Fire: Chapter 13! This should be the last chapter of Wait for Me: Following. Please don't hate me too much if you love Sakura. I know I'm being mean to her in this story.
Sasuke: That's an understatement.
Fire: (slumps) I know. It must look like I really hate her.
Kakashi: Didn't you mention in the last book that you treat characters that you like worse than the characters you don't like? That's a twisted way of looking at people.
Fire: I'm not twisted!
Sasuke: Then you like Sakura more than me! How is that possible! I'm Sasuke! You're supposed to love me!
Fire: Eww… I don't think I want to love you, Sasuke. Besides, you belong to Naruto.
Sasuke: That's not what I meant!
Fire: Well, while Sasuke tries to reword his remark, please r—
Kakashi: They haven't read the chapter yet. Best to go on with the reviews from the last chapter. (hands Fire a window from the Big Bag of Reviews)
Fire: You read my mind! (grabs the window) Now, some general concerns! Waah! Diet Soda was confused about what happened with Sasori in the last chapter! Why did Sasori turn away so easily?
Sasori: … (stares at Fire) Sakura looked like she was going to kill me.
Fire: Naturally, since Edo Tensei relies on the master's will to telepathically control the summoned minions—
Sasori: I'm not a minion! I'm a puppeteer!
Fire: Uh…yeah. Since the technique relies on the master's will, strong emotions greatly increase the effects. Sakura was so angry that it completely imposed the actions on Sasori. He couldn't help himself. (smiles) You're a puppet after all, Sasori!
Sakura: In other words, he couldn't resist my command since I was really, really angry. Think of it as beeing blown away by anger.
Fire: In case you still don't understand that, think of it as a sudden Kaiten that repelled Sasori as soon as she yelled at him. (turns to Kisame) Do you think that makes sense?
Kisame: I don't care. (yelling) Just stop hugging me!
Kakashi: (sighs) Anything else to add?
Fire: Oh! I left out what Sasori did on those seven days between chapter 11 and chapter 12 because I thought it would be too boring. It takes three days to get to Suna and three days to get back. That's already six days of travelling, and there's not much to say about Sasori going to seal the ashes and running into that Suna kunoichi. She was only a tokubetsu jounin, and not really strong enough to stand up to Sasori, so there wasn't even a good fight! I hope no one was confused about the timeskip. I hinted that he was gone for a week, but I'm not sure if everyone understood. He was gone for a week! A week!
Sasori: (unenthusiastic) Yokata. Thanks for explaining that
Fire: (ignoring Sasori's unenthusiasm) Arigatou!
Sasori: (groans) …
Fire: And for those of you who were wondering whether or not Sasuke's alive or not, there's an explanation at the end discussing the theory I devised between Edo Tensei and Chiyo's tensei technique in regards to Sasuke. If you were wondering about it, read it. If you have any questions about it or you're confused about it, remember to send me a review or PM about—
Sasuke: (impatient) Here! Read the next chapter! (throws chapter 13 onto the screen)
Fire: Waah! Sasuke, don't interrupt me!
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Disclaimer: The phrase "my dobe" belongs to Fire. Don't you dare steal it!
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Warning: This chapter contains traces of insanity. For the people who like Sakura, gomen nasai. I'm going to really mentally torture her over the next few chapters. As if I haven't been torturing her enough in this book…(evil laugh). If anyone wants to know what her complete mental condition is, please PM me. I didn't feel like writing it in Tsunade's report. Lee's not a medic-nin and he won't understand anyway. If you're taking psychology or psychiatry, try analyzing her! I thought it was fun.
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Chapter 13: Torment of the Sakura
Sakura had collapsed on the bridge. As soon as Sasuke was gone, Kakashi's body instantly ran forwards to catch her. The frail body of a strong kunoichi was so much like that of a normal girl's that the jounin was almost unable to think of what to do next.
But as soon as Gai ran up with Inuzuka Tsume and Kuromaru's efficient nose at his side, Kakashi's mind returned to the task at hand. He needed to be the old Kakashi, the one who always had a handle on everything. This wasn't a time for weakness. He couldn't show that he was troubled by his former student's actions.
