Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Notice Me ❯ Past Lives ( Chapter 2 )
[ P - Pre-Teen ]
By: Blue Jeans 
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Drama | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 12.28.2004 | Updated On: 12.28.2004 | Pages: 2 | Words: 5.0K | Visits: 391 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Drama | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 12.28.2004 | Updated On: 12.28.2004 | Pages: 2 | Words: 5.0K | Visits: 391 | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: Usual applied. I don't own the characters.
Warning: They're not OOC, they're just older that's all. I just thought this would be how the characters would be like, older and more mature. (It's an excuse, I'm using it.) This is based on the manga, so I don't know what's going on in the anime and I have no clue on any filler episodes (not even the "unmask Kakashi" one).
Spoilers: If you are not at least up to volume 26 of the manga, that's up to chapter 233, please do not spoil the manga or the anime for yourself by reading this little fic.
It's been two years since Sasuke's disappearance. Now he's finally been tracked by someone from his past that he least expected and a showdown he did not see coming will inevitably make him face some truths he had long been avoiding. (In the end, though, he would not be the only one left untouched.)
Notice Me
by Blue Jeans
Part II - Past Lives
Uzumaki Naruto read the note for the umpteenth time as he traveled with his unlikely companions. Nara Shikamaru was dragged reluctantly to join them by a furious Yamanaka Ino. Rock Lee was unfortunately detained by a mission, and though the other had been willing to ignore his duties, Shikamaru reminded all of them that if Godaime knew of this they would most likely all be detained and in trouble. They made one last stop at Akimichi Choji's place, where Shikamaru asked his long time friend to come up with excuses should their disappearance be questioned.
"How long will you be gone?" Choji asked with a quirk of a brow as he ate another potato chip.
Shikamaru huffed as he shrugged his shoulders. "It's a woman, who knows how long."
Choji nodded in understanding, both ignoring the dead-pan glare and the agressive verbal attacks shot at them by Ino in retaliation. "Yeah," Choji agreed as he gave a side-ways glance at the furious blonde. "I guess it could take a while."
After that, they set out for the main gates and located the guard on duty that Friday morning. "Yeah," he nodded as he rubbed his head at their questioning. "I saw Haruno-san walking by and saying she was going to gather herbs from the woods. I was off after around noon time so I can't say when she got back. Did she go missing?"
Shikamaru shrugged. "Nah, we just wanted to know which direction she went into. She said she forgot something in the forest, but she's too busy to pick it up herself."
The guarded looked at them uncertainly, but Shikamaru assured him that they were doing some hunter training in the woods while looking for whatever Sakura forgot, and it would do all three of them good to practice some team-work while at it. The guard nodded agreeably after this and pointed in the direction Sakura went. Naruto kept silent until they were some distance away. When they were out of sight from the guards, he let go of a loud sigh of relief. " Man that was close!" Naruto exclaimed, quite satisfied with his silent role in the whole ordeal.
Shikamaru shrugged again. "Not really. It would have been troublesome if you had to lie, Naruto-kun." Ino nodded in agreement, both ignoring the glare Naruto shot to each of them.
"What the hell do you mean by that?" Naruto demanded, feeling as he should definitely be insulted at this point.
"That you are a horrible liar," Ino stated matter-of-factly as she flipped her hair away from her shoulders. "Everyone knows that, Naruto-kun." She emphasised his name for affects as she gave her companion a pointed look. "Sakura-chan always said you were a bit too simple to tell a good lie."
"W-What?" Naruto demanded angrily. "Sakura-chan would never--" Pausing Naruto looked away sharply, but Ino caught his forlorn gaze as he turned away to the trees.
The blonde ninja took pity on him then and so she decided to explain herself to Naruto. "It was a long time ago," Ino said. She smiled a bit nostalgically at the past as she remembered their childhood together. "Sakura-chan's said nothing but good of you since... since that day."
Naruto clenched his fist and refused to face his companions. He finally broke the silence after a long pause, his words more angry than Ino or Shikamaru were prepared to hear. "I failed her, you know?" he forced out each word through clenched teeth of defeat and saddness, yet the emotions he was expressing was still held back and controlled. "She should have continued to criticize me."
Ino shook her head. "No," she replied. Naruto's head turned her way in surprise. "To Sakura-chan, you did her the greatest favor anyone could." Ino silenced Naruto with another shake of her head when she saw him ready to protest her words vigorously. "No, Naruto-kun, you're the one who doesn't understand. To Sakura-chan, you put your life on the line to protect something she believed in with all of her heart. For that, she could never fault you. Never."
"Ino..." Naruto looked at her before turning away. His gaze was filled with uncertainty.
Ino giggled a little as she pointed to herself. "You shouldn't doubt me, Naruto-kun. I should know," she stated proudly, chastising her companion with great flourish. "I'm a woman, after all. And nothing can beat a woman's intuition ."
