Chapter 8

Pain explodes the left side of her face.

Air moves through her body.

So many different feelings flood her system.

Sakura thinks that this is the end—

—and perhaps she is right.

Life plays out before her. Forgotten memories trickle down her vision like a film reel. It's a waterfall of moments—moments that matter to no one but herself. Sakura sees her mother's bony hands as they twist dough into to-be-steamed buns. Her father shows her how to ride a bike, wind flows through her hair.

She shows off a yellowed parchment—Sakura's been accepted into Konoha's Ninja Academy! A headband is sitting on her dresser, shiny and new. Team 7 is announced, consisting of one Knuckle-headed Ninja with a demon inside of him, a Cursed Avenger from a prestigious, age-old clan…and Sakura, who lives on south sycamore street.

Sakura had forgotten a lot, it seemed. At the time, none of it was very…important. Why would the smell her grandma's house carry mean anything to her? Now, as it lingers in the air, it's the best kind of medicine for the bubbles that carbonate throughout her stomach.

Ninja who die in the line of duty are honorable. The pale-haired woman does not think of things she's not yet done, of bucket lists long forgotten—and instead, she wonders if her family will make it well off without her. Mother is retired now, and her bones hurt from all of the housekeeping she used to do. Father is strong, though, and his Genin missions should be enough to keep them afloat. Her life insurance should pay out a hefty sum.

They'll be okay.

Looking down at her chest, she sees a thread coming from it. It tugs every so often, as if she is a fish that's been caught on a line. Wrapping her fingers around the golden string, Sakura pulls.

The whiteness of her soul becomes visible.

Panicking, the woman presses her fingers into the cold apparition. It's too soon to leave. Can't she just stay here, in this darkness forever? Can't she just replay all of these happy memories?

They flow by quicker now—through Genin days with Sasuke and Naruto, and the Chunin Exams. The village is attacked, Sasuke leaves with a murderer, Naruto cannot get him back and he leaves, too.

All alone…all alone…So Sakura trains and soon she's alongside Naruto as they battle to bring Sasuke back. There's blood and war, blood and war, blood and…and suddenly, there's blood all around her now. Plasma, and fragments of mushy things—white chunks of bone and flesh, connected to tainted pink tendrils of hair.

Sakura's hair. My hair.

Naruto rocks her, back and forth, pressing his hand over the hole in her scalp that pours warm liquid like a broken pipe. "She's gone!"

It hurts her to see him in such pain. Those blue eyes have been clouded by tragedy and loss, even before Naruto could properly open them. If she could, Sakura knows she'd be crying. She's a failure. She's a letdown.

This is the ninja way. It is filled with sadness and sorrow. Sakura knows that staying here would only leave her as a ghost, repeating the last moments of her life mindlessly and she cannot bear to see it all again. She doesn't watch Sasuke and Naruto leave, or deal with the screams of warfare.

There is no body for her to return to…so she must go.

The thread tugs hard and she does not fight back.

"Lord Hokage, please slow down!" Kakashi's assistant calls out. Her heart-shaped bun bounces as she struggles to catch up. Ducking under his billowing robe, the woman winces as another rumble shakes the ground.

He must hurry.

"Tell me exactly what has happened."

Kakashi's voice was normally emotionless and lazy. He was normally emotionless and lazy. But there was no time for laziness when the lives of several exam participants were at stake. The man winces as another surge of chakra ripples through the building, causing a fissure to split the ceiling above.

The aura was so unsafe.

"Sakura Haruno was the first to perish in the mission." The assistant says. "Naruto was the target. She knocked him out of the way somehow. She had just entered the room."

"They've only been there for three hours, and they've already gotten so far?"

She nods. "Isn't that to be expected? They're your pupils."

He doesn't respond, no matter how flattered he would normally be.

The whole point of this mission was to make it as difficult as possible for those three, so they would finish at around the same time as other contenders. Either Team 7 didn't do the right amount of snooping that was needed, or Kakashi really did have low expectations.

