Chapter Twelve

Started

"You fucking bastard!"

It was safe to say that in Uchiha Sasuke's case, he was lucky that there was a door in-between him and his best friend. Not that he cared in the least. Naruto thrust the door against the wall and bounded through the threshold of the Uchiha estate. "I should shove that dumb head of yours into the ground," Naruto seethed through tightened teeth.

Sasuke said nothing. He chose to lean against the wall beside him while wearing nothing but a stoic façade.

"So that's it? You have nothing to say? That's funny considering the fact that you had a lot to say to Sakura!"

Still, there was no change in his body. The blond grew even angrier at his lack of emotion. It wasn't like he was expecting the sky to suddenly rip open and the sun to shine out of his ass but he could have shown something. Hell, he'd take anger.

"You kiss her, leading her to believe in something more, and then you bail on her? I knew you were an ass but I didn't know that you could be an even bigger one. Well done and congrats, you've certainly earned asshole of the year."

Sasuke swallowed heavily. "Are you finished with your little monologue?"

"No," the orange nin hissed. "And maybe I won't be for awhile. I understand that you only want to keep her safe, I want that for her too, but she's not a gennin anymore. Sakura can take care of herself. God, she can throw a freaking building into another country! She can handle herself-"

"Not when it comes to this-" Sasuke growled.

"Yes she can! Damn it, you are a fucking idiot!" Naruto yelled at him with the vigor of five men.

For the first time, Sasuke laughed. Although the sound was terribly mocking. The irony of Naruto calling him an idiot – and with so much passion – it was just plain ironic. "And what would you have me do? Date her and continue as if there isn't a mark over my head?"

"Yes."

"No. And don't tell me if you were in my place that you would continue as is."

"I would. I mean I'd take the necessary precautions but I would respect her enough to have full faith in her abilities. I think that's the problem. You can't trust anyone. That was always the problem with you."

The Uchiha looked at the ceiling. Was Naruto right? Maybe. "Your words are worthless so just go. I've made my choices."

The blond's lip curled ever so slightly in plain disgust. "I can see that," he spat. "And I was hoping that for once, just this once that you might do something that isn't just for yourself. Are you really so selfish that you can't see what you're doing to Sakura? Maybe baa-chan was right. Maybe Sharingan is making you go blind."

"Finished?"

Naruto shook his head, that same disgusted expression never leaving his face. "I had to hear this from Genma." He whispered. "You should have told me you were in love with her. I thought that you at least owed me that, bastard. We're supposed to be best friends."

Sasuke froze fractionally. "I never said I loved her."

Naruto sneered and Sasuke decided that it did not suit his face in the slightest. "I wanted to believe in you this time. Give you the benefit of the doubt. But this? You hurt Sakura. Our Sakura. I can't – I won't stand by this time. And as for never saying you loved her, of course you didn't. But you never denied it either." He left, kicking the door to the side as he went.

Yes, he was an evil bastard like everyone was saying. But did that excuse what he had done? Probably not.

Sakura stared at her notes, which she had just penned down in her study journal, not really seeing them at all. Nonetheless, she could not find the will to do much else.

It was a slow day in the hospital by all accounts. But she wasn't exactly working the ER. Tsunade had taken one look at her and had deemed her incapable of working outside of office duties. Which was totally fair.

She wouldn't allow herself to operate on anyone either since she was quite literally – a mess on heels. It was not like she had huge violet bags under hers eyes. She just appeared to be…fragile. As Tsunade had told her earlier that morning, "Ugh. I feel like you are going to break if I even smile at you."

Pushing a few rosette locks behind her ear, she allowed herself to smile at the thought.

"Fancy meeting you here," an engaging baritone loomed from the entrance to her office.

The medic whipped around on her feet while simultaneously forcing the chakra that instinctually fluctuated to her hands, back down. "Genma," she muttered stiffly. "Leave. I could kill you right now. I want to."

Genma shifted slightly, groping his left side all the while. Pissed or not, Sakura could not stop the medic in her from noticing that he seemed to be in pain. "The ER is around the corridor to the left. Just in case you were wondering," She sneered.

He smiled politely.

"I know that you are upset."

She laughed derisively before saying, "Only just a little bit." To emphasis her sarcasm, she pinched her forefingers together to demonstrate how tiny.

