A Few Moments of Rest & Healing
by xxRed
(c) to Masashi Kishimoto.
Story-line from me.
Their gazes met, and for once, the usually stoic and expressionless Uchiha had a soft look in his eye. Although the colour would have frightened a young child, the woman in the man's arms did not feel afraid of his gaze, and instead, was happy that he was watching her like that. However, the chakra-depleted kunoichi really could not tell what emotions were swirling in the deep sea of red; she knew that there was no hatred, and no anger towards her. And for some reason, she swore to kami that he was asking her something.
"Thanks to you," the Uchiha started, "I made it."
Obito, who was being quite quiet for the moment, sighed at the display. He could tell that his fellow Uchiha was thinking over something, and seemed to be rather focused on it. Seriously, it was an odd sight to see with such a young man, especially with what had been done over the length of the last three years. Obito was not an idiot, or moronic though, and knew not to go and ruin such a moment.
The thing that got the elder Uchiha, was that his younger family member was being affectionate. This was shown in the way that the raven-haired Uchiha was holding the roseate-haired woman against him, rather than holding her up. His hand was holding just above where the acid had seared her flesh. He was careful with her, Obito noted. It was as if the younger man was cautious of hurting her.
It was really a sight to see.
The 'thanks' that had been given by Sasuke was not directed at Obito; he knew that clearly. Obito knew that Sasuke was really thanking Sakura, and that it had nothing to do with himself. The girl, after all, had risked her life just to see Sasuke again. Obito wanted to laugh at such a thing.
'Ah,' he thought, 'this is interesting.'
The raven-haired Uchiha clutched her closer, before casting his eyes onto the other mangekyō-user. The two stared at one another for a moment, before Obito nodded his head. He understood. Sasuke, obviously, wanted a few moments to rest. …Or for another reason altogether, either way, Uchiha Obito was really fine with this.
"Hn, what do you want to do, after this?" Obito asked, his eyes falling onto the—now passed-out—roseate.
"I'll see what Naruto thinks," Sasuke answered easily.
The elder Uchiha bobbed his head, "What's the story between you two?"
Sasuke looked up, and sighed, "It's… not really any of your business, Obito."
The teenager looked away from his family member, and slowly lowered himself to the ground in a sitting position. He laid Sakura in his lap with careful fingers, and smoothed her messy hair down. The Uchiha then slid his hand over to the burn marks—acid, he noted—and added chakra into the palm of his hand, watching as the sear marks healed and were no longer an angry red.
"Medical ninjutsu?" Obito said, dazed.
"Yeah. Kabuto," the younger Uchiha sighed, pulling his hand away when he was sure the wounds were healed.
"Huh," the ex-enemy said, nodding, "Sharingan, ne?"
"Hn," Sasuke nodded, "I didn't typically trust anyone to heal me. … Had an incident where Orochimaru and Kabuto did some… research on my eyes."
The once-dead Uchiha pointed at the roseate, "Her?"
"Hn?"
"Would you allow her to heal you?"
"Before, no. Now, yeah."
"Doushite?"
"What's with these questions?" Sasuke growled, eyeing the other Uchina, "Nothing we're talking about is—"
"She'd die for you," Obito interjected, his own sharingan eyes glowing lightly.
Sasuke stopped, and then looked down. Obito swore he saw his younger cousin(1) had a look of guilt as he ducked his head down, away from his prying eyes.
"Why?" Sasuke hissed out, not getting out of the cover of his raven bangs.
"Why?" Obito echoed, "What does it matter? She loves you. Can't you see that?"
"I… but she… She tried to—"
"I know; I saw," 'Tobi' sighed, interrupting once more, "I may not have had much experience with this type of thing myself, but it's easy to see. She cares. Perhaps, too much."
The younger Uchiha hugged his ex-teammate closer, tightening his—already tight—grip on her. She was in a deep sleep, of course, but Sasuke still did not like the idea of this. He was unsure of why she could still love someone as cold-hearted as himself. There was just no way. However, the look that she had given him back when they watched each-other really said otherwise. She was in love with him.
Still.
"Sasuke," the elder Uchiha said, standing up from his seating position, "We should just go now, understood?"
"Hn," Sasuke slid his hand down to her chest, and applied chakra to her form.
