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C1 : a bunch of bad habits and you wear them like a crown
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He leaned heavily against the brick wall, sloppily compressing his rather large wound. The blond fucker smashed right into the lower two rungs of his ribcage, and it hurt like hell.
He definitely got a fair distance away from them. He could hear birds chirping and the quiet hum of air conditioners from the surrounding apartment buildings.
He fought the fuzziness that was threatening to overtake his eyes as he fumbled in his pocket for his cell phone. He needed Temari.
He focussed on her and remembering her number with some difficulty. Where the fuck was his phone?
Ignoring a wave of pain, he finally managed to dig out the crappy silver thing, and with bloody fingers marking the keypad, he attempted to dial.
"Gaara! Gaara! What happened? Where are you?"
He tried to speak. "Tem…ari…" he closed his eyes, grimacing.
"Gaara, stay with me. Where are you?" The feminine tone grew desperate. "What's around you?"
"Al…ley…brick…" he coughed up a mouthful of blood. "Shit…" he spat it out noisily.
"Gaara! Oh lord, Shikamaru, he's…"
The cell phone slipped from his hand and landed with a clatter on the concrete. He slid down the wall, clutching his ribcage.
His vision was beginning to fray, and the pain was beginning to become unbearable.
He prayed to whatever deity that favoured him. He prayed that the filthy Leaf gang wouldn't find him alive. His sister's happiness depended on it.
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She shivered as she walked through the ER doors and unto the cracked sidewalk. Why hadn't she brought her jacket? She cursed her forgetfulness. It was definitely way chillier outside than inside the fluorescent hospital.
She swung her bag onto her thinly clothed back, and began to quickly move across the parking lot. She wanted to be home and fast.
She cut through the familiar alleyway between Hana's pet hospital and her favourite diner, smiling to herself.
A glass of wine would be nice, she allowed. She had a stressful day working with Tsunade, her superior, through several successful surgeries. She deserved to have a drink and unwind.
She turned left as the shadows loomed larger.
She remembered the last time Naruto and Sasuke drank with her, and she let out a giggle. They were sent away on an assignment the next day too. She quieted, and wished that they were here. She missed them.
Fingering the silver necklace they gave her with the Leaf pendant on it, she strode hastily through the alleyway.
In her haste, she tripped over something and fell to her knees.
"Ow." she muttered, checking her legs. Only a little gravel stuck to her pants, and she dusted them off.
She turned around to have a look at what made her fall, and she almost screamed.
A red-haired man was slumped against the wall, a limp hand on top of what looked like an impossibly large red stain on his side. She had tripped over his outstretched legs.
"Hello?" she whispered nervously. There was no reply, so she reached for his neck and felt around for a pulse. He was still warm, and she found a faintly fluttering beat. She dragged him out into the open, and examined his wound.
It was a horrible-looking hole, probably made by a fist. She touched it lightly, and she knew that at least two ribs were cracked. Luckily, however, his thoracic cavity had miraculously not been punctured.
She lifted his sticky shirt for a better look, and gasped in shock.
A small, boxy, black hourglass with a line on top was starkly inked onto his hipbone.
She felt faint. She would know that tattoo from anywhere. What the heck was a Sand member doing in Leaf territory?
Whatever circumstances it was, she couldn't take him to the hospital here, she knew with a sinking heart. The doctors would leave him for dead, including Tsunade, regardless of the oath they took that dictated they had to try and save whoever came across their hands.
However, she took her oath seriously. With a grunt, she hoisted him onto her thin shoulders, and began to inch her way to the end of the alleyway where her apartment block was located. She wondered absently if she had any large bandages left.
Naruto and Sasuke would flip their shit five times if they knew.
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She managed to make it into her apartment without being seen.
She carefully laid him on her kitchen table, stripped off his blood soaked shirt and shoved it down her garbage chute. Switching on the painfully bright light, she grabbed her medical kit and set to work.
Soaking several cotton pads in rubbing alcohol, she gingerly swiped and cleaned the injury. She quickly sutured the hole closed, wincing at the scar it was going to create. Whoever did this was crazy strong, she thought. It kind of reminded her of…
She jumped as her phone rang.
