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Chapter 22
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Rogues
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I could see the hatred and hysteria in Kabuto's dark eyes.
His eyeglasses fell some time during the conflict and his face was very close. The rubber band holding his hair had snapped, making his silvery blonde hair fell over his face. There was a cut on his lip and blood trickled down.
And his stare was the one which disturbed me the most. His eyes bored directly at mine in a deadly way, as if he was bearing in mind my profile and every scratch I had, as if making certain of who he would be coming back to murder one day.
I felt the fret inside me as I held my hand and gripped firmly around the hilt of the dagger. It pierced him directly in his heart. I knew he would not be able to recover with what I just did, yet the look in his eyes frightened me.
Rock Lee still held him in a choking grasp and it was an effort for me to keep my hands from shaking. I had never done this to anyone before. I had never killed. Not until tonight… And he was not even a demi-human.
Kabuto's bloody lips pulled up in an unsettling grin. "Heh… Do you really think you can keep the world like this forever, rogues?" he said in a wheezing sound as Rock Lee kept his arm solid against his neck. "The more you control us and the underworld, the more it's going to blow up. And you'll be meeting your horrendous fates one day. There is no future with the present mankind's ruling and philosophy."
He coughed blood, but he was still smiling disturbingly.
"I may have failed to kill that old bastard, but this wouldn't be the end of it." He said. "All of you... All of you will suffer the consequences. You cannot hide what's there forever. And once the world knows about what you've been doing, they'll be coming after you."
I yanked the dagger from his chest and Rock Lee released his sturdy grip and he fell onto the floor, his blood staining the cold cement. The wound was fatal.
My hands were shaking. I felt Lee tugged my arm. "Let's go, Sakura, before more demi-humans break in."
He was limping as he tried to walk, one of his knees was injured. I took his left arm, put it around my wounded shoulders and jogged ourselves hurriedly to the ruptured window. I saw Itachi on the other side of the street and he laid Sarutobi on the ground, his back leaned against a tree trunk. There was another patient from the clinic lying there beside him whom I did not know. I saw another demi-human tried to attack Itachi and he flung a kunai at it and it fell on the pavement.
Rock Lee and I both toppled over as we landed onto the street outside from the third floor of the small building. Months of training was barely enough to keep me alive and breathing. I fell on the grasses in exhaust, just a few feet from where Itachi stood.
"Naruto is still there." I was trying to say to Itachi. He was guarding all of us in case another batch of demi-humans would strike again.
Unlike Sasuke, he was better at keeping a stoic face despite the turmoil. He had this tranquil demeanor, as if he was determining all the movements around him. Sasuke, by now, would have probably already lost his patience.
There was a sudden sound of tires screeching and I saw a familiar black jeep appearing from the far corner of the street and speeding towards us. Its headlights flashing down upon us as it drew near. It stopped rapidly on the sidewalk before us and three figures stepped out.
"Sakura!" Sasori called as he dashed towards us after pushing the car door closed from the driver's seat. Professor Yamato and Deidara were behind him. The cropped brown hair and the long blonde mane tied in a ponytail were quite distinctive.
They saw who were there. They saw the two unconscious patients with us; The building with broken glasses and the shards scattered over the street. We could still hear the noises coming from the fights inside. There were still people there trying to get out.
"Holy motherfu—" I heard Deidara when he came close.
Sasori saw my wounds and the anxiety on his face was replaced with worry and distress, his child-like eyes fixed on my bleeding upper arm. The blood was staining a huge part of my top shirt. He kneeled before me.
"Damn it—this is bad." He gritted his teeth in anger as he looked at me and the patients. "I should've known you'd be here. We should get you to the hospital right now!"
"Am I glad to see you." I murmured to him, trying not to show the pain on my face.
"Oh, Sakura…" His jaw quivered a little in resentment, as he stared at my wounds.
Yamato turned to Itachi first, who was standing there guarding us. He looked at the assaulted clinic in discomfort. He was wearing a dark blue coat and he pulled the seams a little and drew out a pair of throwing knives.
