Well, hello there! I apologise for the delay (Jeez, I swear I always say this... Sorry)
So yeah. This chapter... took a while. Author's Block is a real pain, but let's be frank, I HAD TO GET THIS ONE OUT.
Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews!
I hope the chapter turned out OK ^_^
Please enjoy!
Beep…
Beep…
Beep…
Confusion… Chaos and destruction… Screams of 'Konoha is under attack!' echoing everywhere like a never-ending symphony.
Beep…
Burning… Pained, agonized screaming… The stench of blood and death… So much death…
B-beep…
Ninja running around, confused, not knowing the ally from the foe…
Beep-beep…
So much to do… So little time… Is everybody alright? Kaoru? Akane? Shirani-san? Neji?
Beep…
Where are they? Where am I? There's only darkness…I can't see anything… My ears feel like they're stuffed with cotton…
Beep-beep-beep…
Is this how Izaya-sensei feels? Conscious, but unable to open his eyes? Hmmm… It's such a nice feeling, really; why open your eyes, if you know that the moment you do, all you'll see will be death? If so, why should I open my eyes? Why not just let that tempting, comforting darkness pull me in?
B-beep…
B-beep…
I might just sleep a little… longer…
B-b-beep…
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee p…
"Somebody get the medics!"
A week earlier
When Akane and Kaoru arrived at the scene, it was clear that regardless of how much they wanted to help, this battle was far out of their league.
"I suddenly feel so… small." The redhead muttered, struggling to close his gaping jaw.
"W-well, we'd never had to fight tailed beasts before… Especially not two fully transformed ones…" Kaoru replied, gulping, his eyes glued to the scene before them.
"Yeah…"
Suddenly, a loud bang tore through the air, and the duo turned around in unison. Smoke was coming from the centre of the village, and the three-headed snake was its source.
"I wouldn't mind, however, trying my luck with that gigantic summon over there." Akane commented with a grin which Kaoru mirrored.
"Let's go."
Yet, when they reached the main part of Konoha, they stopped, dumbfounded. The village was practically destroyed. The walls by the Main Gate were crushed, debris flew everywhere, and the screams were deafening.
"The quicker we get rid of this thing, the quicker we can find Sakura." Kaoru snapped when he realised that the redhead didn't look like he was planning to move any time soon.
"Right!" Akane replied, seeming to snap out of whatever daze he was in. "Could you try to, like, confound it or whatever?"
"Confound?! Do I look like a magician?!" the brunette retorted, incredulous.
"Not what I meant!" Akane explained hastily. "Try to, I don't know, make it stop attacking? Break into its mind or something?"
Kaoru seemed to consider the idea, and shrugged. "I could try." he said carefully.
"Go for it. In the meantime, I'll start getting rid of the heads."
The boys split, each doing their own, self-assigned job. At some point one of the heads was crushed by a toad, but the other two remained. Kaoru focused on the heads, went through the hand-seals, and called on his chakra.
Akane had managed to climb onto one of the heads of the snake, and pulled out a handful of kunai and ninja wire. He looped the wire through the kunai, and sent it sailing to the other head, praying for it to do what he wanted it to. It worked. The plan was simple – he would hurt the head he was standing on, which would make it recoil from the other head, and the sudden movement would make the wire around the other head slice it clean off the body. He nodded to himself. It seemed fool-proof in his mind. But just as he was about to pierce one of his kunai through the snake's eye, an agonised scream stopped him.
Stopped because he recognised that scream.
He slowly turned his head, praying that he had imagined it, hoping against hope that it wasn't what he thought it was. But the crumbled form of the boy he knew so well, lying on the ground like a marionette whose strings had been cut was unmistakably his Kaoru. Immediately after that realisation sunk in, any thoughts of subtlety were forgotten as he simply stabbed the kunai into the beast's eye and leaped off it, running as fast as he could towards his teammate and not stopping until he had the brunette in his arms. He then turned, and fled. Simple as.
