Staring down at the face of the man she had once loved, Sakura found herself severely shaken.
Honestly, she had never expected to see him again.
"Is he…is he…alive?" she finally forced the words out. She found she was too afraid to touch him to see for herself—too afraid that he might suddenly disappear, or that she would wake up to find that it had all been nothing more than another strange, frustrating dream…
Hearing the strain in her voice, Neji refrained from mentioning the fact that she, as the medic-nin, was probably the one who should be determining that, and his brows contracted slightly as he scanned the Uchiha's body with his Byakugan, searching for a pulse: it was faint, and slightly erratic, but there.
"He's alive, but his pulse is very weak and unsteady." He looked over at her, chakra-puffed veins subsiding back into his once-more smooth face; she hadn't stopped staring down at the pale, blood-soaked form before them, eyes wide in a look of shock and horror. Frowning just slightly, he forced steel into his voice. "Snap out of it, Sakura. You'll have to work quickly if you're going to save him."
Sakura nodded, feeling as if she were moving and thinking through water, or a thick mud; her body felt slow and heavy, her mind stunned and sluggish…
No! Closing her eyes tightly, she shook her head hard. Focus, Sakura, focus! He needs healing, and badly. Any other thoughts can wait until you've got him stabilized… Still feeling a bit dazed, she bit down hard on the inside of her cheek; the sudden pain and the unpleasant, metallic taste of blood flooding her mouth jolted her back into the moment, and once more she moved with her customary speed and unhesitance as she bent over the bloody figure stretched on the ground before her.
Though he was covered with numerous outward bruises, cuts, and lacerations, for the most part she bypassed those to deal with later; injuries to internal organs came first. Placing her hand on his chest, she closed her eyes, carefully slipping a little of her chakra into his keirakukei and monitoring the areas where it ran into obstructions; her slight frown of concentration slowly changed to one of incredulity. Nearly all of his internal organs are in such awful shape, it's a wonder he's still alive! It must be through sheer force of will that his heart is even beating at all…
"Well?" Neji asked quietly as her eyes flickered open for a moment and she wiped a thin layer of sweat off her self-proclaimed wide brow. "How bad is it?"
"Pretty bad," Sakura replied grimly, settling herself into a slightly more comfortable position and removing her radio's earpiece. "He's going into ventricular fibrillation, his left lung has been punctured at least once, his ribs are cracked, he's got a second-degree concussion, and …well, there's more, but there's not time…"
And with that she set her hands on his chest again, eyes drifting closed as the air around her hands flickered like flame and started glowing bright green.
Even as she worked, carefully and quickly mending rips and tears on vital organs faster than she ever had before, she was worried that it might not be enough. This method of treatment, the Shōsen Jutsu, was both useful and highly effective, and it was definitely the healing technique she used the most, but she was afraid that something more serious might have been in order. However, she had neither the time nor the proper materials to perform the Chikatsu Saisei no Jutsu--the seal was far too large and complex--and she didn't know if Sasuke's broken body could take the strain of it anyway…
Stop worrying and focus! Save your energy for something useful, stupid!
Sakura bit her lip and focused more fully on the task at hand.
After she'd been working about five minutes, Neji suddenly remembered the rest of their team. "Alpha, this is Beta," he said quietly into the radio, moving to the other side of the small clearing so as not to disturb the medic-nin's careful work.
"What did you find? What is it?" Naruto's worried voice instantly buzzed over the earpiece. "Is something wrong?"
"No," Neji said, turning back to watch Sakura work, the green glow from her hands lighting her face in a nearly mesmerizing fashion. "Nothing's wrong, but…I think you'd better get over here, fast. Especially you, Naruto."
"What?" the blonde demanded, but Neji merely clicked his headset off in reply. Naruto would see "what" soon enough.
Naruto's response on seeing just what they'd found was, surprisingly enough, very similar to Sakura's: he stopped in his tracks, staring in dismay at the Uchiha's still, blood-spattered form, blue eyes wider than Neji had ever seen them.
"Is…is he…?" he began, echoing the words of his pink-haired teammate.
"Yes, he's alive." For now, anyway… Neji added to himself. Whether or not he remained that way depended solely on Sakura.
For now, all they could do was watch and wait.
