Woot woot, new chapter guys, so sorry about the time I promised about writing a new chapter earlier but this was sitting in my Doc Manager for nearly four-five months 25% finished and I'm sorry about not updating.
My writing might be a little rusty but I'm working on making my style less childish and choppy so huzzah. I just realized it's over a year since I published this story so -throws confetti-. I do have a reason why I didn't update, I had summer prep as well as a vacation to China so I didn't have the time to post at all, and then after coming back I had completely forgotten about fanfic so sorry ;-;
Btw that Naruto ending was soo fucking amazinggggg OMFG Yesss I was crying part of the time and also laughing too... I'm not deranged ahahaha. ;-; Sasuke Shinden is also really good because you know... SASUKAYYYYYYY!
Standard 'I Don't Own Naruto' Disclaimer , or I'll probably get my poor ass sued.
Sakura wasn't too sure about what happened after Sasuke left. It was all a blank in her mind, like she was on autopilot.
Itachi shook his head and excused himself, saying that he'll keep an eye on Sasuke. Sakura nodded absentmindedly and looked at the ticking clock on the wall. It read '5:45', meaning that at this point Sasuke would probably be a dragon.
She let out a deep sigh, and was about to leave when Tsunade asked "You still hold feelings for him, am I right?" Sakura stopped and turned around.
"Excuse me, Tsunade-sama?" She asked incredulously. The Sannin merely let a knowing smirk slide onto her lips. "You heard me, I asked, if you hold feelings towards the Uchiha." Sakura seemed to be in shock before shaking her rapidly.
"N-no, of course not, I don't hold any sort of intimate relationship towards Sasuke!" She denied, and Tsunade muttered "Kids these days... always in denial. It's not like I haven't fallen in love before..." Her amber eyes softened and she seemed to age several decades, before she suddenly regained her dignified aura.
"Don't lie to me Sakura, I can tell that you love him. You can not deny that. Now run along... I do hope you make up after that... certain argument that I do so happened to witness." With that the female Hokage exited the room with a sweep of her long blonde locks and green haori, leaving Sakura and Shizune gaping.
Sakura stayed there for a few moments, while Shizune left the room throwing her an apologetic glance before catching up to Tsunade. Sakura composed herself and shook her head before she also left the tent, wandering around the village until she found herself at an abandoned section of Konoha.
The place was dull, smelling of death and blood splattering here and there, paint chipping off of every building. Sakura shivered but she still passed through the gates, not taking notice of the prominent but faded Uchiha symbol painted several times on the concrete walls.
She shuffled down the dirt path, hearing phantom screams of pain and pleading for life. It was eerie but somehow Sakura still continued walking down past dozens of broken and empty buildings, until she reached a large manor with a red umbrella placed on the side of the entrance.
Sliding open the bamboo shoji doors, she tiptoed into the empty house. Glancing around, she found everything in order, almost as if nothing ever happened. Except for the thick layer of dust covering everything and the terrifying feeling of abandonment and death.
Darting into the kitchen, she found nothing suspicious, only a simple oak table and several padded cushions surrounding it along with the kitchen necessities you would find in every house. Sighing in relief, she moved to the upstairs of the manor and entered what looked like a child's room. The only thing was that there was a bed, some drawers and pictures. An intricate set of incense holders was placed at the window sill of the room with several photos and notes.
Sakura carefully dusted the pictures and a shocked gasp escaped her mouth when she saw pictures of Sasuke and his family smiling at the camera. Glancing through the several photo frames, her eyes softened and she stared at the happy grin of what used to be the young Uchiha that she dearly loved. Setting the wood frame down, she opened the notes and read through each of them.
Kami-sama please look after Sasuke-chan.
I dearly wish that otouto is safe, and that is my only wish.
I hope that Sasuke has overcome Orochimaru, let him be safe.
Sakura's eyes teared up as she read the final notes of Sasuke's now dead family. She quickly gathered up the notes and photos, running out the house and heading straight to the palace.
As she entered the gates, she saw her mother and father standing at the door. "Okaa-san... Otou-san? What's wrong?" She asked, hiding the precious belongings behind her back.
"Sakura-chan... We've recently just found out about what happened with Sasuke-kun... He's in danger of being targeted by Danzo and not only that... Tsunade-sama just informed us that traces of Orochimaru's chakra was found in his body, proving how he's absorbed such a great danger into his body. We're sorry but once he comes back we have to put him under 24/7 guard and maximum surveillancue." Mebuki said grimly, though traces of sadness were shown in her green eyes in which Sakura inherited from her.
