Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Moon On Fire ❯ Slow On The Uptake And Late For The Game ( Chapter 12 )

Chapter 12

Slow On The Uptake and Late For The Game

 

 

Before all this had happened Sakura had finished her rounds at the hospital and gone home for the evening. She'd been quiet and sullen all afternoon and the other nurses had commented as much but she had just told them she had a headache. She took the long way home from the hospital as the usual way would have taken her right past Ichiraku Ramen. She didn't think of it as avoidance though. She kept telling herself as she had been for the last couple of days that she was okay with this. It was the best possible circumstances. Mizuki would get Naruto off her case and she would be free to finally confess to Sasuke. She was happy for them. Really.

 

She pulled herself up to her bedroom and flopped face first on her bed. She lay that way for several minutes before turning her head to the left to get some air. When she did she saw the picture on her dresser that had been taken the day Team 7 had been formed. She sat up on her knees and picked up the picture, holding it in both hands. She stared down at it sadly. The first picture of Team 7; Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke and her. They had all been so young then, so innocent. She saw her younger self, smiling brightly in the picture with Naruto and Sasuke on either side of her. She had been so happy then. She was on Sasuke's team and she'd finally make him take notice and that had been all that mattered. When Sasuke had disappeared, she'd spent many a night staring at, and even crying over this picture missing him desperately.

 

“It's not that way tonight is it Sakura?” She murmured aloud without realizing it. She looked from Sasuke's scowl to Naruto's even bigger scowl. He'd been so annoying back then. Always yelling crazy things and always getting his butt kicked. She'd thought of him as being so useless. She couldn't remember when she had first started seeing him as anything other than a complete idiot who drove her crazy. But little by little she had begun to respect him. The outbursts that used to annoy her started to make her smile. His optimism and determination were so infectious, she found herself believing in him more and more. When Sasuke had disappeared and Naruto had failed to bring him back she said she would fight with him next time and she had. All those years had passed and she had grown stronger while watching over him. Making him supplements, healing him when he needed it (which was often) and giving a smack upside the head when he needed it (which was much more often). His determination to bring Sasuke back and to keep his word to her had given her the strength and determination to put up with Tsunade's brutal training. She had become strong herself and she knew it was because of Naruto. Her entire growth as a shinobi had all been for Naruto's sake, so she could be of use to him. She was proud to be his friend and happy to just be around him. But that feeling had scared her. She'd been so used to loving Sasuke that the feelings that crept up on her for Naruto terrified her. So she hid her feelings deep inside, worried that loving Naruto meant forgetting about Sasuke. Naruto was always so passionate about everything. She was afraid of that passion, so she had hidden her feelings deep inside, cowardly clinging on to her ultimately fading love of Sasuke. He wasn't there so she could have her feelings and not have to do anything about them. And when he had come home, her heart had grasped onto the past like someone drowning, grabbing onto anything, just to keep afloat. The bond that had formed between her and Naruto had begun to stretch thin. The closeness they had shared was replaced more and more with confusion and denial. But even despite that he had always protected her, had always been there to make her smile, he had always loved her…

 

“Until now. Oh God what have I done?” She whispered as a tear fell from her cheek and hit the glass picture. “It's too late.”

 

She left the house not long after the sun began to set, needing some fresh air. She walked aimlessly, her mind a million miles away, berating herself again and again for not listening to her heart sooner. But Naruto would not notice her tears this time. He wouldn't smile, wipe them away and tell her to cheer up. It was too late. Mizuki had taken what Sakura's pride and fear had not let her. He was gone, forever out of her reach. All she had left now was…

 

“Sasuke-kun! What are you doing here? What happened?” Each question got louder as Sakura first noticed that Mizuki was not with him and also that he had a rather large cut on his forearm. She rushed to him, grabbed it and began to heal it with her chakra.

 

“I thought Naruto and the girl could use some time alone.” Sasuke said before noticing Sakura's face. “I'm sorry Sakura.”

 

“For what?” Sakura put on her best smile. “It's hard to be on a date with three people. I'm sure they'll be fine for a little while.” She hoped that Sasuke would miss the fact that her voice had cracked at the end of the sentence. She hadn't even noticed that Sasuke had stopped using Mizuki's name. “How did you hurt your arm?” She asked desperately trying to steer the subject away from Naruto and Mizuki alone.

 

Sasuke didn't answer at first. He looked away from Sakura and she was surprised to see he looked upset.

 

“Sasuke-kun?”

