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Naruto

Chapter 9

Sakura took her kunai and dug it across a man's abdomen. "Heal it," she commanded to one of the trainees. The trainee looked frightened and shocked that she had actually done that to the man. He scrambled to his feet and made his way quickly to his comrade.

"Relax," she said gently. "It's nothing serious."

The man nodded and began to calm down. Green chakra formed around his hands and the man's wound began to close up. Sakura couldn't help but feel proud of her trainees. They were progressing much faster than she ever thought they would. They had only been here, what? Almost a week?

She felt her hair begin to frizz before a large rumble shook the ground. Sakura turned her head in the direction Sasuke had stormed off to earlier. Hundreds of birds were flying away and a few trees fell down. "What the heck..." Sakura asked. The trainees turned their heads as well and listened as all of the birds crowed.

"Stay here," Sakura commanded as she started making her way towards the forest.

"Will you need back up?" A man asked.

"Just keep practicing, I'll be back soon," Sakura answered increasing her speed.

Naruto was behaving strangely. He was quiet. Usually Naruto would give a spiel to try and get Sasuke to come back, but he hadn't said a word since he got there. He had yelled, "Sasuke!" when he first got there, but that was about it.

His eyes were different as well. Almost the same as his own eyes. He smirked; truly skilled ninjas could understand the other just by exchanging blows. Perhaps Naruto finally understood that hate was stronger than love.

You can't have hate without love, but you can have love without hate... How can something be stronger than where it originated from?

He shook Sakura's words from his head. She was a naive girl, what did she know?

His attention was drawn back to the fight as Naruto's clones began attacking. Sasuke dodged them easily and defeated a few within a matter of seconds.

Sasuke charged Chirdori to his blade and sliced the remaining clones in half. Naruto came at Sasuke with a Rasengan. Sasuke dodged and came at Naruto with Kusanagi. They had fought each other so many times their battles seemed like a dance by now. A dance that always ended with Chidori and Rasengan. a dance with no conclusive victor.

"That would change today," Sasuke couldn't help but think.

Sasuke and Naruto began charging at each other. Sasuke with Chidori, Naruto with Rasengan. Just as they almost made contact Sasuke was tackled to the ground by a very annoying girl. He had been so focused on the battle that he hadn't even noticed her arrival. He to stop letting people sneak up on him.

"Sakura," Sasuke growled as she pinned him down. "Get the heck off of me!"

"You're such an idiot!" Sakura yelled. "You have to fight everyone you meet just because you're feeling particularly annoyed that day! We had orders not to engage!"

"I'll ignore orders regarding letting him live no matter what the circumstance!" Sasuke shouted.

"Even if it means your death before you get your oh-so-precious revenge?" Sakura shouted. "You can't be happy, can you? Even after you've ripped happiness from every last person you will still lack happiness. You always have to have someone to blame! You are so determined to hate everyone and everything because you refuse to believe that no one is to blame."

Sasuke bucked her off and pinned her instead. "Do not even pretend to know what I've been through," Sasuke growled.

"I don't," Sakura responded. "But don't pretend you're the only in the world that has suffered. Never forget you're not the only one that lost something that day."

Sasuke was about to respond when a hoarse voice called out.

"S-Sakura...?"

Sakura's eyes widened and she struggled to free herself but Sasuke wouldn't relent.

"Wha-" Naruto began stumbling backwards. "How- What are you wearing?" Naruto asked referring to her Akatsuki robe.

Sakura closed her eyes, and Sasuke noted that a tear slid down her cheek. Why was Naruto so surprised to see her? Shouldn't he have known that she defected from Konoha?

"Answer me!" Naruto shouted too stunned to move from where he was. Sakura continued to try and free herself from Sasuke's grasp.

"Let go of me, Sasuke," she whispered her voice sounding so small.

"Why doesn't he know?" Sasuke asked.

"Let go of me!" Sakura shouted this time.

