It had been roughly an hour, or so she thought, of setting traps and thinking up genjutsu for extra protection. She was totally out of chakra, though, and had a splitting headache from where that ass had nailed her in the temple. Not to mention a gash she hadn't noticed before. Hinata and Naruto were completely unconscious leaving her with the duty of standing watch for the group of shinobi that'd engaged her team in battle. Come to think of it, from her viewpoint, it looks like they'd only really engaged Hinata..
She'd been unconscious since she let her guard down at the "General Goods Store". She had the feeling now, that it wasn't really a convenience store. How could she have been so stupid? A backwoods shack a few hours out of Konoha with outlaw shinobi in it fooled her, Sakura Haruno, team leader, so easily. Because of that, her comrades were in danger. That man who'd swore to kill her could be here any minute and deliver his promise. The anxiety in her had built up to a maximum, higher than it'd ever been before. Well.. almost.
This wasn't the first time she'd used her own blade against herself. The night after Sasuke had ran away and Naruto was in search, she'd attempted suicide. That was a dark secret between her first sensei and herself. If Tsunade ever found out she'd discontinue her training and have her evaluated immediately. Kakashi, however, had been there a time or two himself, so he'd understood. The life of a shinobi was romanticized to the extreme among the people of her village. Always calling her brave and strong and thanking her for her service, but little did they know her bravery came from fear, and fear alone on the rare occasion she could muster any courage. She remembered how she felt she could no longer go on after Sasuke had just left her. She remembered how she decided she couldn't handle this pain any longer. She remembered crying until she felt nothing inside. Most of all, she remembered Kakashi Sensei's own tears, at the thought of losing yet another loved one. She didn't know he'd already lost people to suicide. She didn't even think about how it'd affect him or Naruto. All she thought of was herself. That, was the true reason Tsunade could never know.
If she couldn't stick it out through a broken heart as a kid, how the hell could she become a kunoichi? She knew, now, she'd never told anyone, not because of fear of being evaluated, but embarrassment. She felt weak, and helpless, and no one could ever know she felt that way.
The only greater shame upon her thirteen year old shoulders was knowing she'd let her team down. She felt her white, hot rage boil over and flow in the form of tears. This would never happen again. She was prepared to die for them here, and if need be, that's what she'd do. A death fitting an unfit kunoichi is what she deemed herself worthy of. As of now, she was more than penitent. She'd never hated herself more than when she looked at Hinata's back, and Naruto unconscious. If only Sasuke were here.. he'd know what to do.. Right? He'd defend them with her and not have exhausted his last bit of remaining chakra to hide in a tree and keep watch. He was a team player.
At that thought, it all made sense. Sasuke, in fact, was NOT a team player. He'd come through in tough spots occasionally, yes, but right now, he'd probably have hidden them in the tree, and left them with a note giving instructions to return to Konoha when they woke. He wasn't evil, she could feel that deep down, but in truth, he was a dick. Her days of romanticizing the world and all the ass holes in it were over, but that didn't mean she didn't love him. She'd still go to the ends of the Earth to bring him back to her. He was just so.. safe? Something about being with him made her feel complete. She wasn't worried about surviving, she knew he was there. She'd never experienced true anxiety until he'd left her to fend for herself.
In truth, her anxiety now was crippling at times, but she never let it show. She was almost always scared, and when she wasn't she was worried for Sasuke. She knew what his body would be used for in roughly two and a half years. When he left, he'd taken part of her with him. She was no longer a young genin with the excitement for battle in her eyes. She was fighting an internal battle now, and she knew every other shinobi was too. The life of a defender was not what she'd been tricked into believing it was as a child. But then again, neither were a lot of things. He'd taken her spark, and had no intention of returning it. He was selfish, and cruel, but he was made that way. All her life she'd only wanted to bring back the Sasuke she knew as a child. To change him into the man he should have become.
How could she have ever been so naive? There had never been a time before now she wished she didn't love the last good Uchiha. She'd wished she was stronger, she'd wished she was beautiful, but more so than that, she'd wished she could have made him stay. She'd just wanted to be enough for once in her life. Now she realized, it wasn't about her, and it never had been. It was about Sasuke, and his revenge. She'd just been another chapter in the story, and her time in his story was over.. for now. No matter how much she wished she didn't, she still loved him, and she was going to bring him back. She was not going to give in to the pain again, and she was going to train until she could bring him back. By force if need be, and if she knew Sasuke, she knew it'd be by force.
Bringing him back, though, meant she had to survive. It was a mistake she'd had drilled into her not to make, but she did it regardless. Living to find Sasuke was her top long term priority, not this mission. She knew she had to complete it, but if given the chance, she'd abandon it. In truth, the chance to investigate the Land of Rice Paddies once more was the only reason she'd agreed to come. She would find Sasuke, and when she did.. She didn't know what would happen. She saw him for what he was now, though, and that's something that would never change. Just like him.
