Someone Screaming
The Alternate Story – Dim Light
Ayane Selznick
Neji was worried.
They haven't received any contact from Team Seven yet. His team went around the perimeter and still no sign of their team. Also there was a moment when he felt the other horrifying Chakra faded. He then jumped into conclusion.
Something wasn't right.
It had been a mile or two away from the village's border and maybe the best he could do was use his Byakugan.
He narrowed his eyes further when it went past some sturdy trees and bushes. Suddenly he went blank.
Hinata, not only because she was his cousin but also was a good Medic Nin, noticed his tensed muscles. She whispered his name but failed. He was still and his white eyes had stopped looking at something. Hinata resorted to see what's ahead when she finally activated her Byakugan.
After a few moments, she, too, went still.
Sakura-san! Naruto-kun!
Aside from a raging Kyuubi vessel, Hinata and Neji located two bodies lying down on the ground, their Chakra indicating fifty-fifty chances of surviving.
"I found them." Neji finally said.
Naruto tried to restrain his inner turmoil but he had risked everything he could and none could stop his raging Chakra. He needed help. He needed help to stop himself… and save Sakura.
Albeit his violent tantrums, Naruto who was hidden at the back of the Kyuubi's mind had been crying. He felt as though it was his fault for not saving her on time. He couldn't do anything but whip out his tails and claws wildly.
He was out of control.
Few minutes later, he sensed a number of strong Chakras that arrived within his raging perimeter. He shot his head high only to see the Hokage, clad in her usual green cloak, staring blankly at him as though provoking him to do anything.
Naruto in Kyuubi Chakra form head forth the Hokage, unaware of the huge seal marks around the Hokage's foot.
"I'll seal that once again, Naruto!"
He didn't know how long he had been knocked down after his last blow even so he wanted to know if he really killed his own kin…
His last family…
His half consciousness regained from a short break. It made him detect his surroundings through sense of hearing and feeling.
He heard the quick rustling of leaves, the thuds on the branches and the speed of many people.
From his sense of feeling, mostly touching, he noticed that he was with the rhythm of the speed. The gushing of the wind that sped pass his face and hair, he knew somebody was carrying him on his back.
Was I really this… helpless?
He tried to open his eyes but it started hurting him when a strong light penetrated his vision. He stirred once again as his eyes jadedly took in his surroundings.
Trees, leaves, people in white uniform, woman in green cloak, few people in ANBU uniform…
Reinforcements?
He looked to his right as though he was searching for someone.
A blur of pink caught his hazy vision.
He tried to focus his sight but his head throbbed painfully. He used his reserved stamina to use it to his eyes.
His eyes turned red… no more swirling black dots… just black sharp blades…
He wanted to make sure that there was enough Chakra to make her alive. He hoped even though they knew it was impossible for her to survive. Locating her position, he focused his newly upgraded eyes to her Chakra and then—
…Found none.
His energy went down, restraining him to use his eyes. He once again submitted in his sleepless rest.
When he closed his eyelids, a lone shining tear tumbled towards his cheek.
Sakura…
Seconds, minutes, and days had passed by.
He had grown accustomed with the dark atmosphere and he didn't know how long he had been in his own dark and lonely sanctuary, nevertheless he wanted to wake up… He wanted to get out of unfathomable solitude.
At first he wanted to argue if he would really open his eyes or not seeing as it hurt the first time he opened them. Also his body was in the process of healing that he thought it wasn't his time to get up.
While on his inner arguments, his hearing sense finally helped him to find out what's going on outside his blank and dull dreamless sleep.
"There's nothing we could do Naruto. The result wasn't brain dead, it's comatose." A dark husky voice explained.
Sasuke heard a sigh beside him.
It was Naruto.
"It had been a week, Kakashi-san." Although Sasuke hasn't opened his eyes he knew that Naruto had a frown in his face the tone of his voice emphasized it. "I want to believe that she'll survive, that she'll return to us."
There was a pause.
"We know that it's impossible to cheat death. But… let's just hope she lives."
