Previously on The longest year ever:
Sasuke reached the conclusion (on his own) that Sakura and Sai have a relationship, if it is in fact true or not is yet to be revealed.
After they left the kindergarten, Sai goes away while Sakura goes with Sasuke to the Uchiha estate in silence.
Once there, they settled in Sasuke's room so Sakura could do the daily check up Tsunade-sama ordered her to do.
As Sakura starts the check up, Sasuke as a conversation with his inner self and both agree to work together (in some kind of truce).
But something goes wrong, Sasuke's cursed seal goes wild, at the lack of resources, Sakura uses the only thing she remembers, a sealing technique she has been working on, and uses it on Sasuke, but due to the jutsu not being completed, she uses herself to seal the surplus of chakra the seal produces, and ends up barely alive.
Sasuke takes her to the hospital as fast as he can, having his chakra back due to the seal having destroyed the chakra bind he had, he goes by the roofs.
Later Sai snaps and attacks him, Kakashi and Yamato try but fail to calm the artist nin down. Naruto in an unusual calmness gets to calm Sai down, not even sparing a glance at Sasuke.
8 hours later Tsunade gets out of the operative room and demands explanations. After Sasuke talks to her, Tsunade allows Kakashi and Yamato to stay at the hospital, she sends the others home saying they have things to do in the morning.
Sai goes to the cliff where he can see all of Konoha, his mind filled with thoughts about Sakura's situation.
Naruto goes home and can't sleep, at the edge of tears, Naruto starts crying and yelling in frustration for not being able to protect Sakura now.
Sasuke goes home and blames himself for everything that happened. As he sees his reflection he snaps, hating the person he became.
Everyone, i have an announcement to make, it's kinda non-related to this story, but hey... my fic named 'birthday gift in an oasis' had been revised and re-made, for those who read it, and i honestly think you should read the new version, it is way better than the last one, for those of you who didn't, it is an M rated fic, but be my guest, read, enjoy and review!!
now, i had these ideas on my mind, and i actually wanted to do a chapter of my fic 'the secret behind' but i was so eager to make the next chapter of this fic that i couldn't focus on the other one, and i just had to do this chapter -sigh- my mind is just so weird XD lol
anyway... enjoy everyone!! oh, and review, the more you review, the happier i get, and the faster i want to make a next chapter!!
Sasuke and Sai arrived to the kindergarten at the same time that morning, and from the minute the kids saw them, they knew something was wrong, and also because Sakura-nee-chan wasn't there.
The whole morning was deadly silent, even the kids were quiet, the tension in the air was almost palpable.
At lunch neither one of the males ate anything, and the afternoon was heading in the same direction.
"Onii-chan." Sai looked down to stare blankly at the 5 year old blond haired and brown eyed boy who was tugging on his sleeve.
"Where's Sakura-nee-chan?" the boy asked quietly. "She said she would help us do a surprise." Sai showed a sad small smile and bent down to the boys' level while patting his head lightly.
"Sakura-chan did something that made her sick and now she's in the hospital." He said, his voice cracking as he finished, the boy looked down with a sad look.
"Will Sakura-nee-chan be alright??" he asked looking up, tears at the rims of his eyes.
"I hope she does." Sai whispered and pushed all his emotions back, he couldn't crack in front of anyone.
All the kids approached Sai, having heard what he told the blond boy, whose name was Kyo.
"A-anoune." He looked around to see all the kids with sad faces. "Can we make a present for her??" a brunette girl asked. He nodded.
Chapter 9 – Ryuusuke and everyone's feelings
"Onii-chan." Saya tugged on his sleeve, but Sasuke remained stoic and didn't spare her a glance. "Onii-chan." She called in a more desperate tone. "Onii-chan, what happened to Sakura-nee-chan??" he snapped his head towards the small girl. "Where is she??" she tugged on his sleeve harder, wanting an answer to her question.
"Onii-chan." She had puppy pleading eyes, damn the puppy eyes.
