Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Truly, Desperately ❯ Chapter 12

OH YEAH!! Test's are over and I'm HAPPY!! Even though they were easy as I don't know what, I'm glad they're over! Yea, I still have to finish writing Masquerade Ball and the plot for Broken In Pieces. But I forgot what file I put it under…crap! Anyway, my song of the week is…

Everything you bought and everything you spent, now I'm standing here once again. I thought it was you and I, now all I have to say is why? After all of the times that we tried,

I found out we were livin' a lie. And after all of this love that we made, I know now you don't love me the same. The way that I love you... -Ashanti

***

 

“Enough!” Sarutobi yelled; his voice echoing in the room.

 

“Well damn…” Zakura muttered under her breath. She felt so little next to the guy, and he was shorter than her! Hahaha--!! Kabuto raised his hand.

 

“Well, I'm outta here!” He announced. All heads turned on him, but Zakura closed her eyes and smirked.

 

“Pussy…” She mumbled looking away. She glanced at everyone and saw them trying to hold in a laugh. Plus, Kabuto looked like his wittle pride was hurt for a second.

 

“You're Yakushi Kabuto of the Leaf village, right? You may go,” Hayate said looking at a clipboard. Naruto stared at him with disbelief.

 

“What?! You're just gonna quit like that?! WHY?” Naruto demanded clenching his fist. Other faces held the same curiosity.

 

“Sorry Naruto. Ever since that rumble in the forest, I haven't felt right. This exam would be too much for me.” Kabuto explained. Naruto bowed his head in defeat, and Kabuto smiled at his actions. He walked away and his teammate murmured something to him that made him smirk. The doors opened, and he walked out.

 

“Anyone else?” Hayate asked. Everything was silent except for the quiet talking amongst the genin. Sasuke's shoulder pulsed and he clutched it. Zakura had caught that movement, as well as the Hokage and Anko. So had Sakura, who was standing right behind him.

 

“Sasuke, maybe you should bail out on this one. That mark hurts right? How the hell will you fight will you're mind half focused on that thing?!” Sakura whispered. He turned around with disbelief and fury in his eyes.

 

“No way.” Was his solid answer.

 

“Sasuke, I know you're in pain. I've been watching since earlier!” Sakura argued. Because of Zakura's well-trained ears, she listened in on their fight, giving a crooked smile.

 

“My pain is none of you're business!” Sasuke argued back. Another pulse rushed through him, and he grunted. Zakura made a full wicked smile.

 

“You are my business because we're on the same team! Why can't you get that past you're thick skull?! You can't go on like this forever!” Sakura whispered harshly. “And if you don't listen to reason, I'll tell them about that mark and even-”

 

“I've been alone for quite a while, so I can bear this alone too! Haven't I told you? I'm an aveng-” Sasuke tried to say but…

 

“Yea, yea! That avenger shit, I know. But…” Sakura said, tears welling in her eyes. By now, Naruto turned to pay attention. Both his, and Zakura's eyes narrowed in disgust. “You don't have to go it alone…”

 

Sasuke clenched his jaw and his eyes tightened at fear. He really did hate waterworks, especially from girls who could sob an eternity away. “I don't care whether I become a chunin or not. All I want to know is, am I strong enough? This exam has fighters that are the best, that can test my skills. I need this-”

 

“If you think you're being cool, you're not. Making girls cry isn't your character, Sasuke.” Naruto said breaking the tension between them. He glared at him with empty eyes.

 

“You're one of the ones I want to fight too, Naruto.” Now that caught Naruto off guard. Zakura rolled her eyes and smirked. That would be one hell of a fight!

 

Suddenly, Zakura felt an evil aura coming straight at her. She turned her eyes and saw Gaara glaring at her like a basilisk. She raised a brow and her chakra flared. It was like a battle of wits between them. But inside her mind the only thing she could think of was `Why is this fool eyeballing me?!' (Mr. T knows all!!)

 

She finally stopped and stuck her tongue out at him. He balked for a second, confused at her childish outcome. How could someone with so much power act like she was still in the academy?! She almost laughed.

 

“Okay…since no one else is quitting we will no turn our attention to the board and see who are the first competitors.” Hayate said.

 

Everyone turned to the board and saw the names Sasuke Uchiha and Yoroi Akado.

 

“Everyone please go to the upper gallery and the two fighters stay down here.” Hayate said. They all started walking to the stairs when Zakura and Kakashi walked by Sasuke.

 

“Watch yourself bird boy.” Zakura said slapping his arm with the curse mark. He grabbed his shoulder for dear life and held back a yell. Sasuke turned to say something nasty, but she poofed away, reappearing sitting on the railing of the upper gallery.

