Withered Black Flower:
By:Terrified of Logic
Beta-ed by the ama-zing Kisa Kisa Yum Yum
With help from the awesome KinkyK and JazzyJ
The world was pitch black. This was it, the end… wasn't it? I felt nothing. I could not move or see or anything. Just thoughts, flitting across a black void of space. It was suffocating, the pressure that was pressing in all sides of me. I flashed back to pinks and reds and oranges. Beautiful and nostalgic, warm. Warmer than this coldness, this coldness that was slowly numbing all sensation.
Suddenly I was jerked and twisted, vaulted and thrown unceremoniously. But I was going nowhere, or at least I didn't feel I was going anywhere in the darkness that was pressing in on me. That swooping sensation and then something pulled at the back of my head.
A burning pain that wouldn't go away and I opened my mouth to scream but no sound came out…
"Harumi!" Sakura yelled as her hands glowed a ferocious green, flashing and bright.
Harumi jerked to attention, eyes wide.
"The amnesiac and serum, now!"
"H-Hai!"
"The healing seal and tube!"
"Hai!"
"No! Why is he screaming? No, the blood loss-! Harumi!"
The young medic in training created several hand seals and applied it to the additional glowing healing chakra of Sakura's hands.
"His heart beat is still high… but he's calmed down now, I think. Thank you for your help. I'll make sure you get a raise the next pay day.. That is, if they don't destroy Konoha before then.." Sakura said darkly. She dismissed the girl who bowed quickly and scampered away. Sakura's heart still raced and pumped from adrenaline.
She turned to the patient on the stretcher. Blood was everywhere, but she secured some of the poison that was in the body. The serum settled thickly, a slightly pus-like substance. The top layer was floating with what looked like red puddles of oil but was actually chakra. Fascinating. It would be more interesting if it wasn't too lethal. The patient let out a guttural sigh and resumed breathing normally. She turned to look at him. He looked pathetic. Now who was the weak one?
Hmm Sasuke?
Sakura yawned and opened her eyes. It was eight in the morning and she had fallen asleep on her desk, exhausted from last night's procedure. She looked down at her desk. She had been in the middle of writing down observations on the poison that she had extracted from Sasuke. But, unable to keep her eyes , them close for a second and somehow that second turned into three hours. There was a thermos of tea a with a note attached.
Sakura chan,
You seemed so tired. I can imagine you would be. I left some hot tea for you when you wake up so you can get some caffeine into your system to wake you up for another big day!
Sakura groaned and closed her eyes at the prospect of another late night.
Well I'm going to the hospital to check up on teme. Just to, you know, get things straight between all of us. There's no reason to come over, really. I just want to say hi. Really. Don't come over. Get some more rest. In fact, sleep till ten. It won't take more than-
That was all Sakura needed to read before she was out the door, headband in hand.
"Naru-!"
Bursting into Sasuke's room, she saw Naruto sitting by Sasuke's bed. She was breathing hard and her hair was slightly frazzled from her frantic run over to the hospital room.
Naruto turned to look at her.
"Oh…I thought when you said…You really just mean to say-"
"Hello? Yeah. I told you on the note, right?"
"O-oh….right." Sakura chuckled awkwardly and pulled up a stool as well.
"By the way, why is the name on the door 'Uragiri Testsuya'?"
"Cause I can't risk people finding out that he's back," she said, motioning to Sasuke without looking at him.
"You're going to save him, right? You're our best medic after all," Naruto said with a wide grin.
Sakura was silent. She thought about it all last night. The obvious answer was to heal him. Then what? Get ignored, endure comments that stung worse than a kunai to the stomach? Would he even be grateful? He would probably just say he would have rather died than be with her.
"I…"
"Sakura chan!" Naruto reprimanded her sharply, eyes flashing. "This is Sasuke we're talking about, your--no, our teammate we've known for more than fifteen years. Do you think we could just abandon him? He would do the same for us if we were in his state, ne?"
"No… he'd leave me to die out there."
"Rubbish," Naruto denied. "He's our teammate."
