164Summary:
Sakura's past came back to haunt her. Now, she'll have to correct her mistakes or let the guilt continue to eat her alive...
Disclaimer: Naruto's not mine... okay?
A/N:
Hello, everyone! XD I'm back and bubbling with lots of Sasu/Saku love again! Hehehe! XD I miss you all so much! So... I am here to present you with a new story of mine... I hope you guys will like it as much as you like my other stories... I'm sorry to say that it's not going to be as humorous as my previous story... It'll focus more on the fluff between Sasuke and Sakura though!
Anyway... Please enjoy reading! XD
A Kunoichi's Debt
by: fascinatrix femina
"Sakura, let's continue this tomorrow. You're dismissed now."
All the pain and exhaustion from the day's training rushed out of her mouth in the form of a heavy sigh of utmost relief. She eyed the clock, offering it a small smile of gratitude for it ended today's quite interesting, but unbelievably exhausting, training.
It annoyed her to feel this way, but for the past few weeks, most of their training always end up like this and she just couldn't help but feel...
"Sakura... I said you can go now."
Tired...
"Sakura?"
...so damn tired of calling her student's attention and stop her from training so damn long.
"Please," The said student, who was still too engrossed on the task at hand, finally answered. "won't you give me ten more minutes...? I almost got it!" Sakura cried out another plea, her third plea that afternoon. "Look, Tsunade-sama! The leg's nearly healed..."
A scowl formed on the Hokage's lips as she continued to watch her highly determined student from her desk. It's not that she didn't want Sakura to finish her training. In fact, she could leave her there and let her train until tomorrow if she wanted to...
The only reason why she wanted Sakura to give her training a rest already was because the girl had this tendency to push herself too hard! She resisted the urge to snort when she took notice of her student's already shaking hands.
She really should learn to stop when her body demands it...
Kinda reminds me of my younger years. Tsunade thought, a small grin making its way to her lips.
Time slowly ticked by and when the Godaime glanced at the clock again, she couldn't help but sigh again, this time, in irritation as she removed her chin from resting against her hand, which was cramping up already for waiting so long for her student to finish. "Sakura..."
Sakura, on the other hand, wasn't thinking of giving up anytime soon. Sweat trickled down at the side of her cheeks as she placed all her concentration on the injured kitten that was lying at the center of the large scroll.
There's no way I'm stopping now! Sakura thought in determination, even if her vision was starting to get blurry, her surroundlings swirling every now and then. "Only a little bit more..." Her brows furrowed and she couldn't help but bite her lip in worry when her outstretched hands protested by trembling uncontrollably.
She was aware that her body was getting tired... but she refuse to stop! She could do this! In fact, if she could just release a little more chakra then...
She nearly jumped into the air when a firm hand suddenly grasped her wrist, instantly breaking her concentration. She was met by the angry frown of the Hokage, who had a disapproving look on her face as she stared down at the surprised Sakura. "Sakura! Pushing yourself too hard won't do you any good. You, of all people, should know that!"
She wanted to protest, to defend herself, to say that she really could heal the injured animal now, but one look at the obviously upset Hokage made her think otherwise. Hiding her disappointment with an apologetic smile, she nodded and lowered her arms to the side.
She clenched her hands into fists. Darn it! Curse herself for getting tired so easily! She had to get stronger! She made a pact with herself that she wouldn't become a burden to her teammates anymore!
"Sakura." Her thoughts were cut off when Tsunade began to speak. Her voice was stern. "I understand what you're..."
"DAMN IT! Let me go! I wanna speak to the Hokage now!"
"Calm down, kid!"
Both heads turned towards the doors of the Hokage's office, which suddenly opened with a bang so loud it made the Godaime's vein twitch and nearly gave Sakura a heart attack. Two jounins burst out of the doors dragging a struggling young man, who kept on cursing and screaming at them to let him go. They marched in front of Lady Tsunade's desk and released the boy forcefully, which made him lose his balance and fall face-down on the floor.
"Damn you! Why did you do that for?" The young man, who had an abnormally spiky black hair and had his bangs dyed blood-red, looked up and glared murderously at the two jounins, who just shrugged and shared a weird look with the Hokage.
