&dedicated to: whenifallxx (for giving such a lovely review). thank you. :D
Summary- In the natural scheme of things, the dead stay dead. But in the world of ninjas, nothing's for certain anymore. Sasu/Saku.
&the disclaimer is applied.
hey, does anyone use the 1/2 or 3/4 setting on the right side of the page? am i the only one? i think it kinda looks better that way.
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15
thank you to everybody
reading this!
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March 22
Location- Konoha
The village echoed with shouts and screams. It was the first attack on the Hidden Leaf Village in the last five years.
Fiery sparks lit up everywhere, and civilians ran through the streets, rushing to the safe houses in scattered masses.
Sakura crouched on top of a tree and felt the limb sway as four others leaped beside her. Chaos enveloped the Leaf village, in the absolute truest sense of the word. Buildings were already broken down, and part of the massive wall had been breached. The first step in war was to protect the villagers; but by the looks of it, the time it was taking had cost a lot of casualties.
Sasuke's eyes were burning holes on her face, Sakura thought. Maybe it was the circumstances, but he was lacking any of his usual discretion. His eyes blazed a deep scarlet, spinning black tomoe around his pupils. His chakra stretched out around her, and she could sense his direction. He fanned out his energy, searching for the one reason he was here.
Sucking in a breath, Sakura sighed. She had to hand it to him; he stayed on track.
She didn't particularly care why he was here or why he wanted her to think he came. If he took down Itachi, who knew how many Leaf ninjas wouldn't die for that same cause. He looked at her with a devilish gleam in his eye. Sasuke's body tensed up, and in the next second, his form smoothly disappeared. The breeze he left waved across her face, and she looked at the other three.
"You don't have to be here," Sakura started slowly, staring at Jugo, Suigetsu, and Karin. She looked back at the village and said, "But if anyone feels like killing Sound ninja or Akatsuki, knock yourself out." The village would need all the help it could get.
She thought she heard Suigetsu give a whoop of excitement. Springing off the branch, Sakura bounded inside the perimeter of the walls. She landed and dropped to her knees swiftly. Ninjas were crawling everywhere. In the streets, kunai flew in every direction, while the stealthier ones hid in the shadows, waiting for opportunities.
One of those stealthier ninja slid around the edge of building, aiming at her. Swinging a leg, she hit her attacker in the torso, and he crashed into the village barrier. Two others reeled into her by accident; they ricocheted into the opposite direction as she pushed them off.
Sand was kicked up in the air, leaving a lazy haze. She shielded her eyes and gripped the eave of a house, swinging herself over. Someone stood on top, waiting for her; a smile started on her face before she looked up.
"About time."
Two very familiar brown eyes stared into her own. His trademark lazy drawl was still intact; Shikamaru in all his standard uniform glory stood in front of her. A cigarette rested in between his lips as per usual, circling in lethargic movements. She could barely see the smoke through the sand in the air.
He didn't waste any time. "It's the west side we're slacking on," he commented, as if he talking about the weather. "The market place was hell to evacuate, people screaming everywhere. Help out where you can. And make a point to kill enemy ninja if someone sees you."
Sakura's mouth quirked up in a smile. "You're not going to attack me, Shikamaru?"
"Nah, that'd be a waste when we have real enemies running around. No one should bother you, as long as you're helping us. We've got our hands full."
The end was an understatement. "...We have a chance, right?" It didn't matter if they did or didn't, though. They would all fight until it was over. Shikamaru knew that as well as she did.
"Who was with you?" He flicked the cigarette in another circle and nodded toward the village wall.
Sakura shot a glance over her shoulder, and sure enough, the rest of Sasuke's team wasn't there. She decided to take that as a good sign. Two ninjas skidded under the building they were on, and she called over the yells, "Sasuke."
Shikamaru made a vague gesture and nodded. "For Itachi?"
"Yeah. His team is here, too. One of them might be aiming for Kisame." She assumed Kisame was the reason Suigetsu hadn't complained about coming.
Shikamaru's shadow slanted away from him, and Sakura didn't bother to look around. He frowned and replied, "Head to the west side. We could use someone to take out the masses."
