RECAP:"To undo her spell, yes, but that would take forever to do by yourself with only your moths. You wouldn't be able to git rid of all of them before she throws up more."
"That's if I do it by myself..."
"...You desire my help?"
"And the help of your clan. I don't think she plans on all of you even knowing about me. When she stole my memory, there were some things I was able to keep hidden. Not many, but you and your clan was one of them."
"That was very clever of you, Sakura san. When you are fully rested and healed, you may count on our help. As the future leader of my clan, they will listen to what I have to say."
"Thanks Shino kun."
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Chapter Twelve
Size of Sarrow
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Well a high wire
Is a dangerous game
But a hard act to follow
If I fly high like a moth to a flame
Would you eyes be the size of sorrow?
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When she had awoken and first seen Shino, only her superficial wounds had been treated. Cuts were knitted back together and disinfected, but many more injuries settled beneath her skin. Two of her fingers on her left hand had been broken, as well as her wrist on her right. There was a fracture in her legs right above the knee and some major bruising anywhere there was skin. The fingers and fractures were relatively easy to heal being as small as they were, but she had been tired after setting those properly and didn't want to mess up her wrist, so she slept in a old fashioned cast until her chakra was restored to a decent level.
One of the Aburame woman had stopped by with some healing cram that would make her bruising go down. Sakura felt honored since she knew that the Aburame clan did not share their secrets easily and this included their medicines. When she asked about this, the woman had only smiled and pointed to the moth pattern that had been carved onto one of her kuni. Sakura had though Shino was a man of few words, but the woman were something else.
With the cream, the bruising only remained on her arms and legs where she had blocked a majority of the blows dealt to her. They would be gone in another day. By this time it had been two days since she had been attack by the fake Sakura. Two days more she didn't have her identity.
She had dressed up as an old woman, the hard way, and scouted out around two while her wrist was still broken. She was disgusted with what she saw. That woman acted nothing like her, so surely someone should have picked up on it. Not one even questioned it, blaming it all on the prolonged separation and her traumatic experience in the past. The time she had taken to act as an assassin looked liked it was spent with the monks or something by the way this fake Sakura acted.
"The don't see because they don't want to."
Sakura turned around to see Shino come up behind her with a shaded expression. "That's what they want?" she asked in a fake voice, pulling off the rasped echo well. "How is that, eh?"
"She doesn't blame them, or hate them. She loves them and trusts them."
"But it's not right. She-I shouldn't and I wouldn't. They know that and the should be better at this. Even Neji san is fooled. Why hasn't Shikamaru seen it? They're famed as some of the world's best ninja, so why are they this blind?" she hissed, anger rising with every word. She wanted to pound in their faces.
"They will be made to see...." Shino said, looking over to where Sakura sat with the girls, giggling about something. "We will do that."
"I'll be counting on you guys... even though I don't know why you would go through so much for an old goat like me."
"There's more than just that here," Shino replied in a tired voic, his eyes resting on Hinata as she laughed along with another joke.
"Then I had best get ready." Sakura nodded, turning around and hobbling back to the house she was staying at with Shino and his family. As she hobbled through the dusty streets, she went over her plan in her head once more. She had begun to obsess over it, with little else to do. Later that night they would work out a plan for distrubiting enough bugs to eat up the webs at once. If there was even a minuet of a gap, it could all be made useless.
One of Shino's cousin was out patrolling for all the possible webs that could generate illusion. Out of his clan, he had the best eyes and was extremely gifted in spy work thanks to his photographic memory. From what he had gathered already, it looks like she had been planning this a while, since everything was so perfectly situated. If Sakura attacked a grouping of webs in one area, the spidery woman would simply move/ or remain in a different sector that already had her webs-seeing as how she could run faster than her illusion could dissipate.
Truly this woman was a master when it came to these genjutsus. The only way out or around it is if you have a bond with an insect. Not even Kakashi or Neji could tell that it wasn't the real Sakura that they were flirting so shamelessly with.
