Burn City
Ssssh, drip, drip, ssssh!
I lay on my hospital bed, silent. I was numb all over, thanks to the morphine the nurses had just injected into my body, the pain coming to my brain in small, red waves that were barely noticeable.
I was very drowsy, my eyelids coming halfway over my eyes, tempting me to sleep. But I didn't want to sleep; I'd been sleeping all day long, not that there was anything to do, yet along look at today. The beauty of spring, at least what I could see out my tiny, hospital room window, was being washed away by the rain, which wasn't a bad thing when you were able to be out in it, enjoying it's soft peace, but when you were like me, cooped up in a hospital bed covered in burns, it happens to be a horrible catastrophe.
I glanced at the TV, wishing there was more than soap operas on in the day time. I wouldn't have really minded a murder mystery at that moment.
The door opened and quiet footsteps echoed in the silent room. I didn't have to look to know who it was. A small form entered my line of vision. Her dark, indigo hair was cropped short at her neck, while her long bangs hung down on each side of her head, framing her face prettily. I wondered if that was her natural hair color.
One of her pale hands reached out and pressed a button on one of the machines hooked up to me. I waited until the rush of liquid sent a cool wave in my body and I sighed happily. My nurse, Hinata, turned to me with a hesitant smile.
"Good a-afternoon Sasuke," She said and took the few steps to me. "I have t-to change y-your bandages; don't you want t-to go to s-sleep?" I winced but shook my head. I knew why she wanted me to go to sleep; it always hurt when she had to change my bandages, which was probably why all the nurses and been over-dosing me on the morphine.
Her small hands reached over to my bandages and began to, carefully, take them off. My muscles tightened up and I held my breath. The small waves of pain were becoming larger, pulsing in my brain steadily, and my vision was covered in red.
I let out a small cry and Hinata looked at me worriedly. She reached over and pressed the morphine button again and I felt my body relax.
"Go to sleep," She whispered and wafted a hand in front of my eyes. I felt myself slipping away, obeying her soft command, and the pain quickly faded away, like waves licking the shore after a storm.
-----------------------------------A few days later----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"U-Uchiha-san?" I turned my head to Hinata as she entered the room. She held out a small package. I nodded at her.
"Open in." After saying it I immediately regretted it and clutched my throat; it still hurt to talk. Hinata glanced at me worriedly but I shook my head and she began to rip away the wrapping paper, slowly, bit-by-bit.
Out of the package emerged a video tape and a card. She glanced at the video tape curiously but placed it down on the end of the bed and opened the card. She looked up at me from the card.
"Do… Do y-you want me t-to read it to y-you?" She asked. I rolled my eyes and nodded; Hinata could be so thick headed sometimes. She looked back down at the card, her eyes scanning the page.
"D-dear Sasuke," She began. "We held Sakura's funeral last Wednesday and w-we taped i-it for you, since i-in your state you w-were unable to a-attend and mourn with us. W-we also sent you her p-picture. We k-know she would have wanted t-to spend eternity w-with you, and b-believe you f-feel the same. We h-hope you recover s-soon W-with love, Harunos'." She continued to stare down at the letter before pulling out the picture.
"S-she was very pretty. W-we can have h-her framed i-if you want." She handed me the picture and I clutched it close to my chest.
"Put in the video." I said disgusted to find my voice was hoarse. Hinata nodded and picked up the video from the bed, putting it into the VCR.
The TV buzzed to life and the video began. We watched as many people, all dressed in black, walked to their lawn chairs, a soft murmuring going between them. The camera zoomed in on the closed coffin, pictures of Sakura looming beside it on a small table covered in flowers.
I felt my chest tighten and I closed my eyes tightly. Hinata glanced at me, her eyes wide.
"I… I can l-leave if you w-want Uchi--" I cut her off with a chop of my hand and I shook my head; I didn't want to be alone.
The minister walked in front of the coffin and began reading a verse of scripture before then continuing him miniature sermon, but I didn't her it. My ears were humming loudly and my mind kept drifting away; it was as if my whole body was rejecting the knowledge by not letting me acknowledge the ministers words.
"Now, let us mourn the death of our beloved sister, Sakura, with a moment of silence before we dismiss." These words from the minister registered in my brain as the preacher walked away from the coffin. The graveyard workers lowered the coffin into the ground and a wind blew, rustling the grass. The Harunos' appeared before the coffin and then both of them leaned down and grabbed a clump of soil, throwing the clumps onto the coffin of their only child before walking away, leaving the rest for the cemetery workers. The camera zoomed onto the pictures of Sakura, her smiling face glowing at the screen.