"Send someone ahead to the hospital!" Kakashi looked down at the girl in his arms. "We need a medic-nin." Sakura's eyes were wide open, but she saw nothing. There were only the shallow breaths of air coming from her partially open mouth that signalled she was still alive.
There was no movement. No sight. No words. Nothing. There was nothing else to signify anything but death. Only the light breaths and the faint pulse in her veins. And Kakashi was worried. She wasn't responding to anything, her body just staring into nothing.
When the medic-team came, the grey-haired jounin fell into the background, the useless hands of a sensei unable to do anything in the midst of panic. The girl was breathing. That was the only good thing out of it all. And Kakashi didn't even have a hand in it.
He had knocked, and Sasuke waited before knocking again. That dobe was probably still sleeping, or was out training somewhere. 'What am I? Nothing!' Naruto was supposed to be moping over his death!
"Naruto!" He shouted as he banged his fist against the door again. "Open the damned door!"
The door swung open. But there was no one there. No one had opened the door. 'The dobe probably forgot to lock his door. Baka!' Sasuke pushed the door open. He would wait inside until he came ho–
The apartment was empty.
"Chikusho. Naruto, you better not be playing a prank on me!" He remembered that Naruto loved to prank people. "Naruto?" He looked around. The blond shinobi never had many things in his apartment in the first place. It wouldn't be too difficult to make it look empty. All he had to do was move some things into the bedroom.
But the bedroom was empty too.
"Don't tell me he moved without telling me," he grumbled angrily.
But it didn't matter. Even if Naruto moved, it wouldn't be too difficult to find him. The blond was loud, obnoxious–especially when he had to be around him for long periods of time–and he loved ramen. If he stayed around Ichiraku Ramen, eventually, the jinchuuriki would come around.
'And I'm going to really hurt him when I find him!'
Lee came running as soon as he heard, so it wasn't too long before he came crashing through the door. He was a very fast runner, and news travelled fast when it was about Sakura. "Sakura-san! Sakura-san!" He was calling her name, but she didn't hear a word he said. "Sakura-san!"
"This is a sickroom, Lee-kun. Be quieter." Kakashi's calm voice came from within the room. He hadn't moved since Sakura came into the ward. He kept thinking that there was something he could do to wake Sakura up. For the last few days, she has lain there, the kunoichi refusing to respond to anything that they did.
"Ossu, Kakashi-sensei!" Lee made his way from the door to the girl, his eyes fixed on the sickbed. He never thought that he would see Sakura in a hospital. It was always he or Naruto who got hurt and was sent to the hospital. He never wanted to see Sakura in one of these sterile rooms. "How is she?" His voice came grated, cracked with strained effort, almost nothing like the voice that had shouted affirmation only a moment before.
Kakashi turned to the window across his line of sight, his eye staring out at the bright sky which poured in from outside. Lee wasn't the first person to ask about Sakura today. Almost the entire shinobi roster–including the Hokage and the two village elders, Utatane Koharu-sama and Mitokado Homura-sama–had come down to ask about Sakura, although most of them were young men about Lee's age. However, the jounin still didn't know what to say to them. "She won't respond to anyone."
'Not even me.'
Lee stared at the grey-haired man. That distant look was something that the green-clad shinobi had never seen on Kakashi before. This expression of something that Lee just couldn't name...he had never truly seen it on Kakashi's face. This was something that was...
The chuunin shook his head free of his thoughts. Instead of wondering about something that would probably only give him a headache, and most definitely a major heart attack, Lee turned to the pink mass on the bed. And he had to look away almost immediately.
Sakura was proud of her hair and her appearance. Usually, her pink tresses were so well-kept. Combed repeatedly in the mornings probably a hundred times before tying her hitai-ate around it, the kunoichi's hair now flew around her head in a static net. There were no visible knots yet, but Lee was sure that they weren't that far ahead.
That was the first thing that Lee noticed. Next to that, there was the sickly pale skin that glared at Lee from beneath that hair. It wasn't the naturally pale skin that Sasuke wore, but the clear skin of a terminally ill patient. If Lee had shone a flashlight at her, he was sure that he would be able to see every vein in her body through that skin.
