The next morning was slow. School dragged on, but it was finally after lunch, and Sakura was late at getting to the field. She had to stay to talk to her math teacher, but when she got to the field, Naruto and Gaara were laying on the grass, and Kakashi was nowhere in sight.
"Hey." She mumbled as she tossed her bag to the side and took out her phone, flopping on the ground.
"Hn."
"Hey, Sakura!" Naruto was as hyper as ever. "Who you calling?"
"My brother." Sakura stood back up as she diled the number and walked off a bit.
"Hello?"
Kyoto's voice came from the other side."Hey, it's Sakura."
"Hey, Sakura. What's up?"
The noise of Kyoto's car grew loud as he sped up. Sakura smiled thinking about her brother racing some random person while on the phone, it wouldn't be the first."Nothing, just... I don't know." Sakura sat next to a tree, still facing away from Gaara and Naruto, but she could feel their eyes on her.
"What's wrong?"
Protective brother mode activated."It's nothing really. I just wanted to hear your voice, make sure your not in jail yet." Sakura added a small chuckle to hide her lie. "How's everything at home?"
"It's all good. Everyone sure ass hell misses you though. All the teachers keep asking how you are. Oh, Herb says hi, I was supossed to tell you that."
Kyoto chuckled, Sakura could hear the tires coming to a screeching stop."Getting back from lunch break?"
"Yeah. I went and got Cassy and me some coffee."
Cassy was his best friend. She was Sakura's favorite out of all of Kyoto's friends."Tell her I said hi. I'll let you go, bye."
"I'll tell her. Bye, and tell mom to call me 'kay?"
"I will. Love you, bye."
"Bye."
The line went dead.Sakura sat there with the phone still to her ear. She missed her brother and wanted to see him. It was so different not having him around all the time. They used to do everything together, and she'd always hang out with him in his room and play X-box 360 with him.
A hand was put on her shoulder. Sakura looked up to see Kakashi looking down at her with a small smile, she could see it in his eyes. "Ready?" He asked.
"Yeah." Sakura shut her phone and tossed it over to her bag.
Kakashi walked into the middle of the clearing and faced the three highschoolers. It looked like he was sizing them up with the way he was looking at each one of them. Sakura stood with her thumbs in the pockets of her loose black pants, her head tilted to the side a little, but her face resembled Gaara's, blank. Naruto stood there with that big goofy grin and his hands behind his head.
"Sakura, I want to see what you've learned from Tsunade-sama, attack me."
Sakura shrugged and un-zipped her jacket, showing off her albs and black bellie shirt that had one strap hooked from the front of her right shoulder, to the back of her left shoulder. She tossed her jacket to the side and walked closer to Kakashi, taking black fingerless gloves, with metal knuckle shields, out of her back pocket and slipping them on her hands. Kakashi's eyebrow lifted at this, Sakura's face was still blank, and she was looking at the ground in front of her.
"Begin when ready." Kakashi slowly slipped into his position, Sakura didn't move...
Sakura let out a battle cry as she brought her foot down on Kakashi, he bearly made it out of the way, his eye wide. Sakrua's foot made contact with the ground, making a crater where he was just standing. Sakura looked up from the center of the crater and disappeared in a blur.
"Good work at the clone." Kakashi said loud enough for her to hear him, where ever she was.
"Thanks." She was behind him again. Kakashi spun around and hit her arm out of the way, being careful not to touch her chakura powered fists.
Sakura ran at him again, punching forward with all her might, trying to make contact with him, but he kept jumping back, just out of reach. She growled in frustration and stopped her attack, jumping back. She let her arms rest, draining the chakura from them. Her breath was coming out in puffs, and her arms drooped heavly. And it didn't pass over Kakashi's head eather.
He was gone. Sakura stopped breathing and slowly looked around, not seeing or sencing anything. She stood up strait and took a deep breath, finally finding him. A smirk formed on her lips, she pulled her arm back, it glowing a bright green, and she slammed it in th ground, creating a gigantic crack, that spred threw the whole field, Kakashi was between the crack, looking at her with big eyes.
"Does this mean I..." Sakura stopped talking as a crunching, exploding feeling came from the middle of her chest. She never felt anything so painful in her life.
"Sakura...?" Naruto took a hesitent step forward.
"I-I..." Sakura clutched a hand to her chest, falling to her knees with a scream of pain.
"SAKURA!" Naruto started running towards her, but Kakashi was already there, along with Gaara, who teliported himself over.
"Sakura, can you hear me?" Kakashi laid her down on the ground and gently removed her hand from her chest.