Hinata moved in a flurry of movement and emotion and pulled open the window, allowing the sun to gleam in. A soft breeze flew into the room and surrounded me; I would have liked to think it was Sakura, wrapping her arms around me through the gentle breeze.
I pushed the picture of Sakura towards Hinata. "I want her framed."
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"Hello, Sasuke." I looked up from my magazine in surprise; no way. My head turned slowly until I faced the speaker, dressed in the usual, white doctor coat, with his hair messily pulled up into a ponytail and a smirk spread across his face.
"Nara." Nara Shikamaru laughed and nodded.
"Glad to see you remember me, Uchiha." His lazy looking, half-lidded eyes bore into me before he walked forward and pulled up a chair beside my bed. He flipped out a pad of paper and looked up at me.
"I'm just going to check your burns, okay?" I scowled at him.
"Since when did you become a doctor? I thought you wanted to be an engineer." I asked and he returned my frown.
"Since about three years ago, now hold still." He answered and reached over, his hands check over my burns, surprisingly not causing any pain. I coughed awkwardly.
"So… How's Ino?" I asked and glanced at him. He continued checking over my burns.
"Living with Choji." My eyes widened, but I saw no hurt in the other mans face. Then again, he had almost always been impassive.
"I'm sorry?" I didn't mean for it to come out like a question, but it did anyway. He shrugged and scribbled some notes down on the pad.
"Don't be; it was the best for both of us. We just kind of… Out grew each other. She went for Choji, surprisingly, and I… Temari and I are going to get married in two months." He blushed at this and my eye brows raised farther.
"Huh." We lapsed into silence and I began to read my magazine again. He leaned back into his chair and began to furiously scrawl notes onto his pad. I coughed.
"So?" He didn't look up.
"Your burns are healing nicely." He replied after a moment. "I don't think there'll be much scarring." I laughed at that.
"Well, that's good. If I got scarred I'd be out of a job, especially if it was my face. Being a model is no fun." He still didn't look up, and his face was slightly sullen, and I raised my eyebrow curiously. He got up.
"I'll be back tomorrow at two." He said and opened the door, but turned back to me and eyed the picture of Sakura. Hinata stumbled into the room, barely saving my plate of food and glanced at us. Shikamaru said nothing to her but continued, "I'm sorry about Sakura." before leaving. Hinata blinked a few times and placed the food tray on the table beside me.
"You two know each other?" She asked. I decided to ignore her.
-----------------------------------Authors Note!!!!---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What? What? Could it be? Yes, loves, this is what you think it is… It's the second chapter of Burn City!!! Hah, hah, hah, I'm sorry about the wait you guys. Especially since it was such a long wait for such a short chapter. The truth is… I made two other versions of Burn City chapter two, but wasn't satisfied with either. That's why it took me so long to update. But, here it is.
book-fanatic14--- Thank you so much, I loved reading your review, it was happy and supportive. I try my best with all the characters, especially Sasuke. I don't know why, since I'm more like Hinata then like him, but I'm able to understand him better? I guess. Again, thank you for the wonderful review.
animeprincess619---- I did repost it, I'm sorry. I pressed the wrong thing, clumsy me: D
Suzume-Kage---- This is a SasuHina, it just has SasuSaku in the start. It'll get to SasuHina, don't worry.
-cHi-1000-SpRiNgS---- Yeah, I dislike SasuSaku too, which is why she died in the first chapter, lol.
And to all others who reviewed---- Thank you for your reviews, it helps me write!
This chapter was really more for introducing more characters (like Shikamaru) and you finally get to really know Hinata, and Sakura's funeral is finally done, though she will not just disappear from the story, I mean, she was his fiancé people! Hopefully, the SasuHina scenes will come later, but don't expect them to come to fast, I think I'm going to make their relationship go slow this time. So if you want to read a story where they start making out in this first chapter, you're going to have to read a different story. But… I'd love it if you'd stay and review…
But, really, that was hard to write. Mainly because I had no idea what I wanted to do. I mean, I have scenes in my mind, but they're later on. So I've got to think up fillers, lol. So, it'd be hugely appreciated if you could message me with ideas, or review them. Just little scenes that you want to happen. Is that cheating? I hope not… XD
Constructive criticism is always accepted, but no flames! But… Review! 'Cause I'm greedy for reviews.