Chapter 3
Viewing The Past
"W-what?" Naruto asked. Suddenly his face felt wet, reaching to touch his marked cheeks only to feel the transparent liquid he should have felt when they first rolled down his tanned face.
Tears.
He hadn't even realized that he was crying. The numbness of his brain trying to slowly process the unbelievable words that came out of Tsunade's mouth gave him a light headache.
The Hokage felt a sudden tug in the inside of her chest from looking at her apprentice's best friend crying. She turned her head away from her sight, afraid that she might break her emotionless mask of a face.
She sighed, "You heard me the first time Naruto," Tsunade said, trying her best to not break down in-front of Sakura's teammates.
"B-but," Naruto started, gaining the attention of Tsunade. She wiped her eyes, afraid of the chance that tears might form. She cleared her slightly dry throat and took a sip of her wine before placing it back to its' place.
"She promised.." He whispered brokenly, coughing when an uncomfortable lump in his throat formed suddenly.
Clearing his throat to gain better access of speaking properly, he continued, "She told me y-years ago before I left that she'll never leave u-until I manage to get him back here.." Cursing himself mentally for the stutters, he looked down at the floor as he felt a pang of betrayal shot his chest.
As several teardrops fell onto the office floors, he asked "Well.. could you tell me everything that happened here while I was gone?".
Tsunade smiled slightly at him, "Of course," She replied. "But now, I don't have the time so I'll just show you something important for a while."
Naruto looked at her curiously when she told Karin, Jūgo and Suigetsu to go out of her office and letting them roam around the village to be familiar with some of the most common scenery of Konoha but warned them about not catching the attention of the villagers and high-ranked ninjas.
They nodded, understanding that Tsunade and Naruto needed privacy but wondering why Sasuke didn't come along with them, guessing that it's because the young Uchiha was once part of Naruto's team.
Immediately after the 3 had stepped out of her office, Tsunade cleared her throat and stood up suddenly causing a few of her papers to fall from her desk, "Hyōji Kako no jutsu," She whispered.
Naruto widened his eyes, he recognized that jutsu. Sasuke on the other hand, stayed silent and wondered what was going on.
[ 表示過去 ] - 'Hyōji Kako no jutsu' or also known as 'Viewing The Past Jutsu' a powerful jutsu created by the first Hokage's, Senjū Hashirama, best friend: Ishikawa Daisuke.
A jutsu that allows a person to see the happenings of the past but can only be controlled by how much they miss a person. If one misses someone from their past too much, they could go too far into the past and if they miss someone too little, they could only see what happened a week ago or so.
But one must be careful when using this jutsu for if they go too far back or stay in one specific time period for an hour or more, they could have very little chance to escape.
Suddenly, the whole room turned a bright white- forcing them to close their eyes tightly and cover their faces -mostly their eyes- with their hands for the sake of their perfect sight. The next thing they knew, they were outside the Hokage tower, between the loud crowd of Konoha. But everything was different from when Naruto and Sasuke just saw it.
People were more lively. More shops were open than they last saw it. More kids were running around, chasing each other with adorable grins and smiles shone on their faces as the sun shone brightly above them.
But the thing that stood out the most for Sasuke was that nobody seemed to even acknowledge their presence. It was as if they were invisible.
Just then, a little boy holding onto his mother passed through him like he was air itself, almost scaring the life out of him. Shivering from the sight and feeling of them walking through his body, he asked "What is this? What happened to us? Where are we? Why does the village's aura feel different?".
Tsunade chuckled, "Woah, calm down there. One question at a time," She said, amused that the usually cold Uchiha was acting like Naruto being curious.
Sasuke took a deep breath, trying to calm down his self being first. "Alright, answer me. What happened to us?".
"I used a jutsu that allowed us to view the past, basically it's like-" Tsunade explained before being interrupted by his best friend, "Traveling in time but nobody will realize that you're here! They can't see you, feel your presence and doesn't have the least idea about us," The tanned blonde said.
