Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Aftermath - Death of a serpent ❯ Chapter 4

***

She was woken by an erratic knock at the door. Opening it she saw a very tired Lee, who had some how limped the 16 miles out of the forest in a night. Shocked, she jerked back a step.

"Lee!"

"It's alright, Sakura. Your mother said you'd be here," he hastily explained. He took a step back as well, obviously uncomfortable. He had always been resigned to her obsession of Sasuke, but a little resentful. "I talked with Guy-sense. I can't train you, but I can help you train yourself…uh, if you don't mind."

Sakura stood for a second, absorbing Lee's turn-around. Then she stammered out her thanks and shut the door in his face. Embarrassed, she opened it again and told Lee to wait just a moment, she'd be out a second.

She needed something more practical to wear to training. Examining her waist long hair (she'd let it grow out in another futile attempt to catch Sasuke's eye,) and garish pink-and-turquoise tunic in the small, steel bathroom's mirror, she stripped off the clothes and donned Sasuke's plain black shirt and pants. The pants were hopelessly baggy, reaching to her ankles, and she tied her forehead protector around her waist to hold them up. She sliced the white hem of her previous shirt and tied her tangled hair in a ponytail, cropping it short to keep it out of the way.

Critically she checked herself out in the mirror, looking for any hindrance that might tangle her in her training. She barely recognized her self now: a pale, thin ghost in black and grey, hair pulled severely back in a small ponytail at the nape of the neck. Dark circles under her eyes. Overall, she decided, an improvement, and took one last, long breath of the lingering smell of a dead dream, before marching out with Lee to face their future.

***

She rarely saw Naruto now, except on missions in which they hurried through them, unspeaking except for their few terse warnings and replies. Both knew what was necessary to do, and preformed as well as they could before drifting off to their separate lives. There was no recrimination- it was just that each was an unbearable reminder of their own failure. Sasuke's death had been more than half a year ago now, but his ghost haunted them still. Gone was Naruto's endless manic chatter and lively jaunt, his endless litanies of what he'd do when he became Hokage; he was as silent and grim as she was. Their first mission after Sasuke's death he had seen her for the first time in months, and paled as he'd seen her in Sasuke's old clothes. He'd said nothing though, seeming preoccupied, and she hadn't said anything about the Uchiha clan symbol he'd carved in his left palm.

There were fewer missions now, for Kakashi and Tsunade had deemed it not healthy to put them back together so soon, noting the sorrow it caused them to see each other and be reminded again of the missing third. Sakura had heard that Naruto had taken up with Hinata; she was pleased for him in a distant way when she saw them walking about town, hand in hand. Naruto's face had contained a more gentle expression than Sakura ever thought it could show when he was with Hinata, and Hinata's face was like the sun coming up as she leaned on his arm. It didn't matter to Sakura much, but she was glad that he'd obtained a happiness of sorts.

***

She trained relentlessly under Lee, relearning every kick and block and punch over again, for she had never used them in the first place. She practiced on training logs, normal logs, trees, rocks, walls, all with Lee there every minute, shouting out advice, instruction, encouragement. She practiced until her knuckles and heels bled until Lee told her, ordered her, begged her to call it a day. She visited the medical ward for stitches and healing-cream in one month than she'd ever gone in her life. And every night she would stagger with Lee the 16 miles back to his house in the forest and back, until Guy and Kakashi, concerned, obtained two apartment rooms on the edge of town for them to use, to spare them the hike.

After that Lee was able to convince Sakura to spend some daylight studying nin- and ju-jitsu from books he'd bought for her. And being unable to teach her first hand he memorized the books along with her, so that they would grill each other on the techniques while Lee corrected Sakura's tai-jitsus, and she on his faulty pronunciation. They'd retire to their separate rooms, exhausted, and wake up at dawn to repeat it all over again.

***

About a year later they were in one of the old trees in the training yard, celebrating Sakura's promotion to Chunnin. She'd withdrawn the year before, having been pared against Naruto by random chance and not wanting to mess up his chances, so she'd taken the exam the next year, beating Lee's old team-mate Ten-ten hands down. Both had been promoted. All three were clinging to the top of the tree, watching the sunset and passing around a stolen bottle of Sake. Sakura had been doing experiments on Lee from old medical text books, some succeeding, some failing, and together Lee had regained enough coordination to climb to the top.

"Guy-sense said that there is no better ignorance than not knowing when to give up," He remarked cheerfully to them, covered in scratches but triumphantly managing to hold onto the highest branch and his cup. He dropped it, and Ten-ten had a brief game of keep-away with Sakura, before tossing it back.

"Guy-sense, Guy-sense, that's all you ever talk about!" Sakura teased. She was exhilarated from her promotion and more than a little silly from the sake. "Don't you have any thoughts of your own?"

"This," he said, and swung down and kissed her.

Then he fell over, but Sakura caught him absentmindedly and swung him back up to the branch. He hunched there, red and embarrassed. Ten-ten giggled at the twin looks of embarrassment and shock radiating from their faces, then wedged the bottle in the crook of a branch and left quietly.

"Sakura, um, I-"Lee stuttered, "If, err, you, um, didn't like- I'm sorry," He concluded miserably. He risked a glance at her face, and hunched still further. "I'll go now."

"Wait," Sakura said, catching his sleeve as he began climbing down, "Do it again."

And he did. It was clumsy and awkward, like everything he did, but undeniably sweet.

"Sakura," he mumbled afterwards, "Maybe you really can't achieve some dreams. Maybe some dreams are unattainable. But maybe I can help you achieve yours, if you want me to."

"Yes," She said, and laughed with delight. "Remember when we first met? And you said that you'd protect me forever? I couldn't believe you then, but I can now. Stay with me and we can make a new dream together."

"I will," he said, and did. They watched the stars come out together, and that night didn't go back to separate rooms.