"She's at the hospital." He stated bluntly, to bluntly even for his hears, he didn't intend on it to come out so blunt. Saya's eyes became watery.
"Is Sakura-nee-chan going to be ok??" she blinked innocently making some tears run down her cheeks.
"… I don't know." He answered honestly, even Tsunade didn't know. The little girl sniffed and lowered her head.
"Sakura-nee-chan is a r-really nice p-person." Saya stuttered and looked up at Sasuke. "I don't w-want her t-to go a-away." She sobbed softly and began to cry, crystal tears running down her cheeks. "I w-want Sakura-nee-chan t-to come v-visit us." Says said between soft sobs and sniffs and then did something that took Sasuke completely off guard. She climbed on his knees (he was sitting in a chair) and sat down on his lap clutching his shirt with her small hands, crying in his chest, her face buried on the fabric.
After a while she kept crying silently, Sasuke's inner entered the scene with a glare directed at him.
"What is it with you??" "What now??" he glared back at his inner. "You have a crying child in your arms and you just ignore her??" his inner cracked his knuckles and suddenly Sasuke found himself locked behind bars in the back of his mind watching his inner take possession of his body.
"OI. What the fuck are you doing??" Sasuke yelled at his inner. "What does it looks like I'm doing idiot?? I'm gonna do something right for a change." "Riiight, and that would be what?? Making a fool out of myself??" inner Sasuke shrugged and ignored his remark. "I'm gonna console Saya-chan and act human." Inner Sasuke stated. "But if you wanna know, I won't ruin your badass reputation." Inner Sasuke paused. "So we're not mistaken, you're Sasuke and I'll be Ryuusuke."
Ignoring Sasuke, Ryuusuke took procession of the body and looked around with careful eyes, in any other time, he would be taking advantage of Sasuke's body, but now, he wasn't in the mood, firstly, because he had the same thoughts Sasuke had about the whole Sakura situation, and secondly, because he couldn't stand seeing Sasuke just ignore the small crying girl.
He wound his arms around the crying girl and ran his hand up and down her hair in a soothing manner, which seemed to work seeing Saya started to calm down.
"I can't tell you I know she'll be ok, I'd be lying if I did so." Saya, who had calmed down and was only sniffing, now, looked up at Sasuke, who had his eyes closed.
"Onii-chan." He opened his eyes lightly to look at Saya.
"But if you want to, I'll help you making something for her."
"Really??" the girl's mood seemed to lighten. He nodded, and she smiled lightly.
"Then I wanna make a…" as Saya described what she wanted to do for Sakura to Ryuusuke, Sasuke watched as his inner (now not that inner) dealt with the small girl, acting like the emotionless self he was, but still listening to her.
He hated to admit it, but his inner was good dealing with kids.
A man with a pale face and yellow eyes appeared out of nowhere, his outfit was all black, and his black hair slid down his back.
His eyes searched the darkness and after a while found what he had been looking for.
He took a few steps and stopped in front of a girl, she was sitting in the floor, legs crossed, her eyes looked void, her hands were at her sides, her face blank.
"What is a child like you doing here?" the man asked in mild amusement. The girl looked up slightly.
"Where the hell did you came from?" she spat out venomously, he chuckled darkly.
"That is not the subject right now." She raised a brow.
"Then what is?" the man simply laughed darkly.
"You seem to have forgotten who I am child." She shrugged as he stared at her.
"I did not, but I also know you were killed, so you're not real." She spat out bluntly, the man simply started to walk around her slowly, she paid no attention to him and kept staring voidly at some spot in the darkness.
"That may be true, or it may not." He said after a while and bent down in front of so he was at her level, his yellow eyes staring mischievously at her.
"Do you even remember your past?" she stared at him, the question was so out of context. "Do you remember who you are?" she was silent for a while.
"Of course I do, I'm…" she searched her brain for her name, but nothing, she tried remembering anything about herself, but nothing, she couldn't remember.
The man laughed darkly at her confused face. She got up abruptly.
