Disclaimer: I own Naruto. And I invented the toothpick. And I can fly…
Warnings: Language, violence, maybe some imagery for the more sensitive among you.
Finding Sakura
Chapter Nine
By Michiru's Mirror
Sakura remembered now.
The memory of that awful day had been going over and over again in her head like a video stuck on repeat. "You're annoying," was the cruelest of all the words Sasuke had ever spoken to her. The hurt had grown deeper each time Sakura was forced to relive it, and had gone so deep that she had forgotten the rest.
But now she remembered. She remembered threatening to give Sasuke's position away. She remembered him appearing behind her.
And she remembered that he had said, "Thank you."
Sakura understood clearly now that Sasuke loved her. He had never, and would never, love her in the way she had wanted him to, but he loved her nonetheless as a dear friend and teammate. Sakura's sixteen year old self understood what her twelve year old self hadn't been able to: that that friendship was precious, and every bit as deep as the romantic feelings she'd had for him. That friendship was for her, and it was the most important thing in the world.
Sakura looked at the demon across from her and was disgusted. As she watched it began to grow old again, and she could feel her own skin firming as her youth and energy returned. Sasuke was right—she had started this, and she had to end it. Sasuke had called her names because she had allowed it, Sai had cut and fucked her because she had told him to, and now this demon had come into her mind because she had invited it.
"You think you can get away with this?" Someone was speaking, and Sakura realized only much later that it was her.
"You think you can do this to me, and get away with it?" Her hand hurt, she realized; she had caught a sword with her bare hand and it was bleeding dangerously. Not only her hand, either, for wires and tubes snaked beneath her flesh and invaded her body and made her bleed and bruise almost everywhere.
But those pains were nothing to the suffering the demon before her had put her through in the past months. It was nothing to the suffering Sakura put herself through for years with her doubts and tantrums and dependence. She hurt, and she was sick of hurting, and she was going to make the pain stop!
Auntie—no, this demon was no aunt of hers—was gaping and stuttering and going pale, and Sakura realized that Sasuke had been correct. The demon was tied into her now, a mosquito with its proboscis sunk deep inside of her, so deep it couldn't pull out even if she swatted it.
"Sakura-chan!" the demon pleaded, holding out her free hand in entreaty. "Sakura-chan, don't make it sound like that, I only wanted to help you—"
Sakura laughed. "That argument held until you started planning my death."
"No, Sakura-chan, I'm only thinking of you!" There was such desperation on the demon's face that Sakura almost believed it in spite of herself. "I only want to give you what you want!"
"Who do you think you're talking to? Nobody tells me what I want!" Sakura's voice roared, echoing through the cavern. She remembered this willpower. This was good!
With her rapidly-returning strength Sakura pulled the sword out of the demon's grasp and tossed it aside. She reached down with her good hand to grab Sasuke by the collar of his shirt and pulled him up and out of the dark pool he'd been sinking into.
She turned to face him despite the enemy across from her and was unsurprised to find Sasuke smiling at her more openly than she'd ever seen. She grinned back, not the simpering girly look she'd always given him as a child, but a strong smile full of the pride that he'd reminded her she always had.
There were so many things that Sakura wanted to say! But Sasuke had never been a man of words, and declarations of friendship now would go over as well as the proclamations of love she had drowned him with three years ago.
So Sakura said, "Go help the others. I'll handle this."
"You sure?"
"Positive," said Sakura, and her voice showed that she meant it. "And…"
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the hesitation in Sakura's voice. "And?"
"Naruto…is he…okay?"
Damn. Sasuke had just managed to put his face back into its usual cold expression and suddenly he had to fight to keep from smiling again. "Worried sick about you, but that's nothing new."
Sakura nodded and hung her head slightly, doubt creeping back upon her. She had hurt him so badly…
Sasuke squeezed her hand gently. He wanted to give supportive words, but didn't know how. Desperation had given him a momentarily loose tongue, but now with his mind clear again he found himself unable to emote.
Sakura understood anyway, and raised her head again. "Please protect him," she said softly.
"Protect yourself and I won't need to. You know nothing I can do will get him out of the line of fire until you're out of the line of fire."
Sakura nodded. "I know," she said uncertainly. Her gaze grew determined. "I know."
Sasuke gave his friend one more nod before breaking the mental connection.
Sasuke moved smoothly back into his own head without a gasp or a jolt; he was far beyond such childishness. But despite his characteristic outward calm, Sasuke knew how badly drained his chakra and strength were. Ridiculous as it sounded, Sasuke just wanted to lay down in the field and take a nap.
He wasn't the only one; his four teammates were still fighting their demon opponents, and they were obviously exhausted. Armor hung off in tatters from trained bodies, blood dripped from multiple wounds and four pairs of eyes were so horribly bloodshot it would have been impossible to pick Kakashi's sharingan from the bunch.