Genma chose to ignore her remark. "But I only did what I thought was best for you. And you should know that I only care about you being safe."

"What the hell!" Sakura screamed, the tidal wave of feelings that she had suppressed finally giving way. "Who are you again? You are not my sensei, not by comrade, and most certainly not my spouse. So why in God's name would you feel the overwhelming need to protect me? Which by the way I am perfectly capable of doing myself!"

He looked uneasy now, and moved to say something but stopped at the last second. Instead, he chose to say something else. "Intelligence has gathered that there is a list."

She paused and despite her intentions…her heart beat stuttered. "…What?"

There was fresh fear in the brunet's face and it only served to further her own.

"A hit list."

A new tremor of horror slid down her spine and rushed back up. It was as if someone had turned her blood into cold water that ran from a dripping faucet. "And I'm next." That had been no question. Just a confirmation of her imminent doom.

"I don't know," For once Genma did not seem like Genma. Standing in front of her was a man filled with terror. For her. "Intelligence has reported back to us this message: Our coming is near. And there will be signs."

That alone made her realize the danger that she was really in. But she refused to let it shake her anymore than it already had. "The signs," she bit out. "Those are…?"

And then she knew before he reluctantly answered her in a whisper what he was going to say. "Deaths."

Sakura found her knees had started to shake and were close to buckling so she grabbed her desk chair and collapsed into it. It did nothing to help her; her arms had started to shake. "Has anyone..?"

"Nine ANBU are missing. And that's just so far. Apparently, there are no witnesses. They come just that fast and take what they want. Only Sasuke," And then he stopped himself when he saw her flinch. "Only he has survived their clutches. And quite frankly – I'm thinking that was their original intentions."

Sakura mulled that over. "These attacks are too perfect. Too quick. Only if they were acting with help-"

"Are you suggesting that one of our own is helping them?" Genma whispered. Sakura bit her tongue but decided to stand her ground. "Yes."

"Good because that was exactly what I was thinking," He said in a regretful murmur. Obviously, the idea of one of his comrades betraying him was not high on his Christmas list.

"But who? Who on the inside could be feeding them information?" She questioned. Slowly, and with guilt, she briefly allowed her thoughts to flutter to Genma. Was he capable of such treason? No, but she had been wrong before about men that had appeared loyal and had betrayed the village for their own selfish purposes.

"It is too early to tell…I think. I've been keeping tabs on everyone and even Raidou," Sakura's remembered Raidou to be Genma's partner and best friend. "But nothing makes sense. There's nothing suspicious about the active ANBU, it has to be someone else. Someone that would know this village inside out, have connections, and be close enough to the Hokage that leaching information would be the easy part," Genma muttered to himself.

Despite her not wanting them to, his words made sense of the situation. But no one fit the description. Well, that was technically a lie. Plenty of people were capable of treason, but like Genma, Sakura refused to believe one of her friends would do such a thing.

"Is Tsunade aware of your…erm…theory?" Sakura asked hesitantly. His brown eyes flashed at hers, still wistful in their own right. "Not yet. I don't know when to lay this on her. And if it turns out that I'm entirely off base about this…"

"….then she would kill you. I get it." Sakura finished for him.

He smiled at her. Sakura noticed that it did not have its usual flirtatious edge, and she was slightly glad for the change. The last thing she needed was another man in her life when she could barely get over the first. "Well," Genma said finally, senbon bobbing as he spoke. " I'm going to get my side looked at, I hurt it in a sparring session with that sensei of yours."

Engrossed by the mention of her former teacher, Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Kakashi did that to you? That lucky bastard." There was some affection in her tone, but her last comment had not been a total tease.

"I take it that you are still put out with me?"

She tossed him a look that all but confirmed his question.

"Ah," He watched her with sorrow in his gaze. He paused at the door and gave a shake of his head. "You'll never know how sorry I am for what I did. And it's alright that you might never forgive me. But please understand that I only wanted to keep you safe. I was scared. I'll admit to you that much. And desperate. I figured there was only so much time left before those ANBU would decide to target you so I acted quickly. I only did it because-"

"Because why?" Sakura fumed. She could care less that she had interrupted what he was about to say.

