No Longer Weak

Not so secret Love - Chapter 9

Choji frowned. It hadn't been such a good occasion to notice the feelings for each other. "Well, Sakura was the first one to notice. It was on her first ANBU mission. She had been put as the medic on Shikamaru's team and I really don't know that much of it. I can just tell you what the others had told me."

"Well, that's better than nothing right?" She smiled at him and nodded to continue. All she got was a small quirk of the corner of his lips.

"I was told their squad was ambushed and clearly overpowered with seven to one fights. They fought the best they could but the two other ANBU with Shikamaru and Sakura were defeated after killing each four of their enemy's. They didn't die, but fighting was out of the question. So Sakura and Shikamaru had to fight the other six shinobi too. So they were up to six against one again because they also had killed three of their enemy's. Sakura was in a bit of a clinch and Shika helped her using his shadow. For just one second he had let his guard down and was pierced four times with a sword."

Ino gasped and clutched her hair. She knew that Shikamaru didn't die because she had just seen him, but it had to be a miracle that he lived. Choji smiled pityingly at her. This wasn't even the hard part.

"Sakura screamed and wanted to go to him, but she was so clearly overpowered with ten to one that they had given up hope that she could save their captain. I think it was then that Sakura first showed her true strength. They said it was a gruesome sight. She took out her katana and sliced through every enemy with a speed that she didn't know she had. Later on, they told her she was like a pink flash. She beheaded every single one and when she finally made it to Shikamaru she felt him taking his last breath."

"No!" cried Ino and tears started to leak from her eyes. "But he is alive, right? I SAW him!" she pleaded with Choji so immersed into the story that she couldn't see what was real and what not.

"Yes, Ino he is alive. So Sakura did the first thing she could. Being the medic she knew she had five minutes and then he had to wake up or else he would be gone for forever. With one hand she started to heal his wound while her other was busy forcing his heart to beat through chakra strings. The other two had never seen something so powerful. Healing his wounds she let go of his heart and waited if it would start again. It never did and she tried everything. Somewhere in the middle of it, she started to cry. Nothing helped no CPR and no chakra. She tried one last time and with a chakra filled fist she hit him full force and cracked a few ribs."

Ino cried the whole time. Poor Sakura, it had been her first mission and the love of her life was starting to fade away from her.

"After that he finally started breathing again, coughing he felt warm arms encircling him and the last thing Shikamaru heard was that Sakura whispered something about never leaving her alone again because she needed him, loved him too much."

Choji stood up and sat down beside Ino. Hugging her he heard how she tried to stifle her sobs. "There, There Ino, don't cry. He is alive and Sakura finally admitted that she loved him."

"But that is not the end, right? Shikamaru still has to realize it!" she sniffed and delved further into the warmth of her friend.

"Right Shikamaru. From there on I can tell you how it went. I was waiting with the Hokage because they were overdue. When we saw them coming, we only saw Sakura giving Shikamaru who was unconscious a piggyback ride. The other two ANBU were struggling themselves to keep up and were holding each other up. Sakura saw us and relieved she just slumped to the ground unconscious."

"Why she too?" cried Ino.

"We brought them all into the hospital and Tsunade herself looked after Sakura since Shikamaru was fine he just needed to wake up. The ANBU told us what happened and Tsunade noticed that Sakura was out of strength and chakra. She drained herself because she brought them all home in one piece, healing them as soon as a bit of chakra had returned to her. That day she fell into a coma that even Tsunade couldn't stop. So we had to wait until she woke up if she ever would."

Choji took a deep breath and sipped his tea; lost in his memories. Ino watched her friend while drying her eyes. He had changed a lot. Shaking her head she gazed at her hands. She had only been gone for five years, why oh why did everything had changed so extremely?

Choji cleared his throat and started again. "Shikamaru woke up the next day and the first thing he did was asking for Sakura. Tsunade had looked pityingly at him and opened the curtain to show him that she was lying in the bed beside him. He waited and waited, waited day and night never really leaving her side if it wasn't for a forced shower or meal. I think he snapped after two weeks and started to tell her everything about him, the village and so on.

The nurses sometimes whispered that he screamed at her to wake up, to come to the hell back or he would just come to her. Her chakra level and health were back to normal but she just wouldn't wake up. More weeks started to fly by and by the time two months had gone by Shikamaru was through with everything. He just pleaded with her and told her he loved her."

"Poor Shikamaru", whispered Ino.

"Yeah, but after that Sakura started to show signs of waking up. Well, not exactly direct afterward; more like two or three days. Out of panic because he didn't know what to do he bolted out of the room the moment she opened her eyes and only told a nurse that she was waking up."

Ino gave an exaggerated sigh. That boy was a genius but when it came to women he still was a coward. "Well, that's how they fell in love..."

"Wait you want to tell me they didn't start dating on the spot?" asked Ino shocked.

Choji smirked. "Of course not! They started to avoid each other like the plague, but that is a story for another time."

Smiling at the puppy dog eyes of his friend and teammate he patted Ino gently on the shoulder. "Sorry Ino, but I have a mission tomorrow. Need to get up early."

She smiled at him and gave him a hug. "No problem Choji." She walked towards the door that leads outside while he followed. Looking at him over her shoulder she whispered a quiet "Thank you for telling me" and vanished into the night.