Ink and Pastels:
VI. Chase
She couldn't get his smile out of her head. It was as though he had painted that specific part of his face right on the insides of her eyelids. It was painful. The tears started to blur the image. Distorting it. Ruining it.
'
'
'
She didn't know what to do.
Itachi. Back?
But, why?
Sasuke had made it out to seem like contact with his brother was always fleeting. It was always brief. Straight to the point. A basic 'Hey little brother, I'm alive."
The fact that she had noticed that room...so desecrated. So unforgiving. It was as thought Itachi had been trying to erase the fact the two of them had ever existed.
She ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. Upending the strands. Causing them into such disarray as she tried to get her thoughts together.
She had made Sasuke upset. That much was apparent.
Her fingertips tried pressing the call button another time to see if he would pick up.
Nothing.
It rang and rang and rang and with each trill she felt her heart deflate a little more.
Itachi could be anywhere.
Konoha was a big city.
There were a lot of hospitals. Walk in clinics. Shelters for those in need.
It was one of the reasons why her aunt had even started working for a hospital in this area. This city was beautiful, and it wanted to be a huge factor in helping those that needed solace.
It was a reason why Sakura wanted to stay.
She began to chew on the bottom corner of her lip, stressing and worrying the skin. Her teeth snagging a portion of her bottom inside lip.
What could she do? Gods, what could she do.
She shoved her phone into her pocket. Stuffing her hands hastily into a black rain jacket with a plethora of pockets, she bent over to ruffle her hair forward.
Her fingers shakily pulled all the strands into a messy topknot.
She could feel tears brimming in the corners of her eyes as she tried not to think about what Sasuke could be doing right now.
He was full of frustration. Anger. Worry. He could be running around the streets right now, his voice hoarse. He could be so upset he wasn't thinking straight.
She needed to find one of them.
And her best bet was to look for Itachi.
If she could even find a man whom she barely knew the appearance of. She surmised he had to look like an older version of Sasuke.
She stumbled down the stairs on feet that felt as though they were walking on a pile of shattered glass. She ignored the murmurs of Ino and Tenten who assumed she was still on the phone with Sasuke. She could hear their giggles and it made her own heart beat in trepidation.
Making her way towards the bathroom she gathered a small makeup bag that she filled with medical supplies. Little scissors. Disinfectant wipes. Bandages. Band-aids.
As she made to move towards the front door, she paused.
"Sakura, is everything alright?" She could see Tenten poking her head out from the open kitchen doorway. Sakura's legs gave out and she sank to her knees.
She started to fist her palms into her eyelids as Tenten's eyes widened and she rushed out to kneel beside her. Ino's concerned ramblings were getting closer to her ears as well.
"I...Sasuke...he. His brother...uhm. I don't know what to do guys. His brother...is out there? Hurt? And Sasuke...he's so sad. He sounded so broken. And I don't know where to find him. I have to find him. Them?" A huge sob overtook her.
Her shoulders started to shake as Tenten started to soothingly rub circles into the small of her back. Ino brushed stray wispy strands of her bangs away from her forehead.
"Sak. Sakura. Shh. It'll be okay, what was the last thing you guys said to each other?"
"He," She hiccuped slightly, her breaths coming out heavy as she tried to gain her bearings. "He...said he was going to go look for him, that he'd let me know when he found him...that I guess he doesn't want my help."
Ino snarled slightly, "Well the fucker is an idiot if he thinks he shouldn't take your help. Your aunt is in cahoots with a huge hospital chain. Did he stop to think she could find out every single little person that inhabits any type of medical facility in the vicinity? Oh. Ohohoho," Ino began to mumble darkly to herself, wringing her hands together in anger.
Tenten laughed, very shakily and shook her head in amusement. "Ino, love. Chill." Her warm gaze settled on Sakura, who she helped to stand. Carefully.
She placed the bag back in her arms and started pushing her lightly towards the door. "We'll finish our discussion later. Once you find him. Keep us posted. Go look for Sasuke. I'll call Kiba to come look for you in case you need us. Take a deep breath, Sakura. Go start looking at the local places around Sasuke's place, right? He had to have tried looking for his brother."