She checked the caller ID, and she answered with a grin on her face.
"Hey, Naruto."
"Hiya, Sakura! Told you we'd call if we had the chance!"
"How's the assignment coming along?"
There was a pause, and a muffled scrambling in the background. A deeper voice took the place of Naruto's lighter tone. "Not too well. We lost our target."
"Hey, Sasuke. And that sucks."
"It does. Unfortunately, we're not sure where he is. He might be back in his district, or he might be in ours. We're scouring the city later with Yamanaka and the Hyugas."
She snickered as she heard her blond boy attempt to wrest the phone away from his dark-haired counterpart. "Let Naruto talk to me, Sasuke."
"Be safe, Sakura, okay? There's a monster out there and we want you to stay in."
"Monster, huh?" she mocked.
"Yes, a monster. A red-haired one. He's the unofficial kingpin of the Sand side."
She dropped her needle with a quiet gasp.
"Sakura! What's wrong?"
She fumbled for a lie. "I forgot to grab my laundry from downstairs." she said quickly. "I've got to go get it, okay?"
"Nice going." he laughed. "We'll let you go. Catch you later. Teme wants to say goodbye."
"Sakura."
"Yes?" she asked mechanically, staring at her patient with the red hair.
"Don't be stupid. Watch yourself."
"Of course." she snapped, and hung up.
Why did Sasuke always say that? She stood up and cracked her shoulders, and stomped off towards the sink to wash her hands off. She was more than capable of taking care of herself.
But what was she going to do, she mused, as she forced her shaking hands to make a cup of tea. What was she going to do with the unconscious leader of the Sand district?
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He heard the pitter-patter of rain falling against a window. His entire right side ached.
He silently thanked the gods for shining on him today. Someone from his side found him, and he was home.
Opening his eyes, he stared at a washed out blue ceiling.
What the fuck? The ceilings were supposed to be white!
He attempted to push himself up, but was surprised to feel a delicate hand shove him back down.
"You can't aggravate your wound." a clear feminine voice chimed in a reprimanding tone.
"Where the fuck am I?" he shouted hoarsely. His pupils dilated as he tried to scan the room in a moment of panic. "Where in the holy hell am I?"
He felt half of the bed rise, like a hospital bed.
He was lifted enough to stare right into sleepy emerald eyes.
"Hi." she yawned, running a hand through the most alien pink hair he had ever seen on someone's head. "You nearly bled to death out in the alley. I've been up half the night trying to save you." she shrugged nonchalantly, as if she rescued half-dead people from alleyways every night. "You're welcome."
He didn't reply, for his eyes had dropped her neck, where a shiny silver pendant lay.
It was a leaf, with a spiral in the middle.
His hopes sank, and he sightlessly watched her slight Adam's apple move with her steady breathing.
He was still in the goddamn Leaf district with a female Leaf patriot, of all people.
"I have to go." he swung his legs over the edge of the bed, ignoring the spasms of pain that shot from his punch-wound.
"Oh no you don't." she slapped his shin so suddenly that he flinched. "I know who you are." she said boldly.
If it were possible, his hopes tried to drown themselves.
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"I know who you are."
She didn't feel very brave as she spoke. In fact, she was scared to death of this boy.
"Oh?" he asked mockingly as he slowly slid his legs off the hospital bed that she kept for her injured friends. "And who am I?"
His strangely jade eyes pierced through her, as if she wasn't important to him. She bristled. She was the one who brought him from the brink of death, dammit! It would have been nice to hear a little gratitude.
"You're the leader of the Sand district of the city." she snapped at him, her emerald eyes flashing. "And don't think of leaving here unless you have a death wish. You're wanted in my half of the city. My fr-people are out hunting for you."
"So why'd you save me from dying, hm? So you could torture me?" he shot back savagely, watching as emotions – neutral, anger, shock, disgust – flitted across her heart-shaped face.
"I am a doctor." she spoke slowly and deliberately. "I took an oath to save anyone in my path, and I did. I would appreciate if you thanked me for saving your life, because you weren't doing yourself any favours by bleeding out in the alley!" she fumed.
