Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Of Love and Betrayal ❯ Realizations ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto!

Last chapter summary:

Sakura starts her first week of training with Gai. After the first day she is forced to go to the hospital because of old wounds. On the way back she bumps into Kakashi.

Warnings: none

 

 

- IV -

Realizations(Revised)

 

Sakura flinched when a small twinge of pain shot through her lower abdomen.

`Shit!'

She placed a hand gingerly over her lower stomach, wincing.

“Even with the treatment, the pain is becoming worse, I need to have that operation soon, but dammit why does this have to happen now? This is so important to me and I can't let this stop me, I'm strong now, and a little pain is not going to defeat me.” She murmured to herself angrily pushing the pain to the back of her mind. She looked up from where she sat under the tree, to see Neji walking towards her with a big bag in his hand.

She stood up and waved, smiling.

“Hey Neji! Thanks so much for this,” She said gratefully.

“Hello, I'm glad you haven't picked up your sensei's bad habit of being late,” He said calmly, his pale eyes watching her closely.

She shuddered, feeling as though those eyes could see straight through to her very soul, but she shook herself inwardly and planted a smile on her face.

Neji watched Sakura curiously, gauging her actions. He had not seen her for quite a while, probably about two years. She had definitely grown up since he had last seen her; he had heard rumors about her around the village and from his ANBU team. She was rumored to have become a ruthless ninja. He had a hard time believing the sweet natured girl he had met at the Chuunin exams had become a ruthless killing machine.

His pale eyes studied her while he put down his bag.

“So what's in the bag?” she asked her emerald eyes full of curiosity.

He unzipped the bag and took out a practice sword and threw it at her. She caught it easily and studied the wooden sword. She tossed it from her left to her right hand, judging its weight and balance. She felt slightly awkward with it in her hand, she was used to the much smaller kunai or Senbon, but she had heard that it was necessary to have skill with a sword in ANBU.

She sighed and looked up to find Neji had pulled out his own practice sword and was standing waiting for her.

“Well let's see just how good you have become, Sakura,” Neji murmured and then lunged towards her.

 

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

 

Sakura breathed heavily, her arm wrapped around her stomach, as another wave of pain went through her.

“Dammit!”

Seeing that she was getting tired, Neji stepped out of his battle stance and lowered his sword.

“Our lesson is over for today, we will meet at the same time tomorrow, oh and Sakura make sure you fix whatever problem you have with your stomach, because you won't be able to pass the ANBU exam that way,” He said and then gathered the weapons and disappeared.

Sakura stared, shocked, at the spot where Neji had stood just a minute ago.

“How did he…”

Sakura smirked and shook her head, as she began to walk back to her apartment.

“Of course he would know he probably saw something wrong with his Byakugan.”

She wiped the sweat from her forehead with her gloved hand and stopped to admire the Sakura blossoms.

“They're beautiful aren't they?”

Sakura gasped and turned to see Kakashi standing next to her.

“What are you doing here?” she asked looking back at the tree in front of her.

`And why didn't I sense him!'

“I wanted to stop by and see if you wanted to have some ramen with me and Naruto, it'll be my treat.”

“Kakashi, whenever you say that it's your treat, we always get stuck with the bill,” She said turning to walk again.

Kakashi fell into step beside her.

“Yea well…” he trailed off, his hand scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

“But I don't really have anything else to do since I'm done with my training for the day, so I'll be happy to.” She said smiling.

They both walked towards Ichiraku in silence, each preoccupied with there own thoughts.

Once they reached the familiar stand, they saw that Naruto was already there eating his second bowl of ramen.

“So you couldn't wait until we got here to start eating?” Sakura said, sitting down next to the blond man.

Naruto looked up at Sakura and slurped up the rest of the noodles hanging out his mouth.

“Oh I'm sorry Sakura-chan I was just really hungry and you guys were taking forever.” He almost whined.

Sakura chuckled and ordered her own bowl of ramen. Kakashi, who sat next to Sakura, ordered his own bowl of ramen as well.

All three ninja sat and ate there own bowls of ramen in silence, the only sounds made was the slurping sounds coming from Naruto.

Once he was finished with his fifth bowl, Naruto leaned back and watched his former team mates. They both were eating there ramen, but there was a strained silence between them, and both were avoiding looking at each other directly. He sighed and paid for this meal and got up, catching the attention of both ninja's.

“Where are you going Naruto? You're done already?” Sakura asked incredulously.

“Yea I had eaten earlier, it was nice to see you guys again, but I need to go home and take care of Hinata, she's been throwing up a lot lately.” He said.

