A/N: Gold stars for all of you for being so patient! Love you to Konoha and back!
He could recite the truth about her within an instant, after all, she was his teammate, and the things they knew about each other could only go so deep. Even if he had not wanted to, or even if he despised her entire being, it was impossible not to learn things about each other with the past they shared. They couldn't close off everything, It just couldn't be done, it wasn't possible.
And in that moment, as his eyes were glued to her pale face, he heard a strange voice recite the facts he'd learned about her in his head, compensating for the lips that refused to form her name, to tell her that he had arrived, that she was safe.
Haruno Sakura.
A medical kunoichi of Konohagakure, a member of Squad Seven, lead by the famous copy-cat shinobi of the village, Hatake Kakashi.
Born into a clan with no special attributes.
Skilled in genjutsu, average skills in taijutsu, little ninjutsu.
The person that he had last spoken to inside the walls of Konohagakure, and the first to try and stop him from leaving.
His shocked eyes thrusted him back to the forest, his entire body paralyzed and unable to stop Sakura from leaving them, from striking him in the back of the neck to render him useless. He still remembered how her infected evergreen eyes bore into his, her tranced smile sending pangs of dread down his spine, knowing that he had been too late to stop her from being taken against her will, to stop the foreign force that controlled every muscle in her body.
And it was because of his weakness that they found themselves in the cave.
It was his fault that she ended up like this..
"Oh, come on! Why won't these rocks budge?!" Naruto's voice exclaimed as he gave the stubborn boulder a final punch, only for small vibrations of pain to shoot up his arm.
He and Fuu had lost track of how long they'd been trying to break through the mountain of fallen rocks before them, trying every method from punching the rocks to kicking them to the side. They even tried moving them by hand, and even that method proved to be useless; behind each rock, there had been about twenty more in its place. Everything they tried proved to be a tremendous waste of their efforts and time. There was only one thing left to try.
"Alright! Guess I have no choice but to-"
"Don't!"
Naruto felt a hand clamp down on his right wrist, the wisps of chakra he'd begun to store up for his rasengan vanishing completely. His eyes met Fuu's panicked amber ones, her cheeks flushed from excitement.
"What are you-"
"If you do that, the entire cave could collapse on top of us! We don't know how many rocks are left above, we'd be taking a chance that wouldn't benefit us if we failed." she said, her eyes scanning the roof of the cave.
Naruto frowned. "But how did you know what I was gonna do?"
Fuu looked back at Naruto and looked at him as though he were crazy.
"I could sense your chakra building up, and anyway, that won't work. We'll have to use my method."
Naruto frowned. "And that would be?"
"I'll use my wings to burst through. They'll be safer than your technique, and with us moving the rocks together, I'm sure we can do it." Fuu said, eyes scanning the rocks, searching for the perfect point to strike.
"Then what am I supposed to do? Move rocks with my bare hands while you just blast through them? That seems a little unfair.." Naruto said, scratching the back of his head.
"What do you mean? You'll be doing just as much as me. You have two more tails than me, don't you?" Fuu retorted.
Naruto's mind clicked, realizing what Fuu had been implying. The only issue…
He heard Fuu sigh. "You don't know how to utilize your tails, do you?"
Naruto shook his head awkwardly. In truth, he hadn't known that using his tails was even possible, let alone that someone like him could figure it out successfully.
He felt a rush of excitement when Fuu's eyes began to glitter, and she smiled mischievously at him.
"Well, you're about to learn."
The dusty earth was painted with blood, the droplets scattered in a violent frenzy around the body that lay motionless on the ground.
His eyes were opened and lifeless, the vibrant brown washed away to a pale grayish film that locked away the light that had once reached those devilish eyes. His lips were parted in an almost shocked and paralyzed state, as if he wanted to cry out for one final time, to curse the world for allowing his blood to pool around his stomach and his neck, soaking into the ground to create crimson mud.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed, and he allowed them to bleed into crimson, scanning the body on the ground, searching for any signs of life.
He found none.
His chakra network was bone dry, the chakra stilled and frozen, where it would stay.
The man was dead, that bastard was finally dead.
And she..
Sasuke's body froze once he heard exhausted breaths reach his sensitive ears, and his heart began to pound to the rhythm of the breaths. His eyes slowly left the lifeless body on the ground, and fell upon what had been barely standing a few kilometers away.
Once again, he spotted blood on the ground, scattered around her shaking body frivolously, as though to paint a picture of a possible incoming death.
Drip
A small drop of blood splashed next to a giant pool of red spread on the ground, another following suit. The drops sent soft ripples throughout the hot red puddle, the life giving liquid falling mercilessly onto the ground. Sasuke's eyes almost matched the blood, and they traced every inch of the stuff until his eyes landed on her blood soaked shoes, and he traced her body from the bottom to the top with his shocked expression.