When Shin, Shino's cousin, came back, he would have the report of how many webs there were, how many bugs it would take to devour the web, and how far their illusions carried. Many of them overlapped, doubling the potency of her illusion. Those where places she spent the most time, like at her house and the hospital and even a few restaurants that she had magically developed a taste for overnight. Everyone knew she hated spicy food, so dinning at the Fiery Furnace was not something she would do.
Later that day when Sakura sat down to talk with the two bug users, she was angered to learn the extent of the damage that needed to be repaired. Since their last encounter, the number of webs had almost doubled, it seemed like.
"Are you sure?" Sakura asked, in a tired voice.
"Absolutly certian. There were webs in places they were not before and many of them are reenforced."
"Dose she know you guys are helping me?"
The cousin shook his head. "No, but she will not take any chances."
"This is all we need," Sakura sighed, nursing her newly healed wrist. "She is powerful as she is, but she has every single male in the village fighting for her. The only chance we have is to take down those webs. Do you guys have enough people?"
"Maybe, it could go either way. Some of these webs do not have hatchlings in them. I am guessing that these hatchlings are warnings for her. If one of them is destroyed when the web is burned, she will know, but if a empty web is burned, she will not know. The hard part is knowing what type of web it is. If we could just get even of these webs burnt before she notices, we will be in the clear."
"Can you tell the difference?" Shino asked.
"Not unless it is split open, and there were only three or four, all on the edge of the village. From what I can remember, it's not enough."
"Even so, it's a start. We weill you start with eating those before setting off the alarm, in that single second every winged creature I have in my possession will be set free to feed. It will leave me with none to defend myself, but I could probably take out two dozen single level webs. If I had the substance the red tipped nightshade shed during the mating seasons, I could make a burning substance that can destroy even those webs."
Shino and his cousin shared a look. The cousin was the one that spoke first. "I have a mother that can probably help you with that, but you'll have to do it fast, since more webs are going up by the hour. At this rate we will have to strike in the next 23 hours or abandon all hope."
Sakra nodded, her expression grim as she bent down in a bow to the two men who were extending their aid. "Thank you Aburame san, and Shino san. I will forever be in your debt," she whispered. Lifting her head and coming out of the bow, her abdomen shook in a spasm a bit causing her to winced in pain. Kakashi's deadly lighting attach would forever leave this body of hers injured a bit, it seemed. Maybe with therapy she would fare better, but she doubted she would ever be as good as she once was.
"Are you well Sakura san? Maybe we should put it off a few more hours-"
"No Shino san! No, it's now or never. We have to do it tonight or else I'll never be able to live this down. I can't stand seeing her like that-living like me. It makes my insides churn so violently I become sick. I can't...."
"Then it's a good thing I'm called in help."
Sakura looked at her friend with a puzzled expression before the chakra that flared behind her. Sand shifted beneath her feet as she turned to face the figure who stood four feet away with a relieved smile on his face.
"It's good to see you back Sakura chan," Gaara whispered in a tired voice.
"Gaara kun!" Sakura exclaimed, taking a steep towards him with her arms outstretched only to stop a foot away. She froze, remembering the venom in her skin and let her hands fall dead to her sides. "It's good to see you too."
Gaara frowned when she chose not to hug him, fearing it had something to do with him personally. "Is there something I did that offended you," he asked quietly.
Sakura smiled sadly and shook her head. "It's not you, Gaara, it's me. My skin is poisoned and even limited contact with another human is dangerous. I would need to put on a jacket or something if you wanted a hug," she said, motioning to her tank top and shorts that she had been using like sweats.
Gaara blinked in surprise. "When did that happen?"
"When I made the contract with the white moth queen and her kind."
"And that was when?"
Sakura laughed out loud, smiling brightly. She felt so much better talking to Gaara as herself. She had though she would have to give up these kind of conversations since everyone she knew pretty much hated her. "A long time ago. It doesn't matter now. I'll get a jacket, you need your hug."