“Oh… well I hope she feels better, and I guess I'll see you later.” Sakura said and got up and hugged Naruto gently. Naruto hugged her back and then pulled back.

“Try to talk to him, he made a mistake before but he's only human,” He whispered so that only Sakura could hear.

Her eyes widened before she smiled and nodded her head.

“Well bye Kakashi-sensei”

Kakashi looked up, his eye crinkling showing that he was smiling under his mask.

“Bye Naruto, good luck with Hinata,” He said simply.

“Thanks” Naruto yelled already running back towards his house.

`Please find a way to forgive him Sakura…' the blond shinobi thought as he took off towards the home he shared with his wife.

Now alone, an awkward silence settled over the two shinobi. Sakura cleared her throat and sat back down next to Kakashi. She couldn't handle the tense silence between them any more so she decided to make some light conversation.

`Let's see think of something light…'

“So how is your training going so far?” Kakashi asked beating her to the punch.

“It's going good, I'm done with training with Gai, thank god, but now I'm training with Neji.”

Kakashi's visible eyebrow rose a fraction.

“What are you training with him for?”

“On weapons, to tell you the truth I really don't like using a sword, I'd much rather use kunai or Senbon, but Neji said that I had to be at least somewhat skilled in using a sword.”

“Yea that's true.”

Sakura looked back down at her hands in her lap.

“Kakashi…why…after all this time are you trying to talk to me again?” She asked hesitantly.

Kakashi sighed and stood up, he put down enough money for both there bowls of ramen and then started to walk away.

“Sakura, follow me,” He said quietly.

Sakura got up from her chair and followed Kakashi, silently wondering where he was leading them. Kakashi lead them to team 7's old training grounds and then stopped next to the familiar three poles.

“Do you remember this place?”

“Yea this was our old training grounds…” Sakura answered.

“There are a lot of memories here, both good and bad.”

“Yea…there are. So why are we here,” She asked still puzzled.

Kakashi turned towards Sakura and walked up to her until he was so close that she could feel the heat radiating from his body. She made to take a step back, slightly disconcerted with there closeness but Kakashi grabbed her arms and brought her into a hug. Shocked, Sakura didn't pull away but neither did she hug him back.

“Sakura…you've changed so much… you've become something that I never wished for any of my subordinates,” He whispered into her ear.

Sakura felt a shiver go through her body, which caused Kakashi to hold her tighter. The feel of his warm body pressed so closely against her own didn't bring the usual nervousness; instead she felt slight warmth spread through her to end in the pit of her stomach.

`What is this feeling…' she wondered stunned at her own bodies' reaction to Kakashi.

“Kakashi please let me go,” She whispered.

Kakashi didn't move for a while, making Sakura wonder if he had even heard her, but then he let his arms slide from around her and he took a step back, his black eye gazing at her sadly.

“I'm sorry that wasn't appropriate.”

“No its okay I just have a thing with my personal space….” She said wiping the sheen of sweat that had appeared on her forehead.

Kakashi just stood and studied her until she fidgeted.

“Is there anything specific you wanted to say to me?” Sakura asked getting slightly annoyed.

Kakashi laughed

“I guess everything about you hasn't changed, you're just as impatient as ever.”

Sakura smiled a little but folded her arms in front of her chest.

“Okay okay the reason I brought you here was to ask you about some things without people overhearing…. Why didn't you tell anybody what happened while you were with Orochimaru?” Kakashi asked.

Sakura shifted her gaze to the three wooden pillars behind Kakashi. The memory of the first training session they had with Kakashi all those years ago popped up in her head.

`Why are all of these old memories coming up all of the sudden?'

“I didn't tell anybody because there is nothing to tell,” She said avoiding Kakashi's eye.

“Okay I guess you don't have any reason to trust me anymore…I just wanted to apologize for my behavior towards you the last couple of years; I really didn't mean to hurt you,” He said.

Sakura sighed and leaned against a tree trunk, her jade eyes scanning the familiar clearing slowly.

“Its not that you… I just don't understand why Naruto was good enough to still have your friendship but I wasn't. I had always considered you my friend not only my sensei. It hurt to see that you didn't even care enough about me to at least speak to me.”

A long silence stretched between them and Sakura began to wonder if Kakashi would even have anything to say.

“Do you hate me?” Kakashi almost whispered.

Sakura turned towards Kakashi and studied him. He was also leaning against a tree, but his dark eye was downcast, and he was slouched more then usual… he was really a sad picture and Sakura almost felt sorry for him.

“Betrayal is the same no matter what form it takes… You betrayed my trust and from that moment I learned the one good thing you ever taught me… never trust anybody,” She said and turned from him, truly too hurt to even watch his reaction. A minute later she heard a small pop and she knew that he was gone.

