Sakura Blossoms - Chapter 1
It was hard to look at him. Each breath was rattled, every movement shook, every glance wavered. She had never seen Kakashi look quite so weak, and it shook her to the core. She was the only one who would be able to treat such a disastrous injury - well the only one she trusted to treat it.
"Sakura, leave me." Kakashi struggled through his rasping breaths. His form, once the peak of athletic fitness rendered immobile by the wounds. "No." Sakura spat with tears running down her face. The sound sent ravens hidden in the trees scattering to the wind. She would heal him, even if it meant she might be captured by the pursuing ninja. She reached into her core to summon what little remained of her chakra.
She channeled her chakra into him, into the dire lacerations. She felt the energy returning to his body, but she also knew that it was leaving him much faster. No, no, no, no. she thought to herself. There had to be something she could do. There must be something she could reach at in the hundreds of lessons she received from Lady Tsunade - but no. The one lesson that she could never forget is that some wounds are simply untreatable. Lady Tsunade taught her that well.
Sakura slowed her chakras flow into Kakashi, until ending it. It was a lost cause. She looked into Kakashi's eyes, and desperately pleaded for him to give her an answer, some way to save him. Kakashi's hand grabbed hers, she felt it shaking, and weak, yet still confident. He moved her hand to his mask and lowered it. She almost couldn't bare to look. She had never seen the mask off of her teacher, this felt like it was him giving up. She hesitantly helped him slowly lowering the mask. Underneath lied a big smile. "You've come a long way, Sakura." He chuckled which sent droplets of blood about. "Not far enough." She cried, as she fell on top of him, holding him as tightly as she could.
"It's okay." Kakashi replied.
Kakashi went limp. Sakura could feel his body losing the life it had left. She wailed into the night. Kakashi was the one who brought Team 7 together. Her, Sasuke, and Naruto were who there were today because of him. How he would also read his smutt novels, the how he would laugh at their escapades. How silly his hair was - constantly perfectly diagonal. It was then she realized that she loved him. She loved Kakashi and what he did.
The tears stopped.
She wasn't going to let him die. Tsunade was among the best teachers in the world, but Sakura, Sakura had learned everything she could from her. She had read hundreds of ninja tomes, hundreds of medical journals. Yet she knew, in this moment none of them would help her.
Then she knew. She quickly started the hand-signs necessary for the jutsu. No, I'm shaking too much. She knew she botched the gestures necessary. She took a deep breath and calmed herself. To make this work she had to be perfectly calm. Slowly she restarted the gestures. She began speeding up as she became more confident.
It would take at least 5 minutes of ninja-signs to accomplish her goal. "Just hold on Kakashi... I won't fail."
Finally she finished the gestures. She clapped her hands, then help them to her eyes. Worse thing that could happen is she would go blind, but it was well worth the risk. Ten-tailed beast did it burn. Her eyes felt like they had taken an Uchiha fire jutsu. She could feel the veins restructuring, the pupil changing, the retina tearing itself apart and reforming. The pain was almost unbearable. Tears began down, but she soon ran out. She cried out into the night once more.
The pain finally subsided, though it wasn't gone she would need to work through it. She looked over Kakashi with her new power, she could see every vein, every injury, every cell, every chakra line, every muscle, every organ. She could pinpoint her healing chakra and manipulate the body to the very cell. She began working, letting her eyes guide her. With this pinpoint accuracy she did not have to expend chakra healing the large wounds, she could heal at the most strategic points - healing a puncture in an organ, reforming a vein without the muscle.
She could heal anything.
Kakashi coughed, and woke up to the morning rays in the forest. A young woman was lying on top of him covered in blood. "Sakura?... I thought I..." She stirred from her slumber, and looked at Kakashi. He had never seen eyes like hers before. They were still the same light blue-green she had before, but the iris was formed into the blossom of a cherry tree.
"You did." She replied and held him close. "But I pulled you back."
He smiled warmly, then pulled her close into a kiss. "You've really changed, Sakura."
"I know." She giggled and kissed him deeply.
Not so surprisingly the two had forgotten what drove them to run in the first place. The sky dimmed, and a flock of ravens scattered. The comfort that Sakura felt as she held Kakashi disappeared just as he did. Into nothing.
A robed figure stepped from the woods. Sakura knew those robes - Akatsuki. Even better, she knew the face. Itachi. "What are you doing her? Where is Kakashi!?" She angrily yelled.
"You passed my test." He spoke in his normal, quiet, brooding voice.
"Test?" She scoffed.
"Think about it Sakura. How did you get here?"
"It's obvious! Kakashi and I were attacked by... We were... " She grabbed her head as a she was onslaught by a rancid headache.
"Exactly."