AGAINST THE SKY
a/n: Warnings for DARK ahead.
Days pass and the world moves on. Some weeks are prettier than others, but the village of Konoha continues to enjoy a period of peace.
Famine, however, is never pretty. Famine always leads to death, and as the death toll rises the land available for burial decreases and soon bodies start to pile and fester and people get sick. Eventually even the doctors and nurses and medics get sick, and then entire villages perish and the local government has to send in troops (or whatever remains of the troops) to burn down the ghost towns to prevent the spreading of disease, and it is not a nice picture at all. Of course, when this is happening in a far-off place – that is to say, the border between the small Wave Country and the massive Lightning Country – it really does not make it very high up on the foreign priority lists.
The number of people dying just increases, and with each updated report and each updated figure, Naruto begs and begs Tsunade to at least send a team to see how they can help with the situation, but it's all a mess of politics and really, we're just beginning to recover from our losses in the war, boy! but Sakura knows, she knows that with each report of children starving Naruto is brought back to a time 7 years ago when they, too, had travelled to the Wave Country and met a little boy with defeated eyes. They had helped change things, hadn't they?
It is nearing midwinter (there's no snow, the Fire Country never experiences snow fall and neither does the southern Lightning Country; the Wave Country is surrounded by water and its moderating effect and only has to deal with the occasional hurricane) and the situation is not improving. Tsunade still remains stony over this issue but then new reports carry whispers, whispers and accounts and gruesome stories; there is no food, whatever supplies and wealth the Wave Country had has been thoroughly plundered by desperate citizens and ninja from the southern Lightning Country and now the famine is spreading, spreading and even the grass and weeds have long been gouged out and devoured, and there is nothing more horrifying to someone who is not sick than the slow death that wasting away from hunger brings. What is taboo during times of prosperity becomes just another way to survive in desperation: human flesh, once detached from its owner, is just another lump of meat (how many "lumps" of meat can one human being provide?).
For once, Konoha's council unites on an issue – cannibalism is in the list of war crimes and crimes against humanity that can result in sanctions being enacted upon another country, and the Fire Country is in no hurry to accept the refugees from either Wave or Lightning Country who will come to escape the harsh restrictions levied upon them. Tsunade decides to send one platoon to the Wave Country to assess the situation and assist the survivors and the sick. They are to bring copious amounts of food.
Team 7 is, predictably, ordered to join the platoon and as Sakura pulls on her black combat gloves (praying to whatever deity is out there that she will not have to use them on civilians, she has to remind herself that these are civilians they are going to be dealing with) and ties up her pack with a stiff upper lip. Her teammates each have their way of showing their apprehension; Naruto does not smile, Sai is even more neurotic than usual, and Kakashi arrives early.
The smell hits her first. Unlike the sickly sweet scent of garbage – so familiar around the seedier parts of Konoha – the stench of decaying bodies makes her head spin and throat shrivel up. She can't breathe. She won't breathe. Still, she is vaguely proud (in a very, very detached way) when she sees Naruto and Sai collapse to the ground, retching and heaving – because there she is, still standing tall. Kakashi, too, is still upright, but his spine is ramrod straight – and then Sakura remembers that his sense of smell is better than Kiba's. For a fleeting second Sakura wants to wrap her arms around him and let him curve his body to fit hers and bury his nose into the hollow of her neck where her pulse hammers a steady beat but he is substantially taller than her and dammit, they have people to save and help and bury and-
They are lucky Kakashi and Sai are so adept at Katon jutsu. Sakura sucks at ninjutsu and Naruto isn't that much better, Rasengan and all its permutations aside, but the diseases are spreading quicker and quicker and earth burials are not possible because things like dead bits leeching into the surrounding water is just not an option. Still, Sakura knows that they will somehow get through this because a miracle arrives in the form of rain.
It hasn't rained in the Lightning Country in almost 18 months. The salinity of the surrounding ocean meant irrigation just wasn't possible, and the dry and mild climate made things no better. Still, nothing absorbs better than a dry sponge, and Sakura watches as the earth drinks up the moisture and the survivors stand just a little straighter.
