Chapter 3: Falling.
It was the best of time. It was the worst of time.For Konoha, it probably was the best of time. For Sasuke, it definitely was the worst of time.
To think he would be lying there fatally wounded from his own sword. It was his most cringe worthy experience from his very interestingly embarrassing life.
Last night, his hair was itching badly.
Today, staring at the ceiling, slowly bleeding out, Sasuke's focus was on the lice crawling in his hair.He was not even able to bring himself to scratch his hair, rip it apart,like he so wanted to. His hands wouldn't move. He was more upset by the fact that he had lice in the first place than about the fact that he was potentially dying.
The prison reeked. To be forced to stay in such a disgusting place, even Orochimaru wouldn't have it. Sad, Sasuke thought, when his life was ending and Orochimaru, a dirty prison cell and lice were his foremost thoughts and concerns.
It was not suicide, per se. Sasuke would never fall that low. No, it was more of a life changing ,or life ending, decision that he was forced to make in this time of moral crisis.
Sasuke was not a coward, or so he told himself, but to bend and break under something that he hated was something that he could never accept.
No way was he going to live like this, suffer like this. Not when the sole purpose of living his life had ended few days ago. And just the thought of that, made him want to weep like he never had, not that he was ever going to.
Because Sasuke was not weak, he decided to end his life. In the most unpredictable way that even he did not predict. In defending his ego and pride, he ended up butchering them AND himself. truly outstanding.
Not in a million years he would have thought that this place, Konoha,could, would, do something so terrible. But he was a child when he left, and so he had more wisdom to understand that they could, they would and they did kidnap Sasuke, in order to produce and have more Sharingan, for themselves.
When the guards came for him, he attacked. First them, and when that failed, himself-in a way. He hated to admit it, to accept it, but it was pathetic how easily he was overpowered by the guards.He knew he wouldn't win, still it was his duty to fight back. So, he had.
Only, instead of harming them, he foolishly lost his balance and like a complete moron, ended up stabbing himself. For few seconds, he did not understand what had happened. Then, when he did understand, he lost it. Completely. Laughing turned into hysterical laughing, then when that wasn't enough embarrassing, it turned into maniacal cackling and ended up in shock chocking gasps on his own breath.
Sasuke would have stabbed himself, if he had not already stabbed himself,for this epic meltdown. The pain he felt was hardly concerning to him. The fact he injured himself while trying to injure others felt like a slap on the face, with Karma's laughing printed on it.
The guards watched him go down. And then they stood there for a while, before they hurried back out, when it became clear that he had stabbed himself and was not in any condition to get up.
Sasuke was aware they had done something to him,before, on the day he had gained consciousness and woken up in prison,for the first time.Since then, he had not felt any chakra in his body. He felt weaker, had been made weaker.
He noticed his curse mark being agitated and then felt it go still and later when he tried to use it, nothing happened. No buzz, no pulse, no nothing. The curse mark had fallen dormant.
There were other lines on him, black crawling lines climbing his hands and legs, reaching to all parts of his body. They were fainter than the curse mark, though. Like veins but darker, that seemed to fade and come back to sight under certain lights.
Sasuke was fearful of that. Was he permanently damaged now? Tragic.
Sasuke tried to refocus his mind on the fact that he was losing blood, fast. He would probably die. His mind was swimming. His vision was blurry. There were black spots before his eyes and he seemed to have lost total mobility of his body.
so, it is happening. dying feels so -- He lost consciousness then.
For what it's worth, it was better that way. He did not want to see his ultimate demise.
It is not the when that matters, but the how .
He heard his father's voice speak before darkness took him away.
Sakura entered the prison, in her rose petal pink dress, carrying a small carved wooden basket in her hands. She was happier than usual. A small smile appeared on her face, that she quickly suppressed. She could not appear too happy, not in this situation. She paused before the cell and composed herself. After gathering enough positive energy mixed with the appropriate amount of negative emotions, she opened the prison door and entered.
For a frightening moment, Sakura couldn't believe it. It was like she was trapped in a glass bubble.Her feet numb hands cold. Then she moved. Like the trained medic she was, her hands went straight to the bleeding wound and the pulse. Green chakra glowed and the bleeding stopped. She felt the pulse,and then she pumped some chakra. The pulse was there but faint,slowly slowing down. She realised a moment later, the chakra she was pumping into the body was of no use.His body was not responding to her chakra, it was not reaching him at all.
A thought like an electric shock jolted her body.'Sasuke was no longer a ninja'. His chakra points were sealed. She can try all she wants, Sasuke would not wake up until the seals were open or chakra was supplied to him internally.
