Chapter Twenty: Tattered Cherry Blossom Petals
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
"N...No...Sa...ku..." Naruto trailed off as his hand sunk into the flesh of her back.
Sasuke didn't have time to pull back and his Chidori tore into her stomach.
"Sto...p..." She panted--her eyes glazing over and her body sinking to the ground held up only my two hands plunged through her body.
"Sakura!" Naruto screamed.
They couldn't pull out...it was just too horrible...
"Sakura!"
They didn't turn to Tsunade and she sprinted across the field, tears gathering in her hazel eyes with Kakashi close behind, his mask hiding the blood coming from where he had bitten into his lip.
Tsunade pushed the two shinobi away from her apprentice as she gathered Sakura into her arms and began pouring chakra into her limp body. Her blood pulsed onto the ground at such an alarming rate that within seconds Tsunade had been stained red from her neck down. Smears of the crimson liquid dotted her cheeks, streaking pink as her tears mixed with it.
"Sakura, open your eyes. Sakura!" Kakashi told her, desperately ordering her to respond as he pulled her hair back.
"Kakashi, I need a kunai." Tsunade told him as she laid her down and tore open her shirt.
Kakashi narrowed his eyes in despair as he gave the weapon to Tsunade.
"Hold on, Sakura." She whispered as she cut her open. Sakura's chest cavity was exposed and her quivering heart was exposed.
Placing her hands into her apprentice's failing body, Tsunade focused her attention on Sakura's heart.
"I need Shizune." She said, straining to force more chakra into Sakura. Kakashi nodded, disappearing back toward the hospital.
Within two minutes, the two shinobi had returned. As she ran up, Shizune cried out, biting into her lip and wiping away her quickly gathering tears.
Taking her place opposite of Tsunade, Shizune began to close Sakura's ruptured liver and spleen and her mauled kidneys.
Kakashi kept her head in his lap, stroking her hair and begging her to open her eyes.
Sakura lay in the hospital bed, the only sound perforating the silence being the steady beep of her heart monitor and blood pressure read-outs.
Dark circles rimmed her eyes andblood would soak through hersheets every so often. She had always been pale, Kakashi thought as she stroked her hair, but she had never look so...so dead.
The door opened and several orderlies along with Shizune stepped in.
"Sakura," Kakashi told her, "They're taking you for surgery. Alright?"
He sighed and nodded to them as he stood off in a barren corner, his head hung and his shoulders limp.
Tsunade pulled a surgical mask over her face and pulled her hair back before scrubbing her hands and taking her place in the Operating Room.
Nodding to the nurse, she put a breathing tube into Sakura's throat, slid an IV into her hand--the only place where her deflated veins could be found--and asked for the scalpel.
Steadying herself, Tsunade placed the blade against Sakura's stomach...
And pressed.
Eighteen hours later:
Sakura was wheeled back into her room and hooked back up to life support. She was stable...but far from safe.
"How did it go?" Kakashi asked as Tsunade stepped into the room, still wearing her blood stained scrubs.
"As well as could be expected." The Kage replied.
"I see." Kakashi sighed.
"Kakashi...you know what I have to do..."
"No, Lady Tsunade. You've done enough, leave it to me."
She hesitated, but seeing he wouldn't budge, she nodded.
"I'll stay with her." Shizune offered, taking his handas he stepped into the hall.
"Thank you." He responded, squeezing her hand reassuringly before pulling away and fading down the hallway with each step.
Sasuke and Naruto both sat in chain, too disoriented to care where they were. The same scene replayed through their heads hundreds of times a second.
"Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto, you are being formally disciplined for an illegal confrontation in which sparring rules and regulations were neglected, the result being the near fatal injuries inflicted upon Haruno Sakura, apprentice of our Lady Fifth."
They didn't even look up as the ANBU read the charges.
"Taka, I'll handle it."
They knew it was Kakashi...and they didn't care.
"Uchiha Sasuke, this incident being a serious breech of your probation, you will be handed over to Morino Ibiki for formal disciplinary action. Uzumaki Naruto, you are to come with me." Kakashi stated, freeing Naruto of his chains and leaving Sasuke to Ibiki.
"Is...is...she...Is she alright?" Naruto asked.
"As alright as you can be with liquified internal organs." Kakashi snapped back.
Naruto hung his head in shame.
"Where are we going?" He finally asked after an uncomfortable silence.
"You'll see."
And he did...they were walking towards the Monument of those killed in action.
Kneeling in prayer, Kakashi said, "Sakura's name was very nearly added to this memorial today."
"I tried to keep her out of it..." Naruto trailed off, his hands clenched so hard that his nails drew blood.
"Naruto, I'm ashamed of you. You fell to Sasuke's level today and it will take you a long time to rise from that." He continued.
"I know..." Naruto replied, tears spilling from his blue eyes.
"Your punishment, Naruto, will be the freezing of you status for the next four years. Until then, you will remain a genin and will be assigned the missions genin are given. Furthermore, your nomination as Hokage will be thrown out for the next seven."
"But..." Naruto stopped, he deserved it...
He nodded.
"Uchiha Sasuke, as punishment for the breech of your probation, you are being removed from the ranks of Konoha's shinobi indefinately. You are confined to the village. Should you ignore these regulations, you will be labeled a traitor and a missing nin and you will be tracked until found and killed by our Hunter nin." Ibiki said.
Sasuke nodded weakly.
"What about Sakura?" He asked.
"I have been ordered to divulge no information regarding Haruno Sakura's condition. I will, however, warn you, Uchiha Sasuke...today you've made more enemies than you ever did in your service to Orochimaru."
TBC