The Burden of Future
~Chapter 14~
Hello, people! Sorry for not updating but I had food poisoning and a mild cold at the same time and I realized it's kind of hard to write when you're emptying your stomach in the toilet! :D
Anyways, as I've finally got better, I decided I should celebrate this moment with chapter 14, now freshly baked out of my mind.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I'm terrible at drawing manga. I don't like orange. I don't like pink. You do the math.
Her limbs were a total blurr as she tried to find an opening in her teammate's defense, who, matter-of-factly, had started to finally get her tricks and ways of subtly attacking. Sasuke's stance and level of taijutsu had improved immensely in those few months since they'd been training: not only did he start to actually combine his moments of incursion with highly defensive positions, but he had also got the ability to suddenly change his direction in midair, confusing the bunny out of his opponents. Not wanting to seem too effective in her fighting techniques, she sometimes let it slide, taking the hits a seven year old like herself would not have been able to deflect.
"Ouch," she huffed, falling ceremoniously on her butt after her face met with Sasuke's fist.
"Hm, you seem a little bit rusty lately, don't you?" the rave-haired boy said, a cocky smile strongly plastered on his face. "I might as well be even bet…".
"Ano, Sakura-chaaan!", Naruto cried from aside, interrupting the Uchiha's speech of self-praise. "When is my turn? I want to fight you too!"
"Well, aren't I beloved around here…" Sakura scoffed under her breath, clearly understanding the fact that the blonde just wanted to kick her ass as well so he wouldn't be any weaker than Sasuke. She tried to get up so she could offer her friend the opportunity to fulfill his sudden wish, but it was like her leg had fallen asleep as she tripped in it, colliding with the ground once again.
"Argh, for the love of Kami!" she cried as she felt the sharp pain of a badly twisted ankle erupt in her left leg. She grabbed it in an unconscious need to stop the sudden ache, but all she did was to give a good squeeze to the already swollen joint, making the sting almost unbearable.
"MMHMMMHM!" she screamed with her mouth closed to stop the long series of profanities that kept crossing her mind at that very moment.
"Sakura, are you okay?" the two boys said in unison, rushing towards her the moment she collapsed.
"NO, I'm perfectly fine! I just have this urge at times to scream my lungs out while holding onto my leg tightly. It's almost like a RITUAL!" the rosette shouted as she started to slowly put to use her infamous green chakra.
"Sasuke, even her ironic-self came out! It seems it really hurts this time!" Naruto said, now using his teammate as a shield form Sakura's possible wittiness.
"Come on, let's help her out," Sasuke said trying to lift her off the ground, but was forcefully pushed away, feeling the bit of chakra enhanced power Sakura had when full of wrath.
"Yeah, we better leave her alone for now."
"Sorry for hitting you earlier," Sakura said meekly, sitting next to her hurting friend as they were resting together on the bench near the training grounds they had been using.
"Don't worry, I can manage it," the young Uchiha said, shifting slightly in his seat as he was still rubbing slightly at his guts.
The three stood motionless next to each other, staring blankly at the clouds passing rapidly over their tilted heads. Each of them had the most various thoughts crossing their minds, but only Sakura's were filled with pure concern and nervousness.
'It's tonight, isn't it?' the voice in her head asked rhetorically, the gravity of it cutting off the usual humor that her Inner was so fond of.
'Mhm, I think it already started', she thought, looking at the sun spreading its last rays of sunshine over the village of Konoha.
That very day was D-Day in her and Itachi's plan. Not only was it of crucial importance in itself, but it was also the conscious start to the long inevitable chain of murders and betrays and wars that were to come in the next 10 years of their life. She smiled to herself, pondering over the irony of the situation. This in itself was a murder, a complete genocide actually, considering the number of victims that came as a terrible, but necessary consequence. They've tried lying to themselves into believing that the Uchiha massacre could actually be avoided, but in the end, the only thing left was to accept the fact thoroughly. It didn't depend on them. Of course, Itachi was indeed the one to have his hands stained with his own family's blood, but, if he wasn't the one to do it, they would have found somebody else to and, of course, they would have definitely killed him in the end.
She looked at the raven haired boy beside her, who was already sleeping with his eyes opened from the intense training they've been through. As soon as she saw his peaceful appearance, though, she turned her gaze to hide a sudden wetness that had taken over her forest green eyes. It wasn't fair; it wasn't fair at all that he was the one to suffer the most from this stupid political conflict. It only took her a moment to recall the radical changes that he had suffered in her previous life and she felt restless, almost frightened at the thought that he could become the same again.
'But not this time round,' she told herself confidently, trying to overcome the sudden feelings flooding her in her uneasy state of being.
This time round, she knew what was to be done so that her teammate would live a normal life, without the urges of an avenger flowing through his veins.
