ive been told to go to hell a few times by some reviewers because of the pairings, its okay, thirteen is a tough year you'll get over it

naruto does not belong to this person : Riverhaze

Phobia

by Riverhaze

Chapter Thirteen

Sakura rode into the night until she reached the coast and crossed the Great Naruto Bridge. For a second through the mist she thought she could see a familiar hunter nin taunting two boys with blonde and black hair. The people walking along, the caravans loaded with supplies and trade, had no idea just what went into building this bridge so long ago. Almost a lifetime ago.

She stopped once the horse started to protest, galloping slower and slower until he was barely trotting along. When she reached the nearest village she traded it for a nice sum of money and a place to stay the night. It felt nice to be somewhere dry again and not perpetually drenched in rain or fog. Looking at the calendar to check the date, it was then that Sakura realized five years had passed already. Didn't she just leave Konoha, on the day of Naruto's wedding, only a few months ago?

'Wait, this is wrong. I just returned to Konoha, I'm a shinobi of the Leaf again and the Head of the Hospital, I'm basically in charge of all the medical ninja, where am I?' Sakura took several steps back, fell down on the stiff mattress and stared around the room. Yes, she remembered this. She had been here before, but a long time ago. A year ago, and she had cured some disease created by a creepy man named Taro, she had received medals and awards for her work-

The genjutsu-! She was still caught in it, seemingly forever as her memories kept looping back over and over.

As the room around her began to shift, change into a different scene and lock her there again, Sakura quickly formed the hand signs. Again, the vision before her melted away in thick blocks of colors and sound, and she was left alone in that dark place.

'C'mon, c'mon, wake up Sakura, wake up.' She focused all of her energy into this one thought, but she could feel her conciousness slipping away again and the weight beginning to crush in all around her.

'Taro, you sick bastard, this isn't...funny!' She screamed internally, her rage giving her the strength to move her stiff arms and legs.

And just like that, he appeared.

"Man, this guy really has a lot of crap." Naruto grumbled as he sorted through a pile of what looked like take out menus. Sasuke was standing in the opposite end of the room, his nose curled as he wiped his finger on the fireplace mantle and a layer of dust came off.

"He hasn't been here in a long time. No one has." The Uchiha stated the obvious, pausing to observe a painting on the wall. It was a mural, of his last battle with Naruto those several short years ago. He recognized his own susanoo.

"Ugh, I wish Sakura-chan was here. She'd be able to find out where this guy went in like, two minutes by looking at his stamp collection or something." Naruto grumbled as he glared around the room.

"You can't rely on Sakura to fix all your problems, dobe. Sounds like she should have been the Hokage." Sasuke said curtly as he walked into the next room.

"Oi! Shut up, teme!" Naruto growled playfully as he followed. The second room was about as messy as the first and reeked of incense, with scattered unfinished or sloppy paintings laying around. They were all of Sasuke or Naruto, scenes from the War that had quickly become legend. It took a lot to creep out an Uchiha, and Sasuke felt a shiver run down his spine. It was as if this guy had actually been there, every little detail he had nailed.

"Hey, look over here." Naruto called from a corner hidden by stacks of magazines and newspapers. Sasuke stepped over the junk littering the floor and turned to see what Naruto was gaping at. It was a shrine, with numerous candles lit around the painting that just screamed fire hazard. Draped over the painting of Kaguya were vines of roses and ivy and now Sasuke understood were the strong smell of incense had been coming from.

What disturbed both of them was the odd seal that had been scratched into the painting, something neither of them had seen before. The only way he could describe it was as a screaming face, with messy swirls obviously drawn in the heat of inspiration. Or a drug fuelled vision, same difference.

As the two of them stood there trying to make heads and tails of what they were seeing, they barely noticed the creak of the floorboards until Ryou was practically behind them.

"What are you doing in my house?" He wheezed in between coughs that silently rattled his ancient frame. His eyes stuck out in opposite directions, rolling around their sockets as his mouth hung open. Before either of them could answer however, he lunged at them. With surprising speed he attempted to plunge a short dagger inside Sasuke's chest but missed and sent his shrine toppling over. The candles clattered to the ground and immediately the nearest tower of paper was engulfed in flames.

"Calm down old geezer, we aren't here to hurt you!" Naruto pleaded as he danced around Ryou's wild attempts at trying to stab one of them. Like watching bookcases topple over, one by one the junk in the room caught fire as Sasuke tried putting out the last blaze with Naruto borderline taunting the old man.

"Dobe, we have to get out of here before the whole place catches fire. Be careful with Ryou, he is obviously sick with the Fever." Sasuke ordered as he grabbed the painting of Kaguya, stuffing it under his cloak.