The second miracle comes in the form of a 13 year old boy named Inari. His small fishing village hasn't had a decent bite to eat since before the school year started back in Konoha, but his eyes are still brighter than they had been when Team 7 first met him, all those years ago. Naruto is overjoyed at their reunion and Kakashi finally smiles for the first time since they arrived; Inari doesn't ask about their new team member and they all secretly look forward to sleeping underneath a roof for the first time in weeks.
Rest never comes. With the arrival of foreign aid comes an influx of rogue ninja all hoping to get supplies for themselves (and the small villages they hide in, their neighbours and their unknowing wives, their little children who have no idea what daddy does at night), and Inari's village is attacked three times in a week.
Some tamped-down part of Sakura feels a strange sense of muted grief as her kunai slices through another throat; sometimes it is difficult to tell in the faint moonlight whether the figure running at her is efficient and calculating like a trained fighter or merely desperate and unbalanced like the typical civilian, but she takes no chances. She has orders to take no chances. But a bloodcurdling scream rings out above the sounds of fighting and Sakura nearly loses her balance; her attacker manages to graze her thigh (is that a pitchfork?) and she doesn't have to think, the punch releases itself automatically and Sakura hears rather than feels the vertebrae breaking and then she is running towards the origin of that sound, hoping and praying that is isn't someone she knows-
Naruto. Pale beneath the spatter of blood on his whiskered cheeks, both hands desperately clamping down on a jagged wound on Inari's leg.
"Sakura-chan!" His voice is frantic and his blue eyes are wild. Inari's breaths are coming short and choked and Sakura can see he is struggling to stay awake. It doesn't make sense – kunai wounds don't bleed that much but Inari's face is paling right in front of her and his lips are turning purple and-
The kunai is poisoned.
The poison is spreading. Fast.
Sakura moves. Shoving Naruto aside and replacing his hands with a wad of gauze from her side pouch, she rips off a long piece of her skirt and ties it into a tight tourniquet around Inari's thigh. She quickly fingers his pulse, and without giving prior warning, removes the embedded kunai with one practiced tug. Inari lets out a choked half-scream, already delirious from the poison and the pain.
Holding the kunai delicately, she takes a cautious sniff at its bloodstained point. Sakura can detect no other scent apart from the metallic tang of blood. She removes his sock and shoe and her worst fears are confirmed at the sight his toes, already turning a nauseating shade of black-purple. The poison is attacking his blood vessels at the cellular level and the capillaries disintegrate first. As the poison spreads, his entire circulatory system will fail bit by bit and fall apart. He will essentially liquefy from the inside out. It is the textbook worst-case scenario.
There is an antidote. Theoretically, it is thought to be able to contain the molecules of poison in spheres of hydration until a skilled medic can extract the antidote-poison complex from the body. Sakura has never used it before, because it takes three days to brew and thus would be completed too late. She has only seen one other case before this, and there is only one known effective method of treatment. Sakura turns her gaze from the boy lying in front of her to the one with the clenched fists hovering beside her.
She summons Mikkan in a puff of smoke. "Find Kakashi for me and bring him here, will you?" The soft exchange does not go unnoticed by Naruto, who immediately demands, "What's wrong?"
Sakura's only response is to tie the tourniquet tighter. Ignoring his further questions, she rummages inside her medic kit and finds a small glass vial of morphine. Inari is unconscious already at this point, but Sakura will take no chances. She can give him at least this much comfort.
Kakashi appears at her side in another puff of smoke. A quick scan of the situation tells him all he needs to know, and Sakura's green eyes lock with his for just a moment and he is moving towards the blonde on her other side.
Sakura is generous with the morphine. While waiting for the anesthesia to take effect, she decides that chakra blades would be more sanitary in this situation, with the added bonus of instant cauterization if she were to use both hands at once. Kakashi, she notes, has one hand on Naruto's shoulder, said boy still looking confused and suspicious. Sakura takes a breath and removes her gloves, the blue glow of chakra flaring from her right hand.
It clicks – Naruto shouts and tries to leap up, but Kakashi expects this and is too quick for him, clamping him down onto his knees.
"You can't do this, Sakura!"
Sakura doesn't want to do this either. But she can, and she will. Because she is a medic, and medics save lives.
"I have to, Naruto," she gently says. "There's no other way."
"You're that old lady's apprentice," he howls. "You helped Kankurou back when everyone thought he was done for! Just give him an antidote or something!"
