Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing "Scroll."
Reignashii, why are you so great at this? I guess I can't hide that much things from you, huh? ^ v ^
It's alright, fragmentofice, you're not the only confused about Houren. But like I've always said, it will all be revealed in the next chapters. ^ v ^ I hoping to start the "reveal" in Chapter 37 - **hoping**
Anyway, here's this week's chapter. So far, I'm keeping up with my usual update schedule. Do tell me what you think about this chapter. ^ v ^
He quickly knelt down the corpse and held it in his arms.
It couldn't be Sakura…IT JUST COULDN'T! He was just holding her a few moments ago...
Or was he?
He pulled out his katana from the corpse's torso. Blood spilled out from the wound. It spread into the cloth of her kimono, turning it's shade of beige turn scarlet.
Sasuke brushed the pale pink hair against the corpse's face.
He froze.
It was Sakura. Her eyes were shut. Blood flowed down from her forehead, from her nostrils, and from the ends of her purple lips.
She was extremely cold. Her chest wasn't moving.
The numbing, stinging sensation slowly crept up his veins. The usual hole in his chest was filled by a huge lump that blocked his lungs from taking in enough air.
His vision blurred. He heard sobs…hiccups…grieving sounds echoing in the wind.
Sasuke furiously shook his head, hoping that would break whatever illusion or spell he was in.
But when he opened his eyes, Sakura's lifeless face was still there in his arms.
"N-no," he gasped. "No, you're not..! I'm getting the flower…WE'RE GOING HOME! Please…please wake up…Wake up! SAKURA!"
But she remained still…unmoving…dead.
Sasuke gasped and jolted up from the futon.
His eyes were wide in alarm as it took in the darkness o f the living room.
He was still gasping for breath. Beads of sweat slid down his forehead. His chest was throbbing.
Sasuke rubbed his hands on his face.
They had lunch. Sakura felt sleepy so he carried her to the bedroom and watched her fall asleep. He then went out of the room and washed the dishes. After that, he read a few of Sakura's notes but found the information from it too pointless, with his head spinning and confused on what to do about everything around him. So he sat down on the floor afterwards to clear his head.
Sasuke sighed and fixed his eyes on the front door. He locked it before he sat down to think about things.
Sakura would die if she left the village. Heck! She would die if she tried to walk too far from the house!
Sasuke needed that one time alone to digest everything that was going on around him.
There was still so much to know, but understanding the facts that were already on his lap was difficult enough for him to do. Confirming that Sakura was dying, that she had that many gruesome wounds, that there might or might not be any way to keep her alive, that the scroll was a record of her slow death, that the scroll wasn't written to save her life but to prevent other people from suffering the same fate she was having, that the possible cure for Sakura was a mythical flower that may or may not exist-
…that there was a great possibility that he would never see Sakura in Konoha again…that he will never have a mission with her; that he will never catch a glimpse of her in the hospital; that he will never see the smile she always wore for him; that Naruto's dream of their team being complete…would most likely never happen.
All those thoughts rushed into his consciousness. He must have fallen asleep while he was trying to sort everything out.
Sasuke sighed and ruffled his hair.
His mission was to get the scroll and take it to Konoha.
Sakura gave him the permission to execute his mission.
If he executed his mission, he would no longer be under probation. He would be able to live normally in Konoha. No more Anbu ninjas looking over his shoulders. No more stupid low-level missions. No more guards. No more-No more…
…No more Sakura.
The image of the bloody pink-haired corpse in his arms rushed into his consciousness.
Sasuke shook his head.
If he left with the scroll, he would leave Sakura alone in the house. The traps he set up might hold, but what if the enemy had destroyed them all? Sakura would be defenseless!
Sasuke glared at the floor.
But he could have the Hokage make a cure for Sakura. Then Tsunade would have Konoha ninjas delivering the cure to Sakura. He would even volunteer to administer the medicine.
That was it! He would take the scroll and have a cure–
But how long would it take for the hokage to make the cure? How long did Sakura have? If no one tried to kill her, how long would it take for the illness to take her life?
Sasuke shut his eyes.
He tried to remember what he read from her notes earlier. He recalled the descriptions for each stage of the illness…how many days the patients had before they–
So far, as long as she hadn't exhibited symptoms of internal hemorrhage, she had a long way to go.
But Kaitaro told him that saying how many days or months a sick person had left was pointless. Even if a doctor said the patient would last for a month, the patient could either still live more than a month or end up dead in less than a month.
If there was really nothing else they could do to save the patient…to Sakura…
Sasuke opened his eyes.
…The flower. The doctor gave him directions on how to find the flower. He would get it. He would get the cure and he would go back to Konoha with Sakura.
