Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Prices of Being a Ninja ❯ Chapter 6

“Do you have a peace offering?”

 

Stifling a giggle under the circumstance, Sakura straightened and replied. “Actually, I do.”

 

He blinked and opened his eyes the rest of the way, the light wasn't too bad considering she was blocking most of it with her silhouette. He waited.

 

She took in his black hair, recovering pink skin, and eyes black as they always were. Her eyes jumped to his ear. Thank Kakashi, as she was beginning to revere him as her savior… there was her answer.

 

Eerily her grimace turned to a grin in seconds all while she studied his face or at least what he imagined was his face. She knelt in front of him, blocking the light still as she seemed to catch his flinch when she descended. She held out her palm with a lopsided smirk.

 

The silver half-circlet in her hand caught the sun though its brightness was forgotten.

 

“How-” he gingerly reached for his empty ear lobe.

 

“Peace?”

 

“Truce. For now…”

 

“I need you to help me find Naruto.”

 

“How did I know that is what you were going to ask?” He snatched the earring and brought his knees to his chest, arms shielding himself from the sunlight.

 

“Intuition?”

 

“Don't ever mention that curse word again in my presence.” His muffled voice caught as though that question really bothered him.

 

`Odd.' “Whatever do you mean?”

 

“Don't look innocent… I know all of you women conspire.”

 

“Ok, explanation if you don't mind?”

 

“Ino is the reason I'm here.”

 

“Oh, so you are going to turn me in?”

 

“No, Billboard Brow and speaking of… my head is fit to explode. Could you do anything to fix it? I might consider after I can think sentences beyond `I want to kill Ino.'” She tilted her head in her cute fashion, one eye smaller than the other and nose crinkled.

 

“I suppose you will explain that statement later.”

 

He grunted but it turned to a painful gasp and she placed her hands on either side of his face. Gingerly she lifted his head so she could see his eyes. They didn't squint in pain this time. Her chakra was already working to smooth his tension and lessen the pressure. His face still needed to be healed. That would be next.

 

“While I'm stuck recovering and you're in hiding they are gaining on Naruto. This isn't looking so good for him.”

 

“I know.” She sighed. It sounded a bit more like defeat… something Shikamaru didn't recall being a part of Sakura's emotions.

 

“She was right. I didn't believe it. But she was bloody right.”

 

“What are you talking about?” She paused her chakra flow and turned her jade eyes to his face.

 

“You do love him. And all this time I thought it was Sasuke… You women make no sense to me.”

 

“I'm supposing this is the intuition tad… Um, for the longest time I didn't see it. Something bad would happen to me and `Naruto?' Another bad thing would happen and `Naruto, please help me?' I turned to him over and over again and just couldn't see it myself. Ino confronted me a while back and it hit me hard. I didn't want to see it. He left with Jiraiya. When he returned… he was so different, so much more… mature. He was still Naruto but different.” She paused, lifting her hands slightly. They were just high enough to stop their administrations and the throbbing picked up tenfold.

 

“Somewhere… just like when he came back, that old Naruto is in there. I won't let him end up staring into space after a ghost like Kakashi… like the rest of Konoha. It was my fault he chose to leave. I worked up enough courage to talk to him and ask him to not leave after Sasuke… that I wouldn't hold him to the promise he made. I think I waited too late. Shunned him so long for the shadow of Sasuke in hopes of something that never was, never could be.

 

“He made that promise in a condition not far off from the one you are in right now. I can't stand to see him hurt and… it seems that's all I've caused him, Shik. I think I set him off. I have never seen him like that.”

 

A tear slid down her cheek and her hands lowered to her lap. Shikamaru cursed to himself quietly. Tears were man's undoing. Life was so unfair.

 

“I've never seen Naruto like that either, Sakura. Something has been eating him and it's not you. He growled like a crazy animal and he put his fist through the tree without chakra. There was no Naruto there… not like the guy we knew.”

 

“Shik, he's still there,” she sobbed but it sounded more as if she were trying to convince herself. “I think it's a mix between the stress of all the ninja villages after Sasuke and the Kyuubi… I think it berates him. I've heard him talking to no one in particular and sometimes he sounded quite angry.”

 

“He said `Get IT away from me.' I think perhaps that is what I walked in on and he lost it.”

 

“He was muttering to himself when he left me at the park. I think I am the one who pushed him, not the Kyuubi…”

 

“Sakura, you didn't.”

 

“He told me…” she broke off, beginning to rock back and forth slightly. Shikamaru had never seen the chunnin do this before. It was unnerving. Greatly.

 

“Sakura?” He didn't know how or why he grasped her shoulders then, just that a crying heap of Sakura hit his chest and left him dumbfounded in pondering the steps she took to get there. Her left arm was placed quite uncomfortably around his still naked ear and down his back, hands interlocked behind him. He was stuck leaning forward just enough to crick his back.

 

“He told me… I don't have to pre… pretend anymore after I kissed him. Then he was gone.” Her arms tightened and he, in panic, did the same. Suddenly he found himself asking for Ino though he would never admit it to her were he to make it out of this alive.

 

After counting down from two hundred to zero three times he could hear settled breathing. Besides the occasional hitch she sounded peacefully asleep. A place he still wished to be… `Perhaps…'

 

A little scooting, a little ginger nudging, and pulling and he got most of her weight off of his neck- `Damn, I forgot her hands.' He pulled free of her arms and gently slid her head to his shoulder after placing her hands, still clasped in sleep, on her crossed legs. She might have a crick in her neck but then it would be a shadow to the pain in his back.

 

“Finally some sleep.”