Sasuke raised a perfect eyebrow at him, "How do you know about this?" He asked. "Sakura-chan and I went to the library once before you left and she forced me to read at least a book that isn't a comic and I picked a book called 'The history of powerful ancient jutsu' and I got a bit obsessed with it after reading the advantages and history of 'Hyōji Kako no jutsu'-" Naruto explained. "The one baa-chan just used to get us here.. and a few other cool jutsu".
The young Uchiha nodded at the short explanation, "Hn. Sounds like what she would do." He said.
Tsunade cleared her throat, gaining their attention in the process. "Anyways, thank you Naruto for explaining," She felt pride swell in her heart a bit, reminding her of the time Sakura first fully healed her first patient without any problems but she quickly tossed the memory away- not wanting to dwell on the past.
Naruto grinned cheekily and chuckled in return, his tears dry and stuck on his scarred cheeks.
"I took the three of us to the time where you, Naruto, went off to get Sasuke back," Tsunade said and she clicked her fingers resulting them to immediately transport to a hospital office- more specifically, Sakura's office according to the red decorations, picture frames and a huge desk carrying loads of papers and a plate with the words 'Dr. Haruno Sakura' on it.
"Sakura started working harder, forcing herself to take late night shifts daily and barely slept every night," The Godaime said, looking at the wooden floor they stood on. "Sometimes, she doesn't sleep at all. I keep telling her to take at least a day off but she just wouldn't listen to me. But she always somehow look professional, neat and full of energy the next day even after a week of no sleeping!".
Naruto chuckled, "That's Sakura-chan for you alright," and Tsunade chuckled along with him, leaving Sasuke to be the only one quiet.
Once they quiet down, Tsunade smiled at the male blonde- not realizing that she is slowly breaking her cold facade she had worked months to master. Naruto gave her a cat-like closed-eye smile in return.
Sasuke stared at them before looking down, wondering what it was like to feel happy again. He bet he would do anything, anything, to feel any positive emotion for just a second without seeing someone getting tortured themselves.
Suddenly, the office door opened revealing Tsunade's successful apprentice, Haruno Sakura and... a male. Naruto panicked for a second before remembering what state the three of them were in.
Sasuke's eyes darkened at the sight of the male helping his female teammate, feeling something he had never felt before swirling inside of him. Gulping and trying to keep himself in control before going mad Uchiha mode.
Sakura and the unknown male exchanged words for a while but neither of the three could hear their conversation, making Sasuke feeling slightly irritated "Why can't we hear them?" He asked the female Hokage.
"It takes a lot of chakra for me to just use the jutsu, how can I simply complete it when I just completed a night shift since last Wednesday?" Tsunade retorted.
"Hn." Sasuke simply replied.
She clicked her tongue in irritation, tired of Sasuke's bratty attitude and just continued fangirling at Sakura with the man.
Unable to contain her squeal to herself when the two kissed, Tsunade shook Naruto's shoulders back and forth wildly.
Naruto and his best friend however, widened their eyes, blocking out the Hokage's fangirling as the two couple infront of them deepend their kiss before pulling back and looked at each other lovingly- his bright violet eyes clashing with her emerald green ones.
Tsunade fanned herself, unable to contain the love for her ultimate pairing as she dramatically sobbed over 'how beautiful they were'.
Groaning when they pulled away, she crossed her arms and pouted childishly before squealing again when the couple held hands and went out, closing the door behind them with a 'click!'.
It took about 1 minute and 37 seconds, counted by Tsunade herself, for Naruto and Sasuke to force the wanted information inside their brains. The blonde shrieked girlishly while Sasuke scowled.
"What the hell was that?!" Naruto shrieked.
"And who the hell was he?" Sasuke continued for his best friend.
"That, my dear friends, is my number one ship!" Tsunade smirked.
"What." The two best friends said together, staring at her blandly. Naruto huffed, "Just.. Just explain baa-chan,".