And her eyes... Lee shivered to think about her eyes. Even in the worst situation, Sakura's eyes held the light of determination and hope. But these eyes were like those of a corpse. The light was gone. And they only stared unseeingly forward, burrowing through the walls and through Lee's heart. Where the concern was before, there was only a hollow emptiness, and a very large sack of concrete bricks.
Sakura's nails were black with ash and dirt, and her nightdress was in disarray. Lee was almost glad that she was hunched over herself, that the blanket was covering over half her body. If she wasn't in that state, he would have seen right through that mis-buttoned dress.
Lee only looked on with worry on his face. It has been a few days since the last time he was here. It was amazing that he was even more worried than he was before.
The entire world had stopped around Lee. He couldn't wait any longer. He had to ask her. "Hokage-sama, how is Sakura-san?"
Tsunade took her glowing green hands from the girl's body and turned to Lee. "Physically, there is nothing wrong with her." The woman waved her hand in front of the girl's face. "But I can't say that there's nothing wrong with her mind." The woman sighed. "There's no unusual chakra in her system, so I can't say that it has anything to do with her chakra either." The woman looked right into Lee's eyes before speaking again. "I'm afraid she's catatonic."
It took a moment for the Hokage's words to appear in Lee's mind, but when it did, he was certain that he had heard wrong. "No!" He couldn't accept it. "That can't be right! Sakura-san...Sakura-san's stronger than that!" The Sakura that he knew was a beautiful, strong kunoichi! She couldn't be brought down by something as small as this! "Sak–" Lee could feel the strong glare of the woman sitting across from him, and the words caught in his throat.
"She's catatonic. I can't change that, Lee."
And in the background, Sasuke was sitting in the corner with Kakashi at his side, not a word in his mind or on his tongue. It was the first and only time he came to see Sakura; he wasn't coming back again. He said nothing. And Lee didn't want him to say anything. It was partially Sasuke's fault that Sakura was like this now.
Yes! It was Sasuke's fault! Lee could think of no one else to blame but Sasuke. The thick-browed boy didn't want to blame him, to think those thoughts, but his mind still chattered away at him with those words. If it wasn't for Sasuke, Sakura would be fine now. If the Uchiha hadn't returned, Sakura would be fine. They could have been happy together. They could have returned to the normal life they had before this nightmare began, before the day Sasuke returned from Orochimaru.
But, even though the words streamed in his mind, Lee knew that he couldn't change it. The life they had...the normal life that they had...just wasn't making Sakura happy. As much as Lee wanted to put the blame on the Uchiha, he knew that it wasn't true. Even with Sakura in a state of catatonia, she was more likely infinitely happier than she was before Sasuke's return.
Chasing after Sakura for so many years, he couldn't help but notice it. Sasuke was irreplaceable. Within Sakura's heart, she would always love one man, and that man was Uchiha Sasuke. Lee knew that even if she was laughing with him, talking with him, smiling with him, one moment in Sasuke's presence far outshone anything she could have with him. One moment was enough. One moment was enough to outlast the eternity of pain tearing at her heart. Lee knew. He knew because...
'That's how I feel about you, Sakura-san.'
Lee's blind hands covered over the hands of the unconscious girl. He didn't know what else to do. He felt so useless. He wished that he could do something to wake her. "Sakura-san..." The calmest, quietest words that will ever come out of Lee's mouth.
He had forgotten all about Kakashi sitting in the corner. The jounin could feel Lee's pain. It was the same that gnawed at his chest. The unrelenting restlessness that urged him to save her. But he couldn't think of anything. He could think of nothing. If Tsunade, the legendary medic-nin of the Sannin could do nothing to save her, what could he do?
And the answer that came to his mind was nothing.
Sasuke stood at the entrance of the hospital, his mind as nervous as the day he returned to Konoha, his feet planted on the same place he was standing months ago...except Naruto wasn't waiting for him inside. Naruto was dead, and he had only just realized it a day ago.
He had walked all over Konoha, his feet taking him to places that his mind knew Naruto would go. After staying in Ichiraku Ramen for what seemed like forever, he decided to actively look for him. The blond could have been on a mission. That could have been the reason why he wasn't there.