Still, Kakashi, Naruto, Sai and Chouji's battle against the demons was tilting in their favor. The demon's numbers weren't as endless as they had first seemed, and little by little they were thinning out. The four teammates now fought the battle of mountain climbers who had gone far past their limit, but were sustained by the sight of their goal just meters in front of their faces.
Sasuke was brought back to Sakura when she screamed. Turning around so quickly he almost tripped in his exhausted state, he found her writhing and shaking as though trapped in an epileptic fit.
She was fighting the demon inside of her, struggling with everything she had left to wipe it out. Again Sasuke wanted to yell encouraging words, but restrained himself and drew kusanagi. Whatever Naruto said, and however much he wanted Sakura to win, he was prepared to end her life if she lost.
Sakura screamed, and the sound echoed over even the battle surrounding her. It wasn't a sound of pain, but rather one of rage that Sasuke found reassuring. It clearly expressed just how hard Sakura was fighting.
A loud rip sounded in the wake of Sakura's scream, and Sasuke had a second to wonder if Sakura hadn't torn something with her wild movements before he realized she had two heads.
Sasuke was not a man who startled easily, but he did a double take at the strange sight. There was Sakura's head, her face red and sweating with effort, but still the same face he'd always known. And beside it was another head, black and deformed and diseased as though it was decomposing.
The ripping sound grew louder, Sakura's shrieks providing a twisted soundtrack as a second set of shoulders shoved out from her own, and then another chest. Sakura looked like she was half a Siamese twin with her sibling growing out of her side.
Sasuke gripped his sword tighter. This was bad. Either because Sakura was unable to kill the demon or because the demon was running away, it and Sakura were separating. If it still had the amount of power it did when Sasuke fought it hours ago, he might be in trouble.
Naruto was standing behind him. Sasuke did not bother to question the wisdom of this. The demon ranks were thinning, so their other three teammates probably no longer needed his help. And besides, Sasuke knew better than to think that Naruto would be anywhere but at Sakura's side when she was in this much trouble and pain.
"Sakura and I don't have much chakra left," said Sasuke, addressing Naruto though he didn't take his gaze off of Sakura's grotesquely twisted form.
"No problem," replied Naruto grimly, clenching his hand into a fist. Sasuke had no doubt that Naruto was going to take an indecent amount of pleasure killing the demon in front of them—and really, so would he.
Sakura fell to the ground, her screams fading into gasps as the last of the demon's body left her. Without waiting for the demon to straighten up, without even a word, Sasuke and Naruto attacked.
Sai watched the original Team Seven fight for the first time. He had never seen anything like it.
They moved together synchronously, complementing each others moves and reacting to each others body language like they'd seen the cues a million times before. Sakura punched the demon in its rotting face, which lined it up perfectly for Naruto to trip it from behind into Sasuke's sword.
But ah, the demon slid cleverly around the sword and knocked it out of Sasuke's hand, and so Naruto, who was closest, covered Sasuke by sending a shadow clone to defend him while Sasuke dived for kusanagi…
It was poetry in motion! Here were three people who were a part of each other in a way that Sai could barely comprehend, let alone try to emulate. They had not fought together in years, and yet they understood each other enough that this was the result. Whatever Sasuke and Sakura had done, whatever they would do in the future, would never have any bearing on their place on the team.
Sai began to realize that he would never be a part of Team Seven, not really. Whoever went home with each other after the fighting was over, Naruto and Sakura and Sasuke would always be one…and there was no room for anyone else.
Sai suddenly felt very alone. It didn't matter what he did, in the end, didn't matter who he slept with or fought or what books he read. The unity he was witnessing was not for him, and being a part of it could never be more than a dream.
"Sakura-chan—" Naruto yelled, as the demon raced for her.
"I got it!" Sakura dived out of the way and swung around, planting a kick directly into the demon's lower back. It flew forward with a grunt, unable to stop itself, and landed impaled upon kusanagi.
Sasuke had moved into position so fast that no one had seen him go; it was as though the sword had been teleported between the demon's third and fourth ribs. The inertia from Sakura's kick sent both combatants sprawling to the ground with a thud that made Naruto wince.
Writhing and gasping, its face a study of incredulity, the demon clawed at Sasuke's face with brown and rotting fingers, kicking its legs feebly at nothing. Sasuke gritted his teeth and tried to shove his enemy off of himself, but he couldn't let go of his sword lest the hilt slam into his own midsection.
Naruto was at the demon's back in a heartbeat, his right hand reaching out to grab its putrid shoulder while forming rasengan in his left.
Its eyes rolling in terror, its mouth foaming and bleeding, the demon took one last look at Sakura. It said nothing, but Sakura understood it plainly enough.
Sakura-chan!
