Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Talking: “…”

Thinking: “…”

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Chapter 12: No More Believing

“Dammit, dammit, dammit!” There was a pounding sound, a hard pounding sound on a table.

“Calm down, Naruto. We haven’t lost yet.” Tsunade said, with a rather angry voice.

“But I have!” Naruto stopped pounding on the table, his hands feeling sore. He shut his eyes tight, his body shaking.

Both Tsunade and Shizune didn’t say anything. Tsunade sat behind her desk while leaning her head on the back of her hands. She closed her eyes, preparing for what she was about to say.

“You failed to protect her.” She said, her eyes still closed.

Naruto slightly opened his eyes as he looked down, “Yes I have…” He barely managed to get out.

“She counted on you to save her.” Tsunade said, slowly opening her eyes to look at Naruto.

“Yes… she… did…” Although Tsunade couldn’t see his face very well, but she knew he was on the verge of tears.

“Tsunade-sama…” Shizune said softly, wanting Tsunade to stop. Naruto didn’t deserve this, he did the best he could, right?

But Tsunade continued; “Do you want to save her?”

At this, Naruto’s head shot up, looking fiercely at Tsunade. “I would do anything.” He quickly wiped the beginning tears from his eyes, and looked straight at Tsunade.

Tsunade gave a little smile as she stood up, her face becoming serious again. “Ok, let’s figure out together on how we are going to save Sakura.” She said, looking at both Shizune and Naruto.

“Yes!” Shizune and Naruto said at the same time, while walking towards Tsunade.

“What were his orders?” Tsunade asked Naruto.

Naruto took a deep breath, “I had to find him… and kill Sasuke.”

Shizune gasped, shocked by what she heard. But Tsunade didn’t move, nor did she flinch.

“I see… Are you going to?” She asked Naruto.

“I don’t know…” Tsunade made an irritated sigh.

“How can you ever save Sakura when you are not determent about this?!” Tsunade almost yelled.

“How would you know, Tsunade-obaachan?!” Naruto yelled. “Sasuke… Sasuke is my best friend. I fought so hard to bring him back! And I promised to Sakura-chan to bring him back…” Naruto felt like he was totally misunderstood.

“You think I don’t know? You think I don’t know what it’s like to lose someone dear to you?” Tsunade asked, walking towards Naruto.

Naruto stayed quiet; he didn’t knew about her past, but the way he saw her shaking with the fight with Orochimaru made him have a feeling that something horrible must have happened.

“If you don’t know what you are going to do,” Tsunade continued. “then you are not suited for this mission.”

As if he was stabbed in the guts while hearing that, his eyes went wide, feeling weak in the legs. “W-what?!”

“Tsunade-sama!” Shizune said, clearly going to defend Naruto. “How can you say that?! Naruto is the only one who can do this mission.”

“I am the only one who wants this mission.” Naruto interrupted. Shizune and Tsunade looked at him. It seems he had recovered from Tsunade’s words.

He continued, “I am the one who didn’t protect Sakura-chan! I am the one who let Orochimaru get away!”

“Even if you would take this mission, you wouldn’t know where to look, right?” Tsunade asked him, her arms crossed.

This lowered Naruto’s spirit. “No, I don’t…” He suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up, seeing Tsunade standing next to him, with a smiling Shizune on the background.

“Then, let’s figure it out together; I might have an idea where his lair could be.”

Naruto smiled on of his big smiles, “Alright!” He looked outside the window, seeing the whole village from there. ‘Just wait, Sakura-chan, just wait a little bit longer. I am going to save you, and then, I’m never letting you go…’

“Where… am I?” Sakura said as she looked around her, seeing nothing but a large empty room. It was not her room, that’s for sure.

She noticed that was sitting on a bed; the only thing that was in that room. ‘I must have past out…’ She thought. ‘Wait, what exactly happened?’ As soon as she asked herself that, she received flashbacks about what happened.

She gritted her teeth, “Orochimaru…” She quickly stood up, but noticed that she didn’t had any strength in her legs. She immediately fell down on the hard, cold ground.

“What… did he do to me..?” Sakura said as she tried to move her legs, but they wouldn’t budge.

“Good, you are finally up.” Sakura shot her head up, looking towards the person who said that.

“Ka…buto-san?” Sakura looked rather surprised. What was he doing here? And rather, why did he wore the Sound symbol?

“Did they caught you as well?” She knew it was a silly thing to ask. She already knew… that he wasn’t a captive.

He laughed, rather bitter. “Silly little blossom, don’t you see the symbol right here?” He pointed to his headband.

She was right.

“You dirty little…” She growled. Kabuto wiggled with his finger, making a disapproval sign.

“Now, we aren’t going to fight, are we, Sakura-san?” He walked over to her, and kneeled down. “I was only taking orders to be a spy. I do not see any harm in that.”

“Shut up!” She yelled, and lunged her fist at him. He stopped it with ease.

“Feeling a little weak everywhere, Sakura-san?” He said while grinning.

Sakura was shocked to see her punch stopped. She knew she couldn’t move her legs, but did that affected her arms as well?

“What... did you do?” Sakura asked him, while feeling weaker with the second.

Kabuto grinned even more, “I am a medical ninja, I have my tricks.”

‘A medical ninja?’ Sakura thought. ‘Just like Tsunade-sama and Shizune-san?’

“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Kabuto said, while standing up. “I have to wait for Orochimaru-sama’s orders.” He walked away, leaving Sakura on the ground.

“Wait!” She said. He actually stopped at her call and slightly turned his head towards Sakura.

Sakura continued, “What is he planning, that Orochimaru? Does he really... want Naruto to kill Sasuke?”

She could practically hear him grin, “Well, I don’t need to answer that question, right Sakura-san? You know the answer already.”

