Spiral Out
By: Ane S. Thesia
Beta-read by: Griggling
Chapter Five: Come Clarity
"Oi!"
Sakura stirred underneath the foot prodding her uncomfortably in the ribcage. She had been enjoying the near silence and the darkness behind her eyelids, and the birds outside chirping and singing relentlessly. It gave her a semblance of peace for the past hour, even when she found her mind bouncing back and forth from lethargy to distant memories.
"How long are you going to sit there?" Kisame inquired with obvious annoyance.
Letting out a loud grumble, Sakura forced her puffy eyes open and looked up from her position on the floor. "I don't know. Does it really matter?" She had wanted that to sound mean, or sassy, but all she could manage was apathetic.
"I'm sure the floor is incredibly comfortable, but you can't stay there forever. You stink and you're covered in blood. Go take a bath." For a moment, Kisame wondered if he came across too concerned. He cleared his throat, adding, "And, really, I'm getting sick of looking at you."
"Leave me alone."
He sneered, pushing into her ribs again with his boot.
She reached out a shaky hand to grip the intrusive object. "Where's Itachi?"
The man above her grunted, pulling his foot away. Ignoring her question, he bent down and grabbed her under the arms, pulling her to her feet against her will. Her knees let out sickening pops, and her shins were bright red from the hard floor.
She swiveled for a moment at the dull ache in her legs, putting a hand on Kisame's chest in what could have been misconstrued as a gentle thank you, but was really just to push him away from the uncomfortable close proximity he stood at.
He rolled his eyes. "Go through that doorway," he motioned lazily behind where they stood, "Go left, the door at the end of the hall is the bathroom. This place is old, so you'll have to fill the tub using the water basin and heat it from outside."
"Uh…thanks…" Sakura said with uncertainty, waving him off and heading down the hall.
Kisame watched in interest as she ambled away, rubbing his chin lightly in thought, which brought him back to earlier that day…
--
He'd been in the kitchen for only a few moments after leaving her and Itachi alone when he had felt an unusual draft of chakra seep into his senses. When he peeked out to look across the hallway to where they were, Itachi was dropping her from his grasp to the floor. It was that moment when Kisame noticed a peculiar look about him he couldn't place.
Trying to read Itachi's emotions was like trying to read brail, in his opinion. And he wasn't about to try and learn. All he needed was their intuitive nuances in battle, nothing more. But despite that reasoning, and the gap that never let their relationship get too deep, he had still subconsciously catalogued things.
The air his partner sported as he stomped down the hall to his destroyed room reminded him of years before when they were both much younger. It was that faraway expression of pain and listlessness he'd often seen when Itachi didn't think he was being watched.
The Mangekyou Sharingan was more than a mystery to everyone but it's owner. Kisame always assumed it caused some sort of damage every time it was used, but he'd never know based on how often Itachi resorted to it…
At that moment he couldn't help feeling somewhat impressed by the female ninja. Itachi had said she'd defeated Sasori alongside an old woman, and then pretty much died…
Then the way she put up such a fight against him not even a full day later, only to wake up and try again.
There were too many shinobi these days that were more than willing to throw their lives away. This one seemed to have a purpose that exceeded expectation…
--
Reserving the fact that he'd probably have to kill her later when Itachi was done copying her technique, he walked out to the front steps of the shrine and gave up on the idea of deep thought.
-
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Sakura was beyond tired at this point. Too much emotional strain and fighting was wearing on her, as usual, though she had gotten used to it over the years. Lack of sleep was almost her forte anymore, ever since Sasuke left Konoha three years ago to find Orochimaru, and then Naruto to train with Jiraiya. But, despite her insomnia and constant worrying, she trained her body and mind to rival her mentor Tsunade.
Her chest tightened at the thought of the Hokage worrying about her. And she knew Naruto and Kakashi were probably head over heels freaking out about what may have happened to her. For a moment she wondered if they thought she was dead, but they were smarter then that, she reminded herself. She knew without a second thought that Konoha wouldn't let her disappear so easily. She knew Tsunade would send ANBU out to pursue her. Now it was just a matter of living long enough for them to intercept her…
The moment she stepped into the bathroom, she grimaced. Kisame wasn't lying; the place was definitely old-school. She slid the (literally) paper-thin door closed behind her.