Shikamaru sighed in annoyance at this. These types of dramatic moments seem to always spring up around him without him having asked for any of it. "So troublesome," he muttered to himself just as they picked up on Sakura's trail. "A woman's intuition indeed." he added to himself softly, wise enough to know he didn't want such a comment to reach Ino's ears.
Yet somehow, with her ears always i n t u ned to gossip, Ino heard Shikamaru's mutterings despite his efforts. The rest of the trip was then filled with bickering and friendly bantering that had long been missed. Naruto studied his two comrades with a silent longing in his eyes. Somehow, after all this time, he missed such moments between himself and his old teammates. After losing Sasuke, nothing had been the same again. Knowing that, Naruto silently promised himself that he would not lose Sakura too.
No matter what, he would bring her back in one piece. That was his ninja way.
- - - - -
The fire was lit and they sat in silence. Her hair was gold and red, highlighted by the dancing flames. She was scowling, but it could not be helped. "Did you have to tie me?" Haruno Sakura demanded once more, breaking through a silence he was long accustomed to.
"I didn't have to light a fire, but I did." Uchiha Sasuke answered in his own way. He looked at her pointedly, even though he could still not see her at all.
"I'm not going to run away," Sakura muttered to herself, but he heard her clearly nonetheless.
"Yo u would attack me like before," Sasuke pointed out. His tone gave the impression that the subject was not worth any more discussion after his statement.
Glaring at Sasuke didn't seem to work, as he was blind, so Sakura huffed instead and silence fell between them once more. After some time, she gathered up her courage to speak again, to ask him the thing he did not wish to answer. "Are you going to tell me the truth?" Her words sounded fragile to her own ears, but her gaze was steady as their eyes locked across the darkness and fire, even if he did not know the intensity of that moment.
Sasuke was the first to turn away, stroking the fire before turning his face to the skies overhead. For a moment, Sakura wondered if she had ever seen such an expression on his face while they had been training. She had a feeling that if Sasuke could see, he would never reveal this side of himself to her. It was not likely she would ever see such an expression again, and since she had not seen him for some time she doubt she would remember a time in the past. Memories had always been unreliable, even her own, even in moments she was sure she would never forget.
Inner Sakura struggled to the surface and valiantly denied to have ever been forgetful of anything, but vanity had passed her years ago. Vanity saved no one from tears when they lose things most precious to them. To Sakura, when Sasuke had left, she had lost almost everything. If it had not been for her determination to reach him, if Naruto had not been so stubborn as to cl ing to his promise.. .
"I hated you... a little." she said in the silence. He looked surprised at her, then. "I couldn't hate you for leaving me, for taking away the most precious thing from me. I couldn't even hate you for betraying everything I loved and held dear. But--" she paused to collect herself before looking at him in the eyes "--when you went out of your way to kill Naruto-kun that day. When I had to watch helplessly as Kakashi-sensei came back with Naruto's broken body... he never looked so small to me, so frail... until that day. I hated you a little."
He looked like he understood, but Sakura had long learned that Sasuke looked like he understood a lot of things that he could not grasp. "I expected it," he answered her with that same serene look on his face.
She smiled a little ruefully at him then. "Yeah, but I don't think you understand the whys behind it at all."
He shot a confused look her way, but because he could not see her it looked as if he was glancing at the woods behind her shoulder. "I didn't hate you for what you did to Naruto-kun. He... He would have done no different if he knew the outcome of that day. I doubt neither or you regret such a day, perhaps just how it ended. I hated you partially because I never would have thought that you would have let me down like that. I never understood why you betrayed yourself like that. I hated you partially for taking on such a burden on yourself, for hurting yourself like that."
"I had to kill my dearest friend." Sasuke replied with cold bluntness. "To kill the man I hated, I must walk his path... the path that made him what he was."
Sakura looked at him sharply then. "You are not Uchiha Itachi," her words were so filled with power that Sasuke could almost see her in the darkness. She blazed, like a flame, like a star, but then her voice was calm and the fragile light was gone as well, he was in the darkness again with only her voice as his companion. "You will never be him."
After such words, Sasuke was incensed. "Don't you dare," he whispered to clenched teeth. "I w ill kill him one way or another. T hat is my destiny." There was more emotion in his voice now than he had ever expressed in her presence, but Sakura was not shocked by his display of emotions.
Instead she was feeling so angry and helpless that tears gathered in her eyes. She didn't want to cry any more tears for Sasuke, but seeing him like this, Sakura felt too overwhelmed by emotions to express all the things she felt in that moment. If only it wasn't through tears though. So she held her tongue for a moment longer than she would have liked as she gathered her composure. "Did Itachi... have many friends?" Sakura finally asked.