Kizashi nodded as well and added on "He won't be persecuted as criminal, but he'll still be staying in the palace, if that makes you feel better." Sakura shook her head and pushed past her parents, running straight to her room. She couldn't seem to wrap her mind around it... She just couldn't.
Sasuke heaved as he coughed out another round of blood, painful jolts racking his body. After he had stripped away Orochimaru from taking over his body, he found out that the disgusting snake had managed to set a jutsu to damage his insides, just in case something like that happened.
He took in a shaky breath and stared at the crystalline surface of the lake, now tinted red with his blood. His face contorted into a grimace as he felt his stomach twist into knots. Hacking out more of the red liquid, he quickly moved to another side of the lake and took in a large gulp of the cool fresh water. That made him feel much better.
"So how was it with suppressing Orochimaru...?" A familiar voice asked behind him. Sasuke's head snapped back to find Itachi leaning on a tree trunk, looking at him with an expression that seemed to be both amused and worried at the same time.
"It's fine, and how did you know that? I told no one." Sasuke gritted out as he arched out his neck slightly. Itachi pushed back from his leaning position and simply said "Tsunade-sama. And the medical team." Oh so that was how they figured out the secret he had been hiding.
Sasuke said nothing but he turned around to face the lake again before he shut his eyes tightly and choked out more blood. Gasping for breath after a round of coughing, he collapsed on the ground, feeling light headed and sick.
Itachi's eyes widened and he hurried towards Sasuke. "Otouto, what did you do to yourself now..." He murmured as he brushed his hand across Sasuke's forehead, his brotherly demeanor suddenly appearing.
Sasuke kept quiet and merely averted his eyes somewhere else. Itachi gave him a look between exasperation and slight annoyance, before brushing his hand on the pulsing dragon mark. Sasuke winced and shifted away from his older brother's touch, carefully eyeing Itachi's movements.
Itachi sighed, "Something that was meant for me, now curses you for the rest of your life... Why did you jump in front of me that day, Sasuke?" The said onyx eyed 'dragon' kept his mouth shut and decided to stare at the reddening horizon.
Weighing his options, Itachi decided to stay with Sasuke until he finally cooperates, after all younger brothers were so stubborn, and not to mention they were Uchihas...
Sakura sat on the edge of her bed staring sadly at the photos of what used to be the happy Uchiha family. She sighed and stood up, looking at the pinkish orange sky through her window.
Peering through the slightly transparent curtains, she noticed a speck flying closer and closer to her window until she realized it was Sasuke and Itachi. Eyes widened, she quickly pushed away the curtain and opened the window at its fullest and waved at the two Uchihas.
Five minutes later, a blur of raven and onyx slipped through her window and landed on her carpet with a small thud. Itachi stepped off his younger brother and smoothed out his raven locks, "Took me long enough to convince Sasuke to come back to the palace before he ends up killing himself." He murmured tonelessly.
The said dragon turned around and glared at his elder brother fiercely before he sat down on Sakura's carpet and willed his nausea to settle down.
"Uhm... Mind explaining me what happened?" She asked as she quickly slid the pictures and notes under her pillow. Thankfully, Itachi's eyesight was too blurry to notice such movement and Sasuke seemed more preoccupied to focusing on one spot on her room than to keep track of her.
"Ah, yes. After Sasuke left the temporary infirmary, I followed him to that giant lake and it seems to be that he has some... Issues with dealing with Orochimaru..." Itachi explained cautiously, noticing Sasuke's sudden agitation.
"Oh... I see... Er, I have some bad news for you two though..." Sakura closed her eyes and sighed before looking back up "After Sasuke-kun's sudden transformation... As well as the partial destruction of Konoha... Erm.. Danzo-sama and the elders seemed to all agree on keeping him on probation and 24/7 guard in the palace..."
She looked away, and murmured "I'm sorry, if I came sooner to your room none of this would happen."
Itachi sighed, "It's not your fault, I assure you that something like that would occur sometime later on even if it didn't happen last time." Sakura nodded unsurely and glanced at Sasuke cautiously.
He still wasn't paying attention at all, even now, his hardened gaze was still forced onto one point of her wall. Sakura tilted her head questioningly, "Sasuke-kun? Are you ok...?"
