Chapter 47 Battle of the heart's

The stunned heiress still looked at the determined filled emerald gaze of Sakura across their surroundings. They were deep within the forest in between the two towns, with just some glimpses of the town they left behind being seen through the tree lines.

"Sakura-chan, this is-"

Hinata was cut off when she was forced to evade Sakura's sudden dash, followed by attempts to land a blow. Hinata was taken by surprise to a feigned punch, which instead slammed into the ground, emitting a tremor at her feet, which made her lose balance enough to have a gloved fist held inches away from her face.

"Stop talking Hinata, unless you are going to tell me your reason."

Pulling herself up, she shook her head, "T-There is no reaso-GAH!" Hinata's stuttered words were harshly cut off by a foot to her gut, sending her airborne several feet, until she regained her posture.

Rubbing her sore stomach, she cringed, "W-Why can't we just talk?"

"Because it seems you will not listen to what I say. So I am just doing what I know Naruto would do, in this case,...beat it out of you. Now either spill it, or prepare yourself Hinata."

The heiress's gaze locked with Sakura's glare to show just how serious she was being and stood up.

"I don't want to hurt you Sakura-chan."

"And you think I want to hurt you?"

Giving in, Hinata formed the gentle fist stance, earning a grin by Sakura. "Do not hold back Hinata. This is your heart you are fighting for, and giving anything less than everything you have is an insult to yourself. And don't you think I am going to hold back either...I will come at you with everything I got."

The heiress still shook her head in confusion, but this time was not taken by surprise when Sakura charged at her again. Parrying one of Sakura's blows with a quick whip of her palm to Sakura's wrist, Hinata flipped the favour to her own, making Sakura now the one evading her needle like fingers. Hinata did not expect Sakura though to elegantly evade each and every one of her strikes. After several misses, Sakura gripped the hilt of her kunai on her back, and in a blur, swung it around from the right to strike. Hinata pulled back in time as the fine blade just missed her throat, and grabbed the offending arm by the elbow, and dived forward with her other hand loaded with chakra. She just touched Sakura's neck with her jyuuken, which made her hiss in pain, but recovered with a sharp fist to Hinata's chest, making the heiress almost lose her balance from being winded.

Hinata's eyes followed Sakura, who pushed off the ground and saw the large amount of chakra building up in her left fist. She cried out in surprise when a monstrous tremor shattered the ground like glass, covering a good ten meter radius, but was able to jump back and shield her eyes from the flying debris, 'Sakura-chan is serious, she really is treating this like a real fight!'

Hinata mused, watching Sakura look up from the impact crater she had made and glared, while unsheathing her kunai on her back again, and sprinted towards Hinata. Evading the attempts to cut her, Hinata spun around on her feet, reeling her hand back, "Hakke Kusho!"

A shockwave of chakra shot out of her striking palm, which Sakura cart wheeled around, but the tree behind her groaned in loud protest at the sudden collision.

Hinata gasped to feel a cold steel against her throat, "This is what I should expect from Konoha's strongest taijutsu oriented clan? are you trying to insult Neji and the rest of your clan, Hinata?!" Hinata gritted her teeth as if Sakura's words struck a painful memory, and lashed out once the kunai was pulled away.

Sakura did not miss Hinata's flash of pain from her comment, but was more focussed on evading Hinata's speeding up blows with her jyuuken. Sakura was met with her back against a tree soon, and Hinata went for the landing blow. Hinata's eyes widened when her efforts were rewarded with piercing a log, and spun around to hit the dirt when a round house kick missed connecting with her back. The tree however, on impact, cracked and tumbled in the kunouchi's direction, forcing Hinata to roll to the side instead of counter attacking.

After the loud 'thump' of the forty foot tall tree crashing to the ground, Hinata saw Sakura leap over the fallen tree with that kunai again in hand. Bringing up her fingers, her jyuuken clashed against it with a violent spark, making the kunai fly out of Sakura's grasp in surprise. Still not recovered, Hinata went in for the blow to Sakura's chest, but gasped to have her arm locked by two hands, and then twisted to receive a solid kick into her side. Jabbing one of the arms that had her pinned, forced her attacker to let go and back off with a sharp hiss.

Sakura stood up and crossed her now glowing hands with chakra scalpels, "Hinata...you better stop fooling around with me." She warned, closing the distance between them again.

Chaka scalpel sparked against jyuuken, in a relentless exchange back and forth for dominance. Sakura misjudged one feigned blow from Hinata, which resulted in a kusho slamming against her, making her fly back and hit against the fallen tree with a loud grunt. Resting her palm against the tree to catch her winded breath gave her an idea.

Hinata perked a questioning eyebrow to see Sakura run to the base of the fallen tree, but soon gasped when the tree suddenly moved under Sakura's tight hold, "SHANNARO!" Sakura screamed, as she spun the tree around, partially snapping more of the tree on connection with other objects, as it flew to hit Hinata like a giant flyswatter.

"Kaiten!"

Sakura lost her footing from the sudden whiplash like action at the end of the tree hitting a solid wall of chakra. With what was left of the tree now scattered everywhere, Sakura stood gain to watch the rotating Hinata stop. Meeting Hinata eye to eye, Sakura glared as the distance between them was closed. After several changes in advancement between offense and defence, Hinata landed a solid blow on Sakura's shoulder, causing the kunouchi to wince in pain. Hinata then spun around again with her palm, and released a solid Kusho into Sakura's chest. She was not expecting Sakura to suddenly explode in a confetti like puff of sakura petals.