Rounding the final corner, the man makes his way towards Team 7's chamber. The door is splintering, but the seal remains as solid as paper could be. Curling his fingers into hand signs, the parchment folds away and he enters the room.

The chakra regulators looked relieved to see him. They crowd around his former students—only Naruto and Sasuke are upright. They sit in a lotus position with Sakura between them, who lies prone on the cold ground as she drifts. Her eyes move swiftly under thin lids, dreaming of milk and honey and meadow frolics—whatever a mind would dream of when cut of outside stimulations.

At least one team member would perish in every team—that was the rule. The concept had come up during a discussion with the highest of Konoha Jōnin and leaders. There was one thing that no one was ever prepared for in the middle of battle, and that was the death of a beloved comrade.

Losing loved ones was simply a way of life, on and off the battlefield.

With the help of some brilliant minds, Kakashi had formed a solid first round of the Jōnin Exams. Distracting teams with a non-issue, enforcing them to rely on teamwork heavily, and offing a member right at the very end was not only tragic, but mentally devastating.

However, Kakashi hadn't expected Sasuke to act like this.

Purple chakra flowed in a tornado-like current around the room. It's so heady, so powerful that it starts to fray both Sakura and Naruto's clothing with every minute that passed by. It will soon start to eat away at their flesh, and the pain might make them break out of the exam before it's truly finished.

The walls shake as another shockwave passes through them. Kakashi is pushed back a few paces.

"Sasuke is furious." One of the regulator's says. "I don't know how much longer we can hold on."

Nodding, Kakashi removes his coat and drapes it over Sakura, who is the closest to Sasuke. He is careful not to touch her skin, lest she be interrupted from the programming. "How many of you does it take to keep them active?"

"Five at the least," A man answers, standing to face the Hokage. He is careful not to remove the wires connected to his helmet. "We can shut off the connection to the Sage Realm and just leave the castle intact."

"Do it," the Hokage commands. "Take Naruto and Sakura away from here immediately. At this rate, their bodies will deteriorate from the trauma."

"Are you sure that's the right way to go about this?" His young assistant asks, clutching a clipboard to her breast in defiance. "There is no doubt that your students should be Jōnin, but would it be unfair to the other contestants if we just…take Naruto and Sakura out?"

In times like this, Kakashi thinks like his father. He values the safety of his comrades over the mission entailed. There weren't any lives actually at stake inside of their minds…but Sasuke didn't know that. What he felt was real. So real, in fact, that it affected more than just his conscious.

"Take Sakura out for now." He says after a moment. She has no connection to the actual round anymore. "If it gets worse, if any of the other participants in the adjacent rooms start to become injured, we will have no other choice but to wake up Naruto. Until then, I need a minimum of five regulators to stay in this room. End it quickly."

"Yes, sir!"

2/3's of Team 7

Sasuke has seen death before. He's seen innards pulled out, limbs blown off, and all types of body fluids stain battlegrounds. There's a certain smell gore brings. It used to make his stomach heave—mostly because of it reminded him of the Uchiha compound, and all of the bodies Itachi had slaughtered. It hadn't bothered him in a long time. Not as it does now.

Placing his hands on his knees, Sasuke sucks in air as a mangled rabbit's body falls before him.

Sakura wasn't supposed to die. It wasn't in the cards for her in the grand scheme of things. Sakura was supposed to grow up and get married—have a few jade-eyed brats maybe, and become a doctor or something. There was a light in her soul that shouldn't have ever gone out.

But it did.

His body moves lightning-fast, even without chakra. The clacking of his feet as they slap against the tile is the only thing he's willing to focus on for now, lest he break—lest he think of the crumpled corpse laying against Naruto's chest.

In the rafters, more rabbit women flash into focus, looking down at the man with hands stained with their sisters' blood. Beady, dark eyes narrow and wrapped feet slide apart—they are getting into position.

"Aim true," they call out.

Because you can't afford to miss. Sasuke thinks.

