Towards the Light

A/N: Hey everyone,

I would just like to say quick thank you to Phoenixx Rising for leaving the only review for last chapter. I hope you will all find this chapter, just as intriguing as the last. I write because I have a passion for it, but it is also you guys that keep me going with your encouragement and feedback on how I can improve.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters. That honour belongs to the outstandingly creative and illustrious Kishimoto.

Let chapter 4 begin!

Chapter Four: A Fine Line

The sun rose from under the horizon and peaked from behind the gates of Konoha. It bathed the village in brilliant orange beams of light. It bounced and reflected off the early morning dew that sat idly on the blades of green grass. But the light also cast out shadows. Dark shadows that painted an eerie feel to even the most beautiful garden. For with light, there always came darkness.

The sun's raise stretched out over the entirety of the village now. Even to a part of the village where light, a different sort of light, had not been there for a long time; at the Uchiha compound. The light rose up onto the veranda of what was once home to the last remaining Uchiha. Sasuke. The light revealed Sakura sitting on the veranda with her feet dangling off the edge. She had her head in her hands.

Sakura had not gone to sleep that night. In fact, she had found it rather hard to sleep these past few nights. It had been several days since the ordeal at the prison. An ordeal that she had much rather wished she could shake from her mind. But it was stuck.

She raised her head from her hands as she watched the sunbeams stretch out across all she could see, causing the shadows to grow longer. She got up from her spot and headed to the main street of the village.

The village was still in ruins. It took a mere few days for the village to be destroyed but it would take months to rebuild. The village was doing well though under the circumstances. Most of the shop owners had set up market stalls to try and keep the village going and those that were not working at the stalls, were working to rebuild the main street.

She thought back to the many times when she had walked down the busy street. She wondered if it would look the same when the rebuilding was done.

Sakura came to one of the stalls and bought what she needed. With the item in hand, she headed away from the main street. The hustle and bustle of the village now behind her, her mind ventured off thinking of other things. It was not long when she realised she had arrived at her desired location.

She knelt down and placed the item gently down next to the photo frame set at the front of rows of chairs. There was to be other gathering there soon. Sakura adjusted the flowers that she had placed down. A gathering to mourn the loss of one of their own.

ONE HOUR LATER…

Sakura stood surrounded by many of the villagers. A crowd of black, which symbolised their loss and sadness. A visual image of the shadow that was placed on their hearts, as they said their final goodbyes.

Sounds of tears and words of comfort could be heard amongst the crowd. It would seem as though the entire village had gathered today. Sakura bowed her head and prayed.

Sakura felt the presence of a familiar chakra beside her. She did not need to look up to know who it was, and their presence, knowing that they were there was enough. Soon the crowd dispersed and Sakura too went on her way.

Sakura was working at the hospital after the funeral. She was busy with a patient who had come in from a mission with severe lacerations all over his body. She placed her hands over his body and focused her chakra into her hands. Soon she saw the familiar green glow emitting from her hands, as she began to focus on healing most of the wounds. She had already inspected the lacerations closely, and luckily she had detected no sign of poison.

When she had finished, she sent for a nurse to tend to him. Once the nurse had arrived, she ventured out into the corridor and found herself stopping, a little way down from the room she had just been in, and leaning against the wall. She had not done much to be chakra exhausted. So she wondered why she felt so tired and drained. She rubbed her eyes and sighed at the precise moment that Ino had turned the corner to the same corridor as Sakura.

"Sakura? Are you alright?" Ino said as Sakura looked up.

"Oh, Ino. Yes, I am fine. I was just rubbing my eyes." She said with a smile.

The look on Ino's face turned serious. "Sakura, you are exhausted. You have run yourself into the ground. Do you really think that I haven't worked out what you have been doing?"

"W-what are talking about?" Sakura said.

"If you don't want to admit it, that's fine. I just want you to know that I know, and that I understand why you are doing it. I just don't want you to overwork yourself anymore than you already are. I also know what must be going on inside your head, and I just wanted you to know that you can talk to me about it or at least try to make sure that you are getting enough sleep." said Ino, as she placed her hand on Sakura's shoulder.

Sakura gave Ino a small smile. "Thanks, Ino. I'll do my best."

Ino smiled back at her before continuing down the corridor.

Sakura had tried to take it easy for the rest of her shift. Even though it may not seem like it, she did try to listen to the advice from the people around her; especially because they are worried. Sakura was washing her hands before moving to the next patient, when a member of ANBU appeared next to her.

"Haruno-san, you are required at the Hokage Tower immediately. Arrangements have already been made to relieve you here."

Sakura stared at the water as it ran over her hands. Just what did they want with her at the Tower?

