Sorry for the short chapter this time; I'm kind of drunk, kind of tired, and I want to go to bed. I just wanted to have this posted before I did so. Also, I want to apologize ahead of time for any grammatical and/or spelling errors because I'm too tired to go through and read this through for any.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters.
Chapter Four: No One's Home
Sakura's breath hitched in her throat; her first instinct was to grab her gun and shoot whoever was behind her, but he probably had a gun of his own and would shoot her the moment she moved.
"What have you done?" Her voiced shook dangerously as she talked and she clenched her fist tightly.
The man laughed. "We were only following orders, but you and your friend over there just had to come and muck it all up."
Sakura narrowed her eyes and stood up. "If you want Sasuke, you have to go through me first. I've lost too much already; I won't let you take him."
She heard two other people start laughing; another man and a woman…she was out numbered. Sakura squeezed her fists tightly and felt her perfectly manicured nails bite into her palms, but she didn't care. She had to try and get one of her neighbors to call the cops, or try and contact Kakashi.
"We were hoping you would say that," the woman said.
"Hey Dosu," one of the men said, "did Orochimaru say this one was off limits?"
The other man chuckled low. "No."
While they were still laughing, Sakura quickly grabbed the syringe on the table, spun around, and tossed it at the closest person. It nailed the man, that was hunched over and had half of his face covered with bandages, right in the chest. He doubled over and yelled in pain; the other two were distracted momentarily, so she took this time to grab her gun. The moment her hand touched it, a body collided into her and forced her to crash into her coffee table, breaking it in half and sending a jolt of pain through her right side. Sakura ignored the pain and the protests of each limb in her body as she grabbed the body on top of her and rolled so that she was on top. She noticed that it was the other man; she memorized his rough features and spiked hair for future reference and punched him in the face, breaking his nose with a sickening snap. The man howled in pain and blood began pouring down his face.
She was suddenly yanked off of him by her hair and was pulled out of her living room; Sakura clawed at the hand that had a tight grip on her hair and she tried to grip something with her feet, but to no avail. Sakura was suddenly lifted to her feet with a painful lurch and slammed in the wall, followed closely by a punch to the gut and an elbow to her back when she bent over, causing her to sink to her knees.
"Ah, that little bitch," she heard the man with the broken nose screech.
"Oh, you're fine," the woman, who she guessed was the one pulling her hair, shot back at him. "Stop bitching."
He made a strange sound out of frustration. "She broke my fucking nose!"
Sakura felt herself being lifted back up, her stomach twisted and she flinched at the pain. She cracked her eyes open just enough to see a beautiful woman standing in front of her with a sick grin on her face and malice dancing in her dark eyes.
"My you're a pretty one." She laughed as she ran the blade of her knife over Sakura's face and neck. "What should we do with her?"
"Kill the bitch." The man with the broken nose grunted.
The other man groaned slightly, but agreed. "She has seen our faces; she needs to be disposed of."
Sakura saw the woman's eyes harden and her heart hammered against her chest. Adrenaline spiked her veins and suddenly Sakura kicked the woman in the stomach, forcing her to let go of Sakura's hair and drop the knife. She picked up the knife and jammed it into the woman's shoulder, twisting it slightly and making her wriggle beneath it. She then spun around and jumped over the counter, grabbing her phone and her set of knives as she slid onto the floor. She groaned in pain when she hit the hard tile floor, but ignored it as she speed dialed Kakashi's number and grabbed a knife.
"Sakura? Hello?" She heard him answer his phone and put it next to her ear.
"Kakashi," she said in a hushed voice. "Call Shikamaru and have him send some people here and two ambulances. Sasuke and Naruto are down!"
"Wait," he was getting alarmed, "what's going on?"
"I don't have time to explain—UGH!" Sakura dropped her phone when the man with bandages kicked her in the stomach, forcing her to double over in pain and drop her cell phone.
