.
THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE DAMNED
stfuSPARKS
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or '7 Minutes in Heaven' by Fall Out Boy.
.
.
.
XVI.
7 Minutes in Heaven
"I'll be stuck fixated on one star,
When the world is crashing down."
.
.
.
Was it finally over?
No one spoke.
Sasuke silently observed from afar as the pink haired girl's eyes finally fluttered shut. Her small figure slumped forwards as she lost consciousness- yet to his relief she was still breathing. Gaara's grip around her tightened for a mere second before he gently set her limp form on the ground with a tenderness that no one had ever seen in him before.
His rough hand ghosted over her cheek as his dark jade eyes stared at her with a haunting look- almost longingly.
After what seemed like an eternity, the redhead finally stood up, looking directly at Sasuke as he did so.
"I'll leave it up to you now, Uchiha." He quietly murmured, but Sasuke heard him loud and clear.
"Aa."
Gaara looked down at her sleeping figure one last time before finally walking away.
Naruto looked at him with a strange expression in his cerulean blue eyes. "What are you going to do now?" He asked in an unusually quiet voice. "Where are you going to go?"
The red haired boy was silent for a minute. "Anywhere." he finally replied, not turning around. "We will probably never meet again, Naruto."
Naruto clenched his fists. "Why does it have to be that way?" he grit out. "Will you ever open your eyes to see that we're here for you? Me, Kiba, Shikamaru... and even Neji and Sasuke-teme! We're a team Gaara... and that means that we're always here for each other! What will it take for you to see that you don't have to be alone?"
Gaara finally turned around to face his blond teammate. "It's the only way." he said, his gaze as intense as ever. "I can no longer be around Sakura, not after today." He momentarily paused, before speaking again. "We may not have always had enjoyable moments, but I was always proud to be a part of this team."
A pained expression overcame Naruto's face. "We can work this out." he whispered.
"Naruto, let him go."
The blond whipped his head around at his best friend's words. The Uchiha briefly set his hand on Naruto's shoulder before walking towards the redhead until they were standing face-to-face. The two extremely intimidating men simply stared at each other for a second.
"Thank you."
Sasuke's words were curt and simple, but Gaara understood the meaning hidden behind them all too well.
Thank you for letting her go.
The Uchiha offered him an outstretched hand. Without hesitating, Gaara firmly shook it.
"Goodbye."
.
.
Lee.
Forgive me.
I never meant to let my selfishness take over me.
I was broken. I still am, but for the first time I have discovered that I am still fixable.
I was blinded by hatred.
My words will never bring you back, I know that.
Nothing I can say or do will ever make it okay.
But perhaps-
Perhaps my actions today were a small step forwards.
I will no longer look back on the past.
Have I done well, Lee?
.
.
That was the last time anyone ever saw Sabaku no Gaara again.
.
.
.
.
"I can't hear anything anymore." Kiba's face was solemn when he finally spoke up, interrupting the silence.
Neji whirled around to face his teammate. He hadn't been able to hear anything for quite awhile now, but Kiba's ears were different- his hearing was extremely sensitive and more accurate than any other human being he knew. If Kiba said that he couldn't hear anything anymore, it meant that something had definitely happened.
"Do you think we lost?" Kiba's voice was even more hushed.
Kisame merely raised an eyebrow at the younger boy. "Are you kidding me?" he skeptically asked. "Did you see Pinky back there? I mean how the hell can anyone win against her? They'll be fine."
Neji was slightly disturbed. "But is that thing that's taken over Sakura's body... isn't that thing our enemy too?"
Kiba shuddered at the implication of his words, but the two Akatsuki members did not look disturbed in the least.
"You have known Sakura for less than a month, but we are people who lived with her for an entire year. While I understand if you can't put your trust into her to overcome this, we are confident that she will be fine." Itachi finally said, not even bothering to look at the Hyuuga as they rapidly made their way to the top floor.
Their footsteps were entirely too loud in the silence of the building. The only objects that lit up their way were the green emergency lights that marked the exits.
"We should concentrate in finding a way out." Kisame changed the subject. "Even if the others succeeded in killing Orochimaru, it won't mean squat if we can't find an escape route for them. We should be able to find something if we access Orochimaru's main office."
"It's bad that we lost the connection with Shino awhile back." Neji said with a frown. "I'm positive that he could have found a solution for us. If we can find a way to re-establish that connection, it may just be enough."
"But we don't know what it is that's blocking out the connection." Kiba mumbled. "I don't think it's Orochimaru; he shut the power down in the entire building. Any equipment that could be used can't possibly work right now."
