The Adversity of Spring

Spasmically Asinine

Chapter 2: The Curse of Recognition


I still remember the world
From the eyes of a child
Slowly those feelings
Were clouded by what I know now

Where has my heart gone
An uneven trade for the real world
I want to go back to
Believing in everything and knowing nothing at all

I still remember the sun
Always warm on my back
Somehow it seems colder now - Evanescence: Feilds of Innocence


"I prefer the Winter months, Spring is like a lie to us all - that we'll forever be happy and in love. Winter is blunt, it gives us the reality in a cold wind." A young girl with long black hair sat looking at the wide-open sky, a field of daisies and daffodiles spread before her like bubbles in a green sea. Next to her sat a boy, no older than twelve with a very serious look in his young eyes. It was the first day of spring, and the blossoms of the cherry trees were sprouting.

"You say the weirdest things," Kakashi sighed. "There are times I don't know when to laugh or when to take you seriously."

"So . . . " She laughed, it was music to his ears. "I confuse you that much, Kashi-chan?"

"Don't call me that." He snapped, laying back into the soft grass too look at the fluffy clouds above. He was attempting to ignore his childhood friend, but he knew it to be a futile effort.

"Why? I have since we were children." She looked over him, her eyes shining in jest.

"So? I'm older now."

"Not as old as I am!" She proclaimed delicately picking a daisy and picking at its white and purple petals.

"Only by a month."

"But I'm still older," She touched his covered nose with the daisy. "And you can't argue the truth of the matter, just like you can't sweep away snow without leaving something worse behind - like ice."

"There you go again, with your weird ways of saying things." He said, taking the maimed flower from her small, white hand.

"I'm off," She stood suddenly, "Sensei will be angry with me if I'm late. You should go too, I'm sure your sensei will scold you."

"Ah." But, Kakashi didn't stand, but instead kept his eyes fixed on the field of daisies and tall grass that extended to the horizen.

She began to walk away, but stopped and turned around, "Kakashi. . . when we see each other again, I have something I want to tell you. Do you promise to listen to me?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Because, you might not like to hear it." His eyes grew concerned at the frown on his friends face as he turned to look at her.

"Tell me now."

"I can't. But soon. Before Spring takes away it's fanciful promises and Winters' wind comes to disimate our hopes, I will tell you." She chuckled at the sardonic face he was giving her and she ran up, dropped to her knees and hugged him from behind playfully, "Don't look at me like that, Kashi-chan! Your eyes can be so mean."

"No they can't. They're eyes, they can't be anything but eyesl."

She ignored his comment and released him, "See you later!"

"Ah."

"Bye! Bye! Kakashi!"

. . . Kakashi . . .

"Kakashi-san!"

His eyes snapped open and before Shizune could react, he had a kuni at her throat and the sheets of his bed up to his face, covering the lower half, his eyes gazing angrily at her. But when he realized who she was and that she was not the sort of woman to simply come into a mans room without reason, he slowly released his guard, but not the sheet over his face. She was only about to shake him awake, he'd been speaking in his sleep, and she was surprised that he hadn't awoken when she'd slipped through his window. His room was a small, one room apartment with a kitchen on the left wall, a bookshelf to the right and two doors - one led to the outside, the other led to the bathroom and the closet. Other than books strewn about, his collection of shinobi weaponry kept neatly in a chest next to the bookshelf and the clothes he'd cast aside that night, there nothing in this room to make it a home - unless you counted the futon in which he slept. Especially in the early moonlight, this room seemed to be the epitomy of 'lonely bachelor' . . . or if you read the book titles 'lonely bachelor who didn't get any'.

She bowed as she sat on her knees, "Forgive the intrusion. Tsunade-no-Hokage-sama sent me. You have been assigned a very important mission."

"Ah." He said, his voice muffled by the blanket. "But may I get dressed before you begin to explain the specifics?"

