Reviewers;

Logan Locke: Well well well...About time! Anyways, I will go back into the previous chapters sometime this week to answer your previous reviews so stay tuned for that, but also, Why would I name a SHE-wolf after you?...hmm? ;) this story started off as NSI, but I didn't get the feelings right, but they will be like the closest of friends and their paths will constantly intertwine in memories and such things. Naruto is that stubborn ninja he was in his undying love, but knows he cannot die until he completes his 'promise of a lifetime.' That was the basis on his wanting to live. finally, I knew that Sakura would be torn and in that moment, naruto would find out what was amiss. Thanks for catching up with me!

Nov11: had to shorten your name: He has always trained. It is just that he gets more time now to do so.

Duh Bomb: pretty good this time, and i still think you should continue this where it is made apparent.

St3rFire: Heh...cool name. There will be a lemon...just further off. But not right now.

Czar Joseph: We can only hope for that can't we?

Thanks to 7th Demon, and JayK24

An: Sadly, I come bearing bad news. A Guest(AKA not a member, posted this. "You are just as retarded as your crack pairing. Kill yourself, loser." For one, this is offensive to disabled persons, offensive to what the anime and manga pointed towards for 14.95 YEARS! and then the idea that I should kill myself? I am a religious person, so when I die, I hope I have a place above waiting for me, but just who in their right mind thinks that posting these things is cool or hip or even nice?

Would you walk up to your friends and say, HEY GUYS! I disagreed with someone so I told them to DDDDDDDDD Themselves! Some people wonder why suicides have increased in recent years, and I provide you this. This is just creepy, and mean, and insensitive. The Guest always put this on the Chapter 7 review so he obviously clicked or read my story, so...I got your attention. I hope I sound mature in this statement, but please, I wish that people like this can grow up mentally and express their...disagreements...rationally. Thank you

Timberwolfe

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ANYWAYS! On with the story! Sorry! But it is short!

Fire & Ice

Arc 1: Conceal It

Chapter 8: Exile's Journey

That afternoon, as the sun was setting, Sakura stood on her balcony, her eyes glistening with fresh tears, but happy ones, knowing that this wasn't goodbye forever, for she would master her feelings, master her powers, and live a happy life. The last part may not happen as fast as she would like, but her heart was leaving with the man her eyes now tracked leaving the gates, a backpack on his shoulders and marching up the hill to the forest.

In Sakura's arms, the young pup slept comfortably. Sakura's arms wrapped below the pup's upper body and the pup's head was sleepily resting against her gloved arm. Sakura smiled at the young pup. She still needed a name for the little one. Sakura smiled knowingly. Tanya. A courageous and loyal name for such a cute and someday hopefully a loyal wolf.

Sakura looked out and saw Naruto turned around and though he was miles away, she waved rapidly, hoping he would see her doing so. Sakura saw him wave once, hopefully to her before he disappeared into the trees. A yip alerted Sakura to the awaking pup in her arms and Sakura walked back inside, before placing Tanya on her bed and looked at her carefully.

"Alright, Tanya. I need to train you properly, so let's get to work shall we?" Sakura asked with a straightforward face, but that face cracked as Tanya stood up on her hind legs and swatted the air with her right paw. Sakura smiled. This had to be one of the best presents of her life; the first and best being the kiss she had shared with her lover.

Naruto walked out of the city gates, smiling at the saddened guards. Even though Port Haruno was a large port city, most people interacted with just about everyone in the city in some way or another. Naruto tugged on the straps of his backpack and trudged up the hill, his boots crunching through the last of the mushy grass, which was now devoid of snow.

As Naruto reached the top of the great hill, whose road led through the forest, he turned around to get one last glimpse of what he considered his city. Naruto smiled fondly at the ocean, its gaze pulling him out to the horizon. He looked to the docks where workers moved to place shipments where they needed to go, and then to the farmlands next to the mountains to the east where the farmers worked the fields.