There is a row of them holding dark, wooden longbows. The powerful weapons draw back and the women point towards Sasuke's heart. He watches them all carefully, especially the one in the middle, for she carries the canon that killed Sakura—that killed Sakura.

Expertly, his knives fly through the air before anyone else can release their draw. Two demonesses fall gracelessly; one still holds onto her bow. As the object clatters to the ground, Sasuke slides across the floor to retrieve it, slamming his thighs along the concrete. Following his path are poison-tipped arrows, all meant to pierce his flesh, yet none hit their marks. They have just provided him with ammo, and for that, they will pay.

With a quick juke, Sasuke doubles back and gathers the abandoned sticks.

Although his mother taught him shurikenjutsu, Itachi taught him how to aim. He knew to keep both eyes open, to check his stance, to breathe out and release. His muscles strain. Aiming three arrows in his hand, Sasuke fires them all at once.

Each hit their mark.

Sasuke is an expert in killing.

During the one-on-x battle, Naruto pulls Sakura's corpse to safety. He covers the opening of her head, holding the mush together because it was all supposed to stay inside. That's the extent of his knowledge. His eyes fill with tears and her blood, and once she curls into his arms, he allows himself to wipe away the carnage. It smears and blurs, staining his skin.

Sakura has never smelled like metal before. Her head lolls and he sees the blast. The damage is almost surreal.

During this tragedy, his mind flashes back to a time when he was younger, before he knew death. Watching children play as he wallowed in loneliness—because none of them knew what it was like to live separately from society.

At least, that's what Naruto thought.

Sakura was undeveloped, shy, and alone back then. Her hair was short—like a boy—and her wispy pink locks canopied a small, roundish face. For some reason, the little girl never quite fit in. She was a puzzle piece that was the correct color, but not the right shape. She was never the best at physical battles or throwing her kunai, but she made up for her weaknesses by being knowledgeable.

Naruto had never had a family, like Sakura and Sasuke had. He didn't know the warmth of a homemade meal prepared especially for him. He didn't know what it was like to have a birthday. He didn't know what it was like to have someone to worry about whether he was sick or eating well or taking care of himself. Everyone looked down on him, so the boy craved recognition.

Recognition would make him happy.

Sasuke had had a family, once. His mother's warm hands had tucked him into bed. His father acknowledged him, finally, after so long. And for his 5th birthday, Itachi gave him at kunai, and promised to teach him how to use it. But, the very same caring brother that doted on Sasuke had turned murderous, and slaughtered everyone Sasuke had ever loved at that time.

Revenge would make him happy.

Sakura—sweet, shy Sakura was not like them at all. She did not want recognition. She had no need for revenge. The girl had simply wanted her friends and her family to be happy. Everyone needed to get along.

Family, warm beds and full bellies were bare necessities. They needed friendship. The kind built by running through tree branches on hot summer mornings, chasing a cat that hated its owner. The kind blooms when their life is on your hands, and you're the only one that can save them from a dire situation.

Never giving up, never backing down, and never abandoning those bonds is precisely what Team 7 had always needed. Without Sakura, there was no Team 7.

The implications were too much to think of.

Kakashi wipes the back of his hand on his forehead as listens to the feedback he is given. A man he explains the situation in full, giving detailed accounts of Sasuke's rampage. Although his eyes are open and he sees the real world, his brain and chakra connect beyond this realm. As he speaks each new bite of information, Sasuke's physical body grows more powerful, and the color of the chakra regulators skin grows pale.

"He's just killed three more."

"What of Naruto?" Kakashi asks. "Has he moved yet?"

"No, sir, he's still holding Sakura."

In the past, Naruto was usually the first one to turn. He was always ready and willing to fight anyone, and anything, that dared to hurt his friends. It wasn't as though Sakura was the first comrade he's seen fall.

The tapping at the door is unnecessary for someone of his status. Still, Shikamaru is incredibly respectful, no doubt thanks to his mother's raising. When he enters the room, Kakashi can sense annoyance wafting from him.

