Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ What am I to you? ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 5 )

Naruto lowered his village headband to his neck as he brushed his fingers through his short yellow locks. He lifted his necklace and shoved it under the shirt he wore, hiding its small diamond but its string still visible around his neck.

“I'm going to get through this,” he told himself in the mirror. His sad sapphire orbs looked back at him making him doubt his words. However, there was one thing that could change that. A fake smile curled on his mouth brightening his eyes.

He was going to forget about his pain and guilt for now and concentrate on Sakura. Tan calloused hands touched the rim of the sink as the owner bowed his head.

If not, Sakura was going to die.

That wasn't something he wanted. He quickly lifted his head up high before he dashed out of the bathroom and left his apartment.

He never expected to find Kakashi in front of his apartment building ready to climb the stairs and enter the building. Naruto stopped in his tracks and walked slowly instead down the steps and ceased any movement studying the man.

The man pocketed a gloved hand with the other grazing his bent leg, which was on one-step of the stairs. “Hello Naruto…”

What shocked him more was that his sensei was without his book. The man was never without his porn book, why was- He shook his head, pushing those thoughts away. What kind of game was Kakashi playing when he knew his secret? On the other hand, did he know or did he not? He was acting as though he didn't know about Sasuke- no don't think about that.

“Hi,” Naruto said back. The man wanted to pretend then he wasn't going to say anything about the matter either.

“How was your day?” Naruto questioned with a smile playing lazily more on his face. “Are you here to take me out for ramen?”

Kakashi chuckled and shoved a hand into his pockets. “Sorry,” he said as his one eye searched his.

What was he looking for? Naruto brightened his face more hiding his thoughts and troubles away from his facial expression. Whatever the man was looking for, he wasn't going to find it. Naruto crossed his arms over his chest confidently.

“Oh. So if not, are you here to inform me of my mission or what?”

Right, as if he was ready for a mission now. He prayed that, that wasn't why Kakashi was here.

“There is going to be a hearing concerning Sakura's case in fifteen minutes at the Hokage's office…,” the man said.

Naruto looked behind the man's head at the blue sky. “What is going on Kakashi? What did Sakura do that no one is telling me? Everyone is keeping me in the dark.”

“I wish I knew Naruto. But, that is why I'm going there to the meeting and find out.”

Kakashi started turning away from him that he was facing the road. The man strolled, pushed a hand up as a gesture of `goodbye', and continued down the road passed other apartment buildings.

Naruto's body shook while he clenched his fists at his sides. He finally exhaled and followed but ceased reaching a left turn of the road. His orbs looked at where his sensei was going, he was going straight and seemed as if he wasn't going to make any turns. However, where he was going wasn't the way to the Hokage's office. Maybe the man just wanted to be late.

Naruto took the road he knew so well, it led to the Hokage's office. His mind was clogged with thoughts about what to do to get Sakura out of this that he didn't notice the looks the villagers were sending him. He could kidnap her and then they could both run away from the village.

Yeah, but then he would put both him and Sakura in danger. The ANBU would hunt him down and kill him or kill them both. He did have Kyuubi and the Council took him as a threat.

Speaking of which disturbed him, Kakashi never walked away, he shimmered, but never walked away. Naruto turned still moving but backwards, looking behind him at the house on his left that was at the corner of the road that Kakashi had taken. That road went straight to the hospital.

Hn. Naruto shrugged his shoulders, disappeared from sight, and appeared right in front of the door that led to Hokage's office. In the corner of his eye, he saw Shizune's gasp at seeing him. She jumped from behind her desk and ran to him with her pig in her grasp.

“Naruto what are you doing here?” the woman asked him with her pig snorting.

He looked at her with a smile but his smile froze on his face. He could hear every word spoken in the other room.

“What is your decision Elders?” That was the grandma speaking.

“She has to die, she killed the Uchiha!” He didn't know who that was but the owner of that voice sounded so angry.

“She wasn't herself when she murdered Uchiha!”

“That is beside the point. The Uchiha was more important than the Haruno.”

“Yes, Uchiha was one of our weapons!”

“He betrayed us, he doesn't deserve any vengeance! We should just thank the Haruno for murdering him-!”

“We do have the nine-tailed fox, we don't need Uchiha!”

“This will cause a ruckus.”

