There are some things I need to tell all of you at the end of the chapter, please enjoy it, and thank you for reading.

CHAPTER RATING: T

…

Episode 24: Second Departure

"SAKURA-CHAN!"

Naruto watched helplessly as the blade of blue energy shot forth and pierced Sakura through her spine, and exited through her midsection; she dropped to her knees as pain shot through her body. Her eyes wide open at the betrayal she had just fallen victim to, they closed as she let out one final desperate gasp for life, and fell forward. Naruto rushed over to Sakura and caught her in his arms. He looked over at Sasuke with contempt, anger, and hatred.

"How does it feel?" Sasuke smirked with grim satisfaction. "Now, you'll know what the pain of losing those you love is like." Sasuke turned and took a step forward.

Naruto stepped up to one knee.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Sasuke said mockingly. "You're smarter than that, Naruto. Look at the condition that Sakura's in; if you try and stop me, she won't last."

He turned again and looked upon Naruto with immense condescension.

"You love her, don't you?...Save her then…If you can." Sasuke smirked again as he turned to walk away. Naruto bit his lip at Sasuke's words. He breathed heavily in anger and frustration.

"SASUKE!" He shouted "ONE DAY! You'll pay for what you've done!"

"…If you manage to wake her up…" Sasuke smirked. "…Tell her that I did love her. She just made the wrong choice." Sasuke took another step forward, and vanished into the air with a blaze of flame.

While turning down and gazing upon the Kunoichi he had confessed to, Naruto noticed that her breathing became erratic, she began breathing in shallow, then deep breaths. Naruto looked down and saw a pool of blood forming where she had been injured; he shifted his gaze down and looked at her.

Sakura's face held an expression of deceptive peace, interrupted by a trail of blood that flowed down the edge of her mouth. Naruto's vision began to blur; droplets of water fell upon Sakura's face and trailed down her cheeks.

"I'm…I'm sorry, Sakura-chan…I said that I would protect you, but I couldn't."

He brought her close and held her in his arms for what seemed like an eternity.

"I'm…so…sorry…Sakura-chan."

…

Three figures stood in a white room, the noise of a heart monitor and rhythmic respirator filled the air.

"What happened?!" Tsunade shouted as she looked over her disciple that laid motionless on a hospital bed.

"I…I….tried to…" Naruto muttered silently.

Tsunade's hand impacted the side of his face, sending him down to the ground with a loud crash.

"I TOLD YOU! I told you not to trust him!" She shouted. "Look at what you've done!" Tsunade said as she looked down at Sakura. "How could…how could such a thing happen?" Tsunade's voice softed into a whimper. "Sakura…How could I let this happen to you?" She fell to her knees, took hold of Sakura's hand and lowered her head.

Naruto laid frozen on the floor, in shock and depression. He held a hand to his face, his eyes wide open.

"We'll find a way to bring you back, Sakura." Tsunade said as she stood and stormed out of the room, a trail of tears followed her every step. Naruto watched the door slam as the Fifth Hokage rushed out.

He stood and walked over to Sakura's side.

Her expression was the same as when Sasuke had attacked, the doctors managed to stop Sakura from bleeding; however, they hadn't managed to bring her to consciousness. Naruto lowered himself onto his knees and took Sakura's hand. He gently cupped it against his cheek, just as Sakura had done for him long ago.

"I promise you, Sakura-chan. I'll find a way to bring you back." He stood up and let her hand gently slid down off of his. "This promise is one I can keep."

With his unheard vow, he exited the room and let the sound of her heart-rate fade into the distance.

…

He found himself sitting atop the Hokage cliff faces, the same place where he had vowed to protect the person that he loved; he stared blankly at the stars that she had sworn her love upon.

He sat in utter silence, listening to the chirping crickets of the night.

What am I going to do?...What can I do?

"What seems to be the problem, my boy?" a small, but old voice shot out.