"What's going on?" Gaara asked, grabbing her other arm to keep her from thrashing around.
"I don't know. I've never seen this before. Naruto," Kakashi glanced up at him. "Get Tsunade, tell her it's an emergency."
"Hai." Naruto was gone in a blur.
XX
It was black. The same blackness that came every time she was near him. It wasn't peaceful, yet not dangerous. Just black. Yet, it still un-nerved her. It made her scared. She hated the blackness, it was different from the dark. It was silent, motionless. Nothing there.
Voice started breaking into the darkness, but the words ment nothing. The soft voices turned into shouting, but it sounded like it was far away, but yet so very close. The blackness got thinker, like adding cornstarch to soup. The sounds got clearer, and she could hear Tsunade shouting at someone, they returned the shout, only sharper, more like a hiss.
But, the blackness was still there. It was like a blinefold that covered her whole body, but her ears.
She felt nothing. Nothing other then the weight of the blackness. It crushed her like a full grown tree landing on her. Yet, it was standable. She could live with it.
Sakura...
Her name broke threw the blackness, someone was holding her hand, sqweezing it lightly.
Sakura...
It was all becoming clearer. Tsunade was the one calling her name. Other voices, Kakashi, Naruto, Shitzune, and a grunting Gaara, all of it broke threw, she just couldn't react. Nothing worked. Her voice, her hands, legs, nothing.
"Sakura..."
A rub on her cheek. She could feel.
"What's going on?" Gaara grunted. His voice was farther away.
"Sakura...?" Tsunade rubbed Sakura's cheek with the back of her hand again, waiting for some sign that she could be heard.
Kakashi answered Gaara's question. "That blow she did to the ground triggered an old ingery she substaind awhile ago. It rebroke a bone in her chest somewhere, the one Tsunade-sama just heald."
"It wasn't a bone, it was her lung." Tsunade whispered.
So that's what happened...
A twitch brought everyone to silence. Tsunade was the first to recover, cupping Sakrua's face. "Sakura, can you hear me?"
Another twitch of a finger.
"Sakura, if you can hear me, sqweeze my hand." Tsunade's hand was n hers, a gentle sqweeze. "Alright. She can hear. Try to open your eyes. Shitzune, give me that flashlight." Sakura's eyes fluttered, but didn't open.
"It... Hurts..." A small whisper came from her mouth, lips bearly moving.
"I know, Sakura. But you need to open your eyes so that I can check them."
The blackness was slipping away, revieling the pain it had been hiding. Her eyelids fluttered, and slowly opened, the light was bright, blinding. Tsunade was leaning over her, and Kakashi was a little farther away. But everyone was there, as close as they dared. Sakura's eyes ran over everyones face, and lingered on Tsunade's and Shitzune's confused faces. Kakashi and Naruto looked relived, and Gaara looked board, though she had heard the way his voice had sounded.
"Sakura." Her eyes flickered back to Tsunade's face. "How did you hurt your lung before? And in such a odd place?" Tsunade helped Sakura into a sitting postion, seeing that she was perfectly fine now.
Sakura did answer for a minute, thinking of how her father had tossed her down two flights of stairs with a punch in that spot. "I fell down stairs last year." She finally whispered.
"But the way it was damaged-" Shitzune clamped her mouth shut at Sakrua's glare.
"I fell." She repeated, looking back down at the ground in front of her.
"And how did you fall?" It was Kakashi who had caught on so quick. His red eye didn't let him miss the glare like Tsunade had when she was looking at Shitzune while she spoke.
Sakura didn't look up. Her eyes stayed on the grass, she didn't want to think about that night. That had been the night that Kyoto had found her and was forced to take her to the hospital. The night that the real lies started. The night that her father had first hit the twins...
"Sakura?" Naruto whispered, gently putting his hand on her shoulder. "Why are you crying?"
Sakura's hand flew to her face, surely enough the tears had betrayed her yet again. "I'm not." She quickly got rid of the evidence and started to stand. Naruto helped her. "I need to go home. The twins." Sakrua whispered, hearing the bell. "Can't stay after for lesson today." She mumbled as she passed Tsunade to grab her stuff. Naruto was by her side the whole time, to make sure she didn't fall. "Dad's picking them up, I need to be there." Sakrua grabbed her stuff and headed to the school, Naruto hesitated, looking back at Kakashi.
"Make sure she gets back ok, Naruto." Kakashi said eyes never leaving Sakura's back. Something was off, and he could feel it.
"Hai." Naruto ran to Sakura's side, putting his arm around her shoulders to steddy her.