'Genjutsu!'

Hinata gasped to the sudden constricting feeling against her heart, as the real Sakura shimmered in front of her to reveal a chakra scalpel resting over where her heart was.

"Hinata...take me seriously, you are only insulting yourself if you don't. "

Sakura repeated again, then jumped five feet back and dropped into her stance, "Even I know the Hyuuga are known for their immunity to genjutsu via the byakugan. They say it is impossible for one to ever fall prey to them...stop embarrassing yourself, and fight me properly."

Hinata winced at Sakura's otherwise neutral statement, "I am not a genius of my clan. You shouldn't expect anything impressive from me simply because I am the heiress of the Hyuuga clan, Sakura-chan."

Sakura again noted the strain behind the heiress's words, as Hinata closed her eyes and formed a seal.

"I am only holding the expectations to what I believe you are capable of Hinata."

The heiress opened her eyes to see Sakura at ease, "You don't need to be a natural genius, or of noble blood to have some sense of value to anybody Hinata. I acknowledge you are the heiress of your clan, but that does not mean I would think otherwise if you were not. You don't really think that way, do you?"

"...Byakugan!"

Sakura did not return to her stance as she watched Hinata's web like veined byakugan activate, "...I have seen otherwise in my own clan with their beliefs, Sakura-chan."

"Hinata..."

Hinata opened her eyes to look at Sakura in the face, "But despite that...I do agree with what you said Sakura-chan."

Sakura nodded, as she fell back into her stance, 'With her byakugan activated, my doujustu will not work on her, or any genjutsu for that matter. I have to watch out now, since she can see me coming from every angle.'

Sakura formed a seal and started to mould chakra, 'Engaging her head on now is even more risky than it was before, but it's all I can do.'

The heiress's byakugan eyes watched what was happening internally to the rosette and went agape in partial shock, "Sakura-chan? are you..."

"Ah."

'This will burn a lot of chakra, but at least I won't fall to a single tenketsu hit...I hope.'

'Sakura-chan is forming a layer of chakra over her internal organs and chakra pathway system.'

Hinata mused, watching the connected systems glue a low blue hue, 'That will minimize the damage dealt...but that is not enough chakra to stop my jyuuken penetrating it.'

Hinata was about to voice her discovery, but Sakura already had dashed back into an exchange of fists again. Thanks to the byakugan, Hinata already found evading Sakura's attacks much easier, and even found an opening which she took. On the next attempted punch, Hinata jabbed Sakura in the mid section of her arm, making her hiss in pain. Sakura turned it around though, by grabbing Hinata's offending hand by the wrist, and twisting it to deliver a solid foot to her abdomen, making Hinata once again fly back.

Sakura gasped in surprise when Hinata gracefully recovered in mid air, and landed hard on the ground to jump back at Sakura with a needle like jyuuken strike aimed for her shoulder, which just grazed it, resulting in a freezing sting travelling across the invisible gash under her vest. Sakura broke Hinata's offense by stomping her chakra filled foot into the ground, but the heiress saw the chakra with her focused eyes, and jumped back to avoid losing her balance unlike before. With the several meters apart gap, Sakura began circling around the heiress in a dash, readying several kunai in her hands.

The heiress didn't need to physically move to keep track of what Sakura was doing, her eyes could perfectly see what was coming. The heiress did physically turn her head though in question, when Sakura used chakra to jump ten feet in the air, and build up a fair deal of chakra in her left leg.

"HOW ABOUT THIS THEN, SHANNARO!"Sakura roared, as she landed on her left foot, emitting a ground cracking earthquake that made the heiress lose her footing, to then see the handful of kunai's sharp, pointed edges, flying towards her.

Hinata deflected the incoming rain of kunai with a well placed kusho, the shockwave colliding head on with the kunai sending them blasting off in different directions, and continued in its journey to knock the wind out of the surprised Sakura, who tumbled from the impact, but pushed down on the ground with her hands to jump back up in midflight.

Seeing that Hinata did not continue to engage her, she took the opportunity to brushing over the already forming black bruise on her shoulder, and winced as she started to heal it, 'So my jutsu can't stop jyuuken...I should have known better.' She was relieved to at least see that it stopped her tenketsu from closing, it just meant that she would have to be extra cautious if she was to continue to engage Hinata in taijutsu.

'I don't have any offensive ranged ninjutsu...my chakra strengthened hits carry the risk of me getting hit by her jyuuken, and my genjutsu's don't work...I am badly mismatched.'

Hinata rubbed the small trickle of blood off her mouth that had been there since the first kick to her gut, "Sakura-chan, this is pointless, please let's stop this, before one of us gets badly hurt."

Satisfied that her wound was no longer stinging, Sakura closed her eyes in concentration and formed a tiger seal, "Are you going to confess to Naruto, or at least tell me why you never did?"

"I-I..."

"There's your answer then." The heiress did not miss seeing four chakra hues dim on Sakura's wrists and ankles, before Sakura once again, closed the distance between them. Hinata was taken aback at the discovery that Sakura not only was noticeably more agile on her feet, but her fists were also moving faster.

