Title: Sakura's Home
Author: Winter Ashby (rosweldrmr)
Disclaimer: Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto-sama. I don't own anything about Naruto, this is just for fun and if I did own Naruto I wouldn't have to right this, because I would have a team of very talented people turning this into a saga right now...
Rating: K+
Warning: this not only has spoilers until Manga 270ish, but it's kind of required for you to know what's going on. I use a lot of the Gaara mission, just made it AUish.
Summary: Sakura was kicked out of Konoha five years ago but now has been asked to return… She will meet old friends and be faced with the consequences of her actions. Future AU Sakura centric. No pairings, and you need to be up to date in the manga and series.
Authors Notes: Almost the end folks. The climax. Will Sakura be able to pull it off? And if she's successful, what will be the consequences of her action? Read to find out.
Chapter 22 – Consequences
Sakura could feel the power flowing through her, tearing at her insides. Years of chakra flooded over her muscles, her organs, her arteries and sinew. The charka burned, like lightning flowing through her, electric and raw.
She could feel her hold beginning to slip. The pain was too much. She could taste blood, and even without a body, she could feel the searing of the chakra cooking her, cutting at her internal organs.
She'd seen what that much chakra could do to a person, touched it, healed it before. But to feel it herself, she felt lost, like she wanted to give up. Because it was too much, all too much, coming back to Konoha, seeing Shino and Kiba, facing the memorial stone and her old comrades.
She buckled from the sting of the chakra, and she wanted to cry out, to grasp at her sides and hold them together. But she had no body. She was nothing, she had nothing. And all she wanted to do was open her eyes and dissolve into the nothingness. She could drift forever, with no pain, no memories, cease to exist.
It would be fitting. It would be a proper end to her life, to just disappear. Hadn't she sworn that she would die, didn't she agree knowing that this was going to be her sacrifice, like Sasuke's. Her redemption was complete, Kakashi was alive.
And now, now it was her time to fade. She would become a name on the memorial stone, maybe, with time and Tsunade's help. And Kakashi would visit her and tell her name, etched along side the woman she killed, about his day and what trouble Naruto got into.
She could almost hear Kakashi's voice. The deep rich tones he'd use in the rain as he mourned another pupil lost. But he'd feel guilty, because she died to save him. And then he'd shy away from Naruto, because Kakashi would remind Naruto of what he'd lost.
Sakura hated that future. Not because she wasn't in it. That didn't matter so much, especially as the stabbing and ripping in her gut intensified. She hated this future because even though she was gone, she was still hurting the people she loved.
It was selfish, she'd always been selfish. She always chose what was best for her over what was best for her friends, her family, and her village. She chose her love for a man who would never accept her over everything and everyone.
She hated herself. She hated the pain and the burning, but she hated herself more. It was payback, karma, destiny. She curled in on herself, taking the pain, the hurt, the throbbing of dying even as she wasn't attached to her body.
She thought of Hinata. She imagined those same, haunting, mysterious, dangerous white eyes. And with a twinge of jealously, she realized that she wanted those eyes too.
Then, the pain was gone. And Sakura was weightless, nonexistent for a moment. It was a moment time didn't exist, and she wasn't real. It felt like eternity and no time at all. It wrapped around her, like a blanket, warm and cold at the same time. It was a cocoon, a vacuum, a bottomless pit that she was spiraling, twirling, falling into. She thought of Hinata, and those eyes she wished she had, and it was like she'd caught hold of a line, a rope, a string she didn't know was there.
She held tight, concentrated on the feeling of it, the shapeless contour of it. She thought of what it felt like to touch the line, and tug on it.
And then there was a pull, a slight yank at the threads of her mind. And Sakura felt like she was unraveling. But she didn't dare let the thought of Hinata's eyes fade from her mind. Instead, she held it, tightly, closely, bound it against the fabric of her mind and twisted it around her heart. She held it close, and clutched, grabbed, pulled herself along with it.
And it felt as though she was drifting, floating, drowning in a sea of thoughts and memories. But she never let Hinata's eyes waiver from her own. It was dark, and Sakura shivered against the chill that racked her spine, because she realized, she had one now.
Her took long, deep breathes and focused with all her energy. She thought she might have heard voices too, soft and speaking quickly. And they grew louder, more familiar, threatening her hold on Hinata's eyes.
So she ignored Kakashi and Naruto who spoke loudly and thought only of Hinata.
"What happened to the seal?"
"Does that mean it's over now?"
"Is she alright?"
"Is she back?"
"What happened?" Kakashi and Naruto asked only through breaks in the other's sentences.
"Everything is alright. She's fine." This time she heard Neji's voice, and Sakura lost her hold of Hinata.
"No!" She screamed and opened her eyes. She looked around the room frantically, because it was a room, not the darkness she'd been trapped in.
"Its okay, Sakura." Kakashi's arms were around her, hugging her from behind was enough to stop the shaking panic in her gut. And she gasped, pulled in thick, heavy air into her lungs and tried to remember Hinata's eyes. She clamped her eyes shut again. She didn't want to lose Hinata.
"Open your eyes." Neji ordered. She could hear the menacing sound in his voice.