Sakura nodded meekly. Giving her friend a watery smile, she affixed dark brown flat heeled boots to her feet and lifted her raincoat hood over her head.
She watched as Tenten started to moved back over to Ino and whacked her over the head.
Her eyes lifted towards the dark night sky.
She still had time before darkness evaporated the hidden parts of the city.
Swallowing, her fingers wavered as she dialed her aunts number.
"Hi...aunt Tsunade. I have a favor to ask."
'
'
'
She felt like she had been walking for hours.
She was soaked to the bone.
It had been steadily down-pouring for a while now.
She felt chilled to the bone.
Her raincoat helped keep most of the moisture out. But. She figured it wasn't normally meant to help with tedious amounts of hours out in the kind of weather.
It had gotten colder the darker it was getting.
Her teeth had begun to chatter slightly.
The vibration against her lips helped to keep her going.
She had been looking everywhere.
First she had stopped by the hospital, where she had explained her situation to her aunt. Her aunt had promised her she would contact all those that she could with her brief description of Sasuke and to see if there were any records of his brother anywhere in the first place.
To help with finding out his appearance.
Then she had started her trek over the city to the smaller walk in clinics. And little shelters that offered food to those who needed a place to stay for the night and a warm meal.
There were the same people that tended to inhabit these facilities that had filtered in and out. But nobody by her description.
Nobody that seemed to have been badly injured or beyond the normal signs of intoxication.
She had assumed that the level Sasuke's brother would be at was pretty bad.
Bad enough to have wrecked a room looking for something, someone?
A heavy sigh slid past her lips.
She had even gone past Naruto's bookstore.
Inquiring.
Sasuke had already been here apparently.
But Naruto had been so helpful. Promiisng her that he would get in contact with her if he had heard anything else. That her best bet was to go home and let Sasuke come to her.
She was too afraid to do that.
What if Sasuke kept looking all night?
She didn't want him doing that.
His safety was a priority too.
Her fingertips felt a little numb from the cold. The wind was blistering around her. It shook the confines of the trees that were interlocked on the center of the sidewalks in intervals, in little gate enclosed squares.
It helped created 'an ambiance', she always recalled Ino saying.
As she walked in a rush, she kept muttering little thoughts like that in her head so that she wouldn't succumb to the fear that was starting to take root in the pit of her stomach.
She was tired.
And scared.
She kept dodging the calls and texts from Ino, and Tenten. Kiba had ever tried reaching her a few hours ago to see where she was.
But.
She didn't want to drag anyone else into this mess.
This had been her fault. She should have tried to help Sasuke more.
She shouldn't have been so quick to jump to the fact that he should wait.
'
'
'
Her feet were begging to blister.
She could feel it on the insides of her toes as she kept walking along the sidewalks.
Kept making turns every so often to duck into alleyways.
The deeper she got into the more poverty stricken areas of Konoha, the more her fear started to incline.
She knew her best option was to call it a night and go back to the hospital to see if her aunt had managed to locate him in any one specific place.
Or even back to Sasuke's to see if he had decided to sleep and resume his search in the morning.
She knew he wouldn't.
She knew deep, deep down with absolute certainty that he wasn't going to stop until he had his brother back in his arms again.
So.
That was what she was going to do.
She was going to keep searching until she stumbled upon one of the Uchiha brothers.
Even if it took all night.
'
'
'
As she started to slow down her steps to take a small break, she gave pause at an abandoned building.
This building had been demolished years ago.
It used to be this huge art gallery.
But over the years it grew morose and had fallen to pieces.
It was a really old building.
The kids who liked to be mischievous and the criminals of the city had used to inhabit the area and would do drag races and it was a hang out spot for those that wanted to hide.
However.
With crime rate having risen steadily as the city had grown, it wasn't a place people with a steel mindset would ever set foot into.
It was rubble.
