Summary: 'I knew if their jutsu clashed, things would never remain the same. I could stop them. I could help them. I could keep Team Seven undamaged.' Sakura manages to end the fight that day on the roof, but at a cost that was too much to pay. Oneshot. SakuraCentric
Notes: Would like to thank MistahWompah (From SpaceBattles) for editing my technical errors and criticizing this piece. Shoutout to Bogarik for also giving a second opinion before I posted this.
It's amazing how one moment ruined everything.
We were just twelve year olds excited to head outside the village gates, eager for the glimpse of adventure that the safety of our homes could not offer. We faced off and defeated two Chunin leveled ninjas, only to encounter an A-ranked missing-nin. Kakashi-Sensei still managed to defeat him, only for the man to return with an accomplice a week later. We fought tooth and nail, and succeed in our C-now-turned A-rank mission. Naruto gets a bridge named in his honor. The man and his partner succumb to their wounds. But at the end of the day, we all survived with minor injuries.
Not too long afterwards, we found ourselves in the middle of the Chunin Exams. We somehow passed the first exam, and were told to sign a wavier to make sure that we know the risks that come with the second. We faced off an S-ranked ninja who was specifically targeting Sasuke. I enter one of the toughest battles of my life with sound ninja, who want nothing more than to rip my teammates apart. But at the end of the day, we passed with considerable injuries.
One month later, I watch my teammates from the sidelines in the stadium. We find ourselves in a surprise attack from the Sand and Sound. People were injured. People were killed. We butted heads with the Sand's jinchuriki. I get encapsulated by molded sand and lose consciousness. I awake in the hospital with my limbs and head intact. Sasuke and Naruto were terribly hurt. But at the end of the day, we are all alive and together.
Or so I thought, until I found myself scrambling to stop them on the roof. I knew if their jutsu clashed, things would never remain the same. I could stop them. I could help them. I could keep Team Seven undamaged. And at the end of the day, everything I had held close was broken.
It's amazing how one moment ruined everything.
The feeling of having two destructive jutsu burning into your body is indescribable. The degree of pain I felt was immeasurable. Layers of my skin were ripping apart effortlessly like tissues. My vision was crimson. Everything around me was painted with different shades of blood. I was awake yet I was asleep. Like a dream, I was watching the scene unfold from afar, yet I was also watching it up close. I was hurting on the outside and on the inside. I couldn't fix anything.
I lingered in a coma for three entire months. Sometimes I hear the yells. Sometimes I hear the laughter. But most of the time, I hear the sobbing.
The night I awoke from my slumber, I felt numb, Like something was missing. The nurse at my bedside was talking to me in an unrecognizable language. It took me much too long to recognize it as my native tongue. The Hokage made her way into my very tiny room to check my vitals. She claimed that they were still functioning. She was lying. I still felt numb. My thoughts wandered to Naruto and Sasuke. She looked uncomfortable when I asked, and said she'd send the news that I was awake.
It was only after she left, when I realized what was wrong. My legs wouldn't respond. They couldn't respond. I didn't have the heart to cry; it was already shattered. I had known my spinal cord tore apart as soon as the impact of the Chidori and Rasengan hit me. I had simply hidden away the tragedy into the abyss of my mind to forget.
Surprisingly the first to visit was Kakashi. We didn't speak for a very long time. He was staring at me with too much intensity. I was too much of a coward to look him in the eye. The first words spilling out of his mouth was an apology. I did not want his pity. Apologies couldn't make me walk again. He explained that he didn't expect my interference with the boys. It was too late for him to make it in time. I couldn't stop the tears flowing this time. I asked him to leave. And he did.
The next to visit was Naruto. Unlike Kakashi, he did not dare to look me in the eye. His words were fumbled, and he sobbed the entire time. I knew he meant his apologies. But I couldn't accept them. Apologies couldn't make me walk again. I did not respond to Naruto's ramblings. I could not bring myself to care. He left with promises to visit every day and which he remained true to his word. The conversations remained one-sided as I made no efforts to continue them.
Sasuke did not come to visit until the day I was leaving. He had rooted himself to my bedside and opened his mouth to speak, but the expected apology was not heard. Instead he told me about his Sharingan.
After I had gone into shock, my heart had stopped beating for over 15 minutes. Nobody had expected to see me, the weakest link of Team Seven, alive after what I had experienced.
A miracle, they had called it. I was stuck in an endless nightmare. They told me I was fortunate to be alive. It was unfortunate, I wasn't dead.
The Uchiha clan bore the eyes of the cursed – the Sharingan. Very few knew why. Sasuke's eyes melted into a different kind of Sharingan, the tome fusing together, forming a black pinwheel. To unlock the full potential of the Sharingan, there was one condition, he explained. The Uchiha in question was to kill a person who was dear to them. No further explanation was needed for Sasuke's new eye transformation.
It's amazing how one moment ruined everything.
In those ten minutes, I had learnt more about Sasuke than I had in the months we had been a genin team.
He told me that he'll protect me, and never let anything happen to me again. In the past, I would have swooned over his words, and dilly-dallied on ideas of love and little babies with pudgy faces.
Looking back now, it was quite sad. I used to dread going to training sessions fearing the scenario of having a hair out of place or my makeup getting smudged. All of it to impress the boy sitting in front of me. Now I felt nothing for him but emptiness.
I was more useless than ever. My shinobi career had ended effectively that day, and I will never live a normal civilian life. I've become more of a burden than I used to be. I almost spat into Sasuke's face, because how would he protect what's already broken? That's when he told me, he'd marry me. His declaration brought nothing but fury. Who would have known that the way to Sasuke's heart was being crippled by his own hand? My response was too colorful to repeat. I did not regret it. I did not need his self-pity and guilt. Let him drown in it for all I care. I never want to see him again. He couldn't or perhaps did not know what to respond, because he left me soon afterwards.
Later, when I had been taken home by my parents in a wheelchair, I shut myself off into my room. The photograph of Team Seven by my bed was mocking me. Now it laid in broken pieces at the floor of my bed. The team was shattered with no way to put the pieces together. I hope they are happy now. They can grow stronger without me. Why do I care? I don't need them any more than they need me. It's what they wanted in the end.
I was finally out of the picture. My fingers dug into the glass pieces as I reached down to grab the photograph. They would leave more scars but they can join the collection on my body. I tore that photograph into smaller pieces.
No more. I don't want any more of this.
My smiling face glinted back at me, on that small slip of paper. I could have been a ninja. I could have been a good ninja. I could have been an amazing ninja. I could have been-
I hated that girl. What did she have to smile about? Why couldn't she just go ahead and die?
She was crumpled away now, hidden out of sight in a clenched hand. I never wanted to see her again or that stupid smile again.
It's amazing how one moment ruined everything.
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