"Yeah, so what if he is our teammate? He still hurt you badly! He still rejected and forgot us! He tried to kill and attack us! Do you think we still owe him favours?!" Sakura asked, breast heaving, eyes passionate and wet.
"Then why did you save him?" Naruto asked quietly.
"I don't know…"
Naruto lounged in a chair reading a magazine and eating some noodles from a bedside table, happily commenting on the 'Hot Girls' section of the magazine, while Sakura murmured words to Tsunade, changing the flowers in the vase and writing down observations of her body health and functions.
"I don't think she's that hot. I mean look at chick number eight-"
"Mmm," Sakura said absentmindedly. She sat at Tsunade's side and lifted a limp blonde plait. She gathered some more and started a new plait, finger combing the hair softly. Tsunade barely opened her eyes these days. She secured the end with a periwinkle ribbon she found in her medic jacket. She laid it down on the pillow gently and even more gently dabbed her mentor's face with a damp cloth. It was a shame, really. It was so degrading to see a shinobi of such power and status brought down to this level.
"Actually, this chick has nice tits…," Naruto said to no one in particular, still engrossed in the magazine. Sakura paid him no mind as she stared out the window. Birds chirped and flitted on the electric lines outside, and it was such a clear blue day. The sun was warm on her face and finally it was just peace and quiet.
"Naruto, will you get me some ramen? Please?"
"Ehh, no way. Get it yourself. I'm busy," he said, showing the page he was on to Sakura who immediately clapped a hand over her eyes.
"That's disgusting."
"No it isn't!"
"Can you just get me the ramen already?"
"Fine then!" Naruto huffed. He put down the magazine and walked out of the room.
Sakura sighed and pulled out a small notebook from her bag. It was small and pink; her diary. She flipped through it and reread a section.
July 23rd
Today was Sasuke's birthday, so guess what I did? Okay, so remember last year when I baked him a cake? The icing and the cream and all that, God that was hard, and I burned myself with the stupid oven TWICE. Oh, but that didn't hurt. Oh, it couldn't have been when he said he didn't like cakes and shut the door in my face, while I was still smiling. It couldn't have been when I came to training later that day and he was being spoon fed some crappy food by Ami and actually letting her. You know Last Christmas by Wham? Yeah.
This year, well I was determined not to break my heart, so guess what I did? Yep, that's right. Nothing. I ignored him. We just trained and trained some more. But it was like the more I tried not to follow him, the more he followed me. It really didn't help my trying to ignore him scheme. See, I dropped my kunai, silly of me, and just as I bet down to get it, he stood there holding it out to me, expressionless. I just took it slowly without saying anything. That's the first time he's ever done that to me. We had lunch and I sat under the tree as usual while Sasuke dodged Naruto's pleas for more food. Naruto tipped over my lunch and just when I was about to get mad at him for being such an idiot, Sasuke just handed his over while Naruto screeched indignantly. It was a good day. These are just small acts, but for Sasuke kun, nothing is too small for me to appreciate.
Sakura slowly shut the notebook and tried to ignore the squeezing sensation in her chest. She stood up and left the room. She needed to go do something.
The door slid open noiselessly, yet the body on the bed turned to face her. After a bit, it turned back to the window it was looking out at.
Sakura said nothing and continued to walk to the bed. Although her face betrayed no emotion, inside she was quivering, shaking, and felt on the verge of losing control. She hadn't been this near to him when he was unable to run away from her in a long time.
"Uchiha," she acknowledged rather awkwardly.
He said nothing. His face registered nothing. It was as if she wasn't there. Something sparked inside her. She saved him! She knew he would act this way and it made her furious. Letting out a stream of curses, she shook the bed and forced him to look at her.
She spoke more quietly, and his gaze just hardened and a muscle twitched in his jaw. She whispered in his ear and his eyes widened just a bit. She pulled back satisfactorily, triumph evident in her face. Then he turned away.
"Weak as usual."
