In Spite of it all (BOOK TWO)

Chapter 10

Sakura POV~

I fiddled with my kunai, crouching next to Sasuke-kun in the treetops. After a long moment, I finally asked the damn question.

"Do you think Naruto will be here?"

Sasuke, who was peering out into the forest, almost visibly stiffened at those words. I was confused, but he gave no other reply than a curt, "Who knows. Keep your voice down. There may be enemies nearby."

I sighed and shut my mouth, not wanting to annoy him more. I was pretty much used to Sasuke's coldness, but he seemed more tense than usual. Was it Naruto? Every time our old teammate was mentioned, Sasuke became a little more terse.

I shot a quick glance towards Sai, who, thankfully, kept his mouth shut for most of the trip (I would have most definitely caved in his skull otherwise) and Captain Yamato, both of which were seemingly ignoring us in favor of watching the trees ahead. I got a small inkling that they weren't actually as ignorant as they were pretending to be.

The hours crawled on in heavy silence. I could swear everyone was holding their breaths the entire time, including me.

That only made the sudden disturbance in the air even clearer. Sasuke snapped to attention, his dark eyes fixed on the foliage around him. 

Suddenly, Pakkun appeared from the trees, panting heavily. 

"Hey guys." Pakkun gulped, his breathing heavy. To my medic-trained ears, the state of his obvious exhaustion would have garnered an immediate demand to get some rest, but even I could see that now wasn't the time for that.

"Pakkun. What happened?" Yamato asked.

"Something about a crystal style user? Apparently someone can make these and fight with them." Pakkun reached back into one of his pockets and pulled out a small, pink crystal. Was that a bug inside it? Pakkun shot off into an explanation once he'd dropped it into Yamato's hands. "We found some of Shino's bugs like this. I was going to take it to the Hokage to examine, but I'm stopping by here first to tell you that Kakashi needs his backup."

"Understood." Captain Yamato said, giving the crystal back to Pakkun. He turned to us. If I didn't know better, I'd say Sasuke-kun was buzzing with excitement. Even if he was, I could never tell.

"Ready, team?"

We all nodded our agreement. He turned to the ninja hound again.

"Wish us luck."

"Same 'ere." Pakkun mumbled around the crystal in his mouth and ran off.

With that, the four of us took off towards Kakashi-sensei and Team 8.

The whole time, my mind whirled with worry. 

Are they okay? I hope no one gets hurt.

And then there was Naruto.

To be frank, I never liked him much. He was loud, annoying, constantly on my nerves even when he wasn't even talking to me. That was why seeing his true feelings was so jarring. The whole time he was lifting the mood acting like an idiot and prankster, he was hurting inside.

Looking back, I wanted to punch myself for not seeing it sooner. For being so insensitive. 

I still didn't like him. But I was much more reluctant to bully someone for no reason nowadays, after seeing the result of so much unkindness in Naruto. 

Because, to be honest, I had been a bully. The whole village had been bullies.

And I couldn't even deny it.