Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Claim Me	By : t69 Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 5720 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Prologue, Part 1
- 2-Prologue, Part 2
- 3-Part 1
- 4-Part 2
- 5-Part 3
- 6-Part 4
- 7-Part 5
- 8-Part 6
- 9-Part 7
- 10-Part 8
- 11-Part 9
- 12-Part 10
- 13-Part 11
- 14-Part 12
- 15-Part 13
- 16-Part 14
- 17-Part 15
- 18-Part 16
- 19-Part 17
- 20-Part 18
- 21-Part 19
- 22-Part 20
- 23-Part 21
- 24-Part 22
- 25-Part 23
- 26-Part 24
- 27-Part 25
- 28-Part 26
- 29-Part 27
- 30-Part 28
- 31-Part 29
- 32-Part 30
- 33-Part 31
- 34-Part 32
- 35-Part 33
- 36-Part 34
- 37-Part 35
- 38-Part 36
- 39-Epilogue
- 36
- 37
- 38
"You do know staring at the tea won't cause the sugar to magically diffuse into your bloodstream, right?" Ino muttered in exasperation.
Sakura raised her gaze from the liquid she had been absentmindedly swirling and allowed it to settle on her best friend's cool blue eyes. "Not in the mood for sarcasm, Ino-pig."
"She's just concerned, Sakura," Hinata said. "You've barely eaten anything since you and Kiba-kun returned, and while he was in worse condition, that doesn't mean you don't need some recuperation of your own."
The pink-haired jōnin sighed. After her talk with Kai in the Land of Thunder, she had immediately teleported to the marked kunai in the hospital, where the blonde and the Hyūga heiress were waiting for her, their arms crossed, each sporting an arched brow. Despite her protests, saying she needed to get back to Kiba, the two whisked her away to the cafeteria, piled food on her plate, sat her down and demanded that she eat. She pushed her cup of tea to the side and pulled a small plate of gelatin in front of her. She grudgingly grabbed the spoon, scooped a chunk and chewed. After swallowing, she smiled sardonically. "Ah, as delicious as ever."
"And you eating bland hospital food is whose fault?" Ino snorted. "You were the one who adamantly refused to go out to eat at a nice restaurant."
"Well, at least you're getting some nourishment," the blue-haired jōnin offered.
After a couple more scoops, the emerald-eyed beauty stilled. "How's he doing, Hinata?" she asked, her voice uncharacteristically tremulous.
The byakugan wielder shook her head. "Still asleep, I'm afraid." Her hand reached for Sakura's. "Don't worry," she whispered soothingly, "Kiba-kun's tough. I'm sure he'll pull through."
Sakura's grip tightened around the spoon. "Fuck, if I… If I had…" she began.
"If you what?" Ino spat, "For goodness sake, Forehead. I heard that you guys went up against someone with a kekkei tōta and—"
"Hey, how'd you know that!? It was an S-rank mission and the only person I spoke to was Tsunade-shishō!" the pinkette cut in, disbelief written all over her face.
The blonde kunoichi rolled her eyes. "And then she met up with a bunch of other people about some prophecy. I managed to squeeze some tidbits out of one of them, though I'm not saying who," she responded. "How'd you think I became known as the Queen of Hearsay here in Konoha? My intel gathering can rival an entire hidden village's if I'm interested enough."
Sakura laughed briefly, and then paused at the foreign sound. She hadn't laughed out loud like that in quite a while. The mind-switching shinobi's presence was very therapeutic. Nevertheless, her mind wandered to her boyfriend, and her lips tightened into a thin line.
The Inuzuka clan elders had managed to perform the ritual in time to save Kiba's life, sealing another portion of Inugama within him. From what the medical-nin had heard, the elders ran into some difficulty, as it was the first time the ritual was done for an adult. The others who had used Crimson Death in the past had died before the ritual was even attempted. They didn't know if they had to adjust anything. Thankfully, the kami didn't get all fussy and gave another, allegedly much larger, part of itself to Kiba.