But Sakura and Kakashi were both in Konoha. Naruto wouldn't go on a mission without them. He wouldn't go on a mission on his own. He wasn't that advanced yet, right? The dobe could never lead a team.
Naruto was definitely not on a mission.
He had come across Shikamaru who was headed in the opposite direction. The brown-haired chuunin was leaving for the Hi no Kuni capital to talk to the damiyo and restore the ties loosened earlier last year. "Oi! Did you see Naruto anywhere?" Sasuke remembered that Shikamaru and his dobe were very good friends.
Sasuke had expected a straightforward answer. The brunette usually said whatever was on his mind. But Shikamaru didn't answer. He stared at the dark-haired boy and frowned. "Did you hit your head on something?" He seemed annoyed. "You've been back for a day and you still can't figure it out?" The Hokage had sent notice of Sasuke's return to all the shinobi, although Kakashi's report wasn't very useful in this situation. However, Shikamaru was never too worried about things like the undead.
"Sasuke-kun!" Ino sang as she ran up, her usual lovesick expression on her face. "Don't you want to give me a kiss for good luck on this difficult mission?" She stared at him, stars sparkling in her eyes.
"Why would he want to kiss you, Ino?" Chouji stood not far away, a handful of chips in his mouth. "He has Naruto."
"He's dead, baka!" Ino shouted at her teammate. "Of course he can kiss me!"
"Mendokuse."
"Nani?" Sasuke stared unwaveringly at Ino. "What did you say?"
Ino looked anxiously at Sasuke. "Well...ikimasu! We can't be late or all relations with the damiyo will disintegrate!" She left, pushing Shikamaru and Chouji hurriedly away with her.
But to understand what was said, Sasuke didn't need Ino. His mind had already uncovered it. He had suspected it while searching for him. He had feared it.
Sasuke had died first...so he had no way of knowing. The blond shinobi who held him at his death was gone. The dobe who had sat in perfect health at the time of his death was dead.
'Chikusho! Why do you play these games with me!' He was even angrier than he was when he found Naruto's apartment empty.
Naruto was supposed to wait for him. He had specifically told the blond to stay here, to stay in Konoha and wait for his return. He had said he would return. And he had returned. Why wasn't Naruto here?
"Kuso!"
He had thought that Naruto would be here, in the village somewhere. Naruto had promised. He had promised that he would be here.
"Naruto..." the dark-haired shinobi mumbled, annoyance tinging his voice. It was too difficult to stay angry at him. The frustration that tightened his chest was already gone.
Sasuke had thought that it was impossible. Naruto couldn't be dead. It was a trick. It had to be one of his stupid pranks. He had looked out into the sky, down at the ground, and all around the village but he still couldn't find him. He had thought Naruto would jump out and laugh at him, but that didn't happen. Naruto really was gone. Naruto was really gone, and the only person who could tell him why was in that hospital.
But he was still standing at the entrance. He still couldn't bring himself to go inside. The pressure that had settled over his chest only grew heavier with every moment, with every thought. Sakura wasn't whom he wanted to see. Sakura wasn't the person he wanted to return to. Sakura wasn't the one he wanted.
"Dobe." He should have waited, like he told him to.
Sasori sat outside Konoha Hospital, exactly outside Sakura's wardroom window. He sat, the sandy Suna cloak holding a startlingly obvious contrast to the green leaves around him. He couldn't find his Akatsuki cloak, and he didn't want to find it...at least not at this time.
The girl was catatonic. That was what Hokage-sama had said, even though he knew better; she was only simplifying the analysis for that chuunin. There must be something else to her condition even though those words were all he heard from where he sat. That was a few days ago, and Sakura was still unconscious, although it wasn't an unbroken unconsciousness. She was just sleeping at this time.
He knew that he should be happier, more content. His body should be filled with joy. The girl was dying...not physically dying, but her mind was collapsing. Her mind was screaming in torment, and her heart was melting against the torrent of emotions swamping it.
He could feel it.
Then what was this other emotion he was feeling? Remorse? Guilt? What was it?