"Now is not the time to be calling up friends," he growled and pulled her out of the kitchen by her hair. "Now, we're going to kill you, but don't worry, we'll make sure it's quick and painless."
Sakura squeezed her eyes shut when he tossed her onto the floor; her head bounced off the floor and lights danced behind her eyelids. Someone kicked her in the stomach again, harder this time and Sakura could taste blood on her tongue.
Dread filled Sakura as she realized she had failed in protecting Sasuke. These people were going to kill her and probably Naruto as well then take Sasuke away, if not kill him. She should have known this was going to happen; every case she had ever been on, someone always had to rescue her. When they had finally confronted the mass murder Zabuza and his kid accomplice Haku, Sasuke and Naruto had taken all of the hits for her, because she couldn't. She just sat on the sidelines crying, like she had her entire life and now, she was going to die.
Another hard kick to the stomach and Sakura whimpered in pain and blood kept filling her mouth until she coughed it out all over the floor. Again, she was pulled up to her knees by her hair and she felt someone punch her in the face; searing pain was all she could feel on the left side of her face as the punches kept coming. She was sure there was blood streaming down her face, mixed with tears, but the throbbing pain of her skull and jaw distracted her from it.
When the punching stopped, Sakura cracked her eyes open and through the blur of tears, her eyes met with Sasuke's onyx gaze. Her chest ached painfully and she felt something burn inside of her; Sakura was suddenly painfully aware of the knife that she still had in her hand and that she still had time until reinforcements came; all she had to do was stall long enough for them to get here. Sakura bit down on her lip and decided that she was going to keep fighting, even though she didn't have the strength to, but because Sasuke and Naruto needed her to. If she died here tonight, at least she could give them a chance to keep on living.
In one swift motion, Sakura swiped the knife through her hair and stood up. Quickly, she spun around and jammed the knife into the bandaged man's neck and punched him in the face, sending him to the ground. Sakura dodged another punch that was sent her way and grabbed the arm of the other man, twisted it, then used the force of her elbow to break his; he howled in pain and sunk to his knees, cradling his now broken arm.
Sakura took this chance to run over to Sasuke, but the guy had grasped her ankle; she tripped and landed onto her hands knees. The man crawled on top of her back, using his weight to hold her down, and began choking her. She clawed at his arm with her nails, breaking his skin in the process and some of her fake nails ripped off, but she was too preoccupied by her closed off trachea to care.
Just as Sakura could feel her lungs aching for air, the man was pulled off of her and she gasped and choked on the floor. She could hear him yelling in pain, but Sakura was on the brink of losing consciousness so she didn't turn to look what was going on. When she could breathe without coughing, she turned around and gasped when she saw Sasuke holding onto both of the man's arms, his foot between his shoulder blades and a sinister smile on his face that sent chills of fear down her spine. The man's shoulders made a sickening snapping sound and his yelling turned to screams of agony and Sasuke dropped him onto the floor.
Sakura forced herself to her feet, every inch of her body throbbing in pain, and wrapped her arms around Sasuke. The two sank to the floor and Sasuke drew his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him so that he could rest his head on her shoulder. He held her tightly as he shook violently and all Sakura could do was whisper kind words to him until help came. Soon enough, Sasuke's shaking stopped and all she could hear was him mumbling in broken phrases, so she rubbed his back to let him know he was ok.
It wasn't too much longer until she could hear sirens in the distance. Even with her eyes closed, she could still see the lights as they neared her home and breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Kakashi shouting her name from outside. She heard hurried footsteps enter her house and soon everything happened in a blur of frenzied movement; Naruto was carried out on a stretcher and the paramedics had to pry Sasuke off of Sakura in order to get him onto one and strap him to it before driving off in the ambulance. Kakashi picked Sakura up and cradled her against his chest; she heard him sigh in relief and bark out orders to someone, she didn't care enough to see who else was there.
