Back to Picking Poisons

Sasuke was pacing back and forth, every time he looked up all he would see was that red,"in surgery," light blaring over head. Like a constant reminder that the one person he would give anything to protect was fighting for her life. The doctors told him poison must have been laced onto the edge of the blade, that there was no way he could have known. That didn't make him feel any better. Of course the bastard who attacked him would try to isolate Sakura. He should have never let her go by herself. It was all his fault, it's always his fault.

He leaned himself against the wall behind him. Arms crossed over his chest, a guarded expression on his face. He was there for, what felt like, hours. Never once glancing at the door to his left. Afraid of what lay behind it.

The sound of a door opening and closing captured his attention. He looked over to find a, slightly round, man walking towards him.

"Uchiha, I presume."

"Hn." Not wanting to say anything more than that.

"I'll take that as a yes. Your teammate is stable, but she's unconscious. It seems the poison entered through the subclavian artery. From there it penetrated the rest of her circulatory system. We had to go in and extract all the poison, like pulling a needle back through."

"When will she wake up?"

The doctor hesitated, as if he was trying to hold something back. Like he was trying to protect Sasuke from something. Something that was going to hurt him.

Sasuke didn't like that. For two reasons. The doctor obviously thought he needed protection, which he didn't, and it meant something was wrong with Sakura, which was not okay with him.

"When." Sasuke growled.

The doctor jumped, scrambling to make eye contact and flinching once he did.

"We're, uhm, we're just not sure."

Sasuke tried to process what the man was saying.

"How can you not be sure?"

The man was fumbling with his clip board, obviously being in the very presence of an Uchiha was nerve wracking to him.

Incompetent. How did he ever become a doctor?

"Well, you see, we removed all the poison from her bloodstream, but we're not sure if there are any..."

"Any what?" Sasuke was losing his patience. How hard was it to tell him what was really going on? He took a step towards the doctor, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and slamming him against the opposite wall.

"Si-side affects. We still haven't identified the poison so we can't be sure if it has any lingering affects in the body. We also can't be sure if the toxin did any permanent damage for the expanse of time it was inside the host."

Sasuke moved his face closer to the trembling man. Narrowing his scarlet eyes into tiny slits.

"Is there anything you do know?"

"Just that her comatose state is so the body can try to fight off what little poison is left in her bloodstream."

Sasuke let the doctor escape from his grasp. The man's feet hit the floor as he attempted to straighten out the wrinkles in his lab coat from Sasuke's fists. Sasuke turned away and went to sit on a chair. Before he left, the doctor turned to say something.

"You can go see her, you know. Just because she's in a coma it doesn't mean you shouldn't be by her side. She needs you there, to support her. Someone in a coma can hear you, you could talk to her, let her know she'll be okay-"

"And why would I need to do that? What do you know about her or me?"

A slight smile crept it's way onto the man's face, as if he knew something blatantly obvious to everyone but Sasuke.

"I know that she means more to you than just a teammate, just a friend."

With that said the man turned and left. Leaving Sasuke wondering why strangers always seemed to feel the need to tell him things like that.

Eventually, for some reason, Sasuke found his feet moving slowly towards the door. He tried to avoid hospital as much as any ninja could. They always brought back memories of a certain eight-year old crying in an empty hallway, alone.

When he pushed open the swinging doors, seeming so much weaker than the strong barrier he had portrayed them as in his head, a faint beeping filled his ears. There she was, lying on the hospital bed. She was hooked up to an IV, a heart monitor, and others he didn't even recognize. The pale white walls and sheets of the hospital only making her look even paler. She had a small bandage on her head which was strange, because, he didn't remember her having a cut there. The large window on the other side of her bed offering the only source of light in the room. Showing the jagged landscape of Hidden Rock. Outside people were walking about, talking with each other, continuing with their normal routine. Meanwhile he felt his world was falling apart piece by piece. His family, his revenge, his Sakura. How could someone look so peaceful and, at the same time, be in so much danger?

He looked around for a chair, finding one he slid it across the floor till it was right by her bedside. He lowered himself into it, never taking his eyes off her. Afraid that, if he did, she would vanish and never come back. He took her hand, making sure to not rip out any tubes, placed it in his, and lay his head down on her bed. Letting the rhythmic sound of her heart monitor, letting him know she was still alive, still his, lull him to sleep.

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Sorry guys, I had pharyngitis so it took me a while to update. Thanks for all the readers and reviewers! Sorry this chapter is short, but I hope you liked it anyway!

Review please and thank you!

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