 

Sasuke didn't want to tell her what he had seen. He didn't want to talk about it at all. He had been watching silently from a tree a few dozen yards away as Naruto and Mizuki sat and talked. He had heard her practically call Naruto a liar when he tried to convince her he'd actually put a hole in the moon. When she had leaned in close to Naruto, when Naruto had taken her hand. He had wanted to look away but he was powerless to ignore what he knew would happen. Before he knew what he had done, a branch had snapped off in his hand, cutting his arm in the process. The sound had been like a gunshot in the suddenly far too quiet clearing, he was sure they'd hear it. But they had become lost in each other and when Naruto leaned in and kissed her, something in Sasuke snapped. Without a second thought, he had leapt from the tree and run away from there as fast as he could. And he had kept right on running. Away from Naruto and Mizuki and away from the unwanted and annoying but very real pain he could no longer deny in his heart. Until now when had run into Sakura. And now as Sakura stood there healing his arm, he wanted nothing more than to heal that pain in his chest.

 

“Sakura?”

 

“Yes Sasuke-kun?” Sakura had finished healing his cut but she was still concerned for him. She tried to force her brightest smile.

 

“You've always liked me right?”

 

“Huh?” Sakura looked at him wide-eyed. “Where is this coming from now?” She thought feeling suddenly nervous.

 

Sasuke looked at Sakura and gave a small smile. Sakura had loved him for years before Naruto had even come along. She would take away this horrible feeling of confusion that silly girl had brought upon him. He could confess to her, it would make her happy and he figured he could be happy with that. Before Sakura could say anything more, Sasuke took her hands in one of his and with his other hand he brushed away a stray lock of hair from her face.

 

Sakura could feel herself shaking like a leaf. All of a sudden, after all these years, her dream was coming true. So why was she so scared?

 

“You love Naruto, not Sasuke.” Inner Sakura yelled at her.

 

“But Naruto loves Mizuki-chan.” Sakura thought back. “I've lost him. So what's the harm in loving Sasuke-kun again? Especially if he's finally realized he loves me back.”

 

“He's hurting can't you see that? Something obviously happened and that's the only reason…” But Sakura tuned her inner voice out. Naruto. Sasuke. It made no difference to her. She could be happy with either of them. She looked at Sasuke with her own small smile and before he could do anything else, Sakura leaned up and kissed him.

 

XXX

 

Naruto had been running for several minutes but could not find Mizuki anywhere. He had also not seen hide or hair of Sasuke in that time which annoyed him greatly. “If he's found her why doesn't he come out and say so? He must have seen everything, even if he's afraid of approaching her knowing how she feels about him he could at least come tell me where she is! Dammit teme where are you?”

 

He turned another corner and skidded to halt. There, under a streetlight, stood Sasuke and Sakura in an embrace! Naruto wanted to yell out to them but shock paralysed him. He didn't know how long he stood there watching them kiss but with every second that passed he got angrier.

 

“Sakura-chan.” He whispered. He felt his heart drop into his stomach but almost immediately the horrified look on Mizuki's face burst its way to the front of his mind. He broke his paralysis and ran over to the other two.

 

“What the hell are you two doing!?” The yell brought Sasuke and Sakura back to their senses and they parted as Naruto reached them. Both look winded and unsure of what had just happened. But Naruto ignored that for now. He looked at Sasuke with venom.

 

“Teme! Just what the hell is going on? Why aren't you going after Mizuki-chan?”

 

“Huh? The girl! What do you mean?” Sasuke said turning away from Sakura quickly. “Where is she?”

 

“She ran off after…wait a minute how could you not know? Weren't you there?” Naruto's voice got higher as he started to put two and two together.

 

“Naruto it's not what it looks like!” Sakura said desperately. “We didn't plan this it just happened!”

 

“I'll tell you what happened!” Naruto yelled. “You took off Sasuke when you were supposed to be watching her and now she's gone and I can't find her!”

 

Sakura gasped. “What happened Naruto?” She tried to say but was cut off by Sasuke.

 

“You mean I was supposed to sit there and watch you tongue wrestle her?”

 

“Oh so you came to find Sakura-chan to do a little tongue wrestling of your own?” Naruto yelled back a little too bitterly. “You're supposed to protect her!”

 

“What about you?” Sasuke yelled back loudly. Naruto shut up quickly. “You've been complaining ever since we got back that you weren't chosen to protect her and now when she needs you the most you lose her. It's no wonder Tsunade-sama didn't choose you.” Sasuke knew he'd pushed a very large button so he wasn't surprised when Naruto's fist suddenly connected with his face, knocking him backwards.

