A Bare Anomaly

Disclaimer: I cannot claim ownership to Naruto and it’s properties, Kishimoto can. (Insert tab A into slot B)

Note (probably only one of it’s kind): this chapter is concurrent to chapter three. It’s just focusing on someone else, in the beginning. I say this because, obviously, I know when and where these occur. You, other readers, may not.

Sakura tried hard. She certainly wasn’t avoiding Naruto. Or Hinata. She was truly studying the scrolls. She had unlocked the first five levels. So she began applying what she learned to helping Sasuke. Tsunade still wouldn’t let anyone near Naruto’s room anyway. Sakura had time at night to think of her team these past few days. So she did. She was grateful that Naruto succeeded at his promise. But to think that Sasuke was willing to kill Naruto. That didn’t make sense to her.

She mulled and mulled. How would killing your best friend make you more powerful? If she only knew. Sasuke’s high throne had come crashing down to merely a tall chair. No one else had been to visit. She almost didn’t expect them to. He had tried to betray the village. Traitors aren’t to be kept, but nothing bad would happen to Sasuke, right? Tsunade had marveled at the girl’s abilities. Shizune had commented that Sakura seemed different. Orochimaru had affected his teammate. So had Jiraiya. The parallels were not lost on Sakura or her master.

This is an important time in a girl’s life. Her current best friends (counting one hardcore crush, counting one annoying goof ball) had shattered her ideals. The dead last was proving anything but, and the genius had given into madness. Sakura dreamed that Sasuke would instantly recognize her worth. He would apologize for being so stupid. He would sweep her off her feet. He thanked her, after all. She’d have to ask him what that meant later. But cold reality set in. He didn’t give a damn. He didn’t care. He didn’t . . . Shaking her head, Sakura felt Shizune’s hand on her shoulder. “Its coming back, don’t kill it again.” Sakura looked down. Sure enough, the fish was floundering. She did it. She mastered the final scroll. Tearing out of the tower she ran all the way to the hospital.

She burst through the door, and ran smack dab into her Hokage. “Haruno!” “I did it, teacher.” Tsunade nodded and allowed herself a brief smile. “Be at my office in the morning so the real training can begin.” Tsunade left the hospital. Sakura beamed and went straight to Sasuke’s room. She hoped today would be the day that he would wake up. She had a lot of questions. Nothing had changed, the room was still dark, he was still out of it. Now don’t think she was intentionally ignoring Naruto. The floor closed signs meant it was open to staff and ninja on guard duty only. So when she had free time she visited the only person she could. It gave her time to think. She, too, had taken to talking to Sasuke.

“It seems I’m going to become a medic ninja.” She was going to say more, but a light groan caught her attention. “It’s about time, I was afraid that you were never going to wake up.” He cracked his eyes open. The light was blinding. Dammit. Sasuke realized he was still in Konoha. He sat up, glancing at his teammate, but not really recognizing her. He shook his head. This isn’t going to do. “What did ‘thank you’ mean?” The demanding tone in her voice caught him off guard. What had happened at the Valley of the End? He knew he killed Naruto. Eyes swirling, he realized he didn’t have the final level. The idiot was still alive, apparently. Well, he didn’t know Naruto was still alive, but he expected to feel different. More than this, anyway. “Sasuke, are you with us?” That’s when he realized who was in the room with him. Her. The annoying one. He had expected her to collapse against him crying. That’s what she’s done every time so far that he has awoke. When she didn’t he was a little surprised. So he looked at her. She was crying, she was concerned but she looked a little angry. “Why?” She asked softly. “Why did you try to kill him?” He didn’t care if she understood or not. With this new power he wasn’t going to answer to anyone. He got up to leave. She grabbed his arm. “Please, why?” “Hn.” He jerked his arm away only to get slapped. The tension of everything snapped. It’s not that (or really what) Sakura was demanding, per se. This aura has been hanging over her for days now. There were questions, and there were answers. Neither however was really being addressed. So, the action leads to the reaction. Naturally she didn’t expect that to happen. She never expected herself to be able to do that. But right now, he was being a real bastard.

His arm snaked out, grabbing her by the throat. She was scared. Luckily for her, he slammed her against the wall. ANBU came in. He released her, and dashed between the two. There was nothing here for him. He had to kill Itachi, and he would do it his own way. But he had to get stronger. If Orochimaru was stronger than Kakashi, then that’s where he needs to be. So when he left, this time there wouldn’t be a team strong enough to get him back.

Sakura panicked for a brief second. Then she reasoned if Sasuke was awake, so should Naruto be. She tore out of the room, healing her wounds on the way. Doors were not her friend today. Hinata damn near killed her. Sakura screamed. Hinata screamed. That was the second time today that Hinata’s adrenaline was up. She thought back to what happened earlier today.

The nurse’s name was Rei Kimura. Or at least her name tag said that. She entered Naruto’s room, nervous and scared. The needle contained a cytotoxin, and she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to do this. She released her breath when she didn’t see the Hyuuga heir. Perhaps she was out eating but this was Rei’s lucky day.

Hinata felt the nurse’s intention the second she opened the door. This wasn’t going to end well. Hinata hid, letting the nurse trap herself. She waited for the nurse to get all the way to the bed. “The fear you are showing gives away your intention.” The nurse dropped the needle. Crying, “I didn’t . . . I . . . I . . . ” Hinata pressed the kunai to her throat. “You didn’t expect me in here, or you didn’t expect to get caught, or you didn’t what?” Had the nurse known Hinata (and had the nurse not been fearing for her life right now), she would have noticed that Hinata was shaking. However, it was all she could do not to piss herself. “So what was in the needle?” “C-C-Cytotoxin, w-w-would kill the d-d-demon faster.” Swallowing became difficult. For both of them. The nurse was almost paralyzed with fear, and Hinata angry at Naruto being called a demon. Rei felt the kunai press a little deeper. She could barely talk. “Why would you want to kill him?” Rei was crying uncontrollably now, and it hurt to remember her father’s drunken rambles, her sense of loss for her family, everything. “K-K-Kyuubi killed my uncle, and f-f-father told me to take this shift. No one else really objected” Hinata shook her head. She called for the ANBU guards. “I need a log sheet, and you need to take Miss Kimura to Hokage-sama.” They scoffed, but complied. One seriously hurt ANBU was warning enough from Tsunade’s request to listen to everything the Hyuuga said.