Sasuke paused at this, surprised by her inquire. Despite himself, he could not help but think back. Thinking back, he could not even remember meeting the man Itachi held so close to his heart. "I had never met him... the man Itachi killed to become what he had become."
Sakura smiled. "If Itachi stayed but a day in the village, he would not have been able to walk very far before meeting an ally of Sasuke-kun. He would not have to go far to see someone who would give his life up for Sasuke-kun. And if he but walked a little further, he would have met friends of Sasuke-kun's, even if he had wanted to avoid them."
Sasuke snarled at her. "I had no one."
"No," Sakura shook her head. "If you but reached out a little, you would have realized you had everyone's support all along. When you walked away that day, even though only Naruto-kun reached you, many of our friends and comrades risked their lives so that Naruto-kun could reach you in time. Many of us who were not strong enough to fight off the opponents that blocked the way could but wait, but Naruto-kun, he fought you so desperately that day because the whole village was at his back, and everyone's desires was there. We were all there, fighting to bring you back."
"He failed." Sasuke answered with a dead-pan certainty. "Such emotions always fail."
Sakura glared at him, she was angry again. Her anger lit her afire in his gaze. "After all these years, you still don't understand anything! Sasuke-"
In that moment he felt her tone change, felt the enemy that concealed themselves not too far off. Before he knew it, her body was over his, covering him. He felt something impact her, pushing them both onto the ground. Her hands were shaking as they held his face. He heard her mouth whisper against his skin, an intimate kiss with unknown words imprinted onto his skin.
And then the night came bursting into his gaze and he was off the ground, fighting the intruders. It was ninja trackers, by the looks of it, Sound Nins. His three year lease was coming to a close and the curse seal vibrated under his skin to remind him that time was almost up. Soon, Shikamaru will come searching for him. His blood sang an unknown song at such a thought, and he gripped his neck with annoyance and anger in his gaze.
"Sa-suke...-kun." He heard her faint breath and remembered why he was there. There were two shurikens on her back. T he second one had released the tie around her hands while scraping her wrists in a bloody mess. Two others were embedded in her legs, and they went deeper than the ones on her back. It was the first that worried him, it made her bleed more than he would have liked. "T-take it out, Sasuke-kun," she instructed him, despite his protests. "There are herbs in my medicine bag. Please, Sasuke-kun, take them out now!" He did what he was told and put pressure on her wounds to stop the bleeding to the best of his abilit i es.
As soon as Sasuke was done tying the last knot on her pressure point, he was off again to make sure the men were dead before he returned to treat her some more. There were long moments of silence that followed, interrupted only when she gave him more instructions. He should have left her to the wolves, but somehow, like those years ago, he could not hurt her like that. Even now, when they had nothing to tie their fates to each other anymore, he couldn't leave her to die. "You should have let the shuriken hit me."
She smiled a bit at this when he finally propped her to the tree. "You wouldn't have been able to handle the poison." He looked at her incredulously. "There'll be a fever," she went on, ignoring him completely. "I won't be able to be moved for days. I guess that's lucky for you, hm?"
"I am going in the morning," he finally said. He realized what she had meant and it surprised him that she did it having such knowledge. The Sakura he knew... in such a situation he would not have been able to tell what she would have done, but perhaps letting him go would not be something he would have counted on.
Sakura smiled a bit at his somber expression. "It can't be helped. Even after all this time, I am just as foolish as you remembered me, is that what you think?"
He looked away from her pained expression. "You were always an idiot, just like... Naruto."
"He's alive, you know?" he turned sharply at her then. "I guess your killing intent was not as strong as you thought." He cursed under his breath at this. "It doesn't make you weaker than your brother," Sakura added softly. "Even if you don't believe me now when I say this, I think you are stronger than he could ever be. I think he made you walk this path because he could not walk the one you used to follow."
"Itachi could care less what you think." Sasuke said coldly.
"You haven't used that tone of voice with me for a long time." Sakura said instead. She smiled at him with that same rueful expression he never would have associated with her in their childhood. "I missed it... somehow I even missed that." She laughed at herself then, another something he had never seen Sakura do in their time together, years ago.
"You will not survive on your own." He explained as he carried her through half the night, looking for a place the Sound Nins would not reach her at.
Sakura looked at him through hooded eyes when they settled. "I'll live," she answered cheerfully. Her grin was so sudden that Sasuke could not help but stare in awe as a light in her that none of her earlier anger could have matched sparked before his eyes. It was a spark he had also forgotten about her, a spark he could never understand. "My comrades will come for me, don't worry. I had to drug them just so I could get away to find you."
He wanted to ask her how she was even able to do such a thing that no one else could have done before her. They were far from the borders of Leaf now, at least the last time he checked. Sasuke had been very careful about that. Sakura had not answered him before when he had asked her of how she had found him, and Sasuke doubted that she would answer him now. She had always been too determined for her own good, especially when it came to him.