The entire room was constructed out of thick un-sanded wooden planks, and adorned with a cold stone floor. Square room, no decorations, no heater, one window...
Straight ahead of her was the 'bathtub'. She sighed inwardly when she realized it was nothing but an oversized wooden barrel lined at the bottom with metal, elevated above a fireplace with access from the outdoors. The gusts of air coming from the intrusive hole in the wall made the tiny hairs on her legs stand on end.
To the immediate left of the door stood another large wooden barrel full of what must have been rain water, based on the metal gutter that jutted from the ceiling above it and stopped inches from the surface.
The 'toilet' against the far left wall was laughable. A simple wooden crate with a hole in it, which she concluded led to some kind of water run-off underneath.
She sighed again, deciding that it was now her second language to do so. And grimacing was going to be her new favorite expression. This was a very, very far cry from the luxuries she was accustomed to, living in an actual town with actual commodities that she took for granted until now.
'I guess being around people who won't snap and kill you at any moment is also a luxury…'
It took at least fifteen trips back and forth from the basin to the tub with a shallow jug before it was full enough to be called a bath. She was about to head out to start the fire when the sudden noise outside almost made her jump from her own skin.
"Wha… what are you doing?" Hunching down to look below the tub, she could see blue hands forming a fire jutsu and lighting the logs underneath ablaze.
"I'm peeping at you taking a bath," Kisame said sarcastically with a coy smile, leaning down to catch a glimpse of angry green eyes through the fire that separated them. He laughed when he recognized the blush creeping up her cheekbones. "Thought I'd be nice and stoke the fire for you, got a problem with that?"
Sakura couldn't tell if that last comment was supposed to be an innuendo or not. Either way, she took note of his 180-degree personality.
"Why are you being nice to me?" she asked with suspicion.
He stood up from his crouched position and leaned his back against the outside wall. Speaking loudly, she could hear his muffled voice. "I'm not always an asshole."
Sakura pouted for a moment at his comment, reminding herself not to be fooled by the man's temporary lapse of chivalry. "Kisame-san…?" she spoke lightly.
"Hm?" He raised an eyebrow at her sudden innocent demeanor.
She was half bothered he was still only a few feet from the place she was about to be vulnerable. But she reminded herself that formalities were out the window now, she wasn't in her element anymore. She'd have to grin and bear it.
"Can I borrow a kunai?"
"If you weren't insane I'd say yes, kunoichi," he said, putting emphasis on her status as a shinobi for his reasoning.
She sighed again, mustering honey to her voice. "I want to shave my legs…"
Silence.
'I wouldn't trust me either…' she thought with a grin.
To her surprise, a kunai came flying in from the open window where the wall met the ceiling above the bath, lodging itself in the wall across the room just above the doorframe. Climbing up onto the water basin to retrieve it, she muttered a 'thank you', happy when she received no response indicating hopefully that he was no longer outside.
Sakura peeled her bloody clothing off piece by piece, silently wondering how she was going to repair the random holes in her shirt from places she had been cut by Sasori. The bloodstains would never go away, but she'd be damned at this point if she really cared.
She carefully folded everything and put her ragged clothing on the edge of the shelf by the tub, noticing the clean towels and soap, which she grabbed hastily. Undoing the bindings over her breasts, she stepped into the bath and made a sour face at the cold water tickling her skin. But it would have to do.
She plunked down quickly and went under, trying to scoop the warmer water from the bottom to mix with the rest.
Her bath was in silence; savoring the scent of cedar the bar of soap coated her skin and hair with. She dragged the kunai down her legs and under her arms gingerly, smiling as she remembered the last time she had to 'rough it'.
Sakura allowed herself to relax long enough to actually think about her situation. She leaned forward on the edge of the 'tub', exposing her back to the chilly air permeating from the window above. Resting her cheek against her left arm on the rough edge of the barrel, the other hung lazily over the outside. Her eyes closed heavily the more she relaxed, and she listened to the echoing noise of the kunai she clenched in her right hand chipping at the side of the barrel.
