THE TRUTH UNRAVELS

Part 1...

6 years Ago

Konoha Hospital

The hard part wasn't finding him.

It had been almost a week since Sasuke walked out the gates to join Orochimaru. Things have been weird, Kakashi wasn't around but that was to be expected. Konoha needed all the jounin at the front lines. But she hadn't brought herself to see Naruto, who had been in the hospital ever since. She was ashamed of herself and thought he… might be too.

No, the hard part was bringing herself to admit out loud her wrong doings. What if Naruto didn't accept it. Kami forbid Naruto wanted nothing to do from her. He was all she had left but she was all he ever had huh. Along with the rest of team 7 and now Sasuke was gone. Kakashi too even if he was just on more missions.

And she hadn't even visited him. She clenched her fist, she was failing. Even when she was working up the courage to make it better she failed. Ino had been by Shikamaru and Chojis side from day one and the moment Naruto gained consciousness she left. She sat outside his door for days but never went in. She was afraid, and a coward.

But for him she'd do better. She promised she'd do better if he gave her a second chance.

So with a new form of determination Sakura entered Naruto's room in the midst of his "escape".

"You do realize that's not a door baka?"

"Oi Sakura-chan whatcha doing here?" Her eyebrow twitched, but she couldn't help but laugh at the sight. Naruto hanging out the open window ready to jump.

"Could we talk for a moment?" She asked. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. She wanted to get stronger for them, she would. Even if he turned her down shed fight to stay by his side. Family doesn't leave, she thought.

"Are you trying to break up with me? Because that's pretty rude considering we're not dating." He threw his head back and started laughing. Would it be wrong to push him off the edge?

Naruto laughed as he pulled himself back into the window and spinning in her direction before giving her his trademark grin.

"Wassup Sakura-Chan?"

"I'm going to let that comment slide, so…" she took a moment to really look at her last remaining teammate. Blonde hair messy from bed, his hospital gown still on despite his efforts to escape and lastly his blue eyes. Which bounced back uncertainly to her and the window, and she really had been a bitch to him all these years hadn't she?

Part of her hatred herself. For asking Naruto to bring Sasuke back himself. For not being strong enough to go with Naruto, for making Naruto promise her something that she had no business putting on him.

Naruto was a child desperate for love and she took advantage of that. The entire village took advantage of that but she wasn't about to go in on them. This was about her. Her mistakes, her wrong doings.

She bowed to him. 90 degree angle, probably deeper than she ever bowed to the Hokage.

"Naruto! I'm sorry, sorry for everything these past few years. I've treated you badly, even when we became teammates and I never acknowledged you then I went off and made you promise me something which I never should have done! I am so sorry. You've always been there for me and had my back, and all I did was push you to the side. I respect you so much, Uzumaki Naruto. And I'm glad I got picked to be on your team!" There was so much she needed to say, so much he needed to hear. "We're teammates, family! You don't have to bring Sasuke back by yourself because that's what teams are for but I let you down and I promise if you give me another chance I'll prove myself to you! You won't ever have to walk alone again!"

The entire room was so silent asides from her quick breathing, she could hear the soft splash hitting the floor. Was she crying or

"Naruto?" She made a move to grab his hand but he quickly recoiled from her using his arm to wipe his face.

"Ahhh Sakura-Chan you ain't got to 'pologize, dattebayo!" Eyes wide she stared at his face, with his perfect grin on that wasn't matching his eyes. She glared at him, before gently grabbing his shoulder and forcing him to look at her.

"Naruto, I treated you horribly so I'm apologizing. And as much as I want you to, you don't have to accept my apology… But you deserve to have people who can tell you they're sorry, who can own up to their mistakes. For people to apologize to you." She stared him in his eyes, hoping she wasn't fucking this up. "So I'm sorry but we're family, so I'm really really really hoping you'll forgive me."

She was rewarded with Naruto's smile, his real earth shattering smile, as he wrapped his arm around her body. She quickly and tightly did the same.

"Okay," he mumbled in her neck, "I forgive you Sakura-chan, and I'm sorry too. I wasn't the best teammate and my crush on you was obsessional," she laughed his crush on her? Did he not see how she acted towards Sasuke? She was a fucking stalker. She was so putting that chapter behind her. "From now on teammate, we stick together, dattebayo!"

She wrapped her arms tighter around Naruto. "I love you, Naruto." she mumbled into his neck, he gasped and his grip tighten around hers. She wasn't sure how long they stood there or when she started crying again or if she ever stopped, but from this point forward, she vowed to keep Naruto and the rest of team 7 safe. Even if she had to lie to do it.

THE TRUTH UNRAVELS

Present Time

He just laid down.

It was all Naruto could think about as the banging on his door increased. Fuck, he blamed Tenten for making them drink after a pretty intense B rank he got to go on with Team Gai.