You wouldn't do this to your Auntie, would you? I love you! Only I love you!
Don't do this to me!
Sakura's expression was as cold as Yuki no Kuni in winter, murder and revenge clearly communicated through her eyes. "Die," she said as Naruto pushed his chakra into the demon's body.
It did.
Sakura sat on the ground and stared at "Auntie" one last time.
Her brain wasn't working properly. Perhaps she was in shock, or maybe her mind was still adjusting to being back in control of her body for the first time in months. Sakura didn't know, and wasn't with herself enough to care.
So, she studied the remains of her violator with a detached eye, and wondered how many people the putrid thing had destroyed in its many centuries. Had it always looked like this? Like a leprosy victim in advanced stages, with strips of flesh peeling off and pus dripping from its pores like sweat? Or was this what Sakura had reduced it to?
She was shivering, hard, and couldn't stop herself. Sakura drew into herself, tucking her limbs as close to her body as she could, and tried to disappear.
An arm draped itself gently across her shoulders, and Sakura became aware that Naruto had pulled her close to him and was rocking her back and forth like a child. His clothes were ruined, filthy and ripped in so many places that they were about to fall off. He had a huge bruise that mottled most of the left side of his face and shut one blue eye almost completely, and blood ran down his chest in alarming amounts.
The concern on his face broke her heart.
There would be consequences for this. Sakura knew she wouldn't be ready to face the world again for weeks, and Naruto wasn't going to be much better off. He had betrayed his own code by "letting" her get hurt, and though she didn't blame him, she knew he'd blame himself. And then there was what she'd done with Sai—once Sakura was well enough that Naruto didn't have to worry about her anymore, he was going to be very, very hurt and possibly just as angry.
Sakura decided to worry about those consequences tomorrow. Today she curled herself into Naruto's warm chest, and let him protect her from the reality that would come.
It was less then ten minutes later that Chouji took down the last demon with a roar and a swing of his chakra-engorged fist. After the death of the queen demon, the others had swarmed into chaos, and the Konoha ninja were grateful. God only knew how much more they could have born.
Kakashi collapsed from overuse of his sharingan and Sai rolled his eyes before moving to help him. "You're always so dramatic, taicho."
Naruto walked over to them to see if he could help, but there wasn't much he could do while he was carrying Sakura bridal style. "Anybody hurt?"
Kakashi gave Naruto a look with his regular eye.
Naruto shrugged. "Hey, I know what's wrong with you. I mean, anybody hurt in a significant way?"
"I don't think so," said Chouji, moving his neck around to check for injuries. "How's Sakura?"
Naruto grimaced and looked down at the girl who had almost plastered herself to his chest. He had no idea how to describe her condition. "She's…alive."
"Where'd the homo go?" Sai was looking around from under Kakashi's shoulder. It took Naruto a moment to realize he was talking about Sasuke.
"Oh, he's right back—" Naruto turned to gesture to the space where Team Seven had fought their first battle together in almost four years, only to find it empty save for the demon's corpse.
"…Sasuke?" Naruto began looking around like Sai, but Sasuke was nowhere to be seen.
"…Well, fuck." Sasuke hadn't just left without even checking how Sakura was, had he? Oh, Naruto would kill him...
Sakura began to squirm with discomfort, and Naruto realized he was holding her so tightly she couldn't breathe. He quickly loosened his grip and told himself to be enraged at Sasuke later.
Naruto, Sai and Chouji all stared at each other for several seconds. Anything they thought to say sounded stupid and trite.
"Uh," Chouji finally spoke up. "Can we go home now?"
"I think that's the best idea I've heard, ever," Naruto said. Sakura wasn't all that heavy, but carrying her was going to be a bitch—not that it ever occurred to him to do otherwise.
The team had been walking for less than a minute when Sakura began to tug on Naruto's ruined jacket, desperation in her eyes. She clearly had something very important to say.
Naruto leaned down as much as he could and put his face up to hers. "What's up, Sakura-chan?"
"Naruto," she said, "Am I a bitch?"
Naruto stopped walking. That was, by a wide margin, the least likely thing she could have said. "Wh…huh?"
But the urgency didn't leave Sakura's face. She stared up at him, green eyes wide and mouth trembling, begging him for an answer.
Oh, jeez. Naruto's gaze became shifty. How could he respond to that? The honest answer was yes, but how the hell could you say that to a girl you adored who was currently suffering from horrible trauma? Even Naruto had more tact than that.
Sakura noticed that Naruto suddenly couldn't look at her, and understood what his answer was.
She smiled. "That's good," she said, and fell asleep.
A/N
The action is all over (and the story is nearly over)! Everyone who wanted to know about what's gonna happen to Naruto and Sakura's relationship (and to Sai, of course) will get answers in the last couple of chapters. Thanks for being patient!