"Look, when you left to find Sasuke, rookie 12 began to be busy leaving her alone and she took all those useless night shifts because she felt lonely so Ino suggested her to have a boyfriend in order to take her mind off of her stress," The Hokage said with a grin, not realizing that her emotionless facade was destroyed already by now because of two 18-year olds.
"Hinata helped Ino and they both set her up on a blind date with Nakajima Takeshi, the guy she was with earlier, and it went really well at the end and soon, Sakura and Takeshi went on more dates theirselves and bam!" Tsunade clapped her hands childishly. "They ended up dating and is now engaged!".
"What?!" Naruto's outburst made her pity him. He sighed, "Guess I'll never get a chance with her... A guy will steal her heart one way or another before I even dare to make a move," He ran his hand through his blonde hair.
Tsunade's hazel eyes softened at him and hugged the young blonde, "Don't worry, you still have me Naruto," She cooed and stroked his spiky hair.
Naruto pretended to choke and pushed her away lightly. "No thanks, I don't do incest," He responded.
It ended up with him getting two huge bruises on his face, a dislocated bone and him rolling on the ground while holding what's in between his legs.
Along with Sasuke laughing at him mentally.
Naruto cried dramatically over his future children, still holding to his clothed privates as he mumbled some incoherent words. Tsunade rolled her eyes and kicked his ribs very lightly, knowing he's had enough especially after getting The Kick.
The Godaime said, "Oi. Get up. We need to see the other scenes like what you wanted," And clicked her fingers, transporting them to another time period the two teens recognized after a few minutes- her birthday.
"This will be self-explanatory.." The blonde female said under her breath.
It was hard to tell that it was, really. Her apartment looked normal like it was any other day passing by unlike the people who decorated their houses with tons of birthday stuff on their special days but the big calendar that hung in the middle of her living room with a deep red circle encircling the date 'March 28' was a light giveaway.
That, and Takeshi sneaking into Sakura's house holding a huge plastic containing party decorations and small gifts.
.. Wait, what?
The Uzumaki lept to his feet when seeing the Nakajima once again, forgetting about his injuries at once and placed his dislocated bone back in place.
"What is he doing here?!" Naruto shrieked as he pointed his finger at Sakura's fiancè, utterly horrified at the sight of the brunet who started doing his job- blowing up colorful balloons and hanging pretty banners on the ceiling, his 6 foot frame making the work easier for him.
It was like watching a time lapsed video because before they knew it, it was sunset and Takeshi just placed the small cake onto a wooden table he grabbed from the spare room when his fiancée came in the small apartment of hers.
They watched silently as Sakura teared up at the sight, hands covering her gaping mouth. Takeshi opened his arms, light biceps flexing a bit and he smiled softly when she ran up to him and cried, wetting his shirt in the process.
Sakura immediately attacked him with a tight hug and kisses to his attractive face. The brunet laughed and showered her with kisses and hugs of his own, holding her protectively as if she was a fragile doll as he carried her to the sofa.
Hours later -after Sakura changed her attire- though it seemed like a few minutes to the 3 past viewers, the lights became dim, the cake was completely eaten and gifts were unwrapped leaving the couple to sleep peacefully on the sofa, a fluffy blanket covering them as Takeshi's frame holding Sakura's small one possessively.
Tsunade sobbed over the adorable couple, complaining about how her apprentice got engaged before she even dated somebody. Sasuke and Naruto however, was sweatdropping and sighing at the dramatic hokage and asked her to move onto the next scene, wanting to get the image of the couple out of their heads as fast as possible.
The Godaime nodded and clicked her fingers once again, wiping a small tear that slid down her cheek. The next scene was of Sakura once again, with her fiancè and they seem to be busy in their date.
Naruto groaned and Sasuke rolled his eyes at the cheesy couple, "Can we skip all the scenes that has the jackass in it?" The tanned blonde complained, already tired of seeing Takeshi's face after one birthday scene.
