No Place I Would Rather Be
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
"You had another run-in with Sasuke, didn't you?" The pink-haired kunoichi sighed when her patient simply turned his head away indifferently. "You really should tell him why, some day he might actually kill you."
"It is making him stronger," was the reply, but she could tell that he was just as unhappy about who his younger brother had taken as a teacher as she was; Orochimaru wasn't a favorite person to either of them. "He would not be able to kill me anyway."
Sakura paused, caught in a flashback to when she had healed Naruto after he fought their former teammate.
"Naruto-baka! Sit still!" Sakura hit him upside the head before going back to bandaging his arm. Her expression of anger softened as she worked, though. "You should be more careful when you fight him; he's getting stronger, too, you know."
The blonde merely gave her his traditional grin and scratched the back of his head with his uninjured arm. "Don't worry, Sakura-chan! Teme may be good, but he isn't that good! He wouldn't be able to kill me anyway."
Sakura made no verbal comment as she continued to work.
She poked a particularly bad would and ignored the glare that was sent her way. "If he continues to made wounds like this, he will kill you." She looked down at her hands with a defeated gaze. "I don't want to lose you to him, too…" Her whispered comment made his eyes soften slightly.
Her patient lifted her chin to make her look him in the eyes. "I am stronger than Naruto, and the others are working on finding a way to wake him up while keeping the Kyuubi sealed." He brushed a few strands of hair out of her face and whispered in a rare show of emotion and affection. "Things will work out."
Sakura smiled at him and returned to healing him while he turned away again, his usual mask of indifference falling back into place. She was the only one, (to her knowledge,) that had managed to wriggle her way into two Uchihas' hearts, the man before her being the elder of the two. She remembered when Itachi had first come to her, asking of Naruto's condition.
The kunoichi held the kunai in front of her defensively as she watched the shinobi in front of her. He was wearing his usual impassive façade and she could only see his red eyes and ebony bangs between the signature hat and cloak of the Akatsuki. His partner was no where in sight, but she didn't doubt that the shark was nearby. Naruto was lying on the hospital bed behind her and his steady breathing was the only sound in the room.
Sharingan red burned into emerald green as they stared each other down. Finally, he broke his gaze away to look at the blonde, focusing on the curious red chakre welling around him and enveloping the boy's body.
Sakura tensed even more than before, if that was possible, before relaxing. She had spoken with the Kyuubi a few times before and knew that he wouldn't hurt her, though he had made it quite clear that he would like nothing more than to rip her and everyone else in the whole village apart.
"Kunoichi, who else is in the room?" Itachi blinked at the deep voice that bellowed from the blonde. Slitted red eyes opened as his head turned to him. "Ah… Uchiha Itachi… It has been a long while, has it not?"
The elder Uchiha nodded. "Kyuubi-sama. I was coming to check on Naruto-san's condition since his fight with my idiot little brother."
"Hn." Sakura glanced at Kyuubi, who had his eyes closed in thought. She was very uncomfortable with the large amount of chakre the bijuu was giving off, not to mention the killing intent. "I'll tell you what, Akatsuki," a feral smirk formed across the usually happy-go-lucky face, revealing an elongated fang. "You take Gaki and Kunoichi with you to your headquarters, or at least tell her where it is so she can take him, find a way to fix the idiot brat, and I'll convince him to stay there for a while. I'm not sure if I want you to keep her, medic-nin and all, or not…" His voice faded as he went back to his coma-state.
Sakura was staring at Naruto's body in shock. Say what? She jolted slightly when Itachi shifted, drawing her attention back to him.
He drew out a piece of paper and held it out to her. "This contains the location. If you're still unsure about this, consider that we are the only ones capable of healing Naruto-san."
Without another moment's hesitation, the kunoichi reached out and took the paper from him. It's for Naruto. The moment she took the paper, Itachi seemed to just fade away.
She looked at the paper and sighed.
Sakura jumped from tree to tree with Naruto slung over her shoulder, heading toward Akatsuki. She had made up her mind when she took the paper from Itachi, and she was afraid that she would run into Sasuke on the way. Explaining this to him was the last thing that she wanted to do.
"Kuso." She felt a strong chakre signature following her, one that was familiar from a long time ago. Figures…
Not two minutes later, she was forced to stop, seeing as Sasuke was in front of her, face indifferent like always. Sakura scowled and jumped to the ground, setting Naruto down close to a tree and pulling out a kunai to try to defend herself until Itachi sent one of the others to come check on her. She may have been trained by Tsunade for a while, but she was under no delusions that she was stronger than Sasuke.
Sasuke appeared in front of her again, and she scolded herself as her hold on the kunai slackened a little. He noticed too, and smirked.