He still refused to speak, instead he walked towards the bathroom and swung it shut. Sakura winced inwardly when she heard a series of painful cracking sounds resonating from the small room before she heard a thud and loud retching.
Rushing over to the door, she realized Itachi had reached there first, wrenching the door open with the poor wooden object slamming into the wall, it's hinges creaking dangerously.
Peering behind Itachi's shoulder, as the elder Uchiha stood protectively over his younger brother, she realized that something happened during the short time Sasuke had disappeared from the infirmary.
"Itachi-san, what's going on?" She asked, thoroughly worried about the younger Uchiha's condition. Unfortunately even Itachi wasn't informed about what was going on, but he had pieced together some of the information he had learned about Sasuke, forming a theory on his sudden illness.
"Perhaps it has something to do with Orochimaru corrupting his body. This is merely a theory but I suppose that the Sannin is one of the main reasons why Sasuke's in this situation." Itachi responded, rubbing Sasuke's shoulders comfortingly as his coughing lessened.
Sakura nodded uncertainly but judging by the red staining the normally white porcelain floor and toilet bowl, something was definitely going on. She helped Itachi move Sasuke onto her bed as soon as his coughing had ceased and she immediately set out to research what happened.
Gliding a chakra laden hand across the Fuin no Ryuu, she found coils of poisonous chakra laced throughout his body, leading straight to Orochimaru. The snake was heavily sealed by chakra barriers and chains, but edging close to where he resided was the borderline of the harmful chakra.
She gasped when a pulse of harsher, darker chakra rush through Sasuke's entire chakra system, the Fuin No Ryuu spreading through his abdomen in dark jagged branches just like the way it hurt his past self. The Uchiha convulsed in pain, a strangled groan escaped his thin lips as he desperately tried to shield himself off from Itachi and Sakura.
Itachi, gripped the edges of Sasuke's wings, forcefully pushing it back, and glanced at Sakura for her to start working. She nodded fearfully and immediately guided her palms back to hovering over his stomach, weaving her healing chakra throughout his system.
She carefully gripped onto the strange unknown chakra and pulled at it, which peeled it off almost immediately, but the moment it was peeled off Orochimaru's corrupting chakra overtook the weakened strand of chakra pathway and spread throughout several other branches. She looked up at Sasuke and nearly choked on her own spit when she realized that the one mistake she made had caused him to gain more of Orochimaru's characteristics.
Longer, thicker fangs pushed out of his lips and it seemed that both of his eyelids were streaked with Orochimaru's signature markings. Sakura bit her lip and focused her attention back to the corroding chakra, it was still advancing continuously, already branching out past the V of Sasuke's hips and his upper abs.
'What am I going to do...' She thought to herself bitterly, as she watched her glowing chakra slowly dim and her hands pressed weakly against Sasuke's stomach. Itachi noticed her sudden change in behavior, suddenly released his firm hold on Sasuke's wings.
Almost immediately, the two appendages snapped back protectively, making Sakura jump back in shock and stare at Itachi. The two stood there unmoving, with only Sasuke's shallow and labored breaths resounding across the room.
"If you're giving up on Sasuke, so be it. Watch him suffer and wear away. But not in front of me, I don't want some renowned medic nin who loves my otouto to suddenly give up on him just because she made one small mistake," Itachi snapped, suddenly out of his usual emotionless shell, "If I could see, and if I had the talent like you to heal not destroy, I would've already pushed you out of the way and healed Sasuke."
Sakura stared blankly at the older Uchiha, deeply shocked. She then turned to face Sasuke again only to find the dark branches climbing towards his collarbone, and yet even with all that, Sasuke seemed to hear everything Itachi said, his pained golden eyes widening ever so slightly as he rasped out "Nii-san..."
Itachi sighed heavily, as if the weight of his guilt and sorrows had pressed him down to the depths of Earth. Slowly he walked towards Sasuke and brushed back a lock of his younger brother's hair and murmured "Sorry Sasuke, maybe next time, you'll look at me like a real older brother."
With that, he walked out the door and closed it with a click. Sakura, who was still standing stiffly in the same spot, watched as Sasuke's hazy gold eyes film over with unshed tears, he closed his eyes and turned away, ignoring the painful fact that he was nearly enveloped with the dark chakra. The pinkette was met with more surprise when she watched a few drops of tears streak past Sasuke's turned cheek.
Everything was silent. Only the painful feeling of loss and hurt hovered over the two.