Because Kaoru was hurt. Badly. So Akane carried him to the only place he deemed 'safe' in the chaos that was taking place around them. The Academy.
He didn't stop to ponder the fact that the building was strangely quiet, and the left wall didn't look all that stable. Instead, he jumped into the first class he could find, and gently laid his teammate on the ground.
"Kaoru?" he asked carefully. "Kaoru-chan? Kao-chan? Can you hear me?"
His answer was a weak moan and a choked whimper of "M-my head…"
"Your head?" Akane repeated to check if he'd heard the teen right. "What's wrong with your head?" he asked, concern lining his voice.
Kaoru mumbled something incoherent and clutched his head even tighter. The redhead gently pried his friend's hands from his forehead and pressed his own hand, alight with light green chakra, to it instead.
He recoiled almost immediately. The brunette was burning up, and badly!
"Kaoru!" he called again, this time more urgently. He attempted to sit the teen up, but that attempt only resulted in Kaoru swatting weakly at his hand, whimpering like even that small movement hurt like the worst torture. "You need to tell me what happened!" the redhead cried desperately.
"I-I… The snake… Orochimaru." Kaoru whispered, clutching Akane's hand like a life-line.
"Orochimaru? You're not making any sense!" the younger boy frowned.
"Orochimaru, Akane! He was in the snake's head! It was his summon! When I broke into that snake's head, all I could see was him! I broke the connection as soon as possible, but he still did something! I just don't know what!" Kaoru raged, but at the end, his voice broke, and he did something which Akane had never seen the older boy do before.
He burst into tears.
And that was when Akane realised that something was really wrong with his friend. "I'm taking you to the hospital." He announced.
Even in his injured, disturbed state, and tears pouring out of his eyes at a rapid rate, Kaoru still managed to raise himself on his eyebrows and give Akane a glare that could freeze hell. "Are you insane?!" he hissed viciously. "We're under attack!"
"No, Kaoru." The redhead corrected. "We are not under attack. Konoha is."
"You'd still be crazy to even attempt to take me to the hospital. Besides, you know I hate that place!" Kaoru bristled.
"Right. Well, you have a choice. Either, come willingly, or I'll knock you out and then carry you there."
"You wouldn't." the brunette smirked. "You're a medic-nin – you're too careful for that. I'm injured – you know that you could hurt me even more if you accidently jostled me, or something."
"Yeah… That's true. But I'm also stubborn. So… Sorry, Kaoru-chan. But your health comes before your happiness." And with those words, Akane drove his fingers into his teammate's neck, pushing the pressure point and knocking the teen out.
The first thing Kaoru felt when he woke up and took a second to take in his surroundings was the overwhelming need to just smash Akane's face in. Because, damn it, he was in a hospital. And judging from the fact that it was quiet outside, he must've been there for quite a while.
"Little, annoying, carrot-headed, over-confident, irritating, brat!" he hissed, and winced in pain when his head gave a nasty tang.
"I'm going to ignore what I just heard and assume that it was all because of the raging headache that you're probably still nursing. But it's the first and last time I'm going to be this considerate."
Kaoru jumped, and scowled when pain shot up his spine. "You're an asshole."
The redhead grinned brilliantly. "Love you too, Kao-chan!"
The older teen shook his head, exasperated, all the rage leaving him in less than a second. "How long have I been here?"
"Just four days. The Invasion ended on the same day it started. The Hokage was killed, though. The funeral was yesterday. But there's something else-"
"Hold on a second." Kaoru cut him off, looking around. "Where is Sakura?"
"That's what I was going to say, Kaoru." The redhead muttered, rolling his eyes before he grew serious again. "She hasn't been found yet."
There was a moment's pause as Kaoru just sat there, staring dumbfounded. "What do you mean 'she hasn't been found'?" he demanded.
"Remember when we left to go after the blondie and his idiot friends? From what I had gathered when I wasn't here with you, she went to help out with the evacuation of the civilians. I've got whoever I can searching high and low for her, but there's still no sign. It's like she evaporated."