Sakura could close any external wound on him. Even internal bleeding, she can stop. But his heartbeat, pulse rate, body heat, anything that required his own chakra was not something that she could help him with anymore. Sasuke was rendered a civilian. Worse than a civilian, he was made a slave, a crippled slave.
She ran. Like all the time she never had. With Sasuke in her arms, breaking against the security of the prison, she ran straight towards Konoha 's Central hospital. She knew, it was risky, wrong, what she was doing. Carrying a severely injured person in her arms running at full speed? Not any sane doctor would ever do that. Forget sane,even an insane one would not. But leaving Sasuke there while she went to get help- that would be even worse. Clearly, she wasn't thinking. It was not like her. Sakura was a rule follower not a breaker. But something like this , something like Sasuke, and she couldn't stop, much less care.If this made her crazy,so be it.
Sakura remembers, as she feels Sasuke 's breathing become shallow, that once she was ready to become a traitor to Konoha for this man. How she had begged Sasuke to take her with him. Leaving her parents, friends,teammates, loyalty and village behind for her naive childish love.
Love.
She hears ,more than feels,a tear drop fall on Sasuke 's cheek. She looks down, in confusion, at the pale, sunken, sweaty face and instantly feels her throat hurting. She presses her eyes close, tightly shut, as tears fall down her face. Like rainy puddle. She chokes on another sob trying to break free from her clenched jaws.
Her feet lands hard in front of the hospital and she sprints inside,uncaring, she knows she is being followed by the ANBUs, who kept their distance till now. She veers in the direction of the ICU. Then, she stops, and frantically calls for the nurses to ready the ER room for her. She sets Sasuke down, in the care of the nurses and then runs inside to prepare. She sends someone to call for Lady Tsunade, as she scrubs her hands dry. She rushes inside again, to Sasuke.
After what feels like a thousand hours, she is able to stabilize Sasuke. He ramains unconscious in the bed, long needles in his arms and a breathing mask around his face. He had lost way too much blood.Thankfully, the cakra and blood transfer had gone well and he was out of potential danger. Sakura felt relived, a huge block of steel was off her back as she came out of the ward. She felt almost giddy, hysterical. Maybe she was going crazy for real.
Tsunadae had not come herself but she had send a scroll and advice on the techniques Sakura needed to perform. Sakura was frustrated at first but she did not have time to spare on being hesitant. She had jumped right into it. Now, after it was over, she did not know how she was supposed to feel about this whole situation. She was mad, angry but most of all sad but she knew she did not have the right to feel this way.
Sasuke was a prisoner, a leaf traitor. Of course, the Hokage herself would not come for such a person. She consoles herself, she understands her duty. That way she doesn't feel betrayed when the ANBU comes. She waits for the ANBUs to enter, then she takes responsibility and apologizes for her impulsive action.
Later, she stands by the door, as Sasuke is hauled up and taken away. She says nothing.
It was almost a week, before Naruto was finally allowed to meet Sasuke. He was happy, beaming happy. The morning was perfect that day. The sun shone above Konoha in all its fiery passion. Clear blue sky filled with snow white clouds floating serenely. It was truly a lovely day. All of Nature had come together to reflect Naruto's mood. He really liked daytime, this was the reason why, the sunlight never seem to disappoint Naruto.
Well, Until that day, it never had.
As Naruto neared the prison building, the air picked up a chill. Naruto shivered a bit, just before he stepped inside. He slowly made his way to Sasuke's cell. The place had an eerie silence that day, Naruto belatedly notice. He still put on his most honest, beaming smile for Sasuke and opened the door.
Naruto doesn't know what happened. One moment he was feeling sunshine and laughter, another, he was gripped by a corpse numbing coldness, out of nowhere.
Standing in that empty prison cell, the first feeling he had was of crying,wailing even.
In all honestly, he was feeling down since the day he had seen Sasuke like that, outside this prison cell, when he had come to see him. Naruto himself could not understand why he felt that way, though.
Now, when he realised that Sasuke was not actually present in his cell, his 100 volt beaming smile fused like a bulb shattered. It was gut wrenching for Naruto to feel this helplessness that came over him. A thousand scenario ran in his mind, as he rushed out of the prison cell.
Sasuke ran away. Again. He must have broken free. Did he harm anyone, killed someone--wait there was blood--
Naruto stopped short. Face paling, teeth clenching as he stared in the distance. Recalling. There was blood on the floor, lots of blood, still wet, a bit dried.
whose?
So, Sasuke had attacked someone.
Naruto felt his heart sinking,a little bit cracking, as he broke into a sprint and ran outside.
A/N: I will try to upload every 5th day.
.x.