❝𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑲𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒉𝒂❞

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 10: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒆

"Naruto this is nothing. Hey look at me." Her voice forced him to drag his sorrow filled gaze up to her eyes. The tears in his almost broke Sakura's heart.

"I...I hurt you...I did that to you Sakura." The lack of the honorific at the end of her name hurt when it came from Naruto. It also told her how much pain he was feeling for what happened when he wasn't in control.

"Naruto you didn't hurt me. Whatever was just in control did. Not you Naruto." She gently stated. His eyes fell back onto her arm and she realized that as long as those gashes were still there, he wouldn't be able to think clearly. She lowered a healing hand onto the wounds and quickly sealed the cuts. The pain faded with the cuts until both were non-existent. When she removed her hand Naruto visibly relaxed.

"I'm so sorry Sakura!" His apology was silenced by her hand.

"Naruto if you apologize anymore I'm going to show you the other thing Tsunade-sama taught me. I get that your sorry but it wasn't your fault. Now what just happened?" Sakura's tone and posture did a complete 180 when she asked the question.

Naruto took a deep breath. He had always been trying to avoid this question, always dreading the inevitable day that someone would ask and he would be forced to answer. It seems that the day he feared had finally come. He exhaled slowly before he began.

"16 years ago the village was attacked by the Kyuubi. You know this. What you were never told was what actually happened." Sakura was about to voice her confusion but Naruto continued speaking and cut her off. "The Kyuubi was never killed. It was sealed away. However the only thing that could hold it and survive the chakra integration was a human child. I was born on the 10th of October."

Sasuke landed in the clearing and waited for his companion to show up. He began to think about his former teammates and although a smile crept onto his face, he felt that slight twinge of guilt in his chest. He quickly and ruthlessly crushed that feeling and mentally scolded himself for feeling such things to his useless ex-comrades. He was ordered to prove his loyalty by slaughtering at least two of his former teammates so he did. At least he thought so. He remembered that he twisted his sword slightly just before he plunged it into Naruto's back. That slight turn opened up the possibility that he may have missed the heart. He also could have hit Kakashi's heart but he went with a lung instead. Why?

His pondering was ended when the man he was waiting for appeared. The swirled mask made Sasuke slightly curious as to what lay beneath but he disregarded the feeling.

"It's done." Sasuke stated this with the coldest voice he could muster, not even noticing how his voice cracked ever so slightly when he spoke the words.

"Very good Sasuke. Now it's time we meet up with Orochimaru. It's about time your training began." The man turned around, the cloak with the red clouds shifted with the movement, and leapt away with Sasuke close behind.

"So...you're the Jinchuuriki for the Kyuubi?"

The question was barely a whisper. No doubt she was trying to take it all in. Naruto seen this blank look on her face as she stared at him. His stomach was doing flips from the fear he was feeling. Any moment now she would side with the villagers and hate him. She would probably spit on him a few times to get "his taste out of her mouth" and then storm off leaving him alone for good. She might even request being switched to another team. His mind was racing and he could feel the cracks working their way through his heart so it would be easier for Sakura to shatter.

What happened was far from what he expected.

Naruto suddenly found a pair of arms wrapped around him and his shoulder was getting wet from the tears being shed. Sakura shook as she cried and Naruto's hands instantly found their way to her back, one rubbing her lower back while the other pulled her closer to him. Sakura cried for several minutes before the sobs died down into the occasional sniffle.

"Sakura-chan, why did you cry?" Naruto still rubbed her back gently but allowed his curiosity to be known.

"I cried because I remembered all of the times I was mean to you. All of the times I followed the adult's examples and all of the times you were kind to me regardless of my actions. I need to know why?" Sakura finally pulled away and stared into Naruto's eyes.

"Why was I so nice to you?" She nodded her head. "Well it's because I love you. I always have and I always will. We were kids and you didn't know why the adults did that but you knew it was for something that they thought was important so you followed their example. I never blamed you. I could never, ever blame the beautiful pink flower named Sakura." He smiled at the end and chuckled in his head at how cliche the end sounded. But it seemed to have the results he was looking for.

"Oh you baka! I love you Naruto." She pulled him back into her and they held each other close. "Arigato Naruto. You never gave up on me and all I can say is arigato. I will always love you." She whispered into his ear.

"No Sakura-chan. I should say arigato for giving me a chance. I will always be thankful that you did." Naruto closed his eyes and a few silent tears ran down his cheek. Revealing his secret brought them closer together instead of driving them apart like he feared. The mood was quickly ruined when the familiar scribbling sound began to sound from the window. Naruto felt anger and embarrassment build up and turned to see Jiraiya in the window, furiously writing in his "research" note pad.

"Don't mind me gaki. Just keep doing what you were doing and I'll have my next best seller!" Jiraiya grinned and kept his pencil ready, ignoring the stifling amount of killer intent that flooded the room all directed towards him.

"Ero-Sennin are you here for something?" Naruto felt his fingers twitching in rage at being interrupted.

"Oh yeah Tsunade just sent me to make sure you got home fine. Now if you don't mind-"

"Shinra Tensei!"

After Jiraiya's rude interruption was abruptly dealt with Naruto feel asleep with Sakura in his arms. Said pinkette awoke around 6 in the afternoon feeling more energized after the 4 hour nap. She went about the house and began to tidy up the mess made by Sasuke's attack. The broken chairs and table were easy to take care of. After disposing of the fragmented wood she cleaned up the rest until only one thing was left: the blood. There were two distinct pools of blood on the floor. The one where the table used to be was her boyfriend's while the other was her sensei's. She stared at both for a long time until something clicked. She realized several things about the attack that she had missed in her state before. First, Sasuke twisted the blade before he stabbed Naruto which caused it to barely miss his heart. That was the only reason he lived. Second, Sasuke could have easily killed Kakashi but instead he hit him in the lung. Finally there is the fact that she is still alive. He had her by the throat. A quick twist of the hand and her neck would have snapped like a twig. Instead he placed her under a genjutsu and tossed her aside. She finished cleaning the blood when she reached a conclusion. With impeccable timing, Naruto walked into the kitchen just as she finished putting everything away.

"Hey Naruto I want you to promise me something." She began to get nervous at what his reaction might be.

"What is that Sakura-chan?" He turned a somewhat sleep clouded eye in her direction.

'Here goes nothing.'

"I want you to promise that you will bring Sasuke home." The silence that followed threw Sakura off. She was expecting him to be really loud. Not deathly silent.

"Then you noticed it too? How he could have killed us all but didn't. You realize just like me that the old Sasuke is still there." She nodded her head slowly, still prepared for an outburst.

"I promise Sakura-chan! I promise it on my life!"