Wait a minute...! Sakura's brow furrowed in suspicion. Abnormally spiky black hair...? Red bangs...?
A cough from Lady Tsunade finally brought the guy's attention away from the two jounins. "Hmm... so you're the Hokage, huh?" The guy exclaimed, shock evident in his voice. He continued to study the Hokage's face until his eyes trailed down and settled on her teacher's... "Whoa... Huge..." He muttered, his eyes twinkling in amazement.
This time, it was Sakura's turn to get shocked. She couldn't believe that the guy actually had the guts to act rudely in front of the godaime!
"So... what business do you have here... Runt?" Sakura couldn't help but cringe when she heard the edge in her teacher's voice. Nobody, with the exception of a certain foxboy, talks that way in front of the Hokage and gets away with it!
Surprisingly enough, the guy immediately stood up straight. With a look of remorse, he bowed low and uttered, "I am so sorry for forgetting my manners, Hokage-sama..." There was no hint of malice in his tone. No sign that he was just fooling around. In fact, he sounded really sincere with his apology...
But even so... Sakura wasn't convinced.
I think I know this guy... Sakura almost thought out loud as she studied the young man before her. This time, she allowed herself to study his appearance, his weird-looking hair, his black eyes, that rugged-looking face...
He seemed so... familiar.
"I came from Samara village." The guy continued, his head still bowed low. "And I really need your help, Hokage-sama. My brother is in grave danger and...!"
"Junko...?" Sakura's eyes widened in surprise and the name flew out of Sakura's mouth before she had the chance to stop it.
The young man instantly looked up when he heard that his name was uttered. From the way he was acting, Sakura realized that if she hadn't said anything, he wouldn't have noticed that someone else was in the room besides him, the Hokage, and the two jounins.
When he directed his gaze at her and saw the recognition finally dawned upon his face, Sakura knew all too well that she was in for some trouble.
"You...!" He exclaimed, his eyebrows rising in shock. All his gentlemanly manners were instantly thrown aside. "You... BITCH!"
Like before, it was just another typical and busy morning in Konoha. The members of team 7 were gathered at the park, ready for another mission, a mission in which Sasuke was having this gut-feeling that it would probably be a really worthless one yet again. Two days ago, their sensei had instructed to meet the three of them at the park at exactly eight o'clock in the morning.
And they have been waiting patiently for almost an hour already...
Just what was taking so long for their female teammate to arrive?
"Sakura-chan's late... I wonder what happened...? You think she's sick or something?"
Sasuke remained silent, still listening to Naruto's rambles but not wanting to answer his blonde teammate's non-stop questions. Besides, he knew that Naruto wasn't exactly expecting an answer from him anyway. With a small sigh, he closed his eyes for a while as he leaned against the trunk of a nearby tree, his arms crossed over his chest.
They didn't bother wondering where their sensei was because he always makes it a habit to arrive much later than the exact time. Sakura, however...
The dobe was right. The young Uchiha opened his eyes and stared hard at the ground. Where was she? It wasn't like Sakura to be this late...
Not that he cared that much, of course. He just wanted to get their mission over and done with so he could finally go back to his real training.
"Huh? Hey, hey, look! It's that stupid-looking guy again!" Naruto, who was lazily lying down on the grass with his arms under his head, exclaimed all of a sudden and bolted upright, disturbing the Uchiha's thoughts in the process. "What's he doing there and where's he going anyway?"
Sasuke's eyes narrowed, irritated at the foxboy for butting in on other people's business and also for acting so much like a nosy kid. He snorted, not caring what suddenly got the dobe's attention and continued his staring match with the ground.
Besides, stupid-looking guys are quite popular around here in Konoha nowadays... Naruto should know that, since he's practically one of them...
"He's that jerk from yesterday who didn't say sorry when he crashed into me and made me spill my ramen all over my shirt! Damn him, I'll make him pay!" Naruto stood up and dusted the dirt off his pants. He was about to step forward, ready to teach the guy a lesson or two, when something caught his attention. "Eh? That girl's weird... Why in the world would she want to go with someone like..." Much to Sasuke's surprise, the foxboy suddenly stopped babbling.
