Chapitre Dos.
xx
Dawning: Chapter II
Her Mistakes
xx
Everything had not worked out, not in the eyes of their Captain. His expression as they made their way into the camp, having joined up with Kotetsu and Nashimura on the road, tipped her off that she was in deep trouble.
He always had somewhat of a scowl on his face, but it was hardened this time, and with his arms crossed over his chest he actually looked intimidating. But she wasn't scared of him.
Neji opened his mouth to speak, but his brows furrowed together and he stopped; priorities rearranging themselves as he took in her wounds. "You're injured."
She nodded once. "I can heal them all. I'll just need a little rest."
His narrowed eyes moved to appraise her side, where the material of her white chest guard was stained with blood. She knew she probably looked like a mess, she felt sore all over, and she would heal herself when she got enough energy back. But the one on her side was causing her more discomfort than she was letting on.
And somehow Neji knew that.
"We need to get that one cleaned up right away."
She knew from the way she hadn't been able to heal it when it first happened that it was going to be a pain for her to heal even when she was at full energy. So she conceded, following Neji and Ichiro to her tent.
While Sakura was the main medic on the squad, Irochi had the next most experience. He'd trained in the hospital with her for almost two years before he decided that he couldn't handle the weight of losing patients. He was a sensitive soul, and she often wondered if being a shinobi was the right thing for him to do. Eventually, after taking some time off, he'd chosen a new path; that of a strategist and focused more on his ninjutsu now than anything. But he still had the background they needed.
She got a tent all to herself, which she was grateful for, while the rest of them had to share with one other person. But the Hokage had ensured Sakura always got her own, probably to deter any men from trying to put the moves on her while they were sleeping. But they were Anbu, they were mature, adults. Most of the time.
Sakura pulled the chest guard off, discarding it to the side as Irochi leaned forward to look at her more intensely. He pushed her black mesh shirt up and she held it away from the wound, suddenly feeling uncomfortable as Neji's eyes surveyed the rest of her injuries. She had two kunai wounds, one on each of her sides, the sword wound that Irochi was investigating, and a few minor scrapes from senbon everywhere else.
"I can feel chakra in here. Not yours." Irochi said, meeting her eyes for a brief second.
Sakura nodded. "I couldn't heal it when it first happened, I assumed he'd put some form of chakra block on it." She sighed. "There's nothing you can do for it now. When I'm more rested I can try to expel the chakra from my body and repair any existing damage-"
Irochi frowned reprovingly. "It can't be healed by chakra at the moment. And if I leave it like this you risk running an infection."
"I know what could happen." She sneered.
Neji's deep timbre interrupted them. "Clean it. Bandage it." He said to Irochi. "I can't have you useless here, Haruno."
She narrowed her eyes at him and let out a breath of frustration. "It's fine."
"I'm not giving you an option." He said harshly, all business. He nodded once to Irochi, confirming that his orders were to be followed before leaving the tent.
"Ass." Sakura rolled her eyes and pulled her medic bag to Irochi's side, glaring up at the roof of the canvas.
He smiled, pushing his white blonde hair out of his face as he dug into her bag. "I think you scared him."
She nearly scoffed. "I think he was worried about me ruining his perfect track record."
She closed her eyes as Ichiro started to work. Neji was a perfectionist. He'd never failed a mission, and rarely came back with someone on his team injured. They'd been on a squad together more than a few times since her initiation into Anbu, and she had performed exceptionally on every one of them. It was unfair that now he was doubting her abilities because he thought she was emotionally unstable and going to affect his perfect score.
Sakura could handle herself, she'd proven that. Her being injured was a side-effect that none of them had counted on. But if she hadn't gone in and captured Nashimura when she did, then they would have had to revise all of their plans. Another month of preparation. She got the job done; he should have been happy.
She hissed in a breath as he started to stitch her side up. "Sorry." He murmured under his breath. She'd been through more painful things than a few stitches before, it was nothing she couldn't handle, but the sharpness of it caught her off guard. "There we go. All done." He said after a minute, surveying his work before wrapping the bandages around her side.
"Thanks, Irochi." Sitting up, she grimaced at the slight pain the stitches caused her. "It's been a while since I've had to be stitched up the old fashion way."
