Dark Truths Undiscovered

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters. Nor do I own the songs used within.

Thanks so much for the great reviews. J-pop I was shocked to see you on there! I have been reading your stuff and drooling for months! LoL So thank you very much. On with the story!!

~

Naruto woke alone in the small hours of the morning. He rubbed his hand over his face sighing deeply. The scent of Sakura’s shampoo still lingered in the sheets. Sakura. Where the hell was Sakura?

He sat bolt upright in the bed, heart thundering before he recalled that they were on a ship bound for the northern port.

Itachi and his fellow Akatsuki were wounded, like Sasuke. That’s right. They’d recovered Sasuke. The years of wondering and waiting were over. He pushed himself to his feet, pulling his clothes on hurriedly and left the cabin. Shika and Shino were standing near the makeshift infirmary.

Seeing his question, they merely nodded and stepped back, allowing the future Hokage to enter.

He opened the door to find Sakura barreling through it. She bumped into Naruto, stepped back with a soft apology and muttered that she was going to check on Sasuke. The blonde watched her go, a look of confusion on his face.

“She’s in a hurry” he remarked and turned to face the Uchiha.

Itachi lay still on the low bed, his eyes still covered. Only the faint blue glow indicated that he was still in pain.

“I know your awake” he called to the older man.

Itachi grunted, “Come to talk Kyuubi?” he asked. T

he blonde gritted his teeth, “That isn’t my name” he pointed out, “But if you want to talk to him, then you can. I suppose one demon has more to say to another after all.”

Itachi said nothing for a long moment, “You love her” he said then.

Naruto made a small sound, “That’s right” he agreed.

Itachi toyed with the blanket, “And she loves you. How charmingly sweet.”

Naruto growled, “Emotions must be funny to you , being as how you lack them. I’m telling you now Uchiha. Leave Sakura alone. I can forgive that you stole her from her home, but only for Sasuke’s sake. I won’t forgive much more from you.”

He turned on his heel and strode from the cabin, slamming the door behind him.

He brushed past Shika on the steps leading up to the deck.

“Oi Naruto” he said, “Everything ok?”

The blonde nodded, “Just need some air Shika. Oh! Do you have any of that famous Nara medicine with you?”

The other nodded, looking down the steps, “You want me to make sure that Sakura gets it right? For that Deidara?”

Naruto nodded, “Yeah, thanks.”

~

Sakura sat in the quiet of the cabin. The muted groan of the wooden beams and the hushed slap of water the only sounds besides Sasuke’s deep, even breathing. The sounds were calming, but they did little for her jumbled thoughts and aching heart.

Her green eyes swept over Sasuke. His face so like the one she’d just left, with just a hint of the boy she’d loved so long ago. His dark hair contrasting with his milky flesh, the envy of his long lost clan. A clan that he could never have again. Not by his own actions.

His brow furrowed in his sleep and she leaned forward, stroking her fingers through the dark strands that slid against his face. Like silk. It had always been so. Back in her youth when everything had seemed so fresh, uncomplicated. Innocent. When they had been team 7.

She smiled a little as memories washed over her. But the truth of her smile was how naïve she really had been. She had loved him so much and believed with all her heart that love meant to suffer for one that you loved.

She knew better now. Naruto had been the one to teach her that.

Love was not the dark twisting of love ignored. Not living in the shadow of adoration as she had. Love was the spilling of sunlight across your soul, dancing in the rays of mutual adoration. It was this kind of love that she had now, that she wanted for always.

Not just for herself either. She wanted that kind of love for everyone.

Everyone deserved that kind of salvation.

Everyone.

She thought of Deidara laying in the bed and bit her lip. She wanted that for him, she wanted it for Sasuke to heal the wounds of his heart. She wanted it for Itachi and it made her ache inside that he wouldn’t live long enough for it.

He was so much more than what he appeared. He was dark and deep like the sea, he was changing like the moon. One truth remained clear however, when one cared to look closer they could not deny.