"We got the call from Jiraiya for a back up on this station." He said, studying the movements in the clinic from where we stood. "How many demi-humans have you estimated and how many people do we still have stuck inside?"
"Perhaps twenty or more, including the confined patients. The demi-humans are more than I could count." Itachi said. His eyes no longer held the red shade of his Sharinggan and they were back in its dark gray hue.
"There're ten of us from the org and the guild guarding the place." Rock Lee said as he held one arm against a tree trunk to support himself. "Kabuto's there but I don't think he's breathing anymore. He attacked us and tried to kill Sarutobi-sama."
"Naruto's still there! We have to get him! He's on the second floor!" I tried to get up.
Sasori placed his hand gently on my arm. He was wearing the jacket which he wore the first time I met him in the city library.
"Stay here. We'll go look for him."
Yamato gave one nod. He turned to Sasori, Deidara and Itachi. "The medics will be coming in shortly. Keep yourselves safe or take cover in the next block if the demi-humans swarm again on the street." He said mainly to Itachi. "We'll get the remaining rogues inside. Sasori and Deidara, you'll be my supports and we'll enter from the back alley of the first floor and work our way to the third. We'll need to divide by the time we get on the second floor. You don't have to wait for me once we reach the upper floors. If you need to get out, then do so. Is that clear?"
Sasori and Deidara gave one curt nod. Itachi only listened to him, his slender blade still unsheathed and remained on his side.
"Eyes on those bastards, boys. I'd like to see you both alive and in one piece after this." Yamato said as he turned around, crossed the street, and headed towards the building.
Sasori and Deidara followed him. Sasori drew out a couple of smoke bombs and kunai bombs from his jacket while Deidara swung a crossbow onto one shoulder. They didn't look back at us. Their eyes fixed on the broken windows and the scampering movements and the shadows they could see from outside.
I rushed to the side of Sarutobi and checked his pulse on the wrist. I felt a steady beating there. There was no other wound visible on his body except a bleeding gash on one of his lower leg.
I suddenly heard a snap of a twig from behind us and saw a demi-human lunged itself to us, its sharp teeth and claws ready to dig into our skins. I pulled the remaining kunai in my pocket, but Itachi's sword shot right through its forehead and it fell backward with a howl.
It was still moving helplessly when Itachi walked to it and pulled out his blade from its head. He gave the sword one swing in mid air to shake off the dripping blood and strode back to us without a word, his long hair swaying at the back of his head with the night breeze.
The sounds of the ambulances echoed and they emerged from the corner where Sasori's jeep also came from. There was one big black van at the front, which I recognized belonged to the Mortis Guild, and was followed by three red and white ambulance vans, their emergency vehicle lights rotating and flaring, giving more brightness at the secluded area.
The sight of them gave me a small relief and I tried to get up.
I recognized the first man who got out from the black van. He was tall, wearing black and red coat, with green eyes and long flaxen hair tied up. It was Yamanaka Inoichi, Ino's father. The other staff in white uniforms rushed towards us while another group in black suits headed to the building.
Inoichi's face was uptight as he directly approached and shared information with Itachi, who was the one in a best form among us from the invaded clinic. I could not hear what they were saying since a medic was already at my side, looking at the bleeding cuts on my shoulder from one of the demi-humans bite. Another medic carried Sarutobi into one of the ambulances.
"Are you all right? Stay still, okay. This should hold the bleeding for now." The female medic was saying as she pressed a cloth on my shoulder and started wrapping it around with bandages tightly. "Can you stand up? You need to stay awake."
My mind could not process all her words at all since I was watching Itachi and Inoichi, trying to hear what they were saying. I wanted to know what was happening back in the academy. I needed to know the others were safe.
But the noises were too loud.
There was a sudden explosion at the side of the building, from the second floor. The deafening sound rang in my ears. Debris flew on the street.
"Sasori!" I cried as I tried to run towards the clinic but the female medic held me back to my place.
