Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Grounded	By : djserani Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 2818 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, and I do not make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
- 15
The first of the two villages they went to barely qualified as such. It consisted of a ferry that connected Fire and River, a teahouse, a “general store” and a few houses. They made it there in just under four hours.
When Kakashi talked to the man who turned out to be the ferry operator, general store owner, and village headmen, he’d told Kakashi they’d already learned of the attacks. “We got news of them a few days ago. I’ve kept the women inside the village since then.”
He offered them lunch, but no one wanted to lose the time. There was hope the second village was safe, too, but no one wanted to count on it. Instead they took off, again, feeling the tension grow as they got closer to their goal.

Mid-afternoon found them facing the second of the villages. This one was larger, sitting on the Fire Country end of a bridge that spanned the river and saw much more traffic than the ferry at the previous village. It straddled the main road and had several shops, two inns, a teahouse, a ramen stand, and a rather large number of homes.
There was too much traffic nearby for them to be able to tell if anyone was through there that shouldn’t have been, so Kakashi went in search of the village headman. He, too, had heard of the attacks, but in a village their size, it was more difficult to keep everyone inside. One woman had headed down to the river to collect reeds and was unfortunate enough to have met up with them. She’d been found only that morning after having been missing for almost two days.
Sakura couldn’t get her to say anything. She’d refused to talk once she was brought home and hadn’t opened her mouth since then. Her physical injuries were numerous, but not serious and Sakura was able to heal most of them. She had no idea if she’d ever talk again and it took a lot for Sakura to contain her rage.
They were once more offered food, but the group wanted to keep moving. They stayed long enough to pick up a few more supplies, and headed on down the river.
When the sun went down, however, and they still hadn’t seen any trace of them, they were forced to halt again. Even with Neji and Hinata’s Byakugan, there was only so much they could do at night. So they found a place to camp, and got settled in.
“Okay, we’re a lot closer tonight to them, so we need to be much more careful. First off, if you go away from camp, don’t go far and make sure you go as couples.” When the mumbling stopped, he said, “unless you’d like to take chances with someone’s life?”
No one argued.
“That also means we need to actually watch during our watches tonight.” A few chuckles went up at that. “To that end, I’m mixing it up a bit. Sakura and Temari will take first watch. Hinata and Ino second, Tenten and Chouji next, then Lee and Neji and finally, Shikamaru and I will go last. We leave at dawn.”
He turned to Sakura and together they set out their mat and blankets. They sat there and she watched with amusement as he ate, finally catching the swift movements he used to get the food under his mask. She turned to her own rice and fish and forced herself to eat all of it. She hadn’t been eating much the last two days and she was starting to feel the effects.
The conversation around the fire was subdued and restricted mostly to the couples themselves. Sakura smiled when she saw Chouji feeding Ino and Ino roll her eyes. “I can feed myself” was clearly heard across the camp and a few answering chuckles could be heard.
“I’m glad to see you eat,” Kakashi said in her ear. He pulled her up against him and wrapped his arms around her.
“I need my strength,” she said simply. “Especially if we find them tomorrow.” She felt him nod and she sighed.
Whether the others had accepted her and Kakashi or were just too preoccupied with each other, she didn’t know. But when she looked around the camp again, no one was paying any attention to them. She was grateful. She was already getting tired of the questions.
She just wanted to love him. She just wanted to be with him, let them figure out what they were going to do—if anything—and butt out. She didn’t think she should have to defend their relationship.
Which gave her another thing to think about. She had no idea how her mother was going to react to this. Sakura didn’t think she’d have a problem with someone like him, but she’d been surprised before. She had time before she had to worry about it. Even if they found them early tomorrow and everyone survived just fine—and they’d be lucky if they got away without at least some injuries—it was still at least a couple more days before they got back to Konoha.
She wondered what Tsunade would think about it. It still seemed a little funny to her that Kakashi was kept back when he would have been much more useful going with the initial teams.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked her, quietly.
She glanced up at him. “Why you weren’t sent out with Gai and Genma’s teams.”
“Ah.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You have a theory?”
“I do, but I’m not sure you’d believe me.” He paused. “I’m not sure I believe it myself.”
“Do tell.” She wiggled around so she could see him better.
He glanced around the camp, then looked back at her a minute before continuing. “I think it was deliberate.”
He waited while she digested that. “I suspected that was the case with the others - Shika, Chouji, Lee, and Neji.” She didn’t say what she thought of him.
“Well, I’m sure it was the case with them. I’m not sure how Tsunade knew about them all, but she has ways, and I’ve learned not to question them too closely.”
“That still doesn’t answer the question of you, though.” She swallowed as a thought occurred to her. Did Tsunade know…? Had Sakura been obviously about her feelings about Kakashi? Had she set this up for her? “Unless—” she stopped and blushed.
“That’s what I was thinking. Seems a little far-fetched, though, that she’d not only approve of our relationship but set it up, don’t you think?” He was busy looking around the camp again and didn’t notice the look on her face when he said that.
“Yeah.” She tried to swallow around the lump in her throat, but it was nearly impossible. She stared a hole into the top of one of her boots, trying to keep Kakashi from seeing her expression.

