Previously on The Longest Year Ever:
It's been 3 weeks since Sakura's in a coma. Her physical injuries have healed, but her brain seems to not want to 'wake up'.
Tsunade smiles seeing the 2 teens in Sakura's room, trained to not show emotion, yet they are always quarrelling, arguing with one another and acting completely out of character. She manages to get Sai and Gaara out of Sakura's room and does the check up on her daughter-like figure.
As she works on some medical documents she notices a presence outside. She watches and frowns not seeing any ANBU near him, but, before she speaks, she shuts up and her eyes widen when she sees Sasuke leaving something on Sakura's room. As she goes to check it out, she sees 2 white roses neatly tied in a navy blue ribbon, the white of the roses clashing with the darkness of the room.
Understanding why there weren't any ANBU around the Lady Hokage smiles, one thought on her head: "Sasuke cares about her!".
Orochimaru makes his move. The girl starts to loose her will to live as she sees lots of people which names she knows, but a hissing voice tells her they don't even know her, the voice calls her weak, pathetic and many more things, but as she hears the words 'annoying' and 'ugly' she seems to accept what the voice tells her and, engulfed in darkness once again, starts to cry, crying being the only things her brain manages to process.
From the darkness Orochimaru watches with a victorious smile, chuckling darkly and saying his plan worked perfectly. What is his plan all about??
As the ANBU watching Sasuke returns after giving the teen an hour, Sasuke is in his roof waiting.
"Help me train." The teen asks, his eyes filled with determination. The ANBU catches a scroll and opens it, his eyes widening under his mask seeing the information inside, information concerning him and what Orochimaru did to him.
Yamato agrees, but he has a condition.
Hello my dear readers!!
this chapter is longer than the last one, i think... i tried to make it longer, but i ran out of ideas, well, not ideas, but i didn't manage to write something longer with the neding i wanted for this chapter, i promise i'll do my best and do a super long chapter 13, but 'til them, i still have to do another chapter for The Secret Behind, and add the test i have to study for and the extra school work...
-sigh- tyring life sometimes, but it's nothing i can't handle, well, except maths...
anyway... i have a qustion to ask, and it's really important, at lesta to me... is my story getting better than when it started or is it geting duller?? seriously... and be honest...
and lastly, please review people, reviews make me very happy, and when i read my reviews i just want to update sooner...
i have 7588 hits and only 77 reviews... it's sad... in a way... ne?
never mind my randmness... enjoy the story!!
Orochimaru walked closer to her, she was sitting in the floor, her knees up to her chest and her arms crossed over them, her head resting over her crossed arms, her eyes dull, staring ahead blankly.
He knelt in front of her and took a strand of her hair in his hand. She didn't even acknowledge his presence.
The Snake Sannin smirked, she was just like he wanted her to be. If he recalled correctly, he had been showing her people she knew and telling her how worthless and pathetic she was for a week now, and with each passing second, she became more and more shallow, her will to be alive sliding away. He particularly liked to see her reaction when he told her she was annoying and ugly, she would choke on a sob and some tears would start falling from her eyes, the world around her would start spinning, blinding light mixing with suffocating darkness, but she would always end up surrounded by darkness, he didn't really knew why, he didn't care either.
"Look at me child." He ordered in a monotone voice. The girl looked up slightly, as soon as she did a katana pierced her chest, breaking the skin in her back, and going deeper until the katana was buried on the floor. She stared at the sannin as he got up with a victorious smirk, her eyes remaining dull.
"Yarou." (yarou sort of means bastard) She mumbled. The katana wouldn't kill her, but, having the katana stuck in the floor and piercing her skin, it wouldn't allow her to move, she would be trapped in place.
"A child like you shouldn't use such colourful language." Orochimaru said in amusement. After he made a few hand seals, a cage made of white snake scales, that would be sure to cut whoever touched them, appeared, blocking the girl in that restricted space of her mind.
Chapter 12 – Christmas, confrontations and an eerie chill
Temari looked at her friend as she put the small wild flowers bouquet, she and Kankurou had caught that morning, in a vase on the bedside table.
"When are you waking up??" she asked, already knowing she wouldn't get an answer.