Her legs were on the brink of locking together and collapsing underneath her, as if their shaking wasn't enough of a sign of her fate. A steady river of blood flowed down her legs, occasionally melting into the ice shards that embedded themselves into her skin, no doubt intruding on her blood flow and circulation, sticking out of her skin like her legs were pin cushions. Scrapes and cuts spread all across her thighs, continuing up onto her now exposed stomach, the fabric of her shirt having had been torn away violently, revealing a large red gash that spread across her lower stomach. Her hands were clenched in fists, dripping in her enemy's blood. One single ice shard stuck out of her right wrist, creating a purplish bruise on her creamy skin. Her chest heaved up and down quickly yet heavily, her head dipped down towards his direction, allowing Sasuke to see his expression of fury in the metal of her headband.
Sasuke looked back at the dead body slowly, then back at the broken yet victorious girl that struggled to stand before him.
It was him…it had all been his doing..he had done this to her, him and the shinobi that lay motionless on the ground. They were both responsible for hurting her.
And she defeated one of them.
Sakura…
A violent coughing echoed through the cave, and Sasuke's stomach dropped as he saw blood drip down from Sakura's mouth, red spraying out from her coughing.
Sasuke clenched his fists, and he could have sworn that he felt his bones snap in half from the pressure. He had to get her out of here.
He began to walk towards her, but froze suddenly as he saw her head begin to rise slowly, revealing her pale face to his eyes.
Her expression was pained, and she was pale, her green eyes dull and glassy.
Sasuke felt his mouth dry up, his throat cracking and his lips glued together.
And then, she closed her eyes, and curled her pink lips up into a small smile.
"So..you're a little late, huh?"
His heart sprung to life in his chest, and he felt his eyes widen an relax into a look of pure relief, his body shooting an unfamiliar chemical through his veins that cooled his fury and replaced it with sheer hollowness.
When her legs finally gave out underneath her, he dashed forward and caught her before she crumpled into the ground, pressing the front of her body firmly to his. As their bodies touched, his own began to shake lightly, as if holding her had been something his body had been waiting for, craving. His hands were on her shaking back, her face resting on the base of his right shoulder, her arms weakly holding onto his elbows. He felt her breathing slowly return to normal, and he felt her lift her face from his shoulder to gaze up at him with her green eyes, and a hint of glitter sparked momentarily behind her irises.
"Wow, you look awful."
Sasuke's heart snapped at her words, and felt his own legs become weak, his body overcome with euphoria, the strongest feelings of happiness that he had ever felt in such a long time. He allowed his body to drop to the ground, clutching Sakura closely to him to make sure she didn't escape his grasp. As their bodies hit the ground, he placed his forehead onto her shoulder, inhaling the scent of blossoms and the metallic tang of blood. He heard Sakura let out a small squeak, and he instantly raised his head and pushed on her shoulders to give him a full view of her face. Fearing that he had hurt her, he scanned her face for any signs of pain, but frowned when he saw her giving him the same worried expression.
"S-Sasuke-kun! What happened? A-Are you hurt?"
He stared at her with a hard expression, speechless.
She was asking him if he was okay.
Even as she was weak and on the ground with ice sticking out of her skin, chakra depleted, legs unable to support themselves, blood escaping her lips from violent coughing, her clothes and skin cut up like butter, her face pale, and having been injured severely, she still worried about him. She was the one who had appeared to be dying, and all she was worried about was his wellbeing.
His heart beat once more, and an eye opening emotion flooded into his body like a rushing, violent typhoon, an epiphany of realization finally being able to reach him after all that he'd been through.
He felt fury, anger, frustration; that he couldn't prevent this from happening to her.
But he also felt relief, calmed, and proud.
Proud of her for standing her ground, proud of her for her strength, her caring and passionate motives, proud of her for being the last one standing, proud of her for not giving into the defeat of death.
Proud of her for staying strong enough to not leave him.
With a final and shaking breath, he pulled her close, and placed his head in the crook of her neck, closing his eyes and squeezing her tightly.
"You're...so annyoing.."
A/N: Oh my gosh, guys, If it's not one thing, it's another. Right after midterms I'm hit with my senior paper from my english teacher, but it's all good, at least my topic isn't too stressful to write about!
Almost 200 follows! You're all amazing oh my God!
Thought the name of this chapter was fitting, bonus points for it being the name of the story.
Yeah this chapter is short, but I wanted to keep the reunion separate from the future events that are to come. Sorry guys, NOTHING is ever that easy..
On a lighter note, yay sasusaku!
You know the summary of this story? Yeah, well expect that next chapter, might wanna grab something to hug too..
See ya next time! xx