Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ How Long It Takes ❯ To Smile ( Chapter 2 )

Hey everyone! It's the second Chapter….Yaaaaaaay. Haha. Unfortunately I still don't own Naruto or any of its characters. Thanks for all the reviews!!

 

Everything written like thiiiiis is a flashback, just so people don't get confusled.

 

And for SakuraXSasuke121: Sorry the first chappie was a little confusing, lemmie clear things up! Basically Karin attacked Sakura some 3 odd years ago and cut that really nasty scar across her face making it so Sakura can't see. She probably was hopping for Sakura to die, but either way she wanted to take Sakura's spot in Sasuke's heart. When he went back to Kohan she went with and took over Sakura's spot on team seven. Sakura is just considered MIA to the village at this point ant most people think she is dead. I know I mentioned that Naruto and tried to take her headband off before and that gets explained better in this chapter.

 

 

Now, let us proceed with the second chapter~!

 

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“Hello?” Her voice seemed distant to even herself. What happened? Why was everything so dark? Had she really stayed out that long? Her fingers felt the cold dirt beneath her as she moved. Ow. What was this pain radiating across her eyes? Why could she feel the warm touch of the morning sun on her face but not see it? Her feet stumbled forward as she grasped at trees, trying to determine where she was, trying to figure out just what was going on.

 

BA-BUMP

 

What was that noise? Her fingers moved to cover hear ears, head frantically moving as if she could locate its source.

 

BA-BUMP

 

Where was it coming from?! A silent scream left her mouth as she collapsed to her knees, alone in the never ending darkness.

 

BA-BUMP

 

Oh.

 

BA-BUMP

 

It was her heart…

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“How is she?” Naruto finally asked, breaking the silence of the camp. The four men's eyes moved to study Kakashi awaiting his answer with baited breath. Today the world had shifted for them all, throwing them off balance from their perfect pedestals. Never had they seen someone so close to them fall so far. Even Sasuke's betrayal seemed to pale in comparison to this.

 

“…Awful,” Kakashi sighed, pushing his fingers through his messy silver hair. He almost wished now that they had never found her; that she had successfully vanished from their lives like she had tried to. He wished he wasn't the leader of this hurting team, knowing that what he had to say next would break their hearts. “She cannot come back…”

 

“What?!” Naruto was on his feet the second the words left the copy nin's mouth. “Why the hell not?! Did we come all this way for nothing? We can't leave her here alone Kakashi! She is a member of this team, we cannot leave her behind!”

 

“She is…used to isolation.” Sasuke mumbled softly, unable to face Naruto's angry gaze. “If we suddenly shoved her back into civilization…”

 

“She would go insane,” Yamato finished quietly.

 

“Have you all gone crazy?!” Naruto was shouting loud enough to alert enemy nin now, but he didn't care. Tears gathered in the depths of his eyes, threatening to spill out at any moment. “This is Sakura-Chan we're talking about! Or have you all forgotten tha-”

 

“Have you forgotten Naruto?” Sai's calm voice surprised everyone, having forgotten that the emotionless nin was there. “You were alone once weren't you? But even though you were alone people…civilization was all around you. You adapted to civilization even though you were alone. Sakura has adapted too. She's adapted to being around nothing. She is a wild animal.”

 

“She is our teammate!”

 

“Karin is our teammate too,” Sasuke dared to say. “Do you care about her this much, now that she is missing?”

 

“She is different! She -”

 

“Enough!” Kakashi's strong tone bit through their argument, silencing them instantly. Naruto didn't speak again as he sat slowly in his previously occupied space, having jumped to his feet during his argument. Staring into the fire he watched as the wood cracked and burned, fueling the untamed heat before them. This fire was wild, just as they said Sakura was. They sat for moments in silence, watching the fire blaze in all its brilliance. They watched as it slowly began to destroy itself, smothering in its own ashes until it began to die. Would this happen to Sakura? Would she become her own downfall?

 

No one noticed when the flap to the tent behind Kakashi pulled back, opening its door. Everyone was too caught up in watching their only heat source die. Naruto was the first to notice her slender form moving carefully out of the tent. Her mouth was raw and dripping blood as she inched silently closer. Sasuke winced slightly at the sight, tempted to remove the chakra ropes she had tried to gnaw off herself. She stumbled, instantly helping herself up instead of asking for help, a sight even Sai couldn't help but smile softly at. Yamato could only watch in wonder as she began to rekindle the flames before them. Her hands moved clumsily do to the bindings of her rope but she never once asked for help. When she could feel the heat of the fire pressing against the skin of her face she finally stopped, taking up her old spot between Naruto and Kakashi.

 

“Keep it going while you can, it won't be easy later.” Her timid voice broke the silence that penetrated the air for what seemed like hours. The only one to react was Kakashi, who gently patted her on the head in appreciation. No one could suppress the butter happiness that spread in their chests at the slight upturn of her lips. It was a smile that no one had seen in 3 years, 2 months, 7 days, 2 hours, 25 minutes, and 19 seconds. But it was well worth the wait.

 

For quiet sometime they were content to sit in silence, watching as Sakura slowly heal her mouth as best she could with her chakra being restricted. The first strings of conversation were trivial, unimportant words until the group slowly began to speak normally. They had nearly forgotten the oddness of Sakura's presence as the normal quarreling began between the three youngest men in the group.

 

“Teme, you never told us why you decided to come back all the sudden.” Naruto wined in his normal behavior, nudging the Uchiha heir with his elbow.

 

“Tch, don't ask such personal questions Dobe.”