They spent a week tracking a group of Bandits which consisted of a kenki genki user who avoided Neji's byakugan like the plague. It should have been over after they caught up to them but nothing ever seems to go Naruto's way.

It was an international fact that all members of team 7 had shitty luck. Lee insisted they play cat and mouse and let the targets think they got way before seeing who was fast enough to actually catch them. He agreed the moment they started placing bets. All he had to do was catch two bandits in under an hour and everyone would get ramen when the mission ended. Easy right?

The bandits had separated into three groups of twos and him and Lee each went after a group themselves while Tenten and Neji worked together.

He was on them. He had them in his view when one of the bandits had turned around and thrown multiple fireballs at him!

The information had been wrong, of course the bandits were ninja. And they had intentionally just split them up. Great call Naruto, great call.

He could already hear granny telling him how he fucked up as captain.

The fight hadn't lasted long, the two of them being chunin at best. But by the time he made it back to the group, Tenten had her men tied to a tree and sharpening her kanta, just as Lee came bursting through the clearance with his bandits thrown over his shoulder.

In his defense Tenten and Neji teamed up which is why they won. Teamwork and all.

Which is how he found himself here, drunk, and trying to ignore the banging on his door that never stopped no matter if he played dead.

If Sakura forgot her keys again she owed him ramen for the next week, he thought but that wasn't motivation enough to get out from under the covers.

With a heavy groan he threw the covers off of himself and after tripping over his slippers he marched through the living room, kicking Sakura's books out the way and threw open the door ready to curse out whoever decided to keep him from his precious sleep.

"Your presence is requested at the Hokages Tower immediately." ANBU. As soon as he opened his mouth to ask why the ANBU was gone. Bastards. Officially annoyed, Naruto nodded his head and went to dress. ANBU still crept him out, despite the fact that two of his teammates were in the organization. But that let him know how serious the situation was.

If granny was calling him in right after a mission it could have something to do with Sasuke. Sasuke kept getting further and further away from his grasp. In fact the teme dropped off the face of earth two years ago after he killed Orochimaru and no one has seen him since. It got to the point where Baa-san no longer sent team 7 on missions to retrieve Sasuke. As Baa-san said "I'm not spending resources on a man who doesn't wish to be found." Not that he listened to her, Pervy Sage will tell him anything for a few ryo.

He grinned thinking of another Team 7 mission, he desperately needed that. It has been ages since Team 7 went on a mission together. Yamato and Sai have been busy with ANBU, Sakura had been taking a lot of missions since making jounin and he didn't want to know what Kakashi did with his free time. He threw his clothes on faster and quickly excited his apartment.

THE TRUTH UNRAVELS

2 Year Ago

Konoha Hospital

Tsuande finally had a chance to drink a bottle of sake before she had to go back to her office. The past 48 hours had been brutal at the hospital. Two ANBU teams had been injected with poison, and this was the perfect time to leave the hospital with Sakura in charge to get her more experience of leadership. While Tsunade was the Head Of Konoha Medical Department, she was also getting Sakura prepaid to take over when she retired from being Hokage.

As much as she loved Konoha, she could not be stuck here.

The world awaited her.

But unfortunately while Tsunade had prepared to enjoy the next two days off from the hospital, an enraged Sakura had stormed into her office with one ANBU captain on her heels.

The two of them had been in an intense screaming match, with Sakura claiming one of the ANBU had stolen and inflicted Sasori's poison on his own team, and the ANBU captain claiming the opposite.

Tsunade was inclined to believe the ANBU captain seeing as he had more experience than Sakura, so she had to go down to the hospital and get statements from the team herself.

None of the ANBU were poison users, so the chance of them stealing poison was slim to none.

This went smoothly, proving that the ANBU captain was right and Sakura might be in a little over her head… until things went south. Two of the 6 men had taken a critical turn and the poison that they were injected with had different components than Sasori's poison.

One of the ANBU who had not been injected, had gone ghostly white and repeatedly asked if the team was going to be ok.

Now that would have been fine, if the man wasn't sweating bullets.

So leaving Sakura in charge once again, she took Dove-san to the privacy of her office to talk.

The entirety of the talk was a waste. And made her question why she still kept Danzo and his organization around. As smart as the man was he was a fucking idiot when it counted.

Konoha has three of the best poison experts throughout the five great nations, gaining new poisons, just so we remain untouched is unnecessary. But she could understand where Danzo was coming from. Wanting to keep Konoha safe. She'd just have to put a tighter lease on him.

But it didn't end there. The elders had called her in for a meeting, apparently it was wrong to talk to Root members without Danzo being aware of it. Which gained her the question, why was Danzo's men acting as ANBU, but unsurprisingly the elders brushed it off.

Which led to the elders telling her everything she's been doing wrong since her Election Day.