Without realizing he was doing it, he released his grip on Sakura. She scrambled out from under him and looked directly at Naruto as she backed away. "I'm sorry, Naruto... I'm so sorry..." With that she was gone. Sasuke felt the need to leave as well. He needed to get some answers from Sakura.

Naruto fell to his knees as he stared blankly in front of him. He felt the warm flow of tears on his cheeks. When had he started crying exactly? He had imagined a scenario in which Sakura was really alive many times, but never one like this. Never one where she was a member of the Akatsuki.

Was that why there was no apparent struggle when she was "killed?" Had she gone willingly?

"Naruto!" he heard Kakashi call out to him. "Naruto what the heck were you thinking? You knocked Hinata unconscious! That is unforgivable behavior."

Naruto turned to Kakashi slowly. He could tell Kakashi was taken aback by the tears flowing from Naruto's eyes. Naruto felt a familiar pulling in his gut and fought against it. He wasn't going to lose control, not now.

"Kakashi..." Naruto said weakly. Where had all of his strength gone?

"Naruto, what happened?" Kakashi said kneeling down and grasping Naruto's shoulders. Naruto wondered vaguely when he had fallen to his knees.

"She- He- They-"

"What?"

"She's alive Kakashi... Sakura's alive..."

"What?" Kakashi released Naruto and fell back in surprise. "You must have been seeing things."

Naruto shook his head. "I fought Sasuke and we were about to collide with the Rasengan and Chidori when she tackled him and started yelling at him. He didn't seem surprised to see her, in fact he seemed more surprised that I didn't know she was with him."

"What do you mean she was 'with him?'" Kakashi asked. It was ludicrous for them to be dating, but Naruto couldn't mean she was... Traveling with him... Could he?

"Kakashi, she was wearing an Akatsuki robe!" Naruto exclaimed.

"What?" Kakashi wondered how many more times he would ask that. "Surely you mistook the girl for Sakura."

"I wasn't seeing things Kakashi!" Naruto yelled suddenly furious. "She had pink hair and green eyes! She looked directly at me, called me by name, and apologized!"

"Naruto calm down," Kakashi ordered. "Why would she apologize?"

"I don't know..." Naruto whispered. He seemed suddenly drained of energy.

"This is news we cannot conceal from the Hokage," Kakashi said. "We have to leave immediately.

"What's wrong with you?" Naruto screamed. "Don't you have a heart? This is our teammate! Why are you like a cold, heartless statue? Didn't you care about her at all?"

For the first time ever, Kakashi hit Naruto out of anger.

"Do I look like I don't care to you, Naruto?" Kakashi asked and Naruto noticed his eyes were watery. "What good would it do to tell you that I feel like a failure upon finding out that another one of my students has defected and joined the Akatsuki? What good would it do to tell you that I considered all of you to be more than students to me and that it feels like one of my own children has stabbed me in the back? There are many times I wish I could show emotion on a mission, but if I didn't suck it up and take charge who else would? Yes, this is killing me inside, but it's our duty as Shinobi, Naruto. Our village comes first and not our own personal feelings, so I'm telling you now to stand up and follow me back to the hotel so we can get the others, one of which you so graciously left unconscious on the ground, and get back to Konoha."

Poor Naruto and Kakashi! I feel like that scene could have been more heart-wrenching, but I'm not exactly good at making heart-wrenching scenes... Or fight scenes as I'm sure you guys have discovered.

What will Sasuke discover about Sakura? Hmm?

A gigantic thank you to the marvelous: OracleOfTheShadows, YuuriL, .X, BloodyGirl, griffindork93 (Your name made me smile), Xx4ying4yang4xX, Jasmine-.-Momo-chan, and TheBlackRose123 YU GUYS RAWK!

Have I ever mentioned that reviews make me happy? Because, OracleOfTheShadows, .X, and Jasmine-.-Momo-chan's reviews made me especially happy :) You should do the same.

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