Shizune blushed, realizing that the Jounin did not have any clothes on except a pair of plain black boxers. She nodded looking away and covering her eyes modestly, "Please do so. I won't look."

"Thanks." He muttered.

Shizune bit her lip, wishing she could yell at Tsunade-sama for putting her in such a melodramatic and certainly uncomfortable situation with a man she hardly knew, let alone wished to see in his boxers. He'd nearly killed her, his reaction time sprung from instincts rather than knowledge of what was actually happening in the room! Then again, what else was she supposed to expect from a Jounin with superior battle experiance and probably a past full of despair and traumatic events - but such was the life of a shinobi. She too, had her own scars and bleeding heart to mend to now and again - all shinobi did. So, she spent a good percentage of the time he was dressing berating herself and her immature assumptions that he wouldn't react in a violent way to her stealing into his room and waking him. She knew the first thing she would want to reach for if she were disturbed by some unknonwn, unsuspecting stranger shaking her awake would be her shuriken or kuni.

Kakashi sat in front of her, folding his legs and crossing his arms, "Let's get down to business then."

"First, she wants you to leave tonight - undercover."

"Without proper preparation?" He raised a gray eyebrow.

"Well -"

"Never mind," He chuckled. "Anyway, go on. Would you like some . . . err water? I don't think I have anything else. Well... maybe an old bottle of ramune tucked away somewhere... or coco puffs if you're hungry? Wait...no milk so I suppose Coco puffs are out of the question - unless you LIKE them dry."

"No thank you." Shizune declined with a curt shake of her head.

"I can already tell this is going to be a long night, "He sighed wishing he could open up his new volume of Come, Come Paradise.

But such was the life of a shinobi. . .

------

Sakura sat in the office of some counselor she had yet to meet, and she felt like she had literally been ran over by a train. Her clothes were filthy and torn, her hair was matted and greasy and her face wasn't the usual cheerful smile she normally wore. The only thing that had changed was that she had finally had the chance to wash the red blood off her small, white hands. She clasped and un-clasped those hands nervously, her feet shuffled against the plush green carpet and she looked around at the paintings and pictures on the wall, she read the labels of the books and scrolls in the bookcase, she shuffled the carpet fibers some more, she straightned out a pillow and tried to read a magazine from the table in front of her, she tried many things to calm her growing anxiety - nothing seemed to work. She was doing anything to get the images of Toshiya Shurei's mangled, deformed body out of her mind, for every time she imagined the scene her stomach would twist and churn with sickness and her throat would upheave bile. She was fighting down the urge to throw-up what little food she had in her stomach when the wooden door opened and a young man with dark brown hair and glasses walked in wearing a suit. It was often that she saw suits, she knew that high-class business men wore them, and docters of course - but she hadn't expect a psychiatrist to do so.

He carried with him a clip board, looking down at it he said, "Haruno Sakura-san?"

"Yes." She said, clenching her hands tightly together.

"How are you?" He asked in a familiar tone as he went over and sat down at his dark oak desk.

"I'm okay, " She stated shakily.

"That's good." He smield at her - he had a very nice smile. "My name is Docter Wong, I'll be examining you."

"Examining me?"

"Yes." He leaned back in the chair, "This experiance has the potential to be very traumatizing, and in a future shinobi, that isn't a chance we're willing to take. Don't worry!" He laughed at the look on her face. "I don't think you're crazy or anything and you won't be institutionalized, I can assure that much!"

"Oh." She said, forcing a smile. "That's good!"

"Alright. So let's begin, shall we?" She nodded in response and he continued, "I want you, in your own words to describe what happened tonight."

She began by telling him about why she ran away from Naruto and Sasuke that afternoon to the events that had just transpired an hour ago. By the end, she was tired, tearing-up and really hungry. When she looked at the clock, she realized she had been speaking for over forty minutes, and he had done nothing but listen, nod and smile at her in encouragement. Sakura did the only thing that she could do - she yawned.