Hinata had to end the bombardment before she would get overwhelmed, "Kaiten!"

Sakura back flipped out of the range in time, and once the wall of chakra died down, was upon Hinata again. The Hyuuga tried to push Sakura on the defence, but her movements were quicker than before, as her elegant, evasive movements were so effortless, the heiress could have sworn Sakura was as light as a feather. Switching roles within moments, Hinata was now the one being pushed back by Sakura's counter attack.

Sakura's blurred fist made it through her guard, but was rewarded with Sakura's fist snapping a log in half. Sensing the presence behind her, Sakura jumped on impulse and delivered a quick roundhouse kick, which connected with a blocking elbow, followed by a pained grunt from Hinata. Ignoring the feeling of being hit by a brick wall, Hinata once again had to evade Sakura's relentless offensive push. The heiress eventually could not physically keep up, and was forced to block when Sakura landed a blow that would have again sent her airborne. Her fist connected with Hinata's overlapping arms instead, making her slide several feet back through the grass.

Rubbing her sore arms from the blow, Hinata looked in pure confusion at Sakura, who displayed the ordinary band on her left arm, "I have been wearing these weights since the very start of this mission. I guess time is starting to finally show some real results."

"H-How much do they weigh?"

"I have six pounds flowing through them on both of my arms and legs, so a total of twenty four pounds. As cumbersome as they are, I am trying to follow what Lee-san told me, and only removing them when the situation calls for it."

"I-I see..."

Both kunouchi dropped into their stances again, as Hinata reached into her pouch, pulling out two small purple balls, with the kanji symbol for 'smoke' written on them in a flame shaded red. Sakura didn't see what she was bee lining towards, when Hinata dropped the two bombs at her feet as the women were just feet apart, blinding Sakura's sight with thick purple smoke.

'CRAP!'

Sakura could sense the Hyuuga was circling around her, but she never could see through the smoke to determine where the sudden bee stinging like pain came from which succeeded in striking her back twice, then one striking into her shoulder. In a desperate attempt to end the attack, she ignored the stinging pain to a jab in her side, and slammed the ground hard, breaking the earth around her with a violent shockwave. The cry of surprise from the heiress was heard to her right in the smoke. She then blindly kicked in the direction she heard Hinata, and was rewarded with feeling solid mass, that was then followed by a loud crash and tremor of something hitting the ground.

When the smoke finally faded away, it revealed the fallen Hyuuga, who was in front of a broken tree that had fallen.

'Taking full advantage of her byakugan, by blinding me with smoke bombs to attack me when I couldn't evade...' Sakura made to take a step forward, but grunted in pain to the sudden sting of her injuries telling her not to move.

'The tenketsu on my shoulder has closed, along with the two on my back...damn it!' Her entire left arm could feel the pain shooting down it as she tried to freely move it, making her fingers twitch.

Using her uninjured hand, she began to heal the wound, while looking to the Hyuuga struggling to stand, "Are you badly injured Sakura-chan?"

"I am ok Hinata...you?"

"Hai, I am ok."

When Sakura could feel her fingertips again, she feel back into her stance, trying to ignore the pain in her back. Hinata stood up and waved her hands, "Sakura-chan enough, please."

"Then tell me why?"

"I...I don't know..." Sakura frowned, and took off again at the still averted gaze heiress.

"...I was not good enough for him."

Sakura froze and looked wide eyed at how empty and defeated Hinata sounded, "Naruto-kun deserves someone who has the courage to be there for him, somebody that has the will to comfort him. Naruto-kun needs someone who has the strength to walk with him, and protect him. He needs someone that is not a disgrace to their clan...Naruto-kun gave me confidence to try and become that, but despite my attempts...I feel I never succeeded."

"Hinata..."

Sakura walked up to the heiress and placed her hands on her shoulders, "You really doubt yourself that much?"

Rubbing her eyes she shook her head, "I don't have doubt. I know it is true."

"No it is not...you can be all of that Hinata, if you have faith in yourself."

'Like what Naruto said to me...'

"Faith?"

"Ah. You have proven to me you are strong Hinata, one way or the other, whoever would have won this spar would have been by a thread. You don't even need to prove yourself anything, you are already everything you said...and I have no idea what you are talking about with being a disgrace to your clan. Did something happen?"

"U-Umm..."

"It does not matter. I don't know when, or who told you that you are a disgrace Hinata, but whoever it was, you should tell them to go to hell!"

Hinata gasped at Sakura's heated statement, but Sakura continued, "The only person that has a right to tell you that, is yourself, and you should not care what others think of you."

"Sakura-chan..."

'You sound just as strong as Naruto-kun does...'

"Now will you tell him?"

"...No."

Sakura formed a glare, but Hinata quickly spoke up, "I do not wish to possibly damage your relationship, you can continue fighting me all you want...I will not do that to both you and Naruto-kun."

"That is really how you feel?"

"It is..."

Sakura sighed, but smiled, "Fine then. I won't say anything, and my offer still stands. If you want to tell him, then you are more than welcome to."

"That's kind of you Sakura-chan, but I am afraid I will never take that offer up."

"What will you do then?"

"...You said it yourself, a person is not a light switch Sakura-chan...I need some time."

"Ok..."

"You are different Sakura-chan."

"Huh? This again?"