The sun had already set and the three were still staying on the bench quietly, Sakura, in some sort of waiting stance for everything to end and Naruto, together, with Sasuke, because they couldn't really get up…
Seeing how, after a few minutes of resting, Sasuke wanted to go home, she quietly decided that that wasn't the most valid option, especially at that time, so she did the only possible thing to stop him without rising any suspicions. She sent a sudden shot of chakra through his nervous system and knocked him down without hesitation and, as she didn't want Naruto as a witness, she did the same to him.
She waited few more minutes, silently counting the seconds until her part in the plan would come. She got up, cracking her joints in a relaxed stretch, preparing both physically and mentally for what was to come. She grabbed the two bodies still limp on the bench and put them steadily on her shoulders, limbs dangling at her sides. She had to drop Naruto at his place and then came the difficult part of it all: facing the massacre at Sasuke's house.
It only took her a minute to reach the neighborhood in which Naruto lived, the same one infamous for the poor behavior had towards her much-loved friend and teammate. She slowly opened the window to his apartment, the glass sliding soundly in the process, probably waking every single sleeping being in the building. Not that there were many anyway… She put the blond haired boy in his bed and covered him with the same green blanket he had had for ages. Putting his head comfortably on the pillow, she looked at the peaceful expression on the boy's face and barely contained herself from caressing his whiskers marked cheek.
"Sleep well, Naruto. I'm going to need your cheerful self tomorrow. A lot…."
As she was getting closer and closer to the Uchiha compound, the air kept getting thicker and thicker, not only with the horrifying metallic scent of freshly poured blood, but also with the unavoidable feeling of death that hung ominously in it. She shifted Sasuke's weight in her arms, her grasp unconsciously getting tighter on her friend's limp body. She didn't need to wait too long for a certain mysterious figure to appear standing threateningly on the pole, crouching slightly while still holding the katana in his hand. His presence there was the only thing she needed. She formed a clone and, after putting Sasuke in its care, she dashed towards Sasuke's house, knowing that if she didn't hurry, their whole plan might have completely failed. Entering the Uchiha neighborhood, she ran by the tens of lifeless bodies scattered on the road, the horrifying images not slowing her down despite the sudden shock and utter fright she felt as soon as she saw them.
Reaching the said house, she didn't falter at all and entered it without hesitation, knowing that the faster she moved, the better everything would turn out. She passed the main hall and searched for the infamous room which Sasuke would have entered if it wasn't for her to distract him. Finding the two unmoving bodies of a certain Uchiha's parents, her medic-nin instincts kicked in and, rushing towards them, she started checking their vitals and repairing tissue after tissue.
Although she'd tried her best to save Fugaku Uchiha, it seemed the sudden gash got to his throat was too deep to be even considered as reversible. Making the painful decision of leaving him behind, she turned to Mikoto and started working on her fervently, her hands, glowing with pale green chakra never stopping to check, to stitch, to repair. After almost half an hour, she managed to bring her to a stable state, not totally healing her wounds so that it wouldn't be suspicious the fact that Itachi had indeed tried to kill her. As soon as she finished, though, she eliminated the last bit of evidence of her presence there and ran away from there as fast as her legs could carry her, not even wanting to look back again. She stopped next to Sasuke's figure, who was still asleep in the arms of her clone. She took him gently in her arms, dispelling the clone in the process. It was over.
Sitting on a bench at the entrance in the village, she was holding tightly at her friend's body, her mind too empty, her eyes too dry to even cry her fear and sadness away. It wouldn't be long until the corpses of almost the entire Uchiha clan would be found in the literal pool of blood Itachi has left them.
She thought about him and the ultimate sacrifice he had to make in order for others to live in peace and quiet. In spite all the training a shinobi does through his life and all the experience he gets through his missions, nothing can really prepare one for such an emotional impact as the one Itachi was probably still feeling at that moment. She knew he was now probably far away from the village, already in search of Akatsuki to stabilize his state as a missing-nin, but she couldn't keep herself from hoping to see him one last time, to at least look him in the eyes to know if he would be okay, if he would manage to pass with flying colors this horrifying test of life.
A rustle in the trees behind her told her that her wish had suddenly become true. Turning around slowly, she noticed in an instant the crimson pair of Sharingans staring back at her from the shadows of the forest. A soft, reassuring smile appeared on her lips when she saw his gaze fall on his brother, still asleep in her arms. He was fine. Thank God, he was fine…
"Take care of him", he said, his stare not leaving his sibling's figure, not even for a moment.
"I will," Sakura said and watched him slowly turn around to set on leaving.
"Itachi?" she called one last time, not wanting to part with him after all that happened.
"…Yes?"
"…. Don't forget it."
"…I won't."
And done! :D I'm so happy I finally managed to write this chapter; it was like a last obstacle I had to pass in order to actually continue the story. Hope you guys will enjoy it and, well, see you next time!