Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Distant Thoughts ❯ Waking ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: See chapter one

AN: Thanks for the reviews you have given me. It helps me in continuing to write this story. Oh
and Inner Sakura is part of her outer personality now. With her being so determined, she has no
need for the strong will to stay within her. Plus it makes her less annoying.

~

Chapter 2: Waking

~~

Kakashi made it to the location before any of his subordinates did. He couldn't help but feel
somewhat distressed at the situation. Not the mission, but at a feeling that he has since not to
long ago after Sasuke announced that he had the bird and to meet him here. He shook it off and
started to reach for his famous Come Come Paradise book but was stopped as the bushes beside
him started to shake.

Naruto popped his head out of the bush and gave his Sensei a grin before pulling himself out
further. "Heh Heh, Oh Sensei, did Sakura-chan make it back yet?" His blonde head scanned the
area of the small clearing. His face somewhat dropped at the sign that the pink-haired girl was
not present. Kakashi's eye closed and he smiled at the small boy who was oblivious to the
happenings around him. He bet that Naruto hardly took notice in the change that has been taking
place within the girl he just mentioned. But with a shrug, he turned right back to his pocket to
grab his book.

Again some rustling stopped him and he looked to see Sasuke in front of him, presenting the
objective of this mission in his right hand. ‘I am never going to get to read this book if they just
start appearing like this.' He thought and grabbed the sparrow from Sasuke's hand. He picked the
paper off of the leg of the bird before it flew off into the forest once again.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei! You let it go." Yelled Naruto as he pointed to the small speck of black that
was left to be seen as the bird.

"Baka, we don't need the bird." Replied Sasuke, he crossed his arms and turned to his sensei.

"Don't call me a baka!" Before he charged at Sasuke though, Kakashi held out his hand in front
of him.

"We just need the message Naruto, that's all." Naruto calmed down but noticed Sasuke turning
his head side to side. "What's up Sasuke?" He questioned.

"I just wanted to know, where is Sakura?"

~

Red flashed in front of her. She could feel the dark red liquid pool at her feet as she brought the
kunai to her side. It started to reflect the taint on it as it to dripped slowly. Her emerald eyes
shifted in the dark, unfocused and narrow. Her breathing came in short shallow gasps. She did
not hold the wound on her shoulder, letting it spill freely down her worn body.

Laughter rang out through the darkness that engulfed her. The cold, sinister tone penetrated
through her thin skin and she could not hold back the small shiver of fear that ran down her
spine. Light reflected off of gold eyes as they turned towards her. A snake like smile spread
across the ashy skin. Though it was dark, Sakura knew who stood in front of her. She gasped and
brought the kunai in front of her, trying in vein to fine a way to protect herself. Her eyes widened
as he took a step towards her.



Before he could reach out and grab her, she saw a light flicker beside her and she quickly reached
for it.

~

On the other side of the forest from Team 7

~

Shuriken and kunai's were being thrown in every direction. It may look as though it was thrown
in a careless manner, but one can barely make out the blurred form that quickly dodged every one
that was thrown at him. Neji smirk as he saw the last of the knives leave Ten-ten's hand. She fell
with a solid thump on the ground, as she regained her breath. Neji nodded his head at her.

"That is good enough for today Ten-ten. We'll work on it more tomorrow." She quickly nodded
her head with a small hai and got up to leave. She knew Neji liked to meditate after their routine
practices. She quickly left after gathering all of her gear that laid about the small field.

When Neji was sure that his teammate left, he sat down Indian style and crossed his arms. The
small bursts of wind played with his hair, soon he closed his pale eyes and concentrated in the
area around him. He knew that Team 7 had a mission somewhat near from where was right now.
He made it his business to know what his rival was doing at most times. He frown, he never had
a true chance to fight Sasuke yet, his hands slowly twitched in anticipation. Before he could get
into anymore of his thoughts he heard a soft thump not to far from where he was sitting. With a
growl, he got up to find out what made that noise that was loud enough to penetrate through the
forest.

~

Not a lot of time passed before his silver eyes laid on the form on the ground. Pink hair was
sprayed out like a halo around a pale face. He noticed her quickly, the unmistakable pink hair and
red dress told him quickly who it was. He frown more so then last time when he noticed a small
rivet of blood trailing down the corner of her mouth. Quickly, he walked across, passing the trees
and knelt down beside the young women. He pushed the hair out of her face to check for any
other signs of injury besides the blood on her pale lips.

Neji did not know why he was even thinking of helping Sakura but he just thought that it was
odd that she lay here without any body around. He quickly scanned the area around and noticed
some of the broken branches that were in the tree above him. ‘She must of fell, che, what an
idiot.' he thought.

A sudden change in the air alerted him. He got up from the squatting position he was in and
looked for anything abnormal. He looked around confused at the difference in temperature, it
slowly got colder and colder. He looked down as the girl shifted and groaned in pain, a small
amount of chakra spilled out from her. His eyes widened slightly as he noticed that the cold that
penetrated his clothes and skin were coming from the small limp form by his feet.

~

Kakashi, Sasuke, and Naruto continued through the trees, trying to find their lost teammate.
Kakashi had grown with worry after Sasuke had mentioned the absence of the young girl and the
odd feeling began to well up inside him again. He already glanced at the message that was found
on the bird. It was a list of names that was from several missions that were sent out a couple of
weeks ago, up to this day. He didn't check to see why the names were written there, to busy was
he trying to find his lost student. He glanced to his side as he looked to the other two around him
.He took notice in the expression that Sasuke had on his face. A small grin passed quickly, but
soon vanished. ‘So he is starting to care for her, at least somewhat.'