"You must be tired, "He stated. "But I think this was a very good session and feel free to come back anytime you feel you need to talk about something or if something's bothering you." He smiled more at the board in his lap as he quickly wrote notes and, in Sakura's imagination, drew little doodles.

"So I can leave then?" She asked tentatively.

"Yes, and please get some rest. Do you need me to call your parents and have them pick you up?" Dr. Wong asked.

"No thank you. I can manage. "She stood and with a bow exited the weird office and left the smiling docter to his paperwork and doodles. She sighed gratefully, walking down the hall to be away from him. He had been nice enough, it was just that she didn't see how reliving that night was going to help her. It had only made her feel more inadequit about the whole thing, and certainly more embarrased about crying in front of Sasuke. She worried abotu what he thought of her now, he wouldnt' say anything, but she would be able to tell. He probably thought that she was weak and pathetic - not worthy to be his partner. Sadly, Sakura was beginning to see his initial point.

-----

Tsunade had wished she'd turned off her phone. Honestly, to be called to the hospital so late for a healing, because apparently the healers there were incapable and unprepared for such drastic injuries on an emergancy patient. Tsunade was not a happy Hokage - in fact she planned on yelling at every Healer present until her throat was parched and raw after healing that stupid ninja who just decided to get hurt. Now, Tsunade wasn't a cold-hearted person, and she was truely concerned about the shinobi's dire situation, but she would be damned before she ceased to grumble about the horrid timing and that was her perogative as a woman. She marched through the cold,sterile halls of the hospital, her heels clicking one, two, one, two and her arms crossed under her ample breasts. She was glad she'd worn her over-coat for despite the humid spring air that night, the hospitals air-conditioning was frigid. She'd have to complain about that too.

What shocked her upon arriving in front of the surgery door was the presence of Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto sitting next to one another . . . without fighting. First question: What were they doing there? Second question: why were they so morose?

But, despite planned questioning, she was interrupted by one of the Healers, a male, rushing from the double doors to greet her. "Hokage-sama, please hurry! We're losing the patient!"

"Idiot!" She yelled, moving past him ignoring the fact that she'd practically pushed the poor man into the wall, and into surgery.

"...Baa-chan?" Naruto asked, a bit confused.

"I didn't even know she was there, "Sasuke muttered under his breath, realizing just how tired he was.

Inside the room, after her hand being scrubbed clean, she gasped at the woman who lay before her. Stitches ran up and down her torso, arms and legs, bandages wrapped around her left eye and her forehead leaving most of her face covered, but it wasn't any of these wounds causing the patient to slip into the unknown sleep of death - it was the black infected seal on her left arm which throbbed angrily, feasting on the last available chakura in her body. Three female, lower-class healers were feeding Chakura into the key points on her body - the head, the chest and the lower torso - which was the only measure being taken to keep the young woman alive. A heart moniter to the side never beeped in a regular pattern, and her blood pressure wasn't stabilizing to a healthy point. Tsunade looked at the main healer, who was the man who'd rushed out to meet her, and demanded, "What happened here?"

"We don't know." He admitted. "We've never seen this kind of seal before, Hokage-sama, otherwise we wouldn't have called you. I apologize for the inconvience."

"It's no inconvience," She sighed, eyeing that horrible, pounding mark. "I need all of you to leave immediatly." The three novice healers looke dup and the the main one was stunned.

"But -"

"No buts. Get out. IF any of you are even affected by that mark on her arm, one will appear on you and you'll die from chakura depletion. You're heart will burst and your lungs will collapse, following the slow degeneration of all your organs and the splitting of your skin. Now, if you want that to happen, then I beg of you to stay, otherwise get yourselves out." With that ominous prediction and her hard glare, the four healers left their posts and scrambled to leave without even so much as a look of regret. They weren't trained to deal with this kind of situation - though after this incident, Tsunade would force them to be.