A classic poof sounded in his room.
Sasuke heard shifting beside him. Naruto looked at Sasuke's sleeping form.
"Sasuke," there it was again, the sad tone, "wake up will you? You're not dead so damn it, wake up."
If Sasuke was in stable condition he could have smirked at Naruto's demand.
Ultimately, he forced his eyes to open. Although his vision was hazy he noted the tensed expression Naruto had all over his face.
"Sasu…Sasuke!"
Within that week of sleeping it could have been hard for him to utter a single word using his voice. When his eyes opened widely, shielding once from the ray of sunlight, he glared at blonde beside him.
"You're finally awake!" He turned to the door only to be stopped when Sasuke held his wrist.
"N-no."
Naruto turned his head to him, confused why Sasuke had stopped him. He was about to go outside to call the doctor and tell him about his wake.
He looked deeply at the eternal blackness in his eyes. Then he understood.
Sasuke let go of his hold on Naruto's wrist. He sighed when he complied from his simple request. Now all he had to do was try his vocal chords again.
"Damn… you're noisy." It came a little awkward. His voice was weak.
Naruto smiled a little. For starters, Sasuke surely was a bastard to insult him for being noisy.
"How are you feeling now?" The blonde asked.
The young Uchiha closed his eyes for a second then stared at the ceiling.
"I… I don't feel anything."
"Really? But you're not even paralyzed." Naruto reasoned in his most classical simplicity.
Sasuke smirked. "Moron, I'm not paralyzed."
He was about to sit up to prove that he was indeed alright but Naruto held him and told to lay back. It's not okay for him to just jump away from bed.
There was a pause before Sasuke raised a question.
"What…what happened?"
"What happened to 'what'?"
Naruto detected Sasuke's forlorn spirit in his eyes. He knew what Sasuke was asking about and he tried to brush it off away. Of course, it was important for him to know what happened. It was his fight after all.
Sasuke need not to rephrase his question, he knew that Naruto understand it. He was just searching for words to answer him.
"I really don't know what happened. But if you remembered …I wasn't conscious during the fight."
He remembered but he didn't say anything.
"Sasuke," He called trying to get a reaction from him, "you killed Itachi."
That was what he wanted to know.
He closed his eyes peacefully.
His goal… His first goal was finally accomplished after a long, long time. He tried to feel something. He tried to feel that victory after the long years of vengeance.
On the contrary he felt nothing. What was his reward then?
Even though he tried so hard to search for something light deep inside his heart there was no light to answer him.
He felt nothing.
He felt blank.
There was no feeling of triumph despite his victorious battle against the last of his family. He wished for a sign, from any of his family, that they were indeed happy about it.
…still nothing.
He remembered what he said to her; that even though he pursued and completed his revenge he knew that nobody would be happy about it. He won't be happy about it. Neither would she.
Sakura…
Speaking of which, he hadn't seen her around. Why was Naruto with him anyway? It wasn't like that dead last would waste time waiting for him to wake up.
He hesitated but went on, "Where's Sakura?"
Sasuke noticed Naruto's tensed shoulder. The way his eyes widened in surprise then reverted to its original shape he knew that Naruto was keeping something. Something that connected to her.
"I… I don't know." Was all Naruto could say.
The young Uchiha wasn't expecting him to say those words. Of all people who cared about her it was impossible for him to say that he didn't know what happen.
He was definitely hiding something.
"Where is she?" He tried.
But Naruto remained impassive.
He glared at the blonde beside his bed but it was useless since Naruto wasn't looking back at him. His eyes were staring at the ground below him. He was avoiding eye contact.
Then… it hit him.
"Is she—"
The door of his room creaked open. Both the young men's head shot at the visitor. It was Hinata.
"Oh, Sasuke-san has awakened." She said then walked beside the bed.
She eyed Naruto. He had forgotten his usual greeting smile. Something was definitely wrong.
"How are you feeling, Sasuke-san?" The once timid girl now a young brave woman asked.
