People were asking about seeing the rest of the prelims. As I said in my notes last chapter, they all played out the same way; Sakura and Ino had a double knockout, Naruto farted in Kiba's face, Neji nearly killed Hinata, and Rock Lee got his arm and leg crushed by Gaara. The poor baby, I feel so bad for him. He's one of the more likable characters, even if he's a lil goofy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it. All rights to Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto and the other proper entities.
Summary: Sakura had been by his side since he lost his family, following him around since they were seven years old, trying to ease his loneliness in whatever way she could. He didn't even know why he allowed it. He just silently allowed her to claim the seat next to him at the beginning of every term.
Rating: M
Genre: Friendship/Romance
Pairings: SasuSaku / eventual light NaruHina
Rays of Spring Sunshine
Chapter Fourteen
Sakura wasn't allowed to visit Sasuke at the hospital. The nurse at reception had explained to her briefly that no one was being permitted to see him. She didn't go into any further details, but Sakura was smart enough to read between the lines and infer that he was being watched after his run-in with Orochimaru; Sakura, herself, had been questioned by ANBU at length regarding the encounter, leaving her brain feeling like a wrung sponge.
She stopped in to visit Lee that day, instead. The boy had a habit of pushing himself too far, the nurses told her when she and Ino had come across him trying to train in the gardens. He was going to do more damage to himself that way. Ino had sat with her at Lee's bedside, staring out the window and not saying a word. He'd still been unconscious when the nurses had informed them that visiting hours were over.
Even Naruto was missing, Sakura thought glumly, off training somewhere with a different teacher, according to Kakashi.
Sakura sat on her bed with her knees drawn up to her chest, forehead resting on her arms. Two weeks of both of her boys missing was the longest she'd gone without seeing them since they'd been assigned to Team Seven. She hadn't been this alone in a very long time; not since before she met Ino. And after Ino, there had been Sasuke. Now one hated her and the other was hospitalised, and the other person she would have turned to was also gone.
Since tying with Ino in the preliminaries, Sakura had been feeling at something of a loss. Even Kakashi was nowhere to be found, leaving her to her own devices. She'd seen him briefly once in the village, but he'd dodged her, muttering something about a meeting.
With no training and no missions, it felt like her life had come to a complete standstill. She couldn't even seek out other training partners from the other teams, since each of the genin squads she knew well enough were all fiercely guarding the new techniques they were learning; as she had two teammates in the finals, they wanted to prevent her from potentially sharing their strategies with Naruto and Sasuke.
She hated it. She hated the feeling of exclusion and inadequacy. She'd finally felt like she was getting somewhere in the Forest of Death, but the subsequent inactivity had made her question how much—if anything—she'd actually grown.
So she studied. She studied various forms of ninjutsu and genjutsu, hoping to maybe teach herself something useful, since everyone else seemed too busy to bother with her. Scrolls littered her desk as the days passed without word from any of her friends. She was kind of getting mad. Sasuke was under surveillance at the hospital, so she supposed she could excuse him, but Naruto hadn't so much as sent her a note. She understood that he was training for the exam. But would it kill him to stop by for five seconds one evening to let her know that he was alive? When she saw him next, she was going to throttle him.
And Kakashi—well, he had always favoured the boys. She supposed he thought there was no reason to be training her if they weren't around.
Sasuke woke feeling better. The pain in his shoulder was gone completely, allowing him to breathe easier. He didn't remember anything after Kakashi had sealed the curse mark; the pain and exertion had been too much.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed, pulling off the blindfold and oxygen mask they'd wrapped around his face. Bare feet touching the cold floor, he stood and did a few experimental stretches. His body felt stiff from laying around, but otherwise he felt more like he had before the forest.
He spared a moment to wonder what had happened to the preliminaries as he rooted through the drawers next to his bed for his clothes. He hated hospital gowns with a passion. Stripping the offending garment off, he tossed it on his bed and dressed in his laundered clothing. Had Naruto passed? Had Sakura?
"Ah, Sasuke-san." The door to his room opened and a portly young nurse entered, clipboard in hand. "It's good to see you awake."
"How long was I unconscious?" Sasuke demanded, in no mood for pleasantries.