She laughed at his wording and pulled her gloves on tighter. "You got it."
Another series of screams echoed behind her as she left. Shikamaru was at an advantage with the length of the shadows.
He hadn't said they were losing. She decided to take that as a good sign, too.
As she moved through the houses, Sakura couldn't estimate how many Sound ninja there were. It was like an infestation of ninja. Shikamaru wasn't kidding when he mentioned the west side.
She glanced around at the damage and figured Sound might have concentrated on the west side and swarmed it; whereas, Konoha usually spread out their ninja all around. By the time an alert could have gone out, it was probably too late.
Her knuckles cracked as she threw a hard punch into someone's stomach. There were so many Sound ninja, she hardly had to open her eyes to tell whether or not they were Leaf. (Because that was just what she needed: to kill a Leaf ninja and have that against her, too, she thought.)
She was damaging a lot of the building, but it couldn't be helped. Sakura slung another few ninja over her back. It would be morning soon. When had she arrived? A few hours ago? It seemed longer than that. Her arm burned when she surged more chakra into it, readying herself to take out the next several ninja in front of her.
A loud crack rang in her ears. This time, it was against the trees in the forest. Minus a few, the invasion on that side was almost taken care of. Glancing behind her, Sakura rasped in a breath and gazed at the stacks of bodies. The majority were Sound. She tried not to look at the ones who weren't. A few Leaf ninja took out the last of the Sound ninja straddling the wall. One or two of them sent curious looks at her.
Sakura recognized one of the Leaf ninjas from Interrogations. Thickly, she swallowed and waved at him for his attention. "Where's Naruto?" Why hadn't she seen him yet?
"In the marketplace," he answered, out of the breath. A peculiar whirring sound erupted miles away. Sakura groaned. She knew that sound, and it came from the direction of the marketplace. She started towards the center of the village.
Rain starting patting down a little heavier than it had been. She wiped the water out of her eyes and started picking up her pace. White streaked across the sky in shattering strokes. It lit up the night in a jagged line, illuminating the tops of the broken buildings.
Sakura stood still where she was. The thunderstorm had been gradually building for a while, so she wondered if it was her imagination...? Electrified chakra fizzed through the air, making her hair stand up on end. The crackling of a familiar move out-roared the lightning, but she knew better. The lightning was a new addition to his trademark jutsu. Sasuke had apparently found Itachi. And if he had resorted to lightning, were things drawing to a close?
If she were any less tired, she could have screamed. Who first? Naruto would be okay, right? He had the Nine Tails. That line of thinking didn't help. He could lose control.
Who was closer? Sakura glanced back at the lightning; Sasuke was by the village gates. Her hands shook, and she headed south.
Her feet pounded against the sand as she set off running. The air was still cold, and it burned in her lungs. Bodies blocked her feet's path; she jumped onto the eaves of the houses. Some of the buildings had been reduced to rubble or stacks of support beams. Various ninja still battled around her, so she tried to keep to the shadows. Dust clogged the air, thrown up from bombs and battles. The lightning continued to roar in her ears.
Sakura dropped to her hands and knees to run in a feline position, trying to get more traction against the rubble. There was hardly anything to hold onto; if things kept up, whole sections would be levelled. Sasuke's massive chakra signature grew clearer in her mind, and she raced towards it. (Be safe, Naruto, she thought to herself.)
A body flew through the air, and she didn't have time to dodge it. Bleeding through his chest, the ninja tried to shield his wound with his arm. He landed awkwardly on top of her. A small symbol on his forehead stopped her from helping.
Sakura glanced to her right and saw Kiba and Akamaru spinning in unison, enemy ninja bouncing off them like flies. She shrugged off the man and ignored his pitiful yelp of agony. He fell to the ground. With the weakness of sympathy, she hauled him up with her arm and laid him on the side of the roof. Sakura frowned and stabbed a kunai through his chest, turning her head as his blood spurted from the gash. His eyelids fluttered closed, and she bounded off to the tops of the village gates.