"No." she insisted, like a child and tried to remember just the way Hinata looked.
"Open them!" Neji yelled and Kakashi's arms tightened around her.
"Neji!" Naruto moved. Sakura could hear him move across the wood floor. She could feel his chakra swirling in the room. It was comforting, but at the same time frightening.
"Naruto, no. It's okay." Sakura placated him, opening her eyes again. His angry chakra was sobering. It reminded her that this was real, and she was alive. It reminded her of Hinata, and Sakura knew she'd never really be alone again.
Naruto turned to look at her, and his mouth dropped open. He fell to his knees in front of the couch and Kakashi moved away, so he could look at her too.
"Your eyes." Naruto's face said it all.
"What happened to them?" Kakashi asked, sounding just as stunned as Naruto looked.
"Why, what's wrong with them?" Sakura asked, touching her face, as if she could feel the change in her eyes.
"Your pupils are white." Neji informed her, he sounded aloof, like he used to.
"Really?" Sakura asked and used her eyes to look at everything in the room. "They don't feel white." She looked at Kakashi's face and almost expected it to be awash, like it was hidden behind a white veil. But it wasn't. It looked just the same as it always did. Naruto too.
"You can't feel the difference." Neji commented from the shadows.
"They really are white." Naruto said, and leaned a little too close. Sakura pulled back, feeling self-conscious with everyone looking at her.
"Oh." Sakura said, and thought of Hinata. "This must be what she meant." Sakura said, remembering Hinata said about everyone else being able to see that Hinata was still inside her.
"She?" Naruto asked, gently, tentatively.
But before she could answer, the door to the apartment flew open. And through the bright sunlight coming in, Sakura could see a whole group of people framed against the light. They were all releasing so much chakra; she couldn't tell who was who. All she knew was that they were pissed.
"Haruno Sakura, you're under arrest." She recognized Shino's voice at once.
"I told what would happen if you lived, didn't I?" And almost before it registered that that was Kiba's voice, a kunai was flying at her head.
Kakashi was moving faster than she remembered he could. His shoulder was impaled with the metal, blood running down his shirt. And Naruto was up too, standing between her and Kakashi. His hand was clasped around her wrist so hard, she almost cried out. He pulled her up and off the couch, and pressed himself against her front. Sakura tried to remember what was happening, but all she could think about was Hinata's face, broken and crumbling with tears when she said Kiba's name.
"You won't touch her." Naruto snarled and moved in perfect combination with Kakashi who circled around to the other side of the couch in the open space.
"I told you, if you lived, I'd kill you." Kiba screamed again, but Sakura couldn't see him.
"She used the forbidden jutsu!" Shino chimed in, and it was only then that she glanced back at Neji. He was still leaning against the wall, bored and aristocratic.
"Enough." He finally entreated as his eyes caught hers for a moment. And Sakura's heart leapt to her throat. They were the same eyes, but different too. Not as loving or soft as Hinata's were.
All eyes were on Neji. Sakura could feel all the chakra pointed at her shift in the air. It was like she could breathe again. "I didn't use it." She managed to squeak, now that she was free of the unbearable bloodlust.
"Neji?" Kiba asked. Sakura could see Kiba, just a sliver of him between Kakashi and Naruto. He moved into the room, silently as ever. He was masking his chakra. He was followed closely by Shino, Shikamaru, Hanabi, and strangely enough, Temari of the sand.
"It's true." Neji conceded and stepped away from the wall. "She didn't use the jutsu. I activated her seal, that's where all the chakra came from." She realized then, they must have been able to feel the chakra being released from her seal.
"My seal?" She touched her face where the winding, twisting vine once was.
"Is gone." Neji finished without looking at her. "I needed the chakra to pull your consciousness back."
"Why?" Shino asked, and Sakura could feel his chakra quiver with rage. "Why would you help her? After what she did?"
"Take a look for yourself." Neji made a sweeping gesture with his hand and motioned at Sakura. "Let them see." He spoke to Kakashi and Naruto who didn't move immediately. But slowly, they parted, though Naruto kept her hand on her wrist. And she could see them all now. There were more people at the door. Shizune, Kurenai, Asuma, and Tsunade. She could also see more ANBU-clad legs in the corners of the door. But as she looked at them, there was a collected gasp taken in the tiny room.
"How is that possible?" Kiba asked, his control of his chakra faltering enough for Sakura to feel the wave of grief that he released.
"Tell them." Kakashi said, gently, like he used to when he was her teacher.
"Hinata-chan–"
There was an outbreak of hissing and growling in the room at the mention of the name. But the sight of her white pupils must have been enough to keep them from attacking.
Sakura didn't know where to begin, or how to explain. How do you tell someone that there's been another person existing inside you? A person you killed?
And then she thought of the promise Hinata made Sakura make before they harmonized. And Sakura realized now why she'd done it. It was a souvenir, a penance, a redemption gift. And Sakura knew exactly what to tell them all. "Hinata-chan had a message for you." She spoke to the room at large. "For all of you."
Finally, in the last chapter of 'Sakura's Home' what will everyone do when Sakura tells that what Hinata had to say? And what do her new eyes mean for her fate? Next and last installment in one week.