Just over two hours after she'd started, Sakura drew in a loud, shuddering breath. Three heads quickly turned in her direction as she released it, slowly opening her eyes and shakily withdrawing her hands from Sasuke's chest. Then she looked up, giving them a weary smile, and they all relaxed a bit; Sasuke wasn't dead yet, apparently.
"How is he?" Naruto was instantly at her side, his hands wrapped around her shoulders to support her obviously exhausted body, and she slumped back against him gratefully.
"Still not so great…I took care of the worst internal injuries, though there're still several things that need attention…" She swallowed thickly, finding her throat very dry, and continued, "I haven't even really looked at his external wounds…I sealed up a serious one on his chest, but couldn't bother with anything other than the critical wounds…and I don't know what his back's like--didn't get a chance to look." Naruto squeezed her shoulders comfortingly as she scrubbed at her face with her hands, her movements radiating frustration. "There's still so much that needs to be done! So much…and I'm already nearly exhausted…" Turning her head, she buried her face in the crook of the blonde's neck, letting out a quiet, melancholy moan that only Naruto heard.
"Hey now, you did good!" he said, pressing his cheek to the side of her head. "He's still alive, anyway—he'd be dead for sure if you hadn't been with us, Sakura-chan!"
Pushing her fatigue-induced emotions violently aside, she pulled back a bit and nodded. "You're right, I'm sorry…I'm just tired." Nonetheless the look she turned down at the bloody figure before her was one of undisguised apprehension.
Seeing her gaze, Shikamaru knelt quickly across from her. "What can I do to help?"
Drained as she was, Sakura still had more than enough energy to gape at him. "E-excuse me?" He did not just…
Shikamaru sighed. "It's a real pain in the ass, but even I can see that he needs help. What can I do?"
That utterly shocked expression was still on her face, and it seemed to be stuck. "You. You just…volunteered. To do something."
"Yeah, I did," he grumbled. "Don't let this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity pass you by..."
"Okay," she said with a giggle that made it clear to him that he was going to regret this.
Shikamaru decided that if he ever caught himself volunteering for anything ever again, he was going commit seppuku right then and there. He didn't know how a woman could deal so calmly with so much blood and so many terrible, disgusting injuries; a few of them were nearly enough to make his stomach turn, yet Sakura took it all in stride, seemingly unaffected by the oozing, blistered burns covering a large portion of the Uchiha's body, the sight of exposed muscle or the occasional bone, and the wet sucking noises the numerous kunai, shuriken, and senbon made while being withdrawn from live flesh.
He shuddered. This mission was turning out be ridiculously troublesome…and pretty gross as well.
Sakura requested a short rest before they headed back to Konoha, though she also stressed the fact that they needed to get Sasuke more medical attention as quickly as possible. While she was recovering some of her strength with some water and rice balls, she'd supervised the other three in cleaning and binding the rest of Sasuke's wounds, though at one point she'd had to use more of her rapidly dwindling chakra to heal an especially deep and vicious wound on his thigh that just wouldn't stop bleeding.
Both his arms were broken, one of them in three places, though thankfully none of the fractures were compound, and his right leg had somehow twisted out of its socket; she'd had no choice but to instruct her companions on putting it back into place—it would only have gotten worse with the travel if they hadn't.
After they'd wrapped the Uchiha's wounds as best they could (leaving him looking vaguely like a mummy, which Sakura had teasingly pointed out, only to be met by the half-irritable reply from Neji, "Well at least he isn't dripping everywhere anymore," which she'd had to agree was an improvement) and Sakura had gathered her resolve and what little chakra she had left, they set out for Konoha at top speed. Naruto had insisted on carrying Sasuke himself--he had the most chakra left of all of them, and he was the fastest, too--and no one had argued the point. He was right, after all, and besides that, they knew that he wanted to be the one to bring Sasuke back home, just as he'd promised Sakura he would all those years ago.
Despite their speed and the brevity (or, more often, absence) of rest breaks, it would still take more than a day to reach Konoha, and though she didn't show it, Sakura was concerned. Normally their increased pace wouldn't've been a problem, but after all the intense healing she'd done, she was already feeling a bit wobbly. She'd done it more quickly than usual, too, since time had been of the essence, forcing herself to repair Sasuke's critically wounded body at a speed that Tsunade probably would have called reckless; but she had been painstakingly careful at the same time, and it had all worked out in the end, though it had left Sakura drained both mentally and physically.
