Bent but not Broken

I'm sooooo SORRY for taking 2 years to update!!! *cowers in fear* I hope some of my readers are still out there >.< I have been so busy with school since I changed my major a couple of times. I also got kind of fed up with Naruto for a while since I didn't like the way the plot was heading. I also began to to question my crappy author skills and found this plot line to seem to be becoming less and less logical as the story progressed. So eventually I deleted it from my computer essentially giving up hope, but then a little while ago I found it on a jump drive around the time that I was starting to feel somewhat inspired so I decided to give it another shot. So I cant guarantee there will we another update for a while (and as you cans see by the time it takes me to update that could mean that there might not be another one this year 0.0) but I will try. On with the fic!

Chapter 4 “Sakura’s Surprise”

“…………” — Talking
‘.……...’ — Thinking
‘…………’ — Inners
~*~*~*~*~ — Flashback/Dream Sequence


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did I would be able to afford a better apartment with working appliances. Even the roaches are starting to complain around here >.< Eww!!


The next day, Naruto woke up bright and early. So early in fact, the sun hadn’t come all the way out. But that didn’t matter to him. He had to tell the Hokage his brilliant idea as soon as possible. He made himself a cup of instant ramen for breakfast and quickly inhaled it. He then got dressed and made his way across the empty streets of Kohanna on the way to Hokage Tower. When he got there he found the women passed out drunk and very ungracefully sprawled out over her desk. It figures. He inhaled deeply before shouting as load as he possibly could,

“HOKAGE-SAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

She fell off of her desk and onto the floor then quickly recovered and shouted at the top of her lungs,

“NARUTO, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT TIME IT IS!? IT’S FOUR O’CLOCK IN THE FRICKN’ MORNING!? WHAT THE HELL IS SO GOD DAMNED IMPORTANT THAT IT COULDN’T WAIT TILL MORNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????”

“heheh….” The boy scratched his head and gave an idiotic grin, “… well I was just thinkin’,” he paused for a minute as the Hokage glared at him, “Sakura’s apartment is kinda small to raise a kid and all, don’t you think?”

“And….” She said annoyed while waiting for him to continue.

“So I had this thought that maybe, since Sasuke isn’t going anywhere, we could maybe…” he never got the chance to finish. The Godaime’s eyes lit up with the anticipation. The boy could be so dense sometimes, but he sure did have his moments. She quickly, regained her compositor.

“And you want me to assemble a team to help you, is that it?” she asked. He didn’t say anything. The boy merely blushed in response. She quickly scribbled a message on a small scroll and then had it sent to the shinobi in question. Within no time the fallowing ninja were assembled in her office: Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chouji, Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba and Akamaru, Hyuga Hinata, Hyuga Neji, Tenten, Rock Lee, and last but not least, Hatake Kakashi, who surprisingly for once in his life, was on time. They all looked exceedingly pissed to have been woken up at such an early hour. Naruto looked to the Hokage for advice but she stared back at him and said,

“Oh no, this was your idea. You’re going to tell them why they’re here at such an unseemly hour.”

He sighed. “Well you see, yesterday I was thinking that Sakura’s little apartment is just too small a place to raise a kid and all. Then I had this brilliant idea. Since Sasuke’s back and all, we could rebuild the Uchiha compound!!” he said enthusiastically. They all stared at him and said nothing. After a few minutes the silence was broken by Ino.

“LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT, YOU WOKE US UP AT THE CRACK OF DAWN JUST TO TELL US THAT YOU WANT US TO BUILD FORHEAD A HOUSE!!!!!!!!??????” she screamed and charged at him but Shikamaru held her back. Both Kiba and Akamaru growled at him in response.

“How troublesome,” the lazy ninja half-yawned half-sighed while restraining the furious kunoichi.

“Idiot,” Neji cursed under his breath.

Lee, despite being slightly hurt by the idea of his beloved flower with another man, saluted and said, “I will do my best to build a house worthy of Sakura-san and her child! Oh yes, and Sasuke-san as well,” saying the last part as an afterthought. Tenten smacked him on the head in response.

Kakashi, who had never been a morning person; always making up some excuse for being hours late, had been on a sort of auto pilot. The conversation just now beginning to register. “Naruto, do you have any idea how early it is?” he sighed. The boy sweat-dropped and grinned sheepishly while scratching the back of his head. The older jounin rolled his eyes at the absentminded boy.

“Hehehe… right,” he said. “Okay then. Ino, Hinata, Tenten, you’ll be in charge of keeping Sakura occupied while I’m busy distracting Sasuke. The rest of you, go ahead and get to work on rebuilding the place. Got it?”

