Forgive Me, Naruto

Conflicted Once Again

I widen my eyes, remembering Hinata. "Is Hinata okay?"

He nods. "Yeah. That damn Otsutsuki extracted a lot of blood from her, but she's doing good now. Her and Sakura are resting. She used up a lot of chakra healing both you and Hinata. It's been a stressful day for her," he says, rubbing his head.

I notice the sunset outside.

"How long have I been out?" I ask.

"About 20 hours. Almost a whole day," Sai says.

"Let's rest for the night and head back first thing in the morning," Shikamaru says, yawning.

"Head back? To Konoha?" I say, turning my head towards him.

"Our mission was to save Hinata. She's here with us now, so let's head home," Shikamaru says, crossing his arms.

"But what about-"

"You can't be serious right now. The guy put you under a genjutsu. I don't know what exactly happened or where he is right now, but I'm guessing he decided to go with the enemy. Not that I'm surprised or anything," he says, muttering the last sentence.

I silently look at my lap and don't respond.

"Hmm, you're usually quick to defend him. So I'm guessing that's what happened, then. C'mon, Naruto. You have so many fangirls -- and guys -- back home at Konoha. So many people would love to be with you. You spent years chasing after this guy, you gotta give up," he says, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Did you give up when it came to asking out Temari?" I say, raising an eyebrow.

Shikamaru scoffs. "That's different. Sure, she's scary, but she never went rogue or tried to kill me. She showed me her love through her actions. Can't really say the same about Sasuke," he says.

Sai nods in agreement. "True. I get scared of Ino too sometimes, but she shows me her love through her actions. Has Sasuke ever done that for you?"

I grunt and turn away from them. They're right. But what do I do now? I want to leave and go back, but I just can't. Even if we go save him, how do we know if he'll come back willingly?

Shikamaru sighs. "Well. Maybe you'll have better luck talking to Sakura and Hinata. I'm gonna go smoke," he says, leaving.

Sai tilts his head and stays for a moment.

"If you really want to go after him, we'll go with you Naruto. But how long are you going to keep this up?" Sai says, before leaving too.

I wish I could just tell them all to shut up and stop saying those things about Sasuke. But I can't. I don't even know how to feel about him anymore.

I stand up and dust myself off. I decide to take Shikamaru's advice and look for Sakura and Hinata.

As I travel deeper into the cave, I see Hinata lighting a candle.

"Hinata!" I shout in surprise.

She immediately shushes me, motioning towards a sleeping Sakura. I see Sakura curled in the corner, hugging the scarf Hinata made her. I hold back a laugh. When Sakura isn't so scary, she can be such a softie.

I turn back to Hinata, who is watching Sakura with a smile.

"She must've been worried sick about me, huh?" She says.

"Yeah," I said. I notice a bandage wrapped around her upper arm.

Following my gaze, she reassures me.

"I'm fine. They stuck a lot of needles through me, extracting my blood. Toneri...he said he needed my Hyuga DNA for something. I'm not sure," she says, scratching her head.