He gave one look at her furious face and steadily watering eyes and sighed. "Nothing." He shut the door softly and Sakura heard him walk down the tiled corridor, a limp in his step by the sounds of it.

Maybe it was paranoia or maybe it was the inner psyche in her that had never fully left – but she had a feeling in her gut. And it was telling her that she had possibly interrupted something extraordinarily significant.

Like promised, Konoha was being consumed in a shroud of calamity. The signs that they had been warned were coming had arrived. And there was little one could do to prepare for it.

Of the first to suffer had been the civilians.

"Damn it all to hell!" Roughly, a pair of slender hands slammed a thick stack of black and white paper against the cedar wood of Sakura's dining room table. It shook briefly and made an odd groaning sound.

"Geez Ino…"

There was a curse and a mumbled apology.

"I swear you're the one with the super strength in this friendship."

The cloudy blue eyed femme fatale huffed but they both knew it was her form of laughter. The black and white paper turned out to be the daily newspaper, Sakura noticed, and that the headline seemed to actually jump out at her.

DEADLY ASSAULTS: INNOCENTS TARGETED

She actually felt her eyes begin to brim with tears at the memory of all of the people who had been gashed to death. And several background checks had revealed that they had all lead good and virtuous lives with no record of criminal activity. In conclusion they had all just been regular people. No vendetta. Nothing.

"You see?" Ino asked, her own tinkling voice breaking slightly. "No one is safe. People are dying. Good people. And we do nothing but sit here and hope that we're not next. This is ridiculous. Outrageous!" She tossed her flaxen ponytail behind her in aggravation.

They were huddled together in Sakura's apartment – Ino "keeping her company." It was no secret that she did not have it all together these days. It had been a month since her episode with Sasuke( her hands balled into fists at the thought), two weeks since her last discussion with Genma, and a week from the time when all of the attacks started to happen.

In a span of a month, give or take some days, her life had taken a serious downwards spiral. Everyone was worried about her and it would seem that Genma wasn't the only one that thought she might be the next target. So that was why Ino spent the majority of her time finding excuses to come see her when in reality she was scared out of her wits for her best friend.

It was public knowledge now that rouge ANBU were attacking people. Tsunade had found that she could deny the public no longer an explanation for the killings and despite all of her previous efforts – it had incited a panic.

Village life lacked its usual vivaciousness and there was now a mandatory curfew that all civilians had to follow and shinobi were encouraged to do the same.

Sakura went to take another sip out of her mug, her mouth anticipating the warm sting of fresh coffee. No liquid greeted her expecting throat, and she groaned.

"Out of coffee?" Ino asked absentmindedly as she flipped through a catalogue.

To Sakura it was almost comical how her blonde friend could be so upset at one moment and then be completely engrossed with a fashion magazine in the next instant.

The cherry haired medic shook her mug again, this time tipping it unsuccessfully into her mouth, draining it for some sort of drip of any kind. "Yeah…." She finally answered.

Ino gave a roll of her eyes but not before giving her a disapproving once-over. "You're going to be a caffeine druggie by the time you turn twenty-one."

"Well it's good to know I have at least some months to go before I kick the bucket."

The blonde giggled. "Oh shut up. But anyways back to the point at hand, you are definitely not leaving this house to go get some coffee beans. It's past curfew."

"Thanks mother for your touching concern," Sakura drawled playfully, already tugging on her coat and scarf. "But I'll have you know that I am a grown ass," She faltered at Ino's threatening glare. "…er…a grown woman for that matter and that I am a kunoichi which means that curfew doesn't apply to me."

"It's encouraged."

"Whatever, I'm out. See you in a few."

Ino sighed and went back to her catalogue. Sakura exited her apartment door and then locked it. She was halfway down the path when she heard Ino's tinkling soprano voice call to her, "Don't talk to strangers or to strange men that offer you candy!"

Her gloved hands had barely touched the coffee( the last of the Starchucks which happened to be really expensive) when she heard him. Quickly, she raised herself on tip toe to look over the shelf of the convenience store aisle.

There in plain sight, Uchiha Sasuke was debating on what type of soup to buy. Not far behind him, Naruto trailed after with a cart stuffed with junk food, the most prominent being a case of variety flavored ramen.

Sakura gasped and then ducked when a pair of dark eyes shot around to locate the source.