Naruto groaned loudly and rubbed his head; the last thing he remembered was going into Sakura's…He sat up straight, but instantly fell back down and held onto his head; the world spun uncontrollably and he had the sickening sensation that he was going to vomit. When he slammed back down, he realized that he was on a somewhat soft bed and being restricted by paper-thin blankets. Naruto cracked his eyes open and saw that he was in a hospital room all by himself.
He sat back up, ripped the blankets off of himself, and swung his legs off to the side. When he pushed himself onto his feet, he saw that his clothes were folded on the chair beside him and he quickly changed out of his hospital gown before walking out into the deserted hallway. Naruto wandered the hallway until he found the desk in this wing and saw a girl behind there with light brown hair and blue eyes hidden behind thick glasses.
"Excuse me," his voice scared her slightly and a blush covered her face, "but is there someone here by the name of Sakura Haruno or Sasuke Uchiha?"
The girl typed the names into her computer and nodded. "Haruno checked out of the hospital a couple hours ago and Uchiha is in room 342."
"Thank you," he inclined his head and found the hallway that led to the main lobby, from there he could find his way to Sasuke's room and ask him what the hell happened last night.
On his way there, he saw Ino leaning against the wall with her head dropped and a hand over her mouth. When he reached her, he bumped into her, startling her, and saw the tears running down her face.
"It's bad, Naruto," she whispered. "Sasuke almost died and Sakura…her face…"
Naruto's eyebrows shot up and he looked through the window next to her; he saw Sakura's pink head resting on the bed Sasuke was sleeping on, her face hidden by his legs and their hands interlocking limply. They seemed so peaceful in there as they slept, as if nothing could disturb them.
"Shikamaru said Sasuke refused to let her go," again Ino's voice was unusually quiet, "he wouldn't let the paramedics pry them apart and when they did, all he did was say her name…"
"How long have they been out?" Naruto asked, still gazing at them.
She sighed. "Not long. I thought Sakura was going to throw one of the nurses through the window for saying she couldn't be in there. She just about did when they pulled her out of your room."
Sakura visited me too? Naruto thought to himself when his eyes darted to Ino; she was looking into the room and had a pained expression on her face.
"The nurses are going to freak out when they see you aren't in your room." Ino laughed.
"Probably," he rubbed his sore head. "Why was I in there anyway?"
Ino looked at him with her large blue eyes. "The doctor said you had a major concussion; I'm surprised you can even move right now."
"I feel fine, except I have this annoying headache." Naruto smirked when his stomach growled loudly. "And apparently hungry. Wanna get something to eat?"
Ino hesitated, her gaze flickering back over to the two sleeping forms in the room before she responded. "Sure."
Everything hurt, especially his head. Sasuke fluttered his eyes open and the first thing he saw was pink. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the lightness of the room and he shifted slightly so that he was holding himself up on his elbows.
He didn't remember much of last night; only how he felt. He remembered being worried, then scared, numb, and then he felt this unbearable rage. Sasuke assumed everything was ok now, since Sakura had her head resting in his lap, a blanket around her shoulders, and her right hand was sitting on top of his. He noticed how bruised and swollen her knuckles were and he ran a finger over them; Sakura pulled her hand away slowly and whimpered slightly. He supposed those people he saw last night had something to do with this.
Sasuke's features darkened when he thought about the talk they had, or at least, what he remembered of it. He could also recall hearing Sakura's voice calling out his name and hearing her cry out in pain while she was being beaten. She had been hurt because of him and he could have lost her that night…
Absently, Sasuke ran a hand over the place where the needle had gone into his neck and part of him could still feel the burning of the drug entering his system. He had never felt so out of control of his own body before as he did last night, and he didn't like that feeling…it made him feel weak.
He kept looking at the back of Sakura's head as she slept soundly. She must have been exhausted; he could only assume that she fought with strength she didn't have just for him. Sasuke ran a hand through Sakura's ragged pink locks and vowed to never put her through something like this again.
Again, sorry for the short chapter.
So what do you think? Did Ell do good? Now I need to think of something for the next chapter...
With love and gratitude,
~Ell