Naruto scanned the marketplace, where children ran around and remembered when Sakura had convinced him to sneak her out of the castle and not an hour later, they were running through the streets, Sakura pulling Naruto along, as guards chased after them to retrieve the princess. The market had erupted in laughter for the young ten year olds. Those were good memories.

Something shined in his eyes and Naruto looked to the castle and smiled before waving once back. Sakura's hair shined even from this far away. He could see her hair blowing back and forth and let a tear shed down his cheek. His heart ached so terribly, but he had to leave. Naruto turned and walked away into the forest, believing that he'd never return here. He had seen through Sakura's attempt to assure him, and while he would still hope, he was at a loss with what to do in his life. His priority was Sakura, and so now what was he supposed to do now?

After an hour of walking, Naruto arrived out of the forest and took a path that led out of Port Haruno's territory to the west. Some would think that he could stay with his parents and the rest of his clan, but he had been trained already, and given an assignment. That area was no longer his home anyways, and it was still within Port Haruno's territory. A single step outside and it would be considered that he was giving up his life.

No, instead he would go into the forests outside the land, past the canyons of his former lands. Naruto came upon a fork in the canyon and turned north and continued walking. All of these leaving places weren't helping his mind at all, but it helped to show him and give him time to think.

Naruto's backpack was not heavy as most would think, but besides the King and Queen, no one knew of his lineage, so that was understandable. Naruto had his clothes sealed inside one scroll, and his food rations sealed in a preservation sealed scroll for another. The other things he had were some camping supplies, his earned wages from working in the castle, though he never thought he'd use it for something like this, and of course his studies for sealing, written in a language that only his family knew and only taught to each other.

Naruto mentally chastised himself for his lack of protecting Sakura from the thing that was forcing them apart. If only he was stronger than he currently was. Was someone threatening her? Or was there something that had infected her body itself and she was afraid to hurt him. That would explain the hesitation of even touching him, but not others.

Maybe it had to do with her emotions and how they felt for the other. Sakura had admitted her feelings for him and he her, so that made the most sense. Maybe Sakura had been cursed? That could have been done from afar, and one only needed something she cherished, and since Sakura kept Naruto away from her for so long, he did not truly know if she was missing anything.

But the reason he regretted not being strong enough was because his family had given him ten books on sealing, for him to complete by the time he turned sixteen. Now that he was fifteen, he should have been at the last book, the most advanced seals and stuff only his father had mastered before, but No! He was only on the fifth book. And sadly he knew the reason why.

It was his feelings for the princess that had gotten in the way. He had spent more and more time at her side, and less and less time studying while she had her own studies. Sakura had moved on and had learned ten different languages to speak to the ambassadors in their native tongues and Naruto, instead of learning the seals himself had simply listened to her majestic voice and hugged her back and kissed her neck, which helped her focus. Though Naruto supposed that that too was yet another thing Sakura had done to get close to Naruto. He smiled at those sessions, in which Sakura kept her bedroom door closed for those fun times.

But Naruto still had basically five books to master within one year, and he couldn't do that, so he'd be learning them late, and he regretted delaying his studies. But at that moment, Naruto was passing a river through that moved through an underwater cavern and then exited into a secret cove with a sandy shore and a few shady trees.

He remembered teaching Sakura to swim here, and they had dived underneath to find this place that was only theirs and no one else's. It was surprising for Naruto later on when Sakura had taken off her clothes, all of them, and had shown Naruto her now mature body after he had first returned from his sealing training.

She had looked so beautiful then and Naruto looked to his necklace and pulled out an emerald crystal on a Haruno necklace that almost matched Sakura's. They swore to never take them off, and so Naruto had never done so. He wondered if Sakura had taken it off, but something told Naruto that she had not. He smiled; all these signals she had sent out for him, and he didn't realize them at all until two months ago. Geez, he was an idiot around her.

That night, Naruto pitched his tent up, just past the small river that was considered the boundary line of the Haruno lands, and was just passed the canyons and mountains beyond that led to the great city. Naruto looked around him at the darkness, but was still light enough with the moon still having another week before it was a new moon.

