What We Never Said

Chapter 7: Pulling Together

"Tsunade didn't tell you?" Naruto asked, with an astonished look on his face.

I tried to dig through the last few days- to piece together something I may have missed. Maybe I brushed Tsunade off? But nothing along those lines filled my head. "No." I started running my fingers through my hair, looking up at Naruto." When was he released from jail? They released him for christ's sake?" My head was spinning.

I didn't think I would witness the day of Sasuke being released from jail- well scratch that. Hear about him being released.

Without anyone telling me.

"A few days ago," Naruto murmured, moving his feet from the table to the ground. Anger filled his features. He didn't seem pleased that I was just finding out now.

"Then what is Hiromi doing sneaking out at the crack of dawn still? She doesn't have to treat him anymore it sounds like." I flustered, standing up from my spot next to Naruto. He stood up with me, placing his hands on my shoulders. I knew he could sense me starting to freak out.

'Was there something going on? Was Sasuke still sick? What was Hiromi doing?'

"Sasuke hasn't been sick for quite a while Sakura," Naruto murmured. "The last time you saw him, that was a few months ago now."

'Really? Has it been that long?'

"Hiromi had been the only one that Sasuke had requested for before he was released. I don't have any idea of why, but I do know they've become close. Maybe he trusts her, and maybe it's because she's not you." Naruto had started rubbing my shoulder with his real arm and resting his newly acquired arm on my other shoulder. He was trying to comfort me, I know he is, but I couldn't stop freaking out. Was there something really going on between Hiromi and Sasuke? Was he really trying to replace the empty hole of where I was in his life with her?

"There's nothing going on between them- I can tell you that much Sakura. Sasuke isn't like that. He wouldn't start something with someone else until he ended what he had with you. And he hasn't done that- has he? I know you're starting to freak out, I know you're overreacting internally. But you have to trust me, that I know Sasuke."

"How can you say that?!" I screamed, shoving him away from me. "He's been gone- for years. How can you assure yourself that you still know Sasuke?! Hell; you didn't know about us for most of those years. He kept me a dirty little secret from you!"

"And that's where you're wrong Sakura." Naruto had started to raise his voice with me. "I knew about you two, for a long time. Maybe it was a gut feeling- or it was the fact that I knew Sasuke better than anyone else did." Naruto toward me, crossing his arms. He was trying to intimidate me with his height. "Sasuke loved you, I would argue more than he wanted revenge at times. You were the only one that could have possibly brought him back, an-"

"But I wasn't enough," I screamed back at him, shoving him with most of my force, throwing him back against the chair that was positioned to the side against the wall. His face changed from anger to shock, his eyes growing wide at the force I used to slam him into the chair. "He chose revenge over me, time and time again. I begged for him to come back countless times, and I begged him to let me go with him more times than I can even count. But he wouldn't let me, he knew that I would distract him. He chose to leave me behind. And then- let's talk about the times he tried to kill me-"

"But he couldn't," He screamed back at me as he scrambled to his feet from my chair. "He tried and failed. And we could argue that maybe you were just a "badass," he put those words in literal air quotes as he crossed back over to me, keeping his distance this time, "but we all know you didn't try and lay a finger on him. And he didn't end up laying a finger on you-"

"Because you saved me the second time, Naruto," I screamed to the top of my lungs, the anger was literally boiling in me, and the heat started to rush to my face as my face grew redder and redder. "You literally picked me up and moved me away from him. He was going to stab that Kuni into my heart."

"I don't think he could have actually done it."

"We don't know that," I responded flatly. "The only way we could ever know that is if you weren't there."

"If he wanted you dead," Naruto started moving closer finally and placing his hands on my shoulders, "I wouldn't have been able to save you. He would have incapacitated us somehow and finished what he had started. I saved him from making such an irrational decision, and maybe I gave him a moment to stop and think. You also came to that area with the intention of taking him on yourself. You also wanted to kill him at that moment- and you had realized that you were unable to. Shouldn't Sasuke get the same chance that you did, or at least consider that something more that was just me was what stopped him?"

I stood there, staring back at Naruto. I was finally starting to allow his words to start calming me down, but the emotions that were replacing the anger that once filled me was sorrow. Sadness and mourning were filling my entire body as I started to shake, feeling the weakness in my legs grow. I felt that I was going to collapse. "Then why am I not enough now?" I started to sob as Naruto caught me before I fell forward into him. Sobs were ripping at my entire body. "Why is Hiromi enough to replace me?"

A soft knock on the door made Naruto and I flinch, he was rubbing my back as I was trying to collect myself. I wanted to ignore whoever was at my door- having a slight inkling on who was behind that knock. I've heard it before- one that made me want to scream at this exact moment.

"I'll go talk to her," Naruto whispered, giving me a look as if he was trying to figure out if he could let me be on my own at this moment, and I waved him off. I crossed over to the couch against the wall and collapsed, holding my face in my hands as I tried to collect myself.

Naruto opened the door, not all of the way. "Can I help you?" He asked the girl behind the familiar knock.

"Is Sakura home?" Hiromi asked in her lower-ranged voice. She didn't sound too excited to be here, knowing I was probably one of the last people she wanted to retrieve.

I couldn't see her when I peeked over at Naruto at my front door, I was curious if her face matched her words. Was Sasuke asking for me? I knew that thought was unlikely. It was possibly Tsunade trying to drag me out of my apartment.

"She is," Naruto responded hesitantly. "She's taking a shower right now, we were going to work on cleaning up her apartment. Work had been taking the best of her recently- so we decided to take this day off to get her life back in order."

Bless you, Naruto, always knowing the right words to say to cover my ass. If Hiromi caught any wind of the state I was in, she'd be more than eager to step in for whatever request anyone had to show she was more than capable to replace me when I wasn't the best candidate at that moment.

"Tsunade requested for her to be sent to her at once, also yourself," Hiromi muttered, her voice wasn't as chipper as it once was in Naruto's presence. She had the biggest crush on Naruto in the past- which appears it was just that. She had the biggest crush on Naruto- not anymore.

"Very well," Naruto responded. "I'll let her know when she gets out of the shower."

"The sooner the better," Hiromi muttered as Naruto quietly closed the door behind her.

He turned to look at me, with a questionable look resting on his face as he pondered the possibilities. "What would Tsunade want with the both of us?" I asked quietly as he moved closer towards me. I was rubbing my eyes as I was trying to calm my breathing from crying.

"It has been a long time since we've been summoned together," Naruto responded, softly rubbing my back as I was calming myself. "Maybe they're getting the squad back together. More than our normal squad... with Sai... I couldn't imagine Sasuke..."

I breathed out a sigh, pushing myself to my feet. "I guess I should pull myself together and get ready- huh?"

Naruto winked at me, giving his up to no good smile. "I don't know- you can easily pull off a hot mess look."

I threw one of my decorative pillows at him, both of us laughing. Naruto always knew how to get me out of my moods. Which wasn't what I needed, for the longest time, I needed to feel what I was feeling.

Now it was time to pull me together: and remind everyone who Sakura Haruno really was.

Not that girl anymore.