"Gaara-" Kakahsi looked back to see him disappear in a whirl of sand. He sighed and glanced over at Tsunade. "Well, that was intresting." He muttered.
"Tsunade-sama... There's something she's not telling us..." Shitzune whispered, looking down.
"I know. I've known." Tsunade stood and stared after Sakura.
XX
Thanks to Naruto, Sakura and the twins got home, Gaara trailing behind them. Kyra flipped at seeing her daughter like this, but Naruto quickly made up a lie, and the twins and Gaara went along with it, Gaara even added a few things in to make it more real. Naruto had to leave, he was meeting with Iruka, his bestfriend/teacher/step-fatherish figure.
Gaara stayed with the twins to help Sakura, so that her mother could go to work without worring. Gaara had Sarah go get Temari across the hall, and they came back with a first-aid kit just in case they needed it, no one knew where Kyra put theirs. And they didn't dare go into her bathroom. Temari came over and made Sakura sit, she was trying to get her sisters something to eat, but Temari insisted on doing it. Sakura sat on the couch and snatched the remote from Gaara, earning a growl.
"Don't you growl at me." She said, giving him 'the' look.
"I'm not a dog." Gaara growled, again.
"Sure you're not." Sakura patted his cheek and changed the channel.
Gaara glared at her for a few minutes, diciding if what he was about to do was worth it or not. She had changed it to some comady show, Jeff Dunham, or something like that. She was giggling with her hand over her mouth. Some purple monkey was saying something about a gay car... Gaara wasn't really paying attenchion. Slowly, Gaara put his arm over the back of the couch, turning to the TV. His arm drifted so it was around Sakura's shoulder, and he reached for the remote.
"Nope!" Sakura moved the remote, forgetting he was on the side she moved it to. He snatched it and put it back on the football game, removing his arm from her shoulders, a smirk on his mouth. "Damn..." Sakura looked away, thinking of something to get it back. Yeah, she liked football, she just didn't like being told what to watch.
A large smile crossed her face as she stood up and went down to her bedroom, she could feel Gaara's eyes on her as she shut her door. She skipped to the closet and walked in, grabbing a tanktop and short shorts. She quickly slid them on and skipped back out, sitting down, closer then before, to Gaara.
"It was hot." She explained, and leaned slightly against him, so she was angled that he could see down her shirt. All she needed was for him to get distracted... HA! This is it... But he was looking at her face, obviously confused.
"You have goose bumps." He pointed to her arm. "And, you're hot?"
"Of course I am." Sakrua grumbled and flipped her hair over her shoulder.
"But your skin is cold." Gaara poked her arm. Sakura sighed and turned to fully face him.
"I am not cold." She said slowly. "I got my own personal heater." She patted his stomach with a small laugh. He growled at her. "Bad doggy! Don't make me get out the newspaper!"
"You wouldn't." He growled. Sakrua smirked and reached under the coffee table and grabbed one. She rolled it up and smacked it on her open hand.
"Give me the remote." She put out her hand to take it, and pulled back the other one with the newspapaer, threatening to hit him. Gaara glared and growled, pulling the remote farther away from her. Sakrua raised her eyebrows and smacked him on the head with the paper.
Gaara sat there with big eyes, not believing she did that. Sakura took the remote and put it back on her show, sitting closer to him for heat. She was cold, freezing is a better word. She could feel he was still frozen with shock and smiled. He really didn't believe she would do that! She felt like bursting out in laughter, but that would wake him up, and he'd try to take the... remote? Sakura looked around her for it. She was sure she had put it on her leg... A growl came from between her lips.
"Bad dog." Gaara hit her in the head with the newspaper. Sakura looked up at him with big eyes. "On the floor."
"Excuse me?" Sakura's eyebrows raised again.
"Dogs arent' aloud on the couch." Gaara pushed her off and she fell to the floor with a thud.
"I'm gunna kill you!" She screamed and jumped at him. The whole couch flipped over, and they crashed to the floor. Sakura opened her eyes and found herself inches from Gaara's face. She gasped and pushed herself up, at the same time Gaara did. So, now she was sitting on his lap, looking at him with wide eyes. Gaara's eyes matched hers, but his were a little wider, and his mouth was open slightly.
"Sakura, Gaara, are you guys hungry-" Temari stopped dead in her tracks at the sight. Sakura had her hands on Gaara's chest, his hands on her lower back, and their faces were molded together. "Wow." Temari turned on her heal and went back into the kitchen. "Something I so didn't need to see."
Sakura back away from Gaara a little to look into his eyes. She was about to say something, but he nodded. "I know." She nodded and sighed getting up. No one was to know of this. That would be bad, very bad.