 

“Sasuke, don't use the Sharingan. If that mark get's out of control, I will be forced to stop you, and end this match by forfeit. Keep that in mind,” Kakashi said walking away. Sasuke watched his back bewildered. Stop the match by forfeit?! No Sharingan?! Oh shit.

 

“Now…please begin.” Hayate said backing away from the two. Yoroi started by throwing three shuriken at Sasuke, who blocked them easily with his kunai. But, the mark pulsed again and he lost his balance, falling.

 

“Idiot.” Zakura said sighing.

 

Sasuke looked up rolled away as Yoroi punched the ground making a whole. Sasuke stabbed his kunai into the ground and kicked his legs making Yoroi fall. He grabbed his arm, but Yoroi grabbed his shirt. He felt his strength fading. Yoroi snapped his hand away fron Sasuke and punched while he was still down.

 

“Augh!!” Sasuke yelled in pain as blood splattered from his mouth. Blood. Zakura's eyes flew to Sakura. She was gripping the railing and bit her lip until it bled. At least she didn't bleed hard, right? No. When she finally let go of the railing, her hands were all bloody with scrapes and cuts.

 

Zakura glared and turned her attention back to the fight. Sasuke had just kicked Yoroi off him, cursing as he did it.

 

“You still have power left, huh?” Yoroi asked laughing. Zakura frowned and smacked her forehead. Is this really happening? She felt embarrassed to know Sasuke.

 

“Uchiha Sasuke. This is all he can do?” Gaara said crossing his arms.

 

“Are you really an Uchiha?! This is all your got?! You're a disgrace, dammit!!” Naruto yelled. Sakura nodded in agreement.

 

“You suck ass man!!” Sakura booed him. Who could resist making fun on Sasuke when he couldn't do anything about it? Hehehe…

 

Sasuke looked at the direction of them both and spotted Lee. He finally realized something. “That's it…”

 

“You don't have time for distractions! I finish you!!” Yoroi yelled gathering chakra into his hand. Everyone thought it was the end…Until Sasuke busted out Lee's move! He kicked him into the air and caught everyone by surprise. Except Zakura, she was pissed.

 

“YOU COULD'VE THOUGHT OF THAT A LOOOONG TIME AGO!!!” Zakura screamed standing on the railing. Anko smacked the back of Zakura's head, causing her to lose balance momentarily. “Whoa!”

 

But Anko was staring intensely at Sasuke. His mark was spreading. Just when Kakashi was about to jump in, the marks started fading! Now that surprised some people. Sasuke finished his move no problemo!

 

He kicked Yoroi but he caught his leg. “Rookie…!”

 

Sasuke turned and kicked his other leg and gave some serious impact. He punched him next, and gave one final kick. “Lion Barrage!!”

 

He started skidding on his back, and Yoroi just fell flat in the cracks of the floor. Hayate walked over to him and saw that he was out for the count. He looked over and saw Sasuke rising. “I am stopping the match before it goes any further. In other words, Sasuke is the winner!”

 

Sasuke started to sway back, but he fell into someone's lap. He looked up and saw Zakura staring down at him. He blushed slightly. “That was pretty awesome bird boy. Ten for the moves, half for the landing.”

 

“Eh, well put.” Kakashi said reading his Icha Icha Paradise book.

 

“Hey Sasuke! You won, but in such an uncool way! You ended up looking like you were the one that got beat up, idiot!!” Naruto yelled.

 

“Shut up, moron…” Sasuke muttered. Zakura giggled but stopped when Sasuke cringed in pain. “Ow…”

 

“Sasuke Uchiha. Come with us and let us do something about that mark.” One of the medical nin said.

 

“You don't know what you're getting yourselves into. We'll take care of him.” Kakashi said pointing to Zakura.

 

“We're going to take you back and seal up and stupid mark!” Zakura explained to Sasuke who looked up at her confused.

 

“We will not start the next match!” Hayate announced.

 

“Can't this wait until after the prelims? I want to watch-” Sasuke said but Zakura put her finger on his lips to silence him.

 

“We're taking care of it now, and that's final. Don't be selfish. Let's go.” Zakura commanded.

 

“If we don't do it now, it will be too late later.” Kakashi added. “C'mon.”

 

“Fine…” Sasuke muttered. He stood up holding his shoulder and walked out with them both. Zakura put her arm around his shoulder and leaned her head against his. He looked at her confused.

 

“It's gonna be totally fine. We can just go back after. You're only missing bug wonder's fight. Nothin' special.” Zakura muttered.

 

“You act like you're my sister or something.” Sasuke said looking away trying to hide his blush. He wasn't in love or anything, but she was too damn pretty to not stare.

