Sass-suke

Chapter 9

Sakura burst into Naruto's assigned room, grinning like a maniac. "Naruto it worked!" Said blonde jumped out of bed, quickly engulfing the girl in a hug. He squeezed her shoulders. "Yea..."

Sakura frowned at him, pulling back and placing her hand on his shoulders. "Naruto what's wrong? We did it! We're here!" Naruto just nodded solemnly. Annoying, Sakura bonked him on the head. "Answer me you big oaf."

Naruto glanced at her. "Tsunade updated me about what happened. I'm in the hospital because I fought Sasuke again."

The blonde adopted a worried look. "Sakura what if Sasuke isn't here?" Sakura just blinked at him. "What are you talking about? He should be here according to the jutsu right?"

Naruto nodded. "Well yea, but the jutsu took him back in time before us, so maybe he's in a different timeline?"

The pinkette crossed her arms with a huff. "Naruto that doesn't make sense. What brought on this anyways?" The boy in front of her sheepishly backed up, leaning back onto the white hospital bed.

"Nothing has changed Sakura." When Sakura raised an eyebrow, he elaborated. "Don't you think Sasuke would have tried to change things if he were actually here? But everything is the same. Sarutobi is dead, and Sasuke still left the village."

The girl furrowed her brows in thought. Naruto was right. If Sasuke wasn't in the same timeline as they were, then they were stuck here for no reason at all. Still, she wouldn't let him mope around like this.

Taking a deep breath, Sakura walked up to Naruto. She slapped her hands on Naruto's cheeks, forcing him to turn his head towards hers. "None of that pessimistic attitude. Even if Sasuke is not here, we are. We can still change things for the better."

Naruto attempted to talk, but it was hard with the pinkette's hands squishing his face. "No. No talking back. We are going to fix things and you are going to stop being sad."

Naruto smiled up at her. He brought a hand up to cradle one of Sakura's. "Yea, you're right." He spoke softly, "But I'm not sure if I can go through the same pain of him leaving again." Sakura sighed, gazing at Naruto sadly.

"Then you'll have to knock some sense into him. God knows you're strong enough to take him on easily now." Naruto gave her a blinding grin. "Yup! I'm going to train my ass off to get stronger!"

-~-

Sasuke sauntered into the inn, 4 kids trailing after him. The girl at the counter raised her eyebrow at them, looking them over. She sighed at the thought of dealing with more teenage shinobi, lazily raising her hand in welcome.

"How many rooms?" Sasuke frowned while contemplating his choices. "One please." The girl's eyes widened in surprise. "You sure lil dude? Those rooms are pretty small."

Sasuke shrugged again. "Then get me the biggest one you have. I don't trust any of these idiots by themselves." Skeptical, the girl nodded, peeking a glance at the raven haired boy's comrades. They didn't seem fazed about their friend calling them all idiots.

Suigetsu and Karin were arguing near the door entrance, both of their voices growing louder and louder as time went on. Jugo was calmly reading a newspaper in the hotel lobby, while Gaara curiously watched the others fight.

Noticing the clerk's wary glance at his friends, Sasuke sighed in exasperation. He turned around to face them, calling out, "Oi you idiots! Keep it down or I'm going to bust your asses!"

Suigetsu and Karin scowled at each other, and Gaara turned his gaze to his savior. Nevertheless, the two bustling morons quieted down, the both of them plopping down on seats next to Jugo.