"Almost two weeks." The nurse flicked through the notes on his board. "Kakashi-san asked us to give you this when you woke." He handed over a sealed envelope. Sasuke took it and watched the man warily. "If you'll excuse me, I'll send for a doctor and we can get started on your physical assessment." He ducked out of the room.
Sasuke ripped the envelope open. Inside was a single slip of paper.
Your first opponent in the finals is Gaara. Meet me at training ground 27 when you're discharged.
Gaara. Sasuke cast his mind back to the redheaded kid from Suna with the creepy eyes. He'd never actually seen what he was capable of, but Kakashi likely had.
Ignoring the nurse's words about an assessment, Sasuke shoved the paper into his pocket and escaped via the window. He knew how hospitals worked; they'd run a battery of tests on him and delay him even further. He was already irritated that he'd apparently missed nearly two weeks of training. At this rate, even Naruto would be better prepared for the finals than he would be.
He put on a burst of speed. That was unacceptable.
"Hey! Stop peeping and come train me properly!"
Naruto glared at Jiraya. The pervert was too busy watching a pair of women in bikinis splashing in the nearby river to take him seriously.
"Just keep trying." Jiraya waved over his shoulder. "The more yellow chakra you expend, the easier it will be to draw on the red chakra."
Naruto felt like he was wasting his time. Yeah, summoning a giant toad would be cool and all, but how exactly was it meant to help him control the red chakra at will? And how was that going to help him in the exam?
He tried again.
The tadpole had legs this time.
"Kakashi-san!" The nurse on duty was frantic. "I spoke to Sasuke-san just a few minutes before he disappeared—I don't know what happened! I've already reported him missing to the Hokage, and ANBU are searching for him."
Kakashi was aware. An ANBU messenger had shown up at his door ten minutes ago with the news that Sasuke had gone missing. Of course, with Orochimaru slithering around, people had assumed the worst.
Kakashi, however, knew his student by now. "Was he given the note I left for him?"
"Yes, Kakashi-san. I handed it to him myself."
Kakashi sighed. "Thank you. I'll be going now."
"Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused?" Kakashi asked mildly as he finished climbing over the ledge at the edge of the designated training ground. Sasuke had heard him coming and paused in his kata; he'd spent the past hour or so waking his body up after several days of inactivity in preparation for training. "You should have waited to be discharged. Now ANBU is scouring the village for you."
"I hate hospitals." Sasuke grunted. He had even before he lost his family. He didn't know what it was; something about the sterile white, antiseptic-scented corridors unsettled him. And after the murder of his clan, he'd begun to associate that particular event with hospitals as well, further adding to his dislike.
"Well, nothing to be done about it now, I suppose." Kakashi sounded put-upon as he summoned a clone. It jumped off without a word. "I'll send word to ANBU that I've found you so they don't waste the manpower."
Sasuke rolled his eyes. If his teacher was trying to guilt him for taking off, it wasn't going to work. "You told me to meet you here." He prompted.
"I did." Kakashi pulled out a square of paper and handed it to Sasuke.
"What's this?" Sasuke turned it over, expecting writing. It was blank.
"It's for testing your chakra nature." Kakashi explained. "Normally we wouldn't be testing for natures at this stage of your career, but your grasp of chakra control and general skill at ninjutsu is good enough that I think I can teach you something before the exam, even with half the time gone. I'm assuming it'll be fire, but it's always best to be sure."
"How does it work?" Sasuke turned the paper back over, not sure what he was looking for.
"Channel your chakra through your hand into the paper. How it reacts tells us your nature."
Sasuke shrugged and did as he was told. The paper crinkled immediately. He held it up to Kakashi. "Well?"
Kakashi's lone eye crinkled. "Well, this is a surprise." He took out another square of paper and held it up for Sasuke to see. It crinkled between his fingers. "Generally, Uchiha have a fire nature, but it appears yours is lightning, like mine. Given that, it's incredible that you manage katon so well for your age. I suppose it was expected of you. Your father was a hard taskmaster, from what I understand." Kakashi mused.
Sasuke didn't care for mentions of his family. "So I'll have an easier time mastering raiton?" He assumed.