"Oi teme! What the hell is wrong with you?" Naruto chimed from behind his mountain of sweets. He pushed the cart towards the Uchiha who visibly shrank away from the offending objects. He didn't like sweets.

Sasuke eyed a particular large piece of cake in the cart and made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. "Nothing. But who's paying for all of this?"

"You. Duh."

The Uchiha narrowed his eyes, and went back to glancing between the objects in his hands. Naruto peered over his shoulder and gave a loud guffaw. "Please don't tell me that you are seriously stuck between deciding whether you want "Garden Fresh" tomato soup and "Roasted with Garlic"? What the hell is the difference? They're both tomato soup!"

Sasuke glared at him, and shrugged him off of his shoulders. "I wouldn't expect you to know the difference between the two let alone taste it."

While all of this was taking place, Sakura resisted the urge to laugh, cry, and bolt for the door all at once. That comment about tomatoes had been so Sasuke that it was almost funny.

"So have you given any thought to what I've been telling you about?" Naruto asked casually.

"Actually I don't really give much thought to anything you say. Just thought you should know."

"Sakura," Naruto said calmly.

Both she and Sasuke jerked at the mention of her given name. Sakura had started to tense, thinking that she had been caught, but relaxed once she realized that there was no danger.

"See?" Naruto continued. "You are still affected by the very mention of her name. Maybe you should reconsider…."

"No."

If possible, her heart just broke again. But there was something odd about the two of them that she just couldn't place. If what Ino had been telling her held any grain of truth, the two were reportedly mad at each other.

Then again grudges never did work well with men – who usually were over the problem after a good roughening up.

From what her olive eyes could see, Naruto's face had gone from hopeful to somewhat pissed. She flexed her heels again because standing on tip toe for so long was actually quite uncomfortable. The notion made a small squeak but once again she had gone unnoticed.

"I've forgiven you Sasuke for hurting Sakura-chan and even now I still don't even know why," The blond was already pushing the cart towards the check out. He was speaking over his shoulder as he went. "But I won't forgive being lied to. How long will it take you to actually fess up about how you feel?"

Sasuke breathed in sharply for a second and turned his heated glare on his closest friend. "And how long will it be until this annoying fixation with my personal life subsides?" He snapped back.

Naruto looked like he wanted to respond just as angrily but something stopped him. Sakura did not know what it was nor could she find enough sense to care. Her attention was focused solely on the brooding male in the center of the aisle. "One day you'll wake up and realize just how much you fucked up but until then…enjoy stupidity."

And then he calmly pushed his cart down the aisle, leaving Sasuke to walk broodingly behind him.

The pink haired medic exulted and ran a hand through her hair. She noted that her palms were rather wet from nervousness and that her heart was still racing – even after the danger had retreated.

Several minutes later, she found herself digging through her pockets for an extra bill for her coffee ( which was overpriced) when the cashier cursed and then screamed at a younger looking employee to go fetch something outside.

"Sorry," The elderly man behind the counter sighed. "That young man forgot his soup, his does that quite often. Why just last week…"

But Sakura was too preoccupied to listen. Her hands had started to shake and she felt her grip on her coffee beans slip. It hit the floor with a mild thud and she was about to make a mad dash to the back exit but it was much to late.

The young employee came bustling back inside the shop, bringing with him a gust of cold air and one annoyed looking Uchiha Sasuke.

TBC

A/N: I'm back from my temporary hiatus! You can all vent to me now, which I know is much deserved. I am sorry to have kept my babes worried and waiting but I was much too preoccupied with school, work, and writing to update. The good news is that I have most of this story finished which will mean waaaay faster updates and that I have been working on my other story: Conceiving With You (which should be updated very soon). There will be drama and action in the very near future for this story and romance, so stayed tuned folks. As I cannot address everything in this chapter, please put questions or concerns in reviews or pms which I will try to respond to as quickly as possible. Thanks for the overwhelming feedback guys! I apologize on my lateness but please continue to stick with me my pretties. Much love.

Mackenzie2388, dear, I appreciate your support, really I do, but please don't take intros from my profile and put them onto yours. I creatively typed that and it is not a copy and paste sort of thing, those were my original words. This is just a request as I cannot force you to do something against your will, but it is very irritating.

Surmise