She sat next to the young woman on the side of the infected arm, placed her hands above the mark being extremely careful not to touch it. She didn't want to thiink of the consequences if she did so. Releasing her chakura slowly, she concentrated it upon the mark and with her other hand began to sealing symbols - this curse would never heal but it could be contained, unfortunately for the patient, the infection would continue to spread throughout her body. It would eat away at her skin and her organs would fail one by one, and within perhaps a years time, she would die a painfilled death in quaranteen. Still, Tsunade would do her best to save her life, and continue working to find a cure for the infection, just as she had Lee when it was thought he would never be able to walk again without a cain. This was the reason she had become a Healer, and it was that very reason that drove her to seal that mark. It was first step - a baby step - and she would push foreward until the topfloor was reached!

But sealing it was tricky in that it fed off chakura, and if she released too much at once, she would begin to become infected herself. She mumbled the words under her breath as she created the symbols with her hand. Gently, she removed the hand feeding the chakura and placed the four seasonal symbols about the throbbing black curse. At first, it fought against the containment, nearly killing the patient, but the seal activated and within the hour, tsunade had it contained. She began to bandage the arm, adn the the places of the body wehre there were stiches and she healed the bruises which cleared the sickly yellow and blue color from the girls face.

Then, and only then, did she actually look at the woman's face. Then, and only then, did Tsunade recognize her patient and she gasped, her band coming up to her mouth in shock.

------

Sakura smiled, truely, for the first time when she saw Sasuke and Naruto waiting for her near the surgery doors. They were conversing with the Healers, which probably meant that the woman was fine! But she stopped short of coming up to them, biting her lip in shame at her actions beforehand. She had shut them out, but what else was she supposed to have done? She had lied to them, yelled at them, abandoned their friendship for her own self-pity and grief. Sakura didn't have much time to dwell on her own depressive thoughts as Tsunade burst through the double doors that led into surgery.

"You there!' Tsunade cried, pointing at the Healer speaking to Naruto and Sasuke. "Go contact the proper criminal authorities, and i want you to call together a council of elite Jounin here at once on my order. AND WHERE IS SHIZUNE!"

"Tsunade-baa-chan..."Naruto gaped at her. "What are ya' yellin' about?"

"Yeah,"A rasped voice from behind her said, "What are you yelling about, Tsunade-sensei?"

Tsunade spun around, backing up. "How're you awake already? The anesthisa should have kept you under for at least another hour!"

The woman leaned against the door way, hunched over, half of her face hidden by bandages. She grinned maliciously, "I hear you're the new Hokage, Tsunade-sensei. How does it feel to be graced with a position someone of your weakness doesn't deserve! How does it feel to betray your old comrades? And then heal one of the most degenerate and disgusting human beings on the face of the planet without even realizing who she is! You're nothing but a goddamned fool -" SLAP! Sakura winced at the sound which traveled down the hall and echoed at it's end.

"Dont you ever speak to me in that tone, you traitor." Tsunade hadn't even put her chakura into the slap, but the woman was on the floor writhing in agony as she gripped the side of her face covered in bandages, blood seeping through.

"Tsu-Tsunade-baa-chan, why are you hitting her?" Naruto cried, not grasping the severity of the situation. "She's hurt!"

"Naruto, don't be such a dumbshit." Sasuke said coldly, fully grasping the severity of the situation. And if it wasn't obvious tot he other two, he had recognized a very familier look in that girls face and in her eyes. She was dangerous, a calamity waiting to happen. The only thing keeping her down were the injuries and the fact that the anesthisia had worn off, leaving her far too drowsy and delirious to really know what was going on.

"You bitch," Shurei cursed, "He should have killed you when he had the chance. I hate you."

Tsunade sighed, "Stop being such a child, you're caught now and cursing me is not going to save you. I don't crumble at a few choice words."

Shurei laughed, "So what... if I'm ... caught." Her words were fading as she lay on the floor and breathing became slow and unstable. "As i feel...I'll die ...soon."

