Thank you to ShipperTrish for lending me her talents, she is a lovely Beta she is!
Chapter 9:The Snow That Falls in Summer.
For what seemed like the longest time there was only blackness.
It wasn't the comforting warm blackness of a dreamless sleep, but instead, the muddy, weighty blackness of unconsciousness. It seemed to press in on all sides, uncomfortable and claustrophobic as if your skull was being held slightly too tight in a vice, the rest of your body adrift, detached, but again not in a particularly pleasant way. Instead, it felt anxious and lonely. At least this was how Sakura found it as awareness of herself filtered back into existence.
Slowly, somewhere on the periphery of her subconscious, shapes started weaving back and forth in the black. At first they were unsubstantial – faceless, nameless, and then slowly things began to fall back into place.
Firstly, her name "Sakura" resurfaced and once she had established that, she wasn't some random disembodied ball of energy and other things became easier to pin down. She was in danger. There were bad things out to get her. She needed to wake up. She needed help.
Then, following these basic instincts, her senses returned one by one. Smell was the first, the strong odor of both ozone and burning registered, fueling her with a further need to run, get away from the fire, it's dangerous. Then, secondly, taste. The irony and unmistakable taste of blood seemed to be everywhere: in her mouth, in her nose, and with that revelation everything else popped back at once. Most notably pain. Intense, horrific pain. Her whole body ached with a dull and rhythmic thump, which felt as though she had several hearts beating at once: one in her head, one in her hand, one in one of her legs, and then underneath, one where it was supposed to be in her actual chest. On top of that there was the hot burning sensation that seemed to run down the entire right side of her body like electric pins and needles. The sensation instantly made her queasy, so she continued to lay face down, unmoving with her eyes still closed. The medic in her chastised her, telling her that she had to get up and do her best to fix whatever damage had been done. She could be bleeding to death for God's sake! Although she knew she was right (especially as she could feel the warm, sticky wetness behind her ears which was itching like hell), Sakura really didn't care and honestly wanted to be left alone by the pain, by other people, and most certainly by herself.
Time seemed to pass in unknown quantities. She couldn't be sure whether it was hours or minutes since she regained consciousness and as she refused to open her eyes, she couldn't really tell. Eventually, the events of the last couple of hours caught up with her: the dangerous girl in the mirror, the dangerous men and women in the base, the pain (inwardly she despaired at just how much pain she'd had to endure over the last forty eight hours and thought she should mention to the Hokage that perhaps holiday allowance shouldn't be based on missions completed, but on the pain endured on said missions), and then the fireball tearing towards her. Lastly, she remembered her friends. Where had Sai and Naruto been during that explosion? Was Kakashi injured? Where was everyone? Did they need help?
With that, her stubbornness evaporated and her eyes snapped open. Drawing her knees under her body, she prepared to stand, staring in shock at her limp and useless right hand. She tried to push up with her left instead. Immediately, the world tipped sideways and she landed with a dull thud on her shoulder.
Okay…Come on, Sakura. Once more with feeling…
The second attempt was more successful than the first and after what could have been a short decade, Sakura stood on wobbly legs, surveying the complete carnage around her. She stood on what could have only been described as a crater, almost perfectly circular and looked at least three hundred meters wide, its center littered with large boulders and broken columns. Plumes of thick, black smoke spilled from angry looking fissures in the crater's sides. Her mouth dropped open in complete shock at what she was seeing: the whole rock face that the base had been built into was just…gone! Other than the gaping wound in the earth, all that could be seen around her were the tall pine trees that encircled the clearing. Many of them were charred or burning with white hot flames that licked at the snow falling heavily around her. It had already started settling, covering everything with a clumpy icing.
Snow…
It was mid summer, hot and sticky without the raging inferno and so the elegant white of spiraling snowflakes seemed remarkably out of place.
Reaching her good hand out, she held it palm up, letting the delicate white flakes land. On her hot skin they didn't melt or feel cold at all and when she drew her thumb across them, a dark black smudge marred her pale skin.
Ash…
She moved forward without realizing it, running haphazardly down the sheer sides of the crater, clouds of dust and grit churning up around her as she half slid and half crawled down crater walls.
"NARUTO?!…SAI?!"
She shouted as loudly as she could, noticing that her voice sounded oddly muffled as if coming from another room. The ground was burning hot under her feet as she stumbled forward, the smoky air obscuring her vision as she got further towards the bottom.
"KAKASHI?!"
She tripped on something hard and metal jutting out of the ground and was sent hurtling forward, head over heels before landing heavily and coughing violently as the billowing dirt flooded up her nostrils and into her mouth. Feeling defeated and utterly hopeless, she pounded her already throbbing head against the hard ground in anger and frustration.
Then, she heard it, a soft groan.
"Hello? Naruto?…Kakashi?"
Another groan.
"Kakashi?"
Looking around wildly, she saw it. Several meters ahead of her, covered in debris and a thick layer of white ash was a shape, a human shape.
"Kakashi!"