When they were nearly halfway back, Sakura did something she'd never done on a mission before: she called for a halt. "I need to check Sasuke's wounds to make sure nothing's gotten worse." It was a good excuse since it was the truth, but it was also a chance to grab a short rest.
But she didn't seize it as strongly as the twelve-year-old Sakura would have; once she was satisfied that Sasuke's injuries hadn't intensified too much, she started them off again, though her head was spinning from healing a few minor internal leaks that hadn't been there before.
They hadn't gone much farther before she knew she was in trouble. She could feel herself lagging, gradually losing her grip on consciousness, but she struggled against that feeling and pushed onwards regardless. We have to get Sasuke back as quickly as possible…some of his wounds… She shook her head, not wanting to think about what the rough journey slung over Naruto's shoulder was doing to the injured Uchiha's delicate internal organs. Time is of the essence. There's no time for being weak…I can't hold us back…
But even as that thought crossed her mind, the blackness that had been flickering at the edges of her vision rushed inward to fill her eyes completely; her feet landed firmly on the branch she'd been aiming for, but then she pitched forward, sliding almost soundlessly from her perch towards the ground.
Before she'd fallen five feet, Neji snatched her up mid-leap; with his Byakugan he'd quickly noticed her swiftly-diminishing amount of chakra as well as her growing exhaustion, and had carefully positioned himself behind her just in case a situation like this occurred.
Neji paused momentarily to settle her more comfortably in his arms; then on impulse, he pulled her mask aside just to be sure she was alright, smiling slightly on finding himself looking down at her very pale but relaxed face.
A flicker of black and white caught the corner of his eye, and he glanced over to see Naruto perched on a nearby branch, looking down at him. His mask was strapped sideways to his head as it always was, which gave Neji a clear look at the tense, evaluating stare on the blonde's face; he seemed to be deciding whether or not the Hyuuga was allowed to carry his Sakura-chan.
Slowly Neji eased his own mask upwards to sit on the crown of his head, meeting Naruto's questing azure gaze with his pale, piercing one.
After a long moment, the blonde's mouth quirked into his usual cocky, crooked smile, and he nodded his approval—and his appreciation.
Neji gave a slight smile in return and nodded as well, then both were leaping through the trees once more in an attempt to catch up with Shikamaru—not that that really took much effort.
The Hyuuga smiled down at the inert form of the pink-haired kunoichi cradled in his arms. She wasn't particularly heavy and he still had plenty of chakra, more than enough to easily get them both back to Konoha, and really, he didn't mind carrying her. Actually, he thought it was rather nice…though Tenten would probably have punched him rather hard if she could have seen him then.
Neji had recently come to respect Haruno Sakura, though just a little less than a year before he had thought her to be insufferably weak, and therefore beneath his notice. Thus, he had privately bemoaned being paired with her on a two-man assassination mission, resigning himself to the (he believed) inevitable task of protecting her and having to fight well enough for two. His opinion had hastily changed during a surprise attack from a group of Mist nins while on their way to their target; she'd ripped a tree out of the ground and flattened half a dozen of the enemy nin with it, then turned around to heal a deep wound he'd gotten in his fight with the remaining three nins--one of them had gotten ridiculously lucky and had hit his blind spot with a kunai the instant before his Kaiten Spin had begun.
Actually, he thought, that was the very reason that it was really quite advantageous for Sakura to have your back: she could certainly hold her own in a fight, and if something went wrong, she was right there to fix you up again, good as new.
Still, she was a woman, and despite her many, varied strengths, her primary weakness was that she had less stamina than many of the male ninja; she also had a tendency to overdo things, as the current situation indicated. Sometimes she wanted to help just a little too much, and because of that she would push herself too far--though with a chakra control as remarkable as hers, she must have been well aware of what she was doing.
But really that only made her that much more endearing.
Uzumaki and Uchiha are lucky to have someone like this to care for them, Neji thought with a faint smile, knowing but not caring to admit to himself that he was pleased that the pink-haired woman cared about him as well.
Sakura awoke to find herself in a familiar setting: her office at the hospital, lying flat on her back on the small cot that she'd had put there for the nights she had to spend on call. She was still fully dressed in her ANBU uniform, though she had been covered with the bed's rather thin blanket.