A surprised look overcame Kisame's face. "You think it's Pinky's powers that are causing this?"
Kiba shook his head. "It's just a speculation, I can't be sure."
"It would make sense." Itachi said with a nod, as they finally reached the top floor. "But that's not an issue that we can deal with right now. The least we can do is find a way to turn the power back on. It would make things a lot easier if we could move around with some decent lighting."
"We should split up here." Neji immediately said. "We can cover more ground in a shorter amount of time if we do."
Kisame nodded in agreement. He was about to join Itachi's side, when Neji shook his head. "I'll go with the Uchiha. Kiba will go with you." The Hyuuga said. Itachi raised an eyebrow but did not say otherwise. Kiba looked like he was about to protest, but he promptly shut his mouth when Neji shot him a glare.
The tall, blue-skinned man shrugged his shoulders. "I don't really care as long as we get the hell out of here quickly." he said, and started to walk down the hallway to the left. Kiba spluttered and gave Neji one last confused look before running over to catch up with his temporary partner.
"You have something to ask of me." Itachi smoothly said as soon as Kisame and Kiba both disappeared from view.
Neji was impressed- Uchiha Itachi was just as perceptive as he had imagined him to be.
"I don't know what happened between you and your brother." The Hyuuga calmly began, not feeling the least bit intimidated by Itachi's presence. "And I'm not going to ask you about it either. Whatever happened in the past between the two of you is honestly none of my concern. However, you owe everyone an explanation for something else."
"Oh?" Itachi's eyebrow rose. "And what would that be, Hyuuga?"
"Your brother is clearly not a normal human being, just like Sakura." Neji told him. "I don't doubt that it has to do with your rocky past- and I have a strong suspicion that it has to do with the fact that your eyes are naturally a similar shade of red."
"You are just as smart as they said you'd be, Hyuuga Neji." A slight smirk graced Itachi's handsome features. "But you are right. My little brother isn't normal, just like Sakura."
"Why?" Neji pressed, as his eyebrows knitted together into a frown. "What's wrong with them?"
"Nothing is wrong with them." Itachi took a seat on one of the chairs, motioning for Neji to do the same. "I admit that I would not mind having their powers- they could prove to be extremely useful."
The chocolate haired boy was starting to get frustrated with the way Itachi kept on evading his questions. However, he didn't let his face betray anything. "You weren't surprised in the least when Sasuke and Naruto displayed... abnormal features on the school grounds a couple of days ago. It's almost as if you were expecting for it to happen."
"Maybe I was." Itachi's answer was cryptic once again.
"Enough with the bullshit, Itachi."
The Uchiha only looked even more amused at Neji's irritation. "I'll be honest with you Hyuuga, I don't know much either. I don't have most of the answers to your questions- all I can tell you is that these powers have been manifesting in the Uchiha bloodline for as long as our clan history goes back. I do not know why, or how, it just is. We have just come to accept that fact without requiring to know why."
"Does this have to do with the fact that your entire clan is dead?"
Itachi's smirk immediately disappeared, being immediately replaced by a blank look. Somehow, it was scarier than any expression Neji had ever seen on him before.
"That is none of your business Hyuuga. I have been kind enough to answer as much as I could, so I suggest you don't overstep the limits."
Neji immediately knew that their discussion was over for now. Itachi gracefully got up from his seat and walked down the corridor in the opposite direction that Kisame and Kiba had taken. The white eyed boy quietly followed him without another word.
He wasn't anxious- the truth was going to come out sooner or later, and he had the slightest feeling that it would be very soon.
.
.
.
.
The atmosphere in the room was heavy.
"What do we do about him?" Sasori asked flatly, motioning towards the grey haired man who was regarding them with with his ever present smile. "Can I just kill him off?" He slightly leaned forwards into an offensive stance once again.
"I have no reason to fight you anymore." Kabuto declared, throwing the remainder of his scalpels to the floor. "You have won already. Surely you will not kill me in cold blood? After all, I was simply acting under orders."
Deidara's pale blue eyes suddenly turned extremely cold as they flashed over towards their only standing enemy. "I don't think you realize who you're dealing with, you bastard." He hissed, abruptly marching towards Kabuto and grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. "I'm not some goody-goody merciful person. I'm a member of the Akatsuki- I don't forgive and forget. You should be grateful that I haven't cut off every single one of your fingers yet." He pulled out one of his trademark explosives from his pouch with a sinister grin. "Or maybe I should just shove this down your throat and watch you panic right before you explode into a thousand tiny pieces, yeah."
Kabuto's eyes slightly widened in fear at the blond's words.
