Chapter 24: Wreckage
Each reprehensible memory that had settled in the back of her mind rose up like a tidal wave of sewage and crashed down upon her. A man and a woman with bright red hair had entered her cell and left her hovering between life and death on a daily basis. She had wanted to escape, but her mind had been too foggy to manage the formation of the Yin Seal.
Someone must have healed her before the interrogation just enough to bring her back to some state of lucidity. As it turned out, her lucidity and her deadliness were an inseparable dyad.
Looking back, she realized how fortunate Ibiki and those twins had been in avoiding her during her escape. If Sakura had encountered any threatening opposition during her escape, she would have incapacitated them, but if she had encountered Ibiki or the redheaded twins, she would have destroyed them.
"I'm so sorry, Sakura," Tsunade said with evident remorse. "I wish I could've done more. I can't lose another person I love; if he comes back for you, I'll renounce my position as Hokage and kill him myself." The determination in her voice was unshakable.
Sakura shook her head. "After what he's put me through, I want to take care of him myself. But, there are others who have much more invested in his death than even I do. This time, their retribution outweighs mine."
Tsunade sent her an understanding look. "Danzo has always put Konoha first, no matter how merciless the means. Lives mean nothing to him so long as the village prospers."
Sakura swallowed and looked away. She had nothing to say on the subject of Danzo's reprobate conduct—nothing to say to her mentor, at least.
Sensing her silence, the Hokage changed the subject. "I see that you released the Yin Seal for the first time. To manage it under such duress is a remarkable feat. I couldn't have taken on a more worthy student." Despite all other circumstances, Tsunade beamed at her apprentice and her infectious authenticity forced Sakura to smile a little, too.
"I was actually saving the Yin Seal and Creation Rebirth for a situation like that. I suppose I can't be as stealthy in the future with a green diamond fixed to my forehead," she joked without much humor.
Tsunade wore a look of resolve. "You won't need to be stealthy anymore. I won't let him repeat this mess."
At the word "mess," Sakura recalled that she had left her own frowzy situation behind upon capture: she had no idea what had happened with Naruto over the past several weeks. She gulped. If Sasuke was not in Konoha, then Naruto was well past his projected expiration date.
Gathering every ounce of courage available to her, Sakura asked, "N…Naruto?"
Tsunade slapped her forehead. "I've been so worried about you that I forgot to tell you what happened while you were away!
"Three weeks ago, Itachi dumped a battered Sasuke off at our gates saying that he was retuning our trash. You know, brotherly love and all that. Well, right around that time, I received an anonymous note telling me how to save Naruto. Sasuke was the key to saving him—something about their battle in the Valley of End—and everything just fell together. For all the times that Fate's spat in my face, this time it seemed like things were meant to work out."
At first, Sakura laughed once. Then, she laughed again. Finally, she broke into a fit of maniacal giggles. "I just…" she managed between laughs, "I just can't believe that everything worked out. I just can't believe it!"
Tsunade smiled. "To be honest, I can't either. Naruto's still in sore condition, but he's recovering in the hospital. I told him that you were away on an important mission so that he wouldn't bust out of bed to go looking for you."
Sakura nodded in firm agreement with her teacher's concerns. Despite feeling happy moments ago, she could feel its afterglow quickly fading. "What about Sasuke?"
At her estranged teammate's name, Tsunade's face darkened. "For someone who claims to have cut all ties with Team 7, he flew into a murderous rage when he found out that you'd been kidnapped again. I thought the look on his face was going to peel the paint on my walls."
"Is he still in Konoha?" Sakura asked.
Tsunade shook her head. "No. I hated to let him go with how much time you and Naruto spent trying to bring him home, but we needed as many people looking for you as we could get—and his determined fury couldn't hurt. Not too much, at least. I imagine that he'll return soon, though, as word spreads that you've made it home."
Sakura gulped. His concern was difficult to imagine with their lack of comity in the past; he must have needed her for something. "How did Sasuke react to seeing Naruto again?"
"Well, I had to drag him to the hospital at first," she chuckled with evident schadenfreude, "But, once I got him there, the room crackled with energy. I placed Sasuke's hand on Naruto's seal, the seal glowed, and Naruto woke up. I've been a medic for a long time, but I've never seen anything like it. To be honest, I've been too relieved to question the whole ordeal."
"…May I see Naruto?" Sakura requested. She knew that she should be thrilled beyond words, but she just felt nervous and nauseous instead.
"Of course you can, Sakura. You're the person he's wanted to see since he woke up. Just be careful with what you tell him," Tsunade advised.
Sakura nodded and began to trudge toward the door. All of her momentary excitement had dissipated and left her a hollow, sickly shell again. She cursed Danzo, Ibiki, and her cell visitors alike: it took her so long to feel well again and now she was back to feeling like nothing at all. She felt paper-thin, like a phantom rather than a real person.
Tsunade grabbed her wrist before she could leave. "You need to stay in Konoha for a while. Please. I'm not sure what happened with you and Itachi to make Danzo so concerned, but I have a guess or two. Stay here until the issues with Danzo resolve, at least. In the meantime, I need you where I can see you so that I can keep you safe."
Sakura nodded to placate her mentor, tugged her wrist free, and walked out the door. She knew that Tsunade was worried, but she also knew that not even Tsunade could keep her safe anymore. And, once Sasuke came back, Tsunade might as well write her eulogy.