Hinata started checking his condition to the monitor. She checked some of his wounds and his eyes, nodding once in a while.
The other male in the room stood up and walked away from the bed. He stopped in front of the window. He tried so hard to convince himself that there's hope… he tried to answer Sasuke's inquiry and yet it was hard to search for words.
"I'll give you three more days to rest, Sasuke-san." She finally concluded, placing him in his bed and tucking the comforter on his body, "Some of your wounds may cause fatality if you move recklessly."
Sasuke nodded knowingly. He would stay here for three days but after which, what would happen next?
He looked at Naruto's back, still waiting for him to explain Sakura's condition. He had a bad feeling about his unusual silence. He had a bad feeling that something happened and he just hoped she wasn't—
"Sakura-chan had been unstable for the past few days." He finally started.
Then something also hurt inside Sasuke's chest.
"She hasn't woken up. Tsunade rushed to her room twice last week. We thought… we thought we lost her."
Naruto halted in a long pause. It really pained him to see her in her state: lifeless and silent. It wasn't Sakura at all.
"We don't know how long she'll be sleeping." He turned to the side with a sad smile, "but I really want to see her bright side again."
Hinata didn't butt in their conversation but she knew how much it pained Naruto to just look at his friend in an unstable state with only a low chance of surviving. Sakura was also her friend but she tried so hard to be strong. Not just for her but also for her patients since she's taking Sakura's place while she was in the process of healing.
The uncomfortable stillness in the room made her want to cry. She didn't want to think about it all again. She was done crying for the past three days. It was enough.
"Excuse me, I have to go now." She muttered as she slowly made her way towards the door. "Please, take care, Sasuke-san." She turned to Naruto and smiled, "I just have to attend to another patient, Naruto-kun."
Naruto wheeled his head then smiled at her. "I'll catch up with you later, Hinata-chan."
The young woman nodded. She left while closing the door behind.
Both ex-teammates of Team Seven let silence prevailed. It was unusual of Naruto to stay in that kind of silence since he would always be the first person to destroy it. He hated silence. He hated it because it feels dead to be silent.
He knew that once Sasuke was quiet, he was in deep thoughts. Maybe he was thinking about Sakura, or maybe about his deceased brother, their last bout, or maybe his future in Konoha.
Naruto didn't like thinking too much and he most definitely didn't like to be stuck in his room with him. Even though Sasuke had awakened, he knew that it would be same when he was asleep.
Naruto decided to leave. He walked towards the door with a scowl on his face.
Before he left, he gave one last message to Sasuke.
"Sakura-chan needed you. She needs you more than ever."
Paperwork. Paperwork. And more paperwork.
It wasn't a good start. She had to finish everything else before she attends to another. Just because they've arrested two S-Class Missing Nins, more and more pile of work dawned on her desk.
She had the busiest schedule last week due to Akatsuki interrogation. It was hard for them to get information so they have to resort in violence. It was not effective since they never got clues about their organization. Patience must always be in their minds so they have to restrain themselves before deciding about death sentence.
Even then, they've never heard anything. In the end, they resorted to simply killing them.
As for today, she was currently listening to a mission report of a group she dispatched recently. She sat on her usual chair, elbows bent of her desk and her chin above her crossed hands.
"…that includes our report, Hokage-sama."
Tsunade closed her eyes for a moment, trying to relax even the slightest of time before speaking.
"Very well, you guys did a great job." She straightened up at her seat, "I will just have to call you later. As you can see I have so many things to finish here."
"Hai, Hokage-sama." They said in unison then disappeared quietly.
Seeing that it was a good time to relax a bit, the Hokage leaned her back on her chair. Massaging her temples in her head to ease the pain she always had during her busiest to-do list.
"Hokage-sama." A voice from the other side echoed her ears.
"Come in, Shizune."
Opening the door of her office, Shizune went inside with a rigid face. The gloomy reflection in her eyes indicated possible negativities.
"How was Sakura?" Straightforward as always, Tsunade didn't like the idea of being surprised or shocked. Perhaps the reason could be her protégé's case. It was damn too serious.
