Tests of Heart

🌸Chapter 9: Trance-like

Sakura was in Konoha faster than her mind could comprehend. It had to be a new record with how fast she got from Ame to Konoha. She didn't even stop to make camp and pushed herself through the night and the next day until her legs were sore and even then, she pushed through. Sakura wasn't stopping for anything.

Once she finally got to the gates, she let herself finally rest and promptly passed out. It wasn't long before she found herself waking up in the hospital, Sai and Naruto on either side of her bed.

"Boys?" Sakura asked monotonously.

The men slowly woke up. Finding Sakura awake they were wide awake themselves.

"Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed. "The night guards said they saw you arrive out of nowhere then you collapsed!"

"Not only that, you're 2 months pregnant?" Sai asked as he looked over her still slim form. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"

Sakura looked between both men then started bawling her eyes out. She couldn't stop crying.

"Did Nagato cheat on you?!" Naruto questioned angrilly. "I'll kill him!"

Sakura took a moment to gather herself as she shook her head at Naruto.

"He didn't cheat, Naruto," she reassured. "But he did something unforgivable all the same. Where's my stuff?"

Sai looked around the room until he found Sakura's satchel. He gave it to her, and she pulled out the familiar manilla envelope.

"Where'd you get that?" Naruto asked before Sakura could say anything.

"I found it with my things when I got home. Why does it look like you both have seen this before?" Sakura questioned.

Sai sighed and shut his eyes tightly knowing what he was about to say was going to hurt one of the people he cared about most.

"We don't know what's in it, just that it pertains to you somehow," Sai admitted.

Sakura looked absolutely devastated.

"So, you don't know it was Nagato that ordered the kill on my parents?" Sakura asked skeptically.

"He what?" Sai asked, astonished.

"I'll kill him then bring him back to kill him again!" Naruto yelled.

Sakura was a little less hurt by the genuine reactions of the two but hurt still persisted in her heart. They knew the files existed even if they didn't know what they contained. They kept the information from her.

"How did you come by this?" the woman asked the two.

Naruto looked down with a sigh.

"Right when we were all three getting along..." he muttered.

Sakura's eyes widened. "Sasuke? Sasuke knew?"

Naruto looked back at her pleadingly. "Don't let this change us again."

Sai shook his head as Sakura looked at Naruto in surprise.

"How can you ask me that?" Sakura asked. "He probably knew what was inside the file!"

With that Sakura was done. She didn't care and said nothing else. She wouldn't hear anything else, the hurt being too much for her.

The next day she called for Orochimaru.

"I'll help you with your experiment."

And so Sakura threw herself into the project, writing down all the knowledge she learned and cataloguing every step. With every failure she threw herself down the rabbit hole of fixing what went wrong. Again. And again. And again.