Songs: Slipped Away (Avril Lavigne) In The End (Linkin Park)
Heartache
Chapter 1: Broken
Dressed in the ANBU uniform, though tattered & stained with blood, Haruno Sakura, a new recruit for the elite ninjas jumped from branch to branch, along with her 3 other ANBU companions: Hyuuga Neji, Nara Shikamaru and Uzumaki Naruto
The 4 ANBU were on their way back to Konoha now that they've successfully completed their A-class mission.
'It was chaos there though...' Sakura thought. She glanced at her companions just to re-check if any signs of injury were present. Those three would just tell her it was fine and she didn't have to heal it because they could handle it. Yes... simply said, their pride is what makes them say such that when they come back from a mission, then they wound up in the hospital like they were in a cat fight.
The team of rogue ninjas they had to kill had a medic-nin on their group, which she was surely positioned to fight with. He was hard to inflict wounds upon but she wasn't inflicted a wound upon either. Though later on, when Sakura had managed to pierce his heart with her katana, the medic/rogue-nin had managed to pat her left chest are where her heart was.
At first, she dismissed the pat as a means of trying to grasp something before he fell, but when he did fall dead, Sakura knew instantly he had forced chakra inside her, contacting her heart. But being the medic-nin she is, she contradicted the stray chakra with her own by pushing it out from the aorta all the way through the ventricle. The process of which blood would flow to be oxygenated would have been the best way to get rid of it, as she hypothesized.
Now, it her body would just shoot pain from her heart throughout her entire system, sort of a lingering effect of the forced chakra and the contacted heart, which might've led to her death. Her heart ached but she told herself that it would subside a few hours later.
"We're just 3 miles from Konoha... can all of you keep up till we get there with no rest?" Neji asked after he deactivated his byakugan.
"Of course we can! That A-rank mission wasn't supposed to be an A-ranked mission at all! It was too easy!" the loud and obnoxious voice of Naruto boomed as he raised his fist towards the sky like a cheer.
"Don't get too cocky Naruto, you're the one who I had the trouble to defend against the barrage of kunais one of the rain nin set up for you." Shikamaru said
Naruto sweatdropped as Neji smirked. Sakura only smiled at her teammate...
'He would never change' Sakura thought
Green orbs narrowed in sadness as per the thought of going back to Konoha. Uchiha Sasuke was back. She would've been so happy... well, in truth she was... before she she went to his quarters at the hospital...
Flashback
The long pink-haired kunoichi opened the door to Uchiha Sasukes quarters greeting him a welcome back, "Sasuke-kun, you're---" But she stopped from continuing her sentence as not only the dark orbs of the Uchiha stared at her, but of a green-eyed girl... no, woman... as well. She had a dark shade of green hair and green eyes, somewhat similar to hers.
The woman smiled at her warmly as she set down the apples she was currently cutting, probably to feed Sasuke, "Good afternoon! You must be Haruno Sakura. I'm Midori. Midori Kaede. A pleasure to meet you." she greeted Sakura
Sakura could only smile at Midoris kind-hearted voice, trying hard to control tears that were threatening to fall. "A p-pleasure to m-meet you as well, M-midori-san." She said with a cracked voice
Onyx eyes eyes watched the form of 20 year old Sakura as she went out the quarters after saying goodbye. Sakura knew though, that Sasuke saw a tear fall down her cheek. Don't ask how... she just knew.
End of flashback
'He didn't even greeted me or at least nod in acknowledgment.' Sakura thought sadly
A brief but strong contract of her heart made her stop on a branch, holding the trunk for balance while her other hand clutching her chest area.
Naruto quickly rushed over to her, Neji and Shikamaru followed in suit.
"Sakura-chan, what's the matter?" Naruto asked. Even now, he would still call her Sakura-chan despite the fact that he and Hinata are dating already for quite some time now. She was very much warmed by the intimate calling.
"Do you have some sort of injury?" Neji asked, a hint of concern slightly grazing those words
Sakura shook her head in response as she smiled at him.
Naruto noticed it was a fake smile. The smile she would always sport when someone asked her if she was okay after Sasukes return. He knew also that she was hurt, he saw her walking out of Sasukes quarters and out the exit crying. And he knew the reason why, since he saw Sasuke with that girl in Tsunades office hearing the rumors and gossips that the Uchiha was back.
After 4 days of his return, the villagers pitied Sakura for they knew that she had been waiting for him for 8 years. No scratch that, she had been waiting for him from her childhood years up until now. She would smile though and tell those who asked if she wanted some sort of comfort and pretend to be oblivious as to what she would need the comforting for.
"You should head to the hospital once we get to Konoha. It's gonna be troublesome if you end up worse than that. You know that you're an important asset now that you have made it to ANBU." Shikamaru said a sort of smile on his face
"Sure Shikamaru, I'll do that." she said. Shikamaru would sometimes cheer her up even if at most times, it would be unintentional.
Another wave of pain shoot throughout her whole system now and she doubled over in pain, kneeling on the branch, grasping the bark of the tree roughly.
Naruto quickly draped an arm around her back, as a sign of comfort, while Neji and Shikamaru watched in concern both standing on the branch in front of them by a mere foot.
Over the years, the four of them had gotten closer. Even if Sakura was still a jounin for the past 2 years, she would occassionally be put to mission along with Naruto, Neji and Shikamaru despite the fact that they were already in ANBU status. She was a medic-nin and they needed her. It was hard to train one anyways. Thus leading the Fifth to make Sakura take the ANBU exam in order for her to be more versatile to the missions that were given strictly to ANBUs but needed a medic of high rank as well. Sakura wanted only to stay at the rank of jounin seeing as this was less hectic but the fact that she could help more people if she joined ANBU made her take it with the help of the mentioned three. Besides, she also did think about the possibilty of gaining a retrieval mission for the Uchiha she loves if she were on this high status.
'It looks as if in the end there was nothing I did this for...' Sakura thought sadly
Naruto noticed tears falling from her shut-tight eyes as she laid her head on Narutos chest, crying freely. "It hurts... so much Naruto. My heart...aches so bad..." Sakura said
Being the overprotective friend of his most treasured female friend, he enveloped her in a comforting hug, kissing the top of her head, "I know Sakura... I know..." he whispered
Neji and Shikamaru knew that what Saskura had just stated right now, held so much more meaning. And they knew it was all because of Uchiha Sasuke.
Maybe...this heartache would really stay with me for quite a while...
Miakoda13: This idea has been haunting me for quite a while and it won't stop on pestering me until I've posted it in. And yes, this story is quite angsty and maybe on the next chapter you woud be put to tears already. The plot for this is already set and yes, I know you might hate Midori but I don't care, I don't like her too. This is a SasuSaku fic and don't forget it! Reviews are encouraged and would be encouraging for me as well.
This fic was inspired by the songs: Numb, In The End and From The Inside (Linkin Park) and Pale, Angels and Towards the End (Within Temptation) and also there is Missing, Nobody's Home, Solitude and Hello (Evanescence)
Basically, I have minimum songs to play because I like to repeat them and find that they are the most fit for the chapters.
I just have this sort of wild imagination whenever I listen to these songs. I always imagine Sakura as the character their singing about.
I'll post artworks I'll make in DeviantArt and inform you when I'm done with it; and I'll aslo put the link in my profile.