Chapter 14 : Moeagaru

All she could hear was screaming.

At first it was so intense and painful that only thing comparable was one time, several years before, when Naruto had accidentally nicked her with the Chidori during training.

It had been an accident, of course, one flip here or kick there that went just a few centimeters too far for any of them to avoid, and then–collision.

There had been blood everywhere. The fact that it was Sakura's seemed to make it the ever more abominable mistake. She couldn't recall ever seeing Kakashi actually go as white as his hair before, but he certainly had then…

Slowly, she began to take stock of her senses. She could remember the explosion. The ground rushing up to meet her in bits and sharp jagged pieces the size of her head and hands.

So when Sakura's eyes snapped open, and the first words out of her mouth were

"What the fuck?!" she felt absolutely justified.

Sakura hadn't meant for those to be the first words out of her mouth, especially in the prescence of hospital staff, but she really couldn't help it. Sakura didn't like surprises. Especially ones that went 'boom' underneath her feet. It was more than likely the potency of her surprise, confusion and general ire at what had happened (which was still rather fuzzy in her mind) that had drawn her back into the waking world.

She was lying in a hospital bed, feeling more sore and torn up than when she'd first started specilized training with Tsunade as a genin. She made a move to lift her head.

"Oh no you don't," A familiar, caloused hand promptly pushed Sakura's head firmly back onto her pillow. It was a gentle push, but one that made no secret of the fact that the action was not a suggestion.

"If you open up anything I've stitched up, and I mean anything, I'll give you a sedative with side-effects that'll make you wish you'd died," the voice shook with audible hostility.

Tsunade…Sakura tried to smile, but even the small action of breathing was agony, forcing her to settle for a wince. Sakura turned her eyes to settle on her teacher, who seemed to have forgotten her Hokage dressage, along with any semblance of personal hygeine.

"You've been here three weeks." Shizune piped up, leaning over Sakura's bed to flash her a tired, but relieved, smile.

"Did I die?" Sakura tried not to flinch at how dry and hoarse her voice sounded, how worn.

"No."

"Darn."

Tsunade fought hard to keep herself from rolling her eyes at her former pupil, but she knew she wouldn't have the strength to do it again.

"Anko found you collapsed in one of the practice fields, bleeding to death from whatever the hell you'd done to yourself." Tsunade's voice was strained, her face flickering between hard won relief and obvious anger.

Here we go…Sakura sighed.

"Seems you've been a naughtly little kunoichi, releasing one of your seals? It's no wonder your weren't able to keep yourself from absorbing your clone's injuries." Tsunade said, a quiet, but deadly ice to her tone. This was Tsunade's speciality now, using words to cut and twist instead of knives or chakra. She was letting Sakura know the gig was up, and she wasn't happy that said gig had ever been endevored.

Somebody doesn't sound too happy…Ichi muttered.

Shut up, Ich…Sakura ground her teeth, irate. The last thing she wanted to do was to explain to her teacher why she'd released one of the joint seals to exstend the range of her clones'. She was so stupid, and even Ni had told her so, for thinking that there wouldn't be consequences for breaking even just one in the chain of seals along her body.

Man, we are in so much trouble…Sakura groaned.

Hey, dude, I just live here…Ichi shot back quickly. Sakura had to suppress the urge to attempt her jutsu right then and there, just so she would have Ichi's head within smacking range.

"I don't know why you did it, and frankly, I don't think I want to know. You're just lucky we found somebody who knows how to restructure those damn things," Tsunade huffed, drawing Sakura's attention back to the room, "though it wasn't easy…"

I'll bet…Sakura scowled. Her seals were located along major tenketsu points, allowing for their effects to extend to even the deepest corners of her body. But then, that's what Hinata had designed them for, to filter her blood and keep the powder from taking over, from poisining her to death…again.