'Okay…think, girl, think…' she squeezed her eyes shut as if it'd help her get the thoughts in line. 'When I fought with Kisame I was weakened from my last fight, so with that in mind… perhaps I could kill him with the help of Katsuyu... But he's Akatsuki, so chances are there is something about him I don't know about, and he was probably holding back when we fought…'
"There you go doubting yourself again, Sakura! What the hell is wrong with you!" her inner voice screamed angrily, "You don't have anyone but yourself to rely on now, and if you give up already, you will…"
'Alright, alright…I need to think along the lines of me actually being 'able' for once. If I do defeat Kisame, I would still have to deal with Itachi. And there's no way in hell I could ever defeat him. So that means, I can't rely on brute force. I need to think of a plan that goes beyond that, something clever…Maybe I can use a genjutsu? No, Sharingan sees through that doesn't it…hmm…'
She realized at that moment she had been approaching her situation from a completely wrong angle. Although she had every right to be incredibly pissed off, and scared, she knew deep down that she was letting her anger dictate her common sense for the past two days.
'He wants my jutsu, that's all," she silently reassured herself, "Whether or not he plans to kill me afterwards is beyond me right now…but…'
Thinking back to the day Tsunade taught her the Souzou Saisei, it became abundantly clear that she had more than one option in out-smarting her captors.
Tsunade had made sure to stress the dangers involved in doing the jutsu, telling her right out that it shaved years off your life. The cells in your body had a set amount of times they could possibly regenerate themselves, and you couldn't defy the base of physiology in this instance. It was all or nothing; there was no gray area.
That was the first warning.
The second warning she was given scared the holy hell out of her and reinforced why the jutsu was only to be used as a last resort. It also became clear why only people like themselves could do it...
If you didn't have an unrivaled type of chakra control and medical insight, you could technically kill yourself doing it.
The cards were in Sakura's hands.
She would teach the jutsu to Itachi, and Kisame if that was the case. They'd never know she told them the wrong way to do it… not until it was too late and every cell in their bodies fizzled and popped with destructive chakra. Whatever situation they'd be in at the moment of use would spiral out of control ten fold; they'd never survive it.
Now all she needed to do was put up an amazing front until that time, and continue biting back the feeling that her plan was uncharacteristically sadistic.
Despite the fact that both men were killers… she knew deep down her place in the world was not one of judge and jury. It wasn't in her spirit to cause death. She'd defend herself and others using the power she'd attained, but when it came down to it she much preferred the ability to heal the ones she cared about.
The undeniable fact was that she had aided in ending lives before. Along with almost everyone else she knew. That was the nature of this world. Live in and love your community, defend your comrades, get stronger as a ninja and pursue the goals of your Hokage.
'I'm lucky to have been born into the peaceful Leaf. Though, the only thing separating us from them is…'
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Kisame turned away from the large bowl of rice he was preparing to meet with Itachi's cool stare. "What?"
"How long has she been in there?"
He thought for a moment, biting a few stray grains from his fingertips. "Hmm, I'd say an hour or so."
Itachi didn't say anything as he careened from the doorway of the small kitchen and halted outside the washroom door. He listened for any signs of movement from inside, met with complete silence. A debate as to whether or not she could have escaped with both of them in the house ensued for a moment, but he shrugged it off.
"Kunoichi?" he questioned through the door.
Silence.
"I'm coming in," he stated, wrapping his fingers around the doorframe and pushing it aside.
He stopped in his tracks, just barely across the thresh-hold of the room, when he saw the sleeping form in the tub. She was draped over the edge of the tub with her head resting on her arm, half dried pink hair cascading delicately over her shoulders.
A lop-sided smirk forced it's way onto his lips, and he didn't know why. Something about the way she allowed herself to fall asleep naked in the presence of two enemies tickled him, especially after her displays of aptitude previously. He chose to clear his throat at that moment, loudly.
Sakura's eyes shot open at the sudden noise in the room, and almost on reflex her right hand shot out and chucked the kunai she had been clenching towards the sound. It met the frame of the door with a 'thwack'.
She lifted her head from its position and her eyes scanned from sandaled feet up dark cargo-pants, over a netted chest, to meet intense crimson eyes… And then she did the only thing she could think of at that moment; she screamed.
Itachi squinted at the high-pitch squeal emanating from the female before him. Pulling the door back from where he had closed it enough to catch her kunai, he stepped into the bathroom and glared. She covered her mouth and turned beet red.
"Was that really necessary?"
Sakura sank low into the now chilling water until it covered her nose. She met his glare and then some with a spark of anger in her eyes.