“Hey twerp! Just who die and made you hokage anyway!?” Kiba barked.

“Why I ought’ a…” the kyuubi began.

“SHUT UP AND GET TO WORK!!!!!” The actual Hokage bellowed which immediately sent all the shinobi running from her office. “That’s better.”


Meanwhile a Sakura’s, both she and Sasuke had still been asleep from the previous night when they were suddenly awoken by someone banging loudly at the door.

“HEY SAKURA OPEN UP!!!!!” Ino shouted from outside. Tenten rolled her eyes and Hinata covered her ears.

“Ino-chan, please be a bit quieter. You’re going to wake the entire neighborhood,” she said quietly. The blond girl didn’t pay her any mind. She continued banging on the door and shouting as loudly as she could. Suddenly the door opened revealing a tired looking Sakura and a very pissed off looking Sasuke.

“Sakura-chan!” exclaimed Ino, grabbing the pink haired girl by the arm and dragging her out the door. “Come on, you haven’t been out of his old house in weeks. We’re going shopping!!” Before Sakura even had a chance to protest they had already started dragging her in the direction of the shopping district leaving Sasuke cluelessly standing there at the door.

“What the fuck?” he asked. He stood there for a few seconds before turning around to close the door. He would just wait until Sakura returned he supposed. Suddenly there was another knock at the door. “What now?” he groaned.

“Heeeeeeeeyyyyyyy Sasuke!” Naruto proclaimed before being met with a fist in his face. “Itai! Hey, what the hell was that for teme!?”

“For being so loud so goddamn early in the morning dobe. Now what the fuck do you want?” he asked annoyed

“Well excuse me,” the blond said sarcastically. “I just came to tell you that now that you’re back in Kohanna, the Hokage wants a few words with you. You probably shouldn’t make her wait. You know how she is when she gets angry.”

“Yeah, yeah whatever. Just give me a few minutes to get ready,” he said slamming the door in the other boys face. A few minutes later he emerged looking, pretty much the same as he did earlier, his hair was a little neater though. Both he and Naruto made their way to Hokage Tower. Naruto began to notice all the funny looks Sasuke was receiving from the people on the streets and was about to say something when Sasuke stopped him, “Just leave it be dobe.”


Finally, they arrived at the Godaime’s office. Naruto threw open the door and just waltzed right in. “DON’T YOU PEOPLE KNOW HOW TO KNOCK!?!?!?!” she shouted causing Sasuke to cover his ears. “Oh Sasuke, you’re here too?” she asked a bit quieter this time. “Oh yes, that’s right. I nearly forgot. Please, be seated.” The boys did as they were told. “Now,” she began “we’re here today to discuss your punishment for betraying Kohanna three years back.”

“Excuse me,” Sasuke cut in “but does he have to be here for this?” he asked pointing to Naruto.

“As a matter of fact he does. You see, this concerns him as well, but I’ll get to that in a moment. Now, according to law the penalty for treason is punishable by death, but given the current circumstances…” she shook her head. “What I mean is that the elders and I all feel that it would be much more beneficial to everybody if certain members of the Uchiha continued serving as shinobi for the Konohagakure. That being said, you are being placed under house arrest for the next three months. Sakura is to be your custodian. You are not to leave her apartment without either her or Naruto. Is that understood?”

Sasuke sat there in shock for a minute. He knew the laws of Kohanna as well as any other shinobi. He had thought for sure he would at the least be doing some serious time in jail and be stripped of all rights as a shinobi or something. “Yes Hokage-sama,” he said standing up.

“Good. Then you both may go,” and with that, they took their leave. As they were leaving Sasuke began thinking about what the woman had said to him

‘I guess I should consider myself lucky,’ he thought to himself.

‘Bullshit!’ his inner shouted back. ‘You know as well as I do that the only reason they let you off so goddamn easy is because of…’

‘I know! Enough already!!!!.’


Meanwhile with Sakura and the girls: they continued to walk toward the shopping district. “Hey Sakura,” Ino started.

“Yeah?” Sakura asked.

“Where’s Sasuke going to sleep?” she asked. The old Sakura would have turned a shade of pink darker than her hair and started stuttering at this question. Hell, until recently she probably still would have blushed a little, but that was before. The question still made her a bit uncomfortable, but now she simply answered,

“I guess I’ll just have to pick up a futon while we’re out I suppose.”