As she wasn't an Inuzuka, the pinkette had to wait outside the ceremonial chamber. It had taken only several minutes, but it felt like forever. She seriously admired Tsume and Hana for never showing any signs of distress throughout the whole ordeal. She had apologized to them over and over, but instead of blaming her for the state that Kiba was in, they had thanked her from bringing him home.
Despite the new fragment of Inugama residing within him, Kiba refused to wake up. When he was returned to the hospital, Tsunade had attended to him personally. Her mentor had confessed to her that she was afraid that the brunet had incurred some form of encephalopathy from the chakra drainage. Despite her expertise, all they could give at the moment was supportive management.
Since the dog-nin had spontaneous respiration, the hokage decided to defer endotracheal intubation and simply used a jutsu that protected Kiba's airway so that he wouldn't get aspiration pneumonia. Knowing how protective the man was with his "assets," Tsunade also deferred the insertion of a foley catheter, resorting to diapers. Lastly, she applied a jutsu that allowed the body to transform chakra into nutrients, a technique she had developed while studying the Akimichi clan's abilities, removing the need for osterized feeding. As such, the only thing that had to be inserted was an IV line for hydration and some medications.
"Fascinating," Hinata murmured, cutting through the pinkette's reverie, "I thought jinton was the only kekkei tōta in existence."
"I thought that was the case too," Sakura said. "I can't tell you much, but yeah, he was really powerful. Fast too. He was a match for Kiba in terms of speed."
"I heard that too," said Ino, "and that Kiba had asked you to stay back and let him fight the guy by himself. Personally, I think it was a wise decision."
"As do I," the Hyūga concurred.
The pinkette's eyes hardened. "Gee, thanks for your vote of confidence guys."
"Will you pull whatever bug crawled up your ass and listen to yourself, Forehead!" the Yamanaka exhaled in exasperation, "Stop perceiving every little battle decision that involves you not being in the frontline as a personal attack. You are a damn strong kunoichi. Your overall aptitude likely exceeds mine and Hinata's, but Hinata would probably hand us both asses in a straight up fight."
The pale-eyed beauty blushed. "Um, I—"
The azure-eyed ninja snorted. "Stop with the humility bullshit. You know it's true. Your strength sucks big time, but you more than make up for it in speed and grace. You're just behind Naruto and Kiba in terms of speed, along with Neji and Lee. You'd have sidled up next to Sakura and blocked all her chakra points before she can even wind up a single punch. I wouldn't even have a chance to switch minds with you. Now, Sakura has an inner self, thus, making my technique useless, so she'd probably smack me into oblivion."
Noting the tired look on her best friend's face, Ino continued to her point. "We all have our strengths, and your opponent had one that you had no counter to. Strength of a Hundred, even mastered, wouldn't have saved you from a head shot. Tough luck. Suck it up and move on. Do you believe that if you had died making an opening for Kiba to make a fatal blow, we would've hailed your sacrifice as something heroic? No, we would've cursed your narcissistic need to prove yourself, choosing a moment of glory in death over an easily available and more prudent course of action to fall back and live another day to help us when your abilities would prove to be useful."
Sakura blinked, then allowed her gaze to fall on the partially eaten plate of gelatin. Well, that was a wakeup call. After a minute, she looked up, a genuine smile gracing her face. "I think I knew about this obsession of mine for a long time. I knew it was wrong, but I couldn't help feeling inferior compared to Naruto and Sasuke."
"You aren't the only one who feels inferior compared to those two. Join the club, Forehead," Ino grunted. "While it sets up a good environment for us to push harder and be better ninja, unlike you, we were never consumed by the need to equal them, since we knew it was impossible."
"Well, except Kiba-kun," the blue-haired kunoichi interjected, "but it turns out he's got part of a kami inside him, so he must've known he'd be able to approach those two more than any of us could."
The blonde turned towards the Hyūga heiress. "You know, I always thought that thing about the Inuzuka clan was just a legend. Who knew?" She turned towards her best friend. "Did you?"
"No," the green-eyed shinobi cleared her throat, "He used a technique and given the outcome, I deduced that the legends were true. Anyway, can I get back to my sentimental moment?"
Ino had the propriety to blush. "Oh, yeah. Sorry 'bout that. Go on."