"Sasuke," her trembling hand touched his cheek, leaving dirt and blood in its wake. She smiled at him so ruefully that he could do nothing but listen to her words. Even if his gaze was indifferent and cold, it had never affected her no matter how hard he tried. "One day, I believe Naruto-kun will fulfill his promise to me."
"What is that?" he asked out of curiosity, though his tone of voice did not betray him.
"He'll bring you back to me," she answered. Her eyes were so clear and trusting and sure, Sasuke thought for a moment that he was speaking once more to a child.
"Idiot," he whispered . His voice was cold with unce rtainty. He tossed the blanket he had used for his last year of travel over her shaking form. Sasuke could see, even in the darkness, how her eyes were clouding over from poison and sickness. He would have to find another to replace the blanket she was now using, but he was sure he could get his hands on one considering the number of Sound Ninjas he had taken down that evening.
He hurried back to camp and took what he could before carefully covering his tracks and hiding all evidence of their previous camp site. When he returned to their new camp, Sakura had gotten far worse than when he had left her, which was not much of a surprise to him in the least. That night her fever climbed in an alarming rate. He stayed to watch over her and forced her to keep the blanket around her shivering, and yet, over-heated body.
She called out to him several times during the night, awakening him from his doze beside her. Once, she reached out to him, calling, asking, and crying before she settled as her hand brushed his. Somehow, Sakura's fingers laced over with Sasuke's own startled ones before she fell into unconsciousness again. Sometimes she would whimper, once even asking if Naruto was alright. It seemed, he was not the only one reliving memories of the past.
"Sasuke-kun," she asked him as the sunlight touched the tips of the trees overhead. Her fever broke not too long ago, but her form was still far too weak for anything but motionless suffering, and she was still wrecked with pain from the affects of the poison. Somehow she sensed him leaving her behind again without him having made a sound.
Sakura, for some reason, always knew when he was leaving her. Sasuke had made sure she could reach the bags of water and food stuffs that he left her, it would buy her time. He was leaving as he had said he would, even though he was uncertain of her condition. It could not be helped . S he was the one who was trailing after him. "You're welcome," her voice floated over the chirping of the birds and the cool morning breeze.
His back stiffened in surprise at her words. After three years, she still remembered that night that was the beginning and the end of them all. He smiled ruefully at the memories of that time, a life he had abandoned for revenge and the words he did not think she heard as he had rendered her unconscious. With her, he could not help but remember such a past. With her, the unwelcome past would only catch up to him all too quickly.
"Goodbye, Sakura." He was gone before she could reply. "Thank you," he sighed before his shadow became a whisper in the woods.
- - - - -
Naruto did not know what led him there, but in the exhaustion of traveling non-stop for four days, he finally arrived by a small brook. He was hungry, so he told his comrades he was going to look for food. Ino assured him that she would be the one gathering fire-wood that evening while Shikamaru lazily began gathering water, all the while muttering about troublesome, missing Leaf Nins.
Naruto almost stumbled over her when he came upon her prone form in the small, forest clearing. For a second he feared that he had came too late, and that she was dead. With that same fear, he dropped onto his knees, speechless. Her uniform was bloody, and she upturned face looked sickly. But Naruto noticed in the next second that she was breathing. "Sakura-chan!" He cried out in relief, clutching her to him worriedly.
"Ouch," she muttered into his shoulder in response to his fierce hug. Sleepily she wakened, eyes unfocused as Naruto pulled back sheepishly.
"S-sorry, Sakura-chan." He murmured. He couldn't help but touch her hair and her face, checking her for injuries, reassuring himself of her continued existence . He found four wounds on her body, but they were healing, though not very well from lack of care.
"Naruto...-kun," Sakura smiled hazily up at him as he inspected her. Her limp hands r ose to stop him as he began to pull at her bandages. "You... came."
He shot her a sharp look. "Of course I came," he sounded angry now. His earlier worries melting slightly to emotions he had not had the time to indulge.
"I...didn't doubt you would." Sakura struggled with her words through her sore throat, and Naruto noticed finger print bruises on her neck. "I missed you," Sakura smiled at him. There was a look in her eyes in that startled moment that Naruto had never seen her direct at him. It was always Sasuke that such a gaze was for, even after all this time there had never been anyone else she looked at with that expression. Yet somehow, the tenderness, even for a moment, was just for him. "I- I'm sorry, I worried you."
"Idiot," he breathed out in awed surprise. Even in such a moment that Naruto had always thought would bring him nothing but smiles, there was a pain in his chest that would not leave. A rueful smile grac ed his lips as he looked down at her. "I will always come looking for you, and don't you forget that the next time you decide to run away after drugging us."