Kaoru winced.
"The moment I get out of here, we're going to dig through the village and throw it upside-down if we have to. But we're going to find her. "
"Of course we are."
And look for her they did. For two days, they searched through the entire village, every nook and cranny they could've thought of. But by the end of the second day, they were ready to give up.
It was only by chance. Only by chance that they decided to stop by the dango restaurant, moods sullen and desperate.
"Mummy, the fairy had pink hair! She saved me! She had red on her hands, but she saved me and my classmates! She took us to the tunnels!"
Kaoru and Akane froze, both exchanging knowing looks, but too scared to hope.
"She said we'd be safe there! She showed Mari-chan how to open the tunnel from the inside, and told us how to get out once the fighting stopped. Then this big bad man came up when she was getting Teru-kun in, and she threatened him and fought until he went away! But then the tunnel suddenly closed and she-!"
But neither teen heard the end. Both were up on their feet and running, hastily making the Ram seal the moment they found the right spot. They'd searched above ground, but hadn't even thought of searching under.
Just Sakura's style. Kaoru reasoned. Choosing a place that even we wouldn't think of. But why hasn't she come out yet?
They found out when they rounded the fifth corner.
The stench of blood, and decay permeated the air. Kaoru shivered when his hand accidently touched the wall which was sticky with blood.
And then, a few steps ahead of them lay a crumbled, bloodied figure, the only relatively familiar feature being the mop of matted pink hair.
No… please…
"I-Is that…?" Akane asked, but trailed off, not being able to finish.
Kaoru didn't reply, and instead moved forward, his strides shaky, but deliberate. He knelt down, and pressed his fingers to the rosette's neck, praying to whoever would listen for her to be alive.
Thump.
A pulse.
A faint one, but at least her heart was still beating. Kaoru sighed, relieved.
"She's alive." He announced, smiling lightly when he heard Akane sigh behind him. He moved his hands to lift the rosette, but started when he felt fresh liquid on his hands. Sticky, hot, and smelling of rust, Kaoru ground his teeth and lifted the girl, leaving his curiosity temporarily unstated.
"We need to get her out of here. And quickly." He announced, tone grim. Akane seemed to catch on and didn't question him, but jumped ahead and led the way out.
Yet the moment they reached daylight, and could finally fully see the condition their teammate was in, their hearts jumped to their throats.
The extent of Sakura's injuries were worse than they could've imagined; the patches of skin which were visible were varying shades of black and blue, some having already turned an interesting shade of yellow. But then, there was gaping, still sluggishly bleeding hole in her stomach. The strike which must've caused it had cut through her black over-shirt, leaving her stomach covered only by the thin mesh shirt she wore underneath. Which, in turn, left them with a clear view of the wound.
There were other, smaller cuts and wounds all over the rosette's body, some scabbed over, and a few still slowly oozing blood, and most, if not all looked infected. Akane reached out a hand, the green glow of medical chakra surrounding it, but the brunette slapped it away.
"Hospital." Kaoru demanded. "Now."
Akane nodded, casting a worried glance at the rosette still held in Kaoru's arms. "Let's go!"
…
The second they got her into the hospital, the nurses started fussing about Sakura, green-glowing hands flashing and orders being shouted everywhere.
Sakura was taken into one of the hospital rooms, and a quick full-body scan a few seconds later revealed a blunt-force trauma injury to the head, which the doctor decided was most likely the cause of her comatose state.
And then came the moment when Sakura's heart suddenly stopped. The continuous beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep… of the heart monitor sending shivers down the boys' backs.
The worst by far was the comment made by the doctor; "It looked like she just gave up."
From that point on, one of the two were always in the room with the rosette. Her heart gave up three more times, but she was always saved.
It pained Kaoru to know that Sakura, when comatose, didn't see much point in living. He would've never thought she would. In his eyes, she was a fighter, and he struggled to think what could've caused the rosette to think in such a way. He didn't know.