She was on her feet quicker than she thought possible, the tattered silk of the kimono flapping behind her as she closed the distance between them. Kneeling beside him, she used the hem of her scant covering to wipe the soot and dirt off of his masked face. When he cracked open a bleary eye, which winced sharply in pain, she felt her heart flood with relief.
"If it wasn't for all the pain, I'd think I'd died and gone to Icha, Icha Paradise," he said with a whisper and an eye crinkle.
That was when Sakura noticed the state of her undress. The kimono had long since lost its ties and Sakura had apparently long since lost her bra. Looking down in surprise at her exposed bare chest that was decorated with cuts and grazes, she felt her face heat over.
"Faced with certain death and you still find time to be a pervert," she muttered, clutching the flimsy material over herself in a vain attempt to cover her modesty.
He merely chuckled in a wheezy kind of way.
"Can you feel your legs? Where does it hurt? How many fingers?" she bombarded, medic mode kicking in.
"Err…Yes, everywhere and you're using one hand to cover yourself and the other looks broken, so no fingers," he said with concern, looking at the state of his student.
"Good," she smiled, moving behind him and using her good hand to help push him up.
He grunted quietly as she placed her hand against his back, which oddly felt a little wet and warm.
"Did that hurt?" she asked, catching her bottom lip between her teeth and worrying it gently. "What happened? Let me see…"
"Sakura, I'm fine," he said, placating her with a reassuring wave of his hand. "Just a little burnt and battered. We need to regroup and find the others."
He saw the concern pinch her brow at the mention of their teammates as he reached stiffly into his pouch to retrieve his summoning scroll. A drop of blood and a ball of smoke later, his eight ninken were milling around them, sniffing and whining.
Pakkun walked to the front to eye his master with quiet concern.
"Kakashi, what the hell happened here?" he grumbled, looking around in bewilderment. "Are you alright? You're badly-" he started in his gravely, gruff voice.
"We're fine, Pakkun. Naruto and Sai are still missing. We need you to find them." Kakashi cut in.
Pakkun's brow furrowed further if that was possible and turned to address the rest of his clan.
"You heard the man!" And with that the eight dogs bounded off into the smoke, communicating with yelps and nips.
Pakkun returned first, wordlessly dragging a black satchel that was approximately the same size as him. He dropped it unceremoniously by Kakashi's side and shot him a meaningful look before heading back to join the search.
Sakura noticed Kakashi's one-eyed eye roll as he began to leaf through its contents.
"Is that our bag?"
"Yep." he replied shortly, chucking a rudimentary first aid kit at Sakura. "How's your chakra control?"
Looking sadly at her hands, Sakura replied, "Non existent. When do you think it will come back?"
"Hard to say. Probably in a few hours, maybe more. Patch yourself up as best you can until then."
"There's hardly anything in here, just some gauze, some wipes, a small bottle of iodine, a couple of bandages…What about you?"
"It's all yours, Sakura. You need it more than I do," he replied, gesturing to the numerous deep, bloody gouges littering her exposed flesh.
Using one of the water bottles that Kakashi had chucked her way to rinse the blood off her hair, she set to work one handed, applying cotton padding and bandages to the back of her head. Head wounds always bled like a bitch. It had stopped hurting. She set about disinfecting the larger gashes she could gain access to after that, marveling at the pleasant numbness of her body as she dabbed the usually excruciating orange liquid into the cuts.
"You know, I think I must be going into shock," she said mildly. "I can't feel anything now."
Kakashi looked her up and down before pulling out his spare long-sleeved jounin shirt from the satchel. He awkwardly shifted over to help her maneuver into it, gently lifting her arms through the sleeves.
"There, that'll stop you getting cold," he muttered.
"Thanks. Are you sure you don't want me to take a look at you?"
"Nah, I'm fine," he smiled, but with obvious tightness before swiping what remained of the water and knocking back two small black pellets.
"Soldier pills won't fix whatever's wrong."
"No, but they'll kill the pain and keep me awake."
She was about to protest, about to rattle off a long list of medical facts and rules pertaining to the proper use of battle stimulants, but then Pakkun made a reappearance, his head hung low and his stubby tail held close against his body.
"We can't find them, Kakashi. The smoke and fire are stopping us from getting a good scent. We can't sense their chakra anywhere. I'm sorry."
"Look again!" Sakura practically screamed, wide-eyed and panic-stricken. "They have to be here somewhere! They might be injured! They might need our help!"
The pug shifted awkwardly, shifting his eyes from Sakura to Kakashi anxiously.
"Both exits have caved in under the force of the explosion. I really don't see how they could've survived. They're most probably buried under a hundred feet of concrete and rubble. We can't sense any chakra, not theirs, not the enemy's. I'm sorry, but there isn't much we can do."
"Thank you, Pakkun." Kakashi stated solemnly, lifting a hand to stop the tirade he could feel bubbling forth from Sakura. "We'll have to get out of here. The explosion will have attracted attention from Takigakure and the neighboring settlements. It won't do us any good at all to be found here."
"What are you talking about?!" Sakura admonished, the disbelief written clearly across her drawn features. "We can't just leave them here! I won't! The first lesson you ever taught us was that those who abandon their friends are worse than scum!"