The hospital was nearby, but it felt far away. The short walk felt impossibly tiring and long. Once she arrived, she dragged herself up the stairs and hesitated in front of Naruto's door. Her heart throttled in her chest as her mind cluttered with anxiety. She had yearned for this moment for five years; her dreams reached realization.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the door. To her relief, Sakura found the patient in a somniferous daze. His eyes were half-open, but his absent reaction indicated that he was asleep. As she looked at his sleeping form, she realized how much he had grown over the past five years despite spending them in a hospital bed—his face had matured and he was noticeably taller. He might even look handsome when he finished healing.
Sakura walked over to his bed and gently nudged him. "Psst. Hey, Naruto. You have a visitor."
His eyes snapped open as if triggered by a rubber band mechanism. "Sakura? Sakura! It's you! You're home! You're really home! I thought for sure that Granny Tsunade'd been lying to keep me in bed!" he exclaimed.
Sakura laughed nervously. "Don't call her that! She'd give you a good shiner for that, you know. How are you feeling, though? I think it goes without saying that I've missed you."
His sunny face sobered. "I could hear everything, Sakura. I heard everything." His voice cracked with contrition and grief as tears spilled from his eyes. "I'm so sorry for putting you through that. I'm so sorry. I never meant to make you lose so much at one time." Sitting up in his bed, his arms wrapped her in the firmest embrace any atrophied person could possibly muster.
"I'm sorry that you had nothing more than beeping to listening to for the past five years," Sakura replied with heavy shame. "Tsunade made me leave because we didn't think that you'd ever wake up. I left to go train alone, but I should've kept trying."
Naruto smiled at her. "I'd have been mad if you spent five years just waiting around for me, Sakura. And I didn't only have beeps to listen to—Granny Tsunade visited every day, Kakashi-sensei visited at least once a week, and Hinata visited every day, too! Can you believe it?"
"Kakashi-sensei visited you all this time? I haven't seen him in years!" Sakura assumed that he had hidden away reading his lecherous books all this time in order to avoid her wrath.
"Yep! I'm lucky to have such amazing friends," Naruto beamed. "Speaking of friends, do you know where Sasuke went?"
Sakura shook her head. "Does anyone ever know where Sasuke goes? I heard from Tsunade that she expects him back soon, though."
"Great! Then, when he gets home, we all have to go to Ichiraku's together! Just like the old days." He waved his arms in the air and took on a spooky tone, "A reunion of Team 7."
Sakura smiled at his silly display, but doubted that Sasuke would show interest in nostalgic bonding. Even worse, when Sakura came by a chance to tell him the truth, he would likely redirect his path of revenge onto a new target rather than quitting it altogether. Sasuke would make any excuse to keep himself alone—even if he had an opportunity to repair things with his brother.
"Of course we will. And I'll bet you can use some ramen after five years of bed rest. Speaking of, has Tsunade told you when you'll be released from the hospital?" Sakura enquired.
"Tomorrow!" he exclaimed while pumping his fists in the air. "She said that, since you're home, you can look after me in your apartment."
All traces of expression evaporated from Sakura's face as she looked at him with a stony stare of silent protest and disbelief. He was supposed to be recovering and yet Tsunade was putting him on unbeknownst watch duty so that Danzo would not attempt to whisk her away again. As much as she had missed Naruto, having him as an uninvited roommate was well beyond the threshold of what she felt capable of handling right now.
"I have a better idea: Why don't you live with Sasuke when he returns? That way you two can do your brotherly bonding and I'll check up on you during the daytime!" she suggested cheerily. She had played her gambit—she hoped it would work.
Naruto scratched his chin and thought about her suggestion for a few moments. "Hmm…" Her heart pounded. "You're still pretty smart, Sakura! That's a great idea! Sasuke won't be able to sneak off again under my watch. And, we'll have so much fun living together that he'd never wanna leave, anyway!"
For once, Sakura was grateful for Naruto's density; his lack of firm connection with reality made kindly misleading him much easier than it might have been otherwise.
"Great!" She beamed with undetectable falseness. "I'll let Tsunade know when I see her later!" Of course, she would not whisper a peep of her plans to her mentor, but if she claimed that she would, then Naruto should have no reason to mention it himself.
She swam through so many lies over the past months that she would surely lose track of them all; the quality of one's deceit seemed to have an inverse relationship with the quantity of lies told. Now that Sasuke knew about Naruto, Sakura wondered if he would believe her revelations about his brother. Then, thoughts of the past few weeks interrupted her wonder.
As she stood in the pale hospital room feeling sicker than the actual patient did, Sakura wished that Tsunade had not corrected her belief that she had lost only one day of life to Danzo's prison cell. No matter how delighted she wanted to feel about reuniting with Naruto, her fetid memories retarded any sparks of happiness she had felt today.
The more she dwelled on the bloody and contused scenarios, the more concerned Naruto's face became. His mouth was moving, but Sakura could not hear a single word he might be trying to say.
Deciding that their visit had extended long enough, she muttered, "I have to go… I forgot… that I had something to do. I'll see you later… or tomorrow… or something." Sakura could take no more of the mocking walls serving as screens for her repressed memories, so she waved half-heartedly to Naruto and left.
As she walked down the hospital hallway, Sakura kept her eyes carefully fixated on the pale blue tiles beneath her feet. If she focused on the tiles, she would not have to deal with people and the menacing walls behind them.
Just as Sakura approached the exit, she bumped into a man with a lamentably hardened chest. She mumbled an apology and reached her right hand to rub the bruise that she expected to form on her forehead.
"Sakura…" he spoke, "I knew I'd find you here."
Authoress's Note:
Thank you for reading, everybody! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. A soo-par special thank-you to those who take the time to review-you're all lovely. :)
I apologize for the delay in updating-I've been very busy. Hopefully now that I'm back in the US, I will be able to get back on a somewhat regular posting schedule.
Have a fabulous evening,
A