Ash littered the perimeter of the ground.
She swallowed thickly as she could hear rustling in the trees.
It seemed ever so more pronounced as her boots pressed into the dust covered asphalt. Gravel upended from every which way a she stepped closer and closer to a small demolished wall.
Or what appeared to have once been a wall.
Graffiti covered the beaten up walls in wide waves.
Her chest constricted as she crouched down, her heart was hammering way too loudly that she swore it was going to leap out of her throat as she kneeled down to the ground.
A few paces away, crouched in the darkness of what had once been a doorway, was a man.
He was crumpled to the ground.
Laying on his back.
His chest was heaving too hard.
She knew the signs of a seizure.
But what made her chest seize so tightly...was that this man looked so much like Sasuke.
She started to move closer and his wide black as tar eyes swiveled in her direction. A red substance bubbled at the corners of his mouth and she rushed forward and slid to her knees.
The rough gravel and upended brick and other debris ripped into the fabric of her jeans. Tearing at her exposed skin. As she glanced down, she could see the fear in this man's eyes.
Gods.
He looked so much like Sasuke.
Sans the deep grooves on the sides of his cheeks.
Deep lines of expression.
She fumbled clumsily as she tried to speak to him, "Sir. Please, I need you to stay with me. Please. Can you move?" His inaudible noises were starting to get to her.
She needed to move him onto his side.
Her hands gripped his biceps steadily as she tugged him in her direction, pushing his back to lay so he was propped up on his side. Her fingers fussed with his button up flannel. She opened up his shirt, lightly moving his head to lift at an angle and rest on her thighs.
She knew she need to get him in a safer area where he wasn't thrashing against so much debris...but his signs didn't seem too fatal.
Her fingertips lightly prodded his pulse.
She waited what seemed to be a few minutes as slowly his body was begging to stop shaking. She just sat there, tears forming back in the corners of her eyes but she inhaled sharply.
He was going to be fine.
She wasn't going to let anything happen to him.
'
'
'
After the strangers fit, he had curled up into a ball.
His eyes were strained shut tightly.
Body shaking with the cold.
She had opened his shirt to check for any wounds.
Any signs of malnourishment but the man had shook his head vehemently and rolled to face away from her. She knew after a fit of this caliber that there was often moments of disorient.
But he seemed to know exactly what was happening.
She had removed her raincoat to lightly drape it over his shoulders.
An act that didn't go unnoticed by the man who simply just seemed to want to lay there in the debris. A man who had been defeated by the world.
She swallowed as she tried to figure out what she could do.
It was worth a shot.
"...Itachi?" The man's arms twitched at the name that rolled from her mouth.
The silence rolled between them for what seemed to drag for ages, before his head lifted and he turned slightly in her direction. His dark gaze peered right through his.
His eyes looked so empty.
"Are...you Itachi?" She whispered very softly.
He blinked in acknowledgement.
She took that as a sign she could continue talking. If only in short bursts.
"Your brother, Sasuke? He's...looking for you."
Silence.
"He misses you...very much."
His hands started to shake.
"Do you...think I can take you to him?"
A small nod.
She stood slowly.
Gathering her bag in her hands, she winced as the dirt and dust clung to the blood that streamed down her knees. Ignoring the sharps sting of pain she stepped towards the man.
She slid one of her arms around him and helped him up. Carefully.
The man stumbled heavily to his right side and she heard the gurgles of breath that stumbled from the man's breath. He reeked of liquor. The acrid tang of copper suddenly stained her senses and she realized that it wasn't her own wounds that she could detect.
The man was bleeding.
Heavily. Very heavily on his lower thigh.
She swore.
Wrapping her arm around his side she gently supported most of his weight on her. She was going to drag him to safety even if it meant exhausting her to the point of malfunctioning.
She knew there was a small health clinic a few blocks away.
She started to drag him.
He began a low groan deep in the confines of his throat.
He was in a lot of pain.
More pain than she realized.