He watched as purple chakra was being absorbed by her. The chakra had been from the crescent moon mark on his hand. It glowed a dull dark blue, and he watched silently as her eyes flicked open. The Uchiha watched her silently, as she shivered lightly from the feeling of his chakra being pulled into her. Using his free hand, he cupped her head up.
"Sasuke-kun—"
"It's fine," the avenger mumbled, not meeting her eye as he paid attention to what he was doing.
"Why are you wasting your chak—?"
"Urusai."
Sakura became silent, biting her lower lip in hesitation. Her liquid eyes watched the man above her as she flexed her fingers, and closed her eyes. She would just endure the feeling. That was all there was to it. His chakra, to her, however, felt cool. It was an odd sensation. An extremely odd sensation.
"Hmph," the Uchiha pulled away, threading their arms together as he shifted her upwards along with him.
She gasped and her eyes darted open as she stared at him in shock. His crimson eyes watched her carefully. His eyes traced her form as he nodded to himself when he got the results that he had hoped for. Sakura looked up at him, looking slightly confused.
"What did you—"
"Your chakra levels are fine. I healed your arm, so there is no need for you to use chakra on yourself. Heal Obito," although these demands were obvious, and blunt, Sakura could tell that he was a lot more calmer—compared to before, at least—.
Obito looked at the two, "I don't need to be healed. That would—"
The younger Uchiha glared at his elder, "I can give Sakura back the chakra she loses."
"Sasuke-kun, it doesn't take much to heal someone," the girl said, her eyes on the sandy terrain.
"I'd prefer to allow you to have all of your chakra back, Sakura," Sasuke said back.
His arms clenched around her tightly; in a somewhat protective manner. She had not even noticed that his arms were wrapped around her still. Sasuke growled at her, as if warning her not to fight back. … She did not fight back. It was not worth it. Fighting against Sasuke was not a smart thing.
"Go and heal him," the Uchiha murmured, breathing into her ear lightly.
She shivered at this, and tried to get out of his hold. He allowed her to do so. As she moved away from him, Sakura cast Sasuke a side glance, and noted that he watching her with the same odd look as before. She wanted to know what it meant, but knew that he was sure not to tell her of his reasons. Obito watched the exchange once more, feeling confused by the looks that his fellow Uchiha was giving.
Sakura moved over to Obito, "Is it fine if heal your eyes?"
The elder Uchiha tilted his head, "Why are you asking?"
"It's just…"
"Sakura," Sasuke called, "it's fine."
"Demo… the sharingan—"
"I said that it's fine."
Sakura really was not sure whether or not it was wise to heal Obito's eyes. Using her chakra the way she does through medical ninjutsu, she could learn every secret behind the bloody eyes of an Uchiha. Did Sasuke trust her enough not to spread his clan's secrets?
Maybe it was because it was not Sasuke's eyes she was going to work with. That was more than likely his reason. The medic softly ordered Obito to close his eyes, and he did as he was told. The girl then gently put her hands over his eye lids, and allowed her chakra to flow into her finger tips. Sakura has to be careful, as she could easily damage the chakra vessels located in the elder Uchiha's eyes.
She found that the vessels seemed to have a blocking mechanism which activated the sharingan when it was open, allowing chakra to flow through. The pressure also seemed to die an Uchiha's eyes red, but the swirling tomoe still confused Sakura. And then there's the fact of the mangekyou itself; that design would be different altogether. Sakura also noticed that the chakra vessels seemed to be destroying the optic nerve in Obito's eyes.
It was like the chakra was burning the nerves.
She healed what damage that she could. However, the damage to the nerves was not able to be healed. As she pulled her hands away, another set grabbed her own, and she was pulled back. Sakura gasped and looked at the Uchiha with shocked eyes. Sasuke was watching her once more; his sharingan had faded to onyx, while the rinnegan eye was closed.
"Mine," Sasuke said, making her blush heatedly, "Heal mine."
She blinked, and thought stupidly of what she had thought she had meant. However, the fact of healing the Uchiha's eyes was something that made her rather uneasy. He crouched down, taking her with him. She sat down on the heated sand, while he crouched.
"A—Ano," she was shy, obviously, "Y—You're sure?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes at her pathetic display, "Hurry up. Naruto's fighting Kaguya alone."
