The Kekkei Genkai Curse
By Shiroihato
(Chapter 3: Good Luck Charm)
A/N: Hello, it’s me again. Before I start, I want to thank everyone who reviewed. That’s: Torame, screamingcrazyproctorlady, Winter-Rae, dbzgtfan2004, #1idiot, kabata4life, HokageNaruto, NaruxSaku2189, RockX2, FakeCompassion, Dreamergirl92813, templar132, orrin, crimson tear, and SakuNaruLover. Please, keep reviewing. It convinces my parents I actually DO have a reason to need computer time (both on Microsoft word and the internet) and that helps me get the chapters up faster. I’m serious; that’s actually why my dad gave me the time to post chapter two! Anyways, here you go. W A R N I N G: Lots of angst!!!!
Naruto ambled slowly, yawning, towards Ichiraku. Normally, he wouldn’t be up this early, but he had to find Jaraiya before he spoke to Sakura. He had a feeling the man had been avoiding him.
Stepping out of the nipping cold, and into the warmth of the restaurant, he spotted a familiar white head. He walked over and sat down next to the sannin. Ayame, without bothering to ask, began to prepare his usual.
“Hey, pervy sage!”
Surprised, Jaraiya dropped his chopsticks into his bowl, and swore.
“Hey pervy sage, I need to ask you a question…”
Jaraiya glared at the boy.
“Hey…while I was gone… did Sakura-chan get into some kind of trouble or something?”
The older man looked his student over, and decided that the use of equivocation was the best tactic to use in this situation. He slurped slowly on his noodles, took a drink of his tea, and wiped his mouth, drawing everything out.
“Now what would make you say that?” he asked, finally.
“I dunno… she just seemed kinda off, you know?” The blonde’s brow furrowed, “Maybe she’s just depressed. Yeah, that’s probably it…”
His mind wandered back to that horrible night, five months ago last week…
Tsunade quietly closed the living room door behind her. Every one gathered in the dining room looked up.
“How is she?” Kakashi asked in a choked voice.
Tsunade shook her head.
“I honestly don’t know how she could have torn her body up so badly. Let me put it this way: the amount of pain she’s in would send Jaraiya or I screaming,” the hokage looked down at the floor, “but I think she’s in too much shock right now to notice. And, I gave her enough medicine to knock Lee out after a 24-hour soda drinking contest. She’ll pull through, but…”
“She’ll never be the same again,” finished Naruto softly
---break---
Sakura stopped.
“Kaasan…Tousan…” she whispered, horrified. She had reached her house.
Smoke and ashes were every where. Bodies lay in piles, some of them belonging to children no older than two or three…
Sakura felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked back to see Naruto.
“I knew you’d run,” he said softly, kneeling beside her “Sakura, I’m sorry.”
She abruptly threw her arms around him, wincing.
“Don’t… don’t leave me…please not you, too…”
“I won’t. Shhh, I’m here. I won’t leave, I promise.”
“Naruto why? Why did they…”
Looking at the destruction, he didn’t have an answer
“Yeah,” he said quietly, “that’s probably it… Jaraiya-sama…”
Jaraiya looked at him, startled by his sudden politeness.
“Did we… you know… well… I mean, what tore her body up so bad that night, anyway? What jutsu; did Tsunade make sure its not still hurting her? I’ve heard thing like that can happen, and she nearly died three or four times that night…”
His conversation partner (if you could call him that) choked on his ramen.
“Here, Ayame!” he said suddenly, slamming a few bills on the table “This is what I owe you right?”
As the brown haired girl opened her mouth, he shushed her. “If it’s too much, keep the change. If it’s not enough, put it on my tab! I just realized I’m late for... a meeting! Yeah, that’s it, a meeting!” With that, he raced off.
-----break
Sakura grimaced as she stepped in a patch of particularly slushy snow. She wished the powdery stuff would make up its mind and either melt completely or stay frozen. But, looking up at the sky, she could guarantee that snowflakes would cover Konoha like icing on a cake within a few hours…
“Sakura-chan!”
She tensed as she heard the familiar voice behind her.
“Hey Sakura-chan,” her boyfriend exclaimed, running to her side, “Do you want to go do something together? I mean, just the two of us?”
The kunoichi knew she should refuse if she wanted to be able to hide her… condition from him. But there was something about the look in his eyes. There was something buried there, and she was intrigued. For the first time in a long time, his emotions weren’t written on his face for her to read. There was something different, and she didn’t know what it was. And so, her curiosity got the better of her.
