"Monster."
I saw Naruto's face, staring up at me.
"Devil."
I saw the 8 men I had beaten half to hell yesterday, eyes depicting only the purest fear as they stared into my burning, scarlet eyes.
"You're not a monster."
Sakura's voice rang through my head and I woke up with a start.
I was in the backseat of the Ford, where I had fallen asleep after what had happened yesterday. Guilt ran over me as I remembered exactly what I had said to her. I called her a burden, and she told me I sounded just like her parents. I shook my head, clearing the thoughts from my head. I checked the time on my phone. 2:34 PM.
Damn, I slept a lot.
I saw the bottle of Jack from yesterday in the passenger seat and grabbed it, downing half the bottle in one breath, not the healthiest thing to do. My throat burned with the alcohol, but I wasn't satisfied. It only took 3 more breaths for me to finish off the bottle. I felt groggy within minutes, drinking the whole bottle would probably mess with my head unless I slept it off, so I did exactly that, sleeping even more than I already had.
The next time I woke up, it was 8:13, and my head was killing me. I made sure Sakura wasn't in the room before sneaking in and popping some painkillers before running back to the car. I sat there for a couple of minutes, thinking about nothing, just staring up at the plain sky, not a cloud in sight.
"Sasuke…" I heard her voice call out to me. I looked around for the source, but she was nowhere in sight. I was going insane, I was hearing her voice, and she wasn't even here. I closed my eyes, but all I saw was her, she was in control of my senses, she had taken control from me. My phone rang, snapping me out of my stupor. I saw the police department's number flash onto the screen and I answered.
"Uchiha."
"Hey, so I know you and your partner want to get Marlon alone, but if you need backup, just ask and we'll be there." I had no idea what he was talking about.
"Marlon? Who the fuck is Marlon?"
"Um, the big dude, the killer?" I froze in my seat, horrified at what he had just told me.
"Where is he?"
"400 Chesterfield Avenue, you sick or something?" I hung up the phone and turned on the siren to the car after punching the address into my phone's GPS.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck," I muttered continuously while driving at top speed to the location. I wanted to call her, but it might alert Marlon to her presence if I did, so I settled on driving to the car's maximum capacity to Marlon's place. She had found the killer, and she didn't even-, "Oh fuck no."
I had one missed call.
From Sakura Haruno.
"FUCK!" I yelled as I neared the destination. I quickly pulled up, driving over the curb in the process. I grabbed my guns and ran to the door, shoving it open and finding nothing. I searched the living room and kitchen, but there was no sign of anyone. I ran up the stairs and burst through the door to the bedroom, where I saw a huge man, at least 330 pounds and 6'7, slumped over, face all bruised from punches and kicks, and two bullet holes in his stomach.
He was dead, and it was definitely Marlon, whose last name I didn't even know. I searched the room until my eyes landed on something pink.
She was lying on the ground, facing towards the ceiling, unconscious.
"No, no, no," I whispered in horror.
Blood was pooling around her from a stab wound in her stomach. My eyes widened in horror, and I felt a foreign feeling wash over me.
It was fear.
I carefully removed the knife and my shirt, wrapping it around the wound to stop the bleeding before carrying her bridal style to my car. I laid her down in the backseat and sped away towards the hospital, sirens blaring.
I was cursing myself silently, how could I let this happen?
"Please don't die, please," I pleaded, but she was unconscious, she couldn't hear what I was saying. I pulled into the hospital and parked as close as possible to the entrance. I carried Sakura inside and ran to the front desk frantically.
"Help me!" I yelled, and within seconds, two nurses came with a stretcher, relieving me of Sakura. I tried following them inside, but the doctor stopped me.
"We need to operate under normal conditions, I'll let you know if anything happens," he told me. I peered over his head to see them already at work on the stab wound, which made me feel a little better. I stayed there until the doctor motioned me to the waiting room. I reluctantly sat down in a chair and put my head in my hands.
A single tear escaped my eye, that was the first tear I had let slip in many years, and it was because of her.