She moaned softly as she sat up, rubbing her eyes. Guess I passed out on the way back. How embarrassing. But then, how…? Her eyes snapped open wide and she scrambled from the bed, hurriedly unsnapping her ANBU vest and slipping her white medic's coat on over the rest of her uniform before scurrying out the door and into the hallway. The clock said it's 6:00, and I can tell that it's morning, but what day is it? How long have I been out? And what's happened to Sasuke?
She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she almost ran straight into a tall figure as she whipped around a corner.
"Neji!" she exclaimed, jerking to a stop. She still would have collided with him had he not smoothly stepped to the side, placing himself out of her trajectory and allowing her to stumble to a halt directly where he'd been standing a mere moment before.
"Haruno," he replied with a faint smirk, and Sakura suddenly felt very self-conscious.
I must look awful…
She resisted the urge to smooth down her hair, though her eyes narrowed a bit as she took in his appearance--perfect as ever, of course. He'd obviously had a shower and changed; his ANBU uniform had been replaced by a long, smoky silver-and-grey kimono, and his hair hung free, one of the few times Sakura had seen it thus.
"Here." He held a steaming cup out towards her. "I was coming to check on you," he continued as she gratefully accepted the tea and took a small sip of the bracingly hot liquid. "You've been out for a while…we were getting a bit worried."
Instantly all her questions came flooding back, and here was the perfect person to answer them all. "Neji-san, how long have I been out? Is everyone else alright? What happened to Sasuke?"
"Slow down," he said, his smirk deepening a bit as he started walking down the corridor, back the way he'd come. Sakura fell into step beside him. "You passed out yesterday around noon, and have been out ever since. Everyone else is fine, though Naruto's not in the best of moods at the moment. Uchiha Sasuke is…" He hesitated for just a fraction of a second, but that was more than enough to worry the kunoichi at his side. "He's still alive, don't worry," the Hyuuga hastened to assure her, seeing the sudden look of dread in her eyes. "He's being held for interrogation…they've got him here in his own room under heavy guard." Though precious little good that will do if it turns out that he's…no longer who we think he is, he thought, though he kept it to himself. He was certain that Sakura knew very well just who--or what, rather--she might have saved, and she did not need to be reminded of that particularly painful fact.
"Neji-san…" she began in a low voice, absently running a finger around the rim of her tea cup. "Has he…has he said anything? Do we even know if he's…?" Sakura trailed off, looking up at her companion with troubled eyes.
The pale-eyed man shook his head negatively.
"…I see."
He didn't like the look of bitterness on her face--it didn't fit with her usually-upbeat personality. "Haruno, regardless of what happens now, it will not be your fault. You saved a life, which is what you have been trained to do. It would have been impossible for you as a medic-nin to merely stand by and let him die. Had I been in your place, I would have done the same; I would have saved him, too. There should be no guilt in what you have done."
"But…if he's…that monster—"
"Then he should not be too difficult to deal with in his current condition."
That brought a weak smile to her face. "True." She blinked suddenly as she rethought his last statement, angling a small frown up at the tall Hyuuga. " 'His current condition'?"
Neji kept walking, ignoring her question and refusing to meet her eyes. "Tsunade-sama is going to begin her interrogation soon, but it is likely that you could slip in to see him first if you are so inclined." He shrugged slightly, the movement really more of a minute shoulder-twitch. "It wouldn't matter if you got caught anyway—you are a highly-skilled medic-nin after all. And from what I can see--which with the Byakugan is quite a lot--Uchiha is going to require a significant amount of skilled medical attention."
Sakura blinked in surprise, eyes widening in realization. "Tsu--Tsunade-shishou didn't heal him?" she asked softly, coming to a stop.
Neji allowed himself to grimace before turning back to face her. "She took a look at him when we brought him in…and worked on him maybe ten minutes before leaving. She said that you'd stabilized him, and that was all that mattered right now." He shifted his weight, a nearly imperceptible indicator of his discomfort, and one that Sakura missed completely. "I think…she didn't want to fully heal someone who might turn out to be…dangerous."
Ah. It certainly made since, but still…Sasuke's injuries had been numerous and severe, and Sakura knew that she herself had hardly even scratched the surface of what needed to be done. And if there was even the slightest chance that he was still himself, that he wasn't possessed by that thing...