Tsunade gasped, placing a hand over her chest. "How dare you call Takeshi a jackass! He's your best friend's fiancè for goodness sake, Naruto!" She said.
"Just do what he said, Godaime-sama," Sasuke said -scowled- for the first time in a while and sighed.
The Senjū rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Fine. But we'll be doing a lot of scene skipping you know," And skipped 67 scenes, stopping in a certain time the villagers of Konoha could not forget ever since.
Sasuke nearly gasped and fell to his feet when two ninjas fighting passed through him, shivering at the feeling of being air-like and the sight of many people dying every minute in the battlefield.
"Where are we? When was this? What happened?" Naruto asked the Hokage. Tsunade took a deep breath and started explaining, "When you were gone on your mission, Naruto, the alliance between Konoha and Kiri broke resulting us to have a small war." And dodged a heavily injured body thrown from afar.
"Kiri didn't keep their promise of delivering us their medical herbs, poison and inventions safely and properly so when a week after the delivery was supposed to arrive, the inventions were broken- some were chipped while others were really broken- the poison and medicines were misplaced causing the doctors of my hospital to use the poison for the patients instead of meds." Tsunade said, "Many patients died that week and their families along with some of their friends sued us and complained about us for being such terrible healers."
"The week after, the Mizukage and I held a private meeting- it was only the both of us. I interrogated her and she acted innocent the whole meeting, telling me that it wasn't her fault that the poison and medicine looked the same and that it wasn't her who packed the new technologies," The Godaime gritted her teeth at the memory. "I became mad and threw a bit of a tantrum and she talked back, then she suddenly insulted my people in the middle of the argument and I decided I've had enough and slapped her."
Tsunade began chuckling like the masochist she is, "It felt so good but then, she slapped me back and after that, she commanded for us to have civil war and because I wasn't thinking straight that time, broke our alliance with her village and we had war 3 weeks after."
Naruto and Sasuke forced the information into their heads, the former taking more time to suck it into his brain. "So..." The Uzumaki's voice caught the Godaime's attention for the two had been silent for a few minutes, staring at nothing so she had decided to rewatch the war that took place just 7 months ago.
"Sakura-chan passed away here, didn't she?" The straightforward question took Tsunade by surprise and he got his answer just seconds after when the ground beneath them began to rumble and all 3 jumped when huge chunks of the ground flew to the air.
A few Kiri ninjas got thrown to their opposite direction and their attention was caught by the person responsible for them. Naruto's eyes twinkled in adoration, Sasuke's was full of shock and surprise while Tsunade's heart began to drown from pride.
"W-woah!" Naruto screamed when another ninja got thrown across the battlefield by his pink-haired teammate.
The 3 watched in wonder and amazement as Sakura managed to heal and fought ninjas at the same time, green chakra glowing in one hand as a blue one glowed at the other. They could see streaks of dried up tears running down her dirty cheeks yet her green eyes didn't lose hope nor the fire that burned within her.
She somehow managed to heal TenTen, the weapon master, and completed just in time as someone charged at her, his sword rusty and covered in blood, perfect for impaling her with it. But unluckily for him, she was one step ahead.
The pinkette ran towards him just as he did the same to her, both had their weapons raised- his was sword, hers was her own fist. They both charged at each other, both hoping for the death of the other to be successful.
Just as they were inches apart, Sakura dodged his attack in a flash, going through the gap between his legs and stood behind the man. She quickly kicked his back causing him to spit blood as she hovered over him, her aura serious and dangerous as she took his life in a heartbeat with a single heavily chakra-pumped punch to the chest- leaving a fist-shaped hole in the middle.
Thanks to her instincts and inner self, she dodged another attack and ran away to watch over her friends. Sakura panted, her dirty ANBU gear disgusted her but it was no time to be thinking about clothing and such when she has better things to take care of.
