A Regret Message

2nd Chapter: Memories

Sasuke was laying down on the bench right beside exit to the village. Since a huge oak tree was right above it, it blocked out the sun easily. He had his left arm over his eyes and the other one beside him on top of the wooden bench. He was recalling the night had almost left Konoha but someone was there to stop him.

"Why don't you ever tell me anything?" Sakura said to him as he walked by her. It was late in the night and no one was around. The perfect chance to leave the village but she appeared like a shadow. "Why won't you ever say anything to me?"

Sasuke stopped walking to look at her. He was surprised to see her on the verge of crying. "Why do I have to tell you anything? Stop concerning yourself with what I do." He told her coldly which surprised him to her shift her eyes down.

"I-I knew it. You've always hated me." She stated softly not looking at him but holding her hands tightly to her dress. Sasuke's eyes widened slightly at her statement. He didn't hate her. Not even the slightest. "That day we had first became genin, you said I was annoying."

In his mind, Sasuke cursed at himself. He had almost forgot he had said that but it was honestly hard to forget the look of fright and confusion on her face. That was something he didn't want to see again. "I don't remember."

"Yeah, it was awhile ago anyway. But that's the day everything when everything started...you and me...and Naruto and Kakashi-Sensei. The four of us completed a number of missions together. They were tough and a lot of work...but above all, it was fun!" Sasuke knew fully well that she wearing a fake smile but she took it off and moved her head down again. "I know about...about your brother and your clan but...revenge...that won't make anyone happy. Not you...and not me."

Sasuke turned around to hide the disdain on his face. She wasn't going to make leaving here easy the slightest... "I'm different from you guys. I walk a different path than you guys. I've thought for a while that I could stay but I choose revenge in the end. That's my purpose in life. I can't be like you or Naruto."

"I-I'm so in love with you that I can't even stand it!" She almost shouted at holding her hands at her chest. Sasuke was so glad he was turned around so she wouldn't see how shocked he really was. He knew that she had a crush on him but that type of information would hadn't shocked him so bad considering the situation. "If you stay, I'll make you sure don't regret it! I can give you happiness! Everyday would be a joy! So I'm begging you please to stay here...with me..and if you can't...then please..." She paused for a second and was almost shaking to hold back tears that were falling anyway. "Take me with you, Sasuke!"

If anything, Sasuke felt like the biggest dick in the whole universe. What was he supposed to say to that confession? If he had left without saying anything, then he be a dick and if he just said he didn't love her back, then he a be an even bigger and lying dick. He didn't know what he felt for her honestly but it was mostly because he didn't understand his feelings for her...

He was about to turn around and say something when he saw her on the ground hugging herself with her head down. The tears from her eyes had made a small puddle because she had cried so much and the moon's reflection wanted to make sure that he saw it. She looked so sad and heartbroken and the confession was probably just so he would stay. Something in his head told me that if he left her like this, then she might just kill herself from the depression. The comment he was about to say had even left his mind before his mouth could say it.

Sasuke went to her and got on one knee and she looked up to him with her face wet and her emerald eyes twinkling with water. "S-Sasuke..." She started. Before Sasuke could say another word, she went and wrapped her arms around him in a hug causing him to freeze as she spoke. "Please...don't leave me. You don't have to be alone anymore. I-I'll even help you with your revenge. I'll train harder and become stronger so that it could happen. I love you, Sasuke..." She pleaded almost in a whisper.

He had no idea what to do or what to say. He was unsure either to hug her back or not. "Sakura..." He began softly but just as he was about to finish she stopped him from talking by pressing her lips gently against his in a kiss. For a short while, he was surprised but then started to kiss back. It felt like about 10 minutes but in reality was a few seconds before they let out. She moved her head down to have him not see the more tears that were falling and her red face. Sasuke decided then and there what he was going to do next. "Thank you...for everything" With that he hit the pressure point in the back of her neck and let her fall into his arms, fast asleep.