So at some point, he left Akane and went back to the place where they found Sakura, armed with a flash-light and patience.
Once he rounded the corner at which the rosette had been, he realised why, or rather, what had caused her current state: as he rifled through the mess and destruction, he counted twenty-three corpses. All with the Sand village insignia sewn on their headbands. He quickly came to the conclusion that they must've cornered the rosette, and that there were more than the twenty-three that he saw. Those ninja must have simply overwhelmed her, coming from all directions and angles. Sakura was quick, but she wasn't a miracle worker.
He sneered at the bodies, noting that every weapon around him had dried blood on it, but the bodies were marked with Sakura's distinct chakra signature.
Good. Kaoru decided, inwardly smirking. They should know not to mess with a girl on a mission. Especially if that girl has pink hair.
But then, the state they found Sakura in flashed through his mind, all bruised and bloody, unconscious and comatose. But sometimes… she should know to just give up and run.
He returned to the hospital room, sitting beside Akane and letting the redhead slump against his side with exhaustion evident in his features. They sat there, watching the rosette, waiting for her to finally snap awake, missing her.
And then, a few minutes later, her eyes slowly slid open. The two teens jumped up, excitement shining in their eyes, the previous exhaustion temporarily forgotten. They were about to rush and hug the rosette, but suddenly stopped. Although no longer closed, Sakura's eyes were still unseeing. They were glazed over, the sparkling emerald dull and hazy, her pupils blown out and dilated.
"She's still comatose." The medic-nin announced. Kaoru jumped at the sound of her voice, not having sensed her enter the room. Akane, on the other hand, moved towards the rosette and gently cupped her face, then raised one hand up in the air.
It's so soft here… So warm. Why should I leave…?
Maybe I can finally relax…?
It would be nice to just let… go…
Sorry, Akane… Kaoru… Shirani-san… Neji-chan… Izaya-sensei…
"Are you really going to give up so easily?"
Haku.
I… forgot about you.
"Don't you have a dream to fight for?"
I… I do.
You're right.
But… it's so hard. And I haven't been getting anywhere… so why not just-
SLAP!
Before Kaoru could stop him, the redhead's palm had already connected with Sakura's cheek. The sound of the slap seemed to echo around the room, but Akane didn't look even remotely apologetic.
Kaoru's shock wore off and he rounded on his teammate. "What on earth were you thinking?!" When the redhead didn't reply, he continued. "That's right! You weren't thinking! Do you know what could've happened?! Use your brain sometimes, seriously Akane, I swear, if you weren't-!"
"Sssh, Kaoru." The teen muttered dismissively. "You're giving her a headache."
"What are you- Sakura?" Kaoru couldn't help but stare. The rosette who was comatose mere seconds ago, suddenly sat up, idly rubbing her head. Her eyes were screwed shut, but the small grimace on her face told him that she was awake.
"Are you… OK?" he asked, and cursed himself almost immediately for sounding so lame and… intimidated.
Yet when the rosette's eyes finally opened, he decided that he was perfectly justified for sounding intimidated. Her eyes were blank, yet they held no sign of drowsiness or sleep. They were sharp, and cold, like icicles. They warmed only slightly when they rested on him and Akane, flickering with recognition as a tiny smile made its way onto her face.
But it disappeared almost as quickly as it formed. "I'm getting rather tired of waking up in this room." She commented, ripping off the IV and the needle that connected her to the heart monitor, before she sprung up. Kaoru half expected her to fall down and slump back onto the bed because, let's be honest, she was comatose less than five minutes ago.
It seemed like Akane didn't share his feelings, as the redhead merely walked over and stabilised her. "Glad to have you back, pinky." He grinned, all signs of weariness erased from his face.
"Glad to be back, carrot-boy." she replied just as snarkily, nudging him lightly. Her eyes wandered around the room. "How long was I out this time?"