He watched her rail-thin shoulders shake with her outburst. Did this girl ever eat? She was practically skin and bones, he noted with disinterest. Her eyes seemed enormous. In fact, her forehead was the most prominent thing on her face.
"Thanks." he said quietly. He wasn't going to do himself any favours by being ungrateful, even if it was better if he was dead in the street. "But you didn't need to save me, little girl. It would have been better if I died."
She glared at him. "Are you serious?"
He held in a bitter laugh. "Do you have an actual idea of who I am, little patriot?"
"You're the kingpin of the Sand side." she cocked her head, drumming her fingers on her chin as she stared at him.
He let out his brittle laugh, his eyes narrowing. What naiveté this sylph of a female had. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Gaara, Kazekage of the Suna half of the town. My sister is Temari."
He looked on dispassionately as recognition settled into her fox-like features.
"No." she breathed, her jaw slack.
"Yes." he affirmed with a sick smirk.
"You…you're the one…" she got up, and began to back away.
"Yes." he was amused by her actions. He was disabled and unarmed and he was stuck in her home. Did she really think that he would attempt to kill her while he was in such a state?
"That…that kidnapped Shikamaru." her eyes were full of accusations, and she was gripping the dented doorknob with white knuckles. "You killed Chouji and Lee, and almost killed Neji and Kiba."
"That's me, little Leaf." he mocked as he looked around the room. Dirty pale blue walls matched the ceiling. Yellowish curtains framed the picturesque brightening skyline of Konoha. Or was it Suna? He couldn't tell. "I can assure you that it is against my policy to bite the hand that feeds. You have nothing to be afraid of." he cajoled in a soft tone, aware of the irony in his words.
She only stiffened her shoulders, but she stood up straight, glaring at him with incredible hatred. He was impressed.
She opened her red mouth. "I don't suppose you know who I am, then." she said haughtily, placing her hands on her narrow hips.
"I don't."
She held her contemptuous smile locked on her face. "I'm Sakura." she scanned his face for a reaction. She found none, and with her smile getting wider. "I'm the girl who is the bond between Naruto of the Uzumakis and Sasuke of the Uchihas. You can't kill me unless you want mass destruction of the place we call home. I think that makes me a little scarier than you are."
She let immense delight and satisfaction fill her as disbelief flitted across his pale face.
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She couldn't be.
He gawked at her, his scarred hands clenching and his jade eyes wide.
The little patriot just stood there by the doorway, gloating at him, mocking him with her pink hair and supercilious mouth.
"Surprised?" she asked, sickly sweet.
He recovered quickly. "No." he laughed coldly. "You don't look much like a thing the prides of Konoha would fuck." he retorted, laughing again when he saw her rather delicate features twist into a snarl.
"Say that again, and I will leave you out for them to find." she bit out, her face turning an angry shade of red.
He snorted. Even though she had the holy terrors of the Uchiha and Uzumaki behind her, she was still a pale, frail thing.
There was a loud series of knocks, and they both jumped.
Both of their pairs of eyes widened at the same time.
"Shit!" she frantically hissed, her pupils darting around the room searching for a place to hide him.
"I think I can stand." he said as calmly as he could, but his heart began to race.
It would be extremely…unpleasant if he was found now.
"Into the closet!" she snapped, and she helped him hobble towards the closet next to a sorry painting of some droopy flowers.
The last thing he saw before he was engulfed with darkness and winter jackets was her apple-white arms roughly shoving him in.
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She sauntered up to her battered front door. "Who is it?" she yelled.
"It's Ino." a muffled voice yelled back.
Sakura opened the door. "What up, pig?"
"Just checking on you, forehead." the voluptuous blonde grinned, fluttering her false eyelashes. "Let me in for a bit. I've got fifteen minutes before I begin patrolling."
"Want something to drink?" the strawberry-haired girl turned towards her kitchen, Ino trailing after her.
"Liquid chocolate, please."
Once both girls settled into the faded striped couch with their cups of hot chocolate, the blonde began to speak.