"I-I mean it in a different way. You never were like this, I know I didn't speak to you often, but I never saw you so strong-minded and open like you are now. You show your concern, but you do not let it weigh you down, and you keep moving forward despite the odds. I don't know if Naruto-kun has anything to do with it, but it is really amazing and admirable...I hope I one day I will eventually become just like you."

Sakura held her jaw open in shock, and sheepishly scratched her head similar to a certain blond, "W-Well thanks Hinata...but I really don't understand what you mean."

Hinata grinned at the familiarity and lightly chuckled, "Don't worry, I know what I mean."

'Naruto-kun always has had the ability to change people...I would know...he changed me.'

Deciding to end their discussion, Sakura stepped back but winced at the pain.

"Sakura-chan, here let me help." The kunouchi looked in question when Hinata came around behind her, and pressed down on the two points closed on her back, bringing instant relief.

"You can reopen tenketsu?!"

"Hyuuga learn to manipulate an opponent's tenketsu as you know. So we can also return them to their original state as well."

Sakura mouthed an 'oh' and stood up straighter since it was no longer hurting to do so, "Let's find my backpack, get the stuff, then head back Hinata."

"I couldn't agree more Sakura-chan." Once the discarded pack was found, they left behind only the destruction of their spar to tell the tale.

With the town now coming into their view, Hinata could not help but remember the conversation they had a few days ago, "U-Umm if you don't mind me asking Sakura-chan, umm-"

Sakura held a smile, "Yes?"

"...How did you confess to Naruto-kun?"

Sakura laughed lightly, "I just kissed him...then spelled it out to the baka in plain black and white."

The heiress looked wide eyed in disbelief, "R-Really?!...so direct and forthright...You are really brave to have done that Sakura-chan. May I ask what lead up to you deciding that was the best way?"

Sakura again laughed, "He did."

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The town was not busy that day, with only a few people darting in and out of the numerous stores. Sakura and Hinata walked out with a full pack being carried by the former, "Would you like to get a bite to eat before going back?"

"Do you know a place Sakura-chan?"

Smiling in memory, she nodded. Taking lead, Sakura brought them to the restaurant Naruto and herself ate at before.

Sitting down at a table for two, Hinata looked around, "This place looks nice."

"They have a good selection of great food here, it's a shame the place is noisy though."

A waitress soon came up and served them, as more customers entered.

The waitress soon returned with two steaming drinks in hand, "One green tea, and one hot chocolate."

Handing them their drinks and leaving, Sakura sipped her hot chocolate, letting out a satisfied sigh, and began some idle talk.

Neither of the kunouchi appeared to be paying attention though, as a pair of blue-gray eyes neutrally glanced over them from the other side of the room.

'I found you at last...Haruno Sakura.'

Claara mused, taking a mouth full of her tea with a smirk, as she watched the pair continue their casual conversation. Claara payed little attention to the pair as they were served, herself included. In one brief instance though, emerald met icy eyes. Claara gave an innocent smile, which was returned back to her, as both women minded their own business for the rest of their meals. Once she had finished, she stood and in no rush, walked out of the restaurant.

Taking a turn into an alley a couple of streets later, she stopped mid-way, "Do you both really think I haven't noticed?"

Two presences dropped behind her, "Identify yourself?!" Sakura growled, with Hinata in her stance right next to her.

Claara chuckled, "How rude, shouldn't you introduce yourself first?"

"I am Haruno Sakura, now answer my question!"

Claara again giggled and turned to meet Sakura's glare, "The apprentice of the slug sannin in the flesh."

Sakura's glare blinked in confusion as the older kunouchi smirked, "I am Tsuta Claara...how did you notice?"

Sakura blinked in question, but shook off her bafflement, "You think I can't tell when somebody has tampered with my food?!"

Claara laughed, "I see, you do not mock your masters name then. Once you discovered your foods were poisoned, you glanced at me to place me in a genjutsu, so I would think you both saw nothing amiss...how clever."

Sakura did not expose her shock and surprise, but her eyes held her true feelings, 'She knew I placed her in a genjutsu with my doujustu?!'

"You honestly don't expect child games with such weak level genjutsu's to work on everybody do you?"

Sakura's eyes widened again in surprise, but she recovered and hid her emotions with a glare.

Claara let out a satisfied 'Hmmph' and decided to get to the chase, "Now then, why don't you tell me where your blond teammate is...Uzumaki Naruto was his name?"

The effects were instant, as both kunouchi tensed at the mention of Naruto, "W-What do you want with Naruto-kun?!"

Claara smirked, "Nothing in particular, I just want to have a little...chit chat with him about that little demon he has sealed inside him."

Hinata went agape, while the other silently clenched her fists, "What is with you people...Naruto has done nothing wrong!"

The older kunouchi's snicker made Sakura grit her clenched shut teeth, "I do not care about what you think...now then, are you going to tell me where he is?"

The moment her words had left her mouth, Sakura charged head on whipping out the kunai from her back sheath, "Like hell I am telling you anything!"

Sakura's attempted slash was blocked by the long, but fine needle like senbon, that looked as if it had been coated in some kind of liquid, "Well well, somebody has a very short temper."

Pushing harder on the kunai that was still being held back, Sakura pulled back and tried to swing again, but Claara effortlessly clashed each strike with the lone senbon. Her continued laughter was making Sakura see red.