"You need to stay here!" she said.
"That was a gas explosion." I heard Inoichi hissed.
"They must've pulled a gas pipe. They're fighting everywhere." Itachi said. "I'm going back in."
Inoichi raised an arm in front of Itachi, stopping him from moving. "That might not be a good idea. We should wait for a minute or two and let the gas subside first."
I was staring in panic at the fractured building. I could not even utter a word anymore. My friends were still inside. Sasori's and Naruto's face flashed in my mind. They had to get out. They were my good friends. They were too valuable to die here.
I saw two figures emerging from the back alley of the building. The tears had started running down my face again. I didn't want to cry.
The two figures were Sasori and Deidara. Sasori was holding Naruto, his arm swung on his shoulder, holding him for support. Naruto was still wearing the white uniform for patients and he had bandages wrapped loosely around his head. He was gripping a regular kitchen knife from the clinic with his other hand. He was barely awake. Deidara was behind them, two unconscious patients hung on both sides of his shoulders, carrying them on both arms. All five of them were dusty.
The medics rushed to their aid as they crossed the street.
It was the last image I saw before I felt my eyes closing in fatigue.
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Sasuke's scarlet eyes glared at Kisame, their blades grazing against one another. He needed to kill that demi-human as fast as he could before his katana breaks in two.
The walls inside the ruined office were now burning and the yellow and red glows filled the room in a boiling temperature.
He jumped back as Kisame swung his Samehada and missed. He turned around and the bottom of his blade's hilt hit his shark face. Kisame growled.
The floor shook again and Kisame had to balance his heavy weight. As he did so, Sasuke took the the thin chance he had and, with a fast movement, he burried the edge of his sword into his upper chest, pinning him against the wall, his hand losing the grip of his Samehada.
"You little bastard—" Kisame snarled.
Chouji was busy trying to shoot the demi-humans with his bolts and crossbow, and Tsunade was attacking Orochimaru. She had hit his jaw but he was fast to recover. They were rupturing the walls and floors by their fast taijutsu. The room was suffocating and it was getting smaller.
Sasuke remained concentrated on his opponent. Kisame raised his muscular arms, encircled his hand on the blade pinned through his chest and started pulling it out, his palms bleeding in the process. Sasuke increased his force and tried pushing it further through his body. But Kisame's muscle mass was heavier than his and he broke the blade in half, freeing himself from the wall. The edge of the blade still stuck in his chest.
"You will die here with me, you little bastard." he said through clenched teeth.
He punched Sasuke hard on the chest, sending him tumbling a few feet away.
"Sasuke!" he heard Chouji cried. He had killed the last demi-humans.
Chouji fired a bolt to Kisame from his crossbow and he caught it with his hand in a swift movement. And with an extraordinary speed and stunt for his breed, he made a rapid turn and shot it towards Chouji instead, using only his hand despite the wound Sasuke just inflicted on him. It hit Chouji on the chest and he fell down with a dreadful wail.
Sasuke's eyes widened. He rashly stood up, grabbed his broken sword and dashed towards Kisame. He saw him coming fast and he tried to get a hold of his Samehada, his wound bleeding badly.
But he was too late. Sasuke beat him in the fast movements.
He buried the remainder of his blade into his muscular throat.
Kisame still tried to pull it out but he was already choking in his own blood. Sasuke did not let go of the blade as it sank deeper through his neck. He tried pushing Sasuke away, but he did not budge. He let his weak defensive punches met his body. He could see with his Sharinggan the weakening of his chakra from the deadly wound.
"You die here tonight." Sasuke hissed against his ear.
A portion of the ceiling fell and the floor shuddered hazardly, creating a gaping wall at the end of the room, where the signatured gigantic window of the headmistress' office used to be. The broken windows and wall and debris fell down several floors outside the building, creating a massive hole in the room. The glowing night sky outside was now visible and they could see the neighboring buildings, all burning and crumbling the school down. The cold night air filled the room, mixing with the heat of the fire.