 

“Naruto! Stop!” Sakura leapt forward.

 

Naruto stood just behind Sakura breathing heavily. Sasuke got to his feet also panting. Sakura stood in between them, her hand already in a black leather glove and clenched tightly. “Next one of you to move an inch gets this down their throat you hear me?” She yelled. Neither Naruto nor Sasuke moved. They both knew better than to mess with Sakura when the gloves went on. When they seemed to relax she lowered her fist and looked at Naruto. “What happened?”

 

“I…I don't know.” Naruto said helplessly. “One minute things were fine the next she knocks me across the field and she runs away screaming that it's not possible. Whatever `it' is. I've been looking for almost twenty minutes but I haven't been able to find her. If she hears me she's not coming out.”

 

Sasuke felt the hairs stand on the back of his neck. “She's remembered something and it sounds as thought it's just what I feared. I shouldn't have left. Dammit.” He thought angrily. Out loud he spoke in his calmest voice. “We've got to find her. We'll split up and search from this spot. If you run into anyone else have him or her help you. She may not respond to us.”

 

“Why wouldn't she respond to us Sasuke-kun?” Sakura asked.

 

“Just trust me on this one Sakura.” Sasuke scowled at Naruto. “We can argue over who's to blame later. Let's just find her.” Naruto nodded and all three shinobi's leapt off in different directions.

 

XXX

 

Sasuke ran North, towards Tsunade's office. “If she has any sense, she'd try to get there. It would probably be safest to her. But who was to say she had control over her senses right now? I should have said something sooner.” Sasuke thought angrily. “I could have told at least Tsunade about my suspicions. But I didn't want to believe it. It just seemed too horrible and cruel. I can't believe he made her see us torturing her. And why us? There was no way he could have known that we would be dispatched to the sand village. What is his real objective?” He ran on, his Sharingan turning night to brighter than daylight. He looked all around him for any sign of Mizuki's whereabouts. “Damn you Itachi you will not win!”

 

XXX

 

Sakura ran Westward, towards the Hokage Mountain. She was extremely worried about Mizuki and even more worried about what Sasuke had said about her not responding to them. “He knows something. Why didn't he tell us?” She thought as she ran, eyes searching everywhere for any trace of Mizuki but also anyone else who she could enlist in helping to find her. Her lips still tingled where they had met Sasuke's and surprisingly, or perhaps not so much, Sakura wasn't thinking too much about it. The thought she had given to it right after they had all split up had led to one emotion. Disappointment.

 

“It wasn't me he was kissing.” She thought and although she might have felt angry with that, she would have been lying if she said her mind was totally on Sasuke as well. Her heart felt disappointment not at the realization that Sasuke really wasn't in love with her, but at her hearts final realization that it was Naruto she was in love with. Naruto was the only one she wanted to be with. And although she thought she knew now what was in Sasuke's heart, also disappointing was that they couldn't make each other happy, despite the fact that the ones they both wanted were now completely out of their reach.

 

“Boy have we ever screwed this up.” She thought with a humourless grin. She ran on.

 

XXX

 

Naruto wasn't really running in any one direction. He was leaping haphazardly all over the place calling Mizuki's name. He was sure both Sasuke and Sakura would yell at him for being so all over the place but they hadn't seen Mizuki's face. Or the look in her eyes.

 

“She was terrified of me.” Naruto thought darkly. “Even more so then than at any time in the sand village. She must have remembered something but why then and what would it have had to do with me?” He was extremely fearful for Mizuki's safety but at the same time he couldn't get the picture of Sakura and Sasuke embracing by the streetlight out of his head. At that one moment, before he had thought of Mizuki, he felt like his heart had been squeezed in a vice. Pain he never thought he would feel radiated through his chest. “That's what it feels like to have your heart broken.” He thought. Unnoticed tears formed in his eyes and momentarily blurred his vision so he did not notice the figure that suddenly leapt out in front of him. The figure moved just in time to keep from being plowed over and grabbed Naruto's collar hard from the back, forcing him to stop.

 

“Naruto! What the hell is going on? Where are you going at this hour?” Naruto blinked a few times until his vision was focused.

 

“Shikamaru! Where did you come from?”