Naruto turned in surprise as he saw an old toad hop towards him.

"W-What are you doing here?" he asked the old sage. The old toad hopped closer with every passing second.

"It's a nice evening, isn't it?" he said while looking up at the stars. "The lights of the sky remind me of fireflies…which are delicious, by the way."

Naruto spat his tongue out at the sage's opinion.

"I know that something's wrong, Naruto, my boy." He hopped cloer to Naruto until he was just a few feet away from him. Naruto shifted his head down and met eyes with the wise toad. "What's wrong?"

Naruto took in a deep breath as he began to answer.

"I…made a grave mistake…I trusted someone who had deceived us before and someone I love has been hurt for that mistake."

"Is there anyway that I can help?"

"That's just it…I don't know if you can help…I just…" Naruto desperately scrambled with his thoughts, unsure of how to proceed with explaining the trouble that had befallen the one he loved.

"I already know the problem." The sage unexpectedly answered. Naruto's eyes widened as the toad answered.

"How? Tell me!" He demanded desperately.

"Well, I'll tell you once we get there." The toad added. "Quickly! We must hurry, we are running out of time!"

Confused, but trusting, Naruto nodded, channeled chakra into his feet and took off in a blaze down the cliff face.

…

"That's your plan?!" Tsunade questioned with a booming voice. "How can you do this?!"

"Naruto and I will take her to Mount Myōboku, where we will bring her back to life, and aid in her recovery." The sage clarified.

"We can't. Sakura is already unstable as it is, if we disconnect her from the life support system, she won't make it anywhere!"

"But if we don't do anything, she'll just…!" Naruto shouted in protest.

"Every second we waste arguing about this is another second we could be using to help her…Let us take her to Mount Myōboku, we will save her." The Sage Toad pleaded once again.

With a closed fist, Tsunade nodded. "Fine."

A/N:

First of all, I want to answer some common questions that I've been receiving by email and PM, so, here's a FAQ that I want to post without having it take the place of an entire chapter.

1) How do you manage to update so often?(not that I don't like it that you update every week.)

I'm a 21 year-old college dropout(by choice) and have extra time to do things that I love, instead of doing things that other people tell me to do…and I love it.

2) Why are your chapters so short?

For one, I can't read a chapter that is over 2,000 words in one sitting, when I write these, I try to make them at least 1,000 words with some sort of story movement. I don't want to fill my chapters with unnecessary filler.Two, I like being able to write smaller chapters and updating weekly, as opposed to writing larger chapters and updating monthly.

3) What's your process for writing?

I check out votes on Friday morning, write a rough outline Friday night, and write the actual chapters(ONE draft) on Saturday and Sunday(depending on which story I feel like writing)

4) Why did you start the whole "choose your own adventure" voting?

I started this because doing two stories at the same time was beginning to burn me out, and I was essentially running out of ideas. Now the thing is, I don't want to take other peoples' ideas, write them down, and claim them as my own, I'd like to have my audience have some sort of input on the direction that my story is going in.In essence, it was a way to bring life back into my writing…I guess.

5) You're writing two conflicting stories, two of the most popular pairings that are complete opposites! WHAT IS YOUR FAVOIRT PAIRING?! PICK ONE!

…Uh…I'll enjoy ANY pairing, as long as it makes sense, it'll work for me. NaruHina or NaruSaku? It doesn't matter which pairing I choose, because as long as it makes sense, I'm fine with it.

Also, as a male writer, I don't exactly know how to describe a man's body…If any female readers out there could help me out, I'd appreciate it! :)

Now, on to the thing that I need to discuss…

A few chapters ago, I said that I may not be able to update every week.

This time has come. My brother and I have started on a large project that could last for months. We don't know how long it will take us to finish it. I will try my best to update these stories, but for now, I'll be taking a few weeks off to focus on this other project. I don't think another chapter will be posted until November.

Thank you for following me this far; I hope that you continue to read what I write.