Naruto slept with an eye open as he slept a restful sleep. He packed up and began the three day trek to his hopeful destination. This area was bandit country, in the neutral zone where no laws reigned. Naruto imagined Sakura here at his side and shivered. She belonged in Port Haruno, not at his side like some poor commoner or civilian. If, in another life, she was a civilian girl, he doubted she would not join the military core just to prove that she was stronger than she looked.

As Naruto spent the night outside again, he realized that he had traveled more than a day's walk. He had past maybe two days' worth of walking. Naruto sighed and looked all over his body in amazement. He was faster than he had ever been before and he Still didn't know why. It wasn't a seal; they were activated and took time to charge.

It couldn't be magic at this kind of rate and speed. No one held enough magic to dose him with the amount this speed allocated for. And he certainly did not remember a magic user touching his body over and over again, for what he had to assume for maybe two years or more. He smiled, only Sakura had done that, and the royalty did not have magic in their blood.

The next afternoon, Naruto exited the main forest and had known as soon he looked at the trees that he had arrived in the Nara Woods, a city that was spread out among an entire forest, built a mile inland from their small port which was used for transportation along the Nara roads.

Naruto soon looked up amazed at the sight of trees bigger than houses in Port Haruno surrounding him and what seemed to be bridges up in the canopies of the great trees. Naruto looked closer and realized that many of the trees were carved out into different houses and that the bridges connected them all to each other. Wow, this place looked great.

"Well, well. If it isn't Naruto of Port Haruno?" A voice called out and Naruto turned to see a black haired male about his age with a casual royal armor on his figure and a sword at his hip.

"Hello again, Lord Nara." Naruto smirked and the teen grimaced.

"Please call me Shikamaru, Naruto. So…you get exiled and you come here?"

"Pretty much."

"Alright, follow me and I can get you set up in a house tonight."

"Thanks, Shikamaru. You're really helpful."

Shikamaru looked up at the clouds as they walked and sighed. "Yeah well, keep that to yourself. I have a reputation for being lazy, and I'd hate to have more work to do."

That night, Naruto sat on his bed, taking a sip from a cup of forest dew, which was said to calm people down. They weren't kidding. This stuff could make people lazy or something. Naruto looked around the cabin he'd been given and the stuff he had unpacked.

All around the room now where his clothes in a drawer, and his small kitchen with enough space for a bachelor and a bedroom and bathroom with another separate door. Naruto, as well as everyone, was getting use to not digging holes for a bathroom, and this was a great improvement in a quality of life, but right now, Naruto could only shed more tears.

Naruto placed the cup on the bedside table and smacked his right hand over his eyes as the tears fell rapidly down his tanned face. The loud held in yelling of pain sounded across the trees as people looked to the newcomer and went about their business. Naruto looked at the picture before him, a rarity to have as only royals had these pictures and yet Sakura had gifted him with this, a picture of when Naruto had fallen asleep and Sakura was smiling in the photo, her fifteen year old self, at the camera and it just made him sadder.

His grief had finally found him, and Naruto turned to his pack and undid the last seal to pull out a black hilted blood colored sword and held it in front of his body, on his knees. It had been gifted to him when he got back from his trip. It surprised him that it was ice cold to the metal touch, but warm on the hilt and handle. Its name; Kitsune.

Tears slowly stopped falling and Naruto wiped the rest away and got on his knees on the ground. A firm determination filled his eyes as he took the edge of the sword and in one fell slice, slit his hand open as blood seeped out and fell along the wood.

Sakura would call him back, she had promised, and her word was law. Naruto had no doubt that she would come back for him, and until then, his blood would be spilled along with that of his enemies, no matter who they were, for if they could harm a civilian, they might harm Sakura, so he would kill those that deserved it, because they deserved to die. That was Naruto's protected purpose now, and he would always obey his purpose without fail.

It was a promise of a lifetime.

AN: So everyone, tell me what you think...And trivia time! When did Columbus sail to Asia?