"Ah, a bit more than a week. The biggest problem was finding you, of course." He continued. "Next time when you decide to take on twenty-five or so ninja on your own, at least give us a heads-up as to where you're going, OK? Might make it a bit easier for us to find you and make sure that you actually survive."
I'll kill him. Was Kaoru's first thought. It seemed like the redhead was on a suicide mission. Like he was going out of his way to annoy him. But just as he was about to give his teammate a piece of his mind, he noticed the calculating look the teen had in his eyes as he observed the rosette's reaction to his words. And suddenly, Kaoru understood.
Akane had also noticed the cold look Sakura had in her eyes. But he wanted to find out why.
The brunette turned to face the only girl in their team, eyes narrowing as she visibly flinched at the intensity behind Akane's words. Yet, before their eyes, her features ironed themselves out, and she presented them with a blank mask of indifference.
"I was simply doing my job as a shinobi of the Leaf. Sorry for any inconvenience caused." She apologised stiffly. "Now, if you don't mind, I would like to go home and shower."
"Actually, we do mind." Akane interrupted, grabbing the rosette by the wrist. Kaoru could only stare dumbly at the spectacle that unfolded before him. He felt helpless, and a small part of his mind wondered when Akane had become so… dominant.
The animosity between his teammates was almost palpable. He had never seen them act that way before, and he was worried. Was their perfect team slowly falling apart? Were they drifting away from each other?
He wanted so badly to interrupt, to yell at them to stop, but at the same time, he felt like that was not his battle to fight. So he just watched, letting his best friend fight it out with the girl he considered a little sister.
"Stop trying to distance yourself from us, Sakura." Akane demanded bluntly.
Yet the rosette was unperturbed. "I'm not. You're imagining things."
"And you're lying."
Sakura's nostrils flared. "You know nothing." She hissed venomously.
"Then tell me." He implored. "Tell us. Stop leaving us to guess what's wrong."
"What do you want me to tell you? That I'm scared? Confused? That I have no way of accomplishing my dream? That I don't know who I am anymore, don't know where, if I still have a place where I belong? That, while comatose, I was fully intent on giving up, letting the darkness envelop me once and for all? That I was angry with you for trying so stubbornly to save me when I wanted anything but?!" the rosette's voice rose steadily with every word that left her mouth, until she was shouting, tears pouring out of her eyes at an alarming rate.
A heavy silence fell over the room as the weight of Sakura's words sunk in. Kaoru gaped openly. He stood up, unsure why but bursting with the need to act, to do something or he would literally explode. And suddenly, Akane's arms were wrapped tightly around Sakura, one of his hands stretching out and dragging Kaoru to join them.
"Don't you dare say something like that ever again." The redhead choked out, his words muffled in Sakura's hair, his tears falling freely.
"You're not allowed to leave us." Kaoru added, finally finding his voice. His cheeks felt wet, and he belatedly realised that he was also crying. "While we are together, we are strong. Please, Sakura. Don't leave us."
"I won't." the rosette whispered, deflating as she hugged them tightly. "I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry."
…
The next few days passed calmly. Sakura recovered fully, the three of them trained, for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, working out all the knots and kinks in their teamwork that appeared due to not working together for such a long time.
"Ah it feels good to spar again!" Akane decided as he stretched, an easy grin on his face. "I almost missed getting my face shoved into the dirt by the two of you."
"Funny." Sakura remarked, but she was smirking. She was also rubbing a spot on her back, where Akane's jutsu had connected and thrown her off-balance and into a nearby tree.
"Having trouble there, Sakura?" He teased. The glare that the rosette shot at him could have frozen Hell. "Hey, hey, relax! It's just that I haven't landed a hit on you in ages, so I'm celebrating!" he raised his hands up in surrender. When she dropped the glare and he deemed it safe to continue, he couldn't resist adding; "You're not getting rusty by any chance, are you?"