 

“I'm on patrol with the other chuunin teams that were called in when security was tightened even more. It seems Uchiha Itachi has been sighted inside the village's defences.” Shikamaru sighed. “It's such a bother but until he's captured I have no choice. But what are you doing?”

 

“It's Mizuki-chan!”

 

“Who? Oh the girl everyone's been talking about. I haven't met her yet. I hear she's a real hassle to deal with.”

 

“You've been talking to Sasuke.” Naruto groaned. “But forget about that. You've got to help me find her! She's in trouble!”

 

“You mean you lost her!” Shikamaru asked shocked. “Where's Sasuke? Wasn't he supposed to be looking after her?”

 

“I'll explain on the way we just have to find her quickly Shikamaru come on!” Naruto grabbed Shikamaru by the arm and hauled him away.

 

XXX

 

Sasuke reached Tsunade's office just as a squad of Anbu arrived. Tsunade was waiting outside with a very severe look on her face. A look that grew even worse when she saw Sasuke.

 

“Sasuke! What are you doing here? I just now sent a messenger to find you. We have a confirmed eye witness to Itachi being inside the village walls. You must hide Mizuki and yourself carefully until we can deal with…where is Mizuki?”

 

Sasuke looked away feeling ashamed. “Tsunade-sama, there's something I have to tell you and we don't have much time.”

 

XXX

 

Sakura reached the spot where Naruto had last been with Mizuki. She figured it would be as good a place as any to start looking.

 

“Naruto said she took off to the left.” She said aloud and began running in that direction. “If she was as panicked as Sasuke believes then she probably would have been running recklessly. Without paying too much attention to what was around her, the safest thing to do would be to run in a straight line.” Sakura followed her own directions as she spoke them aloud. “This street has very few turn offs anyway. Naruto said he began chasing and calling after her just a few minutes later. If she had heard him she would have wanted to hide.” Measuring out the time in her head, Sakura stopped when she reached the most likely spot for Mizuki to have heard Naruto pursuing her. To her left were store front shops, to her right was a dark alleyway. Sakura smiled grimly and entered the alleyway.

 

She had taken no more than ten paces when she heard a low groaning coming from the darkness. Tensing herself for attack, Sakura began gathering chakra to her hands and took out a kunai from her fanny pack. She slowly advanced, slipping carefully around a fallen trashcan. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness of the alleyway until she could see a pair of pant covered legs sticking out from behind another trashcan. Another groan issued from just above that and she said as forcefully as she could, “Who's there? You'd better answer.”

 

“Nee-chan?” A hoarse whisper replied.

 

“Konohamaru-kun!” Sakura rushed forward and saw the young shinobi lying face down on the pavement. He was trying to lift himself up off the ground and Sakura immediately took his arm to help him. She got him into a sitting position and he rubbed his head with a soft whimper. “Konohamaru-kun what happened?”

 

“He took her! He took Mizuki nee-chan! I tried to stop him but I couldn't do anything to help.” Konohamaru looked down ashamed.

 

“Itachi?” Sakura felt her blood run cold. “Can you stand Konohamaru-kun? We've got to get to Tsunade-sama's office right away. Tell me everything you remember on the way.” Konohamaru nodded earnestly and they both leapt off.

 

They reached the main building just as Neji and Kakashi did. The all landed in front of Tsunade and Sasuke at the same time, all exchanging surprised looks.

 

“What's going on?” Kakashi asked quickly. “What's this I hear about Itachi being sighted in the village?”

 

“It gets worse than that.” Tsunade and Sakura said at the same time. They looked at each other wide-eyed. “I have something to tell you.” They both said at the same time again.

 

XXX

 

“Are you serious Naruto?” Shikamaru asked surprised as he and Naruto ran through the streets, still looking for Mizuki. “You kissed her? I mean…I always figured that you and…”

 

“Never mind that! It's not important right now!” Naruto yelled back bitterly. Shikamaru just looked away and shook his head.

 

“This is why women are such a bother.” They ran on for a few more minutes when Shikamaru stopped suddenly. “Naruto what are we doing?”

 

“What the hell do you think we're doing? Looking for Mizuki-chan!”

 

“And running around like chickens with our head's cut off is getting us where?”

 

“Well I don't know where she went! All we can do is look right?”

 

“Hmmm.” Shikamaru closed his eyes and laced his hands together. He stayed that way for a few minutes until Naruto couldn't take it any more.

 

“Shikamaru come on! I know you're trying to come up with a plan but you need to do it faster! Itachi may have gotten to Mizuki-chan already!”

