Chapter 29: Sakura's Truth

"S-Sakura-chan," Naruto stuttered.

"Naruto, I'm so happy you pulled through," Sakura said as she went in for a hug, but Naruto denied her by place his hands up.

"And I'm surprised I did wake up considering the fact that you, Kakashi and idiot Sai abanonded me," Naruto stated, mentioning Kakashi and Sai and a lot more venom.

"We didn't abandon you," Sakura tried to explain but Naruto cut her off not wanting to hear excuses and turned to Lee.

"Lee, why the hell did you bring her here?" Naruto asked, clearly upset.

"I thought you'd be happy to see her, and she wanted to come," answered Lee.

"Get her out of here before I banish you from the prison as well," Naruto spat as he walked toward the prison.

"I'm so sorry Sakura-chan, I didn't think he'd be so upset," Lee said.

"I had a feeling he would be," Sakura said. "I assume he knows about Nami no Kuni and the Northeastern Outpost and that's why he's never come."

"Considering all that he's been through, he's pretty much not allied with what's left of Konoha," Shikamaru said. "Everyone here is independent and just trying to stay alive."

"I need to go talk to him," Sakura stated.

"Come on, I'll take you to him," Shikamaru said, motioning Sakura to follow him.

Sakura followed Shikamaru to the prison and opened the door. Sakura entered the prison and down the first cell block, she saw Naruto at the end of it. Sakura walked, slightly nervous considering he brushed her off.

"So, you're still going to try to explain yourself, huh?" asked Naruto, not looking but knew Sakura was there. "I did go to Nami no Kuni before the winter to confront Kakashi but I decided what was the point, I was abandoned by the village I tried so hard to love me."

"Oh Naruto," Sakura said tenderly. "Can you at least let me explain what really happened?"

Naruto tried so hard to be tough and emotionless, but her voice was cracking him like the shell of a peanut. Naruto slowly turned to face her, tear forming in his eye. Sakura didn't say anything and just wrapped her arms around him.

"Ok, I'll listen," Naruto said in a softer tone.

The day Naruto was injured and poisoned

The front door of a dark, old and abandoned house was kicked in. The sunlight revealing the dusty state the inside was. Sakura and Sai walked in carrying Naruto, who was unconcious and bleeding from his left shoulder.

Kakashi and Yamato walked in last and closed the door. Yamato used his wood style to reinforce the outside.

"Those undead were not like the ones we encountered in the Fourth Great Ninja War," Yamato said.

"I've never seen anything like it," Kakashi said, but some how still calm.

"Come on Naruto, hold on!" yelled Sakura from another room.

Kakashi and Yamato found Sakura and Sai in the kitchen. Sakura had placed Naruto on top of a dining room table that was left behind. She went through her medical bag and grabbed sterile water. She ordered Sai to look through the cabinets to see if there was anything useful like a bowl.

Sai rummaged through the cabinets, most of them were empty but he opened the final one to find a single metal bowl there. He took it to sink and rinsed it off in hot water to attempt to sterilize it the best he could. Sai took the bowl to Sakura.

"Thanks," she said as she poured the sterile water into the bowl.

Sakura then used her chakra to mold the water into a bubble and moved it over Naruto's shoulder. She was glad he was unconcious because this part would have been painful for him. Sakura took the water bubble and moved it into the wound and soaked up all the poison that was in his shoulder into that water bubble. After working it around for several minutes, Sakura was sure she got all the poison out of his shoulder and placed the water bubble that was now purple and put it back into the bowl Sai found earlier.

Sakura was about to stitch the wound but saw that Kurama's chakra was healing Naruto already. Sakura then decided to just bandage up to allow Kurama's healing.

"Is he going to be okay?" Sai asked.

"I hope so," Sakura answered truthfully. "I managed to remove all the poison; it didn't spread too far."

"He's probably going to be out for a while," Yamato stated.

"Good Job Sakura," Kakashi said. "I guess we can hang out here until Naruto wakes up."

Morning came and Naruto was still unconscious. Usually, the teen would already be up and around like nothing happened but this time it was serious if he was still down. Sakura was getting a little worried.

"This is not like him to just not wake up already," Sakura said.

"Yeah, he should be up like he didn't even get injured yesterday," Kakashi added.

"I don't know how much longer we can wait here," Yamato said. "If he doesn't wake up soon, we might have to leave..."

"No!" Sakura yelled. "I'm not going to leave him here. I haven't been much help to Naruto in the past but now I'm going to make sure we are here when he does awake."

"Come on Yamato, let's go make sure the perimeter is secured," Kakashi suggested.

Kakashi and Yamato left, and Sai followed leaving Sakura alone with Naruto. Sakura checked his bandage and saw the wound was healed. However, Sakura went ahead and changed it to a fresh bandage just to be safe.

It felt like hours when Kakashi, Yamato and Sai returned from outside.

"We should be safe here," Kakashi said. "We can wait until Naruto wakes up."

Two Days Later

"It's been three days, and he still hasn't woken up, we should get Tsunade-sama to come and take a look at him," Kakashi suggested.

