| 保護 Protection |

Chapter Fourteen

  友達 の死  Tomodachi no Shi

Everyone was worried for Sasuke.

When they arrived back to Konoha, they were also surprised to find Yoru sleeping off chakra exhaustion. Shukaku and Anko were in the middle of telling the Hokage of their findings when the team arrived. Anko and the Hokage personally inspected Sasuke's seal, which lead Anko to note that it had been stronger than hers and she was surprised he was still conscious. Sakura felt Naruto's chakra flare dangerously and put her hand on his arm to calm him. The Hokage stated that there was not really anything they could do until Yoru woke up to inspect the seal further.

They were all angered by this fact, but they understood. Kakashi and Yamato were to stay by Sasuke until then in case something were to happen. Sasuke nodded, silent through the whole exchange and abruptly left, taking a distraught Kakashi and Yamato with him. Naruto and Sakura stayed by Yoru's side, occasionally feeding her chakra. Eventually, Naruto asked how she did it, the healing.

She looked very surprised at his sudden interest, then smiled at him softly when she realized why. Naruto was very protective over his family and friends, Yoru especially. She remembered how he changed when Yoru came into his life, how the whole team did. Occasionally, when he thought no one was looking, Naruto would show the sadness he felt, Sakura saw it. After she arrived, that never happened again because he was always happy. Sasuke had gradually grown friendlier towards the both of them and he was never hostile towards her. Sakura had grown way more confident, especially in her abilities. She stopped attempting to go after Sasuke once she realized her own worth and began to admire Naruto more. She promised that she would never let them down, she would be their cushion to fall back on when they needed it.

She explained how the healing chakra worked and flowed into her hands. She also mentioned that you had to have excellent chakra control to even begin to try to do this advanced technique. He smiled back at her and nodded then summoned three clones. They all got concentrated looks on their faces as they all focused on the thought of healing. The first one had a dim glow on his hand before it faded out and disappeared. Naruto grinned at the new knowledge and passed it onto his clones. Eventually, the clones could hold it for longer than a minute and disappeared.

Naruto held his hand over Sakura's, only lightly brushing it, and started the technique. She noticed that it was not fully developed, but rather than forcing it into Yoru, he was enveloping her chakra in his in order to make her healing more powerful. She gave him another soft smile while he gave her a cheeky one. She moved back to focus on the task at hand which he continued to stare at her. He had always had a crush on her, but he admired her now more than ever. She had matured and learned so much while he was away and he loved that she was always so calm when it came to situations like these. It helped him stay calm.

Within a couple minutes, they heard groaning from Yoru and Naruto rushed off to get Sasuke. Sakura went through a standard medical checkup to ensure that Yoru was going to be okay. She chuckled when Yoru sat up and mumbled something about needing some ibuprofen. The rest of her team got back to her room in record time, in which made Yoru smile upon seeing her boys. Her face soon became a look of concern as Sasuke's face contorted in pain. She stood as quickly as she could, relying on Sakura for support. She had already slowly started drawing on her reserve of chakra, but she did not want to go too fast.

He stood in a rigid stature when she started to inspect him. She noticed ink around his neck and brushed his hair aside. Her face became a look of rage when he sucked in a breath from her touching it.

"Get Tsunade-sama in here now."

"Alright, nee-chan."

Sakura continued to show her look of concern as Yoru moved Sasuke to the bed she had been previously lying in. Eventually, she did not need Sakura's help to stand and she thanked her student for the help. Kakashi looked conflicted, knowing her should stay out of her way, but he wanted to embrace her. She turned to him and asked if he could perform the Evil Sealing Method since she would not have the chakra for it and he nodded.