"What's happening to me??" she yelled and backed away from him. "And why are you here Orochimaru??" she screamed as loud as she could and started to run away from him in the darkness.
Orochimaru laughed sadistically.
"You cannot run forever child." He said calmly as she ran into the endless darkness.
After he left the kindergarten, Sai was in a calmer mood, the kids had been talking with about Sakura, and how they wanted her to be ok, and how they wanted to do something for her so she would get better quickly.
He smiled lightly, the kids were no naïve, they had no idea how badly injured Sakura was, but he had no intention on telling them, they shouldn't worry too much, they were just kids after all.
He entered his apartment and sighed, he felt like killing Sasuke, murder him slowly and painfully, but he couldn't, he would deal with Sasuke once he heard Sakura's version of what happened.
He walked to his room, it was still as he had left it the night before, stuff everywhere, the bed sheets undone and almost falling to the floor, the pillows scattered around the room.
"If she was here she'd be yelling at me and threatening me so I'd clean up this mess." He thought to himself and took his shirt off, letting it fall in a random corner of the room. He walked barefoot to his closet and from the back, he took a large clean canvas, around 55 by 80 cm, and put in the easel he had next to the window, next he went back to the closet and took several ink vials from various colours and brushes from every size, and settled them next to the easel.
The kids had asked him to paint something and then they'd paint something on their own for Sakura, so he started painting, he didn't knew exactly what he was painting, he just let his emotions flow through the brushes, into every stroke he did with the brushes, mixing random colours, not bothering to see what colours they were, he just looked at it and put it in if he felt like it.
His vision became blurry and he had no idea why. A warm liquid started falling down his cheeks as he painted, and for once he didn't care if he was cracking or not, he just couldn't take it anymore, he had to let everything out.
Even with a blurry vision he kept painting, what he was painting didn't matter, this particular painting was his emotions, it didn't have to be something concrete, it didn't have to be beautiful, it didn't have to be anything, emotions didn't have to be concrete, emotions didn't have to be beautiful, emotions didn't have to be anything, they just were, something abstract that is hard to explain and control.
His tears were ones of so many emotions together that one couldn't describe.
"Please be ok." He whispered as he let the brush he had in his hand fall to the floor and looked at his painting.
He cleaned his tears and gave a soft smile, his painting described exactly what he thought of her.
On one side of the canvas there were dark colours, blacks, blood reds, navy blues, dark greens, purples; on the other side were light colours, whites, pastel pinks, baby blues, light greens, oranges.
It was what he thought about her, she was caring and sweet and calm, but also dangerous and sadistic and impatient. And he hated himself for not being able to take care of her properly.
Tsunade stared at the village she took care of by her office window, everything in the village seemed slower, sadder, more depressed.
It was as if Sakura brought light into everything, or it may have just been a trick in her brain, seeing she was depressed about having her 'daughter' in a hospital bed in a coma.
The Lady Hokage sighed and turned back to the pile of paperwork on her desk, surprisingly, she didn't feel like drinking sake so Shizune would do her work, she just started reading and sighing the papers, Sakura was always telling her she should do her work by herself.
Maybe it was because Sakura was always saying it that she was doing it, she didn't know.
"Please come back to us Sakura." Tsunade whispered to no one in particular and sighed.
From outside the office while peeking inside was Shizune.
"Tsunade-sama." The raven haired woman whispered and closed the door completely.
She too was depressed about Sakura's situation, Sakura was like her imoutto.
"Get better soon." Shizune whispered and walked slowly down the hallway, Tonton fallowing her, he also seemed depressed, his head hanging low and sniffing from time to time.
Naruto sat in a ramen shop in a small village, he had come to get Jiraya, and now he and said Sannin were at a ramen store.
"What's the matter Naruto??" Naruto turned to the older man and tried to smile, but failed miserably.
"Sakura-chan." He whispered.
"What about her kid??" Jiraya was getting curious as to why, when he was treating Naruto, said teen hadn't even eaten a full bowl of ramen.
