My friends, I proudly present chapter 2! :D
Please enjoy~~
Star Crossed
Chapter 2: Second MeetingXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Doctor! Her heart rate is speeding up!"
"Brain activity is beyond normal!"
"Shit. It's not time for her to wake up yet! Double the dose of the sedatives!"
"Haruno-san please remain calm. Don't move. Everything is going to be alright."
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"Are you just going to stand there?" Shikamaru said, with one of his hands in his pocket and the other around Ino's waist.
"Hn," the other nin just grunted in response. His friend sighed and entered the room with Ino in tow. They had been together after Asuma died. Leaning on each other for support and maybe finding in each other the comfort they had yearned for. Nothing could separate them, even if he tried to use a crowbar to yank them apart. A ghost of a smile appeared on his lips as he remembered the day they wed. Ino had looked absolutely stunning in a white gown and Shikamaru had looked as if he had won the lottery. The boy had finally proposed to her after ten years of being in a relationship. Sadly, her best friend could not attend her wedding. His smile disappeared from his face as he remembered the reason why he stood in front of the hospital room 405.
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"Captain! We're surrounded," his team mate said in the ANBU code. To others it would be pure gibberish but to the ANBU members it was like a second language. Using his bloodline limit, he scanned the surrounding area to find four enemy nin surrounding the group. And they were definitely strong.
They had been sent to the Fire Country border to investigate the mysterious deaths of certain villagers and shinobi that had passed the area. He was sent with Shikamaru, Hinata, Kiba and her. All of them had been able to enter ANBU due to their strengths and exceptional abilities in assassination and stealth. They were making their way to the border when they had been caught in a genjutsu that had them travelling in circles and wasting their chakra. It was Shikamaru that figured it out and removed the genjutsu only to find that they had been surrounded by enemy nin.
"Byakugan!" he said under his breath and tried to pinpoint the enemy's position. An escape route was almost impossible. But before he could issue a command, a clay sparrow flew in from his left side. Shit.
"MOVE!" he screamed. Before the clay sparrow exploded, the group had managed to separate and escape from the deadly blow. He cursed himself for letting the enemy separate the group only making it easier for them to kill each of his team mates one by one. He knew this was what the Godaime had warned about. He knew that the Akatsuki were after her. But she did not know why. She had tried to keep her busy in the hospital and away from harm but she knew it was only a matter of time before the stubborn kunoichi would find her way out of the hospital and on a mission. The Godaime had thought the mission was simple enough. Who would have thought it was a trap?
They had thought the Akatsuki were after the nine-tails but the loud blonde had left Konoha years ago with one of the legendary sannin after the Uchiha had turned his back on his village and his friends. That was ten years ago. And there was still no sign of the Uchiha or the blonde.
He could sense his team mates engage in battle as the sounds of metal against metal echoed in the empty forest. It was five against four, but it did not mean that they could survive. They needed to escape or it would be too late.
He could see Hinata on his left throwing her weapons and dodging the huge man's attacks. He was wielding a huge sword and immediately he could recognize the Akatsuki member. He seemed to have lost the capability to breathe properly as he was wheezing and dangerously swinging his huge sword to try and get close enough to Hinata.
Further in front of him he could see both Shikamaru and Kiba fighting against two enemy nin. One whom he recognized immediately was the mass murderer of his whole clan. He could see the crimson orbs spinning dangerously in the darkness. The other was one slightly shorter man with and orange mask that only revealed only one eye.
This had meant that the explosives expert was somewhere nearby.
He immediately landed on a nearby branch in a battle stance ready to attack. He was sure the explosives expert was nearby. He felt another presence beside him and recognize her chakra signature.
"Sakura. You have to go. Escape now," He told her with a stern, emotionless voice.
"What? There's absolutely no way I'm going to leave my team mates to die!" She replied adamantly. He only turned his head to look at her. She was wearing a mask with a hawk pattern. Her hair was held back with the help of a pair of what seemed like chopsticks with the shorter strands of pink falling freely around her mask.
"Go!" He said with finality. She knew it was not wise to go against the Captain of her team and only nodded and disappeared after hesitating for a few seconds.
"Hmmphh! You just spoiled the whole plan, yeah"
He turned around to find one of the Akatsuki members. It was thought that he was dead after the extraction of the Shukaku, exploding himself. Only after the organization had decided to take Sakura did they find out that he was alive. Unfortunately.
He was crouching comfortably on a clay bird. With the Akatsuki member being a long-range expert it was impossible for him to get close enough for him to execute his attacks. Getting to close would mean he would be an easy target to get hit my one of his explosives and he knew the crazed blonde would not think twice to explode himself to kill him.
He threw a couple of kunai at his enemy. In the split second where the kunai flew and was deflected by the enemy he placed his hands together to perform seals rapidly. In a puff of smoke, multiple copies of him appeared and wielding their ninjato, a compulsory weapon carried by all ANBU.
