Blooming Cherry Blossom & The Descending Raven [SasuSaku Fanfiction]

Disappearance

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!! Sakura-chan, please let go of my ear!" Naruto whined behind me as I dragged him by the ear around Konoha. He had been really adamant about going to get permission from Tsunade-sama to go out in search for the people who sent that scroll. After all, it had been five days since the scroll arrived in Konoha and he was still trying to go to Tsunade-sama to get her approval. I knew Tsunade-sama wouldn’t let him go anyway, but I decided to take it upon me to keep him away from her just so he wouldn’t bother her. She had enough on her hands as it was - since the five day grace was up, she had to be extra cautious.

"No! You’re just going to run off if I let go of you now!" I said, with my eyebrows furrowing from frustration. Naruto was such a brainless imbecile... he didn’t seem to understand the situation he was in. If someone was after him, why couldn’t he just stay quiet and let us protect him?

I looked up when my vision was met with a familiar figure on a nearby rooftop; seeing him allowed me to breathe out a sigh of relief. Kakashi-sensei also noticed us and greeted us with his usual closed eye smile and he hopped down from the rooftop. Finally, I was talking to someone who had some sense - perhaps he could help me convince Naruto to keep hidden from those demanders.

"Hey Sakura, Naruto." Kakashi-sensei said as he landed in front of us, "What are you two up to?" I sighed, pulling Naruto to my side.

"Tsunade-sama ordered me to watch over Naruto in case those demanders come for him, but he’s as stubborn as always - he keeps wanting to go to Tsunade-sama and bother her about letting him go out and find these people." I shook my head, "I don’t understand his logic at all."

Kakashi-sensei seemed to smile wearily under his mask, "Naruto, I think this time around you should just allow yourself to be protected. We’ll take care of the village, I promise." Naruto frowned, obviously not liking this suggestion.

"I can’t just sit back! I don’t care if the very reason they sent the message was because they wanted the Kyuubi, I want to help the village too!" Naruto said with determination, slamming his fist into his other hand.

"Naruto, you’re so unreasonable!" I shouted, pulling on his ear again, getting rid of his determined look as he complained about the pain, "Don’t you see that if you’re captured that you will never have the opportunity to save the village ever again?"

"There’s no need to worry about me, Sakura-chan!" Naruto smiled, "I won’t be captured nor killed; I still have to become Hokage!" My head dropped in defeat and I wearily returned my gaze back to Kakashi-sensei.

"He’s been like this for the entire five days...," I groaned, "You’ve got to help me convince Naruto to stay in the village and be protected, Kakashi-sensei. Doing that is like an entire task in itself!" Kakashi-sensei seemed to agree with me silently; and then he put a hand on Naruto’s head.

"Naruto, for the time being, the best way you can help the village is just to sit back and let yourself be protected by all of us. As I said already, we’ll protect the village this time around. You don’t have to do everything all by yourself all the time. Remember the first lesson I taught you? Well, trust is an important element in that as well; don’t forget that." Kakashi-sensei said, and I think it actually put some sense in Naruto seeing as the blonde boy quieted right down, thinking deeply about those words. He frowned, obviously still not liking the idea of just sitting around being protected, but he probably saw what Kakashi-sensei was saying.

Naruto sighed through his nose, "...Fine. Just this once though. Yet, if there’s anything that I can do to help, let me know right away." After his submissive attitude had settled, I released his ear, feeling a burden being taken away from me. At least he wasn’t going to go running to Tsunade-sama to bother her anymore.