"So is this how far you are willing to go to try and protect your teammate? Looks to me he is as good as dead."

Sakura felt that vein on the top of her forehead snap, "I WILL SHOW YOU HOW FAR I AM WILLING TO GO TO PROTECT NARUTO FROM YOU BASTARDS, SHANNARO!"

Hinata was still agape as she watched Sakura now using her fists instead, succeeding in smashing the side walls of the street, but not once hitting the older kunouchi.

"So throwing a tantrum is what is going to protect your teammate from everything is it? Heh, you are such a child."

"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW ME!"

'She is deliberately using Naruto-kun to get Sakura-chan angry!'

Sakura was too infuriated to think rationally, as she finally had backed Claara against a wall, and aimed straight for Claara's chest with as much chakra she could control. Feeling the connection brought satisfaction, but then a wash of confusion fell over her when Claara didn't fly away, or even grunt at the sudden weak impact.

...why did the underpart of her wrist have an unbelievable sting that was starting to feel like her entire arm was being slowly submerged in ice?

Sakura then realised that the senbon Claara had been using to defend herself with, was now the source of her dilemma, with a trickle of her own blood dripping down the piercing senbon.

"Oh I know you more than you could possibly imagine...And as I told you, with you being the one to protect him, he is as good as dead."

"Sakura-chan!" Hinata cried, activating her byakugan and rushing forward, but that didn't stop Claara from backhanding the frozen Sakura across the face, making her crash hard on the ground. Hinata covered the distance soon after, jumping over Sakura to engage.

Pushing herself up to be on her knees, she gripped on the still inserted senbon, and tugged it out through a pained grunt, while she observed her arm continuing to get colder until she could barely feel her own fingers. Her arm soon started to turn ghostly white, as her web, like veins, were starting to become visible under her skin, along with her finger nails turning black from lack of blood flow.

"Hakke kusho!"

Claara back flipped over the shockwave, hearing the crashing impact against the bricked wall behind her. Looking back over her shoulder at the laboured breathing Sakura, Hinata met the older kunouchi eye to eye, "What did you do to Sakura-chan!?"

"Hmmph...Deidara-san?"

Both kunouchi gasped in shock when the floor they were standing on erupted around them, to reveal two man sized clay centipedes, which bound both of them on the spot. A maniacal laughter brought both to look at the wall behind Claara, which suddenly exploded with a loud bang, causing screams to be heard from the streets nearby.

A widely smiling Deidara came walking through the black smoke with a one handed seal formed, "Experience the beauty of my art, KATSU!"

An earth quake was heard throughout the town from the grand explosion, the force being strong enough to shatter glass from the nearby buildings. Despite that, somehow Deidara's laughter could be heard over the explosion's roar, "This mission is now finally starting to get exciting, hmm!"

"Look closer Deidara-san."

The ex Iwa nin shot a puzzled glance at his neutral expression partner, and squinted through the smoke to see nothing, "My art was so perfect, there is not even any remains, hmm!"

"You never blew them up."

"Eh?!"

The smoke finally cleared enough to reveal the one burning store sign remaining in between where the two kunouchi once were, "K-Kawarimi?!"

"You seemed to have missed noticing Haruno Sakura was accompanied by a Hyuuga, Deidara-san...she saw your trap coming before you ever had a chance to spring it."

"Damn it!"

"It doesn't matter...inform Ronan that we have found them."

Still growling at his failure, Deidara dropped his backpack and pulled out his weapon pouch, to reach in and grab the scroll.

"What will happen to that girl, hmm?"

Claara gave a cold smirk to her partner, "If she can get to medicine expert anytime soon, then nothing...otherwise she will die several hours from now."

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Hinata never could thank her bloodline more than ever now, as she ran with Sakura leaning on her side for support, dragging both as fast as her legs could carry them.

"Sakura-chan! are you ok?!" The rosette never answered though, as her heart beats were starting to become so deafeningly loud, although everything was coming through as nothing but a whisper. Hinata gasped suddenly at how cold Sakura felt by touch, and looked to see her paling and sweating skin, with the only signs of life being her desperate gasps for air, and furious trembling.

"Sakura-chan!"

"Hinata...stop for a moment, please..." The heiress halted at Sakura's weak request, carefully putting the gasping Sakura down to her knees.

"Sakura-chan, what do I do?!"

Sakura never responded, as she desperately tried to balance herself on her knees, rubbing over the still bleeding wound from her wrist. Despite her trembling, she tried with all her will not to give in to her blinding vision. Slowly forming the seal's required, she placed her blood covered hand to the ground, causing a 'poof' to be heard. As if whatever was driving her had left, she fell into the smoke to feel such comforting softness, that her eyes closed in defeat to its welcoming and warm touch.

All Sakura could hear was her heart's soul shifting beats in the darkness, which began to slow...until she was then met with silence.

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Reopening her eyes, she was met with the partially burnt ceiling and gasped, 'W-What happened?!'

Despite her back's protests from the rough surface, she bolted to sit up, discovering she was in the outpost alone. Judging from the light from the broken window, it must have been the middle of the day. Looking down in concern for her wrist, she saw underneath her long sleeved red top a thin layer of bandaging with a small dried red splotch. Looking to her right side in the corner, she saw her sandals, along with her attire neatly folded, guessing somebody had changed her into just her shirt, and black tracksuit. Trying to shift the several blankets that were covering her, she sat up further till her back was against the wall, and rubbed her forehead.