"I think fortune is on yoru side more than you know." Tsunade said quietly. "Sakura."

"Hai!" Sakura jumped out of the trance she'd been in for the past few minutes.

"She's passed out now. I want you, Naruto and Sasuke to move her into room two-twenty-three, just down the hall and to the right. Sasuke, Naruto, I want you two to stand guard outside her room, and Sakura I want to you to stay with her to moniter her breathing, pulse and make sure she isn't going to go into shock of any sort - we cannot have her die. Is that understood, team 7?"

"Hai!" They said unison.

--------

"I don't see why we have to do this," Naruto complained. "Haven't we done enough? I mean, if she's so dangerous then why don't they have elites watchin' her? I don't get it at all actually. She seemed to really hate Tsunade-baa-chan too." He sat on the floor of the hospital outside of room 223, his legs and arms crossed in frustration.

"Ah." Sasuke said as he shifted one foot over the other as he leaned against the wall, his eyes closed and arms crossed indignantly.

"And poor Sakura-chan, hasn't she been through enough tonight?" Naruto grumbled on. "And where's Kakashi-sensei, ne! Or Ero-Sennin? Shouldn't they be helpin us or somethin'. I mean, Tsunade-baa-chan had the ANBU called and the council at this late hour. Do you think it has to do with him?"

"Maybe." Sasuke sighed and shifted his feet again. "Probably."

"Eh! Probably? Whadda mean! You know somethin', Sasuke?" Naruto looked up at his comrade, his eyes curious.

"No. " Sasuke answered, "But if you noticed her clearly, she did have the same look in her eyes. Hatred, cold and burning. I can never forget those eyes." He cut himself off there, not wantting to go any further for it delved far to deep into his won introspection.

"I see." Naruto said, pretending that he had, but in actuallity he'd been too busy watching Tsunade-baa-chan to really notice the girls face. He wasn't one for detail, and with half of the face covered, he wouldn't have noticed any recognition anyway. "Why did she want sakura to stay in there? Sakura-chan needs to rest, and i hate to say it but I think that lady could kill her."

"Stop asking dumb questions."

"STOP TELLING ME THAT! BASTARD!"

"Then shut up, dobe."

'ARGH!" Naruto stood, his fists clenched ready to fight, but he was laso ready for Sakura-chan to burst through and tell them to stop fighting at any moment. Any moment now. . . . She would, he knew it. But she didn't. "Eh? Where's Sakura-chan?"

"What are you rambling about now, Dobe?"

"She usually stops us from fighting."

Inside the room, Sakura had heard the fight, and she had wanted to get up from her chair by the window to yell at Naruto, but her legs where aching and she felt more exhuasted than she had her whole life. So, getting up wastn' an option at that point and it seemed as through they had stopped already. She smiled, leaning her bead back on the chair, looking out the window at the stars twinkling in the moonless sky. The heart and pulse moniters beeped regularly, lulling Sakura into a trance of sorts. She felt more calm now than she had all week, as if she had no more emotions or energy to emit them. Everything, while not settled, seemed to have disappeared for awhile. But, perhaps that was because she was so tired she could hardly feel her own toes in her sandals. Her eyes shifted to the patient, and to the I.V. drip, wondering what drugs they had given her to KEEP her asleep, and she was looking very pale. The young shinobi took note of the woman's long lashes, her sharp face and her slanted eyes. They had had a different look to them in the hospital than when she'd seen them in the orchard. In the orchard, they'd been desperate, scared and human, but in the waiting room they had been cold, murderous - more like a monsters.

"Toshiya Shurei. . . " Sakura mumbled before her eyes drifted shut and she fell into darkness.

A/N Second Chapter. Whew. That took FOREVER...and it's not that good. Not at all. . . . but it WILL get better. PROMISE! Please review! (yes it's implied sasu/saku)

S. A. forever!