Sasuke on the other hand did not pay attention to any body around him. His thoughts focused
mainly on the task of retrieving the girl who always followed him around. ‘She better be okay.'

He shook his head of the thoughts that ran through his head. He should not be worrying to much
about her about something so small as this situation. ‘She probably got scared when she saw a
bug.' Even though he thought this, he still worried. He has noticed her sudden strength in
wanting to practice, and on her techniques on genestu. She even started to work on ones that
worked with the temperature around her and her opponent. She could make them uncomfortable
in the cold and heat, like she once has done to him during a training warm-up. The heat made
him burn out his chakra faster then normal. He remembered that it was the first time that he
mentioned to Sakura that she finally was worthy to fight with, she of course just shied away and
said thank you instead of jumping on him like the old her would have. ‘Yes, she will be fine,
there is no need for worry.'

Sasuke jumped to another branch before he noticed the change in the weather and looked a little
ahead of him.

~

Sakura sat up straight with a start. Soon she felt something hit her head and something fall to her
right, onto the cool grass that she was laying upon only moments before. She rubbed her head in
pain as a small red spot started to form on her head.

"Ouch, man that hurt."

"I know what you mean." Came a voice from where the thing fell to her side. Her emerald eyes
widened dramatically as she turned her head to the side from where the gruff voice came from.
She held back a gasp as she noticed what was beside her, or more specifically who.

Silver eyes stared back at her. Neji was in the same position as Sakura, sitting back and rubbing
his head were a matching red bump started on his head. His eyes narrowed at her, trying to
understand what happened. Sakura averted her gaze and a light blushed appeared over her
cheeks, ‘Way was he so close to me?' she questioned. He continued looking at her and soon
scowled, ‘Might as well ask her about that shift in temperature and her sudden awakening.' He
started to shift closer to her and open her mouth to ask her his question when he noticed the rosy
color on her cheek. ‘What the hell is she blus-…oh hell.' He shook his head at the sudden
realization of how close he actually was to her face.

Sakura noticed that Neji had something on his mind and choosing to ignore the invading male on
her personal space she asked, "Hehe….so Neji-san, why are you here, in the middle of the
forest?" She looked down and fidgeted with her fingers nervously. Before he got to answer, he
was tackled backwards onto the cool grass by a blue and black blur.

~

Sasuke noticed that Naruto and Kakashi stopped behind him, also looking in front of them. His
eyebrows drew down to a v-shape as he looked on. Sakura was at the moment rubbing her head
and whispered something. Neji was sitting too close for his comfort beside Sakura, also rubbing
his forehead.

He almost let out a growl when he noticed Neji move closer to the pink haired girl. ‘Why does
the fact that he is so close to her make me so uncomfortable?' But before Neji could answer
Sakura's softly asked question and before Naruto or even Kakashi could stop him he tackled Neji
to the ground.

~

Sakura gave a start and clutched her chest when she finally registered who knocked Neji down.
Sasuke stepped away from Neji and stood by Sakura, offering her his hand. What he received
instead was a slap on the hand. He looked down to see her looking at him angrily. Behind him
Naruto and Kakashi landed and Naruto ran to Sakura's side.

"Sakura! Are you okay? What happened? Why didn't you make it back to the meeting place?
Why-…." He was interrupted when Kakashi put his hand on top of Naruto's shoulder. "I think
that's enough questions, Naruto." His mask wrinkled as he smiled down at her. Neji stood up and
he too offered his hand to Sakura who took it gladly.

"You know Sasuke, you didn't have to knock down Neji-san. I don't know what your problem is
but you didn't have to do that." She said as she brushed off her bottom and back from the grass
and dirt that stuck to her clothes. Neji crossed his arms and eyed Sasuke. ‘What the hell is his
problem, its not like she's his or anything.' He thought. Neji, himself, had to admit that, yes,
Sakura, with a bit more practice with physical skills, will be the girl that any male ninja would
want. She already past his teammate Ten-ten during a training exercise with all the teams. That
alone made Neji interested in Sakura. 'And I can't deny that she looks cute too.' Now his take on
it, as he looked at Sasuke, is that he too is becoming interested in her.

"Well, why the hell is he here in the first place?" He retorted, but noticed her scratch her head, he
also noticed that she left out the -kun from his name. ‘She must be really irritated.'

"Actually, I asked Neji-san the same question." She turned to Neji, waiting for him to answer her
earlier question.

"I just came here after I heard a noise. Then I saw Sakura-san on the grass unconscious." He
didn't feel like explaining everything with Sasuke listening. Kakashi stepped forwards and
looked down at Sakura. "What happened that made you pass out?" He notice Sakura hesitate but
then smiled sheepishly.

"I guess I fell out of the tree." She lied, chuckling nervously. All three guys gave her a look but
ignored the fact that she was lying, for they knew that Sakura had the best chakra control to stay
pasted to a tree, without falling. She in turn ignored their stare and looked up at her sensei.

"Ne, Kakashi-sensei, did you guys find the bird?" Naruto nodded his head quickly

"Yeah, Sasuke found it and Kakashi took the message from its leg." Sakura nodded and Neji
turned his back to them. "Well then, I guess I will be going, make sure you don't fall out of
anymore trees Sakura-san." With that Neji jumped into the trees and left Team 7 to their own
devices. Sasuke hardly took notice that he left, but Sakura waved goodbye, even though Neji
didn't see.

"Hey Sensei, shouldn't we be taking that to the Hokage now?" He asked. Kakashi turned to him
and nodded, "Yes, come my pupils, we're off." With him taking off, the others had no choice but
to follow.

~~~~~~

AN: Well there is the second chapter. Hope you all liked it, remember to tell me if anything is
wrong or whatever. Thanks a bunch!!

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