He laid on the bench and was just about leave when she unintentionally grabbed his hand from her slumber. From the pained look on her face, she was having a gruesome nightmare from the few seconds she had been asleep. Guilt started build up inside him as he glanced at the exit once again before looking at the pinkette who was holding his hand. Sasuke let out a breath of air he had held in and got his hand loose. He moved her head so he could sit down. Carefully ,so he wouldn't wake her, Sasuke put her head on his leg. Soon he started dozing off and went to sleep.

The next morning, he awoke and saw that it was daylight. He felt a stir on his leg and saw that Sakura was still there. Remembering what happened the previous night, Sasuke poked her cheek. She reacted instantly and shot up like a rocket. "Sasuke, no!" She shouted as she did.

"That must have been one hell of a nightmare you had." Sasuke commented making her look in his direction. He closed his eyes to avoid seeing her shocked face. "I found you passed out here last night so I waited till you woke up."

"Y-You did?" Sakura asked halfway unsure. He knew that she was uncertain of that but there was since she was already having a nightmare to begin with, he might as well try his luck. She let out a breath of relief. "I guess your right. I had this horrible nightmare that you wouldn't believe."

Sasuke stood putting his hand into his pockets. "I bet. You should go home and get some rest while on our day off. I'm going home." He stated walking away leaving her there without an ounce of evidence about the previous night.

He blew out a puff of air and kept his arm over his head when he heard footsteps coming in his direction. He recognized it easily and still didn't look at him. "What do you want, you loser?"

"How did you know it was me?" Naruto's voice responded immediately in curiosity knowing fully well that he had no way of seeing him. "And besides that, what are you doing here?"

"To answer your first question, you're the only one who hasn't confronted me today. The answer your other question is so that I can't think in peace." Sasuke answered his questions plainly not wanting to be further investigated by his teammate/rival. "Now go away."

"Not a chance. We have to talk but before that I need you to come with me." Naruto stated stuffing his hands into his jacket while looking away. "We're having a guys night and you're not there so let's go."

Sasuke scoffed at his remark "What makes you think I would wanna go? Just leave me alone and go do whatever without me." He told him moving his arm to sit up and look at him.

"You really are guilty about this aren't you?" Naruto asked with a half knowing look. "I haven't seen you reject anything till a few days ago. Are you so jacked up,that you're going to just shut the world out?"

"I shut the world out years ago so nothing that I do now has anything to with it. What happened to Sakura was an accident that I can't take back. Now just go away." Sasuke glared off to the side and looked back to Naruto when he heard him chuckle. "What so funny?"

"I never said what you were guilty about but apparently you do." Naruto sat next to him and folded his hands together. "You know, nobody said it was your fault. You're right it was an accident but your going to eat yourself alive if you don't talk to her."

Sasuke looked at him. "How do you know I haven't talked to Sakura?" It took him a few seconds before remembering that she was just with him at the park. "Actually, I don't even know why I'm talking to you. Like you would understand what I'm going through now.

"No,actually I do." His reply made Sasuke give him a confused look. Naruto kept his gaze down. "You may not remember her because it happened a very long time ago." He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a photograph before handing it to Sasuke, who took it slowly.

It was a picture of him and another person. A girl with the same color hair as Naruto but her hair reached her shoulder-blade and had the same eyes color. She was wearing a black t-shirt with a ruffled orange skirt and black boots. She had a jacket wrapped around her waist which was the same as Naruto's. She was hugging his arm with a smile. She was really pretty. "Who is this?"

"I can't remember her name but I know we...we were related somehow. It's strange but I know why she's not here. I vaguely remember me going out of control too and almost killing her. She was probably sent away so that wouldn't happen again." Naruto explained roughly. "Unlike me, you have the chance to right your wrongs while I don't know who I hurt."

Sasuke saw how down his face went as he talked about the girl in the picture. Part of him felt a bit of sympathy for him. He knew that Naruto had a point but it wasn't helping his decision as much as he wanted. Instead, he puffed a breath of air. "How is she?"