Gaara crossed his arms over his chest and faked a pout. "Hurry up with that, would you? I don't like to be kept waiting." Sakura nodded, turning and heading toward the house she was staying at. Once she was out of sight, Gaara's turned towards Shino with a deadly glare in his eyes. "She was hurt badly. Who was it."
"A few of them, actually."
"Who?"
Shino gulped at the demonic note in his voice. "The largest wound was dealt be Kakashi, physically."
"I'll kill him," was all Gaara could manage to say, death in his voice. He looked like he was possessed by something in the way he imagined her teacher's head under his hands. His sand was curling and crawling up at nothing as if it wanted to do some damage as well.
Shio gulped, straight faced as always before interrupting Gaara's bloody fantasies. "But....mentally she's having a hard time coping with all her friends hating her. I don't think the wounds hurt as much as having her friends turn around and hate her like that."
"I'm glad I was able to track her by chakra, or else I would have relied on my eyes. But I don't think I would be deceived so wholeheartedly. It makes me sick to see how much they have hurt her. Even if they do wake up from this daze, I'll never forgive them."
The bug lover nodded, seeing Sakura through the window come closer to the door. "They deserve it. We will mobilize at twilight and you and your team will need to provide defense while our own are working on dismantling the illusions. Are you ready?"
Sakura hopped out the door, an oversized jacked handing over her pale form as she skipped towards Gaara and gave him an extra big bear hug. Gaara hugged her back, the swirling sand around him calming down at an incredible rate. He seemed to be the essence of calm in her arms. Looking over her shoulder he locked eyes with the Aburame male.
"I'm always ready for Sakura chan."
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The sun was nothing more than a sliver of yellow gold on the horizon. Shino and a few of his relatives had pulled enough strings to get team Guy and team Ten out of the way with minor missions and training routines outside the village. Actually, Guy only needed to be shown a fake team challenge poster that required a four man team for various activities. The title had something to do with YOUTH sealing the deal for the green clad man.
Sakura rested on a branch dressed in a full body suite the color of night with tall gray boots and a hooded cloak to conceal her face. She checked the thick gray belt at her waist and was relieved to see she was adequately prepared with enough knives, kuni, senbon, and throwing stars-all dipped in paralyzing poison.
She looked up to see on of her moths come away from a devoured web, a bit fuller that it had been at first. Thankfully, moths were good eaters when it came to objects other than smaller insects. There were two more webs to go down before the attack would be launched. The fake Sakura was at a bar, drinking with her friends. Her team was hoping that they would come out so drunk they would only be able to provide a poor resistance to the attack. God knows that Naruto had no tolerance for a bit of beer.
Another light on her belt went out, telling her there was only one more web that needed dealing with. Now in the middle of the street she grounded herself, bracing her legs for the overflow of bodies that would come from her own.
The last light went out.
Over a hundred different moths sprang from her bleeding lip and out of her hair, wings slightly folded to gain speed. The fastest ones raced towards the webs farthest away while the slower ones settled on the ones close by.
"Ga," she breathed in a trance like state, summoning the moths out of the blood she had dropped in front of the webs over a mile away. They sprang up on command and began devouring the spider invested webs adding to the already increasing number of winged allies. Looking up she could see swarms of insects racing towards their designation. They were smaller than her moths, but there were a great many.
Gaara shifted behind her, throwing up his sand shield around her knees, ready to lift it up the rest of the way if the need arose. He looked ready for a fight, as did his sister and brother who stood a ways away to guard a few of the other Aburame clan members. Their old teacher Banki was even present to watch over the Kazekage and his objective. He wasn't in favor of getting his hands dirty with leaf squabble, but was willing to follow Gaara's lead.
It was a good three minuets before the first signs of a struggle sprouted out. The kuni came first, as always. Gaara easily blocked them.
"Gaara, get away from that trash!" Naruto screamed, red in the face, stumbling a bit as he walked. Poor guy looked like he was really trying to stay sober. "H-he's hurting Sakura chan!"