Sakura's knees buckled and she fell to the floor in a heap. She brought her hand up to her breast where her heart pounded so hard that she was sure everybody in the village could hear it.

`What is wrong with me?'

She closed her eyes and could see Kakashi in her minds eye. His warm body pressed up against hers, his strong arms wrapped around her, giving her a sense of…comfort? Security? She didn't know but it was disturbing to her that she was even thinking about her ex-sensei at all.

“What's wrong with me!?” she exclaimed frustrated.

`How did I get from hating him for abandoning me to loving the way he feels against me!?'

“Okay this is just too weird I definitely need to get home and get some sleep,” She said and got back up shakily and started to walk back to her apartment.

Unbeknownst to the pink haired Kinochi she was not the only one berating herself. Kakashi stood in his small apartment, his dark orb scanning what little he had.

`I had run again…'

He was a coward and running was the only way he ever dealt with his problems. He was beginning to do the one thing he had sworn he didn't want to do.

`Maybe my decision to stay away did more harm then good.'

He didn't know why but his chest had tightened almost painfully at remembering the accusing words that had spilled from her mouth. He knew that what she had said was true, but that didn't mean it hurt any less. She was right; he had abandoned her because of his own cowardness. He couldn't face the fact that the one woman he had really cared about he couldn't even protect.

He wondered what the pink haired Kinochi would think if she knew the real reasons behind his abandonment of her. But he could never tell her...

His heart ached painfully in his chest and he brought a gloved hand up to clench at the clothing covering him.

Even after all these years of trying to put up a barrier around his heart, she was already making cracks in that barrier. He just hoped that this training would end soon because he didn't want to be back in the same place he had been all those years before.

 

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

 

The rest of the week went by basically uneventful for Sakura. She trained everyday with Neji and then went back home to her lonely house. By the end of the week she had become very skilled with a sword and even more skilled with a shuriken and a kunai.

On the last day of her training she was called into Tsunade's office. Once she had arrived at HQ she was led down the familiar hall that led to Tsunade's office. She knocked twice and then opened the door and stepped into the spacious office. She looked around and was surprised to see Kakashi there as well.

“You needed me sensei?” she asked

“Oh hi Sakura I called you here because there is an emergency mission that I need to send you on… I understand this is your third week of training so I'm going to have Kakashi go with you on this mission so that he can train you.”

“But sensei I'm supposed to be training with Shizune and Kurenai this week not Kakashi.”

“yea I know but at the moment I need Shizune to help me with other duties and Kurenai is on a mission already so I'm going to shorten your training, you are good enough at being a medic and at genjutsu, so I am going to just have you train with Kakashi this week and then next week we will have our scheduled battle.”

“Okay sensei, I understand, so what are the details to this mission.” She said all business.

“Your mission will be a B-ranked mission, I want you to go to the sand country and give this scroll to the Kazekage. It contains important and very dangerous information. Even though this is a B-ranked mission I want you two to be on alert because if this scroll gets into the wrong hands it could be disastrous. I want you two to take the whole week on this mission. It will take you three days to get to Suna and back but I want you to stay in Suna and work with the Kazekage for two days.”

Tsunade gave Sakura the scroll and smiled at her.

“Now that you know your mission I want you guys to leave tomorrow morning. Good luck… your dismissed.”

Sakura was the first to leave Tsunade's office, followed closely by Kakashi. Once out in the hall Sakura tucked the scroll into her Jounin jacket and turned toward Kakashi.

“I will meet you in front of the main gate at dawn tomorrow, since it's going to be a long trip we should get started early. See you later Kakashi, oh and please don't be late.” Sakura said as she turned away and started walking down the hall.

Kakashi stared after her intently.

`Well this is going to be an interesting week.' He thought and formed seals and was gone with a puff of smoke.

 

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Authors note:

It's finally come, Kakashi and Sakura have a mission together and during this mission is where feelings start to arise between the two. In this chapter the stuff that happened between Kakashi and Sakura was kind of hinting as to why Kakashi stopped his relationship with Sakura. Also it is the start of Sakura beginning to see Kakashi in another light. Well the next chapter will consist of there trip to Suna and what happens between them. I'm going to start giving Kakashi's point of view as well as Sakura's. I hope everybody likes this chapter and if there are any suggestions you guys have to just review and I'll definitely reply. Thanks for reading!

 

Next Chapter:

Kakashi and Sakura take off on there mission and start Sakura's training with Ninjutsu. During the first night Sakura is surprised to start feeling something other then comradity towards Kakashi.