Sakura’s eyes widened in shock. “No...” She got out without her even noticing.

Kabuto didn’t say anything, but she knew he had a evil grin on his face. He closed the door behind him, leaving Sakura alone in the empty room.

Tears formed in Sakura’s eyes, and she didn’t bother to wipe them away. She noticed that her hands were getting wet, meaning that the tears were already falling.

All her hope was drained from her body. “Naruto... don’t come...” She still couldn’t get up, and she knew that her beginning medical ninjutsu couldn’t heal her.

“What are you doing here?”

Sakura’s head shot up; that was Kabuto’s voice.

“You know you can’t be here, you don’t have the orders.” Kabuto said, clearly talking to someone just outside Sakura’s room.

“You should know that I do not take orders, not from you, not from him.” A males voice said, different then Kabuto’s; a voice she knew all too well.

“I want to see her.” The other person roughly said.

“Tsk.” Kabuto said, and it seemed he gave up to stop the person. Sakura could hear footsteps fading. She figured that Kabuto left.

Then the only one that was here was...

“It seems that you are still weak.” The person said, who just came through the door of the room.

She looked down again, not wanting to see him. She only softly whispered his name, “Sasuke...”

He immediately noticed that she didn’t called him ‘Sasuke-kun’. He walked towards her, his eyes not leaving her figure.

She still refused to look at him, she wasn’t ready to look at him. The memories from that night came back, the memory from her injury came back.

She could hear the fabric of his clothes move really close to her, meaning that he was kneeling down in front of her.

She wanted to run, she wanted to get away from him, she doesn’t want to be here.

“Sakura...”

Wait, was he actually calling her by her name?

Although she didn’t wanted to, she slowly lifted her head, so that she could look him in the eyes.

But his expression wasn’t what she hoped it would be; it was still cold, with no emotion.

She noticed something; he wasn’t looking in her eyes, he was looking at where he stabbed her.

Although it was completely healed, it, right now, was hurting her like hell. And as an reflex, her hand reachedn up to were her wound was.

“Does it still hurt?” Sasuke asked, scaring Sakura by the sudden question.

She looked away from him again, “N-no...” She said, her voice so small, not like Sakura at all.

“So, it didn’t kill you.” Sakura didn’t knew what it was, but that comment made her angry, pissed even.

“How could you say that?!” She blurted out, but she didn’t care, she was mad. “Did you wanted it to kill me? Was that your plan from the beginning?! To kill both Naruto and me? How could you! To think that... I still believed in you!” Sakura stopped, breathing hard. She didn’t feel so good, she was sweating all over.

“Only Naruto.” He said, with no emotion in his voice.

“What?” Sakura said still gasping for air.

“I was only out to kill Naruto, I didn’t meant to harm you.”

Sakura couldn’t believe what she was hearing, “You were out to kill Naruto?! Don’t you have any emotion at all? Naruto is your friend.”

“He was never my friend.”

“Yes, he was and he still is! Do you know how much trouble he is going trough just to get you back? Even if he saw you talking like this, he would still try to bring you back.” Sakura retorted.

“He is just weak.”

“No, Sasuke, you are the one who is weak. You are running away from us, don’t you think that’s weak?”

“No.” Was his answer.

“You are unbelievable...” Sakura muttered under her breath.

“How would you react if I kill Naruto?” Sasuke asked Sakura, still no emotion heard in his voice.

“Are you serious?” Sakura asked, eyes wide.

“Dead serious.” Sasuke said.

Suddenly, there was a hard slap echoing in the room. Sasuke’s cheek burned, as his head was slightly tilted to the side.

Sakura had slapped him.

It wasn’t an hard slap, simply because she didn’t had her strength back. But because of her anger, it was hard enough.

Sakura still had her arm in the air, breathing hard. She wasn’t shocked at herself for slapping him; she actually wanted to slap him for a long time. Slap him back to his senses.

For a moment, she could she a shocked expression on Sasuke’s face. Sakura grinned at herself for such an ‘victory’, but it was for a short time, as Sasuke regained his emotionless face as he turned to her.

Sakura showed no fear this time; she didn’t care what happened to her now. She had shown her true feelings to him.

He suddenly moved his arms around her, and stood up, carrying her with him in bridal style. Sakura was confused at that moment; what is he planning?

Sasuke walked over to her bed, and lay her down. Since Sakura still hadn’t regained strength in her legs, she couldn’t run away.

“Soon, it’s over.” He said, as he made a quick movement with his right arm. Sakura felt an sting in her left arm, as she looked what he was doing; he was injecting her with something.

“Sa...suke...” Sakura managed to get out, before her eye-lids became heavy, and that she couldn’t move her body.

She knew he injected her with a sleeping medicine.

Then her world went black.

“Tsunade-obaachan! Let’s go! Hurry!” Naruto yelled with anxiety while standing at the main gate of Konoha.

“Naruto! Nothing good will come if you rush yourself like this.” Tsunade said as she came walking towards Naruto together with Jiraiya.

“As long as I can do my research, I’ll be fine.” Jiraiya said, as he walked with both pen and paper.

“We are not going to do that, Ero-sennin! We have to save Sakura-chan!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Jiraiya said, as he walked with Naruto.

Before Tsunade went after them, she turned around. “I trust you with Konoha, Shizune. We’ll try to be back soon.” She knew she could trust Shizune; she has as much knowledge as Tsunade.

“Yes, Tsunade-sama. Just... be careful, all three of you.” Shizune said, concern clearly heard in her voice.

Tsunade grinned with her eyes closed. “Right, leave it to me!” She quickly turned around and walked after Naruto and Jiraiya, who were waiting for her.

And even after Tsunade said that, Shizune still had an uneasy feeling deep down.

To Be Continued