Wilting Blossoms

Author's Note: Final exams are over, and so my writing begins anew!

Groundwork being laid for Naruto/Hinata pairing? Maaaaybe.

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Chapter Seven: Of Assaults and Retreats
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Sakura hummed to herself quietly as she flew. Today… today was a good day. The day after she and Sasuke had… she still blushed to think about it. He was talented, considering they were both neophytes as far as intimacy was concerned. She had read some romance novels, and had a vague idea of what went where… but Sasuke… she hadn’t had high hopes for him, honestly. He had surprised her, though he was naturally good at most things, she supposed. That boded well for her. It still bothered her that they had fallen asleep before she had the chance to return the favor. But… there was always tonight. Maybe if…

So consumed she was in her thoughts, she nearly didn’t sense the unmasked presence of rapidly closing pursuers behind them. Familiar auras… probably people she knew. Concentrating, she felt a natural mask of chakra flow over her and make her presence blend with that of the trees and other life around them. She accelerated, her strides falling in synch with his, her finger rapidly flashing a message. ‘Five coming from behind, one very strong.’ He nodded curtly at her, a faint trace of a smile on his lips. She felt her heart hammering in her chest. This was the moment she had been dreading. If they were captured, brought back home… how could she face everyone? And worse yet… she knew Sasuke wouldn’t back down, not ever. The only way he would be going back to the village would be beaten bloody… maybe even dead. She watched as slowed his jumps, dropping down to the ground, and she hid herself expertly in the branches above, chewing her lips as she pushed down panic, trying to keep her head clear.

Sasuke was leaning against a tree casually as Neji, Hinata, Naruto and what looked like a Nin tracking hound landed in perfect symmetry forty feet in front of him. Neji hesitated for a moment before speaking in cold voice. “Sasuke… we’re here to rescue you.”

Sasuke slowly looked back and forth, then looked at them with a grin that didn’t touch his eyes. “Doesn’t look like I need rescuing.” Neji stared at him stoically while Hinata pressed her fingers together and fretted. “Guess you three can go home.” Three of them… four if you count the Nin-dog. Sakura had said she sensed five.

Neji’s brows furrowed. “We’re bringing you back… rescued or not.”

Sasuke spread his hands. “Maybe I don’t want to go back.”

Naruto burst out from behind Neji, shoving both Hyuuga aside. “Sasuke, you bastard… what have you done with Sakura-chan!” His voice was deep, his eyes a blazing crimson, ignoring the restraining hand that Neji put on his chest.

Sasuke regarded him coolly, but his stomach churned. He had seen those eyes… and they usually spelled doom for whoever was facing against the crazed boy. Naruto’s eyes twitched over to Sasuke’s left for a moment… a bush around the base of a tree. An icy foreboding washed over his spine, and he leapt into the air.

Or at least tried to. His body was frozen in place, rooted to a shadow. ‘Shit… should have known they’d send Shikamaru. Fighting in the shadows of the trees… stupid…’ There was no time for regrets though.

Naruto was bursting with chakra… so much swirling around him it was visible… that dangerous vermillion hue. “What did you do to Sakura-chan?” He shouted, his voice shrill with anger.

“She doesn’t want to see you.” He managed to get out of a jaw that ached to move. It was the truth anyway, he suspected.

Naruto’s eyes were an inferno, and his lip curled up into a snarl as his fingers stabbed through the motions of that new jutsu Sasuke had seen on the roof of the hospital... what had he shouted when he did it? Rasengan? It meant Spiral Blast… and it was aptly named. All that monstrous chakra, poured into a tiny ball and carefully controlled to be spinning at a terrifying rate. Sasuke could tell that it would rip his body apart if it impacted… and he could barely move. Not good. He poured his chakra into his arm, feeling the familiar searing pain shoot up his arm as his skin boiled under the heat and pressure of the Chidori.

From her perch in the trees, she watched as Naruto began to run forward. Flaring chakra from two immensely powerful jutsu on a collision course… she was having flashes of deja-vu. Just like that day on the hospital, when she had tried to throw herself between her two best friends to keep them from killing each other… only this time there was no Kakashi to help. The last incident, she had lost control of her emotions and thrown herself out wildly with tears in her eyes. This time, she had a determined expression on her face as she jumped.

Naruto saw a flash of pink out of the corner of his eye, and it was enough to break the hold Kyuubi’s mindless rage held over him for a moment. His headlong dash hesitated, and he pulled his arm back just in time to avoid slamming it into her chest as she interposed herself. “Sakura-cha…” His joyful exultation trailed off as he saw the look on her face.

What was it that Naruto had said to her on the roof of this hospital, that day she had interposed herself before? ‘Don’t ever… interfere again.’ Well… too bad. It was her chance to save Sasuke, finally. “You going to hit Sasuke-kun with that new jutsu of yours? He can’t move or avoid it, Naruto… it will be lethal.”

“He disserves it… for what he did to you.” The Rasengan dispersed in his hand, and she heard the terrible chirping sound of the Chidori die out behind her.

Sakura held her kunai in a battle stance, her expression cold. “He didn’t do anything to me.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you home safe. No one blames you for leaving…” Naruto smiled thinly at her, trying to keep his hopes up. She hadn’t really left of her own free will… that was insane. The bastard had kidnapped her… but then… why was she looking at him like that?

“I can’t go back, Naruto.” She deliberately left the ‘kun’ off his name. “That life… its over for us. I’m sorry.”

“Why?” His voice was flat, the question ripped from a hoarse throat.

