Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing "Scroll." Sorry, I'm late!
Reignashii, I am again in awe at your analysis of the story. ^ v ^
Sorry, fragmentofice, turned out the whole revelation thing has to be published on the next chapter. * v * But I'm glad you're not that confused anymore at the two Hourens.
And for the new readers, thank you all so much for taking the time to read this! ^ v ^ I'm glad you like it!
Here's this week's chapter. Do tell me what you all think about it. ^ v ^
Sasuke watched Sakura's eyes flutter open.
She was trying to stay awake.
It was dawn. Sasuke barely slept the whole night.
Whenever he closed his eyes he saw the corpse of his parents, the gloomy Uchiha compound, Itachi, Itachi's death in his hands, Madara's revalations about Konoha's hand on the Uchiha clan massacre, Danzou and his death, the great ninja war, his last attack on Naruto after they successfully defeated Madara, the blood-thirsty Uchiha Sasuke imposter taunting him about how much he knew himself…Sakura's blood-drenched corpse in his arms.
He decided to stay awake instead – writing about Sakura's state on the scroll, copying its contents in Sakura's small notebook, reading its contents about the illness, and watching over Sakura. It turned out to be a good idea since Sakura woke up two times that night to vomit blood.
One hour – that was how long each episode lasted. Sasuke had to wonder how she was still alive. It was as if a force was keeping her heart beating despite the malfunctions her heart was experiencing.
Her last illness attack had just finished. She was still conscious when he carried her to the bedroom.
"I've updated the scroll," Sasuke softly said.
Somehow her condition kept him from putting on his usual apathetic air.
He watched her pale green eyes shakily look up at him. She was trying to look at his eyes, at his nose, at his lips…Her vision was probably too blurry for her liking and she couldn't see him clearly.
Sasuke gently combed her hair away from her face using the tips of his fingers.
"I'm cooking soup," he said though he hadn't prepared anything yet. "You want to eat?"
Sakura slowly shook her head.
Sasuke expected it. But seeing her confirm it still pained him. Based on the pain she described in her abdomen, he knew her digestive track was damaged.
That was why he already prepared the IV dextrose for her.
"Clin-ic?" Sakura asked.
Sasuke shook his head. "I'm skipping clinic duty today," he said. "I'm going to look for the flower. I'll tell the doctor to check on you once in a while."
All the nightmares and the episodes Sakura had that night made him decide on what he wanted to do at that moment. The imposter in his dreams scared him - the imposter that reflected his past view of the world depressed him. And the image of Sakura dead in his arms made him think why he should live.
It meant only one thing - that he should move on with his life and that he should do everything to save Sakura.
Sasuke saw anxiety flash on Sakura's face.
His free hand held her limp and cold one.
"Wait for me," he said tightening his hold on her hand. "Stay alive enough to ingest the cure until I come back."
Sakura shook her head. Sasuke held her icy cheeks to stop her.
"I'll be back in no time," he said. "I'll find the cure. You'll be okay. You won't be in pain anymore, and we'll both go back to Konoha."
Sakura gazed at his face for a moment before she smiled and mouthed, "Thank you."
It somehow struck a chord inside him. Perhaps because 'thank you' was his last words to Sakura before he left her that night in Konoha.
He felt an excruciating pain surge into his chest. His vision blurred. He leaned his head closer to Sakura's.
But she closed her eyes before his lips touched her forehead - before tears fell on her forehead. She had been pulled back into the realm of sleep before she realized what Sasuke had done.
"Are you joining the raid?" Daiki asked Kaitaro as he stood by the clinic door.
Kaitaro stared confused at Daiki.
The sky was still glum and sleepy when Daiki knocked on the door.
"What raid?" Kaitaro asked.
Daiki sighed. "They haven't informed you yet then," he said. "Houren's scheduled a raid today to arrest Haruno Sakura."
Kaitaro's face turned grim.
"The village ingrates insisted they come," Daiki said. "More than half of the village is coming with us today. They're equipped with torches, rakes, and shovels."
Kaitaro glared at the window. "They'll pursue her like she's a monster," he said.
"That's how they see her," Daiki said. "They're ungrateful bastards after all. She saved their lives and they see what she did as an act of the devil."
Kaitaro thought for a moment. "What time will you begin?" he asked.
"Well we're going to search the whole woods up north," Daiki said. "We were instructed to check every stone and crevice so we'll need to start early this morning. They're forming groups in the square as we speak. We're just waiting for Houren to lead us out of the village. Is Sasuke-san here?"