She had just gotten calmed down. It hurt her to think that nearly everyone that was of age hated Naruto. Dealing with her father, her teacher, this nurse. The list went on and on. Sensing the panicked flare of power, she got ready a serious confrontation. This calm feeling scared Hinata. One such as her shouldn’t feel this at ease with incoming danger. Then here was Sakura barging into the room like a mad woman. After they realized neither was a threat Sakura looked toward Naruto. He was still out. The tears and sadness she’d been holding back came forth in full force. Letting Sakura cry on her shoulder, Hinata waited to hear the explanation. Sakura was hurt. Seeing him like that. Knowing that Sasuke didn’t care.

In Sakura’s head she wanted to scream. Anything, shake him awake. Make this all go away. “He’s gone.” Hinata was confused. “He tried to kill me.” “Who?” This continued on for several minutes, with Hinata letting Sakura collect herself. Once it became apparent that this was the best it was going to get, Hinata let her ramble. Through broken sentences she found out that Sasuke had woken up and fled. Hinata sent another ANBU to retrieve the Hokage.

Tsunade and the ANBU escorted Sakura away, taking her down a few floors to make sure she was ok. This wasn’t going to do well for Naruto. “Naruto-kun, I don’t know how to say this.” Hinata was fumbling. She dearly wished the boy would come to. “Please, Naruto-kun, wake up.” She didn’t know what to do. “Sasuke attacked Sakura-san. He’s left the village, apparently.” Why wasn’t he responding. His body had all but healed. “What do I have to do to get you awake. We need you Naruto-kun. ” She was in a fevered rush now. “Please, come back to us. We need you here, Naruto-kun.” Two weeks of nothing had finally caught up to her. The dam broke. “I wanted to show you how much I changed for you Naruto-kun. I wanted for you to see how much I care. Please.” She was crying harder and harder. She never noticed the boy stir. She didn’t see that he heard her. He had no idea how to react. Hinata cared for him? Sasuke left again? He beat Sasuke? What had happened. Why was Hinata here? Her words rolled over and over in his head. She cared.

He never did anything to her, he barely spoke to her. Yet, after the Chuunin exams, he did feel a slight bit closer to the strange girl. The boy isn’t an idiot. He can piece things together. Slowly, he remembered Sakura telling him Hinata was always watching him. And now here she was watching over him, and her aura seemed stronger than before. More mature. “Hasn’t the Kyuubi done all it can to heal you?” She murmured. He froze. She knew. He had to think fast. Then it hit him. She knew and she didn’t leave. She said she cared. Thinking hurt his head for the moment. Naruto Uzumaki is never shy. And he is blunt. So he did the only thing he could think of. He reached out and grabbed her shoulder. “Hinata, don’t cry.”

To say that she was shocked would not have explained it fully. She had to wonder how much he heard. “N-N-Naruto-kun . . . ” His bandages only allowed an eerie smile, but he did anyway, the warm smile that reassures. “I’m awake now, I’m ok.” She wanted the floor to swallow her whole. She crashed against him, however. That’s twice her body has done something she never thought was possible. One hug Naruto could handle. The mouth full of pink hair he couldn’t. No one noticed that Sakura had entered the room. She was just happy that Naruto was awake and well. They cried, they caught up. Most importantly, to Naruto, they accepted him.

Author’s Note:
Bah. I’m not happy with the ending, and the whole thing really, it stems from my hatred of Sasuke. Next chapter is going to cover the happenings during the time skip. I’ve got a clear goal for the next few chapters. And I’m hoping that it’s better than this.

And this isn’t a rant, per se. It’s more of a discussion point that has bugged me for a while about the series. David Tatum, writer of Training for the Job (though incomplete, is superb), pointed out something, I want to comment on it. Kishimoto has done a superb job of writing/drawing/etc Naruto. Most of the characters have well developed pasts, interesting quirks, and on the whole are fun. But once you draw into the fandom, several things become apparent. Then you either ignore them, or you obsess over them. I did the latter. Age and time line in the series don’t really make sense. Mainly dealing with Orochimaru leaving, Anko’s entire history, and the Rock war-Kyuubi attack.
It’s always bugged me that there isn’t a clear distinction of a viable time line. By example, Kakashi. He’s thirteen-ish according to the side story when the Rock-Leaf war ends. He’s twenty six when the series starts. That leaves a year between the end of the war and then when Kyuubi attacks. Alright, lets buy that. So when does Orochimaru leave the village. Is it before or after the war? Given that Anko is his apprentice, and she’s twenty four, that means that when Kyuubi attacks she’s twelve. So that means that Orochimaru had to leave between Anko’s sixth and eleventh birthday, right in the middle of the war. She doesn’t look any younger than eight or so in the flashbacks. And she wasn’t an Itachi level genius. So it’s doubtful she’s younger than eight. That’s confusing. Horribly. Just to make sense of it all, Anko should be older than Kurenai. It doesn’t make sense that a legendary ninja like Orochimaru would take an apprentice so late in life. But then again, Kishimoto doesn’t address that.
It’s confusing if you think it about it too long.