"There was a major fight last night." she whispered theatrically, gesturing with her free manicured hand. "Naruto took on Gaara of the other district."
Sakura almost spewed her beverage all over her stained coffee table. "What?" she gasped.
"Yes." Ino rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, your blue-eyed loverboy wasn't seriously injured, just broken fingers and a dislocated shoulder. The other guy was really unlucky to be on Naruto's receiving end though." she examined her nails. "Damn it, I cracked two of them again." she groaned.
The green-eyed girl blinked, and with as much disinterest she could muster, she asked, "I'm glad Naruto's not hurt. How bad off was the other guy?"
"He had a hole in his stomach. It looked pretty nasty. He defended himself really well. He was pretty sexy, but he was no match in looks against Shika-" she suddenly stopped, tears filling her big ice-blue eyes.
"Oh, Ino-pig." Sakura scooted over to give her a hug, all the while thinking about the redhead locked up in her closet.
He obviously was the perpetrator of Shikamaru's kidnapping, she thought with a growl. He caused her best friend so much pain and heartache. It wasn't like they needed him, anyways. The Suna district had a couple brilliant strategists already. The hell did he need Shikamaru for?
"It's hard." the blonde sniffled. "I miss him every day." An alarm went off, and she took a deep shuddering breath. "That's my sign to begin my shift. Thanks for letting me in, forehead."
"Anytime, piggy." they let go of each other with Ino attempting to hold in her tears.
"I'll let myself out." she got up, her heels clacking against the floor.
Sakura collected the mugs to drop off in the sink, and she headed for her spare bedroom once she heard the click of her door close.
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When the door was thrown open, he shut his eyes against the sudden brightness that flooded his vision.
He felt an arm loop around his, and allowed himself to be led into bed.
"I'll close the curtains." she spoke curtly.
"Thanks."
Once he heard the shish of the curtain close, he opened his jade eyes.
She sat on the edge of the bed, staring at him with such malice that he was a tad impressed.
"What do you want, little patriot?" he yawned lazily, leaning into his pillows.
"I want to know what I should do with you." she snapped, twisting the bedspread in her hands.
"I don't know." he shrugged his shoulders. He honestly didn't. He was at the complete mercy of this cotton candy puff. He didn't like it. "You get to choose, little patriot." he said dryly. "I'm injured, you're the enemy."
"You're infuriating." she gritted her teeth. "Stop calling me little patriot. You're patronizing me."
"You openly wear a symbol of your side." he pointed at her necklace like a child. "That makes you a patriot." he fought down a snicker at her death glare. She was so easy to rile up.
She fingered her simple pendant protectively as she wondered what to do. She knew the right thing to do was hand him over to her friends, but they would torture him for information on Shikamaru's whereabouts, and that would be sending Gaara to his death.
She frowned. But she couldn't keep him here.
"You could." she was startled, unaware that she voiced her thought out loud.
"Just until I'm fully recovered." he decreed, yawning widely while showcasing pointy canines. "And until your people back down from their search for me."
"Why shouldn't I just throw you out?" she fumed, her jaw set in irritation.
"Why would you ask such an inane question that you know the answer to, little Leaf." He closed his brilliantly jade eyes. "I'm sure you're supposed to let a patient rest, and you didn't even offer any painkillers. Let me sleep."
She felt a fleeting flash of guilt go through her. She turned away to go. "I'll be right back with some."
Gaara snorted sarcastically as he turned onto his painless side. "Don't bother, little patriot. You're as inept as they get."
She gritted her teeth as she glared at him. "I'll have you know I'm being trained by Lady Tsunade."
He raised a nonexistent eyebrow, his eyes still shut. "You suck at listening." he scoffed. "I said let me sleep."
"Fine!" she growled as she slammed the door behind her. She stomped over to her fridge, and pulling out a half-finished bottle of cheap white wine, she took a large swig.
The heavens knew she needed it if she was to deal with this infuriating red-haired fucker.
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Chapter title courtesy of Royalty by Down With Webster.
I would love some feedback, so please review?
:E hypheniated