"Damnit, Itachi, leave the girl alone. That was fuckin' horrid!" Kisame's voice drifted from the kitchen.
Itachi let out an annoyed sigh, still staring down at the perturbed female. "Get dressed. We're eating soon, then I want that jutsu. Don't even think about getting violent this time." He turned and started to close the door behind him before adding, "I'm sure you're smart enough to figure out what will happen this time if you do."
She could hear his heavy footsteps go down the hall a bit then stop. And then a barked "What I do?" from Kisame when the kunai in question whizzed past his head and buried itself in the wall.
"Stop. Giving. Her. Knives." She heard Itachi mutter pointedly.
Sakura's sense of humor couldn't deny the exasperation in his voice and she found herself smiling beneath the water. But that soon faded when she remembered that his threats were indeed not empty. She never wanted to experience that red world again, and she silently agreed that she'd rather be beaten within an inch of her life than go there again.
'But it'll be over soon. I'll teach him the technique then hopefully be free to go as I please…'She hoped upon hope that's how it'd play out, at least.
---
Ten minutes later Sakura found herself nervously traversing the hallway, red in the face. Her clothes needed to be washed, badly, so against her better judgment she chose to wear a towel out and ask them for some temporary attire.
'This is so embarrassing… Complete strangers… Complete strangers…' chided over and over again in her mind.
She wasn't exactly one to be uncomfortable with her body, not anymore. Tsunade's self confidence had kind of rubbed off on her, and then the hospital visits from training, not to mention all the missions she'd been on with nothing but men…
It had become second nature to expect strange moments, needless to say.
To her chagrin, she found herself dwelling on the way Itachi had barged into her bath like it was no big deal. And she also slapped herself in the face several times when she realized she enjoyed the moment when his eyes went from red to black before he left the room. They were like Sasuke's eyes, she had reflected. But strangely softer, complimented with dark, lush eyelashes…
'He'd kill me with those same eyes,' she reminded herself diligently, feeling like an idiot.
And there were those damned black orbs again when she turned the corner into the main room, roaming up her exposed legs...
'He's actually… kinda…more attractive than Sasuke-kun…'Itachi and Kisame were seated on opposite sides of the table in the middle of the room, eating from a large bowl of rice and a plate of charred fish. Didn't look exactly appetizing, but her stomach growled nonetheless. It had been days since she ate.
She coughed, turning red in the face again. "Uh, I know this is an odd request, but, I need some clothes… Mine are covered in blood, I need to wash them." She tore her eyes away from Itachi's stare to look past out the front door.
"You can borrow some of mine," Itachi cut in, "Eat first."
When she didn't move to join them, he simply rolled his eyes and grabbed another piece of fish with his chopsticks, placing it in his bowl of rice.
"I know you're hungry, we can hear your stomach from here…" He glanced up at her and gave a confused look when he realized she wasn't paying them mind. Her eyes were plastered past them out the doorway, and her mouth had dropped into a gape.
Sakura started sputtering, grabbing the top of her towel as she stepped backwards into the hallway.
There, in the door, stood a man in a completely blood-soaked Akatsuki robe. His insane smile was infectious.
In his mangled left hand, he held his own right arm. It wasn't connected to his body.
Sakura admitted she knew who he was. She recognized him as Sasori's partner. The fact that he was still alive left a bad taste in her mouth and a tinge of worry crept up her spine. If he was still alive, what became of Kakashi and Naruto? What about Gai, Lee… Neji and TenTen…?
"Hn, I recognize you from somewhere…" the blond spoke to her as he stepped inside from the porch, seemingly oblivious to how he looked at that moment. He absentmindedly tapped the side of his leg with his severed arm. "Meh, it'll come to me…hmm…"
Itachi placed his hands in his lap and looked up at his fellow Akatsuki member with a disinterested sigh. "Deidara, may I ask why you're standing in our house this moment without having been requested?"
Kisame snorted, never looking up from his food.
"His… his… HIS ARM… uh…" the only apparently sane person in the room sputtered.
Itachi barely flitted an eyelash at Sakura's reaction, replying simply, "He's a bit for the dramatic…"
'Get a grip!' Sakura tried to remind herself, 'These guys aren't normal…' But she couldn't stifle the low groan or the way she kept backing away.