After listening to the elders talk her head off, she was finally able to leave. She never understood why the elders believed they had so much control over her. Just because she was Sarutobi's student, did not mean she'd bend to their every will like he had. Yes she might decide to be respectful and listen to them talk but she would not do what they expected of her, she was THEIR hokage, not the other way around.

In all honestly she couldn't wait to put them in their place. Patience, she told herself. The day will come.

The rest of the days followed by unproblematic. She heard from Ami the Head Nurse that Sakura had been doing an excellent job, and took the situation very seriously. She had no second doubt that she would be able to handle the situation.

After she had kicked the last civilian out telling him to set an appointment, she went to the nearest liquor store and grabbed a bottle of sake and headed to the hospital, it was time to check on her apprentice.

She wasn't surprised to find Sakura asleep in the labs, knowing her, she only had a few hours the night before. She purposely gave Shizune the past two days off as well. She needed to make sure Sakura could handle being a doctor as well as a ninja.

"Hokage-sama it seems your mini me is being overworked." She rolled her eyes as she looked over at the pathologist who was leaning against the wall drinking her in. This little flirt.

"You know Ryo, it's the only way to see if they'll stay." she shooed everyone out the room after, and dropped a book in front of the girls head.

"WHA- oh T- Tsunade-shishou, what the hell!" she laughed and slunk herself in the seat next to Sakura, before drowning half the bottle. Ahhh the sweet taste of sake.

"Report."

"6 of 8 men were injected with a poison similar to Sasoris, by the time I was able to break down the poison and find the new variables, 2 of the 6 took a critical turn. They had more of the poison in their system but I was able to detox the poison out of their system long enough to create a cure.

While that was happening two of the nurses started showing early symptoms of the poison and while I thought it might have been airborne, they all had contact with the patients blood and after a few tests, the labs came back that the poison had launched itself to the bloodstream of the 4 men.

With the new information I had, I was able to use their blood to create a cure and the patients are now stable."

Tsunade couldn't wipe the smile off her face. She was so proud of Sakura. Unfortunately she knew what came next wasn't going to be pleasant.

"If you don't mind me asking Shishou, what happened with Dove-San?"

"He was under orders to buy a poison made from Kabuto from the black market. Unfortunately after he retrieved it his team was attacked and he tried to use it, but he was not aware of how to use it correctly."

From the looks on Sakura's face, it did not take her long to put together the missing information Tsunade had purposefully left out. As much as she hated the elders and Danzo, Sakura hated them more. She was pretty sure it started when Danzo had told Sakura she'd never be a true ninja until she cut all emotional ties with Team 7.

She watched as her eyes widened and a scowl took shape on her face. Great, Tsunade thought.

"How is Danzo being let off the hook after buying a poison from Kabuto?" she hissed at her.

"As much as it sucks, this isn't something we could use to ruin his career. They would see it as Danzo having good intentions for doing what he did, to 'keep Konoha safe'. And besides you know as much as I do that even if we were to pull Danzo from Root, he'd still find a way to do it. At least this way I know what his moves are." The girl rolled her eyes and began packing her stuff up. "I understand Danzo is not your favorite person but he has a major influence in Konoha and I can't exactly kick him out, not when his love for Konoha overrides any stretchy things he's done."

"It's his love for Konoha that worries me." before she could say anything, Sakura had already laughed it off. "I'm sorry Shishoui, I know how much stress this whole thing is, so I won't add to it. But onto more pressing matters, I've been working on chakra scalpels and stitches. The scalpels are easier to mold but the stitches haven't lasted over a day and a half. So I'm thinking if I use approximately 4.7 percent of my chakra in the stitch it'll be able to last for three days."

"Which will give the person a greater chance of getting back to the leaf for a more permanent solution." If she kept coming up with these ideas it wouldn't be long before she surpassed her. Tsunade smirked, she picked the right student in Sakura. "Show me."

THE TRUTH UNRAVELS

Present Time

She had just left the morgue and claimed the body that once belonged to Sakura Haruno.

Tsunade tightened her fist. In a few moments Team 7 would be standing before her and she would have to inform them on Sakura's death.

There was a knock at the door and for the life of her she wanted to run. Run away and never return, how did she get put in this situation again?

"Aye Granny you in there?" The sunny smile of the blonde's face almost broke her then and there. Part of her realized she should have listened to Shizune and ordered a team designed for this to tell them their teammate was killed. Or at least allowed Shizune to be in the room when she informed team 7.

"Dickless you can't go barging in on the Hokage..." This was too much for her. She couldn't hear what the kids were saying. All she could hear was the dripping sound of blood leaving Dan's body. She bit her cheek until it was all she could taste.

Blood. So much blood, she was covered in it. She couldn't see Sakura's face much less Nawaki. Blood matted her hair to the point that the pink was dyed brown. How long was she left like that? How long did Sakura fight waiting for backup that never arrived?

