Theme: #28 – Beneath the hands

Characters/Series – Uchiha Sasuke x Haruno Sakura/ Naruto

Rating – K

Disclaimer – Naruto and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related properties

Notes – Spoilers for chapter 279. I forget if Sasori ever mentioned where the poison for Hiruko's tail came from, but for my own purposes for this fic I've decided to take into consideration Sasori's connection to Orochimaru and say that the poison came from snake venom. And I don't claim to be an authority on medicinal practices, so if anything is way off, please let me know so I can fix it.

Comments and constructive criticism are appreciated!

"Healing Hands"

Sakura was awakened a little before three A.M. Although she grumbled at the ANBU who knocked on her door she was thankful for the task that would give her something to focus on. She hastily pinned her short pink hair behind her ears and slipped on a pair of sandals before grabbing her medical supplies and following the ANBU to the Konoha Prison. She had only been there a few times to help with the inmates' physical examinations, but never by herself. She was a little nervous, something she assumed the ANBU picked up on when the masked person began to speak.

"There's only one inmate that needs your attention. He's in a separate that's further away from the others. He's being guarded by several top ANBU, so there's no need to worry about him harming you, even in his state," the serious female voice informed Sakura.

"And what is the patient's state?" the younger kunoichi asked.

"From what we can tell he has several lacerations and a few stab wounds. He's got a few minor scrapes as well, and some bruises are quite noticeable."

"No offense, but is my level of skill necessary for this?"

The two jumped down from a room as they started the long run along the road to the prison. The ANBU pulled out a kunai out of cautionary habit. "As the two medic-nin stationed at the prison were trying to clean up all the blood the man lost they came upon to small puncture wounds near each other."

Sakura's heart began to race. "And they have reason to believe the wounds were caused by one attack?"

The ANBU nodded. "He was found at the Fire Country's northern border several hours ago by a patrol troop. He was already in his present state, but he showed some motor control, but by the time he reached us it was as if he was paralyzed."

"Is it possible that his paralysis is due to the journey here?"

"With all due respect, Haruno-san, it is much more likely that the puncture wounds were given to him by a rather poisonous snake."

Sakura stopped; the entrance gate to the prison still several meters away. She pressed her right palm to her heart. 'Calm down, Sakura. Don't get your hopes up.' She tried to remind herself. "You seem rather confident of your assessment. Are you aware of what you are implying?" she asked rather forcefully.

"Yes, Haruno-san. There's no mistaking the wound type," the ANBU kunoichi replied levelly. "Nor is there any mistake in who the man is."

That was all Sakura needed to hear before directing chakra into her feet and rushing to get to the prison, to the wounded man, as quickly as possible.

The ANBU guard outside the room wore an eagle mask. As Sakura approached he spared her a glance, but when she attempted to open the door he reached out and held her wrist securely. She raised her eyes and glared at his audacity. "Don't let your emotions cloud your thoughts," he warned quietly.

"I don't believe you're one who should offer such advice," Sakura shot back, "you're still coming to terms with your own family's judgments, aren't you?"

The man let go of her wrist. "That is different. I-"

"I have a patient to see to. It's quite clear you'd prefer me not to help him in time, and if I lose him I will tell the Hokage why my mission was unsuccessful," she threatened the guard icily. She pushed open the door and walked into the room. There were three ANBU guards spread evenly throughout the room with the wounded man lying on a low cot in the middle of the floor. The guard nearest to her she knew by his mask. 'Was Naruto part of the patrol? Or did he get here before me?' she wondered as she slowly made her way to the bloodied man on the cot.

One of the two medic-nin stationed at the prison was tending to the simpler wounds the man had acquired. Many of the bandages were a rose shade and his body was slick with sweat. She noticed a blindfold had been tied around his eyes, not only to hide his whereabouts, but also to prevent him from using a doujutsu.

Sakura kneeled next to him on the opposite side of the medic-nin before thanking her for her good work up until now.