"Sakura-chan's in the hospital." Naruto sniffed, Jiraya stared at him.
"What happened to her kid?? Is she ok??" now he was worried, what had happened to the kunoichi with temper issues that was always calling him a pervert and scolding him for writing his Icha Icha books.
"She's in a coma." Naruto sniffed again, his head hanging low, his hand held his chopsticks and was playing with a peace of noodle. Jiraya stared at Naruto. "And I couldn't do anything to protect her." Naruto said angrily to himself, some tears falling down from his eyes, to his cheeks and falling down, some in his ramen, others in the counter.
Jiraya put a hand on his shoulder, but said nothing, what could he say anyway??
"Let's go back quickly then." Naruto sniffed and looked at the older man with watery eyes. "That way we can take care of her." Jiraya smiled lightly, inside he was sad, really sad.
"Yeah, let's go back quickly." Naruto said cleaning his tears and started eating his ramen calmly, like Sakura always told him to do, but he usually just ignored.
Kakashi was sitting on one side of Sakura's bed, Yamato was in the other side.
The sensei stared at his student, she was lying on the bed, machines around her monitoring her heartbeat, tension, blood pressure, all of those things. She had a mask connected to a machine, covering her nose and mouth, so she could breathe properly.
She had her right arm bandaged, as well as her stomach and neck.
Kakashi looked away from Sakura to his book, reading the content, but not really focussing, his mind filling with memories of when he first met Team 7, the Chuunin exams, their missions, everything.
On the other side, Yamato stared at his comrade, no, his friend, yes his friend, that's what she was, some of his comrades ANBU looked at him differently, like if he was some alien, because he was one of Orochimaru's experiences, but Sakura, knowing that, she had asked him to teach her his mokuton techniques, he would have if he could, but he could use the mokuton only because he had the Shodaime Hokage's genes.
Using his mokuton, he distracted his mind from Sakura's condition lightly by doing some wood sculptures, he would give them to her when she woke up.
While Gai-sensei and Lee where doing some speech about youth and how they would do something if Sakura woke up safely and crying anime tears, Neji and Tenten were sitting by the lake ignoring the other 2 and staring at the water.
Tenten, never having liked silence spoke, trying to lighten the mood.
"I bet your little fate thing didn't saw this coming." She tried to sound cheery, but it came as a void joke. Neji simply smiled sadly, knowing she didn't mean to offend him but lighten the mood.
"You're right, I guess no one saw it coming, fate can be changed with the different paths we take." He responded quietly.
"Yeah, I really hope she'll be ok." Neji nodded.
"She's done so much for us, and we can't do anything for her." Tenten leaned her head in Neji's shoulder, in any other time, he would have looked at her with a raised brow and told her to compose herself, but he too was feeling down, so he let her do so.
"Let's pray to everyone who's watching us to protect her." The girl whispered and let a tear run down her face.
"She's strong, she won't let death take her without fighting." Neji stated firmly, he knew her stubbornness, and at one point it had bothered him, because she had made him her 'guinea pig', but her intentions were good, so he had accepted (after she had threatened to break all the bones in his body if he said no), she had spent several blank nights studying the seal on his forehead, she had never told him why she was doing it, but by the way he had overheard her talking about it to Hinata, he suspected that Hinata, the next Leader of the family, was planning on taking the seals out, he had heard her talking to her father once.
"You are being foolish." Her father stated, the shy Hinata looked down.
"I do not like it, that's all Otou-sama, and I will do everything I can to free everyone from the seal, whether you like it or not Otou-sama." She got up, her conviction could be seen in her eyes, and she walked away from her father.
He had found himself looking up at his younger cousin, he admired how her shy being could hold so much conviction for something that did not concern her personally.
Neji stared at the water, he knew Sakura wouldn't let herself sink like some rock, she would float until she hit solid ground, like a leaf in the water.
Shikamaru stared at the passing clouds with little interest, which was strange of him who loved cloud gazing so much.