As the Haruno reached the part of the battlefield where Ino and Hinata fought off their own batch of Kiri ninjas, she glanced over the faces of the attackers- some were ones she recognized from the bingo book and others weren't. Counting the amount of people her female best friends had to take care of from a hidden spot a few feet away, she sighed- glad that it was just a small batch of Kiri ninjas the Hyūga and Yamanaka had to finish off.
Unknown to her, a Kiri ninja had successfully followed the pinkette to the west side of the battlefield and was quietly sneaking up on her, her chakra masked until it was little to none that could be detected, weapon ready in hand as she grinned at the clueless Sakura that crouched infront of her.
The female Kiri ninja then raised her Kubikiribocho and stabbed Sakura's back, leaving a bloody hole at her black ANBU top. The Haruno scowled at the woman as she grabbed her own pair of kunai.
The two fought silently like two snakes fighting for a mice- except that the mice was death itself and both were trying to avoid it instead of getting nearer to it. Sakura grabbed two shuriken from her pouch and threw them skillfully at her enemy, missing her by a few centimeters.
The two continued to fight, both were disheveled and completely worn out but neither had the pride to surrender herself to death. While the two were busy, Ino and Hinata managed to kill all the Kiri ninjas that stood in their way- at least, that's what they thought before going to help the others.
One Kiri ninja had slithered out of the battle unnoticed and found his ally fighting against a Konoha ninja with pink hair.. how odd.
The woman noticed him and her eyes glinted mischievously which the other understood immediately. The male Kiri ninja hid his chakra to almost unnoticeable as he went behind the pinkette. His rough and dirty hands holding onto a bloodied weapon he found on the field ground, a sword.. perfect.
Raising the weapon behind Sakura, the two allies grinned evilly at her before they started attacking her with their weapons and malicious jutsu, blood spilled everywhere on the forest ground as they laughed and enjoyed listening to her tortured shrieks and agonied screams though they brushed off the fact that they saw her virdian eyes flashed white before getting murdered, thinking that it was just their masochistic imaginations.
+
All 3 of the past viewers stiffened at the murder of their favorite pink-haired medic since they didn't imagine her death to be so gruesome. She doesn't deserve that- nobody does.
Tsunade lowered her head and transported the 3 of them back to her office, scowling as her eyes showed nothing but hatred once again. The 2 friends were silent ever since they watch Sakura killing the previous ninja, hoping that she would survive. Their prayers and hopes were answered with a positive reply when she finished the horrible ninja off but came back to bite them painfully when her death came by.
"That was... intense." Naruto peeped quietly before going silent again. All 3 were unsure of what to do after they had just witnessed Sakura's death in a jutsu. The Senjū then took a deep breath and sipped on her sake, "Alright then.. now that you have your answer Naruto, I'll summon some ANBUs to escort you and your acquaintances," She said.
A few minutes later, 4 ANBUs came -One of them was Hyūga Neji, Naruto realized- and escorted all 5 of the teens out and into their respective places without any villagers catching sight of any of them.
Before Naruto stepped out of the Godaime's office, he went up to her before taking her hand and dragged her to a faraway corner inside the room. Tsunade raised an eyebrow at him, "What else do you want?".
"Well, could I visit her grave?" He asked quietly.
She sighed and let go of his hand before walking back to her desk, "Maybe some other time.. just not now, not today." Was her reply.
He nodded, understanding that it was hard for watching someone who's like a daughter to her die in-front of her eyes and knowing that she cannot do anything in order to stop it.
The Uzumaki sighed defeatedly and went back to the awaiting ANBUs before letting himself get dragged to his old apartment by the high-ranked ninjas.
XOXO
[ 4092 Words]
Oh btw, have you all noticed that some words that are supposed to be plural, for example: "She grabbed two shuriken from her pouch" it's two but I only put it as if it's one? It's because in Japan, there's no 'plural' so it's 'shuriken' not 'shurikens'.
So sorry if you see any mistakes in my grammar, I started this chapter at 12 am and ended at 5 am this morning.
P.S so sorry for making the characters completely OOC ^^;
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