But what if it really was just a mythical flower – it didn't exist? He would only be wasting time. If he left for Konoha with the scroll tomorrow morning, the hokage would be able to start working on a cure!
Should he start packing then? Why was he even thinking about Sakura's fate? She obviously wanted to die in the village!
Sasuke felt his chest throb.
And she was right – she was just another ninja he had to put up with while he was on his mission. He shouldn't care about her – not anymore!
Sasuke took a deep breath and sighed. A lump was forming in his throat.
It might be time for dinner. He should start preparing something to eat.
He forced himself to stand up. He was on his way to the ash-filled hearth when he heard something. …Gasps…Coughing…Gagging…from the bathroom..?
Sasuke quickly grabbed a lamp from the kitchen and lit it. He rushed to the path that he remembered led to the bathroom near the bedroom.
The coughing sound became louder the nearer to the bathroom he went.
He passed by the bedroom, fearing but knowing it was empty.
The bathroom door was open. Sakura was on her knees – her head limply hanging from the edge of the toilet seat.
Sasuke swiftly set the lamp down on a corner and held Sakura away from the toilet bowl.
"Sakura!" he called, seeing she only seemed half-awake. He brushed the tangled strands of pale pink hair away from her face and froze.
A trail of blood ran down from her nose. There were blood stains on her pale lips as well.
…Chills slinked into his veins – chills that burned his insides like tiny but destructive sparks of electricty.
She resembled the corpse he held in his nightmare.
He frantically held her cheek. It was still warm. Her chest was heaving for air. She was still alive!
...But she was bleeding.
She shivered and began to choke.
Sasuke held her closer. "Sakura!"
Sakura shook her head and leaned away. She hung her head on the toilet seat – vomiting blood.
Sasuke froze.
The inside of the toilet seat was filled with red liquid.
Sakura coughed and gagged. Her shaky arms tried to keep her limp body from sinking her head into the inside of the toilet bowl.
Sasuke furiously shook his head.
It wasn't the time to be shocked!
He quickly held Sakura again but this time, he supported her weight to keep her from slamming her face on the porcelain toilet seat.
"It's okay," he whispered into her hair. "I'm here. You're going to be okay. I'm here now, Sakura."
The scent of rust and bile slowly seeped into his senses.
He held her tighter, as if letting her go would mean losing her forever.
Sasuke didn't know how long it lasted.
He was too busy brushing her hair away from her sweaty face and whispering comforting words against her ear to wonder about how much time she had spent vomiting blood into the toilet bowl.
All he knew was that Sakura began wailing like a wounded child after a while. She called his name so many times, told him she couldn't take it anymore. She complained about feeling an intense pain in her chest and abdomen.
"Kill me," were the words she whispered constantly - her pale green eyes begging him to end the pain.
It crushed him, just as much as seeing her dead did. The numbing feeling filled his body, changing into unbearable, indescribable pain. The forming lump blocked his throat. He felt like he was drowning.
He wanted to cry. But the tears in her pleading eyes told him it wasn't the time to crumble.
So he just shook his head, placed light kisses on her sweaty cheeks and forehead, and repeatedly whispered "No, it's going to be alright," "It's going to go away," "It will stop," and "You will be okay."
By the time it was over, Sakura was too weak to keep her eyes open. She was too limp to move a muscle, and too unconscious to notice that he was still there with her.
Sasuke stayed there on the cold bathroom floor cradling Sakura. He kept her head tucked into the crook of his neck – his cheek warming a cold side of her face. His chest listened to the jagged rhythm of her heart beat.
He sat there thinking about what he had to do next. His head told him he should take her to the bedroom. His body told him to make sure she was really feeling better before he did so. His heart told him to just keep her close – to never let her go.
Sasuke had to carry her back to the bedroom.
He froze when the light of the lamp touched the room. The blanket was strewn across the floor. There was a big blood splatter on the futon and a large smear of blood on the floor that led to the door.
Why didn't he notice it? He should have heard her move out to the door at least.
Sasuke laid Sakura on the clean blanket and under the dim light of the lamp noticed the blood stains on her kimono.
He took a deep breath and wiped the moisture forming in eyes.
He then cleaned the mess in the bedroom, prepared another futon and quilt for Sakura and laid her there. He also washed her face and carefully changed her clothes.
Luckily her wounds didn't bleed. Her bandages didn't need changing.
He then went to the bathroom to clean it. He began flushing the red liquid down the toilet bowl. It took about six buckets of ice cold water to clear the mess in the bowl. He then scrubbed the blood stained floor.
He cleaned the floor to the bedroom next, mopping and disinfecting the bloodstains. He wiped the smear of blood on the bedroom floor afterwards. He took the blood-stained futon out and examined the stain on it.
