Oi… so many hits yet so little reviews…should I even continue this story at ALL?
But he he knowing me…it will keep bothering my thoughts if I don't write it down somewhere…so here:
Ayu
Chapter Four:
To revisit. To remember. To regret.
Fear.
That's the only way I can describe how it felt to see what I want to erase from my memory…
How could this have happened?
How could I not see this coming? I thought as I sit outside the Godaime's office waiting to hear news of her condition.
I have underestimated the circumstances when I should have known better.
"Lesson #1 A ninja must learn to see beyond deception…"
It was all but a "simple mission…"
Or so we thought.
Throughout the years of tribulation that I have endured how could I have faltered on the very first rule bestowed upon the way of the Shinobi?
"Ne-ne Sasuke, Teme! Do you think Sakura-chan will be alright?" my thoughts abruptly cut short by the blond-haired nincompoop
"…"
"AAAY SASUKE! I'm talking to you!"
"17 and still he acts like an idiot…"
"Shut up dobe! Do I look psychic to you?" I sighed "Besides she's in the hands of the Godaime now…I'm quite certain that she is in good hands…or do you doubt the Hokage's abilities?"
"What? Of—of course not…how can I doubt granny-tsunade? Besides If I did…she'd kill me with one punch…" he replied, scratching the nape of his neck. "I'm just worried about Sakura-chan…even on our way back to the village…she wasn't…she didn't even flinch on bit…she seemed as though she were…dead…but…."
Silence.
"It is strange" Sai interjected "Losing a substantial amount of Chakra because of medical techniques can substantially cause one to be unconscious at least for a day or so…but…never this long…and…"
He paused as Naruto and I direct our attention towards him. His face poised as though rifling through his head for the proper words to say…stoic and unmoving…
The similarities were so uncanny…
The same dark hair
The same determined eyes filled with the intent to kill
So alike…this replacement they found for me…and yet so different. In the years of my absence he had attained something I never could with team seven.
A family.
I knew I was still accepted by these people…Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura…if not then they would never have retrieved me…
And yet, unlike Sai I could not let them accept me completely as a part of their family…
I look at the man before me…leaning against the wall staring off into the distance with his eyes steady upon the horizon…
Similar yet set apart…
I never did have any patience to get acquainted with this individual even after my return…
"And. and what?" Naruto impatiently pried
"And she's…different…"
"Different?"
"Hai…I thought you'd notice it too Naruto, knowing that you care for her so much…"
"Well.Uhh…I still don't---"
"Aayy… are you really the future number one Hokage?" Sai continued
"Of course I am…I just wanted to know how you can tell…"
"I feel it…her presence…her aura…it's different…it's…new…refreshing…serene…"
"…Eerie…"
Silence followed once more. Naruto started to open his mouth but was interrupted as the door to the Hokage's office swung opened, Kakashi emerged with his visible eye, reflecting a solemn look that was only seen in his most vulnerable moments near the monument.
"Kakashi-sensei! How is she?" started Naruto "Has granny-Tsunade figured out what's wrong with her yet?"
The man before them sighed at the sight of such determined simplicity…It's been three weeks since Sakura was admitted into the hospital…three weeks since she showed any sign of life, surely the boy should know the severity of the situation even without the proper exchange of acknowledged words…but this after all was the infamous Naruto Uzumaki…Konoha's number one knuckle-headed future Hokage…
"Oh how I feel safe knowing he's the future to this village" I sniffle a laugh at the thought.
"According to the Hokage she's doing better Naruto…they put her on a special treatment to restore and stabilize her chakra…she should be awake soon…so why don't you go tomorrow to the hospital and visit her, I'm sure she'll greatly appreciate it…" his visible eye forming a soft creased smile…yet deep down I knew it hid something more…but what?
I peered into his eye as he looked at me…I gazed intently wondering if his barrier should falter and if he should reveal the reality of the situation…but he merely sighed and turned his head away after what would seem like an eternity of silence.
"Ne—anyway…it's getting late and the Hokage has other matters to attend to…let's be off… we shall meet tomorrow for our sparring session at the same location understood?"
"Poof!"
With that he left us to ponder upon her condition.
"OH YEA!" Naruto jumped in glee
"What the hell are you so happy about Dobe?"
"Sasuke didn't you hear? Kakashi-sense said that Granny-Tsunade said that Sakura-chan is going to be fine! Isn't that great!"
I stare in disbelief at the young kyuubi before me. Had he not noticed the sadness in Kakashi's voice? The somber yet distant look in his eyes? The hesitant miserable posture he portrayed? Is Naruto really this dense…I sighed and glanced at my side where Sai was bowing his head as well…It would seem that we both conveyed the same concern about the situation…and of Naruto's failure to…connect the dots…
"You're…so…stupid…Stupid…" I sighed before shrouding myself in smoke for my departure.