"I have much to tell you," Sakura struggled out, her smile not leaving her haggard face. Naruto could tell she was coming in and out of consciousness. "Naruto-kun," she whispered as he carefully lifted her to take her to camp. "You're warm." She wasn't able to see Naruto's spreading blush as Sakura lost her grip with reality once more.
- - - - -
continue to part 3...
Warning: They're not OOC, they're just older that's all. I just thought this would be how the characters would be like, older and more mature. (It's an excuse, I'm using it.) This is based on the manga, so I don't know what's going on in the anime and I have no clue on any filler episodes (not even the "unmask Kakashi" one).
Spoilers: If you are not at least up to volume 26 of the manga, that's up to chapter 233, please do not spoil the manga or the anime for yourself by reading this little fic.
It's been two years since Sasuke's disappearance. Now he's finally been tracked by someone from his past that he least expected and a showdown he did not see coming will inevitably make him face some truths he had long been avoiding. (In the end, though, he would not be the only one left untouched.)
Notice Me
by Blue Jeans
Part II - Past Lives
Uzumaki Naruto read the note for the umpteenth time as he traveled with his unlikely companions. Nara Shikamaru was dragged reluctantly to join them by a furious Yamanaka Ino. Rock Lee was unfortunately detained by a mission, and though the other had been willing to ignore his duties, Shikamaru reminded all of them that if Godaime knew of this they would most likely all be detained and in trouble. They made one last stop at Akimichi Choji's place, where Shikamaru asked his long time friend to come up with excuses should their disappearance be questioned.
"How long will you be gone?" Choji asked with a quirk of a brow as he ate another potato chip.
Shikamaru huffed as he shrugged his shoulders. "It's a woman, who knows how long."
Choji nodded in understanding, both ignoring the dead-pan glare and the agressive verbal attacks shot at them by Ino in retaliation. "Yeah," Choji agreed as he gave a side-ways glance at the furious blonde. "I guess it could take a while."
After that, they set out for the main gates and located the guard on duty that Friday morning. "Yeah," he nodded as he rubbed his head at their questioning. "I saw Haruno-san walking by and saying she was going to gather herbs from the woods. I was off after around noon time so I can't say when she got back. Did she go missing?"
Shikamaru shrugged. "Nah, we just wanted to know which direction she went into. She said she forgot something in the forest, but she's too busy to pick it up herself."
The guarded looked at them uncertainly, but Shikamaru assured him that they were doing some hunter training in the woods while looking for whatever Sakura forgot, and it would do all three of them good to practice some team-work while at it. The guard nodded agreeably after this and pointed in the direction Sakura went. Naruto kept silent until they were some distance away. When they were out of sight from the guards, he let go of a loud sigh of relief. " Man that was close!" Naruto exclaimed, quite satisfied with his silent role in the whole ordeal.
Shikamaru shrugged again. "Not really. It would have been troublesome if you had to lie, Naruto-kun." Ino nodded in agreement, both ignoring the glare Naruto shot to each of them.
"What the hell do you mean by that?" Naruto demanded, feeling as he should definitely be insulted at this point.
"That you are a horrible liar," Ino stated matter-of-factly as she flipped her hair away from her shoulders. "Everyone knows that, Naruto-kun." She emphasised his name for affects as she gave her companion a pointed look. "Sakura-chan always said you were a bit too simple to tell a good lie."
"W-What?" Naruto demanded angrily. "Sakura-chan would never--" Pausing Naruto looked away sharply, but Ino caught his forlorn gaze as he turned away to the trees.
The blonde ninja took pity on him then and so she decided to explain herself to Naruto. "It was a long time ago," Ino said. She smiled a bit nostalgically at the past as she remembered their childhood together. "Sakura-chan's said nothing but good of you since... since that day."
Naruto clenched his fist and refused to face his companions. He finally broke the silence after a long pause, his words more angry than Ino or Shikamaru were prepared to hear. "I failed her, you know?" he forced out each word through clenched teeth of defeat and saddness, yet the emotions he was expressing was still held back and controlled. "She should have continued to criticize me."
Ino shook her head. "No," she replied. Naruto's head turned her way in surprise. "To Sakura-chan, you did her the greatest favor anyone could." Ino silenced Naruto with another shake of her head when she saw him ready to protest her words vigorously. "No, Naruto-kun, you're the one who doesn't understand. To Sakura-chan, you put your life on the line to protect something she believed in with all of her heart. For that, she could never fault you. Never."
"Ino..." Naruto looked at her before turning away. His gaze was filled with uncertainty.
Ino giggled a little as she pointed to herself. "You shouldn't doubt me, Naruto-kun. I should know," she stated proudly, chastising her companion with great flourish. "I'm a woman, after all. And nothing can beat a woman's intuition ."
Shikamaru sighed in annoyance at this. These types of dramatic moments seem to always spring up around him without him having asked for any of it. "So troublesome," he muttered to himself just as they picked up on Sakura's trail. "A woman's intuition indeed." he added to himself softly, wise enough to know he didn't want such a comment to reach Ino's ears.