'I was able to summon Katsuya-sama in time, before I lost consciousness...thank god.'

Sensing a presence next to her, she looked to her side to see navy blue shinobi pants, and followed it to see the kneeling Kakashi, who was giving a soft eye smile.

"K-Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yo Sakura, how do you feel?"

"I feel fine...what happened?"

"Hinata brought you back with Katsuya attached to you. You were hit by some kind of fast spreading poison, which if you had not summoned Katsuya when you did...nobody here would have been able to help you, even if we tried to get you to the nearest hospital...it would have been too late."

Sakura sighed and voiced her own explanation, "I thought it was fast acting, they are the most effective to use in a battle. I guess though I should be thankful, because fast acting poisons are easier to be detected and cured by those that know what they are doing."

Kakashi chuckled, "Thanks for the lecture, but Katsuya explained it to me already."

Sheepishly grinning, she shrugged, "How long have I been unconscious?"

"Only a day...but that was too long for some people." Sakura's brows furrowed at his hinting words, but didn't process it all together.

"Who changed me?"

Kakashi was about to answer flatly, but then his lone eye narrowed with corrupt intent, "Who do you wish for it to b-"

"Sensei!"

Chuckling at her flushed appearance, he dropped his tease, "Hinata did of course."

Nodding her head while calming, she continued asking away.

"Where is everyone?"

"They are around."

Accepting his vague answer, she looked down at her sheets, "How is Naruto?"

"...He is fine."

"That doesn't sound very convincing."

"Well losing his sensei and then having you come back half dead in all of the matter of twenty four hours was not all the best for his current state of mind...but I am sure the sight of you, he will be fine."

Voices from outside made her look to the bright door, to hear the soothing voice of Katsuya, "She will be fine Naruto-kun."

Said blond walked through the door, with little traces of life behind his blue eyes that were looking to the floor, "Yeah, I know Sebonegoro-cha..."

Naruto then saw a pair of emerald eyes looking at him, making him completely freeze and go agape in shock.

As if something broke, Naruto blinked to reveal his eyes were watering as a smile began to form, "See Naruto-kun? I told you Sakura-sama would be ok."

Katsuya mythical voice never was heard, as she slid down and watched Naruto literally sprint to Sakura's side and dive down to tackle her in a tight embrace, succeeding in bumping the back of her head into the wall, "OUCH! NOT SO ROUGH, BAK-"

"SAKURA-CHAN!!" He cried out, his trembled voice literally drenched in relief, making her go agape.

Hearing his incoherent mutters of 'you're really ok!' over and over again made her smile, as she eventually returned his hug when she heard him sniffle, "Oh Naruto you silly baka." She whispered, stroking his blond hair on the back of his head.

A gasp made Sakura look to the door again to see a surprised Hinata. Before she could say anything, the heiress waved her hand, giving a soft smile, and as if in respect, walked back outside to give them privacy.

Naruto finally pulled away and rubbed his eyes to reveal his fox wide smile, "Hehe, I knew you would be too tough to let some stupid poison knock you out, Sakura-chan."

"Hmmph, so you are just happy to see me then I take it?"

"...Maybe."

Grabbing his jacket, she kissed his cheek and giggled, "Well I am happy to see you too then...you idiot."

"Awww...this is just like that scene in Icha Icha Tactics." Both teen's blushed, and sheepishly looked elsewhere from Kakashi's statement.

Katsuya lightly laughed, "It is good to see I was able to remove the poison from your blood stream Sakura-sama. You look quite healthy given the state you were in when you collapsed on top of me."

"Hehe...sorry about that Katsuya-sama. " Kakashi reached into his weapon pouch, and handed Sakura a small book.

"Sakura, Hinata told me about the kunouchi that attacked you, but she was not able to find her in my bingo book. Please have a look for yourself, and maybe you will have more luck."

Nodding her head, she took Kakashi's bingo book and placed it by her side, as Kakashi stood up," Now if you both do not mind, I am going to return to the town with the others to investigate, Hinata will still be around just in case."

"Ah...be careful with that woman Kakashi-sensei." Giving a thumb up, he walked out.

Turning back to the silently sitting blond next to her, she noticed his black lines under his eyes and sighed, "Come here you idiot."

Pulling him by surprise, she hugged him again, "You should not have worried so much Naruto, I am not going down that easy. How long have you been awake sitting next to me for?"

"U-Umm-"

"He never left your side until I forced him to leave for a moment to get some fresh air, Sakura-sama."

She chuckled while stroking his back, "Naruto..."

Pushing him back so she could see his face, she planted a kiss on his nose, "Cheer up, I am fine."

She instructed, still ruffling his hair with her hand. Katsuya watched the entire exchange silently.

'Sakura-sama is being quite affectionate to Naruto-kun...did something happen from last time I left them?'

Naruto blushed from Sakura gesture, and scratched his head while emitting a light chuckle. She perked an eyebrow when his chuckle slowly moulded to genuine full blown laughter, "Did I miss something?"

Finally calming and rubbing his teary eyes, he answered in a whisper, "...I am so glad to see you are ok."