 

“Aw come off it Uchiha, Dickless makes a point” Sai could never help but fuel the growing fire between the long time rivals sitting before him.

 

“Who are you calling Dickless, Sai?!” Naruto's had already launched himself from his seat, knocking over Sai as the two began two wrestle around on the forest floor. Kakashi and Yamato could only shake their heads and sigh at the twos antics as Sasuke did nothing to help the growing feud. It was only when a soft, distinctly feminine giggle was heard that they all stopped, noticing Sakura's presence again for the first time.

 

The small noise caused the girl to cough some, jarring her ragged shirt until it outlined her frame a bit more. Her body was much skinnier than any of them could remember, though she had managed to keep the most of her muscles built up. Jagged scars drew the men's attention to small pieces of flesh that had been neglected. They realized for the first time that she must have had to fight to live in the wilderness around them. Tsunade would have been proud of the girl she had begun training.

 

“Sakura.” Sasuke mumbled softly, shifting uneasily in his seat as everyone's eyes settled on him. “I came back because Sakura was missing.”

 

To say the group was stunned was an understatement. No one would have ever expected the cold Uchiha heir to say such a thing. Then again lost of unexpected things had been happening. Had Karin really been the one to injure Sakura? It seemed so due to the way Karin had suddenly ran off, covering her tracks so they couldn't follow. None of them really knew what to think anymore. Had they replaced Sakura? Had they really been so blind to what had happened?

 

“We should all get some rest.” Kakashi finally sighed out, motioning to the two tents the team carried, each big enough to comfortably fit three. Naruto raised Sakura from her spot, grinning when she immediately began to protest, spouting off that she had two very good feet she could walk on. He entered the tent she had previously emerged from followed almost immediately by Kakashi. Sasuke couldn't help but glare slightly, trudging wearily into the opposite tent with Yamato and Sai. He understood that the three would be considerably closer than the rest, but that thought alone could not ease his jealous heart.

 

Sakura was pleasantly surprised when she had been laid down on her side between the two men and both moved to hold her to them just as they used to do in the days that they were they only remaining members of team seven. Her face was buried in Kakashi's neck as she used one of his arms as a pillow, the other hanging lazily over her middle. Naruto on the other hand wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, curling up against her back, his soft breath pressing against the material of her shirt. These were her boys and they desperately wanted her to know they still remembered that.

 

“Sakura-Chan?” Naruto whispered quietly, afraid she may already have fallen asleep.

“Yea?”

“Why wouldn't you come back that time I found you?” He had found her a little over a year ago in the deep forests of fire country, surprised that she had shown up again in his life when he was just beginning to loose hope that she was still alive. She had been in a bit better condition then, her clothes not looking so torn, her body not looking so broken. He had been so relieved one minute, and so terrified the next.

 

“Sakura-Chan…?” Naruto slowly approached the girl sleeping at the base of a nearby tree, afraid that her image may disappear from him at any moment and leave yet another empty hole in his bullied heart. Crouching down before her he lifted a hand to touch her face, not even thinking as he moved to push her headband back onto her forehead. It must have just slipped, right?

 

His blood ran cold the next moment as her terrified scream filled the air, the sharp tip of a Kunai ripping across his right hand. Tears filled his eyes as he watched her struggle to get away from him, using what ever means it took to put distance between them.

 

“S-Sakura-Chan…It's me, Naruto…can't you see it's me?” Something about his words clicked inside her as she stilled, now a few feet from him. Her back was turned to him and as she slowly began to walk away he could swore he felt his heart break in his chest.

 

“No Naruto…I can't”

 

 

Her cryptic message had eluded his minds grasped that day. For months he replayed the message over and over in his head, watching the scene unfold time and time again in all his nightmares. He had figured it out only a few months ago, adding up all the details and the words in his head. Sure it had taken him a while, but he hadn't been known as Kohan's number one knuckleheaded ninja for nothing,

 

“I was scared” She answered softly, moving one of her hands to take hold of own of the ones latched around her waits, entwining her fingers with Naruto's as a mean to comfort him.

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“…Sakura?” He needed to ask one more thing before his mind would let him sleep. Needed to know so that he could help his Sakura-Chan in any way he could. “What made you keep going?”

 

She was quiet for a long while, almost making him believe that he had lost his chance at an answer tonight. He sighed, nuzzling closer to her and tried to let sleep over take him. It was when her fingers tightened slightly around his own that he knew she had heard him.

 

BA-BUMP

 

“My heart beat.”

 

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Yay!!! Thanks SO much for the reviews! I love hearing from you all!!! It honestly made a really crummy week not feel so crappy anymore lol.

 

A few notes about this chapter:

 

That count down thing, probably gonna be in each chapter once because it makes the titles of the story and each chapter haha. Sorry if it gets obnoxious. I'll probably shorten it down in way later chapters.

 

There is a part where it says that Tsunade had begun training Sakura. This is just to give a little sense of where about they all are in their training.

 

AGES: I'm going to say that Sasuke, Sakura, Sai, and Naruto are all about 18 or 19 now and Kakashi is probably 29 or 30 (I know that's not the real age gap but this is going to be a KakaSaku fic and I dun want to make a huge one haha)

 

And NO =P I haven't forgotten about Karin…I just don't like her and decided to exclude her from his chapter. Haha

 

Thanks to Goddess Psyche, freakhorrorchick, gamblerrikku, LadyNorth76, SakuraXSasuke121, and theliz82 for the support! You're comments really got me wanting to write the next chapter, so I did! haha