The Path of a Shinobi (Reader x various)

Orochimaru's Hideout

Tracking down Orochimaru was going smoothly for us as we continued on the same path he had taken awhile ago.

Sakura noticed Naruto was increasing his speed and decided to do the same. She leapt from tree to tree and while she one handedly swung from a tree branch, pain shot through her injured arm. She lost balance and was helplessly falling to the ground.

"Sakura!" Cried out Naruto as he failed to reach her hand. Before she could hit the ground,  Captain Yamato had caught her in his arms as she let out a few heavy breaths.

We decided to let her rest up for a bit and recover from the pain. You were leaning against the tree while watching her heal herself. After a couple of minutes went by, you went to regroup with Naruto and Captain Yamato who were standing a few feet away.

"She really took some damage from Orochimaru," said Naruto, who was completely clueless that it was his doing.

"Yeah..." was all you could mutter not wanting to reveal the truth. On the other hand, Captain Yamato thought he should have the right to know that it was him.

"Naruto...do you want to know who actually harmed Sakura."

"What do you mean, it was Orochimaru wasn't it?"

He leaned forward and whispered into his ear, "The one who hurt Sakura...was you Naruto." His face was one of pure shock and he was stunned by the revelation. He glanced between Sakura and then to you and Captain Yamato. He looked at you with pleading eyes wanting to hear the answer from you to confirm if it was true or not.

"...Is that true (Name)?" You rubbed the back of your neck not wanting to hurt him even more about this. Something like this could result in him distancing himself from us, afraid that he would hurt us.

"Sakura didn't even face Orochimaru or even Kabuto. So yeah...it is. I saw it with my own eyes," you murmured out. His mind was in disbelief as he tried processing what you said.

"Then the bridge and that crater...that was me?"

"Yes all of it. Luckily I have a special power that can control the nine tails so you don't need to worry as long as I'm around," added in Captain Yamato.

Naruto quickly scanned over your body from head to toe and grabbed ahold of your shoulders.

"Please don't tell me I hurt you as well..." he said while directly looking into your eyes. He couldn't bear the thought of even hurting you in the process. Injuring Sakura was bad enough, but injuring you would have been even worse.

"No you didn't. Don't worry" you said reassuringly. He let out a sigh of relief but soon he went back to go check up on Sakura.

"You didn't bother to tell him about him almost hurting you as well and even fighting with you," he bluntly stated.

"He doesn't need to know about that. What he doesn't know won't hurt him," you said staring at the way Naruto was chatting with Sakura. You could see his eyes trail over the wound he had made but he tried to his best to center his attention on her.

"Hey (Y/n)!"

"Hm?" You slightly turned your head over to see Sakura calling you over. "I want to see that picture book you picked up earlier." You jogged on over to her and grabbed the small picture book from your ninja pouch. You handed it over to Sakura and she started to examine the front cover of a young Sai and his older brother on the back cover. She opened it and flipped through some of the pages until she saw a certain page that caught her attention. You bent forward and peeked at an unfinished drawing of a young Sai extending his hand outward to a blank page beside him.