Yet somehow, with her ears always i n t u ned to gossip, Ino heard Shikamaru's mutterings despite his efforts. The rest of the trip was then filled with bickering and friendly bantering that had long been missed. Naruto studied his two comrades with a silent longing in his eyes. Somehow, after all this time, he missed such moments between himself and his old teammates. After losing Sasuke, nothing had been the same again. Knowing that, Naruto silently promised himself that he would not lose Sakura too.
No matter what, he would bring her back in one piece. That was his ninja way.
- - - - -
The fire was lit and they sat in silence. Her hair was gold and red, highlighted by the dancing flames. She was scowling, but it could not be helped. "Did you have to tie me?" Haruno Sakura demanded once more, breaking through a silence he was long accustomed to.
"I didn't have to light a fire, but I did." Uchiha Sasuke answered in his own way. He looked at her pointedly, even though he could still not see her at all.
"I'm not going to run away," Sakura muttered to herself, but he heard her clearly nonetheless.
"Yo u would attack me like before," Sasuke pointed out. His tone gave the impression that the subject was not worth any more discussion after his statement.
Glaring at Sasuke didn't seem to work, as he was blind, so Sakura huffed instead and silence fell between them once more. After some time, she gathered up her courage to speak again, to ask him the thing he did not wish to answer. "Are you going to tell me the truth?" Her words sounded fragile to her own ears, but her gaze was steady as their eyes locked across the darkness and fire, even if he did not know the intensity of that moment.
Sasuke was the first to turn away, stroking the fire before turning his face to the skies overhead. For a moment, Sakura wondered if she had ever seen such an expression on his face while they had been training. She had a feeling that if Sasuke could see, he would never reveal this side of himself to her. It was not likely she would ever see such an expression again, and since she had not seen him for some time she doubt she would remember a time in the past. Memories had always been unreliable, even her own, even in moments she was sure she would never forget.
Inner Sakura struggled to the surface and valiantly denied to have ever been forgetful of anything, but vanity had passed her years ago. Vanity saved no one from tears when they lose things most precious to them. To Sakura, when Sasuke had left, she had lost almost everything. If it had not been for her determination to reach him, if Naruto had not been so stubborn as to cl ing to his promise.. .
"I hated you... a little." she said in the silence. He looked surprised at her, then. "I couldn't hate you for leaving me, for taking away the most precious thing from me. I couldn't even hate you for betraying everything I loved and held dear. But--" she paused to collect herself before looking at him in the eyes "--when you went out of your way to kill Naruto-kun that day. When I had to watch helplessly as Kakashi-sensei came back with Naruto's broken body... he never looked so small to me, so frail... until that day. I hated you a little."
He looked like he understood, but Sakura had long learned that Sasuke looked like he understood a lot of things that he could not grasp. "I expected it," he answered her with that same serene look on his face.
She smiled a little ruefully at him then. "Yeah, but I don't think you understand the whys behind it at all."
He shot a confused look her way, but because he could not see her it looked as if he was glancing at the woods behind her shoulder. "I didn't hate you for what you did to Naruto-kun. He... He would have done no different if he knew the outcome of that day. I doubt neither or you regret such a day, perhaps just how it ended. I hated you partially because I never would have thought that you would have let me down like that. I never understood why you betrayed yourself like that. I hated you partially for taking on such a burden on yourself, for hurting yourself like that."
"I had to kill my dearest friend." Sasuke replied with cold bluntness. "To kill the man I hated, I must walk his path... the path that made him what he was."
Sakura looked at him sharply then. "You are not Uchiha Itachi," her words were so filled with power that Sasuke could almost see her in the darkness. She blazed, like a flame, like a star, but then her voice was calm and the fragile light was gone as well, he was in the darkness again with only her voice as his companion. "You will never be him."
After such words, Sasuke was incensed. "Don't you dare," he whispered to clenched teeth. "I w ill kill him one way or another. T hat is my destiny." There was more emotion in his voice now than he had ever expressed in her presence, but Sakura was not shocked by his display of emotions.
Instead she was feeling so angry and helpless that tears gathered in her eyes. She didn't want to cry any more tears for Sasuke, but seeing him like this, Sakura felt too overwhelmed by emotions to express all the things she felt in that moment. If only it wasn't through tears though. So she held her tongue for a moment longer than she would have liked as she gathered her composure. "Did Itachi... have many friends?" Sakura finally asked.
Sasuke paused at this, surprised by her inquire. Despite himself, he could not help but think back. Thinking back, he could not even remember meeting the man Itachi held so close to his heart. "I had never met him... the man Itachi killed to become what he had become."