'
'
'
Her booted foot kicked in the door as she had happened to shoved the heel of it against the lock on the door. Effectively breaking it in the process so that she could get inside.
She'd come back and fix it.
Right now her priority was making sure that he was going to be okay.
She dropped her bag on the floor as she dragged the limp Itachi towards a small bathroom.
There was a small shower meant for hosing off chemicals but it would do.
She lowered him to the floor and let the water beat down on him while she took a moment to gather her thoughts. She wasn't really a doctor. Let alone a nurse. Sure she had grown up studying medicine, she was still studying it. She could be better than a doctor in this situation but she was scared.
She didn't really know if this man was Itachi.
She didn't even know what injuries he was sustaining.
Taking a small glance in his direction, she started to move to the front door to collect her bag. She needed to call someone. Sasuke...no. Kiba, maybe? She knew Kiba would come help her.
She grunted, wincing as she knelt to open her bag. Her fingertips reached for her phone she had stashed inside. She scrolled past the many calls and texts, not really paying attention to what they said or who had called.
Her fingers took pause as she pulled up the Internet search bar to find the number of Naruto's bookstore.
Naruto.
Her shoulders deflated as she realized maybe he would know what to do.
She began to dial the number, and pressed the phone between her ear and right top of her shoulder as her gaze moved back to the bathroom.
Her bright green eyes widened in fear as she noticed the man wasn't on the floor of the shower anymore. And there was blood everywhere.
"... -llo. Hello? HELLO?"
"Na...N-Naruto?"
"Sakura?! What's wrong?"
"I...I think I found Itachi."
The phone dropped from her hands as the man was suddenly kneeling behind her, his fingertips rough on the nape of her neck.
His voice was dark. Very, very dark. His tone void of any warmth. It was rough, very scratchy. Tears rolled down her cheeks at the way the rough pads of his fingers pressed against her skin.
"My. I never knew my little brother was capable of finding such a beauty."
'
'
'
"Now. I'm going to need you to give me your phone, miss."
"No."
"No? How else is my little brother supposed to find us?"
"What is wrong with you? I'm trying to help you!"
"I don't want your help, sweetheart. I don't need anyone's help."
Sakura had noticed when she dropped her phone that it was still on speaker. At first she could hear Naruto's squawking from the other end but he seemed to have picked up on the fact that she had gone quiet.
A fact that meant she might be in trouble.
She tried to keep him talking.
His dark eyes were wide.
He had clearly taken some kind of substance.
It was like he didn't notice the wide trail of blood at all that he had brought with him from the bathroom.
"If you want your brother to find you, why won't you let me continue my phone call?"
"I'm not oblivious. You're calling the police. A little thing like you, how could my little brother possibly have acquired such a feat? Oh no. No no no."
"I DO know Sasuke. He's been looking for you."
"I'm sure he has. My little brother has always been soft."
"You're hurt...you should let me take a look at your wounds."
"No. I prefer you to stay over in the corner."
His eyes were rapidly darting to and fro. He didn't seem to really realize the predicament he was in. And Sakura wasn't sure if he was on the path of wanting to harm her or if he simply was just trying to keep her away for he knew what he had gotten himself involved him.
This man knew the dangers he had placed upon himself.
And whatever he was going through, he was trying to keep her at a distance.
'
'
'
He had started to go quiet.
At first it seemed he had wanted to break her phone, but he was leaning against the front door. His breaths were labored. His eyes half-lidded.
Sakura's own wounds were starting to really get to her. She had really scraped her knees up. She could see the tears in her skin. The blood dribbling towards the tiled floor.
She wouldn't succumb to the slight woozy feeling that was rising inside her. Her head was starting to throb rather uncontrollably.
Her gaze lifted from the floor as she noticed movement at the front door. Her eyes widened a bit as she noticed Naruto standing solemnly from outside.
He lifted a finger to his lips the moment Sakura felt her body fall forward against the floor.
Her mind went blank.
'
'
'
"Hey. Sakura, come on. Wake up, love." Naruto's voice oozed sunshine.