"Hai, I'll make my own way there." She said, and with that the ANBU teleported back to the Hokage Tower.

Sakura left the hospital and started to make her way to the Hokage Tower. To be called to the tower at this time of night, it must be important.

When Sakura arrived at the Hokage Tower, she took in a deep breath before she entered the Hokage's office. When she entered, she saw the elders and other important leaders of the village standing around.

"Haruno Sakura, you have been summoned here as the new Hokage of Konoha has a request on behalf of the elders." Said one of the people in the room. She wasn't sure of who as she kept her eyes locked on the back of the Hokage's chair.

She walked forward nervously as she stopped a little way back from the table. The chair suddenly started to spin around, revealing the person that had just been given power and leadership in their village.

Hatake Kakashi.

Sakura was shocked at this, as he had always detested the idea of becoming Hokage. Had he been put up to this and not given a choice?

She stared at her former sensei and could not find any words. So she did all she could manage to think of; bow. A sign of respect for his new position.

"Sakura, we have known each other for a long time now. There is no need for that." He said in a reassuring tone.

Sakura straightened and looked at him, as he continued. "I know what you must be thinking. I will not be in this role forever. Just to get the village back on its feet again." So that meant that he had been pushed into it. The elders had so much control and power that sometimes Sakura thought that the idea of the Hokage was pointless, for nothing could be accomplished without the approval of the elders.

"Sakura?" She hear Kakashi's voice which brought her out of her thoughts.

"Hai, there was a request?" She said slowly.

"There is. I'm afraid you won't like it, but there is no one else that I feel will deliver the information with as accuracy as you." Sakura could tell that Kakashi was choosing his words carefully. But why?

"What information will I be delivering?" She asked.

"Information regarding my new appointment and the items on the agenda, specifically the positives and negatives that have come from the war."

Sakura paused. "And… who will I be delivering the information to?"

Kakashi was looking directly at her now. She saw his mouth move to form the name. Her body went cold.

Kakashi saw her reaction, even though she did well to hide it. "This is an order from the sixth Hokage."

With that being said, she knew only one thing.

She had no choice.

Sakura had vowed never to return to this place, but on Hokage orders, she found herself remembering the way as she manoeuvred her way through each corridor. The deeper she went, she started to feel sick in the pit of her stomach. She tried to ignore the feeling as she pressed on; remembering the information Kakashi had told her to relay.

Then suddenly she stopped, just before entering the last corridor. She took in a deep breath and her facial expression went stern. She needed to show that she could still do her job diligently. She could not let her emotions affect how she would handle the exchange of information. Kakashi was counting on that.

She walked a little ways down the corridor and stopped when she came to the fourth cell; Sasuke's.

"Sakura, huh?" She heard him say before he emerged from the dark corner of his cell. "And here I thought that you were never going to come back here." Sakura clenched her fists in an attempt to keep the words of anger from pouring out of her mouth.

She closed her eyes for a second and when she reopened them, she was ready.

"I have been sent here to delegate to you the news on the new Hokage. As of this afternoon, the sixth Hokage of Konoha is Hatake Kakashi."

Sasuke had sat down leaning against one of the walls that separated his cell from the one next door. "Kakashi…" He said, clearly pondering over what this might mean for him.

Sakura continued. "As Hokage his duties will start immediately. Obviously the rebuilding of the village is priority, but I have been sent to inform you that a decision on your present situation is going to be placed high on the agenda. Therefore, you should be notified of a decision within the next week or so." Sakura had now finished what she had been sent to do. The only thing she needed to do now, was to walk away. And so she did.

Sakura turned and started making her way to the end of the corridor when she heard Sasuke speak. "I should have been there. At the funeral."

Sakura stopped and clenched her fists again. "Did you really think that anyone would have let you go after what you did?" She said with her voice laced with anger as she recalled the events from several days ago. "You are lucky that you are still being kept here."

Just then a member of ANBU appeared. The council had clearly sent someone to ensure the information had been passed on. "You have been requested at the Hokage Tower." He said. "We leave immediately."

And with that, Sakura followed the ANBU out of the prison. With so many thoughts swirling through her head. She was glad that the ANBU was escorting her back to the Hokage Tower. Her mind wondered thinking back to when she had visited several days ago.

FLASH BACK

Sasuke had a kunai pressed into the neck of an unconscious Naruto who was bleeding also from what Sakura could determine was a head injury from having his head smashed into the bars of the cell.

"Sasuke… what are you doing to Naruto?!" she exclaimed. Her eyes wide as she could not look at him as her eyes would not leave the sight of Naruto.

"I need to ask you some questions." He said calmly but Sakura detected a darkness to how he spoke.