"Yo sorry I'm late. I was taking a walk through town when a black cat got stuck on the tree top."

She wasn't ready. But she was responsible, she was the reason Sakura Haruno was a jounin. She was the reason Sakura had so much political power in Konoha, she was the reason Sakura was the renowned Iryo-nin. If only she said no, she knew she wasn't ready to take on an apprentice, to let someone else into her life and now her student- no daughter figure was dead.

"Liar, Bakashi-sensei!"

She tore her glaze away from the table and looked at everyone in the room. The final members of team 7. She briefly wondered if it would break them.

"Hokage-sama are you alright?"

Sakura was the glue that kept team 7 together. She got stronger for them. She fought tooth and nail to keep the Uchiha compound around, when the council wanted it destroyed and rebuilt for better use. She kept Kakashi from falling off the rocks after team 7 disbanded.

"Haruno Sakura was killed in action. I am so sorry for your loss."

No one spoked. Naruto looked enraged as he looked between Kakashi and Tsunade.

"Is this some type of joke?"

"I understand this will be a hard time-

"A HARD TIME? Sakura isn't dead, what the hell granny? Where the hell is Sakura?!"

"That doesn't make sense she was at the hospital-"

"SAYS WHO?"

"When? How-?"

"We need more information, THIS IS CRAZY!"

There was a loud crack that had everyone straighten, and all eyes were on her as she broke her desk in half.

"Damn it," she took a deep breath, "She was sent on a solo A rank mission, which she successfully completed. Unfortunately when she was 50 kilometers outside of the village she was attacked. Suspect unknown, I have team 8 searching for any leads as we speak."

Naruto looked back between her and Kakashi unsteady, "Solo A rank?... That doesn't… that doesn't make any sense, why would you send-"

"That's a suicide mission."

No one spoke for an entire minute.

"Sakura was a Jounin-"

"For 8 months! That's not enough time to learn and take SOLO A RANKS!"

"Naruto I know what you think but Sakura was a skilled Jounin, she undertook many solo mission within her short career-"

"AND FOR WHAT? BECAUSE NOW SHES DEAD BECAUSE YOU DECIDED NOT TO SEND HER OUT WITH HER TEAM!" He got dangerously close to her, "Sakura-Chan was mine," he growled, "and you took her!" he quickly turned from her, his entire body was shaking and repeatedly shook his head, "no no nononono, If she's dead, where's her body?! I refuse to think Sakura's dead. She wouldn't. WE HAVE GOALS! WE HAVE TO BRING SASUKE BACK TOGETHER! SAKURAS MY BEST-"

"Naruto, calm down-"

"NO!" his body hasn't stopped shaking, and Tsunade feared she'd have to use Yamato to control him. She'd seen it though. The red in his eyes, it was justified. And Sakura had told her he knew how to control it. His travels with Killer Bee better had paid off. She glanced at Kakashi who hasn't said anything this entire time.

She thought back to almost 5 years ago. When she feared she'd lose him for good. But she hadn't. But know?

"DAMN IT!" the boy screamed as his hand cracked when it collided with the wall.

She looked back to Kakashi who had begun moving in Naruto's direction.

Good Team 7 was going through a rough time but they could get over it together, they could overcome this.

Just as she began gaining hope for them, Kakashi walked out the room.

Naruto stared wide eyes at the door before glancing back at her. The red in his eyes only looked more intense.

"You should have never let her go on the mission without me. She's dead because of you." Yamato tried to grab him, but Naruto was already gone.

She deserved that.

She knew the risk involved with taking on these missions but she trusted Sakura's skills. She would never doubt her apprentice.

Besides, Sakura had been attacked on her own ground. She hadn't been in foreign land and the possibility of someone from a different village following her home and ambushing her, while it wasn't uncommon, unless they were a pro, she would have seen them coming.

Which led her to believe this was an inside job. As much as she hated it she needed team 8 to find any leads to confirm or refute any of the wild claims she had running in her mind.

And then there was a small chance this was the Akatsuki. If you wanted Naruto, having Sakura was the best way to get him- but they killed her. If they wanted Naruto taking her hostage would have been a better tactic.

It didn't help the matters that Sakura had been requested for a lot of missions which she had no problem taking.

She just prayed Team 8 found something.

"You're free to leave" she told the remaining members of Team 7, and when she was alone she finished her next bottle of sake.

Now it was time to inform the girl's parents.

THE TRUTH UNRAVELS

A/N-

Hey all! If you made it this far I just want to personally thank you for giving my story a try! Please leave a review, even if you're just saying this story sucks lol I need all the criticism I can get!

This story will not feature fights. It will mainly be about tragedy, greif, acceptance and getting justice. But the flashbacks will be more happy and less grief?

Thank you my lovely Loves!