Itachi Uchiha was a good man, a kind man. Though he didn’t always show it. She had seen it and it had seared itself in her heart.

She shook her head, “I love Naruto” she whispered to her sleeping companion. Willing him to be the silent listener for this time. “But I …..I think I love him a little too Sasuke. And that is wrong. It has to be. But then I love you too Sasuke. I’m so confused.”

Sasuke said nothing, didn’t stir. Leaving her to deal with the storms of her heart alone. Itachi had asked something of her. something she wasn't sure she could ever give.

Itachi’s request made sense to her. In a coldly calculating logical kind of way. But his eyes spoke volumes more and it was those volumes that made her tremble where she sat.

Her mind relived those moments over and over again.

***

Sakura had been sitting with him for nearly an hour. She knew that someone like Itachi would not like having the bandage over his eyes. It was imperative that he leave it in place however, she had infused the linen with just enough chakra to help ease the ache.

From what she knew, Itachi could suffer for days after using the Mangekyo. She smoothed his dark hair back from his brow, almost absently. “Sasuke?” he asked quietly, “Has he awakened?”

Sakura sighed, “No” she answered, “He sleeps still, though the damage to him is much less than the last time you attacked him this way.”

Itachi smirked slightly, “I have excellent control of my chakra and the mangekyou.”

She snorted, “Then why ask about him she wanted to know.

Itachi shrugged, “To make conversation I suppose.”

She laughed quietly, “You were never one to talk much” she said dryly, “Is it the pain?”.

He shook his head, dark hair falling against the linens. Her fingertips slid over the bandages and her chakra swirled over his eyes, a cooling, soothing sensation.

His large hands caught her wrists, drawing her away from him, his thumbs rubbing small circles on the pulse points.

“I’m fine Sakura” he assured her, “How is Deidara?”

She pulled her hands away and looked over at the other man. “He seems the same” she told him, “I already changed his bandages, most of the bleeding has been controlled… I just want him to make it.”

Her voice was soft but even so it broke as she said this.

Itachi lifted his hand to glide it down her arm, “He will be” he assured her, “He has taken severe injuries before Sakura. The life of Akatsuki is not an easy one, besides he has the next Tsunade tending him doesn’t he?”

She blushed over his compliment. It seemed that without his eyes, Itachi used his hands to see her. Not that she minded. The silence stretched between them, stillness surrounding them.

Then Itachi spoke, his voice quiet as always, the dark slide of velvet against her senses. “Sakura” he said, “There is something I would ask of you.”

She stared down at him intently, waiting to hear what he would say. What could he possibly ask of her? What could she possibly give to him, the Uchiha? His hand pushed the bandages from his eyes and she tried to protest but he caught her when she would have replaced them.

“I want to see you when I ask” he told her.

She nodded, meeting eyes black as night and deep as the sea. “You know about Sasuke” he said, “Your research and ours would have told you enough. You know that he can never rebuild the clan that I helped destroy. The seal has robbed him of that.”

Sakura said nothing, merely waited. Her eyes were trapped, she was trapped. Locked in the swirling black of his. “The pride of the Uchiha shall die with him” he went on, “Sakura can you let that happen?” S

he blinked, breaking loose of the trance she had let herself fall into, “What can I do?” she asked, “I can’t heal the damage done to his body. I don’t even know the extent of it yet.”

Itachi lifted his fingertips to her face, tracing the curve of her cheek. “There is one hope” he told her, his face passive, emotionless as always. “Bear my child Sakura. Give us a son, a future.”

Sakura felt her heart thud painfully, felt her stomach drop in a sickening feeling.

She staggered to her feet, “Itachi….. I … how? Why?” she whispered. He met her gaze with a cool one of his own. “

You are the one who understands best” he said, “He is the one strong enough to make certain that the Uchiha clan never falls to ruin again.”

She shook her head, “Sasuke? We don’t even know the mental state of him, not really” she argued.

A black brow rose up, “I was not aware that Sasuke was the one you wish a future with.”

She blinked again, his words swirling in her head like a chaotic song, “Naruto?”