"What's wrong Shika??" he looked at his side through the corner of his eyes to see Chouji, who was eating a bag of chips slowly.
"It's…" he searched his brain for an appropriate word. "Sad to know Sakura is in that state." He said quietly.
"I agree." Chouji took a chip to his mouth and munched slowly. "But she's strong." He said proudly about his friend, Shikamaru nodded.
"And she's smart too." They were silent for a while until Shikamaru smirked, Chouji raised a brow at him asking why he was smirking without words.
"Right now." He paused. "It's like…" he paused searching his brain for the right words, Chouji was getting confused. "She's playing shoji with death, she'll anticipate every move of her opponent, calculate everyone of her moves making her opponent think he won, and at the end, she'll make the final move and win." Chouji smiled and nodded.
"She'll make it, I'm sure of it." Chouji said quietly, each of the boys knew they couldn't be sure of their own words, but deep down they knew she would make it safely.
Ino sat behind the counter of her parents flower shop staring at the multiple flowers in the shop.
"You better make it out ok Forehead-girl." She muttered to herself, inside she felt like crying, but she had to remain positive, Sakura was gonna make it, even if she had to go down to hell and bring her back herself, Ino knew she had to make it, she had too much things to finish, too much things to say, too much people caring and worrying about her right now.
Ino smiled sadly as her eyes fell on some cherry blossoms.
"I know you hate seeing us suffering, so you better come back to us safely Sakura." She whispered and sighed.
Shino sat quiet (as usual) under a tree, Kiba was leaning against a lying Akamaru next to Shino, his eyes on the sky as he sighed. Hinata was sitting next to Kurenai-sensei under another tree next to the boys.
"Man, this sucks." Kiba muttered loudly, making everyone look at him with raised brows (except Shino who only stared at him).
"I mean, Sakura-chan's in the hospital like that, and we can't to anything." He said in a depressed voice, sinking further against the big white dog.
"Arf." Akamaru barked softly, making it seem like a whimper, and sighed, his eyes looked sad.
"W-we tried e-everything w-we could." Hinata said looking down sadly, Kiba sat up straight.
"Hey, I didn't mean it that way Hinata-chan, you did a great job helping Tsunade-sama and everyone." Hinata looked up.
"R-really??" she asked quietly, Kiba nodded.
"Of course you did Hinata-san, but her condition depends on her own will to come back." Shino spoke in his usual monotone voice, although his words held worry and sadness. Hinata smiled lightly, everyone had done their best with Sakura.
"Don't worry." They looked at Kurenai, who was also sad, but had a small smile. "I'm sure she'll come back, she's the most stubborn kunoichi I know." Her students smiled lightly and Akamaru gave a soft, somehow happy, bark.
Anko sat at a table of the bar eating dango, sitting with her were Genma, Izumo and Kotetsu, who were also eating dango. The 4 were also drinking green tea.
"I hope Sakura-san will be ok." Izumo said quietly.
"Yeah, I heard from Shizune-san that they tried everything to make her better, but she still stayed in a coma due to using her incomplete jutsu." Kotetsu spoke and took his tea to his lips.
"What jutsu did she use??" Anko asked.
"She hasn't named it yet, but from what I heard her say about it, it seals cursed seals like the one the Hyuugas of the second branch have, and even Orochimaru's cursed e seals." The other 3 around the table were listening attentively as Genma spoke. "She told me she had been working on it so she could keep the Kyuubi's power under control so Naruto wouldn't get hurt if he used it."
"Does anyone know what happened??" Izumo asked.
"I heard she used the jutsu on Uchiha, but because the jutsu is incomplete she had to use herself to seal the excess of chakra the cursed seal produced." Genma answered quietly.
"She sealed it??" Anko asked in slight disbelief, even her seal wasn't completely sealed.
"It seems so, but she ended up barely alive."
"And by what I heard Tsunade-sama say, they couldn't take her out of the coma because the seal that she received kept interfering while they tried to heal her." Kotetsu added.