Blunt. Straight-forward. He was being himself once more, that was easy to see. She nodded and moved closer to him. She was professional herself—blush completely gone, and the emotions gone in her eyes—she ordered him to close his eyes as she did the same type of healing that she had done with Obito. The times when she was asked to heal Kakashi's eyes really does help with this type of thing. After all, she did have some background. But it was different for a non-Uchiha, oddly enough. Kakashi had been losing the vision in his own sharingan eye, but it was different. Basically, the eye was destroying itself every single second of the day.
Sakura frowned. Sasuke's eyes were different as well. It was as if they were not his own. The nerve endings had been clipped on with an odd liquid substance, and connected with whoever eyes he had. The rinnegan was also different, more chakra was being pumped in, and the fact that there was the tomoe surrounding them, it felt oddly similar to the sharingan—the mangekyou—but not the same at the exact same time. It really was an odd phenomenon.
"They're not yours," Sakura murmured out, and then stiffened realizing that she had just said that aloud.
"What of it?" Sasuke rumbled back, opening his eyes, and staring at her directly.
"Why?" she asked, tone quiet; she loved his eyes.
They may have been the same shade and all, but she had her guesses about it. But that still did not mean that she wanted to know that they were no longer his. The fact that one of the main things that she fell in love with were his gorgeous eyes—not for the look—due to the simple fact that she could literally 'fall' into them.
"I was going blind," he answered simply, "Overuse of mangekyou gets this type of reaction. Blindness is one of the factors that come from using it. Itachi-nii had a worse fate."
"Itachi? As in…"
"Hai. Nii-san. He left his eyes behind for me," the Uchiha was answering a lot of her questions, and she was oddly enough, fine with it.
"O—Okay," she stuttered, looking down, "So… they're his?"
"Yes," he answered, his tone light.
It was as if he was trying to create some sort of privacy from lowering his voice, so that the two of them were the only ones who could hear what he was trying to say. This type of thing really was odd; especially from Sasuke. He was reserved, but this was scary to see that he was treating her differently to what he was doing and saying from half-an-hour ago. The only thing that Sakura could think of, was that he respected her—very, very slightly—and this made her inwardly smile.
"… You're curious. Ask," Sasuke said, turning his head lightly.
"Ask? Demo… the war—"
"If we end up dying, wouldn't you want to know the answers?" the Uchiha asked absent-mindedly, his eyes seeming to glaze over with some foreign emotion.
"Dying? You're not planning—"
"Urusai."
She stiffened, and pulled away from him, "Dying!? Are you serious? You're not wanting to die, are you?"
"Iie. I'm—"
"Then don't you say that you're pretty much planning on it, Sasuke-kun," the roseate said, her voice dropping quite a few octaves, "… Please."
Sasuke turned his head and became silent, "Tch…"
"If you want to tell me… after the war… then you can, but… if you're planning on—"
"You're annoying."
Sakura pulled back even more, dragging along the sand as she stared at him with frightened eyes. Why—Why did he just say that to her? Did he not know how those words affect her? Or was he seriously stupid? In Sakura's head, she was unsure of what to think. Although, she could feel the emotions from four years ago—when he left—bubble up in her.
"Excuse me?" she whispered, hoping that she had only just thought she heard it.
"You're," he broke the syllables a part, as if to tease her, "a-nnoy-ing."
Obito, who was silent thus far, spoke up, "We need to head back now, Sasuke, Sakura."
Sasuke nodded, agreeing with him as he lifted up Sakura along as himself. He seemed to be doing that a lot, even though she was capable of standing. He touched her once more with the hand that had been branded with the moon, chakra flowing into her once more. He did not bother to do the same to Obito; Sakura found that to be weird, as Obito—after all—was a fellow Uchiha. Maybe there was something with their own past?
Sakura moved away from the domineering Uchiha. She did not want to be near him, but he growled at her causing her to shiver lightly.
"I'll give you my chakra, Obito," Sasuke said, finally letting her go, "I have a lot of it."
Obito nodded, and cast a glance at Sakura before nodding for her to come over.
(1)—I'm saying this as they're both related, but they're not actually cousins.
Author's Notes: I did say I would re-write the other one I put down, but it's kinda out of date in the sense of the new chapter. Hope you guys liked.