"No!"
Naruto's voice snapped him out of his maniac daze.
"What?" Deidara snapped, looking quite irritated.
"Do you really think this is what Sakura would want?" The blond asked him. His bright blue eyes briefly swept over towards Kabuto's coal black ones. "I don't have anything against killing the guy, but try to put yourself in Sakura-chan's shoes for a moment. She's been tormenting herself over the deaths of Lee and Idate- adding one more name to the list of deaths in her name wouldn't help her much at all."
"But this piece of shit is different!" Deidara spat, looking furious. "He's the enemy! He's one of the people that tried to kill her and all the people around her!"
Naruto shook his head. "You know Sakura-chan better than anyone else, Deidara. She's not the kind of person to put that into account."
The said blond seethed- he didn't want to believe it, but he knew Naruto was right. He momentarily tightened his grip on Kabuto's shirt before aggressively throwing him to the floor. "If I ever see you again, I won't hesitate to cut every single limb off your body." He threatened icily. "Now scram."
Kabuto scrambled to his feet, and shot one last fearful look at the occupants of the room. His usual pleasant smile was long gone. "You people are all crazy." He shakily announced. "Every single one of you."
"It would be boring if we weren't." Deidara answered with a feral grin.
Kabuto ran away and never looked back again.
"Thanks." Naruto shot the other blond a tired grin.
"Don't thank me." Deidara snapped back. "I did it for Sakura-chan, not for you."
They were both distracted when the pink haired girl lying on the floor groaned, turning over to lay on her side. Naruto immediately rushed to her side- he wasn't surprised to see that Sasuke was already there.
"She's still unconscious." Sasuke flatly said, not turning away from her.
"Do you think Inner Sakura is finally gone for good?" Naruto whispered, also looking down at her limp body.
"Aa. I think so."
Deidara joined them on the floor, looking panicked now. "She's lost a lot of blood." He nervously commented, observing the wound on her shoulder. "The zirconium is probably still circulating in her blood- we have to get some medical care for her as quickly as possible.
"What the hell are we going to do?" Naruto's hands were sweating as he tried to cradle her head onto his knees in attempt to move her into a more comfortable position. "Where are we going to find a doctor or hospital that can extract zirconium from people's blood?"
Realization dawned upon Sasuke in a sick kind of way.
"We're not." He quietly said with a blank look. "I doubt that many people know what zirconium even is- like Orochimaru said, it's an extremely rare type of earth metal. We're not going to find anyone who works in a hospital that even knows what that is."
"So are you saying that we have no choice but to sit and watch while Sakura-chan dies right in front of us?" Naruto's voice was starting to become shrilly. "How could we ever do that?"
He watched in shock as Sasuke's blank face immediately morphed into an expression that no one had ever seen on him before. It was a mixture of extreme pain and anger, that seemed to be mostly directed at himself.
"Do you think I'm okay with this, dobe?" The Uchiha hissed, clenching his fists.
Naruto's face softened, as he watched his best friend's shoulder shake. Sasuke had always been distant and reluctant to get close to people. Naruto had no idea of what had happened in the dark boy's past to make him into the person he was today- but the blond knew that it had to be something emotionally devastating for Sasuke to hate all of humanity so much. The Uchiha always tried to hide behind a tough front, but Naruto saw right through it- he saw the way Sasuke feared people.
No matter how much Sasuke would deny it, Naruto knew.
But then Sakura had wormed her way into their lives- and everything had changed. Naruto was boisterous and loud, and he tended to act like an idiot most of the time, but he was not completely stupid. He had silently observed the way Sasuke's cold, lonely eyes had slowly softened over time, and the way his usual trademark smirk would look more like a smile when he hung around the pink haired girl.
Naruto saw the way Sasuke would sometimes stare longingly at Sakura's back, with a silent nostalgia hidden in his eyes. Maybe the younger Uchiha thought that he could fool everyone else, but he couldn't fool his best friend.
Naruto knew that Uchiha Sasuke had fallen in love.
And now, the only girl he had ever fallen in love with was about to slip out of his grasp.
"Why couldn't we do anything?" Sasuke finally let his anger get the best of him as he slammed his fist onto the floor. "What's the use in having these powers if I can't even use them to save her?" All Naruto could do was watch as his strong best friend broke down in front of him for the very first time.
"Teme..."
"Our powers... we can never use them to save anyone." Sasuke murmured with empty eyes. "We're only meant to destroy."