Blinded with a white rage, Sakura let loose an animalistic growl. She could hear nothing but the roaring blood in her ears and the reverberating words in her head. Pulling her hand back, ignited with chakra, she threw her weight into the punch… that was stopped.
Sakura and Sasuke turned to look at the intruder. Naruto held the crook of Sakura's elbow with one hand, which flamed in red chakra in effort to stop the blow. The requested ramen was spilt on the floor but the three of them took no notice.
"Well if it isn't Team Three once more."
With that Sakura let her arm fall and sank to the floor on her knees, crying softly.
"So, anyone want coffee?" Naruto asked cheerfully, completely oblivious to the tension growing in the room between his former teammates, who were currently looking in opposite directions.
"No?" Naruto continued. "Well, I want-_"
"Dobe, shut up," Sasuke said. Sakura barely cracked a smile. It was something Sasuke always said, but now times where different.
"Ok ok, you don't have to get rude about it!" Naruto said, raising his hands in defeat.
"Naruto kun!" Donguri said, peering in through the door. "Do you want to get something with me?"
Much to Sakura's dismay, Naruto cheerfully agreed and left the room.
They sat, well, Sasuke lay, in silence. It was painful and loud. Sakura had so many things she wanted to tell him, not all of them good. Some were variations of 'go to hell, bastard'.
"Naruto told me I was poisoned." It was a statement, not a question.
"Yes. I extracted a sample yesterday but the poison is so soluble I couldn't get everything out. There's still some in your bloodstream and it's fatal."
It was silent again, but this time it was awkward for both.
"I can-"
"Sakura, why did you save me?"
"Because…because you're our teammate?" Her voice rose a pitch at the end, making it sound like a question. Sasuke laugh derisively which resulted in a rasping wheeze.
"That's Naruto's answer. What is your answer, Haruno?"
"I…I…"
"I didn't need to be saved. To die in dignity is what should have happened."
"Oh, and being beaten by three Kusa shinobi is noble?" Sakura fired back, stung.
"No, but I'd rather die at their hands than be saved by you."
Sakura's hands clenched into fists.
"Say it again with a straight face. This time Naruto isn't here to save you."
"I know you better than that, so I won't say it again. But to lose your temper so easily. My my, what have we actually learned in the last three years I was away?" Sasuke smirked. He struggled to sit up. Sakura automatically switched to medic nin, despite her wishes.
"You shouldn't-"
"Don't tell me what I should and shouldn't do!" Sasuke barked, panting slightly. The covers fell, revealing a heavily bandaged chest.
He then doubled ove,r coughing wildly, clutching his head. Sakura immediately put him on his side and applied some chakra to his throat, concentrating on his blood stream and isolating bits of the poison she could find, but it was difficult, as the poison was thinner than blood. Applying another hand to his head, she relieved his ache for the time being. Sakura grabbed a cloth and wiped it softly. This was a job, not a boy she had known for all her life.
He let her fuss over him in the way nurses do. Finally, she was finished.
"Why do you do this?"
"Because it's my job."
"I am not a job, I am a nuke nin, a criminal."
"I know," she said simply. "That's why if you're cured, then you're going straight to the council. If you die here, your body gets buried deep in the Forest. Your alias at the moment is Uragiri Tetsuya. No one knows where Uchiha Sasuke is. As far as anyone knows, you don't belong here."
Sasuke was silent.
"And the best part? I'm not going to heal you. Maybe yesterday I would've done it. But after you calling me weak, I think not. In fact, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to let an inexperienced medic in training heal you. She won't know anything and then you will suffer just as much as you have let me suffer all these years."
Sakura sat back with a smile. That felt good. That felt really good. Sasuke was still silent.
"Well?" Sakura said after a moment. "But, I could heal you. I don't want to, but I know my stupid conscience will bother me until you tell me otherwise, so what's your verdict, Uchiha?"
Silence.
"Sakura, will you please heal me?" The words came quietly through gritted teeth like it was the most painful thing Sasuke ever had to say.
Sakura just grinned, but not for the reasons you would think.
"Pick you up at nine. Be awake and ready."