“We will just tell the people-”

“She is to die! How can the village survive when the size of our fighting men is shortening? This should be an example of what will happen to anyone that tries to conspire to kill the titled ones.”

“Hn…”

“It will avoid violence in Konoha.”

“We have heard of Hyuuga's side of the story. Shouldn't we get to hear that of Haruno to be fair?” Truly, grandma deserved the title of the Hokage. Naruto met Shizune's eyes that were searching his. At least, he now had time to think of something concerning of how to get Sakura out of this mess.

“Lady Hokage, how can we interrogate Haruno when she is a lunatic? Unless, if you mean to drug her.”

“No,” the Hokage replied to one of the counselCouncil people. “Let's find her therapy, maybe with someone she trusts. Someone that is close to her. Then when she gets better, she may tell her story and tell us what caused her to kill the Uchiha.”

Now this was his chance. Naruto turned, wrung the door open but a hand reached forward and slammed it shut. He faced the one who did it. Man, there were times when he didn't like Shizune. Okay, he didn't like her at all.

“What?”

“You can't go in there,” she told him.

He sadly met her eyes. He was close, almost close to saving Sakura.

“Please,” he begged. “Please let me go in.”

She dropped her hand once he begged. “Just come out when you're told to get out.”

He nodded but they both knew that he was lying unless if everyone had listened to what he had to say. Naruto pulled the door open and went in.

Everyone faced him.

“I can't believe that you buy the story of Sakura killing Sasuke!” He heard an order of `somebody get the idiot out of here' but he ignored it. “How can you all be sure that it was Neji that told you this?!” Two ANBU guards held his arms moving him, backwards, to the door.

“Let him speak!” The Hokage's voice wrung out through the whole room freezing everyone, before, they all turned their eyes on her.

Naruto rubbed his arms once the ANBU let go of him. Damn, he was going to be bruised by tomorrow.

Tsunade wasn't intimidated by the stares of the counselCouncil. “I'm the Hokage and I speak. Naruto, go ahead and tell us what you want to tell us.” She sat back down in her chair looking at him and away from the Council's stares.

Come on make this good and effective. Naruto opened his mouth. This was it. He could have a say in this and his words might change the outcome of Sakura's future. “Sakura didn't kill Sasuke.”

The Council laughed and mumbled, obviously not taking him seriously.

The Hokage raised her hand shutting them up, her brown irises on Naruto. “Yeah and how did you come to this conclusion?”

“Why would Sasuke come back after eight years? He killed more of our ANBU guards.” He gulped but kept his cool. Man, talking about Sasuke was going to be hard.

“My point-my point is that I know Sasuke better than any of you." I know him. I know what kind of person he really is. He didn't say that however, that information was for him alone, something that he was going to bury deep in his mind.

“He wouldn't come back to a place he no longer considered home. You guys didn't do a lot when Itachi killed his family. You didn't even go out to search for Itachi, you just gave up the moment he couldn't be found. Then you expected Sasuke to move on. Yeah, he wouldn't have liked it for you guys to fight his battles but he wanted you to care. The only thing you wanted from him is loyalty and his life. But then again, isn't that what you want from all leaf shinobis? Sasuke-”

Naruto's eyes glimmered but he swallowed down the tears.

“Why would he trust Sakura of all people? He made it damn clear from the beginning that he didn't want anything to do with her. Why would he trust her after that? Everyone left him or didn't care about him but just used him. He hurt Sakura's feelings, how would he trust his life in her hands. Of course, he would think that she would kill him at sight. Plus, Sasuke would never bow down for anyone's help. Take these words from his best friend, someone that knew him so well.”

Naruto knew that he had everyone thinking but the thing was he almost believed what he just said, he didn't even know where those words had come from.

The Council started mumbling louder and louder shaking their heads at each other.

Naruto looked at the corner of the room to see his sensei reading his porn book. Weird. Kakashi didn't have his book when he saw him earlier. And how did he get here so fast? Naruto knew that his sensei was weird, but he never agreed to get used to his odd behaviors.

There was a knock on the door.

Tsunade wondered what was going on. Why hadn't she thought of this theory? Naruto was a genius. Uchiha did use to live with Orochimaru. The Uchiha killed him. The news somehow reached the Konoha ears that one of Konoha's threat was dead. The body that came next was the proof. At sight, a few ANBU burnt Orochimaru's body to ashes and spread them all over the land not wanting to risk of anyone of stealing the man's powers. Of course, the boy, Uchiha, might have picked up some techniques that manipulated jutsus from the snake.

