"This one will be difficult, Sakura. Are you sure that you can handle it?" Tsunade glanced up from the chart in her hand just long enough to level her former student with a firm, yet understanding look. If she wasn't up for it, now was the time to back out.
Sakura peered around her sensei, looking in the small observation window at the task before her. Two children, perhaps not much more than seven-years-old, had recently been rescued from a cave in the forest on the outskirts of Konoha. The boy seemed relatively healthy, and powerful enough to take out several of the rescue-nin before finally becoming overwhelmed. The little girl, however… that was another story entirely.
"Normally, I wouldn't ask. But seeing as you now have a conflict of interest -," her eyes dipped to Sakura's small baby bump for a fraction of a second, before meeting her eyes again. Sakura frowned. "I don't want you getting attached to her."
Normally, Sakura would've been insulted, having her skills called into question now that she was pregnant. But she knew that Tsunade meant well, and so she tried to let the slight slide. "I'll be fine. I won't get attached."
Tsunade looked into the window, shaking her head. "That little boy hasn't left her side in days. He refuses to eat and he's not sleeping. If this continues, we'll have to sedate him."
"I'll talk with him." Sakura said, taking the chart and looking over it once. "Protecting her is probably all he knows. He doesn't know us and clearly he doesn't trust us, so he's acting on instinct."
Now, it was Tsunade's turn to frown. "Then make him trust us."
Sakura took that as her cue to leave. Tucking the chart under her arm, she went over to the little girl's room and knocked on the door. The boy nearly jumped out of his skin, and immediately took a defensive position over the sleeping girl's body. Okay, perhaps not the best move on the road to earning the boy's trust… Sakura entered, giving the boy a placating smile and raising her hands innocently. When he saw this, he calmed considerably.
"Can I come in?" She asked softly, not wanting to disturb the sleeping patient.
"Why even ask? You'll just do what you want anyhow." The boy snapped back.
She sighed. Apparently, this would be more difficult than she'd originally thought. "My name is Uchiha Sakura, and I'll be the one caring for -," it was then that she realized that the little girl's chart didn't have a name. "Caring for your friend, here."
"My friend? She's my twin sister." And then suddenly, the boy seemed to deflate. "She's all that I have left…"
The boy had originally fallen on their radar after he'd been caught stealing from one of the local fruit vendors in town. They'd tracked him to his forest hide-out, where, much to their surprise, they'd found him peeling the fruit a crude instrument that vaguely resembled a knife and helping his sister to eat. The girl was weak and malnourished, with dirty, blood-soaked gauze over her eyes. The mission for recompense then turned into a rescue-mission, and the boy was less than thrilled.
"Can you tell me her name?" Sakura gingerly took a seat at the foot of the bed, leveling with the boy. He never took his eyes off his sister.
"Makoto." He didn't specify a last name and Sakura didn't push.
"Makoto." She repeated. "That's a very pretty name." The boy was hardly moved. "Can you tell me your name?"
"Why do you care?" He said rudely. "My sister and I were just fine before your men came and forced us out of our home! It's my job to protect her. I'm her big brother, and that's what big brother's do. And now you're gonna take her away from me."
Sakura shook her head. "Nobody is going to take Makoto away from you. You did excellently, caring for her all this time." Sakura commended him. "But your sister, she's very sick. The infection in her eyes has made her blind."
"You think I don't know that?" He sneered. "She's sick, just like Daddy was sick. She's weak, and no matter how much food I get for her, she's not gonna get any stronger. There's blood filling up her lungs and most of the time, she can't breathe right."
"We can help her here." Sakura said gently, but her kind words were met with a cold glare.
"Help her like you helped Daddy?" He bit back, eyes blazing and tears rolling down his reddened cheeks. "'Help her' by pumping her full of medicines that make her nauseous? By making false promises and giving her sugar-coated facts?"
The little girl stirred, having been woken by the volume of her brother's voice. The boy immediately calmed, falling to his knees beside her bed and clutching her small hand tightly between his own. While the girl had been resting so serenely before, now each breath was clearly a struggle. Sakura could hear the tell-tale rattling in her chest, a sure sign that her lungs were filled with fluid. After one particularly poor inhale, she began to cough, dark red blood spilling over her petal-pink lips.
Her brother dutifully attended to her, not even bothering to don gloves as he wiped the blood from her chin with a tissue. He threw it away, before gently coaxing her back into a reclining position. He pulled the blankets up to her chin and rubbed her shoulder soothingly, attempting to lull her back to sleep. But it didn't work. Instead, she turned her head in Sakura's direction. It was a bit unnerving, having the girl stare directly at her and knowing that she couldn't see a thing.
"Samuru," she said softly, her voice gravely from her earlier coughing fit. "Who is that?"
The boy, apparently named Samuru, inclined his head toward Sakura. "She's the one who is going to make you feel better." He narrowed his eyes at Sakura, as if threatening her to go against what he'd just said.
"Is she here to fix my eyes?" She asked. Sakura's eyes were drawn to the gauze that was draped lightly over the little girl's eyes.
"May I look at them?" Sakura asked, leaning forward to gently trace along the edge of the gauze wrapping.
"No -," the little boy was immediately about to shoot her down.
Makoto smiled, giving a small nod. "Sure." As Sakura began to unwind the bandages, Makoto continued, "Don't mind Samuru. He just gets a little bit overprotective sometimes."
"Makoto, you know that oji-san is the only one allowed to see your eyes!" But it was already too late.
As the bandages fell away, Sakura felt her heart leap up into her throat. Blood red eyes glared back at her, with three distinct tomoe in each. This little girl, who couldn't have been more than seven-years-old, had a fully developed Sharingan. However, the grotesque scars beside her eye sockets indicated that these eyes were not hers originally. Someone had done a messy job of transplanting them into the helpless child – but why? And did that mean that…
Sakura looked over the little girl carefully. Thick, raven waves fell down around her like a gothic crown, falling just a bit further than her shoulders. Though her sickness had drained all the color from her face, she seemed to have once been particularly tan. And that facial structure… Sakura turned to Samuru, who was gripping Makoto's hand tightly as another wave of pain washed over her. Those onyx eyes and that messy black hair. Her heart sank into her stomach.
Samuru was the spitting image of his father, one of the most hated men in all of Konoha. "Samuru…"
The boy smirked. "Finally figured it out, huh? Just a bit slow on the uptake, I see." He gently urged his sister to close her eyes. Keeping them open was draining unnecessary chakra. "So, Sakura oba-san… still so ready to help us?"
Samuru: "the name of God"
Makoto: "sincerity"
Oji-san: uncle, form.
Oja-san: aunt, form.
A/N: Well, what did everyone think? Is it worth continuing? Please remember to drop a review!