Sighing she walked to the window and looked at the grey January sky. Christmas and the New Year had gone by, but this year, the festivities seemed to be sadder. She and her 2 brothers had spent these festivities in Konoha, and Sakura still showed no sign of improvement, she simply… 'slept'. In the Christmas and New Year days everyone had gathered at the hospital, and everyone, being everyone that knew Sakura, of course Tsunade had expelled everyone from the hospital and they had spent the festivities with the villagers, but there was still the little group that had sneaked out and went to the hospital.
That group had been constituted of 9 people on the total.
The firsts to sneak out had been Gaara and Sai, then it had been Yamato and Kakashi and then Shikamaru and Temari. They had settled in Sakura's room, having bought some bento boxes, sharing their food and talking.
At some point she had noticed Sasuke outside, she didn't know how long he had been there, perhaps he had been there even before they arrived. He was sitting on the tree branch in front of Sakura's room wearing black jeans and shoes, a black shirt with a navy blue jumper over it and a navy blue coat so he wouldn't freeze outside in the snow.
After a while Naruto had arrived with Hinata and joined the small 'party'.
Around midnight, looks were shared between Sai, Yamato, Kakashi and Naruto, and after an uncomfortable silence, Naruto had gotten up and walked to the window.
Opening the window with a sigh, he had looked at Sasuke.
"Get inside Teme, you're gonna freeze to death if you stay out there." Sasuke had looked at him, and then at each person inside, no one seemed to mind that much seeing no one had said anything to keep him out, so he had nodded and entered the room.
"Have you eaten something Sasuke??" Kakashi had asked to break the tension in the hospital room.
"No." Sasuke had answered as Naruto pushed him down to sit in the circle with everyone. Hinata had promptly given him some sushi and onigiri that were left.
"Thank you Hinata-san." Sasuke had thanked politely and, after thanking for the food quietly, he started eating the food given to him calmly.
"Ok everyone, it's time to share gifts!!" Naruto grinned.
"Baka, what if we don't have the gifts with us??" Shikamaru had wisely remarked, to which Naruto had grinned and crossed his arms behind his head.
"But I know everyone has gifts with them, even if we don't have gifts for everyone, let's just share the ones we have."
"Naruto-kun i-is right, i-it's Christmas a-after all." Hinata had supported, and then everyone had agreed.
First it had been Shikamaru, he offered a black and golden hand fan to Temari and a shoji board to Kakashi.
Kakashi had offered a set of silver metallic chopsticks to Naruto, a set of special Kunai, Shuriken and Senbon to Yamato and a set of paint brushes and inks to Sai.
Yamato had offered the new volume of Icha Icha Paradise to Kakashi, to which the sempai had squealed and everyone had sweat dropped, and then he had offered sculptures to Sai and Naruto.
Temari offered a silver bracelet to Gaara, with something written in the metal, and a kiss to Shikamaru, to which the teen had blushed and mumbled a 'troublessome', and Gaara had glared at the couple.
Hinata had offered Naruto a black jumper with an orange spiral, to which he had hugged her and she turned red, nearly fainting, and then she offered a different origami to everyone, even Sasuke, each origami holding a different meaning.
Sai offered Kakashi and Yamato paintings, each different, and also a painting to Naruto, he had also given a small ink bird to Sakura, the bird had flew to the bedside table and had settled there.
Gaara had offered a sand necklace to his sister, the necklace having a small sand pendant in the shape of an eye, he had also given Sakura a sand rose, it even had thorns and leaves, and then he had given everyone sand bracelets, and for how hard as it may seem, as he gave everyone their bracelets, he had given one to Sasuke too, maybe so he could know Sasuke's whereabouts when he was in Konoha.
Naruto had offered a silver necklace with a small pendant to Hinata, and a necklace with nametags to everyone. But he had kept something for the end. After all the gifts were shared, he had gotten up and faced Sasuke.
"I have something for you too." Sasuke had raised a brow, and out of no where, he had a hitai-ate with the Konoha symbol scratched on his lap.
"That's yours Teme, so you never forget where you came from." Naruto had said calmly, and then he had walked to Sakura's bedside table and taken a picture frame from his pouch, he had stared at it for a few seconds and then he had put it on Sakura' bedside table.