"Geese, never mind. Sakura-chan is obviously slacking at her job." Naruto tsked as he scooped the still raving Ryou over his shoulder. Shielding their eyes and mouths from the intense heat and curling smoke, the two darted for the back door they had entered.

Outside curious neighbours had gathered to watch the blaze, across the village sirens could be heard as fire fighters scrambled to arrive on time. Naruto laid the now convulsing Taro on the ground who was coughing so loudly it sounded like his lungs were trying to crawl their way out of him. Sasuke kept his eyes on the fire engulfing the tiny cottage, knowing full well he would not get the answers he needed with Ryou out of his mind and dying at his feet. Something strange was going on, something strange indeed.

Sometime in the night a lightning storm had arrived over Konoha, silently lighting up the sky in jets of blue and white.

"What is going on? Why can't I release this genjutsu?" Sakura growled, taking several steps towards Taro. He looked just like he had on the day of his execution, right down to the puncture mark on his neck.

"You're clever enough you'll figure it out on time. Maybe." He giggled, picking a stray hair off of his shoulder.

"On time? What do you mean?"

"Well, before you get stuck here and die."

"What is this? Am I in Hell?" Her words echoed through out the void, bounced back towards her in waves. Taro laughed uncontrollably, clutching his sides and wiping away tears.

"Maybe, maybe not. The question is not where are you-" He popped out of view, his soft laughter came from no where and then he was right next to her, "but, why are you?"

"Because I obviously contracted the disease, Jolly or Haruno Fever or what ever the hell you want to call it, and it is now immune to every and all attempts to cure it!" Sakura snapped, balling up her fists and wishing she could swing. That would probably only make matters worse, chase away the only key she had to escaping even if it talked in half baked riddles.

"So angry, so bitter. Keep it up and you'll be wrinkly and grey by the time you are fourty, m'dear." Taro started to float around her in rapid circles, trailing up thick clouds of purplish smoke behind him. "Oh, don't play dumb. I've been in your head for weeks now, I know ee-verryyyy-thing." He stretched out the last word in a way that sent a shiver of nerves down Sakura's spine.

"Then you obviously know nothing of what you are talking about. I've forgiven everything that happened in the past and left it there."

"Have you? Have you really?" Taro was now right in front of her face, his eyes millimetres from her own. She could smell his breath rolling from his putrid mouth, it smelled like decay and mold, like dead things left to rot in the sun. "If you are so forgiving, then why have you been so focused on how happy you were before, and how lonely you were, after?" Tilt of the head, patient waiting.

"Because you have been taunting me. You are trying to keep me trapped here, whatever you are, Taro's chakra signature in the disease or a figment of my imagination, but you will let me go. Now." At her order, Taro just continued to giggle like a schoolgirl talking to their crush.

"It isn't that simple, Sakura Haruno."

"You're right. It isn't." She lunged at Taro and tackled him to the ground. She wrapped her hands around his neck so tightly she felt her fingers overlap one another. Her rage had flared up so unexpectedly she was even frightened by it. Deep within her, she could feel her chakra that had been lying dormant and unused start to churn to life again.

"You are going to release me from this jutsu and then you are going to shrivel up and die along with your infection!" She roared, sapping away all of his strength and power. A second set of hands held onto his shoulders, and they were her own. Looking up Sakura locked eyes with her long forgotten Inner, still a child.

"How are you doing this!?" Taro gasped through his lungs, struggling to break free of their hold. His image began to flicker, like an old movie on a crappy projector.

"Because we're Sakura goddam Haruno! Shannaro!" Inner Sakura belted at the top of her lungs. There was a burst of chakra that flooded from their hands and seemed to suffocate Taro in a blanket of energy. Sakura's vision began to swim and the last thing she saw was her Inner, erasing Taro completely.

Sakura woke up to a darkened room.

She was in the hospital, hooked up to so many machines she probably looked like a fly trapped in a spider's web. Everything ached from lying so stiffly on the bed, it took her a few minutes to sit up. Carefully taking out the tubes, Sakura hobbled her way to the door, pulling the IV stand along with her for support since her legs felt like jelly.

It was deserted in the hallway, a lightning storm had hit Konoha and it kept illuminating the darkened corridor in eerie bursts of blue light. Sakura wheezed under her breath as she made the seemingly long journey to her office and made a note to yell at the orderlies for slaking off during her absence. Seriously, where was everyone? For a second she thought she was still trapped in the genjutsu and this sent a wave of fear crashing through her.