It was still a surprise to her that Irochi was in Anbu. He seemed so young, and when he wasn't in a serious shinobi mode, he often looked like a spooked deer. He reminded her of herself, when she was a genin. Always hesitant to speak her mind, always leaning on other teammates, never taking risks and never wanting to stand out and be the shining star. They were wallflowers, well she used to be.
Naruto said she changed after Sasuke left, though she denied that as often as she could.
When she got out of the tent, she was surprised to find that the sun was already setting and a fire had been lit in the center of their camp. Nashimura was still gagged and tied up, leaning pathetically against a tree away from the fire. Sakura looked to Neji, who seemed to be watching the rest of his squad as they exchanged quiet conversations and the occasional laugh.
One of their squad, a man named Hiro, clapped a hand on her shoulder as he passed by. "Quick thinking there, Sakura-chan. Saved us a lot of trouble."
She smiled in spite of herself, and didn't miss the dark glare Neji sent him as he sat back down to the fire. The remaining squad members joined in praising her ability to get out alive. They weren't praising her, however, for disobeying their Captain, because that would have ended in a very pissed off Hyuuga and a bad review for everyone.
Their praises died down when Neji stood up, tossing what was left of his food into the fire. He turned to look at her, a glare fixed on his face. "You'll take first watch."
Sakura met his pale eyes, giving him a single nod before turning away from the camp, fastening her weapons belt back around her hips as she walked.
She actually liked being on watch, not that she would ever let Neji know that. He would never use it as a form punishment again. Sometimes it was hard to be the only female around a bunch of men that often wound up turning genuine, nice conversations into something about sex, and it gave her some time to herself. Or, as she planned tonight to be, all night to herself.
It gave her time to think, to reflect, and to have some quiet time to herself. She was alone on watch until the moon rose to its highest peak in the sky. The time when someone would come and relieve her. But she would turn them away. She didn't mind spending the entire night on watch, as long as it meant not having to see her Captain.
As her luck would have it though, he was the one that came to relieve her. He stood beside her, watching the stars from their perch on the mountainside for a moment before breaking the silence.
"What were you thinking." He demanded, hands clasped behind his back.
She didn't grace him with a response right away. "I had an opening."
His eyes flicked to hers, and his eyebrows were drawn together in a frown. "You disobeyed a direct order, Haruno. You put the mission in danger-"
"I completed the mission successfully." She retorted.
"And almost got yourself killed!" He snarled. She rarely saw Neji get mad like that, but she supposed that showing up in camp with a nasty gash in your side and half of the compound destroyed could make him a little irked after having a flawless plan to run by. "I told you that it wasn't safe anymore. I knew there were more men than we initially thought and you moved in anyways!"
She watched him for a moment, trying to calm herself down so her temper wouldn't take control. "It's over and done with, Neji. Nothing you say to me now can change that."
He rose a sculpted brow. "And you think you can just get away with it? That since everything worked out okay in the end that you can just get out unscathed?" He moved closer to her, his frame towering over hers in a display of power and dominance. "Whether you like it or not, I am your superior. I am the Captain here, not you. And that means you listen to me."
She resisted the urge to make a snide comment and looked away from him, focusing on the trees to her right. She clenched her jaw and nodded once.
"I knew you weren't ready for a mission so soon."
"I'm fine, Neji!" She yelled, pushing him and forcing him to take a step back. "My actions on this mission had nothing to do with the news I got back home. I moved in because I had an opening, and I wanted to complete that mission and bring this asshole to justice."
He watched her with a sickeningly calm look and she wanted to wipe it off his face.
"Damn you for thinking that I wasn't ready. I can handle myself. I know how to keep my personal life and my work life separate!"
Neji held her eyes for a long time, studying her, analyzing her like he always did. Even when she forced herself to look away again, she knew he was still watching her. No matter what she said and what she did, she'd suffered two great losses in her life, and there was no way it had no affect on her.
"Go get some sleep, Haruno." She lifted her eyes briefly for a moment before turning away from him and heading back to camp. She knew she screwed up. She should have listened to her squad captain and fallen back to camp so they could regroup and formulate a new plan. And Neji was right, she realized she should have waited a bit longer before she went out on a mission, she just didn't have it in her to let him know that; her ego wouldn't let her. But then, hindsight was always clearer.