As if his laughter was infectious, she lightly chuckled in result, "Eh? I thought you were only happy to see me?"

"Well-I-Yeah-But-" Sakura laughed lightly at his mutters and grabbed him by his jacket and gave in to temptation to kiss him properly.

"Sakura-sama...Not that I wish to ruin your moment, but kissing Naruto-kun after just recovering from being poisoned is not the brightest of all ideas."

Both teens eyes bulged in remembrance to the once again forgotten slug, and never was granted the opportunity to kiss, since both jumped with a furious blush at the neutral looking slug. The slug's light giggles only deepened their flushed states.

"K-Katsuya-sama!"

The slug's giggles became audibly louder, "My apologies, I am only teasing. I will return to my realm, now seeing that you are awake. You most likely won't want to stay bedridden, but I ask that the very least you take today easy."

Calming down from her embarrassment, she nodded, "I will Katsuya-sama, thank you again for saving me."

"You are most welcome. Naruto-kun, I trust you will demonstrate your hospitality again, and ensure Sakura-sama is taken care of."

"Yosha, Sebonegoro-chan!" The slug then 'poofed' out of existence, leaving Naruto to turn and get straight to his task.

"Can I get you anything, Sakura-chan?" Sitting up in her made up bed on the floor, she looked to her gear, "Can you bring me my weapon pouch, please."

Naruto walked over to her gear and did as instructed, handing to her as she clipped it open and shuffled around to look for something. Naruto blinked when she pulled up a lone senbon needle, that had dried up blood on the tip of it.

Sakura stared at the object in front of her for several moments, earning Naruto's puzzlement, "What is that Sakura-chan?"

Scrutinizing it for a few seconds longer, she answered, "This is the poisoned senbon that Tsuta Claara person used on me."

Gasping, the blond now stared at the senbon, "H-How did you get it?"

"When I pulled it out, I felt it was best to take it. I knew I was poisoned the moment I was stabbed with it."

"Is the poison still covering it?"

"Most likely-" Bringing the senbon up to her nose, she sniffed, and instantly shot her head back to the powerful odour that stung down her throat in a cold rush, "-Ah..it still is enough to be usable."

Widening his eyes, he shook his head, "Then get rid of it Sakura-chan, before you hurt yourself."

"No. I can use this Naruto." Sakura dug into her weapon pouch again, pulling out two scrolls, and formed a seal after she had opened one in her lap, forming a smoke cloud. Once it had cleared sitting in her lap, she now had several instruments Naruto had never seen before. Handing another to him, he did her the honours and opened it by her side, unsealing it to reveal several containers filled with crushed herbs.

"I am going to create an antidote for this poison. That was why I took it. I am not going to let that person hit anyone else with what nearly killed me."

"You can do that with just a senbon?"

"Hai. Do you still remember what I told you about poisons Naruto?"

"...A little."

Grinning, she broke eye contact with the senbon, "Well it is a fast acting poison, does that ring any bells?"

"...Fast acting...Poisons that can knock out a person after moments of being put under its affects?"

"Hai. They attack the body in a less subtle and more violent way, which makes it easier to be detected. They are commonly used by medic nin's on the battle field. To counter this, most squads accompanied by a medic nin possess these basic tools, along with several of the most common herbs in combating them."

"Why not carry them all in the scroll?"

"There are simply too many plants Naruto, I would need at the minimum a baker's dozen to have enough to cure all the potential types of poisons and venoms used. This kit was created by Tsunade-sama in the second shinobi war, because it was learnt that most if not all, fast acting poisons are not very complex. This is why fast acting poisons are not as feared as slow acting ones, which are created to be much more complicated to cure, but have surprisingly more lethal results than fast acting mixtures."

"I think I get it...sort of."

Chuckling, she got started, " I am not an expert in poisons, Shizune-sempai, and believe it or not Ino, know much more about poisons than me. I do, however, know more than enough to put this kit to full use, and I have created an antidote for one slow acting poison in the past. The best thing of all with this case is that all the work has been done already, since I was the one that was exposed to it."

"Ok, is there anything I can do to help you then?"

Grinning, she shrugged as she began to get to work, "No, but you are more than welcome to stay and watch."

A kage bunshin forming next to her made her turn in question, "If you need me at all Sakura-chan, just knock this clone out, and I will come right away."

"Huh? Where are you going Naruto?"

"Training."

"Eh?..." Sakura watched him stand and walk to the door, and stopped just before the exit.

"I really would like to watch, but even after just recovering, you are already working out a way that will help us beat these guys.-"

Turning to her, he smiled wide, "-I would feel useless if I did do nothing to help make it any easier too."

Shaking her head, she grinned, "Fine...don't push yourself too much then, since you are tired...but can you come here for a second then?"

Blinking, Naruto did as told, and felt a tug on his leg, "Get down here."

Still puzzled, he kneeled, "Ye-!?!"

Naruto was cut off by Sakura grabbing his jacket, and pulling him into a kiss that was enough to make the clone mutter curses of 'lucky teme!'. Naruto twitched when he felt Sakura trace over one of his whiskers with her thumb. He twitched again to some bizarre lukewarm, but tingling entity, brushing over his lips as if wanting entrance. It was enough to make him partially break open his closed lips, to then feel another strange sensation happening inside his mouth, which was enough to make him partially open his eyes in confusion.