"Do you require my assistance, Sakura-san?" the uniformed medic asked quietly, her voice disturbing the heavy quiet of the room.

"Yes, four hands are better than two in this case," the pink-haired medic replied. "The most important task will be to gather the poison from his body and give him an antidote. I'll take care of those things. His other, while not very dangerous, should be healed quickly to prevent any more blood loss. If you could please focus your skill to them, we should be finished by the morning." She smiled gently, though wearily at the tired medic across from her.

The prison medic nodded. 'It would be an honor to assist you, Sakura-san."

Sakura focused her chakra to her hands as she slowly moved them above his body. She blocked out any thoughts that weren't centered on healing, but name of the man beneath her hands weaved itself through her mind. 'After all these years he's come back to us,' her inner self spoke rather sedately. 'But we can't even give him a proper beating like he deserves!' Sakura grimaced and tried to stop her hands from their slight shaking.

She wasn't able to see the snake bite, but the amount of poisonous venom that had spread through the man's left arm gave her the assumption that the wound was on his left side, most likely somewhere on his shoulder. That was what she hoped, at least. The toxin was quite strong and there was much of it so early into her treatment. Sakura paused after she had brought much of the poison into the man's upper arm. She pulled out a small test tube and placed its top near one of the still-bleeding wounds on the man's bicep and lifted the bandage so that some of the blood flowed into the tube. She applied pressure above the wound and dragged her fingers down, guiding the poison-tainted blood into the class tube before quickly capping it and holding it out to the cat masked ANBU. "Please take this to Tsunade-sama and bring back the antidote as quickly as possible. Tell her I believe it is the same poison as the one used by Sasori of the Red Sand." The ANBU quickly accepted the task and left the room. Sakura quickly glanced at the medic assisting her and was glad to see that she was moving along at a good pace. Taking a deep breath Sakura continued to gather the poison and place it into the larger glass containers the prison had provided.

Her pace was slow, but her dedication to retrieving all of foreign chemical in the man's blood was apparent. However, the poison kept extending farther into the man's arm. Sakura debated switching to a part of his body farther from the wound until she had the antidote rather than remaining focused on the arm and letting the toxin spread. She wiped her brow and hoped that the ANBU would return with the vile from Tsunade soon. Not wanting to waste chakra Sakura turned her attention to healing the wounds on the man's chest and arms.

After forty-five minutes the two medics had successfully healed the wounds and the lesser of the two started to wipe away the dried blood while the greater one placed the back of her hand against the man's forehead and cheeks. "Just a little longer and you'll be healed. Please, just hang on a little longer," she whispered as she took a dry cloth and wiped away the sweat on his face that had continuously formed as she worked. Turning to her fox masked friend, "His fever is already dangerously high. If we don't get the antidote within the next ten minutes he'll fall into a coma. We don't know how long he was lying there, so I can't be sure that we even have five minutes to guarantee his safety." Sakura made sure to skirt around using her teammate's name, fearing that if she acknowledged the injured man as her former teammate he might be taken away from her again. She would wait until she was certain he was out of danger before using his name.

"Is there anything I can do?" her friend's question was voiced in a troubled and hushed tone, his worry apparent.

"Bleeding the wound is an option, but I don't think it would do too much since so much of the poison has spread throughout his body. Whoever summoned the snake sure knew what he was doing by ordering that particular snake to make the wound. It's almost as if the poison was regenerating itself near the wound, creating a lose-lose situation for the person trying to heal it."

"What do you mean?" the fox masked ANBU came closer to her, his eyes on the cot-bound man. Even though Sakura couldn't see the ANBU's blue eyes, she knew they were filled with concern for his friend and rival.

"Well, there are two methods to healing people affected with poison. The more critical of the two is to prevent the poison from flowing too far from the initial puncture. By ridding the initial entry point of the poison, no more can be added to the victim's bloodstream. The second option is to gather the poison from other areas of the body before gathering it all at the entry point. But with this poison, either way the damage is done.