"Still in love with me, Sakura?" He took a step toward her, knowing that she didn't want to fight him. "Where are you going, especially with Dope in that condition?"
Her hand trembled slightly when he took another step, but she managed to keep her voice firm as she said the one word she knew would set him off. "Akatsuki."
That one word stepped her childhood crush in his tracks. His faced showed, for once, shock then fury. "Why are you going there?" His voice was so harsh that she could have sworn it was a snarl. "Why are you going to him?! Damn it, Sakura! You knew I'd come back; why are you going to him?!" He resumed his slow approach toward her, but his steps were more forceful, angry.
Sakura winced before letting out all her despair and anger that she had bottled up since he left Konoha. "What am I supposed to do!?" He stopped again, still angry, but sedated a little at the tears now trailing down her face. "I can't heal Naruto, and neither can Tsunade! I don't know what else to do… Besides," she smirked humorlessly. "It's not everyday that both Uchiha Itachi and the Kyuubi-no-Youko tell you to do something."
Sasuke scowled again. "You still could've waited! I would've figured something out!"
"You weren't there! You put into the coma in the first place!"
"Oi, Sakura-chan!" The two looked up to see a smiling blonde atop a clay bird above them. "Itachi-san was starting to get worried so he sent me to look for you, un. Everything alright, un?"
Sakura composed herself and took a shaky breathe. "Hai. Everything is fine, Deidara-san." She stared at Sasuke as the bird landed, letting off Deidara and his partner Sasori, two of the… friendlier members of Akatsuki, to her at least. "Just got a bit side-tracked."
Sasori took in the tearstains on her face and narrowed his eyes at Sasuke. "You may take Naruto-san to Headquarters on the bird, Sakura-chan; we'll take care of things here."
The kunoichi nodded, much to Sasuke's irritation. She carefully lifted her friend onto the bird and climbed up beside him. As the bird took off on autopilot from Deidara, she looked back and began to cry again at the look of betrayal in the Uchiha's eyes and heard him snarl slightly under his breathe. "I'm am not going to lose the two of you to him…"
Gomen nazai, Sasuke, but for all he has done, Naruto comes first.
She finished bandaging Itachi just in time for Deidara to run in. "Sakura-chan! Kyuubi is waking up again, un!" The kunoichi was up and out the door without a word.
Kyuubi waking up had become a regular occurrence in the past few months, but more and more, it would be Naruto talking and only calming down when Sakura was in the room. The first time he woke up, she had been so happy to see him that she hugged him in tears. He had been confused but hugged her back all the same.
Sakura ran into the room, stopping when she saw Kyuubi's slitted red eyes. "Hello Kyuubi-sama; how are you feeling today?"
He merely sniffed the air and narrowed his eyes. "Why do you smell of blood?" If there was something she was good at, it was making even the most heartless of beings to care about her, if only a little bit.
She smiled at the demon lord as she walked over to him and sat on the bed. "I was treating Itachi; he got in a fight with Sasuke again."
"Keh." He turned his head away, but she knew that he had been slightly worried when she had walked in . "Brat says hello." She smiled even more and nodded in response.
"You're waking up more often than before, soon you'll be strong again." She watched as a primal smirk settled over his face and knew that she had said something to please him, which could keep her alive when around him. More docile around her or not, he was still the Kyuubi-no-Youko.
As silence grew between them, Sakura began to sing a lullaby quietly. She had found that Kyuubi would calm down at her voice, so she would sing to him as a way of passing the time.
Kyuubi let out an imperceptible sigh and closed his eyes, drifting back to sleep at the sound of her voice. He could see why the Gaki had been infatuated with her, but he thought she was better as she was now than then.
Sakura continued to sing after Kyuubi fell asleep, knowing that he and Naruto would still be able to hear her for a time. She remembered singing softly to Sasuke when he was injured, then to Naruto, then Itachi, now to the Kyuubi. What have I gotten into?...
She knew the real reason that Itachi became a homicidal maniac, and she knew it wasn't the reason that he gave Sasuke. She had felt for Sasuke, now she felt for Itachi, Naruto, Kyuubi and Sasuke, but… she didn't know who she would choose if confronted with that decision, which she hoped that she wasn't. They all meant a lot to her.
Still humming, she stood and walked to the door. "Oyasumi nazai, Naruto-kun, Kyuubi-kun…"
AN: Yeah, another story. I need to stop doing this, but oh well. There won't be any real pairing to this one, it'll be more of... uh, kind of a harem for her. --' Not really what I had in mind, but that's the way it'll turn out, so if you don't like Sakura with any of them or with more than one guy, I'm going to ask you to leave and not flame me. As far as I'm concerned, if people can make Kyuubi female, then I can make him fall for Sakura.
Thank you all for reading, and if you like, please leave me with a review!