 

“But how could he get to her? He doesn't know where she is. And where he was sighted earlier was no where near where she was last seen. Unless…” Shikamaru's eyes popped open suddenly. “This is bad. How come I didn't think of this before? Come on Naruto!” He took off in the opposite direction they'd just been running in.

 

“The hell? Shikamaru what? What have you thought of?”

 

“I'll explain on the way just come on!” Shikamaru yelled behind him. As he ran he thought, “I hope we run into some Anbu that we can take along with us. I really don't fancy the idea of going up against someone like Itachi with just me and Naruto.”

 

XXX

 

Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi ran towards the end of town where Sasuke's house was. All were disturbed and angry to the core and it showed in their speed.

 

Tsunade and Sakura had both been able to get their stories out, with obvious help from Sasuke and Konohamaru.

 

“She saw us?” Sakura asked in a sick voice. “We did that to her? Are you sure Sasuke?”

 

“Yeah.” Sasuke answered quietly. “I wish I weren't.”

 

“But how?” Kakashi asked. “There's no way that Itachi could have known that we'd be sent to the sand village. Frankly, we may never have met Mizuki-chan at all. So why?”

 

“I don't remember much before he hit me but he said something about pain.” Konohamaru said, seeming to think hard. “Something about nee-chan's pain being right where he wanted it.”

 

“Her pain?” Tsunade said suddenly, her eyes going wide. “That's right. What's the one thing about this whole situation that's made no sense? He wants his eyesight back that much makes perfect sense. But his intentions that we have seen so far have been to cause intolerable pain to both her body and her mind. We thought he just wanted her eyes and couldn't figure out why he was torturing her so but what if to get her eyes from her and have them work for him she has to be in a broken state? A state where her body is empty of chakra and sanity, maybe even close to death?” Tsunade closed her eyes and appeared to be thinking hard.

 

“Shishou?” Sakura asked uncertainly.

 

“He's developed a jutsu to get his vision back. He also developed a jutsu so powerful that he took Mizuki's chakra from her while managing to keep her alive. He tortured her through Genjutsu and made her see the people who he was sure would be sent to the sand village. That's why he let himself be seen by the Kazekage and the medical Nin! He knew they would tell us who it was and we would send Sasuke and Team 7! So he made her see Team 7 torturing her so that she would be all the more frightened and confused…” Tsunade was mumbling to herself more than anything but the others were getting more excited the more she spoke.

 

“He wasn't surprised to hear she'd lost her memory when he attacked in the sand village.” Sasuke thought back. “He said he was going to kill her but he just performed the Tsukuyomi again. He had to have known we'd defeat him and save her, attacking in broad daylight with all of us around like he did. Use of the Tsukuyomi always affected him badly, even before he lost his eyesight. It just happened that Naruto was the one who got the lucky hit and made him leave.”

 

“You can't mean…” Kakashi said menacingly.

 

Tsunade and Sasuke looked at each other and nodded. Sasuke said, “He knows exactly what he's doing and he's known all along exactly how this would play out. He knew we'd be sent to retrieve Mizuki. He was almost pleased when he realized she had amnesia as that would have increased her fear and confusion. He probably figured that at least Naruto would have won her over and she would begin to trust us making it even more painful when she finally remembered the truth.”

 

“Like she just did.” Sakura said darkly.

 

“Once we brought her back to Konoha we thought it would take a lot of effort to get her memory back because of her lack of chakra but he had planned that out too. After her first session started to unlock the gate barring her memories he knew it wouldn't be long before those memories started to spill out. All they needed was trigger. And that was Naruto. He knew she'd freak out when the memories came back. He was waiting until the right moment and I gave it to him by taking off when I did.” Sasuke's face couldn't have gotten any darker. “I just handed him Mizuki on a silver platter.” He shook with rage. “He knew I would…the bastard used my feelings against me; just like he did before. I fell for it again!” He thought bitterly. “I will get her back if it's the last thing I do. I owe her that much.”

 

Tsunade looked at Konohamaru. “Do you remember Uchiha saying anything more?”

 

“Ummm.” Konohamaru once again looked to be thinking hard. “He said something about tatami mats. Oh I can't remember.” He squinted his eyes in concentration.

 

Sasuke looked at Konohamaru hard. “It's alright Konohamaru. I think I know what he was talking about.” He said knowingly. “The secret room in the old Nankno Shrine.” He looked to Kakashi and Sakura. “Come on. We don't have much time. If we're not too late already.”