Sakura frowned. So many things in her life had gone wrong since that one mission to the mountain village of Kurohana. It had changed…many things. Everything, in fact. Sometimes Sakura wondered if her life would have turned out differently had she passed over the assignment all together. True, the fact that Shikamaru had been leading the team had been a major enducement, even then, but that didn't change the fact that Sakura had acted impulsively, and without thought. Would Hinata and Kiba still be here if she'd refused? More than that, would Shikamaru have survived the mission without her? Was it really so simple as a choice between going or staying away from that one mission? Or was it more than that, a darker, more horrible selection between having her friends or having the one she loved? Was it really as terrible as either–or?

Nope…not going there…Sakura gave a slight shake of her head to dispell the thoughts.

"I'll leave you to rest before he gets here." Tsunade said gently. Confused, Sakura turned to look at her teacher.

"He?" She asked, concerned. She hadn't really been listening, what with all the internal chatter and confusion she had to wade through just to get her eyes to blink.

Instead of answering, Tsunade sighed and closed her eyes. She didn't have the energy to explain everything to Sakura more than once, no matter how fragile her present state. Best to just let her find things out the old-fashioned way and deal with them, like Tsunade should have forced her to a long time ago.

"He claims that he's restored most of the basic infrastructure, despite you finding out a way to make your chakra into a microscopic incendiery. Your life force practically tried to burn it's way out of you." Tsunade went on, smoothing out some imperceptable wrinkles on Sakura's bed sheet as she spoke.

"Lucky me…" Sakura submitted dryly.

"You were lucky, Sakura, don't forget that." Tsunade hissed, but Sakura could see a slight smile on her lips, and feel the half-hearted nature of her censure. Her teacher wasn't mad, at least not wholly. She was miffed to be sure, but at the moment she appeared more happy and relieved than anything else.

I must've scared her…Sakura felt a large piece of ice beginning to form in the pit of her stomach. She felt guilty, maybe a little more than usual. It wasn't, however, enough to cause any major changes to her little side project at the moment. She and her clones still had work to do.

"Easy there, tiger," Tsunade pressed a firm hand to Sakura's shoulder, trying to force her back down onto her bed. "The only thing you're gonna be doing is maintaining your present location. That's an order."

"Can you even do that?" Sakura growled, but she could see the corner of Tsunade's mouth quirk upwards in another small, almost imperceptible smirk.

Geuss that means 'yes'…Sakura frowned as her teacher patted her hand with a patronizing smile and exited the hospital room in a smug, satiated, silence.

Damn you ba-chan…Sakura glared at the door, attempting to burn through it with rightcheous indignation.

"Rest now," Shizune lay a soft kissed atop of Sakura's head as she followed after Tsunade.

Sakura waited until Shizune's soft, pattering, footsteps were a nothing but a whisper down the hall before she tried getting out of bed. The moment her toes hit the floor an Anbu was there, arms crossed, and looking none too pleased with her. If she hadn't been so annoyed with the situation, Sakura probably would have been impressed.

Sakura started to explain, but the Anbu in the wolf mask held up a hand, motioning silently to the hospital bed behind her, "I am merely here to keep the peace, Akiri-chan."

Kakashi…Sakura glared at him. She could already feel the prescence of his trademark smirk beneath that mask. Was he actually enjoying this? What had Tsunade written on the mission scroll for this shady, little, security-detail?

Misson: Keep Sakura in her bed by any means possible or the monument will be decorated in your entrails?

Sakura could really imagine that mission breifing going over well.

"Define 'peace', exactly…" Sakura leaned back against her bed, but made no movement to get back into it. She didn't get to where she was in her career by listening to every little order she was given, no matter how important others labeled them. She could tell this small defiant action irked him, but then again, he had accepted the mission scroll (willingly or otherwise).

"Peace," Kakashi began in his classic 'Teacher' voice, "as in the normal, non-warring condition of a nation or group. Emphasis on non-warring."

"Might need a little clarity into what you consider to be an act of war, Sensei," Sakura smirked.