I could gather all the poison to one point, but in the time it takes to empty on limb of the poison and move onto the next limb, poison has already started flowing back into the first limb. Yet, if I focus on ending the secretion at the entry wound, the poison travels throughout the body causing greater damage."

The sound of feet along the hall gave Sakura and Naruto hope that was not to be pulled down by sorrow. The cat masked ANBU hurried to Sakura and gave her a large vial. "I told Hokage-sama what you asked me to, but she wanted to run a test just to be sure. She found out that it is a much stronger, she said 'purer', strain of Sasori's poison, and therefore strengthened the antidote."

Sakura's fingers trembled slightly as she uncorked the vial. She turned to her friend. "Naruto, I need you to hold him down, just in case. If it's as strong as I think it is, it should work rather quickly." The blonde ANBU switched spots with the pink-haired kunoichi and pressed his ear to the man's chest as he placed his arms on either side of the man's torso, almost as if hugging him. Sakura took out a clean kunai and carefully pierced the skin between the two small puncture wounds, creating one circular wound. Sakura sighed and offered up a silent prayer as she quickly pressed the mouth of the vial to the enlarged wound. When it was halfway empty she lifted the glass to the man's lips and forced his mouth open. Naruto watched her with wide eyes. "He needs to drink some of it incase some of the poison has entered his organs. The antidote will cleanse the digestive system's organs through its ingestion while the direct secretion of it will cleanse the bloodstream and the other organs it may have affected." The man jerked as Sakura forced the antidote down his throat.

With the antidote administered Naruto pulled himself back into the corner to stand as Sakura once again focused chakra to her hands before glancing to the medic who had helped her. "I'll handle it from here on out, thank you for your help. Go and rest." With only one second-glance to the Hokage's apprentice the medic quietly left the room. Sakura was more confident now that she knew the hardest part was done. She gathered the poison and lifted it out of the patient's body, sealing it with her chakra before releasing the seal and letting the poison fall into the glass jar. Sakura had been correct in assuming the antidote was powerful, it had already prevented the further spreading of the poison. The strength of the toxin was quickly wearing her chakra capacity down since she had to seal it while transferring it.

Naruto stepped behind her and knelt down, his hands held out to her. "Chiyo-baa was able to use my chakra when reviving Gaara, if you're running low, use some of mine." His voice was gentle and Sakura turned to him. He had removed his mask and was smiling a small hopeful smile while his eyes held a hint of sadness. "We promised to bring Sasuke home together, after all, didn't we?"

Sakura returned the small smile before he placed his hands above hers. With the powerful Kyuubi chakra aiding her Sakura was able to finish removing the poison within another hour. Once finished she took a shaky breath before pulling down the blindfold that had covered her missing teammate's eyes. Now able to see his face in its maturity, Sakura ran her fingers over his features. His skin was paler than it had been when he had left, but it had gained a translucency that added to the beauty she had only seen him possess. His hair was the same raven-blue shade and his brows were still perfectly sculpted. His high cheekbones were more noticeable due to his thinness, but when joined by the long lashes lining his eyes, she was sure that when he was awake and vertical he'd steal heart all over again.

Weak with exhaustion Sakura laid her head on her life-long love's chest and closed her eyes as she listened to the beating of his heart. Naruto rose and offered a hand to her. She shook her head softly. "I want to stay like this a little longer. I want to be here when he wakes up."

The two ANBU remaining in the room glanced at Naruto. He motioned for them to leave before squeezing Sakura's shoulder and leaning to whisper in her ear. "I told you I'd bring him back for you. The promise of a lifetime."

After he exited the room Sakura heard him pull the eagle masked guard away from the door and offering to treat him to ramen. Sakura smiled to herself and pulled Sasuke's right arm onto his stomach, intertwining her fingers with him as she began to drift into a dream that was much gentler than the one she had been awakened from hours before.