Everyone was stunned at her answer. They had all expected her to either freak out and start crying or a hesitant answer like the ones Hinata used to give. Ino hadn’t meant the question to be awkward, but after she asked, she realized that it was. “We can do that later. For now let’s do something a little more fun,” Hinata said remembering that they needed to keep Sakura occupied all day. If they just got the futon it would be less than an hour.

“Yeah, like get some more kunai,” Tenten suggested.

“Ugh! Tenten, you’re such a tom-boy,” Ino sighed.

“If you’re such an expert, then what do you suggest we do?” she said back. Ino just stood there with a big grin on her face.

“Oh no. You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said as she suddenly realized what was going through the blond girls head. “Neji will kill me if I blow his paycheck clothes shopping again!”

“His paycheck! What about your paycheck?” Ino shouted.

“Just what exactly, er… how much did you buy last time Tenten-chan?” Hinata asked blushing a little.

“I didn’t know you were into clothes Tenten?” Sakura spoke for the first time.

“What can I say? She got me addicted,” the girl with her hair in buns said while pointing to Ino.

After much debating the girls, well mainly Ino, settled on a store called Kunoichi’s Closet, a lingerie store. Of all the places to shop, why did they have to come here? Ino had said she had wanted to buy something to surprise Sai for their date tonight. Yeah, like that’d work. But even Tenten and Hinata seemed to be enjoying themselves, though Sakura thought Hinata’s father would kill her if he ever found out she’d been in a store like this, then he’d kill Naruto.

“So what do you think?” Tenten asked picking up a cute little frilly pink lace bra.

“That’s perfect! Neji will love it,” Ino exclaimed. Tenten blushed. “So what about this? Do you think Sai will like it?” Ino held up lacy purple corset with a black ribbon that laced up the front, complete with matching panties that had straps for stockings.

“It’s totally you,” Tenten chuckled. “But good luck trying to impress Sai. The guy was raised in ROOT, he has no emotions.”

“But he said I was beautiful,” Ino whined.

“That’s because he always says the opposite of what he means,” Sakura said not really paying attention.

Hinata noticed Sakura’s blank stare and suddenly realized that Sakura might be feeling awkward in a store like this after what had happened. She can’t believe she hadn’t thought of that, but this was a place that they definitely would not run into the boys. Concerned for her friend Hinata turned to Sakura.

“Sakura-san…daijobu?”

“Huh?” Sakura was brought out of her thoughts. “Hai. I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?” she asked.

“Well… because we’re... uh you know… here,” she said shyly.

Tenten suddenly popped her head out from one of the dressing rooms. “Sakura? If you want we can go to another store. Ino and I weren’t thinking when we…” she started.

“Ie. I suppose I could always use another one for missions, after what happened to my other one…” she trailed off, “I mean whenever Shisho lets me go on another one.” She tried to cover with an obviously fake smile while she picked up a practical bra for missions and walked into the dressing room.


Meanwhile, Naruto and Sasuke walked away from Hokage tower. ‘Well, that went well,’ Naruto thought to himself, ‘well, as well as it could go I guess.’ He looked at his watch, wait since when did he wear a watch? Whatever, it was about eleven twenty. Shit, he still had to keep Sasuke occupied for another four hours at least. He was suddenly distracted as he caught something out of the corner of his eye.

“Ehh? ERO-SENIN!?!?” he shouted. The man was currently walking out of a store, and not just any store, a lingerie store, bag in hand. “What the hell were you doing in there old man?”

“Shopping, obviously. Not that it’s any of your business,” the older man fumed.

Now they had Sasuke’s attention. He looked to the old man then to the store and then back, his eyebrow cocked in disapproval. And this was supposed to be one of the legendary Sannin? ‘Legendary Sannin my ass. A dirty old man, a drunk gambling adict, and that Snake eyed freak’s more like it. What the fuck?’ he thought. Well, at least this wasn’t as bad as Orochimaru. He shuttered at the thought.

“Yeah, whatever. You haven’t seen the girls have you?” Naruto asked.

“Yeah, in there actually.”

“WHAT!?” the boys shouted in unison.

“You didn’t peep at them did you?” Naruto asked rather pissed.

“Relax. I wouldn’t peep at your little girlfriend,” he said.

“Hinata and I are not dating…”

“And the others?” Sasuke stated coolly.

‘Hmm?’ he thought assessing the young man. It was pretty obvious that he wouldn’t want to anger the current head of the Hyuga household by staring at its next heir. Nor would he want to want to invoke the wrath of the kunoichi with a fully stoked weapons arsenal, not to mention piss off her boyfriend. And that Ino chick just freaked him out. ‘So this kid has a thing for Sakura, eh?’ he inwardly smirked.