Falling into her office, Sakura took a second to raid the drawer where she stashed her snacks. Proper food now in her belly, Sakura ripped the IV out of her vein and cursed up a storm through the pain. Turning on her coffee machine, Sakura rummaged through her cabinets until she found an old dusty microscope and slapped it on her desk. She took a blood sample and threw it under the lens.

Zooming in and out until she found the perfect view, Sakura observed her own cells. Looking for any traces of the disease, she searched and searched until her eyes started to hurt from being against the lens to long.

"Can't be." She whispered under her breath, scribbling down notes on a random piece of paper since someone took her research notes. She checked and rechecked her own chakra levels until she was a hundred percent sure she was clean.

Just like that, though? It seemed to good to be true.

The door flew open then and Tsunade stood there with her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face.

"Well, if there is any evidence that you cannot be killed, here it is." She clapped.

"Tsunade-sama, I was trapped in a genjutsu. The disease mutated inside me into some freakish version of itself, I had visions of Taro and I even talked to him like he was alive." Sakura fell against the back of her chair, exhaustion weighing down at her shoulders.

"Sounds about right, same thing happened to me when I tried to heal you. You taught Ino very well, she managed to heal me before the disease could take root in my chakra. She also stabilized you, but how did you managed to throw the jutsu?" Tsunade asked, taking a seat across from her.

"I'm not really sure. I sort of...manifested my own chakra to where it overpowered the disease's." Sakura explained, not wanting to say it was with the help of her imaginary inner personality. Then she'd be shipped off to the mental ward for a few examinations and those were not fun.

"And there isn't any of it left?"

"No, it's gone. Extinct. That is, only I know how to perform it after reading Taro's notes. But I don't think I want to unleash a ungodly pandemic on civilization again." Sakura couldn't help but yawn, she felt like she had been asleep for months and could sleep for a few more. Her stomach began to clench and remind her she needed to get some solid food in it asap.

"About Taro, Ino found a note written by him addressed to you. It's a little disturbing to say the least." Tsunade pulled out a battered yellow piece of paper and placed it gingerly on the desk top. Sakura stared at it for several quiet minutes, deciding if it was worth a gander or not. Her hands trembling just a little, she picked up and unfolded it.

'Dear Haruno,

You have undone me. I should have known either you or your sensei would, no matter how complex I made my creation. I just ask that you take very good care of it, that my work is preserved. I spent a very long time developing it and feel I deserve some sort of recognition. Jolly is very ingenious, is it not? You said so yourself at the trial.

Unfortunately I was never fated to do good things. I am the one who has to do horrible, terrible things for the good to come and pass. I still believe whole heartedly that the world will be a better place if you shinobi were wiped out. You people are the true plague on this world, constantly fighting and ripping it apart with no consideration for the weak and defenceless. Some day you will all get what you owe, and the people will be tired of your rule. And when that day comes, everyone will look back at Taro and call him a martyr.

So thank you Haruno, for fulfilling my destiny. Although I have grappled with forgiveness from those I have wronged and those who have wronged me, I am not ashamed. I am not going to run away from what I have done. I have fully forgiven myself and my actions, because I know I was right in them. I just wonder if you can forgive yourself, Haruno, for wandering the countryside all those years while innocents perished because you abandoned your duty as a healer. Trust me, there were many.

Tomorrow I will die, I just hope the anbu I bribed into giving you this letter follows through. Such a strange and vacant man. I feel I will be seeing you again after that, very soon.

Taro.'

Sakura was holding the piece of paper so tightly that it was about to rip. She unglued her hands from it and placed the note back on the desk, her disbelief practically rolling off of her in waves.

"See, pretty messed up guy," Tsunade leaned back in her seat, "not as messed up as Naruto, burning down a house in his own village." She grumbled under her breath more to herself.

But Sakura understood now, and it was clear as day. Why she had been trapped in that loop of before and after, because she hadn't forgiven herself yet. For being young and stupid and running away from Konoha, for not being braver and standing up for herself and who she had wanted at the time. Subconsciously she was still beating herself up about it, allowing herself to become a bitter hermit in Konoha.

Well, today she was officially done with 'shoulda coulda woulda'. She was home now, to stay.

edit 8/22/15

also i thought i was very clear on this in the first chapter but to refresh:

The main couples are NaruHina and SasuSaku, with minor NaruSaku in flashbacks and memories, this story used to end with NaruSaku, (but it was cheesy and dumb and way to OOC) so that is where some of the confusion is coming from. I guess I'll have to go back and fix some of the irregularities in the earlier chapters since they have not been updated since 2013