Sakura's mind raced. He must be in terrible pain right now…they wouldn't put him on anesthetics if they're planning on interrogating him…but…
She frowned again, the expression thoughtful. "So why did Tsunade-shishou wait to interrogate him?" Surely the Godaime must have known that Sakura would have some issues with her long-lost old teammate being tortured for information; she would have thought that Tsunade would've acted as quickly as possible while her old apprentice was still unable to protest her actions.
Neji snorted lightly. "How should I know? She's a woman…she does what she wants." Turning a falsely bright smile down to meet the cold glare he was receiving from his companion, he went on, "Actually, it was quite late last night when we got back, so we…neglected to immediately inform her of our arrival. Naruto insisted on it…and he can be quite persuasive." Impassive as he often was, even the patient, long-suffering Hyuuga could not mask the hint of irritation that laced his words.
Sakura hid her smile behind her tea and wondered what her blonde friend had done this time. She'd have to ask him later.
"Tsunade-sama found out quickly enough, though. It's hard to be secretive when you're checking a half-dead missing nin into the village hospital—and it doesn't help your chances of keeping things on the down-low when the person you're trying to avoid is actually in charge of said hospital."
Sakura fought back a smile. "…How bad was it?"
The Hyuuga didn't even attempt to hide his grimace this time. "Let's just say she really wasn't happy with us. At all." He let out a low chuckle. "But we all got her back in our mission reports. Keeping in mind how much she loves reading those, we made them nice and long…which probably has something to do with the fact that she hasn't started the interrogation yet--she has to read through those first, after all." He gave another minute shrug. "Though it also could have something to do with Naruto. He's been following her closer than her own shadow since she kicked him out of Uchiha's hospital room late last night...I've never seen such a display of temper. I think he nearly went to six tails right then and there." He shook his head wearily. "Anyway, he's been pestering Tsunade-sama to let him see Uchiha ever since—and of course, Tsunade-sama keeps refusing, since she knows she'd never get him out again once he finds out about the coming interrogation."
Neji suddenly stopped before a door with two ANBU guards standing on either side; looking around, Sakura quickly realized that they were in the oldest and least-used part of the hospital.
"He's in there," her pale-eyed companion said, nodding towards the door, then he dropped his voice to a near-whisper. "I'll try to stall Tsunade-sama if at all possible, but she'll be here soon regardless. And remember…be careful. Try to help him if you can, but keep in mind what we don't know."
Handing him her empty tea cup, she nodded her thanks, swallowed hard, then stepped forward, showing her face and medic's badge to the guards on either side of the door. They did not acknowledge her, but neither did they move to stop her as she slid the door open and stepped inside, closing it carefully behind her before allowing herself to look at the figure on the bed.
He didn't look much different from when she'd seen him yesterday, though his bandages had been changed; he still looked pretty awful. Stepping a bit closer, she saw that he was bound tightly to the bed—so tightly that blood was seeping through his bandages where the bindings held him down.
For a long while she just stared down at his still face. I can't believe he's really here… She traced gentle fingers over the smooth curve of one high cheekbone, weaving in and out of the multiple cuts that marred his once-flawless skin.
Still so beautiful…
She was jolted out of her reverie when her sensitive ears caught a sudden, slight shift in his breathing pattern; it deepened and quickened, and that could mean only one thing: he was awake. Hastily she snatched her hand away and took a half-step back, heart pounding. Watching his face carefully, she saw his eyelids flicker with movement, though they remained closed.
"Sasuke-kun?" she whispered, taking a step forward and cautiously reaching out a hand towards him; he didn't respond when she lightly placed that hand on his chest, though Sakura was almost certain that he was awake. Nonetheless she let her eyes drift closed as she checked his internal organs once more, then fell to work mending a few of the other lesser injuries that she'd passed over the previous day. Sleep had replenished a large portion of her chakra (though she was pretty hungry now that she thought about it), and she knew that she had regained enough to take care of a significant amount of the Uchiha's wounds.