The sudden quake left them all unbalanced and Orochimaru took the chance of slamming himself hard against Tsunade. She tumbled down with the other broken chairs and they one by one toppled off the floor and into the opened broken wall, plummeting down hundreds of feet outside the building. Tsunade managed to grab a part of the floor carpet which was still attached and tangled around one of the building columns. She was dangling at the edge of the floor, clinging firmly on the carpet as she tried to avoid falling off and burning on the fire around the structures.
The floor was not even straight anymore. It was lopsided and Sasuke knew it would be falling any minute.
He saw Orochimaru leaned forward to her and raised his wakizashi to cut off the carpet she was holding. He could see the angst on Tsunade's eyes as she watched him approach.
Sasuke left his post, where the dying Kisame was still choking with his blood, and skidded down to yank Orochimaru on the heels. He fell from the tackle and lost the grip of his wakizashi, which rolled over down to the floor opening and fell.
Orochimaru kicked Sasuke away and when he did not let go, he pinned him down in a forceful strength. He grabbed Sasuke's neck and started strangling him. Sasuke kicked him with his knee and they tackled each other on the crushing floor, reeling over in a deadly grip and trampling with one's strength. He could see the burning ceiling above them, on top of Orochimaru's head as he suffocated him underneath him. Sasuke forced himself up and hit him on the elbow, making him fell on his knees.
But Orochimaru was quick…
In one swing of his arm, he burried a dagger on Sasuke's back before he could recover.
Sasuke felt the sharp pain. But he did not stay still. He turned around and tried to hit him with his fist.
Orochimaru was too fast. His rapid motions were not human-like at all. He saw him vanished before Sarutobi during the Lantern Festival mission, and it was beyond practical. He was like a dark shaman.
Sasuke could not accept the fact that they were facing someone like him... Someone who had broken the chain of reality.
He pulled out the dagger from his back and he could not contain himself from screaming from the pain the second he yanked it. He knew it was not advisable to pull out something stuck in your body unless they were done by medics. But he did not care, anyway.
"I've heard about you." Orochimaru said to him in an amused manner. "You're that brat from the Uchiha clan. Itachi's brother. Unlike your brother, I can sense darker emotions from you. You know... we can put those negative energies of you to good use. I can make you god-like."
"Shut your fucking hissing mouth up." Sasuke said viciously.
Orochimaru snickered.
Sasuke knew they were all going to die there. He needed to get out but he was too furious to do so. He wanted to kill that bastard right then and there.
In a blink of an eye, he saw Orochimaru pulled out another kunai from his robe. Sasuke instantly grabbed his arm and they were wrestling dangerously on the floor. Sasuke felt the building foundations giving away below them as another tremor was sent in the whole building.
It was dawning on him that they had finally ran out of time.
I never wanted to die in this screwed up academy yet here I am.
It was the only thought he had in his head.
He wanted to join the Mortis Organization yet he was greatly annoyed by the school. It was stifling to be there. Figuratively and literally.
For a strange one second, he had thoughts running in his head like fast bullets. He did not used to care about his life so much yet he never pictured himself thinking about it at that very moment.
A part of him wanted to stay there and murder Orochimaru, not caring if he would die in the process. Yet another part of him was screaming for him to live. He needed to live because he found something now.
Not something. Someone.
And he had to know what would happen between her and him.
It was an unfinished business.
Orochimaru's face was in an outrage as he could not get himself free from Sasuke's strangling hold. Sasuke knew he was going to do that same trick again he did with Sarutobi: vanishing in the air like grains of sand.
But not this time…
Sasuke threw him hard against the burning wall and the sudden collision sent the burning ceiling crashing down onto Orochimaru. He felt more blood trickled from his wound after the violent movement. He watched as the rupture of the ceiling did not end there. He stared in astonishment at the red and yellow flames before him as the whole ceiling finally gave in and collapsed on them.
Then, he felt a firm hand pulled the back collar of his shirt and he was pulled out hastily from the crumbling building and out through the gaping hole where he last saw Tsunade.