The familiar granite touch met her fingertips.
Squinting, Sakura recognized the figures of the last two Uchihas against the tree line. Had she barely made it? She clutched the slabs of granite, trying to see through the mist and rain.
Sasuke and Itachi ran toward each other; their limbs zipped past each other in matched speed. The angry thunder howled, and a blue bolt tore the sky in half. The flash lit up their faces, and two Sharingans peered at each other in strange mirror-images.
Blood splattered onto Sasuke's face and trickled down his cheek. His hand fisted inside the growing crater of his brother's chest. The concentrated light broke off in rough shafts, and Itachi's body sagged under the intensity, slouching to the torn ground as Sasuke disengaged his jutsu.
Sakura shifted on top of the gate. She had planned to leave him alone so she could find Naruto. Then Sasuke's tower-like form collapsed to the forest floor in the next instant, and Sakura swore to herself. Her hands already charged with green chakra, she leaped to the center of the clearing. Her feet hit the ground no sooner than her knees.
"Sasuke-kun," Sakura murmured. She rolled Sasuke onto his back and steadied her hands on the gaping slashes across his stomach. His breath quickened in shallow puffs, and a sheen of sweat glistened on his forehead.
Did she even have enough chakra? She might not. She couldn't use it all; what about Naruto? Weaving her chakra into the small linings of his chakra network, Sakura tried to pull and manipulate his reserves, which weren't much, to heal some of the minor damage. His own chakra would work better on his own body, but she couldn't grasp his chakra with her own.
As she almost gave up, his chakra twitched under her fingertips. She smiled and directed it towards his stomach.
Sasuke's breath caught in the back of his throat. Sakura yanked her eyes to his face. "Sasuke-kun?" His eyelids fell over his pupils as she watched the irises roll into the back of his head. He was going into circulatory shock from blood loss.
The thick, sticky red liquid pooled under Sakura's knees and filled in the cracks of the ground. His wounds were closing, but it didn't look like he would wake up any time soon.
Flesh sealed together under her fingers, and a cough shuddered through Sasuke's chest cavity. His head lolled onto her lap, and he panted in the cold air. He wasn't so bad off, she thought to herself. The blood loss wasn't enough to kill him, at least.
She gently grabbed his wrist and pulled his arm around her shoulders; his face landed awkwardly on her neck. She tried to lift him on her back, but he gave a half-conscious grunt of protest.
Droplets of rain splashed onto Sakura's face. She almost managed to laugh. While Sasuke refused to be carried, shrugging off her hands, she pulled him closer still. He continued to swat her hands away.
"Stop being so..." He grunted with the effort. "Annoying." His voice was soft in the rain.
Sakura paused and laughed. Rain ran in rivers down her face and hair. Would he react differently if he knew she was only trying to shelter him from the cold, so he didn't sick, too? Probably not. She looped his arm around her neck and held him next to her out of spite.
"Sakura, I can't breathe..." he paused, sounding gruff with exhaustion, "with you on me like that."
"You'll live." Nostalgia made her smile. The blood loss was making him hallucinate, she reasoned. Flashbacks to the time he was in Waves.
The rain picked up even more, and the blood ran off the front of her shirt. She paused to figure out what she could do with Sasuke. She couldn't get to Naruto with him-
A cloud of smoke erupted in front of her, covering a ninja with his hands still in the transportation stance.
"Lady Tsunade needs you. The troops have pulled out. What's left of them." The ninja stood motionless in front of her before he disappeared as quickly as he came. The heavy downpour had blurred her vision of him. That was disgust on his face? It was easy to forget that she wasn't technically welcome in Konoha.
Sakura curtly nodded to herself and muttered to Sasuke, despite his unconscious state, "Can't win 'em all, I guess."
She locked her fingers together around Sasuke's body to materialize at the Hokage Tower. Water rippled off their two forms onto the wooden floors in a muted splash. Tsunade faced the window, surveying the damages of the village. Which weren't hard to pick out.