"The same. Even though of what had happened, she acting as if it was a flu. It scares me that she hasn't gotten use to it yet and she thinks that it's a bad dream. I'm not to sure about that and I've held back from asking her." The blond admitted with his voice cracking slightly before going back to normal. "She wants you to talk to her, you know."

"I don't know why. I basically ended her career as a shonobi for the rest of her life. If anything, she wants to say she hates me and wants me to never go near her again." Sasuke assumed putting his hands behind his head.

"You can't prove that. Besides, you know her well enough to know that Sakura would never use those words in a sentence. Especially to you. She loves you." Naruto told him with a bit of hurt found in his voice. "If you only saw how scared and worried she got after you had gotten hurt when I went to find Granny Tsunade. She begged her to heal you. If that isn't love then I don't what is."

After seconds of silence, Sasuke looked to side in thought. Even if he saw her,what was he going to say to her. He wanted to see her but that small chance of her telling her what he thought was holding him back. He turned his head the opposite of Naruto's direction. "So what do you suggest I do?" He inquired almost reluctantly.

"Honestly? I suggest you grow some balls and talk to her so we can start all talking again like before." Said Naruto in a very blunt tone which caused Sasuke to punch him in the side of the head. He gave a small yelp before falling over and off the side of the bench. Placing a hand behind his head, he chuckled lightly. "Too honest?"

"Yes." Sasuke replied instantly with a glare. "Nothing will be like it was before. Didn't they say she couldn't be in the program anymore because of her handicap?"

"Granny said that she was going to make her but Sakura refused." Naruto informed sitting back down in his previous spot. "When I asked her, she said that it's going to hard but she's won't give in to it."

Sasuke snorted to himself at Naruto recitation of her words. That sounded about something she would say. After all, with his and Naruto's determination and stubbornness to listen when someone gave them an order, she was bound to catch a bit of it. "So that's her decision..." He said to himself.

Naruto nodded to himself after repeating Sakura's statement. "Yeah, so I guess we've been a bad influence on her. Mostly you than me but-" He was cut off by Sasuke's blow to his cheek making him return to his previous spot on the ground. The blond looked up to him. "You're going to cause brain damage if you don't quit doing that you know?"

"Right." Sasuke stated sarcastically while rolling his eyes and putting his fist down as Naruto got back up. He put his left hand in his pocket and shut his eyes. Well he knew that he wasn't going to say anything to her just yet. Naruto's previous engagement popped in his mind. "Besides that, what did you and others plan to do anyway?"

The hyper-active boy grinned at him. "We haven't the slightest idea!" He told him honestly and cheerfully. Before he could say anything else, he found himself back on the ground due the quick hit in the head he received from the Uchiha. He held his head. "Dammit, Sasuke!"

"It's your own fault. You're telling me that hunted me down without even knowing what you were going to do?" He crossed his arms sternly why questioning him. When Naruto nodded, Sasuke held back from hitting again. "You really are a giant loser."

"Well to be fair, I only came to get you because the others asked about Team 7 coming to a get together without the jonin. Eventually, Sakura told them she was blind and told me to go. After that, the girls left with her so it was a guys night. If anything, we'll spar and get something to eat." Naruto rubbed his head from the 3 hits from Sasuke.

Sasuke peeked opened an eye when he said sparring. That actually sounded like something he was willing to do. He could get a match in with Lee or Neji or better yet, get a rematch with Naruto. He didn't like how things turned out a few months before. "If it will get you from bothering me, then fine."

"Alright!" Naruto cheered standing up with his grin back on. "Let's go find them. They volunteered to help me find you which was a challenge."

"Just one thing." Sasuke said standing up to look him in the face with a serious expression. "Do they know how Sakura got blind?"

"No." Naruto answered simply and quickly putting his hands behind his head. "Sakura didn't give them details." He avoided that fact that Lee had asked about it but she shrugged it off.