She'd never intended to cry herself to sleep in the tree, but quite a few of unplanned things had happened already on this trip.
About eleven hours into Sakura's "nap" Hinata woke in immeasurable pain. She didn't move for fear of making it worse. She didn't know quite what it was, but it was enough to bring tears to her eyes. She was exhausted, out of chakra, and felt like she'd been through a human cheese grater. All she remembered was a voice telling her she needed to rest, and the pain in her back and.. Naruto. Naruto was on her shoulder she was carrying him and Sakura and she collapsed behind this tree after running away from someone.
Despite the pain, she got up anyway and pushed to all fours beginning with her hands. From there, just to the left of her, she saw a sleeping Naruto. Just like the time she'd kissed him. The thought of it gave her the drive to stand up, for fear of him waking up to her staring. She placed one leg on the ground, and immediately she felt the burning in her muscles. She was a taijutsu user, making her body her most important tool, but it was fried. She felt her back split as she fell to the ground catching herself at the last possible moment. Blood flowing over her back made her realize there was indeed a large wound, and it had split open. She couldn't just let it bleed, though. She maneuvered her way onto her knees and began removing her coat. It fell to the ground behind her, and she blindly dragged it in front of her by the sleeve. That had gotten it covered in dirt, so she had to shake it out before she began ripping to bandage her wound.
Did she even have the strength left to rip a jacket as thick as this? What would happen if it got cold? All she had under it was a black band around her surprisingly developed chest and a fish net over shirt, neither of which would provide any warmth. That being said, she had only one option, and she was extremely reluctant to do so, but she had no other choice. It was almost winter, and she'd need that coat, especially while heading North to the land of rice paddies. That left only one garment to put bandage the wound with.
Praying Naruto wouldn't wake up, she slipped off the fish net over shirt avoiding her wound as best she could. It stung getting the bottom of it over the burn, but she managed. Placing it down in front of her on top of the coat she'd just dropped and would have to clean off again, she began sliding down the black bra. It wasn't big enough to cover the whole wound but it was better than nothing. As soon as she slid it below her breasts she felt extremely self conscious. She checked on Naruto every few seconds making sure he was still asleep.
Stripping in front of him, though, was easy compared to the pain. It burned like hell's fire for a good ten minutes, then slowly faded away to a dull stinging throb. It left her in tears and on all fours above her clothes. She didn't know how much more of this she could take.
The band covered about 80% of the burn, so after she shook out her coat and put it back on she endured it again on the unprotected edges. This time, though, she couldn't remain silent. She tried to muffle her sobs at first, but it was just too much. Her body shaking in pain just made it hurt worse. The longer she cried, the louder she was. So loud in fact, Sakura fell out of her position in the tree, startled, and freshly woken.
She quickly caught her footing against the tree, and ended up perpendicular to it using chakra to remain upright. Much to her delight, her chakra had regenerated. She couldn't quite see what was going on, but she knew Hinata was crying. As team leader, it was her job to make sure her subordinates were alright, and she'd done a pretty piss poor job of it earlier.
Dropping to the ground, she landed with a slight thud, and approached Hinata quickly. She didn't have a visual kekkei genkai, or and kekkei genkai at all but she could find her by sound, even in a dark forest. It had to be around, at least, midnight.
When the medical ninja in training found her, she immediately knew what was wrong. She was in a great deal of pain. Enough to make the second toughest genin she knew tremble in tears. Hitting her in the back of the head was easily Sakura's best decision throughout the entire mission so far.
The green eyed kunoichi was too wound up to sleep again, and she knew she needed to make use of her time. She couldn't start a fire for fear of being tracked, but she could wake up Naruto. Now with the cover of night and Hinata's crying ceased she wasn't too worried about dying to take in her surroundings. She heard the distant echo of running water and the hum of insects. She didn't hear Naruto's snoring though.. From plenty of experience of the idiot asleep, she knew he snored louder than he talked while asleep. Him not snoring was just unusual. In fact, it'd never happened before. That could only mean one thing. He wasn't asleep.
(A/N) MAAAJOORRR character development here guys. This is absolutely critical to the story. Keep in mind Sakura doesn't know the shinobi were defeated though. All she knows is Hinata had to run away, so she's prepared for the worst like any good shinobi would be. It's going to be pretty action packed for a while, but it'll die down instantly when the time comes for the main plot to be set in place. Just be prepared for a USEFUL SAKURA and Sasuke being put in his place. I might go with Kaka/Saku or something of that nature but after what Sasuke put her through she won't be able to be with him. Not like that. Thanks for reading!