Everyone had stared at the picture, it was a picture of everyone after the chuunin exams.
They had chatted for a while after that, and as everyone talked, Sasuke had gotten up and sat down in the window frame, his eyes fixed on Sakura's sleeping form. At some point, Sai and Gaara had looked at him, noticing how his eyes were filled with emotions, the most prominent being a mix of angst and guilt?
His Christmas present rested on her bedside table, but no one knew what it was because what Sasuke had put on the table was a small box wrapped in navy blue paper and a simple white ribbon.
That had been their Christmas evening, they had ended up by falling asleep on the hospital room.
When they had woken up, Sasuke was no longer there. Hinata had a white magnolia on her hand, one that seemed to be special, Gaara had a black katana and Naruto had dagger with 'Uzumaki' inscribed on the handle. No one knew who the presents were from, but they had a vague idea.
The New Year had been basically the same, the same people had shared the evening in Sakura's hospital room, just without the presents.
Temari sighed and walked away from the window to the table they had added to Sakura's room, in the table there were flowers, 2 white roses stood out, the roses never fading, then there was a shoji piece, a teddy bear, a sand rose, an ink bird, and origami and a box wrapped in navy blue paper and a white ribbon. On Sakura' bedside table remained the picture Naruto had put there.
Temari looked one last time at her friend and then walked to the door, they had to go back to Suna, they couldn't stay much longer in Konoha especially since Gaara was in charge of the village being the Kazekage.
Sasuke jumped from rooftop to rooftop in a regular pace, the streets were nearly empty from the cold outside. As today was Sunday, he and Yamato wouldn't train, so he decided to go for a walk. The ANBU following him today was someone he didn't knew, some older guy from Kakashi's generation, he didn't care to know who it was either, he just had to keep himself busy, he couldn't just stay home, if he did, he would start thinking about her, and his inner and him would start arguing, so he had to keep himself busy.
"Damn it." He cursed and stopped on some random roof. He was busy, he wasn't home, so why couldn't he stop thinking about her? "Fuck." He cursed again, angry for not being able to control his thoughts properly, he had to stop thinking about her, but these days, the only way he seemed to be able to do that was when he was training.
As he started walking on the roofs again, he noticed Sai walking side by side with the Kazekage. Urgently needing a distraction, he decided he would listen to their conversation, so he got closer, close enough to hear them talking with his sharp senses and far enough so no one would know he was listening to someone's conversation.
"…shouldn't." the Kazekage was saying, about what, he had no idea.
"Who gives a damn, I'm sure-" Sai was cut off by the red haired teen.
"Stay cool, if you act under altered judgement it'll be a pain for you, for your team and for the Hokage and the council." Sai scoffed.
"Like I give a damn." He crossed his arms and sighed. "She's always blabbering and threatening but…" he sighed again. "She's becoming too much like us." Gaara nodded.
"We agree in something." The young Kazekage paused and crossed his arms. "But if you try to think like her, she's just protecting herself, what happened to her…" he trailed off and Sai looked up at the grey sky and let out a deep breath.
"Yeah." He mumbled. "She's Tsunade's apprentice, considered the best medic nin of the village, yet…" he looked down again, narrowing his eyes lightly. "She blames herself for what happened, even though it wasn't her fault."
"So she closes herself up, so it won't happen again." Gaara stated, Sai nodded.
"It's ironic." Sai started with a low chuckle. "She's this terrifying mountain breaking hag, yet, when that happened she was like a child." Sasuke was getting interested, what had happened to her before he came back?? He had been curious about it since he had been sick and she had lectured him. Something had happened to her, and hell, he would find out what or he wasn't called Uchiha Sasuke.
He jumped down, landing in front of the 2 teens, his blank look scanning around himself. Sai and Gaara stopped and looked at him.
"Where the hell's he now??" Sasuke muttered and ran a hand through his hair in frustration, the ANBU they had assigned today was… "Useless." He mumbled and scanned the area once more, ignoring the looks he was getting from the Kazekage and the ex –ROOT member.
Rolling his eyes he decided he didn't care and started to walk again.