The puppetmaster stared into the room where he could clearly see the pink head on white pillows. From his angle, he couldn't see the jounin sitting in the corner. There was only the girl on her sickbed, her face contorted in a mix of pain, confusion, and anxiety. And for a moment, pain shot unexpectedly through his body. For a moment, he thought that he really did feel remorseful.
'Chikusho.' He stared at his hands, his live human hands. 'Is it a side effect?' He hadn't been in a human body for twenty-five years. He had forgotten about physical pain, human emotions. He had forgotten all about things like remorse.
"I might be..." He curled his hands closed as he turned his attention back to the kunoichi. 'I might be getting attached to her.' And he cursed his human frailty for a moment before becoming absorbed in watching the girl again.
Dank dark echoed off the non-existent walls of an infinite space. At least to Sakura, it was infinite. Even within her own mind, she sat curled in a ball. She was trapped. There was no way out.
The echoes kept rebounding and flying back to her with sharper letters with which to stab her. And they pierced her with more efficiency than any kunai or shuriken. Ribbons of her outer shell lay cluttered around her in tall mountains beyond which were escape and the outside world. But the face was too slippery with blood and tears to climb over, and Sakura was trapped once again.
It wasn't that she hadn't tried to climb over that strange mountain of pale skin and pink hair, green eyes and dirt, but the words kept flying to her, sticking to her skin and weighing her down. And each word weighed more than ten Chouji's. It didn't take many words to drag her down to the middle of that pit. Her bleeding fingers couldn't dig into the mass of skin and hair anymore.
'It's my fault!'
'I killed them!'
'And they saw!'
'They know everything!'
'They saw everything!'
'They all hate me.'
'I'm a hideous monster!'
'They'll never trust me again.'
'Sasuke doesn't love me.'
'Why doesn't he love me!'
'Love me!'
'Why do I have to be so selfish?'
The words went on and on, continuous in never-ending loops until Sakura couldn't move, couldn't breathe. In the darkness, she could only strangle a shaky breath through the words that pressed on her chest.
'Sasuke-kun loves Naruto.'
'Sasuke-kun doesn't love me.'
'And everyone can see the jealousy in my heart.'
'The hideousness hidden beneath this worthless forehead.'
'I could have brought him back.'
'But I didn't.'
'I let him die!'
'I couldn't bring him back!'
'I didn't want him back.'
"Naruto..." she whispered through the words that clogged her throat. "...gomen nasai."
'I hate him!'
'I hate him!'
'He can't come back! I won't let him come back!'
'I don't want him back!'
"Naruto!"
Her mind threatened to explode.
"Naruto!"
The frantic screaming of the girl in the sickbed woke Kakashi from his sleep. The familiar name that belonged to his blond student rang through the hospital so loudly that everyone must be awake by then. "Nan desu?" He rushed to Sakura's side, her arms flailing wildly in her unending nightmare. "Sakura!"
But the kunoichi wasn't answering. There was no way she could answer him. She was still trapped within her mind, even if her eyes were wide open.
"Sakura!"
Kakashi didn't know exactly how it happened, but he was swiftly swept out of the room by a team of medic-nin. He even thought he saw the Hokage and Shizune before the door blocked his view.
Worry filled his chest as he heard the sound of frantic shouting from the room. Medic-nin ran out to gather materials and more ran in to help, but there were only the screams of the pink-haired girl inside to drive the masked jounin insane.
End Chapter 13
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Is Sasuke alive? Chiyo's tensei technique and Edo Tensei
Fire: I know that there are a few people out there wondering if Sasuke's really alive. There's no real way to know the effect of using two tensei techniques to bring back a person. Only Masashi-sensei can tell you that. So, I'm just going to give you a theory based on my research. Remember, this is only a theory, since I'm not Masashi-sensei.
Sasuke: Email him and ask him.
Fire: You do it! He's your creator!
Sasuke: …
Fire: Anyway, don't worry too much about whether it's going to be too long. It won't be like the explanation of the advanced genjutsu (if you've read it) since I didn't actually create anything this time. This is all theory.
Sasuke: (annoyed) Just get on with it.