"Haruno Sakura," Uh-oh, he was using her full name now, "Let me make one thing abundantly clear right now. If you don't behave, I will make sure that you and the Nara are assigned to missions on opposite ends of the continent," he said calmly.

"The no contact type of missions," he added darkly.

Well, that wouldn't be convenient…Sakura pouted.

Kakashi's threat was lightly veiled in his usual jovial tone, but Sakura knew he was more than serious. Leave it to Kakashi to threaten her love life when she was down. Why couldn't he just hit her when he was mad, instead of resorting to blackmail and manipulation?

You should talk…Ichi said.

"I would ask how you knew about it, but then I'm sure I'd regret the details," Sakura leaned back with a scowl, "Did you know that's considered cruel and unusual torture in some countries?" which merely earned her a chuckle from her gaurd.

"The Hokage infered I use 'any means nessisary' to keep you on bed-rest."

Knew it…Sakura growled, crossly.

"Infered?" She raised a brow. Kakashi again motioned for her to get back in bed, but it seemed she actually needed his help to manage it without tearing any of her sutures. Whatever injuries Ichi or Ni had sustained must have been vast, because Sakura could feel the stitches tugging at her tender skin down both sides of her torso and continuing in slashing jabs down her back, like someone had been using one of her clones as pieces of wood to whittle on. Silently, Sakura wondered if she was missing any larger, visible, chunks of herself, but a quiet assesment proved all her major appendanges to be intact…more or less. Her leg wasn't hurting as much as usual, which was strange, for her. In the months since she'd recieved the injury, the physical pain had been a brutal, but constant companion throughout the collapse of everything else in her life. Now, in the still, almost idylic, quiet, aftermath of the pain's demise, Sakura found herself oddly regretting the loss.

"Infered, threatened, promised…it's really all the same when you get down to it." Kakashi helped her into bed and pulled the sheets up around her shoulders, tucking her in carefully. He was treating her like a soap bubble, something almost too fragile to touch without breaking.

"Who's coming to see me, Kakashi?" Sakura asked softly, hoping to appeal to her former sensei's more compassionet side—where ever the Hell that was now-a-days.

"I only know what I overheard," Kakashi spoke quietly, almost in a whisper, "and I don't think you'd want to know…" His voice dipped sadly, making the last note of his tone seem more like a whimper than a word.

"Please, Kakashi," Sakura asked, softly nudging his hand with what few fingers she could still command with any surety. Kakashi remained silent for a moment, mulling over Sakura's rather out-of-character plea before he sighed, gently laying a caloused hand upon her head as he smiled at her. She could see him searching his mind for a neutral answer, something confusing and vague enough to keep him out of trouble, but informative enough to keep her from threatening him with some serious bodily harm in their next match. He didn't get a chance to divulge much though, as the door to Sakura's room suddenly slid open in a quiet smoothness, ushering in a new figure, one which Sakura had earnestly hoped she would never have to face again.

"Haruno-san…" A familiar voice stated cooly from the doorway. Kakashi stood and bowed, respectfully, causing Sakura to look up just as she heard the door to her room slide shut.

Oh, you've gotta be kidding me…Sakura would rather scratch her own eyes out than face this man. It was now official–she was going to kill the Hokage.

"Hyuga-Sama…" Sakura managed a slight, painful bob of her head, the closest thing she could get to a bow at the moment. Still, no matter the decorum she attempted or actually managed to execute, she knew it would never be good enough. Not for him, anyways.

The stoic Hyuga clan lord was obviously none too pleased to be in her prescence, the barely concealed scowl below his stoney façade making his personal sentiments all too apparent. Be it in service to the Hokage, or no, Sakura could tell that the Hyuga lord was silently enraged about being summoned, let alone to help her, of all foul and unholy things. Sakura couldn't say she honestly blamed him, all things considering. If the roles had been reversed, and he had been the one to give her the news about Hinata's last mission, she probably would have hated him more than anything else in the world, too.