My thoughts revert back to that infamous moonlit night.
The attack had been severe.
We all pulled together and subdued the enemy…
And yet, no one survived…despite our greatest efforts to safeguard the ones we were supposed to protect…we couldn't the damages were done. There was nothing else we could do but provide some sense of remorse for the lost… and yet she was there…she sat still…a boy in her arms…she never let go…never let doubt enter her thoughts even as the boy's life faded into eternity…she still kept her rituals of healing…
Why can she not see the loss in front of her?
Why is it that she always chooses to deny the pain?
"Such a fool" I thought as Kakashi stepped forth to stop her task before she depleted herself clean of chakra… "Hai" she replied with a curt nod, the boy still within her arms. Her eyes were as empty as mine…it gave me an odd sense of nostalgia all of a sudden and I brush it off before diving into such thoughts…
But they were empty…her eyes…
Void of the vitality that it once possessed in her youth. True, since the demise of her family she had lost all signs of life…but that was normal as I have been through the same path…I know the pain…
The difference was…
I chose to hate…
She chose to become numb…
I continue to watch as she laid the sleeping boy upon the heap of corpses we collected…I watched as she silently noted each detail on his face before setting the heap ablaze…
Still there was nothing in her eyes…the once jade orbs were now dim and gray…
Hollow…
Empty…
Am I so insensitive that I could not even give her the comfort that Naruto, Kakashi and Sai can?
Perhaps…
Then again…I went through suffering as well… I have overcome the odds and so must she…
But have I really?
I instantly break out of my daze as I hear Kakashi's command of scouting the area once more before we leave. I give him a steady nod and instantly leap off into the distance…my thoughts still following me in speed…
It hadn't taken me more than 20 minutes to finish my scout around the village perimeters…the tiny village devoured by death…it sickened me to the pit of my stomach…and I head back…. As I reach my destination three figures stood to greet me…Naruto, remorseful and still, Sai unfazed and contemplative, Kakashi apathetic…. yet in despair…. and…Sakura? I scan the area and see that it lacked her presence.
"I have already finished my rounds of the village…there's no more trace of life…" I paused letting the feeling of failure sink in before continuing. "The Godaime will not be pleased with the results…" I sighed… "By the way… where is Sakura?"
"I was going to ask you the same…it seems as though she has yet to return and it's already been more than half an hour…. and we should really be heading back…there is still a possibility that the enemy has already sent for reinforcements…and in our current state, I doubt we would be able to hold them back..." Kakashi replied, concern evident in his voice.
"Hai…" replied Naruto "Let's go look for her then Kaka-sensei…besides…this place…is starting to make me…sick…" he sighed.
"I'll go…" I offered as I turn and began my search for the kunoichi.
Not far from where I began my search did I hear a painstaking cry of agony emitting from the distance. I leaped from each rooftop and bound towards the sound.
Bright light.
Such intensity of chakra flowed within the chambers of the sanctuary before me…then I heard it once more…a woman's cry of agony…. familiarity struck me at that moment.
"Sakura…"
I increased the speed in my flight until I reached the bowels of the fallen monument. There lay Sakura her eyes wide-open and empty… Not far from her hold was a body of a dead woman… "She must've tried to…" My thoughts cut short by the sudden surge of chakra from Sakura's body. "What was happening? Medical techniques should not emit such violent consequences…" Try as I may to come near her another surge of chakra from her body pushed me away.
Then, just as soon as this phenomenon occurred… It ended with another violent storm of energy…then nothing…the monument was now dark and empty…gone were the embers that threatened to engulf it…now it was nothing more than an ash-ridden heap of wood and death. I crouch near Sakura's fallen frame and slowly extract the woman from her hold. Her chakra was now completely gone…that occurrence was perhaps the cause of her forcibly trying to extract chakra from her already depleted source in order to save the woman…such instances were not unheard of…not to mention risky and ultimately life-threatening…the consequence of performing such a thing would cause an uncontrollable wave of chakra that has the potential to end the life of the one who wielded it. This time she was lucky that it hadn't eaten her away. Why was she so desperate to save this woman's life?
The woman's face pale and empty just as Sakura's…I slowly placed Sakura in my arms and felt that her breathing was faltering. I panicked… I place her body down once again and put my fingers near her neck to check for a pulse.
Her pulse did not emit the same beat that each human is inherently born with…instead each pulse varied in intensity…One moment fast and unwavering…. the next slow and steady…then nothing…then it will start once again…the cycle was not in tune with the heart's normal rhythm… "I should be thankful that there's still a heartbeat…but still…" I sigh and place her upon my arms once more…surely the Godaime would know how to fix this…we should really head back.