"I don't understand how this has anything to do with Naruto." She said still confused about what was going on.

"You would not have come otherwise. I need to know how far away the council is on deciding the new Hokage?"

"That's what you want to know? Give me Naruto first, and then I might tell you" She said taking a step forward.

"Sorry Sakura, but that's not how it works." He said as he pressed the kunai even deeper into his throat.

Sakura stopped moving forward when she saw this. "Look, I don't know anything. You are better off trying to interrogate the ANBU about it than me."

"You know don't you?" he said. "That's the reason why you haven't come to see me. You always did seem to know what I was planning."

Sakura felt the anger bubble up from inside her. "It was all a lie? Everything you said to us on the battlefield?"

"So you didn't know? Did you really think that I would give up my revenge so easily? Did you think that after what happened to my brother, that I would just let things be?"

"I thought that you had grown up! Clearly I was wrong. How did you get a kunai?" Said Sakura.

"Why have you not come to see me?" he said, more focused on getting what he wanted.

So Sakura repeated herself. "How did you get a kunai?"

"Naruto is too trusting of me. I wanted the ANBU to imprison me. I knew that they would." He said with an evil smirk. "Now, answer the question?"

"I've been busy. Let Naruto-" Sakura was cut off.

"I thought that you loved me." He said full of malice. There was no fragment of kindness. He was mocking her. Mocking her naivety. She would not make the same mistake again.

She could feel the anger surging through her and the words just came pouring out. "I have not been here because I hated seeing you locked up in here after what you did for everyone during the war. I didn't want to think about what might happen to you. But now, I hope they do make a decision soon. Whatever they have planned for you, you deserve the worst of it! I will not come here again."

"Hn." Was all he said in response.

"Now, give me Naruto!"

"My revenge starts now." He just finished speaking when Sakura saw him slash the kunai. Naruto collapsed in a heap on the cold stone floor. Sakura ran over to him and pulled him away from the bars. She placed her hands over him and started healing his wounds. She forced all of her chakra into stopping the bleeding. But it didn't. She held her friend until she felt his heart stop.

She looked up and saw glistening, small fragments of what was around her start to deteriorate.

Then everything went black.

She awoke and found herself lying on her own bed.

END FLASH BACK

She just hoped that this would indeed be the last time that she would need to go back to the prison. As she continued on to the tower, she tried to erase the thoughts of anger and frustration from her mind so she would be prepared for what the council had in store for her next.

Ino had still been working at the hospital, but she had now finished. She was walking out of the doors when she bumped into someone. Not just someone. Naruto.

"Naruto, what are you doing here? Sakura left the hospital early today."

"Yeah, I know. I was actually here to see you." Naruto had a look of concern on his face.

"Look if it's about what happened at the prison. I think its pretty safe to say that Sasuke has blown all his chances of reconciling with her now."

"I know his method was…" he paused to think of the right word.

Ino had no problems with jumping in for him. "Idiotic? Psychotic? Harsh? Cruel? Insensitive?"

"Well… yeah. But he did have good intentions." He said.

Ino was furious. "He used genjutsu on her!" she shouted. "You remember how frantic she was when she woke up from it. She thought you had died!"

Naruto looked down at the ground. "If he had told what he was planning, I might have been able to give him advice."

"Advice? This is Sasuke we're talking about here. Would he really have listened to you? He still probably would have knocked you out and carried on with his little charade."

"Sasuke said that at the moment while his fate is still being decided, he prefers her to hate him. He thinks she won't worry about him."

"He really doesn't understand her at all does he?" Ino said looking over at Naruto.

"No. But I think she'll stop going over to the Uchiha district now."

"True. She thought we wouldn't notice. She had been keeping herself so busy to try not to think of Sasuke's fate. Working here at the hospital doing extra shifts and working on the Uchiha district…" Ino's voice faded at the end.

"She wanted Sasuke to have a home to go to." Said Naruto. "Well I'm off. I'm going over to see Hinata. She's been feeling a bit down after the funeral for Neji."

"She'd like that" Said Ino with a warm smile.

"If you hear anything bout how Sakura is doing." He started.

"I'll let you know."

And with that Naruto turned and left for Hinata's place, leaving Ino to her thoughts about her friend. She hoped that whatever she was called to the Hokage Tower about wouldn't send her backwards. She could only do the best she could to keep an eye on her. But she was strong; a lot stronger than she was.

She knew that she would be ok.

A/N:

Did I trick any of you!? Maybe? Even just a little bit? Haha

Sorry if I worried any of you, but I could not resist!

Thank you for reading yet another chapter. Please leave a review, if you can.

Chapters for this story will be released fortnightly. See you all next chapter!

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