'Neh? What is that?...is that Sakura-chan's tong-GWWAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!'

His yelping made Sakura pull away in confusion, to then see him try and pull his head back as far away from her as he could.

He even brought up a shaking hand between them to hide his bulging with terror eyes, "W-W-W-W-Wha-What the hell was that?!"

Sakura blinked blankly for a few moments, but then blushed furiously, and brought a finger up to her mouth as if to try and hide her smile, "It was a kiss of course, what else do you think it was!"

"W-Where-Wha-What kind of kiss was that?!"

Giggling at his appearance, she shrugged, "Just another harmless way of kissing, I read about it in a book."

Naruto's eye twitched in realisation at the mention of 'book', "BAH! ERO-SENNIN HAS CORRUPTED YOU, HERONO-CHAN!"

Not affected by the nickname, she giggled again, while pointing a thumb to her side, "So what does that make you then? Eromaki?"

Naruto reluctantly followed her pointing thumb to see the nose bleeding clone, who lost enough blood that it went 'poof'.

"H-H-He was weak! T-Tha-That doesn't-"

"Oh shut up." She interrupted, still giggling at his deeply embarrassed state.

Pulling him in, she rubbed his nose with her own, "Just admit it, you liked it...I won't tell anyone if that is what you are fearing."

"Err-Umm-Ermm..."

Kissing his nose, she smirked, "Hmm?"

"...Yes."

Chuckling, she released her hold on him, "Really Naruto, it is just kissing for goodness sakes, it is what couples do. Hell, I will bloody ask you next time then if you are going to freak out like that."

"I-I know that! I just...didn't know that kind of kiss even existed."

Winking at him, Sakura grinned ,"Me neither. Now then, since you are such a baby...would you like to give it another go?"

Blushing at her blunt question, he got to his feet as quick as he could and crossed his arms as if to say 'denied!', "N-No thanks! T-That kind of kissing is of S ranked level power and effectiveness! "

Ignoring her gut busting laughter, he fled to the door as if he was running for his life. Quickly creating a clone, he attacked his own head as if he had lice, "I-I will be back later!"

'Once I think of some way to get 'that' book off you, before it corrupts you any further.'

Still laughing, she waved as he bolted, 'Hehe, He is so cute when he is embarrassed.'

Ignoring the awkward muttering from the clone, she picked up the senbon she had placed aside before she had kissed Naruto.

Wincing at Claara's words from her memories, Sakura tightened her grip on the small needle, 'Tsuta Claara...whoever you are, I will show you just how wrong you were in saying that.'

----------------------------------------------

Karin jumped from the sound of thunder roaring, shaking the ground beneath her feet. She quickly put on her 'tough' mask though and groaned, "Do you really have to do this?"

The Uchiha standing in front of her at the entrance of the hideout tilted his head, so she assumed that meant he was listening. "This sounds...very dangerous, and in a way, well, really stupid Sasuke. "

Sasuke let out a low 'hn' as he looked back up at the drizzling sky of the thunderstorm. Once a blinding flash reflected over his onyx eyes, he started to walk out of the shelter, flicking over the hood of his black shinobi cape.

"Let's go, Karin."

The red head clicked her tongue in annoyance, and covered her own head with the hood, as she stepped out of the warm and dry shelter to meet near solid needles of water crash over her head, 'He really is serious.'

In the darkness of the hideout, standing below the flooding staircase was Kabuto. His glasses shone a blinding white from another lightning strike, as he began to chuckle darkly with the clap of thunder.

'Yes Sasuke-kun, that's right...go find them.'

AN: What I was hoping to achieve this chapter was to show how much Sakura's character has matured from the start, I hope I got that right.

I think it is PRETTY clear I have focused on her a lot throughout this story, dare I say it is very Sakura centric.

Now in regards to Naruto and Sakura. I did have a long write up on my perspective of how I believe their relationship would be if it happened, but to save everyone from an essay, Eagleman hit my opinion on it pretty spot on.

Both have no past experiences/influences, so naturally, their relationship would be more 'young' and innocent driven. Since I have made it a habit to explain my theories as I go, I won't disappoint.

I believe Sakura is the kind of person that craves affection, and lots of it. The twist being only when she wants it, or else poor Naruto is in for a nudge of 'go away baka'. We have seen her fantasize quite a fair bit in part one about 'dream dates' etc, so her being a sucker for romance to me makes sense...too bad Naruto finds her sappy ideas as 'boring' :P True to her adventurous and courageous attitude though, she would be the 'pushy' one of the two, and also would be more willing to bite on her curiosity with her new ahem...reading material.

Naruto has always given me the impression of being too innocent and dense for his own good, and he sure as hell is no Romeo. Of course he is no saint, since we know he is a bit perverted. Looking at him a bit more deeper, there is also the fact that he received little affection in the past from people (barring Sandaime, people from Ichiraku, and Iruka), so he is completely foreign to Sakura's affection, and doesn't know how to show his own by thought, only by instinct. This is why I portray him as being a little shy and even a bit nervous around Sakura, because it is a completly new experience for him, even though to both it is their first relationship.

and there you have it (did become a mini essay in the end).

See you at the next release...which can be a double if a certain number is reached ( I like the number 30 this morning). So please Read and Review.