“Come in,” the Hokage finally answered the door, which the outside force pulled open.

Hinata strolled in with small pants and heaves. Her mouth parted to look around to find herself in the middle of the attention of a big crowd. Her cheeks flushed pink. She was still shy of big crowds. “I… I have bad news. Sasuke's body has gone missing,” she reported. Her stammering left her as soon as she entered her adulthood.

Everyone gasped and looked at Naruto with new respect. He even got Kakashi's attention that was now looking at the Hyuuga woman. Tsunade had a finger tapping on her chin.

Naruto frowned. He hadn't meant what he had said. He was just trying to get Sakura out of this mess but it seemed as if his words were actually true. Was Sasuke truly still alive? What was he playing at then? Why did he make it look like he killed him?

“You two get out. Naruto, you're hired to be Sakura's therapy. Be at the hospital at eight in the morning. Now scram out of my office.” Without even pointing at whom she was talking to, the two knew who they were.

They walked out of the office with the help of the ANBU, at least in Naruto's case because he was about to argue.

--

The next morning, Naruto looked at himself in the mirror of the hospital's bathroom. He combed his fingers through his blond locks and stared to see if anything was wrong with his face. Naruto wanted to look good for Sakura. His gaze wandered down at his yellow sweatshirt tucked in his tight blue jeans.

He left the bathroom and bumped into someone.

It was Hinata. She smiled at him with a tint of red on both her cheeks.

He still didn't understand what was wrong with her. “Good morning,” he greeted her.

“Hey,” Hinata mumbled back looking down and tucking her neck-length hair behind her ears. She was dressed in a white dress, it was a nurse's uniform.

He saw that she wasn't going to say anything and decided to end their conversation-if it was a conversation at all- and not leave rudely by not saying anything at all. “Yeah… see you later.” He walked around her when she spoke again.

“Do you know what room you will find Sakura in?” she asked him.

He faced her again looking into her orbs.

“Yeah, I just saw grandma and she told me.” He yawned. “Man, I'm so tired. I should really go see Sakura now.”

Actually, he hadn't slept at all last night excited that he was going to see Sakura the next day. He had been trying to find something nice that he would wear before he went to see her. And just like that, it was already morning. Therefore, right now, he wanted to go to Sakura. He had missed her, really missed her a lot.

“You should,” Hinata sounded a little hurt but she covered it up with a grin and left him.

He frowned at her back wondering what that was about.

What was he doing, Sakura was waiting for his arrival right now.

--

Pale eyelids with long, black eyelashes opened to reveal happy jade irises. At least, she felt happy. She just had a dream about Sasuke.

He appeared on her bed when she was sleeping. She woke up turning to meet his lips. His mouth moved away from hers to her cheek then-something was wrong with the room she was in right now. It-it wasn't her room. The walls and ceilings were all white.

She tried to get up to see where the door out of there was to feel restrained from getting up. Her head dropped back to look at the headboard area towards her wrists to see them cuffed with a chain connected to the two polls of the bed on the edges.

Why would someone tie her up?

Okay, this was starting to freak her out. How did she get here? Was she- had she been on a mission with Sasuke and Naruto and she was kidnapped? Were they looking for her right now? That brought her to one conclusion someone kidnapped her.

This was bad. She bowed her head that she looked at her feet to see them tied too. She jumped around getting the chains to jiggle making metal-sounds. Why couldn't she remember anything of how she got here? Was she under some…jutsu?

Where was everyone anyway? She struggled against the restraints trying to pull her hands out through the loops of the cuffs, unfortunately, the cuffs just ended up tightening around her. Her feet thrashed out in frustration making chain-noises to vibrate through the room.

Naruto entered the room and right there he wished that he hadn't killed Sasuke. He wished that he didn't have Kyuubi. Nothing as this would have happened. He felt so guilty and so bad. Sakura deserved better than this. She was eagle spread on the bed and tied up.

He went to her and stopped by her bed.

At that moment, her head bowed on the left side of her shoulder.