Fire: Well, read this if you're wondering if Sasuke's really alive with flesh and blood or just ash and dirt; otherwise, just continue on with the tidbits, the babbling, a review or just close the window.
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To properly explain whether Sasuke is really alive with flesh and blood or if he's still ash and dirt, the first point is what actually happened. First, he was brought back with Edo Tensei, and then he was brought back to life with Chiyo's tensei technique. So, I'm going to explain the part about Edo Tensei first, then go onto Chiyo's tensei technique.
Everyone knows what Edo Tensei does. It pulls dead souls from the afterlife to inhabit vessels of living people. Additional facts are that the body remains in a state of minor decay after they are summoned until the second step—the placing of the fuda within the summoning's head—is performed. After that, the body is no long in a state of minor decay but is practically indestructible. In episode 70 of the anime and chapter 119 of the manga, Shodai and Nidaime are summoned by Orochimaru, but their bodies stops decaying when the kunai with red fuda are placed in their heads. The manga actually displays this better than the anime.
To address whether Sasuke's body is his own, the answer is yes. There isn't the body of another man within his body as long as his soul occupies the vessel. This means that even if there is no fuda within the summoning—like Sasori—the body still belongs to the summoned minion, ie Sasuke or Sasori. Evidence of that comes from anime episode 71 and manga chapter 120 when Sandaime blows up Shodai and Nidaime's limbs with explosive notes. When the body is being restored, there is no visual trace—bone, blood or flesh—of the vessel (human sacrifice) that the soul inhabits. There is only the ash and dirt that flies back to the body. Only after the soul is removed from the body does the body return to its individual components: ash, dirt, and a human body.
Next, there's Chiyo's tensei technique. This technique transfers the life of the user for one who is already dead. In this case, Chiyo transfers her life for Sasuke. Some of you might wonder how this can happen since Chiyo is dead too. That makes no sense, right? Well, here's the explanation.
Since Chiyo was brought back with Edo Tensei, her soul was restored to her body. Edo Tensei is a resurrection technique, just like Chiyo's tensei. The only difference was that they work on different levels—in different areas—and the human sacrifice varies. For the human sacrifice, Edo Tensei uses others while Chiyo's tensei uses the user. As long as there is a soul to exchange for another, there shouldn't be a problem.
Regarding Sasuke, Chiyo's tensei technique should restore his life completely where Edo Tensei is incomplete; hence, Edo Tensei requires the summoned spirit to obey a master and the resurrection isn't permanent; their time in the living world depends on whether or not they are needed by their master. Restoring Sasuke is the same as "breathing life into a hitokugutsu" as stated by Chiyo in manga chapter 274 (there's no anime episode for this yet). Edo Tensei provided the body, and Chiyo's tensei provided life.
As to whether or not Sasuke is flesh and blood, or ash and dirt, the answer is flesh and blood. This comes from the fact that Chiyo said she could bring a hitokugutsu back to life. This means the puppet would have a real body; otherwise it would just be another form of hitokugutsu, like Sasori's puppet form and Sasori did say that he's "not human, or a puppet," (manga chapter 275). Evidence of creating a real body comes from manga chapter 274 again. When Chiyo healed Sakura with this technique, several things had to happen in order for it to be successful. First, the wounds in Sakura's body from the sword—ie the internal organ that Sasori had pierced—must heal. Sakura had already used most of her chakra fighting Sasori and healing major wounds from earlier. If Sakura had chakra left, she would have healed herself on her own, and she wouldn't need Chiyo to use her technique. If the wound remains open, Sakura would have bled to death anyway. Second, Chiyo must restore the blood in Sakura's body. Sasori had said that Sakura had already lost too much blood. This meant that even if she was healed by a technique like shosen—which would have only closed the wounds and healed the organs—she would still die from blood loss. That meant that Chiyo's tensei must create blood within Sakura's body to replace the blood she already lost in order for Sakura to live.