Gaara's eyes were like frozen steel as he glared at Naruto. "Not even for you, Naruto, will I leave her side. You who have hurt Sakura so much does not have the right to speak to me in such a manner."
"Sakura chan is hurt, baka!" he screamed falling to his knees with one hand out. He couldn't even stand anymore. Good.
"Just a little more-ugh, o-only a few more... The ones at the hospital have monster spiders in them and are putting up a fight. I might have to go there and fight them," Sakura whispered over her shoulder to Gaara.
"I'll take you there, you keep focused," Gaara offered, wrapping a hand around her waist and bringing his sand up to cover them both, leaving a sobbing drunk Naruto behind. When the sand fell down, Sakura saw her fake on the steeps of the hospital, crying and sobbing as she hugged her body. She looked to be in pain, but Sakura knew this was fake. Sai was gone and only Kiba and Kakashi were left behind while Hinata hovered over Sakura with a healing light.
Sakura had less than a two seconds to blink before Kiba was up and running towards her with his fang over fang attack. Gaara was quick to throw up a wall of sand that sent the dog lover and his pup backwards. Kakashi picked up the fake and carried her out of the way, saving her from being flattened by the rejected males. Tsuchigumo reached up and weakly pulled at Kakashi's jacket, asking him to keep her close to the hospital. If she left the general area her illusion would break.
"Where are the spiders?" Sakura asked in a weak voice, looking around with eyes the color of green. "Where are the guardians?"
Hissing from overhead drew her gaze upward where a swarm of her moths and other bugs gathered. It looked like they were trying to get to something but were being held back. There was nothing Sakura could see right away, so she decided to bring up her arthropod like sight. Her eyes faded from green to gray to, finally, a black ice color, void of any other shade including white. Her moth like eyes fixed on that spot and she was finally able to see what was wrong. The spiders and the webs themselves were invisible to someone that wasn't bound in contract to the insects like she was.
"I can see it, now. There are two of the large brutes. The second looks to be a copy of the first. I am familiar with this method. If we strike on down two more will rise up in its place. I have to somehow lure it onto a chakra sucking seal," she said to Gaara while pulling out the necessary pieces of paper from inside her shirt. "Can you get me up there."
Gaara looked back at her shivering form, noticing the strain her body was already being put through She needed chakra to keep all her moths in the physical world and even though it wasn't barely a measurable amount, to summon so many was taking its toll on her already weakened body. The last time her teacher had run her through with his lightning attack had left it's scar, crippling her in a way for life. maybe if she had been given proper medical treatment it wouldn't be this bad. But no, the head medic was swayed into this illusion just as well.
He didn't want her to be doing anything more than she already was, but her heart was so infused to her team and place in life she would rather die that see it stolen. In a odd way she reminded him of a spoiled child who didn't play with her toys until someone else started playing with them. Still, considering her circumstances, he couldn't blame her. "All right, but it will be harder to defend you that way."
As sand wrapped around her legs and lifted her up she replied in a wavering voice, blood still dripping from her lips oddly. "I don't care, this is the last web. We're lucky she's faking instead of putting up more webs." By the time she was finished speaking, she was already on the ledge where the webs were holding. One of the spiders made a jump for her, and Gaara pushed it back with his sand, choosing not to crush it.
Sakura set the tags down just in time for one of the two (the one who hadn't lunged at Gaara) to be caught up in it. It hisses like a banshee, writhing in agony as it's body collapsed in on its self, becoming nothing more than a shriveled pile of black and red. The other one, most likely the original, was not foolish enough to fall on the tag she had set down, so she attacked it to a kuni and asked Gaara to throw it for her. Her own arms were too heavy to do much more and her eyesight was fading in and out. Still, she could see the concerned look on her friend's face when she asked him to do that for her. She was be disappointed in herself later after all of this was over. She was too close to let pride get in the way now.
Gaara threw the weapon and soon the monster was dead, opening up a way for the moths and bugs. That was it, they had won! she was close to passing out from chakra depleation but they had won! Nothing else mattered now. Soon things would be back to the way they were. Soon she could be Sakura again without having to hide her face. She wouldn't have to run from her friends or avoid their attacks on her life.