"So yeah," Sakura said, "What you said is true, but it's different for me. I was from the same team, but was the weakest link. Like them, I was trained by one of the Sannin, but still, I couldn't reach them. I had my moment to shine during the war, but in the end, it was still my ass that needed saving. It spiraled out of control after that. I knew it had caused me to make shitty decisions in the past, but no one ever called me out for it. Until now, that is. So thank you. I needed that."
"Realizing that you are wrong is half the path towards successful change," Hinata offered, clasping her friend's hand in her own.
"Kami, you should cut back on the wise words, Hinata. You're making us look daft in comparison," the blonde joked. She turned towards the rose-haired woman. "Anyway, you do realize now how this has affected your relationship with Kiba, right?"
Sakura averted her eyes, a faint blush forming on her cheeks. "I do, so stop rubbing it in."
Confusion clouded the Hyūga heiress's pale eyes, pushing Ino to speak for her best friend. "Sakura sensed that Kiba wanted to take things to the next level, and because of that damn obsession of hers, she panicked. No, she couldn't settle down until she had proven herself as Naruto and Sasuke's equal. If she did while she still wasn't, her time would be split between being a wife and a ninja, and the gap between her and them would probably grow ever wider. So she tried to stall, keeping the physical intimacy yet diverting the subject whenever talk of commitment arose—"
"Hey, you've never heard Kiba and I talk about taking our relationship further and I never told you that we did," the pink-haired medical-nin interrupted.
"But you have, and you did avoid the subject, didn't you, or maybe you didn't avoid it but used a tone that suggested that you weren't serious about the topic."
"I— Well, I tried— And he kinda— And then Kai and I— Oh kami, and Kyosuke, we—" the addressed stuttered, growing redder and redder by the second. Her eyes noted the triumphant look on the mind-switching kunoichi's face and felt the arguments in her head die. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. "Fine, you're right," she admitted grudgingly, "You know, you should apply for a spot as a love columnist in some women's magazine."
A golden brow rose. "Who are Kai and Kyosuke?" the curious woman asked, "And why are you so red at the mention of their names?" Her eyes widened and a devious look suffused her face. "Oh my! Something juicy happened! You have to tell me!"
"No," came the swift reply.
Ino's eyes glimmered with determination. "I'll let it slide for now, but I'll squeeze it out of you soon enough. Mark my words." She turned to Hinata. "Where was I in the whole Sakura stupidity issue? Oh, yeah, it came to a point where she was actually subconsciously jeopardizing her own relationship with Kiba. You wanted to wait until you finally considered yourself your teammates' equal, never admitting that you knew such a time would never come, thus dooming your relationship with Kiba from the very start."
The byakugan user's eyes hardened slightly. "And he would've waited for you if you asked him to. He loves you that much." She mulled for a few seconds, then continued. "Do you know that he told Shino and me that he had considered asking you to marry him the day you two were given that S-rank mission even though he was really pissed off at you at the time? His love for you exceeded the anger he felt. S-rank missions are very dangerous, and even the best of us end up losing their lives. If he were to die during the mission, he wanted to die as your husband."
Sakura hung her head in shame. She was such a fool. "And I love him too, so much that I can't even grasp the idea of living the rest of my life without his embrace, his jokes, his smile—"
"And his cock," the blonde butt in, "Don't forget his cock."
Hinata fought back a smile and shook her head.
The pinkette burst out laughing despite the heaviness of the moment. Kami, she loved her friend. "No, definitely can't forget about his cock," she whispered between giggles. After the amusement passed, she spoke again, this time in a solemn but hopeful tone. "I just hope the kami will give me a chance."
Ino pondered. "Well, they say praying at the Shrine of Masashi at Mt. Kishimoto helps," she suggested, "He's the greatest of the kami, making even the most impossible things happen, defying all reason and logic."
The Hyūga heiress just smiled. "Just think positive, Sakura. Everything will turn out okay."

Author's Notes: Too short, I know, but worry not. The last chapter that's coming up will hopefully make up for it. I didn't plan on it, but the last chapter plus the epilogue will be posted on Christmas Eve. Think of it as my present to all of you for being such supportive readers to a literary fledgling such as myself.
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