Her parents were gone from this world, gone from this life, gone from her, and she had been helpless to save them. They'd gone an a D-ranked mission, just as something to pass the time, they were dying of boredom from being cooped up in the house. And just like all of her genin missions, something had gone terribly wrong. They had been ambushed in the safety of a village. Murdered because they were seemingly in the way.
The culprits hadn't been caught yet, but the Konoha Interrigation Squad had a witness. And when they finally got her to speak, when they found out who had murdered her parents and why, Sakura would stop at nothing to see them brought to justice just like Nashimura.
She had trained so hard to contain her emotions so things wouldn't upset her, but hearing that both of her parents had died made her question all the what ifs. What is she'd been there? What if she had gone with her parents like they'd asked, as a little family vacation? Would she have been able to save them, or would she be dead as well?
She laid down on her bed roll and couldn't shake the tears as they pooled in her eyes. It didn't matter how cool and composed she was when she dealt with their enemies. When she was alone, she was a mess and it drove her nuts.
Her parents hadn't deserved to be murdered, they were innocent people, just trying to help a nearby village harvest after a mini drought. But whoever killed them hadn't cared.
Sakura rolled on her side, drifting off to sleep and dreaming of vengeance and justice.
xx
Neji continued to ignore her for the entire trip back to Konoha, which thankfully was not a long one. They handed Nashimura to the KIS under Ibiki's instruction and waited for the outcome of their 'conversations'. Sakura had worked with Ibiki for one summer, as an assignment from Tsunade, and she knew that their conversations were brutal but necessary. It got them the information they needed, and they just hid the actual procedures from the unsuspecting populace.
Instead of waiting around the Anbu tower while Neji filled out the mission report, she went to lounge around her apartment, waiting the inevitable summon to the Hokage Tower after Neji had submitted the paperwork or gone straight there himself to complain.
It was Kakashi that actually showed up at her door, his book tucked neatly into his flak jacket pocket instead of his hand. "Someone got a certain Hyuuga riled up."
All of her confidence and bravado she'd displayed when Neji confronted her in camp had dissipated, and she was left feeling like a child waiting in the hallway for detention. "Did he yell?" She wanted to gauge how mad he still was, and if he would refuse to have her on his squad ever again. Neji always had the most exciting missions, and it would be disappointing to know that her poor attitude in a delicate situation had ruined her chances of ever partaking in one again.
"Have you ever heard him yell?" He said. It was a rhetoric question because under normal circumstances, Neji was one of the most irritatingly calm people she'd ever met. "They both seemed bothered though. And worried, maybe. We all are."
Sakura grimaced. "I'm fine, Kakashi. No one needs to be worried."
She walked with Kakashi to the tower, conversing in small talk as he tried to make light of the situation they both know was a bad mistake. Disobeying orders could lead to people dying, missions failing, and even if nothing bad happened on this particular mission, it wasn't a good habit to get into.
When she stood outside the doors, Kakashi left her, knowing that it was to be a private conversation. She pushed them open and stepped in, not surprised at the disappointed look she got at all.
"Sakura-chan."
His voice wasn't cheery, it wasn't light and joking, he was all business. "Hokage-sama."
"You know I hate it when you call me that."
"Sorry, Naruto." She still hadn't gotten used to seeing her best friend in the red robes of the Hokage, and he was wearing his hat, which she knew he hated. But still, a smile made its way to his face, though it wasn't his signature grin, the one that could make anyone smile along with him.
"You know why you're here."
Sakura sighed and nodded. "I was out of line."
He shrugged but nodded. "It's been a rough week. It's no surprise that emotions were running high. Especially after..."
Losing her parents. Losing the two people who raised her, cared for her, made her into the woman she was standing before him.
"That's no excuse." She would have preferred to be yelled at and told how completely disgraceful and inappropriate her actions were—because they had been. She decided to remind him of this, because obviously his fondness was clouding his judgment. "What I did was unacceptable."