"So it's true." Gaara commented.
"Yeah." Sai mumbled through gritted teeth. "The mothafucker's back." Sasuke halted and looked over his shoulder with a raised brow.
"Got something ya wanna tell me Kirikae-san??" Sai's flashed red for a second. (kirikae means replacement).
"Go fuck yourself Uchiha." Sasuke looked at Sai with a bored look.
"Why should I lower myself to your level anyway??" he said shrugging and started walking away. "And where the hell did that idiot ran off to??" he jumped to a nearby store light panel and looked around, 'his' ANBU was still missing.
Sai was ready to go berserk, his fist clenched and already white. Gaara was annoyed at the Uchiha's attitude.
"Be grateful you didn't get the death penalty." Sasuke stopped looking around and looked at Gaara.
"I didn't get the death penalty because I gave the Hokage information about Orochimaru and Akatsuki, not because someone pitied me." Sasuke pointed out. "Besides, I came back because I wanted to after taking care of my personal business." He pocketed his hands and jumped to a roof. "There he is." He mumbled, seeing the ANBU a few roofs away.
"This isn't a game for you to play Uchiha." Gaara warned, his fist also clenched, he sure wasn't liking Sasuke's attitude.
"Who ever said I was playing games?" he asked, well aware of the pissed artist that was ready to attack him. "Besides…" his tone changed as he looked back at the 2 teens. "I'm worried about her just as much as you 2." He had to move to his left to dodge a round of Kunai flying his way, aimed to his vital points.
"Don't you ever talk about her." Sai hissed, Sasuke raised a brow.
"Give me a reason not to?" if glares could kill, Sasuke would be dead twice for the glares he was getting.
"You're not worthy to speak of her." Gaara hissed, joining the confrontation.
"Ain't I now?" his look became darker and in a flash he was in front of the 2 other teens, his right hand holding Gaara's collar, and his left holding Sai's throat.
He leaned to Sai and took a deep breath.
"Just because I wasn't here while you were, doesn't mean I don't hold any type of consideration towards her, because I do." He tightened his hold on Sai's throat. "I met her before any of you did, I was her team mate first." He hissed. "I have high respect for her, for her way of thinking." He paused. "For the way she cares about everyone…" "…for the way she's the only one that cares." He finished in his mind.
"I may have been trained by Orochimaru, but I certainly did not become like him." He stared at Sai straight in the eye. "If you have something to tell me, then tell it face to face instead of talking about it with your friends behind my back." Sasuke concluded and pushed the 2 back a bit, resuming his walking like if nothing had happened.
"Now, where the hell did the ANBU go??" he mumbled and jumped to the roofs.
Sai observed his movements, and he noticed something, Sasuke wasn't using any chakra while jumping from roof to roof.
Gaara was still composed, but Sasuke's words were still replaying in his head.
"So the almighty Uchiha isn't that emotionless after all."
Sasuke looked back at the 2 teens and shrugged.
"They don't know anything about me, yet they're ready to judge me claiming they do know me." He scoffed and started walking again. "Pathetic, simply pathetic." He was glad that for once his inner was letting him think without butting in.
It was the middle of the night, and he still couldn't sleep, he simply couldn't, he couldn't because he knew that if he did, his dreams would be filled with images of her, and then it would turn into a nightmare where he would feel all the guilt of his sins, and she would be there hissing all his sins and how he must be happy about everything he did, causing pain and grief to everyone. And then she would…
He shook his head, he really had to stop thinking about her. He knew he was guilty of so many things, he knew just how much he had made her suffer, and he also knew…
"Stop it damn it." He cursed himself, he was doing it again, thinking about her, it was always about her. Her presence, her demeanour, her gestures, her tears… oh… her tears, it seemed that whenever he was around she would cry eventually, it was as if he would always bring sorrow and darkness and…
"AAHHH, stop it already." He all but yelled and got up from his bed, why in the world did he have to think about her so much, it wasn't as if she was the centre of his universe, because she certainly wasn't.
"Keep convincing yourself of that." His inner commented.
"Shut it." He hissed, to which Ryuusuke merely shrugged and looked at the sky.
