Chapter 35
He had them landing just outside of the village, if he showed up as he was, Naruto would attack him if only to defend the village he would think was under attack by him; again; and that was the last thing he needed as he held Sakura's bleeding unconscious form in his arm. Sarada stumbled as she landed and grabbed his leg.
"Sarada, up," he said, the girl clambered up him with the ease of a monkey as she sat on his shoulders and held his hair tightly. Sakura was getting colder, her chakra was flickering now, and she was still bleeding, he could feel her blood warming his arm where he had hold of her. "Sarada, chakra hold your mother's arm," he ordered. He didn't need Sakura or Sarada falling from his grasp and getting more injured.
The boom from his run alerted everyone he was here as he ran without stopping. Warnings were shouted at him, no one would know it was him but he didn't have time to slow down. Sakura, didn't have time to slow, his Sharingan whirled to life as he held her tightly and he dodged every attack, every move, every shinobi, civilian alike as he raced through the town.
He didn't slow as he blasted through the hospital doors scaring the staff half to death.
"Get me Tsunade, now!" he ordered sharply. Nurses rushed him when they noticed the pinkette in his arms.
"What happened?"
"Oh Kami!"
"It's Sakura, alert Tsunade, she's losing a lot of blood, we have to get her examined now!"
"Uchiha, step back," someone touched him, he snarled then as he stepped away, Sakura's blood was still staining his clothes and he watched as she was raced away from him. Sarada climbed into his arm then as she and he both stared after her disappearing.
"Alert the Hokage, he'll need to know about this!" someone shouted and Sasuke trembled as he held Sarada a little tighter and pressed his brow to her small ebony locks. His body was shaking uncontrollably as he found a quiet place to sit and watched as the hospital buzzed in it's life around him.
"Papa? Is mama okay?" a quiet voice asked, he didn't even register it as his daughter's voice.
"I… I…" he didn't know, and it was killing him as his head fell back against the wall. He felt the tears gathering up in his eyes as he furiously fought them off and he tried to remain calm and collected; if only for Sarada's sake, but he couldn't stop the trembling. Then she was hugging his chest, he felt her damp tears join the sticky blood on his shirt.
"I want my Mama!" she sobbed.
"I do to," he admitted quietly as he saw Tsunade running through the hospital in the direction Sakura had been taken in, he had been tempted to follow her and demand answers but then he remembered Sakura's flickering, fading chakra and stayed where he was with his daughter clinging to him.
There was a pounding on the door that interrupted the Kage teleconference and had him scowling at his fellow Kage.
"One moment," he said as he excused himself from the conference and went to the door.
"What is it? This is an important Kage meeting and if you don't have urgent news I suggest you scram!" he snarled softly when he yanked the door open to find himself staring at a young chunin nurse from the hospital. She trembled where she stood under his scowl and dislike.
"I-I-I'm sorry, Hokage-sama!" she squeaked and he was about to return to the meeting and slam the door on the stuttering girl when her next soft words caught him off guard. "It's about Uchiha Sakura though…"
He spun on his heel then, his heart slamming as worry filled him. He was terrified for his child then.
"What is it!? Where is she? What's wrong?"
"We don't know what's wrong, but she's here at the hospital," was all the nurse said and then he flash stepped to the hospital. He darted in, he didn't care about appearences as he looked around wildly for the pinkette.
"I want my mama!" he heard a sobbing voice and darted towards it, he didn't care about being a shinobi and weaving around people as he shoved his way right to where he saw Sasuke and Sarada. Sasuke was covered in blood, he looked close to breaking with eyes closed and tears slipping from them, Sarada was sobbing in Sasuke's neck as she hugged him tightly.
"What happened?" Kakashi demanded; he was preparing for war when he found out who had dared to harm his favorite pupil. Red eyes snapped open and he found himself staring at the Sharingan then, two sets of Sharingan.
"I don't know, she was bleeding and it wouldn't stop," he admitted miserably and Kakashi sat with Sasuke then. Sarada was staring at him with wet, red eyes as she held onto her father tightly. Sasuke seemed to be holding the toddler like she was his life line, the only thing keeping him from breaking down in hysterics then. Kakashi had never seen the Uchiha so close to losing his composure, he was trembling there were tears on his face, he looked like a wreck and he was covered in what was clearly Sakura's blood, Sarada's tears and snot as well.
"She'll be alright," Kakashi said it in a shaking voice as he clasped Sasuke's shoulder reassuringly then. That broke the young man though, he curled around Sarada as he and his daughter sobbed. Kakashi was close to breaking too, but he was holding it together because he was the Hokage, and he was Hatake Kakashi. He would not break until she was dead, Sakura couldn't die though, she had a daughter; and a husband; who clearly needed her. However this was no comfort to him as he sat there with the Uchiha family fighting off his panic.
His body was shaking when the sobs finally stopped consuming him and he hugged Sarada as tightly as he could without harming her. It had been four hours since he had brought Sakura here, he was receiving baleful glares from the nurses and doctors here but he didn't care as he sat with Kakashi and Sarada waiting. He didn't know what they thought he had done but he hadn't done whatever it was and he could endure their glares knowing this.