"You're my best friend, Sakura, and you know I love you." He sighed, and his air of professionalism returned. "But I can't just ignore what happened. The incident will be noted in your record, and you'll have to be suspended from regular duty. At least until you're in the right state of mind."
Suspended from regular duty. She'd expected it, but it was still tough to swallow.
"On another note," He said, his smile breaking out once again. He never was good at giving punishments. "Want to go for ramen Sunday morning?"
"Sure." She said quietly. At least it would give her a few days to pick herself up.
She wished she could be cocky and arrogant and pretend that it didn't matter that she'd disobeyed her Captain because everything worked out in the end. Instead she was left feeling like a disappointment, to her parents, to her friends, and to herself. She would never make a childish mistake like that again, never risk the respect she'd earned through hard work.
And despite how much she despised his own arrogance and similarities to her childhood crush, she would apologize to Neji, and try to make things right.
xx
She found him on the training fields the next, engaged in a taijutsu match with Kiba Inuzuka that had apparently gotten so intense that the two of them had decided to remove their shirts. Which hadn't escaped the notice of two, younger kunoichi who had stopped their own spar to ogle at the pair on the field next to them.
Summer in Konoha was unforgiving, it was a bone dry heat that quite often came without a soft breeze to lighten the effects. She herself was feeling sweat trickle down her back from just walking out to the fields. She parked herself by their gear, stifling a laugh at the two girls whispering to each other as they watched these older, attractive men strain themselves under the summer heat. She remembered doing exactly that with Ino, and she almost wished she could go back to those days, to the innocent, untainted teenage years.
They didn't notice her until Neji had struck Kiba's side, thus ending their spar. Neji noticed her first, watching her with a mixture of contempt and surprise at her showing up out here.
"Hey, Sakura." Kiba said, raising his hand in greeting. They walked over to her, and while Kiba was unashamed to remain shirtless, Neji half-pulled his robed shirt on, leaving the front open to retain the option of a circulating breeze. "What's up."
She turned her attention to Neji while Kiba drank from his canteen. "Can I talk to you?"
He leveled his gaze on her and shrugged. "I don't know, can you?"
Sakura ignored his comment and the way Kiba choked on his water as he tried to chuckle and stood up, pulling off her own vest, leaving her in somewhat of a sports bra. Ino insisted that she get one and wear it when she trained because apparently it helped to regulate temperature. Whatever that meant. Sakura deduced that Ino just liked to wear it because it showed off a lot of skin, but Sakura preferred it because it was actually quite comfortable. She kept an eye on Neji, but spoke directly to Kiba.
"Do you want to spar, Kiba? I'd hate to have come out here for nothing." Neji continued to stare, something unreadable passing over his face that made him smirk.
"Sure thing." He downed the rest of his canteen and stood up, moving to follow her out onto the field, but Neji stopped him. He turned to his friend in surprise.
"I'll spar." Kiba opened his mouth to protest but Neji silenced him with a raised hand. "Why don't you go and get more water."
Sakura watched as Kiba left the training grounds, smirking as the two girls started to follow after him, torn between watching Neji and stalking Kiba. She turned her attention to the Hyuuga in front of her, shielding her eyes from the sun as she watched him.
"You ready?" If he wanted to spar with her, then they'd spar. And she would make herself feel a bit better if she beat him.
"Yes."
He disappeared.
And so did his chakra signature. Sakura was completely unable to sense him; she had to go on combat instinct alone. She crouched lower into her guarded stance, ready to move at the slightest signal. At the same time, she didn't want to embarrass herself by spooking over nothing, so she waited, senses on overdrive.
She couldn't lose this spar, no matter how petty it seemed. When she beat him, Neji would realize that maybe her judgement on that mission wasn't so rash. That she was talented and had a level mind and could make decisions like that. While she wasn't trying to justify what she did, winning would just... it would make things seem a little lighter for her, make her feel less guilty.
Suddenly he was right at her side, aiming a roundhouse kick at her head. Sakura blocked with her elbow and whirled to face him. Neji dropped and spun, kicking out his other leg to sweep her feet out from under her. She flipped over backwards to evade and then kicked at his face before he could rise, forcing him to roll sideways. He leapt to his feet and immediately came at her again.