Her body hung lightly within my arms. Her stature so frail and tiny compared to my own…that moment I felt an unknown feeling bubble deep within me…Sure, I cared for the girl just as I would a friend…but this feeling was different…it was new…it was…passionate? As though I wanted to just hold her like this in my arms forever…protecting her from the scars of the world…I looked down and saw the pain and the sadness written in her face and I scorned myself for not being able to prevent it…but why? Was I feeling "things" for this girl? This girl that has caused me so many migraines over the years…this girl that I deemed weaker than Naruto… I brush such trivial ideas aside and returned to where the rest of team seven assembled.
I snap out of my trance as I found my way home. It had already been three weeks since we have returned from our mission. Three weeks since that fateful night…three weeks since I held her in my arms…and since then she had not shown any sign of life within her…I sigh and look above at the gloomy sky…why was I so concerned for her? …This feeling deep within me… "If you want to beat me…hate…detest…"
Itachi's words ring as an eternal reminder within me…
No…I must rid myself of these "feelings." Sakura is nothing more than a teammate, one who helped with my return and rehabilitation from Orochimaru.
I turn around from my path and head towards where she slumbered.
These emotions are nothing.
The revelation of her "condition" left Kakashi numb… "How was this possible…? Surely she had not--- " No, he brushed the thought aside…Sakura was not like that… there must have been a different reason for why this fate has now taken hold of her. Kakashi sighed and turned towards his window… "Sakura… I want for you to open your eyes to the light of day…I want for you to be awake again…I want for you to be with us again…but…it scares me to think of how you will you be able to accept what has and will happen" Kakashi sighed. He had always reserved a soft and special spot for the pink-haired kunoichi within his heart. Her smiles and bubbly persona reminded him so much of the spring…and of the childhood that he never had the chance of living. "Such an atrocious thing could not have happened to her" He repeated…Sakura knows better. His Sakura knows better… "My Sakura?" he sighed. Throughout the years of their camaraderie each pupil had grown beyond his expectations…and each of them he was proud…but out of the three…Sakura had grown the most…gone was the timid young girl who fled and hid at the sight of battle…now she was a true determined young woman…and true to the test of age and time, her beauty was unmatched…each man within the region desired for her affection. The long pink strands of her hair, the alluring curves of her toned and slender body would send any man into the state of bliss and oblivion…and it was apparent in her increased number of suitors throughout the years…much to His, Naruto and Sai's dismay, they'd try to guard her from such unruly men. He cared for the young girl…how much? He would never know and he would never allow himself the privilege to know…it was taboo…forbidden…but he would continue to care for her…even if it be as a daughter…he would sooner let the devil himself strike him down before severing the connection with her because of this forbidden infatuation.
But still he missed her…or at least…he missed what she used to be…
In the past year following the brutal deaths of her family, Sakura had been different…distant…cold…gone was the were the smiles and laughes…the spring has now been devoured by the winter…and this new incident he hoped would not increase the turmoil within her numbed state.
And he would see to it that it doesn't.
After this revelation…he swore to the Hokage herself that he'd do everything in his power to see that she be taken care of properly…and that the villagers tolerate the circumstances she is now dealt with. He swore to protect her no matter what…together with Naruto, Sai and Sasuke…they were a family…his family…. and he'd be damned to see it falter cause of this…
In her office Tsunade paced back and forth in such velocity that she would be able to create a crevice within her path. "This doesn't make any logical sense…not unless.." she pushed the thought aside. Just as Kakashi she would not allow herself to place such nonsense into her thoughts. She raised Sakura to know better…
When team seven had arrived she was shocked to see the condition in which Sakura had been. But after hearing Uchiha's explanation of her failed attempt in reviving a fallen maiden, she understood that Sakura's chakra was now unstable and it was likely the cause for her now immobile state. She assigned a medic staff to overlook the procedure of her examination as she turned her attention to the failed mission. It was confirmed that it was Orochimaru's doing that lead to the destruction of the village…his reasons for doing so was still unknown…but she did not blame team seven for their failure, for she herself thought that it would be nothing more than a "walk in the park" mission so to say…but they were all wrong…and now they must suffer through the consequences…she looked upon Sakura's body and sighed… "she should awake soon" he reassured her teammates…but days passed and so did the weeks... every other day exams and treatments where performed on Sakura…until the third week when Tsunade had received the finalized document of her apprentice's condition did she realize the quagmire Sakura was in.
"I have to know how this was possible…" she sighed…looking at the documents she had received three weeks prior…" Documents from her examination…documents she wanted to forget…documents that she wanted to disregard…information that she didn't want to believe…but it was true…after performing the examination herself…she found that the contents of the small manila folder where true…
When Sakura awakes…she will ask her… even if it brings back unwanted memories…she would ask her…
Surely there was another reason for this…another explanation….
But still, to be sure…she would ask her….
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
xx
Who the father is…