Setting Sasuke down on the chair in the corner, Sakura was careful not to open the newly healed gashes. His head fell backwards to rest on the wall, and his eyes remained slightly opened. Wet pink hair stuck to the side of her face, and somewhat to the side of his face. Sakura lingered over him. His look was a little too attentive for someone who was supposed to be in shock. He regarded her movements with a lazy interest shining behind his half-lidded eyes.
She released her arms from him and turned around to face Tsunade. Blond hair lay across her back in pigtails as always. Her red fingernails were tracing patterns on the window sills. Sakura figured someone would notice her and report her to the Hokage, but this was sooner than she had imagined. Who had told Tsunade? And... Naruto. Was he okay?
"Danzo was missing during the attack," Tsunade intoned, without any particular emphasis.
Sakura frowned. Danzo? What did she mean?
"Kakashi found him two hours ago, trapped under a fallen building…" Tsuande trailed off. She peered over her shoulder at Sakura and looked her up and down. "Take Sasuke and go to the hospital. Tell them I sent you and stay there for the night. Stay out of trouble; I've got things to take care of."
Sakura nodded and swallowed down the lump in her throat. She wasn't being thrown in jail, so far. No one was interrogating her. All good signs.
She slid her foot toward Sasuke and pulled him next to her. His weight leaned less onto her than before, but his head found the same spot on her neck to rest against. Sakura tugged him up farther. She paused with her hand on the doorknob. The words died in her throat.
As the soft click of the double doors echoed in her office, Tsunade turned and set her eyes on the manila folder lying on her desk.
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The familiar smells of the hospital surrounded her, and she recognized it even in unconsciousness. Her mind drifted away from slumber, and Sakura blearily opened her eyes. It took her a few moments to realize that the monotonous beeping of a machine was missing. The room felt hollow to her without it.
Rain patted against the window behind her still. Lazy drops hushed the background noise of various nurses shuffling down the halls. Sakura sat up and stared at Sasuke. He slept in the opposite bed. The hospital workers had been fairly gracious in giving them a room. She supposed it was because she had worked with them. A few still glared as she had tugged Sasuke down the hall.
Uproar, was all she could think when she had entered the hospital. Blood was everywhere; ninjas filled up every corner. Sakura remembered not too fondly many nights like that, when she had to run the hospital with Tsunade and Shizune.
She focused her eyes and noticed with a start that Sasuke was staring at her.
"Hi."
He blinked a few more times and pushed himself up in a sitting position. Raking his hand through his spiked hair, Sasuke eyed her wearily. She smiled lightly and shrugged. It seemed as fitting as any other greeting, just perhaps not what he was looking for.
He glanced out of the window and frowned. His back hit the wall with a soft thud. He folded his arm across his chest and left one leg dangling off the edge of the lumpy hospital bed. Sakura examined the bandages covering his sides and the small cuts littering his collarbone and shoulders. Tape wrapped his whole stomach. "You're not going to ask what happened?" Sakura asked, folding her legs beneath her.
"No, I can guess as much," Sasuke answered. He gazed up at the ceiling blankly.
Itachi was dead. What did he want to do now? She wanted to say something, but there weren't any words. What would the Council do with them? There was no point in planning for the future when he might be dead tomorrow.
The rain picked up, and Sakura stared at the hospital sheets. Pursing her lips, she watched the movements outside the window as the rain washed everything away. The blood had already been swept downhill from the storm. All the houses were dark. The sections that were damaged the worst were empty. The safe houses were probably littered with people whose houses were too badly destroyed.
She looked away and averted her eyes back to Sasuke. Rain filled up the silence.
a/n.
so i thought that this would be the last chapter. but as it turns out, there is one more chapter!
i'm so sorry for the late update, too. ): but the next chapter will be updated in exactly seven days! which is precisely one year and one month since i first posted this story (that's not terribly long, right? that includes the edit, too.). stay tuned, people!
drop a review in the review box, if you please. :P because i love you all. *cyber hug* there are plenty of better writers, so it's really cool of you people to read and review. it's appreciated. xD
-and pea ess. ohmygoodness, has anyone else read the last manga? (cue plug: onemanga .com is pretty fantastic.)