The copies lunged at the enemy nin.
The real one had masked his chakra and sneaked his away around the enemy nin hoping to get close enough to get a clear, accurate shot at his heart that would immediately kill him. But suddenly a kunai whizzed past. It was uncomfortably near his neck and he had dodged at the last second.
"That won't work on me, yeah," the blonde said with one of the ninjato swords in his hands. The clones had all disappeared. The explosives expert was far more dangerous than he thought to have been able to disperse his shadow clones. Naruto had not been the only one to learn that technique. Like many of his family techniques, he learned them only through observation. Learning the Shadow Clone technique was too easy. He noticed the enemy was no longer on a clay bird.
With a strong kick using his chakra induced feet, the blonde leapt from the tree the ninjato aiming for his heart. In the speed of light, he removed his ninjato out of its sheath and blocked the attack. He smirked under his mask and immediately aimed his fist at the enemy's heart. But the enemy only dispersed in a puff of smoke.
A clone? Shit. Where's the real one?
He quickly turned around to find his vision blurred with pink and red.
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He sighed and rubbed his eyes with his fingers. The idiot had come back wanting to help her friends. In her attempt to stop the blade from piercing him, she stupidly placed her body as a shield. He had sworn he would protect her. How could he fail?
The Akatsuki members had fled quickly after that as two of their members had been badly hurt and needed medical attention immediately. He could remember the man with the orange mask slung over the Uchiha's shoulder and the blue one leaning heavily on his giant sword, as he seemed to have badly damaged his leg. The crazed blonde had looked pale and was stumbling on his feet when he released his hold on the ninjato. He had grabbed the pink haired kunoichi before she could fall to her death. The way he had held her was gentle, like a lover's. He held her for a split second before depositing her safely on a tree branch. Her ANBU mask had fallen of her face and she was covered in sweat and blood.
The strange actions of the Akatsuki member raised suspicions in him but he placed that aside. Sakura's injury was serious and could be fatal. Luckily, Hinata had enough chakra to stop the bleeding and repair any fatal damages. But she could not fully heal her. They had quickly returned to Konoha with the pink haired kunoichi's body in his arms.
She had been hospitalised ever since.
His team mates were hurt but their injuries were not fatal. But Sakura's injury had severed arteries and penetrated through her abdomen. If her wound was not fatal enough, she could have died from severe blood loss. The medics of Konoha and even the Godaime herself had been part of the surgery. That was six months ago, the kunoichi was still unconscious. The Godaime confirmed that she was in a coma, her body's attempt to fully heal itself. No one had expected it would take this long. Her friends had been worried. Some visited on a daily basis, others weekly. Even their allies from Suna had come to Konoha to visit her. He knew the oldest blonde had dragged her male siblings to the hospital after they had finished their diplomatic mission in Konoha. She was the one that saved her brother's life and help kill Sasori.
The elders had once decided to pull the plug and give up on her after third month. But the Godaime had objected and raged, unable to control her anger and hurt. She had refused to give up on her apprentice.
"Yo, Neji,"
Neji shifted his attention from the floor to the man standing in front of him. How could he not sense the Copy nin's presence? He tilted his head in a respectful bow. The Copy nin's visible right eye creased in what seemed like a smile. He was wearing his usual mask covering the lower part of his face. His hitai-ate covered his left eye. Even her sensei had come to the hospital to visit her weekly when he was not assigned to any missions. Even though her sensei hated the hospital he would still come to visit her.
"You know, they think she's dead. They won't come looking for her again. She's not in any immediate danger," the silver haired shinobi said before entering the room.
Neji knew. And he had entered the room once or twice to see her. But he chose to visit when everyone had left and he was the only one left. Sometimes he opted to stand outside and listen to all the stories her friends and team mates would share with her.
When everyone had left, he slowly opened the doors of the hospital room and stepped inside. The sight before him never failed to terrify him, and the Hyuga was not easily terrified. Before him was a friend he once knew. Her pink hair was in disarray over her pillows. It grew over the past six months. Her cheeks were sullen, her skin pale. She had lost her usual rosy glow. He had missed her warm smile that seemed to always light the room up. It scared him to think that he would not see that side of her again.
Needles stuck out of her body everywhere. They were connected to fancy machinery that would help her live. It was like she was just an empty shell of the person he once knew. He walked closer to the bed. He wished he would open her eyes once again.
"Sakura…" he whispered as he extended his arm to gently push aside a lock of hair off her face. Suddenly, the monotonous beeping of the machine monitoring her heart started to increase in its pace. He saw her fingers start to twitch.
"Sakura?" he said much louder now. Was she going to wake up? He quickly dashed out of the room in search for a doctor. He did not notice a small clay bird watching them from outside the window.
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PLEASE review. And maybe post a couple of suggestions if you guys want.
Open to any advice of course!
Chapter 3 will be up soon XD