--

“Get out…” Neji ordered the guards, entering the camera room. The staff looked at him recognizing who he was and scrammed out of the room. It wasn't a secret that Hyuugas had a lot of power. Hyuugas came first and the Uchihas were next in power. Therefore, just a point of a finger by a Hyuuga member could get a commoner killed.

Hinata, his cousin, had informed him this morning about what happened yesterday with Naruto and Uchiha's body. That was how he knew about Naruto meeting with Sakura. Yeah sure, him and Hinata weren't that close as talking. But, years of knowing her, yeah actually getting to know her, he found that they had a lot in common. They got so close that no one could ever separate them now.

Neji dropped in a swinging chair, his feet stiffly stood on the ground making it impossible for the chair to make any movement. His eyes stared at the multiple screens pasted on the wall and looking at him. There was a reason of why he was here.

The screen with a particular room caught his attention at that moment.

--

Naruto bit his lip at meeting her eyes. He lowered himself slowly on the bed looking down at her. Things weren't supposed to be as this. Sakura was supposed to be on a mission with his team. She was supposed to be there mentally healthy and yelling at him and insulting him.

That was how it was supposed to be.

She went on her elbows smiling at him. “You came to save me.” For some reason, she felt so attached to Naruto than she ever felt with Sasuke. Speaking of whom…

"Where is Sasuke, we were on a mission together right? So, tell me, is he still back there fighting and wants you to get me while he holds the men off?” she asked the question that had been on her mind pondering.

“Meanwhile, help me get loose.”

He swallowed, his hands finding his knees. How could he convince her that Sasuke was dead? Was he even? The bastard might be somewhere laughing at what he caused to happen. How could-no, where would he start to tell her that Sasuke was dead or for that matter they didn't know if he was or not? To bottom it off, oh yeah, everyone accused her of the murder.

Dammit!

Naruto rose to his feet and went to the wall leaning his back against it. Sakura was gone. The Sakura he knew was completely gone. She now lived in the world she could handle, the past. This was his entire fault. What was he doing standing here? He was her therapy so he had better act like one.

An exhale left his mouth calming himself down.

“Um, what do you last remember?”

There you go, you are doing it, remember, stay focused and don't let anything distract you, this was about Sakura and not about you.

She didn't take him serious of course. He could tell when she laughed rolling her eyes.

“Naruto stop playing games and get these things off of me. Jeez, you play too much…”

If she only knew the truth, if she only knew, he wondered if he really could do this. Could he go through this without going insane?

He coughed sinking his lower teeth into his upper lip getting it wet. His heart clenched as a fist. How could he continue this when he couldn't even open his mouth? He felt so weak and his emotions uncontrollable. He wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. His mouth opened but nothing could come out.

“Naruto, what is wrong?” Sakura questioned him, her eyes widening.

She had never seen Naruto cry before, not just cry because he was happy but out of sadness. He never let anyone to see him in that position, ever. She wondered what threw him off. Did something happen to Sasuke?

“Naruto, what happened to Sasuke?”

Big tears came out of his eyes. His legs took him to the door next.

“Naruto! You idiot get back here and untie me! What happened to Sasuke? You better have not betrayed us! Come back here and get me out NOW! I swear to you Naruto, I'm so going to be so mad if you leave me here! I wonder why you're on team 7-!”

He shut the door muffling her words before a sniffle came out of him. His hands rested on the closed door as he looked down, tears dropping as rain drops to the concrete floor under him.

--

Neji glared daggers at Haruno.

The woman was prancing around against her restraints while she continued shouting. He should feel sympathetic but he couldn't. Haruno was-what was that word- a bitch. She was one and Naruto was just too good for her.

“Naruto, why do you waste your time with this useless woman?”

Neji shook his head knowing he would never understand his friend very well. His pale orbs wandered to the other screen, Naruto was crying against the door. There was one solution to this problem. He knew what he had to do.

--

Naruto sighed and rearranged his clothes wiping his eyes. He could do this and this time he meant it. No more tears, he was stronger than this. Oh goodness, what did Sakura think of him now? He had to change her mind about what she thought of him even though her words had hit a nerve. He hadn't betrayed them. No, he hadn't. He would never betray them, but he killed Sasuke or say rather had tried to kill Sasuke. No, stop. STOP! He inhaled deeply.

He pulled the door open to hear Sakura's rants still going on. Entering, he shut the door behind him.