Sakura could already feel the effects of the illusion falling apart as Gaara carried her down to the ground where a injured kiba was being held back by a bleeding- though still fiery- Temari. "Hey guys, nice to see you made it."
"Tamari!" Sakura called out seeing to woman's opened arm. "What happened?"
"Dog breath over here got a bit too full of himself," she replied with a tough girl tone of voice, never being one to back down.
Gaara crossed over to her side and took a look at her arm. "This isn't too bad. You bleed too much, you hot blooded woman."
Temari tossed her head back and laughed, turning towards Sakura with a mirthful smile. "I hope you weren't too-" she paused and her eyes widened and Sakura could have sworn she heard her friend gasp. "-Sakura look out!"
"Rasengan!"
KAAAHKH
Something tore through her chest, slicing clean through. Blood jumped everywhere and her heart staggered in protest before slowing down. Everything faded into a dull-slowed sort of way as her left leg gave out, right before her right, causing her to turn and fall facing her attacker. Her hood slipped back and her airy pink hair danced around her face as she fell to the ground. For the first time Naruto saw her without the illusion to distort his image. Sakura looked him square in the eyes, her own a soft green color once more, before her body collided with the ground. She had never seen him so scared in his entire life.
bump...
'Shouldn't he be thinking this is a trick?'
bump....
'Any enemy ninja could do that.'
bump.....
'But then again, they can't hold up an illusion when they are injured this badly.'
bump......
'Ah look, there's Kakashi, and he doesn't look happy either.'
bump.......
'He has here in chain I see.'
bump..........
'Now I can't see...........
.....................................
Sakura's heart stopped then, leaving her body bloodied and broken. Gaara cradled her in his arms and wouldn't let anyone near her body, even after a whole hour had passes. His sister and brother had never seen him cry like that.
Shino was in better condition, though he was still a bit bitter towards her teammates as he explained the whole plot in detail, never failing to leave out how much Sakura was hurt by them. She must have secretly been a masochistic or something, since she kept coming back to them even after they caused her so much pain.
Team Guy and team Ten came back to find the village preparing for a funeral. They wouldn't believe Sakura had died at first, and had to be shown the body. Shikamaru was silent during the viewing, his whole body had gone cold once he had met her lifeless eyes. Nothing could have prepared him for that. Neji almost lost it a bit. He got mad at the mortician and demanded that he bring the real Sakura out, because there was no way she would be dead after just seeing a few days ago. He had to be escorted out by ANBU.
It was raining when her funeral took place. Everyone seemed to be there, leaving things by her casket and whispering apologies. It seemed like everyone had something to say to her or to apologize for. Poor Naruto looked like he would never live it down. The trauma of killing his best friend in an attempt to protect her was really messing with his head. Everyone said she wouldn't blame him, but he couldn't help but loop this whole mess back to the beginning when he doubted her strength.
Kakashi didn't go to her funeral, but he did visit the memorial stone where her name had been added. Everyone said he dealt with it the best, but that was only because they didn't know him. His face never changed, but inside he was fighting with his emotions and screaming at idiocy. He should have seen it, he should have known. Likewise, Sai appeared to be taking it all in well. He didn't smile at the funeral, though. For some reason he couldn't get himself to fake that smile in so somber a place. Instead he cried. He cried when no one was looking and cursed himself for letting another close person die.
No one saw.
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DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS!
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
I was going to be really mean, and keep this till Sakura's birthday, but I think I'm mean enough with this chapter, no? Yes, Sakura is dead, but no, this is not the end of the story. Life is filled with enough shit as it is, so I believe stories and fiction should be an escape to that. A little angst here and there is fine, but I like happy! So, like in my other story 'A forest's forbidden love' I'll add a little spas for the last chapter and make it all happy for you.
Oh yeah, and
PLEASE REVIEW!
REVIEW!
Ja ne