"Sasuke-kun..." Sakura whispered, watching the dark branches slowly climb past his jawline and towards his cheeks. The only acknowledgment she received was his silent, muted aura of agony and hurt.
Pressing her lips together, Sakura slowly advanced towards Sasuke, carefully reaching out towards his face and gently cupped her hands onto his jaw. Twisting his head to face her, she was met with a heartbreaking sight, something that was totally un-Sasuke like.
His eyes were slightly red, with his cheeks still slightly damp and his lips were slightly puckered from her hands pressing onto his face. She bit her lip when she saw the slight trickle of blood spill from his mouth when his fangs cut into it, and the worst of it was the amount of pain, horror and hurt that reflected off his opaque and normally emotionless eyes.
"I'm sorry," she choked out as tears slipped down her face and she slumped onto the floor, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry... I should've been there to stop Orochimaru, I could've kept on going to stop this chakra, but I didn't... I'm such a failure." She covered her face with her hands as more tears dripped onto the ground.
Sasuke didn't say anything, rather he allowed her to continue crying, his silence somehow comforted her despite the fact that he was only quiet because of the striking pain stemming from his Fuin no Ryuu. Slowly she caught ahold of herself and rubbed her eyes clean of the tears, reaching under her pillow to grab the notes she found in the Uchiha district.
"Here... This is for you, perhaps I can't save you... But this was from your parents." She murmured, slipping the pieces of paper onto Sasuke's palm. Backing away, she watched as he struggled to sit up, bracing himself heavily on the back of her bed. When he managed to find a comfortable position, he carefully brushed his fingers onto the yellowed edges of the paper.
Sakura watched his gaze flicker through the short notes and faded photos, his hand clenching onto the bed sheets tightly. "You..." He muttered, "You, hid this from me the whole time?" He looked up, his gaze cold and stony.
Sakura shook her head, noticing worriedly that the marks on his body were starting to glow an ominous purple. "N-no, I only found it today when I stumbled upon the old Uchiha district."
Sasuke's mouth curled up into a sneer, "Lies. Why else would you, of all people keep this away from me and hide it under your pillow." He sat up straighter and slowly got off the bed, towering over Sakura by several inches.
The pinkette didn't shrink back however, she stuck her finger onto his chest and growled "Lies? Lies? I would never lie to you and why would I keep something so important... So precious to you to myself if I hadn't found it today?" She took in a shuddering breath and glared at his now angry expression, vibrant green clashed with molten gold.
"Fine. So be it, I was glad that I gave up on you anyways, I thought the pictures were something to please you with, but if it's going to rip this friendship apart, then keep it. It's trash to me anyways." She started to walk pass him and stalk to the door, hard set on slamming it in his face when she was forced back by a hand pulling on her wrist.
She nearly stepped back in fear when she saw how furious Sasuke looked like. 'Ironic that he was in such pain and sadness just a few moments ago.' Inner Sakura remarked snarkily. Sakura pushed away the urge to roll her eyes and snap back at her inner when she saw just how angered the Uchiha was.
His wings were spread out to its fullest, his whole body was taut with tension as his lips curled up in a feral snarl. "How dare you insult the last remaining memories of my parents, I thought you were better than a simpering fan girl like you were back then but nothing has changed it seems. Perhaps that's why you were unable to stop this from happening to me. Weak."
He watched her eyes widen and then harden like steel as her lips pressed into a thin line. The next thing he knew, he was slapped in the face and sent careening towards the wall.
"How could you... Maybe that's why I should've gotten over you. But I didn't, you arrogant bastard. I shouldn't have fallen in love with you all those years ago." She whispered fiercely, her now stony eyes weakening as her shoulders slumped and more tears ran down her face.
This time she walked towards the door and slammed it with all her power and her soft footsteps were heard as she ran away from the room, leaving Sasuke to stand there in shock, his hand pressed onto his swelling and reddening cheek.
And there we go, a new chapter after nearly half a year on forgetting to update. Woops. Sorry for the OOC Sasuke and Itachi towards the end of the chapter, but I wanted to make it a tad more emotional. Also for xanimegirlxx808, this story is far from ending, but I apologize for putting it on hold for so long, I hope this longer chapter satisfies your need to read ;)
Anyways Happy New Year to all and a late Merry Christmas.
PS. I am going to post Upload dates from now on just to keep track of how far apart my uploads are. Not sure if I should do word counts too.
Read and Review, Ja!
Fuji
Upload Date: 01/04/17
Beta: None