The Untold Love Story Part 2: The Haunting (Naruto Shippuden Fanfiction)

Seeing When Others Do Not

Clutching at his stomach, Sasuke breathes slowly trying to make his upset stomach settle down a little bit. If he moved around quickly his stomach felt as if someone was digging a knife into it. And storming off earlier did not help at all.

Suddenly, without any warning, Sasuke throws up. Squeezing his eyes shut, he pukes into a near-bye bush. Once he had finally emptied his stomach, Sasuke spits in order to get some of the disgusting taste out of his mouth. The taste of the herbs Jugo gave to Sasuke was covering his tongue, causing Sasuke to spit at least two more times. But his efforts were useless, the taste of the herbs still lingered on his tongue.

One thing was for sure, Sasuke was never again going to eat those things again. But maybe he would put some in Karin's food... Not as a prank, Sasuke was not a prankster, but as a way of getting even for Karin calling Aerie a whore. 

If only the whole situation was different for everyone, Karin would actually get along very well with Aerie. Even though Karin was hot headed and swooned over Sasuke like a vulture circling over a decaying body, Aerie would have befriended Karin. That was just who Aerie was. She took people for who they were.

Many moments, Sasuke believes that was one of the reasons Sasuke was so attracted to Aerie. She didn't see him like every other girl saw Sasuke. Every girl that came into contact with Sasuke soon became starry eyed because they found him 'pleasing to the eyes'.

However, Aerie saw deeper into Sasuke. Sasuke would portray his loneliness and pain as anger. And Aerie was able to see passed the anger Sasuke would show. In fact so far passed it, she was able to see his suffering. And she was even able to handle his anger. When others saw Sasuke's anger, they would leave him alone. Not because they thought it was the best thing for him to be left alone, but because they didn't want to deal with his raging anger. 

But not Aerie. She saw. She always saw things that others couldn't see.

Sometimes Aerie would even get the blunt end of Sasuke's anger. Not that Sasuke was rude to her like he was to Sakura. It was more of the fact that when Sasuke first noticed that Aerie could see through his act of being angry Sasuke would avoid Aerie, in order to feel like he was in control. But as they grew a little older and Sasuke and Aerie became just a little bit closer, Sasuke would be rude to her as well. Not as rude as he would be to Naruto and Sakura, but rude enough to scare someone away from him. However, since Aerie was able to see passed his anger, she would let him take some of that bent up anger out on her.

One time, after Aerie had come back from a mission with her team, she ran into Sasuke. And Sasuke was angrier than he normally was that day, because he and Naruto had just gotten into a massive fight about who was stronger. And Sasuke was just shown up by Naruto.

When Aerie bumped into Sasuke, she slammed into him so hard that she fell backwards onto the ground, and  also made Sasuke stumble back a few steps. Aerie quickly said sorry for running into him, of course, but Sasuke was so angry he cracked a little. And poor Aerie became a verbal punching bag for Sasuke.

He started to shout at her and call her harsh names. At first Aerie wanted to cry, then she wanted to punch Sasuke in the face, but then as Sasuke kept on shouting at her, she could see it. She saw that he wasn't angry at her. Sasuke was, in his own way, venting to Aerie. 

At that moment, Aerie stood there silently as Sasuke continued to shout. Slowly Sasuke noticed that Aerie was not shouting back at him, nor was she running away crying. Finally, Sasuke stopped yelling and stared at Aerie, while she gave him her special smile, only Sasuke received from Aerie. Sasuke was so shocked by her action that he stood there with his face turning a deep red. And seeing Sasuke embarrassed for acting out, Aerie simply took his hand in her's and made Sasuke walk along a river with her. Sasuke went willingly as his own way of saying sorry for taking his anger out on Aerie.

If anything, Sasuke's sorrow drew him closer to Aerie. Aerie never tried to act like she knew how Sasuke felt like Sakura had done so many times before when they were younger. Aerie, on the other hand, knew that she would never be able to understand what Sasuke had gone through with losing his entire clan.

And that was what Sasuke found so fascinating about Aerie. He had never met anyone that didn't try to impress him. She didn't try to lie to Sasuke and tell him that she has felt the same amount of pain and loss as he has. And she didn't try to stop Sasuke from reaching his goal of killing his older brother. Aerie would simply support Sasuke. She wanted Sasuke to achieve his goal no matter how dark it was, because she only wanted him to be happy. 

The more Sasuke thinks about Aerie, the more Karin's harsh words echo in Sasuke's mind, making Sasuke grow angry. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke was about to go back into the hideout and confront Karin, but at that moment Jugo came outside.

The two men stare blankly at each other for a moment. Sasuke was one of little words and Jugo was simply unsure of what to say. Should he address Sasuke about that fact that he made Karin cry? Or should he just drop it...? Sasuke could tell Jugo was debating with himself on what to do, so Sasuke decides for both of them.

''Can you still trace Aerie's scent?" Sasuke asks cutting the silence.

''Y-yes I can...'' Jugo mumbles.

''Good, follow it,'' Sasuke demands more than asks.

Jugo pauses a moment, before doing anything. Making Sasuke narrow his eyes.

''What is it now?" Sasuke states with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

''Don't you think you were a little harsh on Karin?" Jugo says.

''No,'' Sasuke states shortly. 

''But-''

''Are we really going to fight about this right now?" Sasuke sneers at Jugo.

Jugo clearly wasn't going to get anywhere about this subject with Sasuke. As he walks passed Sasuke, Jugo lets out a small breath. Sasuke glances at Jugo out of the corner of his dark eyes with suspicion. For some reason Sasuke felt a bit weary as he began to follow Jugo into the forest...