Kaoru moved before Sakura could, which was a feat in itself. The moment the words left Akane's mouth, the brunette stopped sharpening his kunai and stood up. He flash-stepped to the redhead's side, and smacked him round the head.
"You are about as big of an idiot as they come." He said, annoyance and disbelief clear in his tone. "She could own your ass in a few seconds. Right, Sakura?"
But the rosette said nothing. And when the duo turned toward her, they found her frozen on the spot, eyes unseeing, staring into the ground.
"Sakura?"
"He's right." She muttered. "I am getting rusty."
"What?!" Akane exclaimed, visibly not having expected the conversation to turn towards that. "I was kidding, Sakura! It was just a joke, a bad comment! I didn't mean anything-!"
"Be quiet, Akane."
That was enough to stop the redhead. Sakura didn't shout, she didn't cry, she didn't glare. She just stood there, looking at them, through them. Akane didn't like the expression on her face. Or rather, the lack of expression on her face.
"Think about it," she continued in that same monotone. "just after we graduated – that first mission with the princess. Odds were over thirty experienced ninja to four; three were rookie genin, and one a newly-promoted jounin. But we did it. When you collapsed, I finished the ninja, and brought you home safely, even when suffering from chakra-exhaustion and dragging three people along with me." She paused, eyes showing that her mind was far away from the clearing she was standing in. "And then, this happens. Twenty five chunin manage to almost kill me."
"But you were on your own this time." Kaoru pointed out quietly.
"But I am two years older! We've been genin for two years, we took jounin-level missions! Shouldn't that mean that I get better, and not worse?"
"Sakura-"
"Stop trying to pacify me, Kaoru!" she snapped. "Can't you see what this means?"
When neither teen answered, she smiled bitterly. "It means that the two of you are weighting me down."
Before anyone could say anything else, Akane's palm connected with Sakura's cheek for the second time in the last few days. This time, it was intentional, and Sakura had enough time to dodge and evade if she felt like it. But the sheer shock of the action stopped her from doing so. Her head snapped to the side with the force, pink hair falling in disarray.
"If we're suddenly confessing epiphanies we've had in the last few minutes, here's mine: I am beyond sick of your mood-swings." Akane hissed venomously.
Kaoru was once again rendered speechless. Left to wonder when things turned from being the Dream Team, to… to this.
"You've done nothing but sulk, ignore us, and shut yourself away over the last few weeks. At first, I dismissed it, since we were all busy training for the Exams, and all that. But now? Now, you're just annoying me! You sneer at the Uchiha and bring him down whenever you can, but right now you're no better than him! Do you understand what I'm saying?!"
Sakura didn't say anything. She couldn't. Wide-eyed with shock. Somehow, that only fuelled Akane's anger.
"You're ten-years-old, for fuck's sake!" he ignored their gasps. "Forget the fact that you should still be in the Academy; but bloody hell, don't you dare spend the rest of your life brooding like some fool! I am sick and tired of watching you look so miserable and detached all the time! We can go and volunteer for D-Ranks if that's what you need to take your mind off of whatever is plaguing it! Just. Stop. Sulking!"
The rosette stood frozen. Her emerald eyes were wide like saucers, and alight with surprise.
"I… I never knew…"
"How you were acting?" Akane finished for her. "Yeah, I know. But just remember that we're always here for you. Kaoru-chan has been pulling out his hair with worry." He walked over to the brunette and lightly tugged on his ponytail. "And I'm not exactly happy watching you fade away either, you know."
Sakura regarded them both, before a cautious, tentative smile that slowly transformed into a full-blown grin appeared on her face.
"I love you guys."
So yeah. There. Not much action, but still necessary. I am going on holiday (which means no internet what-so-ever) in about a week, so I wanted to get this one out for you guys before I leave.
I hope it was OK, and I would be really grateful if you could share your opinion via a nice little Review! I would like to know what my readers think!
Love~
(And to those lucky people who are already out of school/work: have a good holiday!)
See you next chapter! Whenever that may be :]