Sakura smiled. "If Itachi stayed but a day in the village, he would not have been able to walk very far before meeting an ally of Sasuke-kun. He would not have to go far to see someone who would give his life up for Sasuke-kun. And if he but walked a little further, he would have met friends of Sasuke-kun's, even if he had wanted to avoid them."
Sasuke snarled at her. "I had no one."
"No," Sakura shook her head. "If you but reached out a little, you would have realized you had everyone's support all along. When you walked away that day, even though only Naruto-kun reached you, many of our friends and comrades risked their lives so that Naruto-kun could reach you in time. Many of us who were not strong enough to fight off the opponents that blocked the way could but wait, but Naruto-kun, he fought you so desperately that day because the whole village was at his back, and everyone's desires was there. We were all there, fighting to bring you back."
"He failed." Sasuke answered with a dead-pan certainty. "Such emotions always fail."
Sakura glared at him, she was angry again. Her anger lit her afire in his gaze. "After all these years, you still don't understand anything! Sasuke-"
In that moment he felt her tone change, felt the enemy that concealed themselves not too far off. Before he knew it, her body was over his, covering him. He felt something impact her, pushing them both onto the ground. Her hands were shaking as they held his face. He heard her mouth whisper against his skin, an intimate kiss with unknown words imprinted onto his skin.
And then the night came bursting into his gaze and he was off the ground, fighting the intruders. It was ninja trackers, by the looks of it, Sound Nins. His three year lease was coming to a close and the curse seal vibrated under his skin to remind him that time was almost up. Soon, Shikamaru will come searching for him. His blood sang an unknown song at such a thought, and he gripped his neck with annoyance and anger in his gaze.
"Sa-suke...-kun." He heard her faint breath and remembered why he was there. There were two shurikens on her back. T he second one had released the tie around her hands while scraping her wrists in a bloody mess. Two others were embedded in her legs, and they went deeper than the ones on her back. It was the first that worried him, it made her bleed more than he would have liked. "T-take it out, Sasuke-kun," she instructed him, despite his protests. "There are herbs in my medicine bag. Please, Sasuke-kun, take them out now!" He did what he was told and put pressure on her wounds to stop the bleeding to the best of his abilit i es.
As soon as Sasuke was done tying the last knot on her pressure point, he was off again to make sure the men were dead before he returned to treat her some more. There were long moments of silence that followed, interrupted only when she gave him more instructions. He should have left her to the wolves, but somehow, like those years ago, he could not hurt her like that. Even now, when they had nothing to tie their fates to each other anymore, he couldn't leave her to die. "You should have let the shuriken hit me."
She smiled a bit at this when he finally propped her to the tree. "You wouldn't have been able to handle the poison." He looked at her incredulously. "There'll be a fever," she went on, ignoring him completely. "I won't be able to be moved for days. I guess that's lucky for you, hm?"
"I am going in the morning," he finally said. He realized what she had meant and it surprised him that she did it having such knowledge. The Sakura he knew... in such a situation he would not have been able to tell what she would have done, but perhaps letting him go would not be something he would have counted on.
Sakura smiled a bit at his somber expression. "It can't be helped. Even after all this time, I am just as foolish as you remembered me, is that what you think?"
He looked away from her pained expression. "You were always an idiot, just like... Naruto."
"He's alive, you know?" he turned sharply at her then. "I guess your killing intent was not as strong as you thought." He cursed under his breath at this. "It doesn't make you weaker than your brother," Sakura added softly. "Even if you don't believe me now when I say this, I think you are stronger than he could ever be. I think he made you walk this path because he could not walk the one you used to follow."
"Itachi could care less what you think." Sasuke said coldly.
"You haven't used that tone of voice with me for a long time." Sakura said instead. She smiled at him with that same rueful expression he never would have associated with her in their childhood. "I missed it... somehow I even missed that." She laughed at herself then, another something he had never seen Sakura do in their time together, years ago.
"You will not survive on your own." He explained as he carried her through half the night, looking for a place the Sound Nins would not reach her at.
Sakura looked at him through hooded eyes when they settled. "I'll live," she answered cheerfully. Her grin was so sudden that Sasuke could not help but stare in awe as a light in her that none of her earlier anger could have matched sparked before his eyes. It was a spark he had also forgotten about her, a spark he could never understand. "My comrades will come for me, don't worry. I had to drug them just so I could get away to find you."
He wanted to ask her how she was even able to do such a thing that no one else could have done before her. They were far from the borders of Leaf now, at least the last time he checked. Sasuke had been very careful about that. Sakura had not answered him before when he had asked her of how she had found him, and Sasuke doubted that she would answer him now. She had always been too determined for her own good, especially when it came to him.
"Sasuke," her trembling hand touched his cheek, leaving dirt and blood in its wake. She smiled at him so ruefully that he could do nothing but listen to her words. Even if his gaze was indifferent and cold, it had never affected her no matter how hard he tried. "One day, I believe Naruto-kun will fulfill his promise to me."