After a moment of contemplation, Sasuke figured the weather wouldn't dry the futon if he washed it. He lit up the hearth and threw the futon in the flames.
He then walked back into the bedroom to check on Sakura. She was too pale and cold for his liking. So covered her body with another quilt.
Sasuke limply walked out of the bedroom, suddenly feeling too tired to move. He slumped down on the living room floor, staring at the hearth that lit up the room.
He watched the flames change hues…dance with the chilly air…feel apathy towards his gloomy disposition.
A tear slid down his cheek.
Sasuke looked down on the floor and bit his lower lip.
Sobs echoed inside the glum wooden house.
The image of the bloody sword-striken corpse flashed constantly in his mind – the image of Sakura vomiting blood giving him an impression on how her body lost its life when his katana struck her torso.
He couldn't help but think about how Sakura was so much worse than when he first saw her after two years, how painful the ordeal earlier must have been for her, how she must have felt when she woke up coughing out blood-
…How Sakura was really dying.
Sasuke covered his face as he silently whimpered.
He killed her. In his dreams, his katana stabbed her. He watched her die. That imposter – the Uchiha Sasuke that brought fear and havoc in Konoha – killed her.
Sasuke killed her.
And if Sakura didn't stop vomiting on her own earlier, she would've died too. He would have lost her. He would have watched her die an excruciating death.
Sasuke wept. He cried like Sakura did when she complained about the throbbing in her abdomen…when she tried to describe the pain from the severe internal wounds she had that caused her to vomit blood...
He stared at the flames, his hands constantly wiping the tears from his eyes as he tried to calm himself.
It was like losing Itachi all over again. It was like losing his parents…his relatives…his love ones.
It was so painful that he could barely breathe. It was then that he wanted the numbness to come. He missed how hollow his chest felt when he was supposed to be sad or angry. He missed how it made getting over a negative emotion easy.
At that moment, he just wanted to be free from the unbearable pain.
Sasuke sighed and closed his eyes.
This changes everything. Sakura now was in the stage that he dreaded the most.
According to her notes, the patients of the illness died due to the complications the illness caused.
"Kill me," he heard her voice echo inside her head.
That was one other thing he had forgotten when he made his plan – many of the patients who reached the last stage of the illness committed suicide because of the excruciating pain they felt.
If he left for Konoha, how sure was he that he would still find Sakura there in his return? How sure was he that she wouldn't find a way to kill herself?
The doctor can't check on her all day. It would reveal her location. Houren would kill her, and Sasuke wouldn't be there to save her.
Sasuke angrily ruffled his hair.
What should he do? Finish his mission and forget about her? She didn't want him anymore anyway. She wanted that Anbu ninja.
Sasuke looked at the flames again.
Sakura didn't want him to care about her anymore. So why should he care about her?
Sasuke stiffened.
Why...should he care at all?
"Who am I?" the imposter's voice echoed inside his head. "Oh I know who I am. Do you know who you are?"
Something was terribly wrong with him. He knew it. He wanted it to be checked and cured but...the more he lived without the angst, the hatred, the wrath...the more he lived.
What should he do then? Fix what was wrong with him? Go to Konoha with the scroll? Leave her there to die, just as how the vengeful Uchiha Sasuke would do?
Find the Anrui flower? Find the cure? Do anything and everything to keep her alive?
Houren raised a brow at the smiling blonde-haired reflection of himself.
They stood across each other in the room made for the ruling village chief. It was the last time that the white-haired Houren would conduct peace talks with the blonde.
"You're not going to stop me?" Houren asked, looking confused at the smiling blonde Houren in front of him.
"Nope," Houren cheerfully answered. "There's nothing you can do about it anyway."
The white-haired Houren smirked. "Is that a dare?"
"A truth," Houren said. "I know you're planning to reach the Uchiha."
Houren just watched his blonde-haired reflection.
"He's not going to work that way though," Houren said. "It's his nature – hating everyone from Konoha, wanting them dead…killing Sakura."
"Hm," Houren said. "You are telling me this because..?"
"I'm telling you what will happen," Houren answered. "Sakura will burn at the stake for causing the illness. She will perish. And Uchiha will make sure that happens."
"This is quite a game you're playing," Houren said.
"And you're quite old to be playing it with me," Houren replied.
The white haired Houren sighed. "You are playing with people, not shogi pieces," he said. "You're putting your own life on the line."
The blonde Houren burst into laughter. "I'm immortal!"
Houren sighed and shook his head. It was no use. The blonde Houren was already out of his reach.
"I still stand by what I told you," Houren told the blonde.
Houren scoffed and turned away from him.
"You will die because of Sakura," Houren said as he watched the blonde walk away from the room. "...Because of me," he whispered.