"By the way, why did you decided to train with Yamato anyway??" Sasuke sighed at his inner, he was him, in a way he couldn't quite figure out, yet he had to explain everything to him.
"Stop badmouthing me and answer the question." It was hard to have an inner like this.
"He can control the chakra of the Kyuuki, so I figured he could control the chakra of the seal as well." Ryuusuke urged him to continue.
"So?? what's the ig deal 'bout that??" Sasuke sighed and looked at the sky.
"So… 'til now I kept fighting with the seal, but…" he trailed off, speaking out loud, maybe to convince himself he wasn't doing anything wrong this time. "I don't want this stupid curse to control me whenever it wants." Ryuusuke nodded.
"Good thinking kid, it's because of what happened right?" Sasuke kept silent and looked back at his room, he had replaced the balcony door window, being sick of seeing the glass shattered in the floor. He walked back inside and sighed, for ho hard he tried to change the smell in the room, it simply kept the same, having her scent all over the place, perhaps it was merely his brain, but the truth was that he was getting used to having her scent in his room.
"You're thinking about her again." Ryuusuke remarked.
"Fuck." He cursed, he realised he simply couldn't take her out of his mind.
Tsunade walked down the hallway of the hospital to go check on her pupil. Everyone was busy with their tasks, moving to a room, writing things down, running to go get something important or simply chatting with the patients, doing check-ups, taking care of ill children with kindness or even elders with just as much kindness.
The day was somehow gloomy, but after the Christmas and New Year, everything seemed to calm down. Well, at least Sai and Sasuke seemed to calm down, at least now they were able to be in the same room without Sai always being launching at the Uchiha, and said Uchiha always dodging, seemingly mocking Sai, of maybe just dodging.
The clipboard in hand, Tsunade entered Sakura's room with a sigh, Sakura's situation hadn't improved, nor gotten worse. Her health was fine, but her brain was still 'offline' without giving signs of improvement.
She closed the door and as she turned to face the bed where Sakura was, her eyes widened, her heart began pounding madly inside the rib cage, and the clipboard fell to the floor.
Tsunade's yell was heard through the whole hospital, and as soon as it was heard, multiple nurses rushed to the room Tsunade was in.
"Tsunade-sama, what's wrong??" they inquired worriedly. "Tsunade-sama??" said woman was shaking from head to toe, her eyes filled with unshed tears, her hands at her sides uselessly.
She lifted a shaky hand and pointed at the bed. As the nurses looked, all that greeted them was an empty bed, the covers at the end of the bed, the window was open, the curtains flowing with the wind.
"She's… gone…" one nurse whispered as Tsunade started crying silently, her aure showing that if someone had anything to do with the girl's disapearence, that person would see hell.
It wasn't something he could consider strange, nor something he could consider usual, but as he looked outside his bedroom window and saw a shadow jump from a roof to another, he could swear something was about to go wrong, it was simply a bad feeling he had, but this bad feeling made his stomach swirl giving him a sick feeling.
The artist-nin sighed, he couldn't consider himself a 'normal' person, his past made sure he couldn't be 'normal', but this feeling, as hard as he tried, he couldn't shake it off, something was definitively gonna go wrong.
He suddenly sat up in his bed, an eerie shiver running through his entire body. He shuddered, this shiver, it was sickeningly familiar to him. All too familiar for his liking. This feeling running through his body, he never wanted to feel it again, because whenever he had it, something huge and bad was bond to happen.
This feeling, it was just like when he was 8, that eerie chill that travels your whole body, you ignore it at first, but when you see your surroundings you choke, ready to throw up and start to run, searching for the people you care about and care about you, and when you reach them, they're already somewhere you can't reach.
Sasuke shook his head and may back down, something was wrong, he could feel it, but not knowing what it was for sure, he tried to ignore it, at least now he wasn't thinking about her.
How was it?? please give me your opinions, it helps me improve myself and improve the story
and of course, if you would like to see something happen, please leave a review telling me what it is, and i'll do my best to try to make it happen!!
i know many of you will ask yourselves 'She's gone?? that means she's awake?? but how??' questions like this will pop, and in the next chapter i'll explain a lot about that...
luv ya all, Kaori-chan!!