 

“I used to have a sister.” She said quietly. Sasuke took a risk to look back at her. She had a sad look in her eyes.

 

“What happened?” Sasuke asked.

 

“Oh, she's dead.” Zakura answered in a matter of fact tone. Sasuke kept his mouth shut after that. Kakashi decided to break the silence.

 

“You're tired, aren't you?” Kakashi asked/said. It was more like a statement. Zakura glanced at him and put her head back against Sasuke's.

 

“I guess,” She whispered. Now Kakashi and Sasuke found this information scary. She was usually the energetic type who was always yelling and hyper like Naruto! “Stop looking at me like that. I can get tired sometimes.”

 

“Used up too much chakra.” Kakashi added to his statement. They walked into a room that was barely lit. “Shirt off Sasuke.”

 

Zakura walked away from Sasuke and leaned against a beam. “I'll hold you're shirt. Gimme.”

 

Sasuke took it off and tossed it to her. She caught it with ease and sat leaning against the beam. She rubbed her eyes and yawned quietly.

 

“You don't have to stay if you're tired,” Kakashi said making markings on Sasuke. “Why don't you go sleep?”

 

“Leave me alone and worry about Sasuke.” Zakura said, her voice almost inaudible. She fell onto her side and used Sasuke's shirt as a pillow. As she drifted to sleep, she heard Kakashi mutter something unintelligible.

 

***

Zakura awoke to a blinding light. She saw that everything was white except for something pink and black blocking her view. Jade green eyes looked into her sharp green ones.

 

“Sakura?” Zakura asked getting up. She looked around and saw she was in a hospital room. “What the…?”

 

“You've been out all morning. It's the afternoon now! You missed the rest of the exams.” Sakura said.

 

“What happened with you?!” Zakura demanded. She saw the scrapes and bruises on her arms and legs.

 

“I lost. I fought against Ino. Well, actually we tied, which means we couldn't pass.” Sakura said glumly.

 

“Damn. And Sasuke?!”

 

“Sleeping like a baby.”

 

“N-Naruto?!”

 

“Is training with Ebisu as we speak! He won.”

 

“Oh okay. So why am I stuck in the hospital?” Zakura asked.

 

“Well, you couldn't go home without me, and I was stuck here too so…” Sakura trailed off. “But anyway, the Hokage sent me here to get you. He knows about you!”

 

“I already know that. We spoke earlier. Go back home with Kakashi, Sakura. I'm not coming back.” Zakura said swinging her legs across the bed. She saw Sakura's horror stricken face. “What?”

 

“You're leaving me?!” Sakura asked standing from her chair.

 

“Uh…yeah? I've left you for a while in the forest and you were fine and in your fight too. You can survive without me. I'll still be watching from a distance of course,” Zakura said sliding open the door. “Bye.”

 

“What, wait- ZAKURA!!!” Sakura yelled as she closed the door. She ran up and slid it back open, but Zakura was gone. “Wait…”

***

“You're just going to leave like that?” Anko asked.

 

“At least I'll still be watching. She was fine before me, she'll be fine after.” Zakura said crossing her arms. “So what should we do about bird boy?”

 

“Yea, what about the squirt?” Anko turned around.

 

“We'll keep a close eye on him. Make sure that Orochimaru has no grip on him whatsoever. I feel a great war upon us.” The Hokage answered.

 

“See what I mean? Entertaining!” Zakura said. “But seriously, I'll stick around and fight. This should be fun, right Anko?”

 

“You are so immature,” Anko replied.

 

“Immature?! Look who's talking! At least I'm not addicted to dumplings like you!” Zakua retorted.

 

“Just in case you didn't know, the dumplings here are awesome!” Anko snapped back.

 

“You want to get some dumplings from the shop? I heard the bean paste is good too,” Zakura suggested.

 

“Yea sure.” Anko agreed and they walked out of the hospital.

 

“What was the point in that?!” The Hokage muttered walking away too.

 

 

 

Yea…The ending was kinda random huh? But I couldn't leave it serious like that! Anyways, I have another story your should read. It's called `Leaf in the Desert' by the_amber_dragonfly. It's really good! Anyway, more feedback. Crank it up give it to me c'mon. I'm gonna feedback, feedback. Oh! Feedback, feedback. Oh! Okay, here.

 

AnimePrincessInuLover: Damn straight! I have loads of tricks up my sleeve cuz it's long!! Okay, bad joke. Yup, I'm still evil, but that's why you love me! Anyway, I'll put up Masquerade Ball one day…cuz I'm evil.

 

Sandragon: Yay, evil! Oh yea, you'll see a lot of Gaara later! I like demented characters too! ZakuraXGaara 4EVA!!! Oops…spoiler… (see? Evil!!)