SUMMARY
There was another surprise waiting in the Chuunin Exams. A mysterious woman chooses Sakura and forces an ultimatum: hunt me down, or I'll kill everyone you love.
RATING
High T
LENGTH
1103 words
FOREWORD
More gore, but not as violent. It kind of gets better next chapter. But not really?
いたこ
I-TA-KO
Three
Emergency
FOREST OF DEATH, TOWER HOSPITAL; KONOHA
Green was a curious color to medic nin. Green was the color of their miraculous chakra that could seal wounds and correct bones, green was the color of infection and poisons, green was the color of herbs and plants that cured illness. Green was the color of their profession.
It was ironic that this girl's eyes were also green.
From the moment they had lifted the battered child from the ground, all four medics had began chakra scanning her body, searching for every little break and rupture. Their quick diagnostic sent them into frenzy, rushing to save her already half-gone life. Face sliced right in half, eyes surely beyond repair, tunnel starting from her upper stomach and ending somewhere in between her lungs, broken ribs from the force, and the damaged organs pushed aside as the Wave kunoichi punched through. It amazed them that she was even still alive—at this point, even a jinchuuriki would be in serious jeopardy, regenerative abilities or not. What kept her from giving up the fight?
Clinical chakra brushed over what it perceived to be a small stone, prompting the item to pulse angrily and send their patient into an entirely new fit of screaming. Whatever they had done activated the rock, and to their horror they watched it wiggle around and firmly implant itself into the young girl's palpitating organ, the heart. When a medic attempted to gently ease it away with a scalpel, the intrusive stone lashed out and wrapped chakra tendrils around the already frantically beating organ. This development sent the team's plan down the drain—it would no longer be a simple stitch up-and-sleep job; the stone would interfere with any foreign chakra, prohibiting any healing of the chest area. Looking at each other, the team decided that they would start with the eyes. At this point, it was one of the only injuries they could treat. Resting their hands over the gennin's face, they once again jolted away from her body.
The rock decided it was to have its way with its host's eyes as well, and to their horror and Sakura's immense pain, the medics could only watch as her eyes began to seal closed by themselves, but not as originally constructed. They could see the forced healing change the structure, but they could attempt nothing for fear of the patient's health.
Determinedly and with a slight growl, the newest on the team placed his hands on the sides of the girl's face, feeding chakra into the wounds that opened her cheeks. The leader panicked over the kunoichi's coarse wails, now punctuated with gasping breaths, as his subordinate worked.
"What are you doing?" he hissed, sending chakra into the girl's nervous system to try shutting it off. The action would give her some solace, but some pain would be impossible to stop, such as the work the stone was doing to her eyes. The medic glared at his teacher, hands still fused to the pinkette's temples.
"That thing doesn't interfere with anything it's not interested with," he explained hastily, avoiding the areas of the cheek closest to the eyes. "As long as we don't touch the rock, it won't fight back—just be careful with how close you get!" To emphasize, the medic lifted his hands from Sakura's face, revealing a—mostly—closed laceration. Blood still stained her face, however, and he couldn't bring himself to feel proud of his accomplishment. Examining his student's work briefly, the head medic grunted and began to order his team, falling into the role of leader now that they could work on something. Obediently the other healers started, one running off to gather a blood pack and morphine.
Slowly, they meshed the girl's insides back together, easing muscles and tissues to regenerate and merge. Her organs were bruised and dealt with by one medic while another urged the flesh compacted by the monstrous punch to unwind and fill the tunnel that classified as Sakura's torso. The head checked the more delicate places, such as the girl's head and the areas closest to the stone's influence. In the middle of the procedure, the last medic returned with replacement fluids, and did not hesitate in hooking their patient to an IV. Blood rushed into the tube and entered her bloodstream, replenishing the diminishing supply. Another tube pushed the painkilling drug through it, immediately numbing whatever pain they could not brush away.
The morphine worked its magic, and Sakura's cries toned down to moans, then to mere whispers, and finally to sleep. The team took this as a sign their job was finished, and slumped down, exhausted. After dealing with the Uchiha boy and now this twisting and turning operation, they all felt considerably drained. Before they could call this a job well done (or at least finished), the medics would have to run one additional scan, to ensure no remaining injuries had been forgotten. Nervously, the three younger medics stood back, allowing the more experience head medic space to work.
With a steeling breath, the older man began to ghost his hands over Sakura's body, channeling as slight a wave of chakra as he could. The cavern had been filled with flesh and bone, organs healed of their bruises, and impact hole sealed nicely. After a moment of consideration, the medic chanced a look at her chest, and surprisingly found no resistance. Despite their lack of meddling in the area, the gennin's chest had returned to a healthy state; however the stone, which he recognized was shaped like a magatama, still rested in Sakura's heart. When his scanning chakra ghosted over it, the item hummed threateningly, and the man knew there would be no separating stone and flesh today.
Continuing his diagnosis, he trusted that her eyes were now open for examination, and reached up to heal the small injuries his student had been unable to get. Satisfied with the healing, he opened his eyes, and carefully prodded Sakura's closed ones. If someone had entered at this moment, they would never have known this girl had just gone through the fight of her life. The head medic gulped as he gently lifted the girl's lids in order to see her orbs, prepared for anything.
Despite his hardened condition, the man froze at Sakura's revealed eyes. The colored portion of the eye was larger than before and consequently her irises—which had brightened to a poisonous, sickly green he associated with illness—stretched thinly to accommodate, and god where were her pupils—
In the areas that would have been extremely dilated black circles, they only saw pure white.
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