Deep inside, Sakura's inner medic told her she should rush to his aid. In retrospect, her more rational side kept yelling for her to clam up. She wasn't sure if they knew she could heal people other than herself. Stupid assumption, but she held to it for the moment.
Deidara stepped further into the room, dropping down next to the table, relieved to be off his feet finally. "Itachi-kun, you're so mean. I could die you know…"
Itachi ignored him and turned his attention to the stark white woman now cowering in the hallway. With a sound of displeasure, he pushed himself up from the table and approached her, noting the widening of her eyes as she watched him come near.
"Let's get you some clothes." He nodded his head towards his former bedroom.
-
Leaving her hand on the wall as she turned and walked towards the room, she shot looks at the raven-haired man as he followed close behind and reached out from behind her to open the door.
Sakura bit her bottom lip, staring at the gigantic hole in the wall, which she had caused the day before. Hesitating for a moment, she moved when a warm hand made it's way to her lower back and gently pushed her into the room, flinching when the door closed behind them.
Itachi strode past her towards the low set of drawers on the opposite wall. He reached in and pulled out a pair of pants and a shirt, replicas of his own outfit.
She realized she was staring at him when he turned back towards her and lifted an eyebrow. He tossed the clothes at her feet.
"There, get dressed."
"Okay…" She looked at him expectantly, "Um, are you going to leave or do you expect me to strip in front of you?" Her displeasure was obvious.
He crossed his arms over his chest. "Strangely enough, I don't trust you to stay put in here," he said, throwing a glance at the wreckage across the room.
Okay, so, he had a point. There was no reason why he should trust her, but she didn't trust him either. Sakura stared blankly out the new 'doorway', a small look of satisfaction on her face. But this was going to get awkward, fast.
"I understand," she spoke, turning back to him, "But could you at least turn around or something? Otherwise, I can stand here forever, I have no where to be at the moment." Her attempt at mimicking his cold exterior proved successful.
Itachi kept his expression blank despite the sarcasm and turn his back to her, stepping out onto the rocky remains of the former wall. From around the front of the building, he could hear Kisame and Deidara bickering through the front door.
Sakura stood still for a moment, making sure he wasn't going to suddenly turn around on her. Considering his nonchalance, it appeared he wasn't interested, anyway. To her relief.
Dropping the itchy white towel to her feet, she pulled the pants on in one swift movement, tying the drawstring. They were way too long for her, and baggier than she was used to, but it'd do for now. She was kind of thankful they were so big since it was getting colder by the day as the season headed into Fall. When she picked up the shirt she let out a very loud sigh; it was mesh, as was to be expected.
"Don't like the clothes?" his calm voice drifted over from outside. The moon was cutting through the trees in a striking way, casting a light shade onto his black hair.
She sighed again, pulling the shirt down over her bound chest, feeling suddenly self-conscious. "The shirt is mesh… Do you have something not so… see-through?"
"No."
He turned and stepped back into the room, thrusting his hands into his pockets and setting his eyes back on her. A small grin assaulted his lips when he saw how uncomfortable she was. "You're wrapped up, it's not like we can see anything."
"I'm cold," she spoke as if to herself, rubbing her hands up and down her arms.
Giving her nothing more than a shrug, he continued past her to the door and opened it, motioning for her to follow. When she passed him into the hallway, he grabbed her shoulder, abruptly stopping her.
She shivered at the contact, pulling her arms in front of her chest defensively without realizing it. The look on his face was intense, and frightening… though she supposed that's what he was shooting for. His breath hit the back of her neck, making her even more uncomfortable.
"You're going to reattach Deidara's arms," he spoke into her back, feeling her shoulders knot with tension, "I saw the look you gave him. You're like an open book."
And with that he let her go, giving her a slight shove towards the opening to the main room. She couldn't hide the way her eyebrows furrowed down in anger, or the way her fists balled up. Sucking in a breath through her teeth, she entered the room with Itachi in toe. The need to go wild again ate at her best interests.
Kisame lifted a small cup of sake to his lips, fumbling with a laugh when he saw the two enter, enjoying some kind of silent joke.
Sakura stepped across the room carefully, eyeing the man who continued prodding her forward, stopping when she was halted before Deidara. She turned her gaze down to his mangled body, gulping at the situation. He was still sitting at the dinner table, still looking oblivious.