Sasuke started walking with those facts in his mind and Naruto followed behind him. However in his pocket, was the picture of girl who Naruto had forgotten about. He was still wearing the book-bag that Naruto had failed to see

"There he is!" Choji shouted as Naruto and Sasuke walked by the street which caught their attention. Right behind the chubby ninja, was the rest of the genin squads. "Man, you hard to track down."

"I'm not sure why Hyuuga didn't just use his Byakugan to find us. Wouldn't that have lowered the time it took?" Sasuke inquired loud enough for Neji to hear the question and received a smirk from him in response.

"You should know better than anyone, the effects of abusing a doijutsu like the Byakugan can stress the eyes. Besides, if Naruto couldn't sniff you out, why bother?" Neji responded in a tone which somehow got Sasuke to focus his attention on.

Naruto, not understanding fully what he had said, poked in between them. "So anyway, I thought we could go do some sparring then get something to eat? How about it?"

Shikamaru grunted with a sly smile. "That sounds like a plan to me. These missions so far have been such a drag. They're boring me death." He said turning around.

"Very well." Neji answered plainly with the smirk from before. "Sounds like a blast."

"I'm game. Sounds like a chance to show off some new moves while getting a good training in." Kiba grinned looking down to his companion in his jacket for a confirmation. Akamaru's bark made him nod.

"I haven't had a match in what feels like ages! This should get me feeling that rush Guy-Sensei has always told to achieve!" Lee almost blazing toothy smile make them all squint their eyes.

Choji crossed his arms with a nod. "I guess I'm up for it. As long as we go somewhere good after wards to get something to eat."

Shino adjusted his glasses silently. "Alright. I won't be ignored this way" He agreed but earned some weird looks from the others.

"Then that's it. Let's go." Sasuke stated going into direction of the nearest training ground. "If anything, then this should prove to be interesting."

"So who's fighting who?" Naruto questioned when they got in the open space. They were in a circle and they sun was right above them so they had time till it got dark.

"I know a way. I'm not exactly the one to fight first so..." Shikamaru squatted down and picked some pieces of grass before standing back up. "We'll all get one and the one with the tallest gets to choose first. Deal?"

They all nodded before grabbing a strand. Shikamaru dropped the rest and everyone inspected their part. Though it was hard to determine, it was Lee who had the tallest.

"Yes, I have the tallest so it is I who gets to choose!" He boasted before stopping for a second. It was only about 5 seconds before he pointed to his competitor. "You are now my opponent, Neji!"

The Hyuuga prodigy sighed. "Whatever. After I bet you, don't tell Guy-Sensei. I've heard enough of you and his love fest earlier."

"I don't know of what you speak of. Guy-Sensei and I only talked about to not let our youth go the waste!" Lee declared. He looked as if it was waves crashing against the shore as he said it. The boys minus Shino gave him a dull look.

"Alright now, I want you tell us what exactly happened to you, Sakura." Ino stated putting a cup of tea in front of her. Her face had a serious expression on it. "And I'm not leaving till I know. Neither is Hinata and TenTen."

TenTen gave her a half dull and half shocked look. "Ino, that considered kidnapping but she's right. I'm not moving till you tell us everything."

Sakura reached out for the cup sipping it casually with her head down. "There's nothing to tell. I had an accident. No story." She told them putting the tea down. Talking about Sasuke's curse mark wasn't her specialty and she remembered he asked her to keep quiet about it.

"An accident is pricking your finger. Losing your eye sight is a completely different story!" Ino raised her voice a bit at her.

"I-I..." Sakura didn't know how to put it but knew how determined Ino was. She knew her will enough to see that Ino wasn't going to leave without the truth. However, she cared more about keeping a secret then revealing it to her. "I-I...It was an accident. We were in a fight and I reacted to slow."

Ino blinked. She didn't partly believe it but it was believable. "I'll take it. Just let me do one thing." Ino reached over and Sakura let her removed the gauze from both eyes. Hinata, TenTen, and Ino were surprised to see that her former bright green eyes were now a misty greenish gray with a slice line over them. "I-I'm going to go home right quick and grab some gauze from my mom. TenTen come with me,please? Hinata, stay here."