Kakashi shrugged. "In theory. You still have to learn how to channel lightning-aspected chakra. How long did it take you to master katon? Nature transformation and all?"
"A month."
"And given your inexperience with ninjutsu in general at the time, your learning curve would have been steeper." Kakashi nodded. "Alright. How would you like to be able to learn my chidori?"
"Sakura!" Mebuki flung the door open at the end of the day. "Are you home?"
"Yeah?" Sakura appeared at the top of the stairs, looking down at her mother. The older woman was scowling. "What's wrong?" Sakura wondered what she'd done to deserve such a look. Mebuki kicked her shoes off savagely and stomped into the house. Sakura trailed after her warily. "What is it, Okaa-san?"
"Have you heard from Sasuke-kun today?" Mebuki demanded, throwing the fridge open and beginning to pick out ingredients.
Sakura's eyes widened. "No? It's he still in the hospital?"
"He's supposed to be." Mebuki sniffed. "He just took off this morning. It threw the entire place into an uproar!"
"Did they find him?!" Sakura demanded, immediately thinking of Orochimaru. She knew the man was still after him.
Mebuki sighed. "Apparently. They sent for Kakashi. He sent word that he'd found him not long ago."
Sakura breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness."
"But really!" Mebuki was in full rant-mode. "He knows how hospitals work. He would have been out by tonight! What on earth possessed him to just… take off?"
Sakura gave her mother a brittle smile. Mebuki was fond of Sasuke—Sakura knew her parents kind of thought of Sasuke as their second child, after all this time—but she didn't really get him. "Sasuke-kun really doesn't like hospitals, Okaa-san." Sakura reminded her. "Too many bad memories."
"That's no excuse." Mebuki insisted, but some of the fire had left her eyes. She sighed. "Do me a favour and run over and invite him over for dinner, will you? I'll feel better when I see him with my own eyes."
"Okay." Sakura grinned, rushing to put her shoes on and taking off down the stairs. "I'll be back soon!"
Sasuke was reclining on the sofa in Kakashi's tiny apartment when there was a burst of hurried knocks on the front door. Kakashi appeared from his bedroom to answer.
"Ah, hello Sakura."
Sasuke sat up.
"Sensei, do you know where Sasuke-kun is?" He heard Sakura's voice from behind Kakashi, high and panicked. "Okaa-san told me you found him after he disappeared from the hospital, but I was just at his apartment and he wasn't there—"
"Relax." Kakashi's voice was mildly amused. "Come on in. He's right here. We agreed that he's going to be staying here until after the exams."
Sakura rounded their teacher, bright green eyes narrowing at the boy. "There you are! Do you have any idea how worried Okaa-san is?" She demanded, face screwed up into a scowl. "You threw the hospital upside down when you left this morning!"
Kakashi chuckled. "You're the third person to give him this lecture, today." He put a hand on her shoulder. An ANBU captain had been by not long ago, reprimanding him for his disappearing act.
"And I won't be the last." She sniffed, eyeing Sasuke critically. "Have a shower. Okaa-san wants you over for dinner to yell at you." Sasuke scowled at her, defiance ready to spill from his tongue. She seemed to sense it, because she said, "If you don't come I'll tell her exactly where you are and then you'll have to deal with her here instead."
Sasuke looked to Kakashi. He looked far too amused. "I'm not supposed to go anywhere without a jōnin escort." He said bitterly. It was a measure of protection that he chafed at, and was the chief reason for his stay at Kakashi's.
"I'm sure Okaa-san won't mind if Sensei comes too." Sakura looked up at Kakashi. "Though he'd have to take off his mask to eat." She said with something akin to wonder, ire momentarily forgotten.
Kakashi ruffled her hair. "Oh, I don't mind standing guard outside. I'm sure your mother wouldn't appreciate an audience to her… loss of composure." His eyes crinkled. "Go ahead and wash up, Sasuke. We'll wait out here."
Outnumbered, Sasuke sighed in defeat and accepted the fact that that he apparently just wasn't meant to have a peaceful night.
Poor Sasuke. He's being completely and utterly henpecked by the Haruno women. They do it out of love.
But seriously, Sasuke. Should have just waited to be discharged.