Kneeling down in front of him, she relaxed slightly when Itachi stepped away and gave her some breathing room.
"How do you expect me to do this? It's completely detached…" She continued staring at the limb sitting in his lap, shifting uncomfortably and looking him in the eye. "How are you even alive? You've lost a lot of blood…"
Deidara looked at her as if for the first time, and she recognized the glazed expression in his eyes of someone who is in shock. He seemed to be mouthing words but unable to vocalize.
She reached out and placed a weary hand on what was left of his arm, rolling up the destroyed sleeve of his robe. It looked like he had shoved some kind of clay material into the wound at his elbow and cauterized it shut. That would have successfully stopped the bleeding, she guessed, but not the possibility of infection.
"Let me see your… arm…"
She picked up the severed limb from his lap and inspected it as best she could without recoiling. It wasn't a clean cut; that was for sure. She closed her eyes in thought.
"I need to think about this… I've never had to reattach a limb before, but I've assisted. I'll need a scroll and ink. Hot water… He probably has an infection, we need antibiotics."
Itachi looked down at the medic, thoughtfully annoyed. "How long will this take?"
She glared back up at him. "I don't know, Itachi. Why don't you just take him to a hospital?"
"If we had access to hospitals, why would I have you do it?" he inquired back with a blank stare.
Sakura opened her mouth to retort but nothing came. Yeah, that made sense… but she really didn't want to be doing this. Helping a man who had killed at least one of her friends wasn't on her regular to-do list.
"What do you guys usually do when you get hurt?"
"We don't normally get injured like that," Kisame piped up. "Deidara, how did you manage to get so messed up this time?"
He wasn't responding anymore, still just sitting next to the table with a glazed look on Sakura.
"Dei--?"
"He's in shock. He might not make it." Sakura stared up at Itachi trying to figure out if he cared or not. 'Is he just testing me or what? Does he care if his friend dies?'
She didn't know why, but for some reason she felt compelled to take him up on the test. It wasn't in her nature to just let people die, but this was a special case. This was the enemy. But inside that special case was another; she'd never had this level of situation to deal with yet. Her adrenaline was starting to pump with the idea that she could indeed do this and he would survive.
So she let her medic side take over. The situation needed to be taken control of; the other two unnaturally calm men in the room were obviously not going to do anything on their own.
She pointed straight in Kisame's face, never wavering. Not this time. "Kisame, listen; I need you to go to the nearest town and find an Apothecary. We need antibiotics. Just get as much as you can afford. If I am able to get this reattached, he could still die from infection."
"Pffft… since when did---"
"Do it." Itachi spoke softly, throwing an inescapably deliberate stare into his partner's eyes.
Without a sound, Kisame got up and grabbed his cloak from the floor, escaping into the darkness of the forest outside in mere seconds.
Itachi crouched down beside Sakura. "The closest town is two hours away, is that fast enough?"
She set her lips in a line, still thinking about how she would complete a medical jutsu she'd never done alone. "Honestly I don't know… I've seen this procedure take up to nine hours before. I don't even know if I have enough chakra… I haven't even eaten yet…"
The situation was looking grave, and they both felt it.
"We won't know until you try," Itachi stated, standing upright again. "Suzuri ink okay?"
Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Perfect." 'They must make their own medical scrolls.'
While he left to his room, Sakura pushed the dinner table out of the way up against the near wall. Stealing a moment to eat some leftover rice to sate the ache in her stomach, she found herself staring at the man who had crumbled to the floor moments ago. Anticipation was making her body shake.
"Why am I doing this…"
Itachi returned moments later with a fresh scroll and a large jar of ink.
"I'm going to ruin your floor, by the way."
He shrugged with indifference, leaving to boil some water in the kitchen.
And she set to work, going solely on memory, thanking the gods for the photographic memory she had been blessed with.
Ten minutes later, Sakura stood in the middle of the intricate design she had created in the center of the room. She had drawn a circle with a six-foot diameter, accompanied by numerous specific medical notes in kanji and other ancient signatures which littered the radius and outlying areas. The writing on the scroll would be her starting point; like a wick that would ignite the jutsu. She laid it on the floor just outside the circle and drew a few more lines of kanji leading from it to the center of the circle.