"Okay. We'll be right back." TenTen said as her and Ino left the room. Her voice had a bit of sadness within it.

Sakura touched her face with a sigh. Feeling the scar mark, she put on a grim and dark smile. Though she looked like she wanted to cry, her eyes wouldn't let her shed a single tear. "Hinata? Are you still here?"

"Y-Yes, I am. Is something w-wrong?" The timid girl asked a bit quickly with a mournful glance visible on her face.

Sakura moved her hands around to find Hinata's. Once she found them, Sakura looked at her with the same grim smile. "I know I can trust you with the truth, Hinata. Please..promise me you won't tell anyone."

Hinata swallowed a bit hard at her requested but nodded to herself. "I promise. You have my word."

"D-During the chunin exams, Orochimaru, the one who arranged the attack on the village, came and ambushed us. He gave Sasuke a curse mark that causes him to gain a lot of dangerous power. I'm sure you caught a glance of it in the second round but he looses all since of reason when those marks appears on his body. On our last mission, we ran into trouble and Sasuke was about to kill a man when Naruto and I tried to stop him. He lost control again and..." Sakura paused not knowing how to finish.

The Hyuuga heiress understood exactly what happened and her went slightly wide. "You mean..Sasuke did this..."

Nodding lightly, Sakura lowered her head while tightening her grip on her Hinata a bit. "H-He wasn't in control. He wasn't the Sasuke I known all this time. It was like I was staring at a...a monster. The look in his eyes...it was just blood lust and darkness. The first he was like this, I was able to pull him back but this time was different." She shut her eyes. "Hinata...he must hate me."

"W-Why would he hate you?" Hinata asked confused by her statement. She just said herself that Sasuke wasn't in control of his attacks.

"After he did it...I knew that he tried to help but my body reacted like something was he was going to kill me so I flinched so hard that he didn't touch me..." Sakura confessed bit loudly. "I almost killed him. He had a panic and heart attack at once! If it wasn't Sasuke then he probably wouldn't have survived! Lady Tsunade said..." She wanted to cry so hard but her eyes stopped the tears. "She's said that if he had another one then he wouldn't survive it! It's no wonder why he hasn't even spoke to me!"

Like a reflect, Hinata hugged her and Sakura hugged back. If anything, Hinata was crying herself. She never that Sakura was able to feel such sadness because she had never seen her cry. Now, Hinata knew that if she was able, Sakura would be crying hard. "I-I'm sorry..." She said almost in a whisper trying to hide the fact that she was crying but her voice cracked.

"I...kicked...your ass...Sasuke..." Naruto said falling backwards on the ground breathing heavily. Sasuke followed suit and Naruto grinned before laughing. "Who..am I kidding...that was a tie..." He admitted.

Sasuke couldn't help but smirk. It wasn't the odds he was hoping for but it did give him a feeling of joy and excitement that he hadn't felt in a long time. "Whatever...you're...still a loser..." He stated sitting up. The other decided to go on ahead while they finished up their fight which took half the afternoon. It was sunset now. Neji had beat Lee and the other fights we declared by rock paper scissors. Shikamaru beat Kiba, Shino beat Choji, and they tied. "So...what now?"

"We get food!" Naruto jumped up with a serious look. "The fight has me hungry to no end! Plus from I skipped lunch cause I still in the hospital." He looked over and saw Hinata running towards him and Sasuke. "Is that Hinata?"

Sasuke stood as the girl slowed to walk up to them. Unlike most times when she saw Naruto, she didn't faint or anything but went and grabbed his hand then Sasuke's. There was a sad and angry look on her face as she pulled them despite their questions to village exit. She then let and turned to them. "W-We're leaving."

"Say what?!"

Until the next Time!

A big shout out and thanks to Jaylen Shields helping me with the memory!

"The memories of the past can help you make new ones for the future."

-Cherry-Chan