“Because Sasuke-kun needs to find peace in his own way. And he can’t do that while being assigned to D rank missions walking dogs.”

Naruto’s face watched the ground, his voice growing more choked by the second. “And what does that have to do with you, Sakura-chan? What?”

“I…” She hesitated, looking over at Sasuke, who was gritting his teeth as he fought against Shikamaru jutsu. “Sasuke-kun and I are a team.”

Naruto’s head jerked up, crystal blue eyes spilling over with tears of frustration. “No! The three of us are a team, Sakura-chan! The three of us!”

Her breath caught in her throat. “Naruto… kun… I just…”

His eyes blazed with determination. “We’re a team, Sakura-chan. You… me… even the bastard Sasuke. And what we do… we do together. You’re leaving? Fine.” He turned around, taking a step back to stand with Sakura. “I’m leaving too.” His gaze burned at Neji, daring him to say something.

Sakura’s expression faded into desperation. “No… no you can’t. Sasuke-kun and I damned ourselves to this fate, but you’ve got a future, Naruto-kun. You can grow up to be a Jounin… become an ANBU…”

He smiled grimly at her from the side of his eyes, wiping away the errant tears. “And betray my teammates for all that to happen? You should know me better than that.”

Sakura looked over pleadingly at Shikamaru, who was slowly walking out of his hiding spot, sweating from the concentration it took to keep someone as strong as Sasuke rooted in place. “Tell him he can’t. You’re the team leader, damn it! Tell him he can’t!”

Shikamaru instead watched Naruto with a troubled expression, and shrugged. In all the scenarios he had thought through, Naruto defecting had been one of the most devastating. He could keep Sasuke locked down, but barely at that. Even hoping that Naruto’s show of fighting prowess during the Chuunin exam was a fluke; that Neji and Naruto were roughly equal in strength… that left Hinata and Sakura to face off. And he had no illusions over Hinata’s willingness to raise a hand against Naruto to help out her cousin, even if she bested Sakura. That girl’s infatuation was obvious to everyone except Naruto himself. Shikamaru watched his worst case scenario play out before him with a disgruntled frown.

Sasuke fought against the now familiar crawling sensation on his neck. The seal was struggling against its bonds, trying to claw its way free and sear its way across his flesh. With that power, he could overpower Shikamaru’s shadow jutsu, but… he didn’t want to release the seal again. It felt good… too good… to have that level of power. Each time it unsealed, he lost a little more of himself, and put himself that much closer to being Orochimaru’s pawn. Plus it meant destroying all of Sakura’s work… the time, the amount of herself she put into that jutsu to try and help him keep the curse contained.

He watched Sakura and Naruto bicker back and forth. First Naruto wanted to kill him, now to join him. Naruto didn’t realize that Sasuke had run not just from the village, but from him as well. Naruto was dangerously close to becoming the first friend that Sasuke had ever had. Itachi’s final words to him before departing still rankled in his mind. ‘You must kill your closest friend.’ It was the only way to ever succeed at getting his revenge… and he was terrified of the time that he would eventually lose enough of himself to make that choice and follow his brother’s advice.

Hinata was watching all of her dreams burn before her eyes. She cried out in near panic. “Naruto-kun!” Everyone stopped and looked over at her. She froze, not having a plan for what to say next. She squeezed her eyes shut, hating how all the attention was on her. But… she knew… it was make or break now. If she didn’t think of something, her Naruto-kun would be gone for months, probably years, and the only girl around him would be Sakura. “Let…” she took a deep breath, nearly gasping for air in her panic. “Let me come with you!”

Naruto’s confused expression was crushing. “Hinata?”

She pushed on… it was too late to rethink. “Well… um…” She desperately sought a reason. “You… might need healing… when you’re out there.” She pulled out her herbal paste that she used to heal his wounds during the Chuunin exam. “None of you have any medical skills so…”

Naruto still looked doubtful, but suddenly she found support from an unexpected source. “Yes… Hinata can come along if she likes.” Sakura smiled at her, beckoning. She trembled as she walked to join them, her mind wheeling with possibilities. Why was Sakura willing to help her? And… had she really just abandoned her village and become a Missing-Nin?

Shikamaru released the jutsu enwrapping Sasuke with a shrug. “Well… fine. I give up.”

Sasuke tensed as he was released, ready to spring into action. “You won’t be trying to capture us?”

He groaned. “Half my team is gone over. Hell… that old bag is probably going to make me lead a new team out to recapture all of you. I’m half tempted to come myself.” He faced the disapproving stares of four recently deserted ninja. “Eh… I was only kidding.”

Neji looked uncomfortable. “So that’s it? We’re not going to even try?”

Shikamaru shrugged. “Too troublesome. We can’t win against these four.” He started to walk away, then turned back. “Eh… and good luck, you guys. Come back someday.”

Neji bowed crisply once to Hinata, then followed Shikamaru into the trees. Kakashi’s nin-dog shook his head once before following them.

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Review Responses:

Silverwing – Yeah… this pairing is sort of hard… but workable. And Saku/Ita? Wow… that’d be interesting. *ponder* hehe

Animevivverz – *glee* Thank you!

MidnightMoon – The shaky smiles… did I break your mind? I have a tendency to do that to people… Thanks for reading *heart*

Lamejane – Thank you very much for your compliment! That's high praise! *heart*

Maiden – I promise… no Sasu/Naru (In this fic at least)

SkatCat – Sasuke is just getting worse and worse in the manga. It’s okay… I still love his character, even if he does deserve a swift kick in the head *heart*

*muchhearts* to all my reviewers!