Sakura is losing her patience. "Don't you think I would have done so if it was a possibility? I have no choice, Naruto!" Her last sentence is all but shouted back at him, and Naruto meets her gaze for the first time since their conversation started.
His eyes fill with tears. "He's only thirteen, Sakura."
Sakura's breath catches, but her hands do not shake. "I know."
"He's only thirteen," Naruto moans, his body going rigid with grief. "He's only thirteen!"
"I know," Sakura whispers, but the blue glow of her chakra doesn't flicker as she lowers the blade onto skin.
As she carefully severs and cauterizes, Kakashi's steady and silent presence seems to absorb Naruto's gasping sobs, and the only sound Sakura registers is the beating of her own heart.
Inari's mother collapses onto the floor at the sight of her son, carried by Kakashi through the front door at dawn, but she is quick to be thankful for the fact that he is still alive. Walking and running can be re-learnt, after all. It will be okay.
Sakura's three teammates are quick to leave the house – even Naruto – to continue helping out with the post-raid situation, but she stays behind to ensure Inari's condition doesn't deteriorate.
By the time nightfall rolls around, Inari's fever has receded somewhat and Sakura is completely drained. Dinner is a sombre affair, with Naruto attacking his fish with a ferocity that makes everyone uncomfortable. Inari's mother tries to make light-hearted conversation but each of her attempts is shot down by Inari's grandfather, whose bitterness is so tangible that Sakura can taste it on her tongue. Finally, the older woman gives up and leaves the room with a bowl of thin rice congee for Inari, who wakes long enough to get a mouthful or two down.
There is nothing Sakura wants more than a good long soak in a proper bathtub, but freshwater is a scarce commodity and a quick dip in the freezing ocean must suffice for all of them. It does help to get the sweat and dust off her skin, but the temperature still does nothing for her exhausted mind.
In the inky darkness of her room with no one else around, Sakura cannot get the images of Inari's bloody leg out of her head. His leg isn't the first she's ever amputated and she doubts it will be her last, but it doesn't change the fact that her hands were the tools that removed it. There is still so much life ahead of him, but now there is a huge stumbling block in front of him and Sakura doesn't know if he will be able to muster the strength to pull himself over it. It breaks her heart.
She is crying before she knows it. A sliver of light announces someone's entrance, and she instinctively knows who it is before the sound of his quiet footsteps confirms his identity.
"I couldn't save his leg," she whispers.
He sits down with his back slightly facing her and sighs. "You saved his life."
Sakura nods. She saved his life, but now Inari will have to spend the rest of it learning how to adapt or compensate. Fresh tears emerge. She is just so tired of all the violence and all the hurt because her heart is still soft and vulnerable to things like these, even after all the things she has seen. It is at once both a source of pride and exasperation, but at the moment it feels more like a curse.
Things get a little fuzzy after that because exhaustion finally wins over willpower, and Sakura falls asleep. She wakes with clean cheeks and the vague recollection of the gentle sweep of fingers on her face.
The rain keeps coming. The putrid stench is nearly gone now, and Kakashi breathes deeply as he ambles down a gentle slope with Sai and Naruto, returning back to Inari's home after another day of helping to rebuild the village. His two younger teammates run toward shelter and the smell of dinner beginning to waft through the air, but Kakashi pauses when he notices a still figure near the back of the house.
It is Sakura. Water runs in trails down her temples as she stands outside, face pointed towards the sky. In his mind's eye, Kakashi envisions a scene where he is just Kakashi and she is just Sakura, and she stands out in the rain, waiting for him to come home after a day of work. Her hair would hang loose like it did now, and as she turns to greet him the hem of her skirt would flutter a bit and show her knees.
The real Sakura standing in front of him turns, and his daydream is broken. She is wearing her black combat gloves, and Kakashi knows in that moment that she will always be Haruno Sakura, the prodigious medic-nin, and he will always be Copy-nin Kakashi.
Still, his heart skips a beat when she smiles at him, and he follows her as she gestures for him to come inside.
a/n: I am SO SORRY about this really late update! I actually had this chapter done for a longggggg time and even uploaded it to and everything, I just never got around to adding it to this story wtf. School's been exhausting and whatnot and I'm at a real stuck with this story, which is frustrating because I feel like I've invested so much into it. Sigh. Next chapter may be a long time coming, but I WILL finish this story. RAGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.