Kaitaro shook his head. "I doubt he'll stay here today," he said.
Daiki nodded. "That's good," he said. "Can you tell him about what's going to happen though?"
"I can," Kaitaro said turning to look at Daiki.
"Well, that's it for me," he said, bowing down to Kaitaro. "If you decide to come with us, you know where to find us. I have a feeling we'll need a doctor in this expedition."
Kaitaro nodded and watched Daiki close the door behind him. He turned to look behind him and watched Houren glare at the floor.
His long white hair was in a cloudy shade of grey as he leaned against the wall of the clinic.
"I thought he was just planning to kill her," Kaitaro said.
"He thinks the people will enjoy watching a bon fire," Houren said, his face reflecting anger. "It will be a huge slap on their faces when they realize they chose the wrong side of the coin - when they realize that their only chance of salvation was murdered by their own hands."
Kaitaro winced. "When is he going to stop?"
"I doubt it's going to be anytime soon," Houren said as he leaned away from the wall. "I'll start making Uchiha's path to the Anrui flower."
Kaitaro nodded and watched Houren change vanish, leaving a gust of wind and snow.
"Doctor," he heard Sasuke's voice call from the other side of the backdoor of the clinic.
Kaitaro rushed to the door and opened it. "Sasuke-san," he greeted.
"I can't go on duty today," he said. "I'm going to look for the flower. Sakura is-"
"I know," Kaitaro said nodding. "It's alright. I'll take care of her."
"What's going on in the square?" Sasuke asked.
"A meeting," Kaitaro answered. "They're thinking of looking for Sakura in the woods."
Sasuke stiffened. "Which woods?"
"They'll start in the woods down south," Kaitaro said. "You must hurry and find the flower."
Sasuke nodded and vanished into the woods.
Kaitaro sighed. Now, he must decide if he would check on Sakura. To be in the woods alone while Houren's men were on alert would be perilous, not only for Kaitaro but also for Keiko and Sakura.
Kaitaro closed the door. He would have to trust Houren's plan.
Elders know better after all.
Sasuke swiftly glided through the woods. He was leaping from tree branch to tree branch at great speeds.
Sakura was in danger. But if he stayed with her he wouldn't be saving her at all. Kaitaro was right. He should find the flower and cure her first. The group was going to start searching the woods down south anyway. He would still have time to make her well enough to be moved away from the house.
"There is one part of the forest that first receives the early morning light," he remembered Kaitaro say when he asked him about how to find the flower. "The dark clouds in that part of the woods make a small hole for the morning ray of the sun to pass through – a sunbreak, they call it. It only lasts for a couple of minutes. After that, the light that hit the snowy floor will bounce up to the sky, softening them enough to let the morning light shine through them, giving us enough light to know that it's no longer night time. The spot where the light from the sunbreak touches the ground is where you will find the stone where the Anrui flower grows."
Sasuke kept heading east, his eyes sharply checking the dark sky for any signs of light.
"But the flower is guarded by the Snow Spirit," he remembered Kaitaro say. "People have searched for the flower with those directions. They found the sunbreak, but found nothing in the spot where the first morning light hit the ground. You will find the flower there only if the Snow Spirit sees you fit to see it."
"How do I find the Snow Spirit and ask him permission to see it?" Sasuke asked.
"You will see him there," Kaitaro said. "When you see him, you will know him."
Sasuke wondered what the Snow Spirit looked like. If you base his looks on the myth, he's a man with white hair. He would probably be an old man now – a hermit. Or a perverted one like Jiraiya.
Sasuke shook his head. He had to focus! Sakura's life was on the line.
He soon saw spark of light at the far end of the woods. He quickened his pace and reached the spot. He looked up at the dark grey clouds slowly twisting and turning…stretching to form a hole just as Kaitaro described.
Through it passed a thin ray of light.
Sasuke watched the light touch the patch of snow below the tree branch he stood on.
There was nothing there – just thick white snow.
Sasuke jumped down from the tree to take a closer look at the ground. He stood under the ray of the light. The spot was really empty.
Sasuke stepped back – his head spinning with thoughts of failure, defeat, loss...and Sakura's imminent death.
He shouldn't have looked for the flower. It didn't exist! He should have gone to Konoha and had the Hokage make Sakura a cure!
Sasuke cursed.
"Uchiha Sasuke," a familiar voice called from behind him.
He turned and froze.
In front of him stood Houren – his blonde hair in a shade of white. He wore layers of white kimono. His grey eyes looked calmly at him.