"In any way, let's just pray to our elders that aren't among us anymore for her to be alright." Genma said after a while, the other 3 nodded in agreement.
Uchiha Sasuke stood in his bed looking at the ceiling, actually, Sasuke was staring at the ceiling through the back of his mind, Ryuusuke hadn't let him out yet.
"When are you gonna let me out of here??" Ryuusuke stared at Sasuke for a while, until he turned away and looked back at the ceiling without answering.
"It's our fault." Sasuke (right now Ryuusuke) muttered and clenched his fists. "She shouldn't be the one on that hospital bed, the only thing she did was help us, and that's what she gets." Ryuusuke got up and walked to the balcony. "And it's all out damned fault." He muttered again while looking at the darkening sky.
Sasuke stared at his inner, and he shared the same opinion, it was his entire fault, but he couldn't do anything about it.
The young Kazekage opened the small scroll the Hokage had sent him in reply to his request, he had asked if it was possible for their best medic, Sakura, to come to Suna for a few days so they could work on some medicines and poisons for the villages' defence and attack, the grass nins had been attacking a lot lately, and their poisons were deadly, but worst than those were the poisons Sakura did, he never understood, she was a quite nice person, but when faced to an opponent, she managed to be so sadistic.
He leaned back on his office chair and read the scroll, his eyes widened slightly.
I apologise for this, but I have to reject your request, already expecting you would ask why, I will tell you, Haruno Sakura is currently in the hospital in a state of coma, I do not know when she will wake up.
I sincerely apologize for the inconvenient this may cause you, but I have no other choice.
Cordially, the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade.
This couldn't be right, how could such a strong and stubborn kunoichi be like that, he reread the scroll and let it fall on his desk as he sighed and closed his eyes.
"Damn you for making everyone worry." He muttered and got up, Temari and Kankuro had to be informed about this, not because they wouldn't have the great medic coming, but because Sakura was their friend, even his for how hard it was to believe it.
She had the guts to face him and yell at him, and he respected her for that, sometimes he was even grateful because he knew that he needed to hear her screams when he screwed up in something, because she wasn't afraid, ever since the Chuunin exams, she had faced him when he had been ready to kill Uchiha Sasuke.
"What??" Temari's yell was heard through the whole mansion. Gaara massaged his temples, sometimes he felt like putting a thick cork on his sister's mouth so she would shut up.
"What happened for her to be in a coma??" Kankuro questioned, his voice filled with worry.
"Dunno, the Hokage didn't say in the scroll she sent me." Gaara answered and suddenly found himself being grabbed by the collar by his sister.
"What the hell are you doing woman??" he asked in annoyance and freed himself from her grasp.
"We have to go see her, we can't just let her like that without even visiting her, she's our friend." Temari shrieked. Gaara and Kankuro took a few steps away from her and covered their ears. She kept on yelling rambles, and after a while a vein popped on Gaara's forehead, Kankuro just stood thee, too afraid to face his sister, when he did she usually hit him with her giant fan, and hell did it hurt.
"Shut up already." Gaara snapped, Temari instantly shut up and Gaara sighed in relief, silence, sweet silence.
"We'll go see her as soon as we get rid of those grass nins that are at our borders, happy??" he rolled his eyes as Temari hugged and said "thank you" over and over again, by now he was used to his sister's mood swings, and he had found out he only needed to be 'nice' for his siblings to act as siblings, and honestly, he liked it, having being treated as a monster since a child, being treated normally pleased him, and around his friends and siblings, he actually smiled and laughed sometimes.
"I'll go get my puppets ready to kick those grass dudes out of here." Kankuro said excitedly, the faster the grass nins would be out, the faster they could go see Sakura.
how was it?? did you like it?? please tell me what you think, i like knowing my dear readers opinions, and if you have critics, please tell me so i can improve my writting!
I hope everyone liked it!!
reviews please!!
luv ya all, Kaori-chan!!