The cool night air against his face was the first thing he felt as he watched the floor where they were just fighting seconds ago collapsed before his eyes. He was dangling in mid air, and his neck line was gagging him as someone held onto his shirt from the back. It was going to be ripped into pieces anytime soon.
"You should've escaped when you had the chance!" He heard Kakashi shouted above him as he squirmed violently from the tight hold, not comfortable being bound. "Stay still, won't cha. It's going to be teared off and you'd be falling on your stubborn ass!"
"I thought you were dead!" Sasuke yelled back.
Kakashi had a tight rope tied around his waist and it was being pulled from atop the ladders of the firetrucks, which were extended up in the high night sky. There were several men there, hauling up their weight. They were in a hasty swing as they jumped off the smoldering buildings, nearly hitting the body of the ladders opposite them as they swung. Kakashi was holding Sasuke by the collar the whole time. They waited for the speed to lose momentum before they were being descended hurriedly onto the grass field in the middle of the school where the firemen had successfully kept the area away from the flames.
Sasuke saw Ibiki and Asuma near them, both also suspended in mid air with the tight ropes. Asuma was carrying an unconscious Chouji over one shoulder and he could see the blood on his face and body glimmering from the fire light. Ibiki was carrying Tsunade who had bruises on the face and her red robes was almost shredded in half from her wrestle with the infiltrators earlier. She looked like she wanted to jump off from Ibiki's hold even if they were still a hundred feet from the ground.
Sasuke dropped backwards on the grasses the moment their feet landed on the ground. He could suddenly feel the exhaustion and the inflicted pain in his body. He could barely sit on the ground. But he did not yelp nor call for assistance as he silently stared and watched the destroyed school buildings before them.
"Ibiki saw me just outside the building, carrying Ebisu. He had these ropes ready and you guys are lucky bastards, still. We got you in the very last minute." Kakashi sighed, untying the rope around him.
Paramedics rushed to them and one of them saw Sasuke's bleeding back and started telling him to stay unmoving as she took out bandages and started ripping the back of his shirt. He had ashes and scratches all over his face yet he did not care much.
"How can anyone stay the fucking still when they're goddamn muscles kept on shaking?" Sasuke said to the medic.
Yes, his arms had started shaking a bit from the strains and the wounds. He could hear the rushed noises around him: the firetrucks, the medics, the ambulances, the cries…
"You've got some serious wounds! We need to get you to the hospital right now. I think your stab wound hit your back ribs." the female nurse cried behind him.
He did not move and the medic called the others to help him be taken away. He saw a group of medics trying to revive Chouji and performing CPR. And all he could do was watch without a word.
There were other rogues familiar to him who were lying unconscious around the grass field. Ino and Hinata were there, helping the medics with the needed equipment and stretchers from the vans. He also noticed that the fire at the entrance area was put out.
Kakashi was talking to Jiraiya at the center of the commotion as he held a wet towel on his bleeding forehead. Jiraiya looked all dusty, as if he had just been in one of the ruined buildings. He saw Tsunade standing at the side, watching the buildings disintegrating in front of them in a dejected manner. He walked towards her and put one hand on her shoulder. Kakashi was behind them for a brief moment. He sighed miserably as they saw the rest of the floors falling apart.
Three medics had started pulling Sasuke into one of the ambulances and he was shrugging them off. He did not want to go yet. Or better yet, he did not want to go at all. He did not like being confined in one place. He never liked going to those places ever since he was a kid. Two male medics were wrestling with him now and he was throwing curses at them, threatening he would slit their throats while they sleep.
It was not really the only reason why he was angry and disturbed. He and his friends had spent more than a decade in the academy and it was not the way it was before now. Some of his friends were even hurt. He did not even know if they would be fine. He had to stay there for a moment longer. And he had no idea what happened to the others, to the clinic where his lunatic bestfriend and that annoying newbie were.
He did not used to care…
They were the graduating class.
And this was what happened.
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(To be continued.)