Sarada's stomach growled then alerting him to his daughter's needs, but she stared with now ebony eyes at where her mother had disappeared to.
"Sounds like someone's hungry," Kakashi said, he looked twitchy and tired as well, but Sasuke didn't say anything. "How about I take Sarada to get a little cleaned up and for lunch, we'll be back soon."
"Hn," he nodded. And Kakashi reached for her.
"No! I want my mama!" Sarada snapped as she turned to glare at Kakashi. She didn't seem harsh, but she did see scared as she tightened her hold on his bloodied shirt.
"Sarada, go with Kakashi, I'll wait for mama," he promised as he stroked her hair, her red ribbon was coming undone, he couldn't fix it, and her dress was on backwards, he realized then, also her bear was ripped in four places now, with an eye dangling off his face.
"I want mama!" she repeated.
"I know, and I'll wait for mama, the moment you can be with her I'll take you to her myself," he promised her wearily.
"Aa," she nodded and then she let Kakashi pick her up. Sasuke was so scare he didn't really notice as he now sat here with nothing to do as he waited for someone, anyone, to tell him what the hell was going on with Sakura. The tears gathered again as the image of her and all that blood flashed through his mind and then the night of the massacre flashed through his head. It was all too much! He couldn't take all of this! What the hell had ever done in this lifetime to warrant so much pain and horror?
He shoved his bloodied hand through his hair as he then rested his elbow on his knee and bent over so no one could see how much distress he was in as he sat there in the lively hospital waiting.
The first thing Kakashi did was clean Sarada up of the blood that had smeared on her face, then he had fixed her dress and figured out how to tie the ribbon how she said her mama did it (a bow atop the head) and then he took her to lunch. He didn't want to travel too far from Sasuke; he didn't think Sarada would tolerate that as she hugged a very tattered bear in her arms and kept nervously looking over his shoulder to where the hospital was. So to Ramen Ichiaku's they would be going which meant he'd run into Naruto or someone while he was there.
But it didn't matter. The grumbling stomach of the toddler needed to be filled and then he'd be returning with her to the hospital so she could sit with Sasuke. Kakashi hadn't even bothered to try to persuade Sasuke into leaving the hospital with him, there was something about that desperate breaking look which Kakashi knew too well that had him backing off.
"Here we are Sarada," he said as he sat her on a bench and ordered his regular and a small for Sarada. The girl was sitting there looking to be on the verge of tears and he didn't blame her as they were served.
"Hey Kakashi!" he winced at the volume of the voice but knew it was Naruto. "Wow, imagine seeing you here, your assistant was freaking out, Shikamaru and I have been looking everywhere for you since you just ran out of the Kage meeting!"
"Uh… right," he muttered as he looked at his bowl of ramen. Sarada was looking at it uncertainly, he nodded to her and she hesitantly started feeding herself; she was nearly three but appeared to be a tidy little thing as she slurped her noodles down.
"Hey, who've you got here?" a lazy voice asked.
"Yeah, I've never seen this kid before, is she yours', Kakashi?" Naruto demanded. He didn't get a chance to say she was the Uchiha child because Sarada snapped then.
"NO! I want my papa now!" she shrieked.
"Alright, we're going," he assured her as he picked up the now fully distressed Uchiha girl.
"Kakashi! Wait a minute! Who's kid is she!?" Shikamaru demanded.
"Isn't it obvious? She's the new Uchiha," Kakashi answered.
"Wait, that's Sasuke's brat!?" Naruto spoke while pointing at her with wide eyes.
"I WANT MY MAMA! I WANT MY PAPA! NOW!" Sarada screamed out then as she burst into a new set of tears.
"Yes, Naruto this is Uchiha Sasuke's daughter, now if you'll excuse me I'm take her back to the hospital!" he snapped, as he rubbed the sobbing toddler's back then. She was hugging his neck and her bear was forgotten on the table.
"The hospital!?" Naruto shouted.
"Yes, Sakura is there," he said and then he flash stepped back to the hospital. Sarada was crying so hard by the time he reached the Uchiha who hadn't budged a bit since he had been left he felt like he had been soaked.
"Any news?" he asked as Sarada leapt from him to Sasuke. Sasuke wrapped his daughter up in a firm hug then as he shook his head. Kakashi took his seat and they resumed their waiting as they sat there. Sarada was crying again but she passed out, he guessed she used up all her energy these past few hours fretting over her mother.
"TEME! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO SAKURA!?" a voice shouted as everyone in the hospital scattered. Kakashi was the one who was up before Naruto got there.
"I swear to Kami if you hurt her…!" Naruto drew back his fist.
"Sasuke! I'd like to speak with you," a firm voice called out and Kakashi's head snapped towards a blood covered Tsunade who stood there trembling.
"Is she alright?" was all the Uchiha asked as he stood, he hefted his daughter up with him as he stood then on trembling legs.