Shikamaru is in charge of the first ever Jōnin exams in all of Konoha. This means that everyone in the mission building now, whether they are dithering in the Sage Realm or connected to chakra devices, is under his watch and protection. The fact that Sasuke was splitting the structure and endangering everyone within the vicinity, made Shikamaru one pissed off commander.

"How much longer do we have to cater to him?"

Clearing his throat, Kakashi scratches the back of his head, unable to answer.

"He's heavily injured," one of the receptors says. "But, he hasn't been slowed. I think he's moving from shear adrenalin. His speed has dramatically increased. I'm sure it won't be much longer."

Both men nod to one another.

"If Naruto's there, it should be even quicker, right?"

Kakashi responds. "Naruto isn't contributing. He's still in shock."

"If Naruto isn't contributing, why don't you go ahead and pull him out? Have one of the guns shoot at him—Sasuke couldn't make it in time."

Kakashi ponders this. It would take Naruto some time to wake up, and he was the only one that could possibly calm Sasuke. However, Sasuke might benefit from having a little extra help when it comes to the final mistress.

What was the right choice?

Sighing heavily, the spikey-haired Jonin shifted from one foot to the other. "Look, I understand that I'm being impatient. But I've seen Sasuke when he's angry."

He gets a flash of the Chunin Exams—a 12-year-old boy with purple chakra swirling around his body, pulling apart an enemies joints for bruising up his teammate. Well, not just any teammate, he guesses. Sasuke had always cared for Sakura in a way that was different from Naruto.

"Sakura's the only one that's ever stopped him. Naruto might cause a fight, and no one can afford to be caught up in that."

Wafting around the room like an unwanted smell, silence fills the air. In Kakashi's head, things click together that made no sense at all at the moment. He remembers a hospital roof battle, and two boys fighting as Sakura ran to the middle. He remembers the night Sasuke left, and how Sakura had apparently had the last contact with the boy.

Kakashi isn't dim. As much as he'd like to say he'd been involved with his team, he had always been rather distant to everyone—even when he'd become Sasuke's formal teacher. From the outside, Sakura was in a one-sided relationship with Sasuke Uchiha who had hung the moon.

Had there been…progressions?

Was Kakashi that out of the loop?

Interrupting them suddenly, one of the regulators snaps his head up. There is a panic to his voice, and deepness in his eyes. "Sir, Sasuke has only one more adversary."

There was only one thing left to do.

"Take Naruto out, and to the infirmary."

It takes Naruto a while to notice that something isn't right.

Through the bleariness of his eyes, the man looks down at Sakura's wilting body. She isn't heavy anymore. It's almost as if she's fading—actually fading, disappearing into nothingness. He wiggles his fingers and furrows his eyebrows as they pass through what should be her skin.

Some teachers had talked about shellshock. Naruto would often hear it in the academy, through his naps. It has something to do with trauma…a trauma inside of your mind. Your consciousness breaks after repeated abuse, and you have no other choice but to sit back helplessly as your eyes betray your head.

Naruto stands, dropping her to the ground. It sounds like he's tossed a few blankets off his bed; the quietest of thumps. His movements bring Sasuke to his attention.

"Go towards the exit," He commands. "Take Sakura with you. Go find—"

His words catch in his throat. His body freezes. A stillness flows in the air around him, ghostly solemn, as the man looks onwards at where pink and orange used to be. There is only blood—its stench, its look, and its liquid heaviness that coats Sasuke's skin in an unwelcomed layer.

A clicking sound forces Sasuke to look upwards, just as two perfectly white ears twitch in his direction. Aiming her barrel, the rabbit-woman fires another cannon's boom.

Kakashi watches, like a scarecrow. The beeping of medical equipment and the slow rumble of Sasuke's wrath teeter out by Naruto's immediate heaving, before he's even had the chance to sit upright.