“Baka,” she smiled warmly, “Okay, sure.”
-----break
Clutching the toy panda Uzamaki had won closely to her chest, she turned to him smiling.
“How did you know about the winter festival here in the post town?”
“I saw the ads on my way back to the village!” he replied, cheerfully, attempting to put an arm around her waist. She shook it off. An unreadable expression passed over his face, and he stopped. He turned so that he could see her better, placing both hands on her shoulders. Looking her in the eyes, he asked quietly, “Sakura-chan, what’s wrong?”
“Hmm? What do you mean?” her heart started to race.
Naruto tilted his head.
“I can barely sense your chakra, even though you’re right next to me. And you seem really pale and thin. What are you hiding from me?”
“I’m not h-” she started coughing abruptly.
“Sakura-chan?!”
Gasping for breath, she took one of her pills from her pocket swallowing it painfully.
A look of horror dawned on the jinchuuriki’s face.
“I’m fine…” she managed to say, but he wasn’t buying it. Sighing, she took his hand in hers, pulling him behind her as she ran.
When she finally found a place where she believed no one could overhear them, she stopped.
Pulling him close, she whispered, “Naruto-kun…”
His grip tightened on her hand.
“Naruto…I’m sorry…”
A million possibilities ran through his head. Had she found someone new? Had she decided, like Sasuke, that bonding would only bring her pain, that the best thing to do would be to hold the world at arm’s length? Or was he simply not good enough? Was she on drugs? Maybe those pills were cocaine or something… He really didn’t like the sound of any of the theories.
“Naruto, I’m dying…”
That had been the last thing he was expecting to hear. He stood there for a moment, completely stunned, as his brain tried to process this newest bombshell.
“W-what?!”
She let go of his hand, and looked away.
“The night my clan was… the night of the …THAT night… I used our clans’ secret technique, our kekkei genkai, Elemental Release. And now, its killing me. I’m sorry.”
A strangled sound escaped his lips, and his ears rang with the sound of her words, the cue for his whole world to crash around him. Sakura… dying? Life without the cheery pink-haired girl… he couldn’t even imagine it. She was one of the last things tying him to humanity…
No…
He couldn’t…
The mere thought…
Lonely again…
No one knew him like she did…
Pain, washing over him…
Pain and guilt reflected as if by a mirror in her beautiful emerald eyes…
There had to be someway to stop it. Tsunade had to know something… but then he remembered the godaime’s troubled face, the tear streaks on her face he had been to afraid to point out…
Crushing the Haruno to him, he managed in a terrified voice, “How long?”
“7th months… that’s all I … well, you know.”
He felt cold moisture running down his skin, but he wasn’t sure who was crying, him or her. He held on to her in desperation, as if to let go would bring her life to an end even faster. And he knew when she fell; his entire world would go with her. He would be left with nothing because she was his everything. Behind her back, his fist clenched.
“I swear, Sakura, I’ll find a way to fix you, to make you better!”
“Naruto…” she stepped back at him, with one of those ironic smiles that seemed to be her new trademark, “super glue won’t fix something once it’s shattered. Then its time to just throw the pieces out…”
His expression grew hard.
“then I won’t use super glue! I’m not going to give up on you! Don’t talk about yourself like that!”
He pulled her close again, and this time she didn’t jerk away. And to think, only two days ago, his most serious concern had been finding her the perfect Christmas present. Now it wasn’t the five weeks ‘till December 25th he was worried about.
“7th months…” he thought, a hole already being gnawed through his heart.
___________________________________
A/N: So yeah, that’s the end of chapter three. I don’t feel that I did very well,
but I also don’t think I can do any better. Besides, my computer time’s almost up.
Sad, Ne? Christmas is coming! More on Sakura’s physical condition later. And yes,
the entire rookie nine, and Gai’s team, will know by 12-25! Please R&R! Oh, and
for those of you who don’t know, equivocation means,
“n 1: a statement that is not literally false but that cleverly
avoids an unpleasant truth [syn: evasion]
2: intentionally vague or ambiguous [syn: prevarication, evasiveness]
3: falsification by means of vague or ambiguous language [syn: tergiversation]”
_________________________________________________________
Reviews/comments are really appreciated at Fanwork Feedback It only takes a minute ^_^!