In order to replace lost blood and heal fatal wounds as easily as Chiyo did—without being a medic-nin and having the incredible chakra control expected of a medic-nin—Chiyo's tensei technique must have regenerated new cells. This would make the technique similar to the genetic healing ability possessed by Kabuto (manga chapter 168/anime episode 94) and the medical technique created by Tsunade to heal Lee which was enhanced by taking parts of Kabuto's healing ability in order to increase the chances of survival from 50 to 60 (I don't remember where this was but I'll put it in when I find it). Although Chiyo's tensei has a few similarities to these two techniques, the extent of the technique—reaching far enough to replace vast amounts of blood in the body—is much greater. As a result, it is possible that the technique replaces dead tissue—like the treated body (manga chapter 264: a hitokugutsu's body is not made of wood but of the person's old body) or ashes (burnt body) into a living body—and restore it to its original, unharmed state, as was with Sakura. This means that the body must have been alive once. (This means Chiyo's tensei can't animate dead things, so don't bring your favourite doll to her. Kankurou, gomen. Karasu has to stay the way he is.)
To summarize, Sasuke is alive in a flesh and blood body. With the effects of Edo Tensei and Chiyo's tensei technique, he is fully restored to the state he was before his death. He bleeds, and on the scale of humans, he functions perfectly. No emotions were left out. He even has his old arm, since they burnt the rest of his body.
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Fire: I hope that explained everything.
Sasuke: That was the most confusing thing I ever read.
Fire: You're alive. Happy?
Sasuke: Why couldn't you just have said that. (turns and walks away)
Fire: Thanks for reading this part. I hope you're not confused. If you are, send me a review or a PM, and I'll explain it further.
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Fire's English tidbits for those who care:
Colloquial English! This should be something everyone's familiar with. Colloquial English is just conversational English, the English we use for speaking. Words that are acceptable in speech aren't always acceptable in writing. For example, "did you see Sasuke? I mean, wasn't he out of it?" The phrases "I mean" and "out of it" are omitted in written English. Fillers such as "I mean," or the repetitive use of "like," as well as vague classifiers that implies its meaning such as "out of it" and "sort of" are restricted to colloquial English and are never written on paper. This means that although you shouldn't write in colloquial English, it's okay to write speech in colloquial English, as long as it fits the character and the timeline. Writing in a style out of the time era would result in an anachronism. I will explain that further next time when I talk about slang.
Fire's babbling:
Kakashi: Nani! Lee— Lee-kun's—
Fire: (looks at the chapter) Yeah. I thought you knew.
Sasori: We didn't know he actually loved her! Have you seen her! It's Sakura!
Sakura: Hey! What's wrong with me?
Naruto: Sakura-chan's perfect!
Sasuke: Naruto's perfect. (glares at Lee) Don't even think about stealing him away!
Lee: I don't want Naruto! You should be more concerned about him! (points at Itachi)
Itachi: (looks at Naruto) …
Sasuke: You too! You're dead! Go away!
Itachi: (grabs Naruto's arm) …
Naruto: Waah!
Sasuke: (pulls Naruto away) We're leaving! (shunshins away with Naruto)
Fire: Well, I hope everyone can follow what's going on. If you're analysing Sakura's condition, the symptoms so far are both auditory and visual hallucinations, guilt over herself and her past actions, thoughts of death involving Naruto's death, and a few thoughts on worthlessness. Physical symptoms include psychomotor retardation, ie inability to function properly even though there is nothing physically wrong with her body. And of course, there are the symptoms of catatonia. Sakura is unaware of her surroundings and suffer from abnormal behaviour and movement.
Sakura: Stop analysing me!
Fire: Waah! Well, I'll stop now. (hugs Kisame for comfort)
Kisame: Ack! Don't hug me!
Fire: I've been hugging you for the entire series.
Kakashi: Finish the chapter! You can hug him later!
Fire: I can hug and talk at the same time. (turns to the audience) Kakashi just wants me to remind you to leave a review. I want to hear all your thoughts on this chapter or any other chapter in this series. That means that it doesn't just have to be this book, although if you are sending a comment about a different story in this series, please tell me which series you're talking about so I'm not confused.
Kisame: Fire gets confused easily.
Fire: Don't insult me! (squeezes Kisame tighter)
Kisame: (squeaks and falls over) …
Fire: Well, ja!
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