Digging out a scroll from her medic's coat, she began working on one of his broken arms--the one with only a single fracture--and she was just putting the finishing touches on the newly restored limb when the clatter of hard, resolute footsteps sounded from the hallway. She just had time to whip the scroll back into her pocket before the door slid open forcefully, revealing a fuming Tsunade; Sakura caught a glimpse of an apologetic-looking Neji over the blonde woman's shoulder before she and six ANBU strode into the room, closing the door behind them. (Naruto, Sakura correctly assumed, had been left at the security checkpoint just inside the hospital's entrance.)
Tsunade did not look at all pleased to see her ex-apprentice there, but other than the intense scowl she gave the pink-haired kunoichi, she withheld her thoughts on the matter. "Move away from him, Sakura," the Godaime said in a low voice. "Better yet, get out of here. Now."
Sakura hesitated. There was absolutely no way that she was going to leave this room willingly (the stance that Inner Sakura was screeching in her head even now), but outright insubordination like that would undoubtedly get her into trouble, and thrown out of the room to boot. Well, where direct defiance would be taken badly, indirect defiance and negotiation can sometimes get away with things…
"Tsunade-shishou, I promise I won't get in the way…" Slowly she backed into the corner farthest from the bed, holding her open hands up in front of her shoulders. "I won't get in the way," she repeated, "so please let me stay. If you don't…" Sakura's eyes narrowed, "well, you trained me, so you know that I can promise you'll have a hell of a time getting me out of here."
There was a brief rush of smoke, and Sakura tensed as she suddenly felt strong hands clamp securely around her wrists and upper arms; when the smoke cleared, she found herself being securely held by two ANBU members, with a third and a fourth crouching behind and before her respectively, their hands resting on their katana hilts.
"Very well then," Tsunade said brusquely, "but if you cause any trouble—"
"I won't, I assure you."
Tsunade merely grunted in response, her attention already focused on the still figure lying on the bed. She took a few measured steps forward, staying well out of his reach, though seeing how securely he was tied down along with how badly injured he was, Sakura didn't think that really mattered all that much.
"I'd like to keep this as simple--and quick and hopefully painless--as possible," the Godaime said, addressing one of her ANBU guards.
"Yes ma'am," the ANBU, obviously a female, replied as she stepped close to the bed and leaned over the motionless body of the Uchiha. "We know you're awake," she purred, trailing a gloved hand over his chest, "but tell us what we want to know, and we'll leave you alone." A senbon needle suddenly appeared in her hand, and she began toying with it, dexterously threading it through her fingers. "There's a special truth serum on this…so you'll tell us what we want to hear whether you like it or not. You could spare yourself more pain by simply answering the questions you're asked." The needle flickered faster, flipping through her fingers at an impressive rate. "So. Who are you, anyway? Are you Uchiha Sasuke…or are you someone else?"
The man on the bed gave no indication that he was even conscious; his breathing and heart rate remained steady and utterly unchanged. The senbon suddenly stopped deadly still, held poised and waiting.
"Who are you?" the ANBU repeated a bit more loudly.
Nothing.
Sshukk. A needle protruded from the bicep of the arm Sakura had just healed; the medic-nin clenched her jaw tightly as she watched the bandages around it slowly turning red.
"In case you thought I was bluffing…now you know that I'm not." A second senbon appeared in the ANBU's hand as quickly as had the first. "Would you care to answer now?"
Nothing.
Sshukk. The second needle joined the first.
"Come on now, I can do this forever, but I doubt you have enough blood in you for us to do that. Answer."
Nothing once again.
Sshukk. Same arm, but lower, on the forearm. Sakura bit her lip but remained silent.
"If you really are Uchiha, you aren't doing yourself any favors by staying silent, you know…"
Sshukk sshukk sshukk…
Sakura looked away, not wanting to see where the newest needles had gone. This is sick, she thought. I know we have to figure out whether or not this is really Sasuke, but there has to be a better way!
Apparently Tsunade thought so as well. "That will do," she said, waving the ANBU back and moving to stand at the edge of the bed herself; the female Black Ops member seemed almost reluctant as she obediently stepped back.
"Well," the Godaime said to the unresponsive raven-haired figure, "considering your apparent penchant for silence, I'm actually starting to believe that you might truly be Uchiha Sasuke. The other one would have been spouting off all sorts of nonsense—he certainly wouldn't be wasting a chance to make things dramatic, or at least very tense."
No reply, of course.
"So…where have you been for the past ten years, Uchiha? And why come back now? Get tired of playing with your evil little friends?"