"I'll stay here with him until you return," Sakura said. "But before you go, I need to get more medical supplies."

"Ok, we will gather supplies and return here and then Yamato and I will head back to the village to get Tsunade," Kakashi explained.

"Ok," Sakura said.

Sakura found a piece of paper and a pencil and began writing on it.

"What are you doing?" asked Sai.

"I'm leaving a note for Naruto, just in the event he wakes up when we're all not here," explained Sakura.

After Sakura was done writing the note for Naruto, she placed it on the table next to him. Sai, who had walked to the front room, returned to the kitchen and picked up the note and read it.

"If you wake up while we're gone, we went to get more medical supplies and food for you. We will be back, love, Sakura. Why did you put love? Do you really love him?" asked Sai.

Sakura blushed but punched Sai into the living room, "That's for reading my note!"

Everyone gathered into the living room and Sakura saw that Sai had written 'Don't Go Outside' on the front door in his special ink.

"Are we ready?" Kakashi asked.

Everyone was ready and walked outside. It was quiet but they had to be vigilant anyway. They did not know if they were going to run into any of the undead or not.

"I'm going to reinforce this house to keep Naruto safe inside," Yamato said.

Using the wood style, he boarded up the windows and front and back doors to make sure nothing could get inside while Naruto was unconscious.

Team Kakashi found a small village not too far from the cabin they left Naruto in. It was empty and there were a few deceased lying in the streets.

"Whatever is going on is hitting hard and fast," stated Yamato.

"That's not good," Kakashi added.

Sakura found a small pharmacy and went inside. She was relieved that it wasn't completely looted yet. Sakura grabbed everything that she think she needed, water, bandages and even went behind the counter to find the perscription antibiotics that could be useful. Sakura then found instant ramen which she collected for Naruto.

Sakura walked out of the pharmacy full of supplies and food that was needed.

"We can head back to the cabin now," Sakura said with a smile.

Sakura was about to walked into the clearing around the cabin when Kakashi stopped her. Sakura was about to yell when Kakashi motioned to look. Sakura turned back to the cabin to find that it was surrounded by a horde of the undead.

"We got to be smart about this," Kakashi stated. "These undead are not like the ones we faced in the Fourth Ninja War. From what I've seen, they only die with a blow to the head and will bite and rip you to pieces and if there's a whole group like this one, it would be easy to end up as chow for the whole horde."

Sakura didn't really listen as she felt she needed to get to Naruto, so she pumped her fist full of chakra and she jumped out of the bushes they were hiding in and punched the ground, splitting it open as the undead fell into the cracks that she made.

Sakura took a kunai and ran across the cracked ground, stabbing a few undead in the head, killing them for good.

Sakura got to the porch of the cabin but was shocked as more undead came around from the back of the cabin.

"Hurry up Sakura and get back over here, we got to go!" called out Kakashi.

"No, we can't leave Naruto!" Sakura yelled back.

"Come on Sakura, he's safe inside that cabin!" Yamato yelled. "He's unconscious so he won't make any noise and this horde will eventually be gone. We're going to come back!"

Tears formed in her eyes as the undead were walking onto the porch toward the kunoichi.

'I'm sorry Naruto, hope you can forgive us,' she thought and sprinted for the bushes.

Team Kakashi then left, heading toward Konoha. Sakura looked back at the cabin once more to find it completely surrounded by the undead again. She hoped to Kami that Naruto would be okay.

Team Kakashi were right outside the gates of Konoha but it was chaos as people were running out of the village.

"What's going on?" asked Kakashi.

"It's chaos, all that talk about the undead up to the northeast, well it's finally here," Kotetsu said.

"Hokage-sama has the Chunin Exam Stadium full of the sick and when they die, they come back to life," Izumo added.

"The hospital is full too," Kotetsu.

Suddenly they heard a blast from coming inside of the village.

"What was that?" asked Sakura.

"Shit, Hokage-sama said if we had to blow up the stadium, it was time to evacuate the village," Kotetsu answered.

Suddenly Tsunade appeared before everyone along with Shizune.

"Where is Naruto?" asked Tsunade.

"In our mission, we were attacked. Naruto was hit with a poisoned kunai and fell unconscious. He found a cabin nearby and Sakura managed to extract all the poison out of him and bandage his wound, but he hasn't woken up yet," explained Kakashi.

"Can you show me on a map where this cabin is?" asked Tsunade. "I'll find it and see if I can't heal his mind and wake him back up."

"Sure," Kakashi said.

He pulled a map of the world out of his backpack and showed Tsunade roughly where the cabin was near Kusagakure.

"Thank you," Tsuande said.

A few more explosions were heard from the village, and they were about to go inside to help when Shizune returned by herself.

"Oh good, you're still here Kakashi. Tsunade wanted me to tell you to evacuate to Nami no Kuni and set up a new village there."

"Ok, they will be easy," Yamato said.

"Also Kakashi, if Tsunade doesn't make it back to Nami no Kuni, she names you the Rokudaime Hokage."