The girls paid for their items and left the store. It was around noon so Hinata suggested they go out for lunch, all though purposely avoiding Ichiraku’s seeing as it was Naruto’s favorite and he would most certainly be bringing Sasuke their against his will. So they decided on a quiet little tea shop that had the best dango in all the Konohagakure. Sakura oredered kamameshi, or rice topped with vegetables and chicken. Ino had kushikatsu, or skewered meat and vegetables, breaded and deep fried. Hinata had gyoza, or dumplings. And Tenten, sashimi and miso soup.

“So Sakura, did you manage to find anything?” Ino asked. Sakura nodded.

“Well that’s good, isn’t it?” Hinata asked putting down her tea.

“I suppose,” Sakura said quietly.

Trying to move the conversation along, Tenten tried to think of ideas for what to do next. “Why don’t we get in a quick round of training after lunch?”

“I believe the key phrase in that sentence would be ‘after lunch.’ Tenten are you kidding me?” Ino almost shouted.

“Why not? I think that’s a great idea,” Sakura said.

“Uh…you’d get sick. Sakura, you’re a medic nin, you should know that!” Ino said quickly trying to think of a reason not to.

“If you remember, it’ll take us a little while to get the bill and it takes about ten minutes to walk over to the training grounds. That’ll give us plenty of time to digest, and you’re a medic too!”

“Now, now. Calm down you two,” Hinata said. “We could go to the training ground another…” she started to say but Sakura cut her off.

“You guys just don’t want me training!! That’s what’s going on! Tsunade put you up to this didn’t she!? Well guess what? I’m perfectly capable of returning to my duties as a shinobi! There’s nothing wrong with me! I’m fine!!” she shouted. Sakura stood up and started to walk away when Hinata caught her by the arm.

“That’s not it Sakura-chan! We’re all just worried about you, that’s all,” Hinata tried to reason with her.

“Sakura, please listen! We’re sorry. We didn’t mean to seem like we thought you were weak or anything. I’m sorry I even brought it up. Hinata’s right, we’re worried. You don’t need to pretend like nothing happened,” Tenten begged.

“Why do you always have to be so stubborn!? You don’t need to prove anything to anyone stupid!” Ino shouted at her best friend/long term rival.

A tear came to Sakura’s eye but she blinked it away. Her friends truly cared for her. She was so stupid! They were worried about her and she just shouted at them. Of course her friends didn’t think of her as weak. Ino was also had other reasons to be concerned. “I’m sorry. I just thought…”

The blond girl drew her into a hug, the other joined in too. This wasn’t easy for any of them, but it was hardest on Sakura. None of them thought that she might see their efforts as a way to keep her from being a shinobi, or thinking she was weak.

“Forget about it forehead,” Ino chuckled.


Back with the boys Sasuke was brooding as they walked down the street. It was close to lunch and Naruto’s stomach was starting to growl. “I’m starving. Time for lunch! Come on Teme let’s go to Ichiraku’s and get some ramen!” Naruto shouted as he grabbed the other boys arm and proceed to drag him down the street.

“Hn,” Sasuke objected prying his arm out of Naruto’s grasp and stopping in the middle of the street.

His former team-mates attitude was really starting to piss him off. He had forgotten how annoying the boy’s detached personality could be. Naruto stopped in his tracks right outside of the market. Sasuke turned to look at him.

“What the hell is your problem Uchiha?” the blond boy finally shouted.

“Hn,” was all he said. It was the infamous two letter word. How he hated the ‘hn’s’. What the heck did ‘hn’ mean anyway?

“And what the fuck does that mean!?”

“Hn. You figure it out.”

“Grr… If that was possible, I wouldn’t be asking now would I?” The boy growled. Frustrated he reached down a picked up a tomato from the produce stand and chucked right in the Uchiha’s face.

Sasuke twitched as the squashed tomato slid off of his face. What a waste of a perfectly good tomato. Growling he also picked up a tomato and chucked it at the Kyuubi boy and shouted, “It means ‘I hate ramen’ you dobe!!!”

“Teme!!” Naruto picked up another one and tossed it at the boy. “If that’s the case you should try adding some new word to your vocabulary!!”

Sasuke chucked another tomato at Naruto. “And you should try expanding your diet! Maybe if you ate more than just ramen you wouldn’t have such a small brain!!!”