"What the hell, Sasuke!" Naruto growled, starting to grow infuriated. "Stop talking like we've lost all hope! You-"
Sasori effectively prevented their oncoming argument when he put one hand on each of their shoulders. "We don't have time for this right now." He murmured, shaking his head. "You can argue all you want later. Right now, Sakura is running out of time as we speak. We should at least try to get her out of here- Shino has been studying her powers for a long time now, he might be able to help us. All we have to do is keep her alive until we can reach him."
Naruto felt his cheeks burn in shame as he turned his face away from the redhead, knowing that Sasuke was probably sharing his same thoughts. Here they were, arguing like two boys who had barely hit puberty while Sakura was dying right in front of them.
"First of all, we have to stop the bleeding." Sasori told them with a calmness that Naruto envied. "If she doesn't die from the zirconium poisoning, she'll definitely die from blood loss."
Sasuke immediately took off his shirt and tore it into pieces. Making sure not to move her around too much, he gingerly wrapped the cloth around her wound, slightly wincing as her blood seeped through the material, slightly staining his hands. "That should stop the bleeding at least a little." He said with a nod, wiping the sweat off of his forehead.
He had to stay composed.
For Sakura.
However, he found this extremely hard to do when red lights started to flash all around them and a deafening siren sounded through the building.
.
.
.
.
Kiba immediately groaned, grabbing his head in pain as a loud siren started to wail above their heads. He fell to his knees, trying to block the sounds out of his sensitive ears.
Kisame's head snapped up as red lights continuously flashed on and off in the dark. "What the hell...?" He growled, quickly yanking the younger brunette back onto his feet. "C'mon kid, we can't stay here. We have to go meet up with the others- this situation isn't looking too good."
Kiba pulled his hands away from his ears with a miserable wince, but did not complain as he nodded in agreement.
Itachi and Neji were waiting for them back at the staircase.
"Did you any of you touch anything?" Kisame shouted over the noise.
Neji shook his head. "Neither of us even found anything. We were both just walking down a hallway when everything became like this!"
Kisame's mouth was set into a grim line. "We have to go back to the others." He barked, not waiting for them to agree before bolting down the stairs. "They must be in trouble. We can only hope that the worst hasn't happened yet."
Neji felt his heart pounding in his heart as he followed the blue skinned man down back to the sixth floor. He had already lost Lee- what kind of ridiculous leader would he be if he lost any more members? He couldn't imagine the thought of Naruto's crimson matted sunny hair or Sasuke's pale skin covered in blood- it just hurt too much.
He was the first to arrive. His pearl white eyes immediately swept over the area to see if anything was wrong. The first thought that came to his mind was: Have we lost?
But no. Orochimaru's dead body was lying in a corner of the room in a pool of his own blood. Kabuto was gone. The twenty men were all dead. Sakura was lying on the floor but she was obviously still breathing, and all of their teammates were still alive. They had obviously won.
So what was going on?
"Did any of you touch anything?" Kisame roared over the loud noise.
Deidara frantically shook his head. "The alarm suddenly sounded out of nowhere. We have to hurry up and do something, Sakura-chan has been poisoned by the zirconium! If we don't bring her to Shino soon, she'll..." His voice trailed off as he cast his blue eyes down to the floor.
"Self-destruction sequence has been activated. Will commence in five minutes."
They all snapped up as the sound of the monotonous and robotic pre-recorded voice blared over their heads.
Sasuke and Sasori immediately exchanged a knowing look.
"Kabuto."
Naruto's eyes widened as realization dawned over him. "B-but-" he started to splutter. "We spared him! Why would he turn against us like that..."
"You're too naive, kid." Kisame muttered with a grim look on his face. "You should have killed him on the spot- it was obvious that he was going to turn against us the moment you let him escape."
"That's what I said!" Deidara snarled, shooting a nasty look at Naruto as if to prove a point. "Good job, now we're all going to die here."
"We shouldn't give up yet." Itachi said calmly, as his ruby red eyes swept across the room. "We still have five minutes to get out of here- we can't waste any more time. Kisame, carry Sakura on your back. The rest of you, try to keep up even if you're injured."
"Four minutes left."
Before anyone could answer him, he immediately started to head back towards the stairs, heading downstairs this time. No one objected- Kisame gently picked up the pink haired girl in his arms while Deidara, Sasori and Tobi quickly followed him. Neji and Kiba each supported Naruto and Sasuke as they followed last.
The group quickly reached the lobby once again- but all openings were still blocked by steel bars.
"Shit." Kiba cursed, looking anxious. "What do we do now?"
"Three minutes left."
"Are we really going to die here?" Naruto whispered.
No one answered him.
.
.
.
.
I'm not going home alone,
'Cause I don't do too well on my own.
.
.