Catching Up – Chapter 8
Kurai-Hisaki
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
Kakashi was awake before the sun reached the horizon line. Leaving a thank-you note and some ointment for the elder's wounds, he silently opened the door and slipped out of the house. His surroundings could exactly be described as 'after the storm.' The sun was starting to shine brightly and no clouds were in sight. A slight cool breeze blew against his silver locks and his ears picked up a faint sound of birds chirping. It was amazing how everything almost seemed peaceful – almost.
Many houses had been burnt to the ground and the townspeople were cleaning up. Some people came up to him to thank him, but he merely brushed it off saying that it was part of his job. There were a few who had stayed up all night burying the people who they had lost, and still continued to do so. It was saddening to see this, even though he had seen this scene so many times throughout his life.
Kakashi wandered around until he found her; the girl who had kept him up late into the night. She was in the same position as when he last saw her. No one had picked her up or buried her. He suddenly knew that she had probably been the last survivor in her family and with her dressed in rags, he knew that she had never been cared for. Walking over, he gently touched her. Her pale skin was now frozen cold and blood was matted on her face. After using a bit of water to clean her up, he lifted her as her limbs and bright red hair hung lifelessly. He suddenly longed to see a pair of emerald eyes. He carried her over to the graves that had been set up, helped bury her and paid his respects. Even though he desperately wanted to go back to Konoha, he decided to help the town out. It was something that he had never felt like he had to do, but for some reason, the scene was too depressing and for some reason, it pulled at his heart more than usual. After helping out the town with the burials for the next couple of hours, he decided that he longed to go back to Konoha even more.
It was funny how people worked. When he was there, he longed to be away, and now that he was miles away from Konoha, he wished to be back. He was experiencing new feelings for the first time in years. He had never wished so badly that he was back in Konoha, looking after the person he should be looking after. He supposed that this mission had cleared his mind in a way, and even though he regretted being relieved to be on this mission, he had to be thankful that he knew what he wanted now.
He wanted to be there for Sakura. He didn't want her to be like that girl that haunted him last night, with those saddened and fearful eyes. He wanted Sakura to be happy and carefree, just like when he met her.
The trip back to Konoha had been longer than he had expected. With the lack of sleep, he felt as if he was in a dream as he wandered around the forest. He was thankful when the gates of the village made its way to his view, and that he was unharmed. It was the first time that he had been so unable to focus, he was glad that he hadn't been ambushed. He knew that he could have been seriously injured if he had. Walking through the gates of Konoha, he noticed that the village seemed calmer than usual. The normal noisy busy streets were no where to be seen even though it was a bright and sunny day. There was an undertone of hushed voices and the once lively village felt a bit eerie and creepy. He felt a slight chill. Something seemed strange but Kakashi chose to ignore it. There were little people walking around and the people who opened the shops didn't seem to be too willing to sell and do business today. Wasting no time, he headed to his apartment; he stripped, showered, changed and cleaned his equipment while heating something fast in the microwave for an early dinner. He was going to see Sakura after.
He was steps away from sitting down when a knock was heard at his door. Opening the door he came face to face with Sasuke – a surprised Sasuke.
"Yo."
"You're home? I thought you were on a mission."
"Just got back a couple hours ago, what's up?" Kakashi also wanted to ask 'where's Sakura?' but he decided that wasn't really in his character to do so – to care for his ex-students in that way, especially in front of Sasuke. He was going to go visit her after anyways and being the patient guy that he was, he decided that waiting a couple minutes longer couldn't kill him.
The Uchiha started to fidget. He never fidgeted, something was wrong. His eyes shifted from Kakashi's gaze to his own feet and started to look at everything except into the eye of Kakashi. Then with a sigh, he looked down and glared at the gap in between them.
"I was hoping that you wouldn't be home so I wouldn't have to tell you, but it's her."
With a cold voice Kakashi responded quickly, "What about her?"
A low whisper escaped Sasuke.
"She's in the hospital."
Kakashi's eye widened.
"You mean she's helping out at the hospital right?"
Sasuke slowly shook his head. Shock could be seen in the lone onyx eye as Kakashi stumbled a couple steps back until he sat down.
Shock overcame the both of them for different reasons. Sasuke had never seen his sensei this way, he was usually so composed, calm and collected – what happened? He hadn't thought that this news would affect him so much. When he was told to tell him, he had dreaded it because Sakura was precious to the both of them and no one would like to hear news that their teammate was in the hospital, but he had thought that the Copy Ninja would take it in like he usually does. He thought that he would say that he would visit her later, close the door on him and get back to whatever it was he was doing. He was sure that Kakashi have had teammates that ended up in the hospital before, so why was this affecting him so much more than usual? Sasuke continued to stare at Kakashi as he zoned out in front of him, while one thought repeated itself in Kakashi's head.
How could this be happening?
Kakashi was so afraid last night that something was going to happen, he made his decision to come back as soon as possible, and thought that everything would be okay. He had pushed that nightmare out of his mind and thought that he could leave it in the past. Why was it coming back to haunt him? What was going on? He knew something bad was going to happen, but he hadn't expected this. Those emerald eyes were trying to tell him something, the eerie silence of the village had to have hinted something and he came back too late. Why hadn't he gone straight to her?
Kakashi met Sasuke's gaze and with a stoic voice he asked, "Sasuke, tell me what happened."
With another shake of his head, Sasuke replied, "I think it's better if you find out another time. You seriously look like you need some rest."
A flash of silver disappeared and appeared inches before Sasuke. Kakashi thrusted him against a wall and coldly demanded, "Tell me what happened to Sakura."