"You're such a sweetie," She mumbled quietly.
"Yes, be sure to tell that to my future wife."
"Heh. I have a future wife for you. She's so cute...an'. little. Lil teacher, Hinata."
"Remind me to ask you about her when you aren't half asleep."
"Am I okay?"
"Yes, love. We're almost there."
"Is Itachi going to be okay?"
She could hear Naruto's hesitation. Her head was lolled against his chest. He had cradled her in his arms. She realized that Naruto had called Ino, and Ino had apparently sent Kiba with him.
She saw Kiba's leather jacketed arms holding up Itachi.
"Yes. After Sasuke's done with him? Not so sure..." She let Naruto's voice drift her off to sleep.
'
'
'
"This is all your fault! You had her out all night! Looking for your fucking brother."
Shouts reverberated around the room.
She never remembered her room having such an echo.
"Ino, babe, she's alright. She's alright." Kiba's gruff voice was trying to soothe Ino.
"She isn't alright! She's sleep deprived, her knees are all banged up. Gods know what sicknesses she could've contracted. I. Am. So. Angry. With. You." She could hear the fury in Ino's voice.
Who was Ino screaming at?
Her eyelids flickered open.
Ino and Kiba were standing outside her hospital room, talking to Sasuke.
Sasuke.
Her heart swelled with a mixture of conflictions.
She tried to rise from the bed but a firm hand lightly ruffled the top of her head, "I don't think so."
Her eyes met a pair of sunny blue. A soft smile overtook her face as she settled back against her bed, the rush of the night prior coming back to her.
Itachi.
Was he okay?
"He's fine. He's resting." Naruto grinned cheekily as his eyes flickered over towards Sasuke who was currently entangled in a screaming match with her crazy roommate.
Well.
Ino was screaming.
"You scared us, Sakura. Why didn't you call someone when you found him?" Naruto's eyes shifted to heavy concern. His orange sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.
His jeans were covered in dust and mud.
Hair all askew.
"I was trying to save him." Naruto smiled once again.
"He isn't your priority to save."
"I'm not talking about Itachi."
Water started to stream down her cheeks and Naruto lifted a hand to gently stroke the top of her head. They sat there together while Ino continued to scream her lungs out at Sasuke.
Naruto sat there and comforted her.
'
'
'
When she awoke again, the curtains all around her room had been drawn.
The only light that filtered was through the crack in the front door, the light that peeked through that small glass opening in the middle of the wood.
She felt groggy.
Not just from the throbbing in her knees, but overall.
Her throat felt dry.
She rose up slightly and pressed a hand to her forehead.
Her hair felt gross.
She felt gross.
Smelled gross.
She shook her head slightly at the mess in her room. An assortment of flowers littered the area. Stuffed animals. Chocolate boxes on a small table near the other side of the room.
She took pause however at the armchair settled beneath the wide window, also on the other side of the room.
Sasuke was slouched in the chair. His heavy lidded gaze was fixed on her. A look that suddenly intensified on noticing that she was wide awake.
Her throat felt even more dry as Sasuke lifted himself from his seat.
He perched on the side of her hospital bed.
There was such sorrow in the depths of his irises as he quietly took one of her hands in his own. His thumb nervously ran circles around the outer edges of her knuckles. Rubbing more fervently against her veins that popped out in the expanse of her pale skin.
"Why?" Was all he muttered.
"Because you love him."
He leaned forward and his arms enveloped her. One of his hands entangled in the hair at the back of her head, pressing her face against his chest.
His other hand gripped arm as his shoulders to shake.
Her fingers trembled as she realized he was crying into her hair.
She simply lifted herself up a little higher to wrap her arms around his back.
She sat there and let his sobs fill the room.
Knowing little pieces of him were starting to mend now that he had his brother back.
Holy hell.
It's been a long time.
I am so, so sorry to all of those who came to like this story and believed I had abandoned it.
I hope this makes up for my absence. At least a little? D:
Ink and Pastels is back and running.
Much love.
I don't own Naruto.