Still no response.
"I know you're awake, Uchiha," the blonde woman growled. "You can't pretend to be dead forever, and I am perfectly willing to let a traitor die without lifting a hand to help them, so if you've got something to say for yourself, you'd best do it quickly."
There was a long silence as the Godaime stared down at the Uchiha's body through narrowed, calculating eyes. At long last—
"Uchiha Itachi…is he dead?"
Sasuke's mouth tightened almost imperceptibly--the first movement he'd made since the Hokage and the rest had entered the room--but he didn't open his eyes or make any other sign that he'd even heard the question.
"Uchiha…I'm going to ask you one final question, and if you don't answer this one, I will be forced to take drastic action to ensure the safety of this village. Where is Orochimaru?"
No response.
Tsunade let out a long, tired sigh, then turned away, exchanging a meaningful look with the two ANBU at her sides, motioning them forward towards the helpless Uchiha.
Sakura's throat convulsed as they simultaneously drew their katanas, but somehow she managed to force his name out, the near-sob tearing through her constricted airway, "Sasuke—!"
"Gone."
It was the first word she'd heard him say since they'd found him, and it was rasped almost inaudibly.
Tsunade turned back and held up a hand to the ANBU guards, who stopped and lowered their weapons. "What do you mean by 'gone,' Uchiha?" she demanded.
"Tsunade-shishou, please…he's hurt…just…just leave him alone…"
"Gone," Sasuke repeated, wearily opening his eyes halfway to look up at the scowling Godaime Hokage. "You…don't need to worry…about him…any…any more…" He coughed weakly, fresh blood splattering across his pale lips and trickling down his chin and cheeks, and his head rolled limply to the side: he was unconscious once more.
"Tsunade-shishou…please…please…"
Though Sakura's plea fell on largely unsympathetic ears, the Hokage was sufficiently satisfied with the elusive rogue-nin's answer…for now.
"You may tend to him, Sakura," she said curtly, and the other ANBU who had been holding the girl back roughly released her arms, causing her to stumble forward. Her headlong lurch towards her old teammate was arrested sharply when she found herself held fast by one of the Hokage's strong hands, and by her even stronger gaze. "If he says anything more that relates to Orochimaru or Itachi, or that is of any importance, you will report it to me immediately, understood?"
"Yes, Tsunade-shishou," Sakura murmured submissively, though it took every bit of self-restraint in her not to give into Inner Sakura's demand that she 'swat away the old hag's hand and get to work on Sasuke.'
"Good. And if he turns out to be dangerous, Sakura…you know what to do."
She swallowed hard and nodded once, and with that her old teacher and her ANBU escort left the young woman alone with her old teammate (though the female interrogation expert stepped in quickly to retrieve her senbon--and none too gently, either, earning herself a hard glare from Sakura).
I know what I'm supposed to do, alright…but that doesn't mean I'll do it.
Setting her mouth in a grim line, Sakura stepped over to the bed and got to work.
She healed as much of the damage as she could without pushing herself over the brink into exhaustion once more (which was a lot, but unfortunately not everything—Neji had been right in his assessment of the extent of the Uchiha's injuries), having to settle for carefully rebandaging the rest to deal with later. Shaking her head at the sadistic tendencies of whoever had tied him down so cruelly, she cut him free--he was far too weak to even sit up, much less attack her, and with one of his arms broken in three places, there was absolutely no way that he could form any seals whatsoever. After healing the injuries the ropes had caused to his wrists and arms, she healed the new senbon wounds as well, then began checking his IV drip and the other typical hospital equipment that was clustered around his bed, just to be certain that everything was as it should be and that no careless mistakes had been made.
Glancing at the chart hanging at the foot of the bed to see what all they'd given him, she was not at all surprised to find that he hadn't been given any anesthetic whatsoever.
Just as she'd suspected. She'd have to remedy that, and quickly…
Just as she was inserting the needle into the port in his IV, his eyes suddenly snapped open again. Sakura blinked in surprise, giving a slight jerk back from both the bed and the IV, leaving the still-full syringe dangling from the clear tubing.