"Sakura..."
"No, you listen! My team is my family! They aren't expendable and-"
"Sakura! This is not a discussion, it's an order! We have to-"
"NO!" And suddenly she was up and sprinting away from them, hot tears pricking at the corners of her eyes as she raced towards the center of the crater, not caring when sharp stones dug into her feet or when they were scalded by the red hot embers. She slammed her body into a giant pile of boulders and rubble, dragging at them with both hands, not feeling any pain as her already broken hand bent in inconceivable ways or as the flesh across her knuckles tore. She moved stones almost half her size, not with chakra, but with pure willpower.
They had to be safe, they just had to be.
...but the boulders got bigger until even willpower couldn't shift them.
Screaming her frustration against the obelisk-like pieces of stone, she started to cry. A warm hand slid over her shoulder.
"Sakura."
"NO!" she wailed again, beating her fists against the unyielding surface. If only she had her chakra, if only she could have been sent deep underground and not them. If only…
"Sakura, please…"
"no." her voice was small as his arms wrapped around her, turning her into his chest.
"We'll send a search party, the best Konoha has, I promise, but we need medical attention and we need to get out of here."
Her tears were coming heavily now, carving clean lines on her soot covered face. She looked up and the weight of her loss looked back at Kakashi from the glassy surface of her eyes. Then, in a final bout of defiance, she went limp in his arms.
Kakashi looked down at the girl's face. Even in unconsciousness it was pinched with worry and anger. He let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding.
They really needed to get moving. If they didn't, he knew his own depression would soon overcome him, rendering them both helpless. They couldn't do anything for their lost teammates in their current condition anyway. Kakashi didn't even know if he would even be able to walk.
Pulling Sakura into a bridal style lift with the satchel bumping painfully against his burnt back, he prepared to move off, probably west toward Kusagakure. If they could get over the border to Grass or at least near the border, then they could wait until suspicion had died down before traveling back to Konoha. He'd send a dog ahead to Tsunade with the important details of the mission so that they could prepare for the coming war. He'd find a small village, hopefully with a doctor, and a cheap hotel.
A small, strangled squeak sounded from somewhere near his feet. He looked down in time to see a large, bristly black rat pull itself out of the cracks between the debris. It trailed a path of black ink from its hindquarters as it dragged its rapidly disintegrating body towards Kakashi.
Quickly, Kakashi placed the unconscious kunoichi on the ground as gently as possible and pulled out a parchment scroll from his flack jacket. Unfurling it fully, he laid it down in front of the dying animal. As its front paws touched the surface of the parchment its inky body exploded, splattering the paper with broken words and unfinished sentences.
Kakashi tried to make out anything that could be useful. What had Sai been trying to tell them?
"Bingo book," "profiles," "funding" – These words were legible, their letters smudged, but legible, and one other thing...A name.
Nakamizu Hiroto.
Well done, Sai. It was a start.
Sawasaki. It was a small border village between Waterfall and Grass which held around seventy residents. The problem with border settlements was that they were a bit of a no man's land. The people that lived there kept their heads low, taking what money they could make from the many mercenaries, outlaws, and downright weirdies that passed through. The people that didn't live here were said mercenaries, outlaws, and downright weirdies. In towns like this, prostitution and crime were rife, the motels were skanky fleabags, but due to increased trade, the food was generally pretty good and everything was cheap, so when Kakashi strode through the gates looking like he'd been set on fire then gone a few rounds, nobody even blinked. When he heaved Sakura off his shoulder onto the reception desk of the "Duck and Dive" (How apt, he thought) and proceeded to count out coin by coin the exact change needed to secure them a twin room, the receptionist, a hard looking woman with crooked teeth and broad shoulders, merely handed him his key and a tissue, berating him for dripping blood all over her desk. Picking up his not-so-light load and chucking her into a fireman's carry, Kakashi staggered slowly up the wooden stairs, slapping Sakura's backside half heartedly as he did so.
"I swear to God, after twenty six miles, I'm not sure if I disagree with Naruto about the weight thing," he muttered, suddenly feeling the loss of the orange clad ninja acutely.
Although, to be honest, Sakura's heaviness probably had more to do with his loss of blood, fractured ribs and hip, and the pain from his burnt back which the solider pills hadn't quite masked, than her actual weight. Really, she was quite a tiny thing.
Every time Kakashi moved, his jacket would feel like it was tearing a hole in his back. He'd tried removing it a few hours ago when the heat from the morning sun and the extra weight he was carrying started to make him feel sick and dizzy, but this had proven impossible. The fire had fused the jacket and undershirt to his body. His jaw felt swollen, too.
He fumbled with the key that didn't seem to want to turn until finally it granted them access. Limping forward to the one large bed in the center of the room, certain he'd asked for a twin, not a double, he placed Sakura gently on one side before climbing onto his own. He didn't even bother to take off his shoes and subsequently trailed mud up the side of the duvet. He really needed to go and find them a doctor or at least someone who knew more about first aid than him, but he was just so tired. That was when Kakashi's own special brand of oblivion washed over him and dragged him under.