He nodded and closed his eyes, tugging the bandage down once more. “Think on it.”

The door had opened and there had been her lover, her hope.

Naruto.

And she had done the only thing she could think of.

She’d fled. Like a wuss. She mentally berated herself for it. They had to talk. If she was seriously going to entertain the notion of doing such a thing, he had to know. No question of that.

***

She snapped herself from her memory.

“It should be a decision we make together” she told herself, “and not lightly. There is more than pride on the line here. Sasuke’s happiness, Itachi’s legacy, the rebirth of the Uchiha. Why us? Will you hate us or thank us if we do such a thing?”

She felt the tears prick her eyes and dashed them away on the heels of her hands. Looking back to the younger Uchiha, she sighed, “What should I do Sasuke-kun?.”

She sat with him for a long time, half hoping he would open those dark eyes and look at her.

Rant at her, tell her that she had ruined his great plans.

Fight with her, talk to her.

Erase the deafening sound of silence that threatened to her consume her. But Sasuke had always been contrary and he kept on sleeping.

Bastard.

~

Shikamaru knocked on the door softly, hearing Sakura’s soft reply through the rough wooden panel. He pushed it open to step inside shutting it behind him. He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at the ceiling.

“So troublesome” he grumbled, “When will you tell him?”

She blinked in surprise and the Nara poked his ear, “I have excellent hearing and I was outside the door.” he reminded her.

She flushed hot red and looked away, “I… I don’t know” she stammered.

He sighed, “But you will tell him.”

She nodded, “Of course I would Shika” she snapped, “I am not the type of person to lie to the ones I love.”

He nodded slowly, “It’s difficult” he said then, moving to look out the small window, watching the sky pass, “The position that you are now in.

To say no is to be loyal to Naruto but lose a bloodline limit that the village reveres. It also would mean leaving Sasuke in a dark world where no one else like him ever will be again. To say yes is to risk what you have come to hold dear, but save your friend from a bleak future without any family to look forward to. Very troublesome Sakura-chan.”

She lowered her eyes to the face of Sasuke once more.

“Can you do that?” he asked as he headed for the door, “To either of them?”

His hand vanished into his vest as he pulled forth a small pouch, "For your friend. The blonde one” he told her, handing it to her.

Her tears fell even as he pulled the door closed. He didn’t envy her this choice. He didn’t condemn her either, he had merely gone to make certain that she knew exactly what lay before her.

Whatever she and Naruto decided he would support. He loved them after all, they were his friends. He wanted them to be happy. He wondered in such a tangled situation if that could be. For any of them. He walked towards the last place he’d left Shino.

~

Naruto stood on the deck, strong fingers gripping the wood. The salten air kissing his face, filling his lungs with the scent of the sea. Something was troubling him and in the depths of his mind Kyuubi stirred.

‘Kit, you worry about her’.

‘Yeah I do. She’s been ….different.’

‘What do you think it is?’

‘If I knew I wouldn’t worry so much’

‘Don’t be snappish, go and talk to her’

‘Did you see her face? She looked scared and confused…’

‘All the more reason to go.’

Naruto grumbled, “And what if I really don’t want to know what she has to say?”

Kyuubi was silent though and Naruto sighed and turned to find Sakura. He had to know what could make her feel as she had earlier.

She wasn’t in Itachi’s room and so he went to the next place. Sasuke’s cabin. He found her. She was asleep, sitting in the chair beside their former teammate. Her head on her folded arms, her hand covering one of his. The faint scent of tears reached and him and he moved to kneel beside her.

His fingers brushed her pink hair from her brow, “Sakura-chan” he called softly. Her green eyes opened and she straightened, leaning towards him to hold him close. What if she told him? And she could never hold him like this again? Her heart felt squeezed as her chest constricted.

“What is it Sakura?” he asked as the tremor ran through her, “What has upset you this way?” She lifted her head and stared into his blue eyes, so warm.

She looked into her lap and then back at him, gathering her courage. “I have something to ask you.”