She tried to call me, tell me where she was going, we could've prevented this, but I was passed out from drinking, I'm such an idiot, sometimes, all of the time. I cursed myself for allowing this to happen, how could I be so careless.
Another tear escaped from my eyes.
I took a shaky breath and got up to use the bathroom, which was empty, thankfully. I went to the sink and took more shaky breaths in attempt to calm myself, but it didn't work.
Tears kept falling from my face, one by one, they wouldn't stop.
I grabbed my head and clutched it tightly before releasing a muffled yell of sorts. The tears kept falling, my breath stayed shaky, my body ached, most of all, my heart hurt, the heart she said was made of gold, that very heart.
After years, it hurt again, I had kept it in check for so long, but tonight, in the bathroom of a hospital where my bloodied partner lay, where she might die, my heart hurt so much. I sank to the ground and laid with my back to the wall with my hands still on my head, hoping that if I squeezed hard enough, I could put myself out of my misery like I had tried to do so long ago.
"Sasuke, help me," She called to me, but I stood there, frozen as she was beaten to death, her last word being my name.
"Mr. Uchiha." I woke with a start at the sound of my surname. I looked up to see what looked to be the doctor who was in charge of Sakura.
"Yes," I answered with a raspy voice.
"She'll make it, you can see her now if you'd like, but she'll be unconscious." I let out a sigh of relief and leaned my head back against the chair before nodding and following the doctor to her room. He let me in and shut the door behind me, leaving me alone with her.
I pulled up a chair next to her bed and took a seat.
She was wearing an oxygen mask and was hooked up to an IV, but she was alive.
I made a mental note to thank the doctor later. Her steady breathing was better than any music to my ears, soothing me. How could one woman have such an effect on me? I remember thinking that I loved her, but then I thought how I was being foolish, but now? Well, how much clearer could it be? I took her hand in mine, knowing she was unconscious, and kissed it before putting it to my forehead.
"I'm so sorry," I whispered over and over so many times that I lost count.
But no matter how many times I said it, the ache in my heart refused to go away, it kept torturing me until I took her hand in both of mine.
Like before, like every time, she was my cure, always healing me, always taking my pain from me.
I sat there, whispering about how sorry I was.
"I'll make it up to you, I promise, I'll never leave again," I told her. I meant it too, after this, there was no way in hell I would leave her, though I had to admit, she took down a man who was almost 3 times her weight, that's really impressive. "How the hell did you do it," I chuckled, thinking of how she managed to get the guy. She must've used her speed to her advantage, but he got a stab in and went for the kill, that's when she shot him.
It's amazing that she took him down, especially in such a closed environment, but then again, she's always defying my expectations. I gazed upon her silent form, even though her skin was pale from the blood loss, she still looked so unbelievably gorgeous that it honestly baffled me as to how a person could look like that after losing so much blood.
"I'm gonna pray to every god right now that you can't hear me, Sakura, because saying this is gonna be hard even when you're unconscious."
I took a deep breath, then another, and another, before grasping her hand firmly with my own and gazing down on her with determination that I had never summoned before.
"You drive me crazy, ever since, I met you, and you were made my partner, you've driven me crazy from the start. You changed me in ways I never thought possible, you're the first person to make me feel...happy, again, and I don't know how to thank you for that. You're smart, you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, you're strong, I mean, you took down a guy that was like 3 times your size. How you did that, I'll never know. You're perfect. You're everything that I want, that's why I kept trying to push you away, and that's why you're here, because of me. I'm so sorry for doing this to you, I hope you can forgive me one day, Sakura."
I took a long pause and gripped her hand a little tighter.
"I...I...I-" I stopped my sentence in its tracks, forbidding it from finishing. I stood up with her hand still in mine. "You deserve better than that, you deserve to be told when you're conscious, and that's exactly what I'll do," I told her confidently.
I was done being a coward to her, if I was going to tell her how I felt, I'm making sure she's completely conscious when I do, she deserves that. So I leaned over and kissed her forehead, and almost immediately, I saw her mouth curve upwards into a small smile that I couldn't help but smile back at, maybe this whole thing will work out. So with a small smile on my face, I walked out of her room to grab something to eat while she slept.