For a moment, something that resembled panic filled his eyes, then with a snap they turned a murderous black-flecked red as his Sharingan activated, scanning his surroundings quickly, almost frantically; then his eyes settled on her. She stood there awkwardly, wondering what was going through his head at that moment. What if he really was dangerous as Tsunade had said? She had thought him too weak to need any restraints, and she really hadn't had the heart to leave him tied down, but…on second thought, it might have been a prudent move.
He'd been willing to submit to being the container of the most twisted and evil ninja they'd ever encountered just to increase his chances of being able to kill his older brother.
He had a tendency to overdo things, she had to remember that.
As suddenly as they'd activated, his Sharingan snapped back off. The faintest trace of the old disdain ghosted across his face, but even that was apparently quite taxing on his quickly waning strength. "You," he muttered in a hoarse whisper.
Sakura blinked in surprise as those dark eyes narrowed in…was that accusation?
What had she done now? What could she possibly have done…?
"Why did you save me?" Anger gave him strength, just as it always had, and his words came out more powerfully, more forcefully.
"S-Sasuke-kun—"
"Why did you save me? I was supposed to die! I should have died!" All but shouting now, he lurched forward in bed, forcing himself upright despite the recently bandaged wounds that covered his chest and abdomen. Weakly he pounded a fist into the bed. "I didn't want to come back here…I never wanted to come back here! I wanted to die! I wanted to—!"
"UCHIHA SASUKE!"
His eyes widened at her outburst; her own ears were ringing from it, but she paid that no mind, glaring down at the heavily bandaged man before her.
"You haven't changed a bit…you stupid idiot."
He grunted, eyes going wide, and wavered suddenly, blinking once, the action slow; then with a cracked moan, he slumped backwards into his pillows.
She'd taken the opportunity to administer the anesthetic while he was busy having his little tantrum; he'd been so angry, he hadn't even noticed her hand move decisively to the syringe.
But then again, Haruno Sakura wasn't in ANBU for nothing.
Stupid, stupid idiot! she repeated vehemently, jerking the syringe from the IV port with much more force than was necessary before scrawling a few quick notes on the clipboard at the end of the bed, turning on her heel, and stalking out of the room.
And he stayed that way, eyes closed, totally motionless, long after he should have been awake. Sakura knew the many various medicines they'd pumped into him had worn off long ago, and that his sleep was normal and no longer drug-induced, but still he gave no sign that he was any more alert now than he had been when he'd been on all the medications.
Sakura was far from fooled, however—she was a medic-nin, after all, and an exceptionally skilled one at that—and she could easily tell from half a dozen minuscule signs that the Uchiha was merely feigning unconsciousness, most likely to avoid having to have an actual conversation with her.
Despite all that's changed in ten years' time, it's nice to know that some things never will, she thought rather bitterly as she glared down at Sasuke's motionless form, just barely restraining her swiftly-growing urge to thump him so hard that the world would start spinning the other direction. Well, at least he's recovered enough to recall that he doesn't like talking to me… that's…something, anyway.
But in spite of this knowledge, still she came in to sit with him, staying for hours every day to stare down at his pale, handsome face; she would talk to him as well, telling him things that she never could have told him under normal circumstances--he would've stalked off or told her to be quiet before she could have gotten out more than half a dozen sentences. But now he was a captive audience, and Sakura rather enjoyed their one-sided little chats, particularly since she knew beyond a doubt that he was awake.
And that wasn't all: with Inner Sakura snickering evilly, she would take his hand in both of hers each time she came in, caressing it with her thumbs, rubbing it gently, and not releasing it until she left. She relished this small action—it was something that she knew he never would have allowed had he been awake…or willing to admit that he was. Still, a part of her was surprised that he didn't tense up or jerk his hand away; she had been sure that it would bring him around and force him to own up to the fact that he was indeed conscious.
But he didn't. And still Sakura came, though she had begun to wonder if no reaction at all was actually worse than being pushed away. At least rejecting someone required that you acknowledge their existence.
Finally, about a week after Sasuke should have been awake, Sakura got tired of the whole charade and brought out the serious artillery: she let Naruto into the room, and let him do whatever he pleased to his deceptively lifeless old teammate.
Even Sasuke couldn't pretend to be unconscious under that sort of abuse.
After over an hour of impressively irritating poking and prodding, the raven-haired Uchiha finally opened his eyes and growled in a voice rusty with disuse, "Stop it, dobe."