They sparred back and forth for the next several minutes, trading blows and blocks in a savage dance. Sakura rushed forward so fast she appeared to flicker, and jumped at Neji. He saw her knee raise and prepared for the kick to his torso, but he didn't notice her elbow flying at his blind side until she was right on him. She hit him with her knee and elbow at the same time.
He grunted and staggered a little, and she took advantage of those few seconds to kick him again squarely in the chest. There wasn't enough chakra behind it to do damage, just enough to send him flying back a few meters, and enough to make her feel damn good about it. He quickly regained his balance and stance, and Sakura could see the rage in his eyes.
Broken apart for a moment, they squared off again, mutually catching their breath. She noted the sweat glistening on his skin, he'd long since discarded his shirt once more, falling prisoner to the sun's heat.
"It's been a while since we sparred, Haruno."
A while - which actually meant since their academy days. They hadn't sparred with each other much at all. But she had sparred with Hinata many times, so she understood his skills and talents well. But for some reason the way he said it - as if despite her landing hits on him, he still expected her skills to be vastly inferior to his - ground on her nerves. "Don't insult me by continuing to fight without your Byakugan."
"That wasn't my intention," he said, beginning to circle around her, activating his bloodline.
Sakura automatically mirrored his movements in the opposite direction, and wasn't surprised when he disappeared again. He reappeared to her left and his assault was so fast and hard that she took a kick to the shoulder that knocked her to the ground. She rolled back to her feet, ready to defend his follow up, but he'd disappeared again. The next time she was ready when he reappeared and hurled a barrage of senbon in her direction.
She dodged, flipped, and flickered around the clearing as Neji sent waves of weaponry her way, using a jutsu to multiply them. The came at her in dozens, and there were more and more each time, until she could no longer evade them with speed and agility alone, but had to use weapons of her own to deflect them.
Then Neji was running towards her at insane speeds that she could hardly keep an eye on. She slammed a chakra enhanced fist into the ground, creating a series of fissures that would disrupt his movements as shards of the earth split into the air, but he merely jumped around them.
And then he was fighting her hand to hand, and while she knew that this was her strength as well, Neji was much more versed in the art of taijutsu than she was. His hands moved at incredible speeds as she blocked with her forearms and dodged with her entire torso.
But then he landed one hit on her, and she knew the spar had ended. His fingers had managed to slip past her guard and paralyze her flow of chakra to her right, dominant arm, and in a second she felt the flow cease to her left arm as well.
He took a step back, his breathing coming in shorter breaths. At least she'd forced him to exert energy, even if she had lost.
"Impressive." Kiba said, moving towards the two of them, two full canteens of water in his hands. "I haven't seen a fight like that in a while."
Even as he spoke praise to each of them, they couldn't take their eyes off of each other. Sakura was watching him with a mixture of respect and bitterness, and Neji was watching her with the unchanging, steely eyes that he always did. She only wished she could know what he was thinking.
Her eyes wandered from his face, down to his exposed, toned and sweaty chest. They wandered down his toned arms that were almost always hidden under a shirt and marveled at how muscular and fit he really was. She tensed, and immediately forced her eyes back to his face.
When he took a few steps closer to her, she panicked, taking one step back. "Do you want your chakra back?" He said calmly, his hand reaching out to land on her arm. His touch sent a shock of blistering heat through her, and she forced herself to ignore it. He reached out with his other hand as well, though as quickly as he touched her he'd moved away, pulling on his shirt and lifting the canteen to his lips.
What the hell was that? She thought to herself, still watching Neji curiously. Had she just been... did she just find Neji attractive?
It was admiration, she concluded. Even if she despised him most of the time, she still admired his skills.
She went straight to the hospital after her spar, trying to distance herself from all things Neji. She'd forgotten why she went out there in the first place; to apologize. Not to spar half-naked and end up ogling her Captain.
Sakura let out a frustrated sigh as she sat down in her desk, wishing that there was a stack of paperwork for her to sort through as a distraction. But Naruto never gave her the same amount of paperwork that Tsunade always did. He was surprisingly on top of it and what he did give to her she always finished that day.
Changing into her medic uniform, she pulled out one of her clipboards and left her room, deciding that rounds might be a better, more effective way to distract herself.
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