"You," Sasuke spat as he changed his stance into a defensive one.
"I know this may sound odd but I am not who you think I am," Houren said.
"Really?" Sasuke asked glaring coldly at him. "Who do I think you are exactly?"
"Village Chief, enemy," Houren said.
"No," Sasuke said.
Houren raised a brow at him. He froze when Sasuke vanished from where he stood. Sasuke re-appeared in a blink of an eye, right in front of Houren's face – a ball of lighting in his hand.
"MURDERER!" Sasuke yelled as he hurled the chidori into Houren's chest.
Houren gasped in shock as the lightning burned his skin.
Sasuke's eyes went wide as he watched Houren dissipate, leaving an explosion of wind and snow in his wake.
His enemy escaped.
Sasuke sharply looked around him – his blood red eyes scanning everything for illusions.
"You're barking at the wrong tree," he heard Houren say behind him.
Sasuke quickly turned, swiftly unsheathing his katana. He angrily swung his sword at Houren.
Houren leaped swiftly away from his attack, hurling six icicles at Sasuke when he tried to attack him again.
"It was you!" Sasuke yelled as he slashed the icicles to pieces.
"Yes, and you must listen to me!" Houren said, leaping away and landing on the side of a tree.
"Why should I?" Sasuke snapped, lightning engulfing his katana. He slashed Houren, cutting the hundred-year old tree he stood on in half.
Houren's body was cut in two. But his body changed into a dusts of snow, dancing furiously with the wind.
Sasuke quickly looked around him, black flames engulfing anything he saw.
"I told you! You're barking at the wrong tree!" Houren yelled as he stood up on a tree branch, far above the river of black flames that Sasuke made.
Sasuke glared at Houren as he landed on a tree branch. "You and your filthy lies," he spat as he raised his clenched hand up. He held another ball of raging lightning inside it.
Houren watched the grey clouds turn black…twist and turn to resemble a cyclone, devouring the sunbreak that shed the first morning light in the mountain.
Thunder roared angrily in the sky as sparks of lightning began to dance frantically above their heads.
Houren cursed.
Sakura wasn't kidding when she said you wouldn't want to be in Sasuke's bad side.
Houren watched the sparks of lightning touch the ball of lightning in Sasuke's hand. And from that contact, he saw something emerge from the dark clouds – a live dragon made of lightning.
Houren swallowed loudly.
His only chance of surviving the attack laid on the fact that the dragon used chakra.
"Dissipate in this," Sasuke furiously shouted. The dragon swiftly swooped down - his mouth wide open and ready to devour Houren.
Houren had to step back, shocked at the quick attack. But he spread his arms out and caught the dragon by the head.
Sasuke watched the dragon pass through Houren – its head vanishing into Houren's body, lightning sparks surrounding him like a shield.
Houren absorbed his Kirin.
The dragon vanished completely into Houren's body, leaving traces of electricity dancing around his glowing body. His white hair seemed more like rays of blinding white light.
It was then that Sasuke noticed how his grey eyes had already turned white...as white as snow.
Houren raised his hands up. A huge surge of lightning current flew up to the sky from his hands, causing blinding sparks of lightning to creep through the black clouds.
Sasuke stiffened. He looked up the sky and suddenly saw a surge of lighting head straight toward him.
He screamed, expecting the pain…but he only felt…stronger.
Sasuke fell down on his knee, shocked that as the lightning vanished, he felt no pain. He only felt energized.
He looked confused at Houren whose eyes were back to being grey.
What did he just do to him?
"Now will you listen to me?" Houren asked as the rumbling clouds above their heads slowly calmed down.
"Why should I listen to you?" Sasuke asked.
"Because Haruno Sakura listens to me," he said.
Sasuke scoffed. "You're killing her!"
"I told you, you're barking at the wrong tree!" Houren said. "I'm the real Houren!"
Sasuke stiffened.
…Real…Houren?
"I will tell you everything," Houren said. "…At least everything that I can tell you at this moment."
Sasuke glared at him.
How sure was he that this 'real' Houren could be trusted?
"You want to see the Anrui flower, don't you?" Houren asked.
Sasuke raised a brow at him.
"I can show you the Anrui flower," Houren said.
Sasuke stiffened.
"Just listen to me," Houren said. "That's all I ask – listen. I'll leave the believing part to you. Just listen to me, and please put this fire out before it burns the whole mountain to the ground."
"You will see him there," Kaitaro said. "When you see him, you will know him."
Sasuke stood up and looked at the black flames devouring the snowy ground.