Itachi halted just inside the room with a pot of steaming water, taking in the sight. It was an impressive looking design he had never seen before. He shifted his gaze to the back of the medic kneeled on the floor, still meticulously fixing the signatures before her. Blinking, he opened up his Sharingan.
She turned around and looked at him for a moment, fixated on his crimson eyes.
"I need you to get that cloak off him, and his shirt, and wipe away as much blood as you can, please," she spoke professionally as she stood up and walked over to the hardly breathing body. "I'll need some of his hair to fill in the blanks if anything was lost from the bone…"
Undressing Deidara, Itachi reached down and grabbed the satchel on his waist. "This clay would work better, it's made from his body too." He reached in and grabbed a chunk of it, tossing it to Sakura.
She turned it over in her hands, pinching it between her fingers. "Interesting…"
Wounds cleaned and body undressed, Deidara was placed in the center of the circle. Sakura used the clay to 'attach' the severed arm at the elbow where it once was, which was pretty handy considering the amount of hair she was willing to cut from his head to 'tie' it on. He'd thank her later, she scoffed.
She took her place kneeling before the scroll on the floor, taking in a deep breath and closing her eyes. Itachi chose to sit and watch on the other side of the circle, studying her with his Sharingan.
"Try and copy all you want, I doubt you can do it," Sakura taunted with a soft voice as if to not wake up her patient.
The Sharingan user simply smirked. "You'd be surprised, don't underestimate this Kekkei Genkai. I already copied some of your Rebirth jutsu." It was like he knew just how to get under her skin…
'Son of a bitch!' she raved for a moment, 'Alright… alright… don't worry about that right now, matter at hand…okay…I can do this!'
She flung her eyes open, projecting her own will out into the room with a surge of chakra, and performed the hand seals.
Rat. Boar. Bird. Dragon. Serpent. Dragon. 'Kaishin!'
Her hands slammed onto the unraveled scroll, sending a chain reaction of bright blue chakra to stream through the design on the paper and follow the trail of kanji to the circle before her. The design lit up with blue radiance, bathing the entire room in hue. The symbols lit up around Deidara's body, permeating energy that made his hair wave in reaction.
'Too much chakra, tone it down…' she reminded herself, taking another deep breath and closing her eyes in meditation.
The symbols glowed slightly less as she withdrew the huge amount of energy she had poured in, giving just enough in her stead. The innermost design began to move in towards his giant wound, spiraling up his severed arm and dancing over the point of connection. The clay hissed and sizzled.
She wouldn't be able to stop until every scribed kanji had made its way into the effected area and reattached the bones. Muscle and tendon could be fixed manually if it failed to now. It was going to become an intense waiting game now, all alone in this junction, trying to maintain the correct chakra flow for an undetermined amount of time.
Itachi watched with wide eyes as the room glowed under the medical ninja's ministrations. He could feel the turmoil of chakra running in waves from the girl across the room, the look of pure concentration painted her features and small hints of sweat began to appear on her forehead. This was the medic's sermon. An amazing sight most people would never get to see, and he studied every moment of it like it'd be the last.
'Her chakra control is top form. I haven't seen this kind of smooth refinement in many people…This is definitely Tsunade no Sannin's successor.'
At that moment he was glad she was so deep in focus, because she might have spotted the slight covetous look scattered across his face as he roved her form with deep, crimson eyes.
"Commander…"
"Yeah, I felt it too. The Genjutsu is still there, but that chakra is undeniable."
Four pitch black forms moved seamlessly through the treetops, closing in on the feeling enveloping the area. Their cloth-covered feet merely tickled the tiles on the top of the structure, giving away no evidence of their arrival.
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-- What's the deal with FFnet messing with my italics and paragraph spacing? Bahgahgah...
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Okay, so, my brother came over with a cold on Wednesday with the sole purpose of getting me sick (or that's what I tell myself, he really just wanted to come hang out…). So by Thursday I was ill. I've been eating Sudafed and drinking orange juice non-stop for the past five days, and pulling my hair out while I write. This chapter pissed me off, needless to say, but a totally kickass person named Griggling came along and put some things into focus for me and beta-read what I wrote! So, now I feel it's okay to post this chappie. It's longer than usual, mainly because I wrote in chunks instead of right through. Hope everyone enjoys it as much as I didn't enjoy writing it! Heheee…
Remember to drop me a review if you have anything to say!
XOXO
Ane S. Thesia