"What is that?" he asked out of curiosity, though his tone of voice did not betray him.
"He'll bring you back to me," she answered. Her eyes were so clear and trusting and sure, Sasuke thought for a moment that he was speaking once more to a child.
"Idiot," he whispered . His voice was cold with unce rtainty. He tossed the blanket he had used for his last year of travel over her shaking form. Sasuke could see, even in the darkness, how her eyes were clouding over from poison and sickness. He would have to find another to replace the blanket she was now using, but he was sure he could get his hands on one considering the number of Sound Ninjas he had taken down that evening.
He hurried back to camp and took what he could before carefully covering his tracks and hiding all evidence of their previous camp site. When he returned to their new camp, Sakura had gotten far worse than when he had left her, which was not much of a surprise to him in the least. That night her fever climbed in an alarming rate. He stayed to watch over her and forced her to keep the blanket around her shivering, and yet, over-heated body.
She called out to him several times during the night, awakening him from his doze beside her. Once, she reached out to him, calling, asking, and crying before she settled as her hand brushed his. Somehow, Sakura's fingers laced over with Sasuke's own startled ones before she fell into unconsciousness again. Sometimes she would whimper, once even asking if Naruto was alright. It seemed, he was not the only one reliving memories of the past.
"Sasuke-kun," she asked him as the sunlight touched the tips of the trees overhead. Her fever broke not too long ago, but her form was still far too weak for anything but motionless suffering, and she was still wrecked with pain from the affects of the poison. Somehow she sensed him leaving her behind again without him having made a sound.
Sakura, for some reason, always knew when he was leaving her. Sasuke had made sure she could reach the bags of water and food stuffs that he left her, it would buy her time. He was leaving as he had said he would, even though he was uncertain of her condition. It could not be helped . S he was the one who was trailing after him. "You're welcome," her voice floated over the chirping of the birds and the cool morning breeze.
His back stiffened in surprise at her words. After three years, she still remembered that night that was the beginning and the end of them all. He smiled ruefully at the memories of that time, a life he had abandoned for revenge and the words he did not think she heard as he had rendered her unconscious. With her, he could not help but remember such a past. With her, the unwelcome past would only catch up to him all too quickly.
"Goodbye, Sakura." He was gone before she could reply. "Thank you," he sighed before his shadow became a whisper in the woods.
- - - - -
Naruto did not know what led him there, but in the exhaustion of traveling non-stop for four days, he finally arrived by a small brook. He was hungry, so he told his comrades he was going to look for food. Ino assured him that she would be the one gathering fire-wood that evening while Shikamaru lazily began gathering water, all the while muttering about troublesome, missing Leaf Nins.
Naruto almost stumbled over her when he came upon her prone form in the small, forest clearing. For a second he feared that he had came too late, and that she was dead. With that same fear, he dropped onto his knees, speechless. Her uniform was bloody, and she upturned face looked sickly. But Naruto noticed in the next second that she was breathing. "Sakura-chan!" He cried out in relief, clutching her to him worriedly.
"Ouch," she muttered into his shoulder in response to his fierce hug. Sleepily she wakened, eyes unfocused as Naruto pulled back sheepishly.
"S-sorry, Sakura-chan." He murmured. He couldn't help but touch her hair and her face, checking her for injuries, reassuring himself of her continued existence . He found four wounds on her body, but they were healing, though not very well from lack of care.
"Naruto...-kun," Sakura smiled hazily up at him as he inspected her. Her limp hands r ose to stop him as he began to pull at her bandages. "You... came."
He shot her a sharp look. "Of course I came," he sounded angry now. His earlier worries melting slightly to emotions he had not had the time to indulge.
"I...didn't doubt you would." Sakura struggled with her words through her sore throat, and Naruto noticed finger print bruises on her neck. "I missed you," Sakura smiled at him. There was a look in her eyes in that startled moment that Naruto had never seen her direct at him. It was always Sasuke that such a gaze was for, even after all this time there had never been anyone else she looked at with that expression. Yet somehow, the tenderness, even for a moment, was just for him. "I- I'm sorry, I worried you."
"Idiot," he breathed out in awed surprise. Even in such a moment that Naruto had always thought would bring him nothing but smiles, there was a pain in his chest that would not leave. A rueful smile grac ed his lips as he looked down at her. "I will always come looking for you, and don't you forget that the next time you decide to run away after drugging us."
"I have much to tell you," Sakura struggled out, her smile not leaving her haggard face. Naruto could tell she was coming in and out of consciousness. "Naruto-kun," she whispered as he carefully lifted her to take her to camp. "You're warm." She wasn't able to see Naruto's spreading blush as Sakura lost her grip with reality once more.
- - - - -
continue to part 3...