It was then that Sasuke knew that Kakashi cared more about Sakura than anyone else. He had never seen Kakashi lose his cool over something like this or rather lose his temper over anything. From what he knew, Kakashi had never showed much of any serious emotions after Rin and Obito died. He was always so aloof after their deaths – drifting here and there, whenever and wherever he felt like. He didn't care about much besides his duties. Sasuke would have been glad for Sakura and that someone was able to care deeply for her, if it weren't for the circumstances that stood now. Unaffected by the Copy Ninja's actions, Sasuke calmly started to explain what had happened.
"As you know, I was left to take care of her after you and Naruto left that night. At first I thought everything was fine and that she was getting better. She would smile every once in a while and we would talk about random things over meals – as much as I could talk anyways. Naruto came over as much as he could, but he had been very busy these past days… It just seems like Sakura changed, her smile doesn't reach her eyes anymore. One day, she suddenly told me that she didn't need someone to look after her 24/7 and said that I was allowed to go train with Naruto every once in a while. Respecting her wishes and with her being a medic and all, I thought it would be okay to listen to her."
Kakashi let out a slight sigh and continued to look intently at Sasuke.
So Sasuke had noticed that she was different, no surprise there - with him being so observant and being a genius.
Sasuke continued – he had never talked so much before, but felt this was appropriate for him to do so.
"It was one of those nights when Sakura wanted to be left alone. I knew that I had days like that too, so I did what she wanted me to do. I left her alone and told her that I would be back to check up on her. That night was the night when it poured, so I figured she'd stay home and I figured that I'll check up on her the first thing in the morning. When I went back early the next morning, she was no where to be found in her apartment, so I checked around the village asking around to see if she had been around for breakfast or something… I never found her until I walked past the memorial… When I got to her, she was unconscious, frozen and soaking wet so I took her straight to the hospital."
Sasuke looked down, his voice became quieter. Surprisingly, there was a hint of emotion being shown.
"I think it was around the time you were back in town when I was told that Sakura's condition got worse. I was waiting outside the emergency room and they told me that her fever had returned and had gotten a lot worse than before. Apparently her medicine hadn't been helping and no trace of it could be found in her system. They said that it was going to take at least a couple of days before she would wake up, but no one really knows - "
After releasing Sasuke, Kakashi coolly stated, "If something happens to her…"
Kakashi never finished that sentence, nor did he stop to wait for Sasuke's response as he dashed out his window and sprinted towards Sakura's apartment. Sasuke stared at his back before deciding to follow Kakashi.
He knew that it was his fault for leaving Sakura alone, but what could he do? He couldn't have gone against her wishes when he knew that she was so much more knowledgeable when it comes to health and medic related things. And knowing that if he didn't listen to her, she'd only become angrier and would have possibly punched him out the door. He had to admit, that he cared for her too, but he had always had problems understanding people. He had wanted to be alone at times, so it was only fair that she got her alone time as well – wasn't it?
The silver haired ninja broke into Sakura's apartment and went straight into her bedroom. He started to search through her drawers, closet and desk. Pulling her clothes out as he went, he continued to search underneath her books and papers. He even searched under the pillows and all Sasuke could do was watch. He watched Kakashi move from the bedroom to the kitchen to the living room and when he couldn't find what he wanted, he went into her bathroom to search through her cabinets.
Sasuke stood at the doorway vaguely wondering about what was going on. He didn't ask as he knew Kakashi wouldn't answer. A loud slam could be heard and Sasuke peered in to see a shaking Kakashi kneeling over something. His silver hair hung messily around face. When all movement stopped and silence filled the air, Sasuke looked at Kakashi and saw that he was looking at some substances in his hands.
Her medicine… She never took them.
With a swift movement, Kakashi punched the nearest wall and continued to clench his fists.
He muttered to himself, "What the hell was she thinking..."
Sasuke jumped as his eyes opened a little wider than usual. He had never jumped before either, today was full of firsts for him. When had he ever shown any type of emotions before? Then again, when had Kakashi? Sakura affected the both of them more than he would have liked to admit, but he had the mind to think that this was getting a little out of hand. He knew Kakashi wasn't thinking rationally but he decided that he had to do something before his ex-sensei completely lost it.
"Kakashi… let's go see her. Let's go see Sakura."
Kakashi's head snapped up and his eye met his. His facial features relaxed at the mention of her name. His breathing slowly returned to normal and he turned to face Sasuke. The calm voice that Sasuke once knew could be heard again as Kakashi spoke.
"Sorry… I forgot you were here. Sorry… if I scared you."
"Don't worry, let's go."
With that, the two Sharingan users hopped out of her apartment and headed to the hospital.
Pictures of the motionless red haired child flashed in Kakashi's mind. Pictures of messy, matted hair and unmoving limbs, and the sounds of the child's silent screams suddenly sounded hauntingly real. Lifeless emerald eyes in his thoughts stared back at him and he realized that this was no longer a dream.
It had become a real nightmare.
I know that you all saw this coming - Gomen, ne. I feel like my creativity is going down the drain - stupid starting of school.
Kakashi is getting more and more out of character in this story. I apologize. I also think Sasuke is a little bit out of character too, but I wasn't sure how I wanted him to be after he returned to Konoha. Gah, it's so hard to write Sasuke in character since he doesn't talk much. Was he a bit too nice for his character?
I wrote this chapter right after the previous one, but this was being edited and reviewed over and over because I felt that it wasn't good enough. For some reason, I just don't feel the emotions that Kakashi is feeling when I read this over and over…
Hopefully this chapter isn't as disappointing as the previous one, and hope that you all enjoyed it.