"Hai." Shizune responded and complied. "All her vital parts are functioning normally. But due to some damages, which take weeks before it fully recovers, some of her body parts are not functioning well. She had slow breathing and she's still unconscious."
"I see." She lowered her head while thinking of how she would be able to help her best medic to get back in her toes.
Only a few had survived Tsukiyomi's attack, or maybe two: Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke. Both of them had Sharingan but they were still inferior that Itachi was able to immobilize them for a couple of days.
Sakura's case was different.
She doesn't have Sharingan or blood of an Uchiha so it was hard to believe that someone like her would survive from a powerful Genjutsu. It wasn't fully stated that she, indeed, survive, seeing as she was suffering from internal damages from psychological attack.
It didn't make her brain turn dead or malfunctioned, it was a surprise, but there were times when they almost lost her due to an inside attack occurring inside her head.
All Tsunade could ever do was create a barrier in Sakura's mind because she couldn't come inside it to reach her.
"There's something inside Sakura's mind that prevented me to come in." Tsunade stated, "I was able to heal Kakashi and Sasuke when they were in coma. Also I don't know how Sakura was able to deflect Itachi's attack. She didn't have any Dojutsu not even learned any Mind Control Technique from Yamanaka's."
Shizune could only look at her master. She had no idea of how their kunoichi dealt from the Missing Nin's attack.
"If we can't find anything about her, we can't help her." Both Shizune and Tsunade dropped their eyes. "If we didn't find anything, we will lose her… permanently."
A painful stillness lingered inside her office. They had to find a way to save Sakura. While they were thinking, a figure stood by the wall beside the doorframe—
—With a hand balled into fist.
Naruto left the hospital after he walked Hinata back to her work.
He didn't want to go back to his apartment yet. It felt cold and lonely there. So he started walking towards the unforgettable meeting area…
Red Bridge.
Every time he set his foot on its crispy wood of dull red, his mind would always linger at his past.
Their past. He would always smile when he remembered saying something stupid as Sasuke would remarked him dead last then Sakura would punch his head and then when Kakashi-sensei arrived he and Sakura would say 'You're LATE!' in unison. Of course, Kakashi would make a pathetic excuse and then they would say 'LIAR' again, in unison.
A nostalgic smile crept up his face. His eyes would have smiled too if only he wasn't sad at all.
They would always make fun of each other. Teasing, annoying and fighting but in the end they remained as a team. They remained as friends. They remained as family.
He loved being with them. He liked the feeling of having the ones who would care for you, and the feeling of protecting someone because they were important to you.
He felt strong.
That explained where his strength was. No, it wasn't strength. It was to trigger his strength, his inner turmoil. The raging power which was trying to get out of his body to cause havoc and death.
The look of pain in his eyes…
Why must he have this kind of power?
Although he admitted, he was thankful to have a reserved energy during the brawl, but it doesn't help his companions to be safe. They were in much danger when he released it.
Part of what she had become was because of him.
He didn't know where to start listing his faults but he knew that he did something wrong. He caused her to be in pain, suffering where all he wanted to do was to keep her alive and make her smile.
And he never knew… it was really hard to keep promises, especially for her. It was a hard task because it keeps on breaking.
Out of the blue, Naruto slammed both his hands on the banister.
He closed his eyes, not wanting to see his shameful reflection on the running water.
He doesn't want to see himself crying helplessly.
Amidst his inner conflicts, he was oblivious to another person who just happened to pass by.
This person was standing at the other side of the bridge, rooted at his spot, while watching Naruto crying quietly at the bridge. He noticed Naruto's head hung low while his jaw turned rigid, thinking he was gritting his teeth.
Rock Lee knew what Naruto was crying for.
Because he had been in that state for so many days…
The feeling of lost.
To be continued…Author's Note: The most awaited SasuSaku moment hasn't arrived yet. This serves as a cue. I've also cut some long paragraphs so less and less description. This chapter is purely ANGST. Yeah I really love the term. I must live with that word.