Chapter Twenty-Nine: Blood
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!
Tsunade held her weeping apprentice, completely disregarding the fact that she was bleeding all over her, or that her tears were soaking through her thin shirt.
"Because, Sakura, he was our comrade. And as our comrade, he was our friend, our family...regardless of his choices, his mistakes." She replied, clutching Sakura a little tighter.
It took Sakura several days to recover and Tsunade never pressured her to tell her what had happened: She knew that Kabuto was well known for his use of genjutsu to torture his victims. But almost as quickly as she had snapped, she had slipped back into the Sakura all of Konoha knew and loved.
In fact, even Ibiki had made a stop at her house with flowers. Something unheard of from the stoic interrogating and more proof of Sakura's position within the ranks of Konoha's shinobi.
Of course, he wasn't the only one: By day three Sakura's house reeked so strongly of flowers that even Ino couldn't stand it for longer than a few minutes.
But perhaps the most interesting of the flowers were several stalks of shimmering gold and silver orchid lilies brought to her by Sasuke--a special project he had commissioned Ino for less than ten minutes after Tsunade had healed the considerable damage Sakura's blow had inflicted to his cardiovascular systems.
Smiling, Tsunade watched from her window as Sakura showed Gin, Yuki, Sango, Ryuumaru, and Kagemaru the village.
After a small tour, Sakura had ordered her new friends to report to Iruka--who would evaluate them and advise what place they should take among the Leaf shinobi.
She still had a training exercise to get to so she quickly switched her white summer dress for her kunoichi attire in Ino's bathroom before running down to the training fields.
"Sakura." Kakashi said with an eye-crease she knew was a smile.
"Hey!" She replied back happily.
"Ready?" Sai asked.
"Always!" Sakura said, pulling her gloves over her wrists pointedly.
Sai smirked in his own lop-sided way as she stuck her tongue out in mock arrogance.
"Good." Kakashi said, directing Sasuke to Sakura and Sai to Naruto again.
They took their respective place across the field. It would be a four on four fight--every woman for herself.
"Go." Kakashi yawned lazily, withdrawing a recent edition of Icha Icha from his hip holster.
They sprinted at each other, each weaving through a sea of weaponry as they launched their own shuriken and kunai. Leapint over Sai, Sakura brought her feet down with enough force to shatter the ground; propelling herself away from the debris as Naruto, Sasuke, and Sai stumbled she lashed several lines at them.
A moment later three figures broke through the dust, each clashing each other as they worked their way down at her. Blocking Sai's katana with her kunai, Sakura ducked under Naruto's clone's clumsy kick. Levering the Shadow Clone's foot over her should she tossed it into Sasuke who somehow managed to side-step the makeshift projectile and came back at her with his own katana swipes.
Sakura was caught between two swords and one Jinchuuriki and somehow she was managing to block or evade anything they threw at her. Leaping over a cross guard, Sakura formed the seals for a complex genjutsu.
That was when Sasuke activated his sharigan, his back to her in the hopes of throwing her off.
As she snapped the jutsu into place he turned to face her.
Sakura gasped: It was all coming back to her...the screams, the accusations, the knives...the pain even she couldn't quell. And it was all held within those red orbs...the pools of blood that threatened to drown her in its bitter metallic taste like evil itself.
She screamed.
TBC