Kakashi saw it, anyway, and had no idea what was behind it. He couldn’t, for one minute, believe that Tsunade would approve of him for her apprentice. She’d taken Sakura under her wing as if she were her own daughter—or granddaughter, he corrected himself. And he couldn’t reconcile that to setting him up with her.
If he had a daughter of his own, no man would be good enough for her, least of all someone like him.
Before he knew what had hit him, the image of a silver-haired, green-eyed little girl flashed into his mind. And try as he might, he couldn’t banish it. The idea of a child with Sakura caused a keen longing in him he never knew he had. He’d long ago accepted the idea that he’d never have a family.
He shook his head at himself. He didn’t deserve her to begin with and yet there he sat, imagining a family with her? At the rate things were going, he’d end up in the padded wing at Konoha hospital.
“Here’s something to think about, though. I was ready to go back out and catch up to Gai and Genma’s teams. She told me, instead, that she wanted me to stay and keep an eye on you and the others.” He took a deep breath. “As unlikely as it seems, maybe she does approve of us.” He stared at her bowed head, with no clue what to do.

Sakura didn’t say anything. She sat quietly, trying to process it all. If that were the case, then one of the most important people in Sakura’s life approved of her choice. Tsunade couldn’t think it was such a bad idea if she set it up for them to be together like that.
But her approval only went so far. He could still change his mind about being with her altogether. Then it wouldn’t matter who’s approval she had, would it?
She opened her mouth to speak with no idea what to say when she realized that most of the couples were settling down to sleep. “You should get some rest,” she said, instead. She cupped his face in her hand and placed a kiss on his lips outside his mask. Then she paused another second to look over his face before getting up.
She took a seat over at the edge of the camp and watched as he stretched out on the mat. He rested his head on his hand and looked up at the sky a few moments before closing his eyes. She turned to Temari as she came over and sat next to her.
“Hi.”
“Hi.” Temari smiled. “How’re you doing?”
Sakura shrugged. “I’m okay,” she hedged. “The woman in the last village got to me a bit, I think.” That was true enough as far as it went.
“Yeah, I don’t know that I could do what you do. I certainly wanted to kill someone.”
Sakura laughed. “I think those rogue-nin ought to hope we never find them.”
“That’s not going to happen.” Temari leaned back against the tree. “We’ll find them and they’ll wish we hadn’t.”
Sakura let the silence lapse for a few minutes. “So, Kakashi and I have a theory.”
“Oh? About what?”
“Didn’t it seem a little odd that everyone here, except maybe one, happened to have their choice of guy left in the village instead of being sent out after the rogue-nin?”
Temari considered it. “Well, it is a little coincidental. Do you think she knew about your feelings for Kakashi?”
Sakura shrugged. “I have no idea. Perhaps she just thought he’d be strong enough to keep me back if we tried to go after them. I don’t know. But everyone else…” She trailed off and leaned forward, resting her chin on her knees and wrapping her arms around them.
“I wouldn’t even try to think I could understand the mind of your Hokage. But what I do know of her, she doesn’t do anything that isn’t deliberate. She knows what she’s about. Gaara respects her a lot.”
Sakura nodded. “She’s my shishou. So, it’s possible that she knew how I felt. But I keep going back to what I told you earlier—I still had trouble thinking he would be interested in me like that.” She paused. “There have been moments over the years when I thought maybe there might have been more, but he never acted on it, so what am I supposed to think?” She looked over at Temari.
She just shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m still feeling my way around with Shika. He tells me he loves me, but look at my family. We’re not exactly known for our outward showing of affection. I’m not sure I’ve ever even said it to Gaara or Kankuro.”
“That would be hard, I suppose. I’m lucky, there. I’ve always had my mom. She’s always tried to make sure I knew she loved me.” She took a deep breath. “Even so, I had a hard time telling Kakashi.”
Temari nodded. “Yeah.” She took a deep breath. “Are you afraid?”
“Afraid?” Sakura glanced over at her.
“Of losing him.”
Sakura let it turn over before answering. “Yes. But, I know I’m going to lose him someday. Whether it’s tomorrow, next month, a year from now or decades from now, he’ll die.” She took a deep breath. “Kurenai had such a hard time of it when she lost Asuma, but they took the chance. And now she has a little version of him to love and remind her of what she had.”
Temari stared at the stars. “I’m not sure what I’d do if Shika were killed.”
Sakura turned to Temari. “You’d mourn. You’d cry. Probably throw things. Curse him, undoubtedly. And somewhere along the line, you’d forget your anger at him. The pain would fade eventually and you’d have nothing but good memories. But let me ask you this. Have you thought about what would happen if you died before he did?”
That gave her pause. She turned back to the stars again. “Well, damn.”
They sat quietly for a while, each lost in their own thoughts. “Time to get the next two. Go lay down with Shika. I’ll get Ino and Hinata.”
Temari nodded and headed to the mat she shared with Shikamaru. Sakura squatted next to where Ino was sprawled over Chouji. “Hey, Pig.” She shook her shoulder. “Time for your watch.”
Ino groaned. “Go. Away. I’m too comfortable.”
Sakura pulled on Ino’s ponytail. “Your future husband will still be there in an hour and a half. Get up. I need sleep.”
Ino sighed. “Fine.”
After waking Hinata, Sakura approached Kakashi where he lay. He opened his good eye and lifted the blanket. “Didn’t you sleep?” she asked him as she curled up against his side.
“I found it rather difficult without you here. Get some sleep, Sakura.”
But after a comment like that, it was nearly impossible. She didn’t fall asleep until much later.
- 13
- 14
- 15
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