“I hate vegetables, except for the green stuff in the ramen… wait a second… HEY!!!!” Soon tomatoes were flying through back and forth the air. On lookers watched as the two boys threw the ripe red fruits at each other while exchanging insults. A few hours later the cart was empty. The two boys fell to the ground panting. That’s when they noticed the store owner towering above them, and he looked pissed. The two sweat dropped and ran like the wind.


Sasuke finally made it back to Sakura’s house grumbling. “Good going dope, now I’m gonna need a shower,” he mumbled and threw his clothes in the sink. The tomato stains were probably never going to come out. He went in to the bathroom and ran the water. He looked around; this is defiantly not how he had pictured Sakura’s house. He had expected it to be pink with decorations on the walls and frills on the couch or something. Her house was actually pretty pain. The walls and carpet were white and her couch was blue.

He stepped into the shower and let the water run down his well toned body. He sighed as he picked up the soap and began to wash away the juice from butt load of tomato Naruto had thrown at him. The tomato was the most sacred of fruits, how dare he use it as a weapon!! Then again he had thrown tomatoes at Naruto as well. He chuckled remembering the orange boy covered in tomatoes, he had to admit it was quite funny.

Meanwhile, Sakura opened the door to the apartment when she heard the shower running. She froze. Someone was in her apartment. What if it was him? What if Itachi had come back!? She put the shopping bags down on the counter and picked up her kunai when she saw Sasuke’s hamaka in the sink. She sighed gratefully, releasing a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She had briefly forgotten that Sasuke was staying there. She looked at the clothes. They were covered in red stains. She should try to get them out before they set. She picked up the soap and tried to remove the stains, but they weren’t coming out. She sighed in frustration and began to put the bag of groceries away when she heard the bathroom door open.

“Sakura?” someone asked. She slowly turned around. There in front of her stood a very wet, very naked, Sasuke wearing nothing but a small towel wrapped around his waist. He was in a defensive stance and had his sharingan activated. She dropped the groceries and fell to the floor.

Sasuke had heard someone enter the apartment an instinctively activated his sharingan in case of an attack. However it was only Sakura, but she was in shock. He walked over to the shaking girl, slowly reaching out his hand. She slapped it away.

“DON’T TOUCH ME!!!!!!” she shouted as she shot passed him. She ran into her bedroom and slammed the door. After a few minutes he got up. What had just happen? He went back into the bathroom. As he did he got a glance of himself in the steamy mirror. Just out of the shower, his wet hair was plastered to his head, and he was wearing nothing but a towel. Staring into the red eyes of the reflection he realized, he resembled Itachi.

In her current state, Sakura probably would have freaked out to come home to a half naked man in her apartment anyway, but especially one that resembled her rapist. He cursed his resemblance to the basterd. He cursed the basterd for hurting her, but mostly he cursed himself for scaring her.


Naruto was on his way to report the day’s events to the hokage. He was about to open the door and walk right in, but he stopped and thought twice. He knocked on the door and waited until he heard the grumbled sound of “Come in.” He opened the door and stepped in. “Oh, Naruto, it’s you. I trust the day went by with no…” she stopped mid sentence and gave him a good look over. “And I suppose this would explain the report I got from the market place about the ruined tomatoes,” she sighed.

“Oh yeah this, Sasuke and I just got in a tomato fight. Nothing major. Hehe.” Naruto replied.

“You know I have half a mind to make cleaning up the mess you made your mission for tomorrow. Other than that how did things go?” the women asked, actually glad that Naruto had given her a temporary break from the endless amount of paper work.

“Fine I guess. The girls went shopping and Sasuke and I spent the day walking around town.”

“Well if that’s all you can go, and take a shower. You reek of rotten vegetables!” Tsunade said holding her nose.

“I always thought it was a fruit?” Naruto asked.

“Whatever, just go!” the godaime shouted. “Oh, and Naruto. Before you go off and start the other project, Clean up the mess you made at the market!!!”

“What? That’s not fair!! I’m supposed to…” he was cut off.

“GO!”

Naruto grumble something about an old hag and a fascist regime and turned to walk away when he spotted a bag under the hokage’s desk. The lettering clearly read Kunoichi’s Closet. He had a quick flashback to his conversation with Jiraiya earlier that day. His eyes widened in horror as he came to an unsettling realization.

“You… you and ERO-SENIN!?” Tsunade blushed slightly. “OH MY GOD IT BURNS!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! FOR THE LOVE OF…. MY EYES, MY EYES, OH FOR FUCKS SAKE MY EYES, THEY BURN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” the boy shouted running around in circles clawing at his eyes before trying to run out of her office but managing instead to smack head first into a door.


~Narutards Anonymous