Chapt 2
"He needs treatment! Uchiha, released him immediately."
"Uchiha can you hear me. Release him!"
It was a futile effort and the grip of the dark teenager on his teammate strengthened instead.
"Sasuke!"
Shikamaru growled and did the most obvious thing that had to be done: he manhandled Sasuke away forcefully. A surge of white surrounded the blond immediately as the medical nins flocked over to aid Sakura. An oxygen mask was pulled over Naruto's face, covering his nose and mouth.
"He is running low on blood! Prepare for blood transfusion immediately." Sakura yelled amidst from the chaos. While others scrambled to obtain the necessary equipment, Sakura tried frantically to search for a standing vein through the tanned skin of Naruto. With only minutes to spare, she had to find one quickly before the entire venous system collapse and she was desperate. Hurry! Hurry! No! Not this one, its already down! Dammed. Cursing silently, she ran her hands down Naruto's forearms quickly but not carelessly.
"Yes!" she gave a shout of triumph and grabbed for the tubing. Not bothering to disinfect it, she hastily inserted the needle under the skin and into the vein. A flow of blood streamed into the blonde's hand.
"He won't be able to last till the village in his condition. We will have to perform the operation here. Prepare the healing scroll now!" Sakura ordered.
This is only the first step, Sakura thought, I am sorry Naruto, but I won't let you die so easily. Reaching for a Kunai, she cut off a tuft of blond hair from Naruto.
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Darkness. Was all he could see when he opened his eyes. Blinking, he sat upright, palms pushing against the concrete floor. It felt chilling cold and he flinched, pulling his hands away. He scrambled to his feet and scanned his surrounding; it was a futile effort for all he could see was blackness that stretched to what seemed like eternity.
Scratching his head, he forced himself to think, an action that was a seldom occurrence throughout his life. Where is this place? What happened? Suddenly a loud growl erupted, echoing as the waves were reflected from invisible boundaries.
Then he remembered, this familiar sense of nothingness etched deep in his memory. Grinning, he slowly reached out his hands and took a step forward. Nothing. It doesn't matter anyway, he will soon find something solid. With this reassurance, he gained courage and stride forward carefully, towards the source of the sound.
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"How is he doing?"
"The heart rate has finally steadied. But the wound has not healed yet."
"Good." Sakura whispered as she gazed at the blond in the middle of the scroll.
Chains of characters had been scribbled across his chest, reaching to the point of the wound. And in turn, these chains were linked to more characters, which were drawn across the scroll. Chakra was then channeled from the eight main directions through the characters, which act as a medium, into Naruto, stabling his heartbeat. It was a relatively simple process. The next task would be harder.
By using Naruto's hair as a source for amino acids, they are required to create new news to replace the damaged ones in the wound. The amount of cells resulted would be little but they are only required to close the wound, the rest of the healing could be done when Naruto is out of his critical condition. However in order to do so, it would need precise control of chakra and undistracted attention of the medical crew. A grueling task for most of the nins whom like Sakura, had almost exhaust their energy, both physically and mentally.
"Let's get ready for the next part." Sakura ordered, signaling a change of medical nins to get into their position. Attempting to focus her chakra again, she was stopped by a hand on her wrist. She turned around to find brown eyes smiling at her.
"Wait. We will take your place." The women spoke.
"Shizune sempai! Why…"
"The Hokage sent ask after she heard what happened to Naruto. Take you and your medical team for rest now, we will take over." Shizune winked as she tilt her head to where another group of newly arrived medical nins were.
"Leave it to us, we will bring him back."
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Dressed in navy blue, Uchiha Sasuke sat in the wilderness, eyes focusing on the makeup tent a short distance away. Damned those medical nins, they had refused all entry into the tent, saying something about infections and other stuffs. It was not as if their robes were clean, especially not after a battle, when the white outfits were stained with blood from other patients and mud as they kneeled to provide treatment. It was all a fraud, an attempt to get him away from Naruto.
It was never a disturbing notion to know that mistrust still hung in the air between him and the village he grew up in. Many still doubted his credibility and he understood their reluctance in believing him again. He was the younger brother of a genius that massacred his whole clan, a missing nin who almost killed his best friend while trying to get away, a past aide of Orochimaru. It was understandable that the villagers will connect one thing to another; after all it was a human nature. That's why he chose to remain away from the village, never going back.
Ironically, he seemed to finally realize his brother hatred towards the villagers, foolish humans who fail to judge for themselves. In both his and Naruto's situation, there was never a hint of sensitivity and consideration; Naruto's was just the Kyuubi and he, the last of Konoha's treasured bloodline. His bloodline might have been the only reason why the village accepted him during his childhood, without it he would have been termed 'the brother of the murderer' not as a genius.
Despite that, the village was something that Naruto had wanted to protect, something he treasured and something he would give his life for. An equivalent to the feeling Sasuke had for Naruto himself. The feelings were weird even after he had come into acceptance with it. It was confusing and he did not know how or when it happened, but only knew that it happened. It seemed to have been there forever, just waiting to be discovered, to be realized. And these feelings were precisely another reason as to why he was tracking down the Akatsuki over the past few months. He wanted to kill Itachi, revenge his clan and lastly to protect his best friend and his beloved village.
Closing his eyes, he punched the ground. "Just let me stay by that idiot." He whispered, it was not as if he were to try that stunt he did three years ago, it is different now. Definitely different.
Grass rustled under feet and the Uchiha turned around, Sharingan spinning wildly and blood red, while hand rested on kunai preparing for attack. His body was crouched low and chakra focused on his feet, a perfect posture, suitable for defend and attacks. It was a skill he had learned in his training with Orochimaru, a habit he acquired from the assassination mission he had performed. It was a position for him to kill.
"Relax." A lazy voice drawled.
Nara, recognition dawned upon him. His body relaxes, though his hands were still place near his weapon pouch. It was another habit that he had acquired, a tendency to be wary of others.
"How are your wounds?" Shikamaru asked, as a more formal greeting instead of a concerned gesture.
Sasuke chose to remain silent. "I will treat that as a yes then." Shikamaru stated before sitting down. An awkward silent soon ensued.
"Shizune's team had just arrived." Shikamaru said, eyes observing Sasuke for a sign. There was none and the other teenager remained stoic. "Regarding Naruto's condition…" Ha! Shikamaru smirked to himself as a brief flash of concern hurried through Sasuke's eyes. "He seemed to be getting better." Shikamaru continued and was awarded with a brief glimpse of relief in Sasuke's eyes. So easy to read, he chuckled
"Anyway lets get down to business." He pulled his face into a solemn manner; it was really troublesome for him to flex all his facial muscles. But it was a skill he had to use concerning important matters or no one will pay him any serious attention. "What happened to Itachi?"
An expected question, Sasuke thought. He ran his eyes through his right hand, staring at it, before focusing his attention back to Shikamaru.
"He's dead. I killed him."
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Note: Thanks for reviews. I have madeadjustments to the setting, sorry for any inconvenience caused. By the way, the part of this chapter's plot about creating new cells are scientifically wrong. It was all created by me. Regarding the healing scroll, it was something from volume 26, the part where Neji was being healed. There is not much of a plot in this chapter, more emotional thoughts, I will try tostart placing the real plottogether in words over the next chapter. It might be a long time before the next update though. Sorry.