Working quickly, a mousy-haired nurse catches most of his vomit in a pale-pink bucket as she simultaneously turns him on his side. It wasn't unusual for the feeling of vertigo to take over one's senses. Kakashi is sure that Naruto is feeling many things right now.

This entire situation must be incredibly traumatic for him…and good practice. Not wanting to waste any more time, Kakashi speaks aloud, hoping Naruto won't be too startled.

"Take a deep breath. Everything's fine."

The sound of Kakashi's voice was not pleasant in Naruto's ears. He was as toneless as ever, displaying no hint of sympathy or compassion. Anger flows through Naruto's system like the venom of a poisonous snake. It overcomes his movements, his cognitive thoughts, so much so that before he can stop himself he's already captured Lord Hokage's billowing cloak within his fist.

"Everything's "fine"? Everything's "fine"! What in the hell is that supposed to mean, you bastard! Sakura's dead. Sakura's dead and it's my fault."

There are dancing memories behind Naruto's brilliant blue eyes. It's Sakura—Sakura with the emerald irises and the fiery, feminine attitude. Sakura, with the smart mind, the contagious laugh—the one who's skull split apart and whose brain-matter covered Naruto's hands and clothing.

"She's not fine." Naruto cried out. As soon as Kakashi's hands gripped his wrist, his knees give way, and there's nothing behind him but floor. Falling to his knees, the man crumbles. Speaking just above a whisper, he says, "Sasuke's going to kill us."

Because the Uchiha just might.

Sakura however, doesn't know that she's dead. She doesn't understand why there's so much noise, like a yipping dog or two trashcan lids clanging together. The weightlessness from before is nothing compared to the swell of clumsy limbs, or the rush of blood flowing through thin veins. When her eyes peel open, and the brightness of a still hospital room takes over all of the senses she has, there's only one thing the woman can do.

Turning habitually, Sakura spills her guts.

There are many things that Naruto would have been relieved to hear coming from a presumed-dead comrade. The tinkle of a laugh, the silky tone of her voice, and the scent of minty shampoo would have sufficed.

Nothing with Sakura was as it should be, however. Regardless, her wet throw up splashing on bleached linoleum had never sounded so good to Naruto.

Sakura is alive!

Abandoning his chokehold on Kakashi, Naruto turns and all but tackles the woman. He completely covers her head with his arms, searching for any open spots with jelly-like chunks pouring out. Paying no mind to her heaves or the sudden heavy warmth that splatters onto his ninja sandals.

She's alive! She's alive!

"I'm sorry Sakura!" Naruto blubbered, rubbing his runny nose along her bare arm. She couldn't pull away. "It's my fault. I never listen to you!"

"I'm not dead?" She asks aloud, sucking in air. "I'm really not dead?"

As if on que, a final blow of energy causes all of the lights and the equipment to blackout. Backup generators power on, and Shikamaru shoves his way through the door.

"You're not out of the woods just yet."

"I can't believe you, you dirty old man!" Naruto yells as they walk through the corridor. He could be concerning himself with other things—like the fact that chunks of foundation lie in ruin, and everyone in the mission building was close to evacuation. "You played me like a fool!"

"You are a fool." He hisses back, turning to face the young adult. "What kind of ninja walks into a room, knowing they're being chased, and turns his back on the darkness?"

Naruto snaps his mouth shut—Kakashi has more to say.

"Instead of pitching a fit, you should be thinking about your mistakes. You want to be the Hokage someday, don't you? There are people in this building who could be injured if we do not calm Sasuke down. That should be your first priority."

Sighing, Shikamaru pushes past the bickering men. "I feel like I shouldn't have to interject at this point, but none of this is pertinent at the moment. Whether Naruto entered the room incorrectly or not, someone was destined to perish. Kakashi is right—our priority is the exam contenders, so wake him up. Not everyone can finish this mission in three hours, and the rest have a long ways to go."

Naruto lifts his head slightly. "Three hours? Don't you mean…three days?"

Neither Kakashi nor Shikamaru respond. Instead, they continue onward, unsealing the room Sasuke was destroying.