This led Sasuke to look up in order to see what was wrong and what made the dobe shut his mouth up all of a sudden.
His gaze followed the direction where Naruto was looking at and found him staring at a two people on the other side of the street just near the gates leading outside Konoha. Sasuke had to admit, he had never seen a guy who had such a wild and abnormally spiky black hair until now. And what where those in front of his face? Red bangs?
Red bangs...?
Something struck inside Sasuke's mind. A distant memory. This guy... He's familiar...
"Hey..." Naruto said, his eyes widening in surpirse. "That girl... is that... Sakura-chan?"
One good look at the girl's short pink hair was enough proof that the girl really was their female teammate.
But before either of them could take a step forward and have a word with Sakura, Kakashi suddenly appeared right in front of them, his book in hand along with a big puff of grey smoke. "So... where are you guys heading off to now?" He asked lazily in a way of greeting his students.
Naruto, probably too caught up at seeing Sakura hanging out with a stranger instead of meeting with her sensei and her teammates, completely forgot to do the usual routine, which was to angrily demand why their sensei was late yet again. Instead, the young Uchiha noted the way the foxboy's mouth curled into a frown as he looked up at their sensei and pointed at the direction where they found Sakura and the other... familiar-looking... guy talking with each other.
"Hm?" Kakashi followed the place where Naruto was pointing at and, much to both of his students' surprise, just simply shrugged. "That's what I was about to tell you two about..." Sasuke could tell that he was grinning under his mask. "Sakura won't be joining us for today's mission."
"Say WHAT?" Naruto gritted his teeth, obviously upset at the news. "Why? Because of rooster-head over there?"
"Actually... yes." The masked-jounin answered as the three of them watched their only female teammate slung her backpack over her shoulder and made a move to follow her companion, who had left the gates already. He didn't even bother to wait for her at all.
The dark-haired Uchiha's eyes narrowed into slits. From the way that guy was acting, it was af if he wanted to leave her behind...
"...reason why she won't be joining us for a while." Sasuke diverted his thoughts away from the retreating couple and turned to listen to his teacher, who was still explaining about Sakura's temporary absence. It seemed like she was given a special task by Lady Tsunade, and it might take a while before she comes back...
In other words, they waited and worried about her for nothing then.
"How come Sakura-chan didn't even say goodbye...?" Naruto muttered under his breath, sounding hurt. Unconsciously, Sasuke stole a glance at the direction where their female teammate disappeared to.
He couldn't help but scowl.
Kakashi seemed to hear the gloomy tone in Naruto's voice for he quickly answered, "Her companion's kind of in a hurry, so she didn't get the chance to say goodbye to you guys."
"Damn that rooster-head..." The foxboy cursed, his mood now completely ruined. "Stealing Sakura-chan from us like that..." He grumbled on and on, testing Sasuke's patience.
Honestly enough, for Sasuke, it's quite a comfort that he won't be able to see her for a while. She had been annoying him for the past few weeks, and it wasn't because she was tailing after him or asking him out on dates.
So, why was she annoying then? He wasn't sure...
...and that was the reason why she was annoying.
"Let's just start the mission." The Uchiha prodigy quipped in, annoyed at the dobe's loud whining and also irritated at the fact that they were just standing there and wasting precious time.
In truth, he wanted to tell Naruto to shut up, to stop acting so damn miserable just because Sakura's not gonna be joining their mission for today.
They should be perfectly fine without Sakura. And besides, it's not like Sakura's not coming back for a very long time. Surely enough, she should be back after two days or so...
...right?
A/N:
So... uhh... what do you guys think? Should I continue it or not? This week's gonna be one hell of a week for me because of school, so I doubt it if I'll be able to post the next chapter this week...
Which means... this'll give you guys enough time to decide whether I should continue this crappy stuff or not! Hehehe! XD
Oh, and by the way, thank you so much for all the people who read and reviewed "Mission Impossible?" You don't know how much I love all of you for supporting my story!
Thanks again for reading! I promise I'll make it enjoyable to read as much as I can... See you guys soon again!
Sa mga minamahal kong kabayan! Maraming, maraming salamat po sa pagsuporta! Woohoo! LOL! XD