Kakashi, not really wanting that responsibility right now, nodded and accepted the title. Sakura, however, really wanted to return to the cabin with Tsunade to help Naruto but Kakashi ordered her to come with him to Nami no Kuni.

Present Day

"Did Tsunade-sama ever show up to that cabin?" asked Sakura

"I don't think so," Naruto said. "I woke up alone and the house was boarded up from the outside like you told me Yamato did."

"I guess she's gone then," Sakura said. "She never showed up to Nami no Kuni either, so Kakashi was eventually named Rokudaime Hokage."

"I've told you everything that happened and why we had to leave, can you forgive me at least?" asked Sakura.

Naruto sighed, "For whatever reason, I cannot stay mad at you, I forgive you."

She didn't know what possessed her to do this, but her lips crashed into Naruto's. Naruto was taken back by it but all the feelings that he ever had for this girl he thought he got rid of came flooding into his mind as if some kind of dam he had busted and returned the kiss. When the two broke the kiss, Naruto stood up.

"However, if you here to try to get us to help clear out the undead, we are not going to," Naruto said which surprised Sakura.

"What? Why not?!" Sakura asked, starting to get angry.

"And it's not because of the situation, it's become of something we just learned," Naruto started to explain. "In my group, I have this girl named Yuko. She came from a multi-national research lab up north somewhere where they were researching the virus that is killing people and reanimating them. She found out that this virus is attacking our chakra network and if we keep using our ninjutsu, we're going to lose that ability altogether."

"Wait, are you saying we are all becoming regular people?" asked Sakura.

"If we keep using our ninjutsu like crazy, yes," Naruto said. "However, Yuko said the process is extremely slow as long as we don't use our chakra and ninjutsu."

"I have to tell Kakashi-sensei this," Sakura said. "This is going to change everything we have been planning."

However, after the kiss with Naruto, it revealed some feelings she didn't realize were really there and did not want to leave Naruto again, but this information was huge and needed to be shared.

"I don't want to leave you again," Sakura said.

"Go," Naruto said. "You need to tell Kakashi so he doesn't make this huge mistake."

Sakura looked into Naruto's eyes again and went in for another kiss. Naruto was caught off guard again as he didn't think that would happen twice but returned the kiss.

"I'm going to tell Kakashi-sensei what you've told me today but I'm going to come back to you and stay, if that's okay with you," Sakura said, becoming a little shy at the end.

"Of course you can stay," Naruto said.

"One last thing before I go, I see that Choji and Shikamaru are here with you. Where is Ino-pig?" asked Sakura.

Naruto's demeanor changed at the mention of Ino and head his head down. Sakura did not like where this was going.

"She, she didn't make it," replied Naruto. "And it was my fault."

"What do you mean it was your fault?" Sakura asked.

"There's something you need to know first," Naruto began. "After I escaped from that cabin, I eventually found Shikamaru and a group he was leading near Tanzaku Town and between then and returning to the village to find it empty and overrun, Ino and I grew close to the point where we became a couple."

"Ino?! With you?!" Sakura said very shocked. 'Why that Ino-pig always has to try and steal the men I love!'

"We found this cave that was a nice shelter from the undead as they couldn't climb but this group of people that called themselves The Saints and their leader that liked to call himself Father found us and threatened to kill us if we didn't denounce our ways of the ninja. I stubbornly resisted and one of Father's people sliced Ino's throat, killing her," Naruto said, as tears began to form towards the end of his explanation.

Sakura just wrapped her arms around Naruto. "It's not your fault she's dead. You were sticking up for what you believed in. There was no way to know if they were being serious or not."

"I'm always going to feel like it's my fault," Naruto stated. "But they did get what was coming to them. I killed everyone that was there that day, except for Father, he got away, but Sasuke killed him later on."

"You got Sasuke to stay in one place now?" asked Sakura.

"Yeah, it surprised me too," Naruto. "The irony is right now he's not here; he's keeping tabs on a guy that came with Yuko who we banished from this prison."

"Well, I better get going, but I will return to you, okay?"

"Maybe I'll come get you myself while showing my face to Kakashi to open a trade," Naruto said.

"I would like that," Sakura said.

It has become late evening as Tensai trekked through the woods to his destination. Finally, the downed chain link fence came into view. Tensai returned to The Research Pod, which was now overrun by a horde of undead that are just walking around not really doing much. Tensai picked up a metal rod from the fencing that was downed and started running it across the chain link fence that was still up, creating noise and catching the attention of the undead.

Tensei went back and forth along the fence line making noise, gathering the undead to his location.

"Those assholes at the prison are going to feel my wrath," Tensai said to himself as he guided the Walkers towards the downed portion of the fence. "Just like I took down this fucking stupid place, I will take down that Konoha prison."

Tensai started walking a little faster to stay ahead of the horde of Walkers, who were now coming out of the downed portion of the fence.

Tensai had an evil look on his face as he manipulated the Walkers to follow him to his destination, the Konoha Prison.

Unbeknownst to Tensai, nearby in the trees Sasuke was witnessing what was going on and after Sasuke realized what Tensai is doing, he quickly headed back to the prison as well to inform Naruto of what was going on.