura suffers with nightmares of the fire and the kidnapping all leading up to his death. Ever since then she has been afraid to get close to anyone, even her own family. And being in Haru Town, were it all happened, didn't really help either.
Sakura's even breathing brought Sasuke back to reality. Carefully standing up, he set her in her bed, tucking her in. Sasuke grabbed a chair and sat next to her, if someone she holds dear is by her, they seem to help fend of the nightmares. Sasuke felt a ting of happiness in his chest, he was one of her precious people, even after all these years. A soft knock brought Sasuke's attention to the door. He got up and opened the door, only to meet a smiling Nurse Shizune.
"Here are your pokemon, they are all healthy and shouldn't have and problems, but if anything comes up just ask, ok." She smiled and handed him a box with all 12 pokemon (his and Sakura's). Sasuke went to his bed, he soon fell into a light sleep.
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It was about 10 o'clock and everyone was outside the center, well not all of them.
"Grr, were is Sasuke-teme. He's always disappearing, and dragging Saku…" Naruto was muffled by Tenten's hand on his mouth.
"You idiot, don't say her name, who know who could be listening!" she hissed.
"mmmmama." she took that as a sorry. When she pulled away Naruto screamed.
"Urrug… where is teme!"
"Oi dobe, stop being so loud." Sasuke appeared in front of them, Sakura next to him, in his sweater.
"Where did you two go?" Kiba asked. Sasuke just took something out of his pocket and showed it to them.
"NOT FAIR!! TEME I WANTED TO BATTLE HIM FIRST!!!!" Naruto screamed. Sasuke had already gotten his first badge.
"Shut up, and just go already. We'll meet you guys later at the gym."
"Why?" Ino asked.
"Sakura and I still have to eat." Ino growled, 'how dare she eat with my Sasuke-kun. Grr, she'll pay!' Karin was having similar thoughts. Neji just nod at the two.
"Alright, we'll see you guys later." leading the group to the gym.
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Naruto jumped up with glee, one more attack and Gai's Machamp would be down. Neji, Tenten, and Kiba had gotten a badge, Naruto was close to getting his and Lee was last. And if your wondering about Choji, Shino and Shikamaru, Choji's family is a know for their poke food while Shino and Shikamaru are booth from breeder family's, Shino more into bugs. They came alone to learn more about pokemon first hand. Surprisingly Gai was able to battle 3 on 3 for each match, his pokemon were hard to beat.
"Alright staravia end this with quick attack then aerial ace."
"Machamp, Giga Impact!!!" machamp ran at staravia who was flying at neck breaking speeds ready to deliver a powerful aerial ace. Like in slow motion both pokemon clashed to getter making dirt fly everywhere, then the two flew out both landing by their trainers. They both struggled to their feet shakily, both pokemon were standing, everyone held their breath. After the longest second in Naruto's life, machamp fell to its knees.
"Alright!!!" Naruto ran to his staravia who flew into its trainers arms, Naruto spun around, "You did it staravia!" Gai walked up to the pair.
"Your youthfulness has leaded you to victory Naruto-kun, I hear by present you with the badge of youth." Naruto took the badge from Gai, who gave him the nice guy pose.
"Alright!!! Oi, bushy brows, its your turn." Naruto shouted, but Lee shook his head.
"No, I want to have a fair and youthful fight with Gai-sensei. It would not be youthful it I were to fight his pokemon in their condition, well I couldn't live with myself after such an unyouthful deed." Lee held his fist up, fire burning in his eyes.
Gai, who stood behind Lee had waterfalls of tears running down his face. "Oh Lee, I'm so proud." He cried into his arm.
"Gai-sensei,"
"Lee." they ran at each other and hugged, with the sunset the everything behind them. You know the works. Everyone just stared, twitching. "Lee, I cant wait to battle you tomorrow, show me your youthfulness!"
"Yes Gai-sensei!" he cried out. They were about to hug each other when Tenten pulled the back of Lee's shirt, dragging him away.
"Gai-Sensei!!!" he cried as he watched his sensei get farther and farther and away.
"Shut up Lee, we have to find Sasuke and Sakura, they never showed up." Neji reminded him as they continued to make their way back.
When they arrived they were surprised at what they saw.
"WHAT THE HELL!!!!"
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Next time, Lee's youthful battle and, goodbye?