Okay so this chapter is really long, I KNOW, sorry XD. It consists of a lot of talking, but a lot of needed talking for the story lol. I hope you enjoy, thank you guys so much for the motivating reviews. :)
Chapter 7: Sharingan
"Hey Sakura it's 7:10am, why don't you get out of here?"
"Oh sorry! I didn't realize it was after 7:00am. I was finishing up preparing the breakfasts for morning shift, just got to put them in the fridge now.
"Stop apologizing so much! I knew you were. Here I'll put the trays away, you head home and I'll clock you out."
"Okay Iruka, thank you." I walked out of the kitchen and headed towards the entrance.
*It's so hard to act normal around Iruka!* As I was walking I stopped in front of Sasuke's hallway.
*I should say goodbye to him. He has been all alone in there for hours.* I jogged to his room and used my remote to open it so I could just walk right in. When I got there I saw him look over at me. I kneeled down in front of his bed so I was eye level with him.
"Hi Sasuke, have the pain medications I gave you worn off?" He just continued to stare at me.
"I know communication is limited, but, maybe we can figure something out because I know you can hear me. If you're in pain then look away from me." He looked up at the ceiling and back at me. My heart dropped.
"Oh goodness Sasuke I'm so sorry. I gave you a large dose last time, that's why I didn't come sooner. Have you been in pain for very long? Well no you can't really tell me a specific amount of time. Okay, if you have been in pain for over an hour then look away from me." He just stared at me.
"Okay good so my calculations on timing were pretty spot on. I will give you some more, but not enough to put you to sleep. Although a larger than normal amount of sleep is recommended for you to help your immune system, I'm not going to because it's day time. I don't want to throw your body's time clock out of whack. I will make sure I do that for you tonight though. I would want to sleep through the entire healing process too if I were you." I gave him a weak smile. Then I stood up and walked over to the table to grab another syringe of the pain medication. I logged it onto the medical inventory form attached to a clip board on the table. Then I walked back over to Sasuke and grabbed his IV line and injected it into it. His eyes relaxed. I put the needle into the biohazard medical disposal bin on the table and kneeled back down in front of Sasuke. I stared into his eyes. I felt like he was looking into my soul. My heart was racing. He may have not looked like what he once was, but those dense eyes didn't change one bit. I sighed and looked down at my lap.
"I wish I could stay but I need to go home and get some sleep. I'll be back this evening at 7:00pm though ok?" I held back my tears with all my might and looked back up at Sasuke. When I did I gasped. His eyes were red. I leaned in closer and seen three small black orbs within them.
"Y-Your eyes…that's how they looked when I first met you. I wish you could tell me what they are for. I know the patients here have a special 'gift' as everyone calls it. Is that yours?" He looked up at the ceiling and back at me. I gasped.
"Yes? It is?" He looked away and back at me.
"That's amazing. If only I had a special gift. If I did I would, I don't know. I just wish I had the power to fix you…"
*I can't do this!* Tears fell from my eyes and I quickly stood up to leave. When I turned away to leave I felt something grab my wrist. When I looked down at my wrist I see bandages. I inhaled in disbelief. I immediately looked up at Sasuke's face to see him staring at me so intensively with those red eyes.
"Sasuke you…you moved!" He released my wrist and painfully lowered his arm.
"Sasuke I don't understand. Was it something I said?" He looked away and back.
"So, yes?" He looked away and back once more.
"Damn it Sasuke. Uh, well was it from what I LAST said?" He looked away and back at me.
"Hmm…" I put my hand on my chin and thought about it.
"I said how your eyes were amazing. And then I said if I had a gift then it would be to fix you…but what does that have to do with anything?" Sasuke grabbed my wrist again and looked up at the ceiling and back at me. I returned his stare in confusion. Then his eyes turned back to their normal color.
"Hello?" I jumped and looked over at Sasuke's door way. A nurse was leaning in.
"Oh! Hello. You startled me." I put my hand on my chest and she laughed.
"I'm sorry! I was just here to change Sasuke's bandages. You're the new night shift nurse…Sakura right?"
"Yes that's me. I was just about to leave. I did just administer some more opioids into his IV though. I logged it already."
"Ok great! Have a good day." I rushed passed her and ran out of my sector. I slowly walked down the dim corridors towards the main entrance.
*Damn nurse. Why did she have to come in then? What was Sasuke trying to tell me?* I sighed as I entered the main lobby. I walked over to the elevator and pressed the button. The doors opened and some employee's of the morning shift stepped out as I walked in. The elevator stopped and when the doors opened I showed the guards my badge. They let me step out. I walked down the long tunnel and when I finally reached the end I swiped my badge to open the door and stepped outside, it heavily slammed behind me. The fresh morning air was inviting. I turned to my right to walk to the parking lot.
"There you are!"
"AH!" I turned around to see Naruto. He was looking at me with a serious face.
"Oh! It's just you. Have you been waiting for me?"
"Yeah I was waiting outside of the tunnel. What took you so long?"
"I went to say goodbye to Sasuke."
"Oh…" A sad look fell on both of our faces.
"Well what's up?"
"Sakura I need you to come with me to my house so we can talk."
"You mean about-" Naruto quickly covered my mouth.
"Shhh, yes. I don't have a car so can you drive us there?" He lowered his hand and I nodded. We walked to the parking lot and got in my car. Naruto directed me to his house. It was very close to the hospital. Naruto jumped out of the car before I could even finish parking and ran into his house. When I finished I stepped out and slowly walked to his front door. When I opened the door it stopped. I tried pushing it but something was blocking it so I squeezed into the small opening and fell inside.
"I'm in here Sakura!" I look down a hallway and see a hand frantically waving up and down and then disappear. It sounded like he was looking through something. I stood to my feet and shut the door locking it behind me. When I looked around there was stuff everywhere. His house looked as if it were completely flipped upside down. I stumbled over the stuff as I walked down the hallway. There was only one light on shining out of a room which lit up the hallway. When I reached it I looked inside the room. It was Naruto's bedroom. He was looking in a little brown box.
"Ha! I knew there was one in here!" He pulled out what seemed to be a weapon of some sort.
"What is it?"
"It's a kunai knife. You've never used one?"
"No I – AH!" I heard something fly by my ear and hit the wall behind me. When I looked to my left I see the kunai knife sticking into the wall not even an inch away from my face. I looked over at Naruto in fear. He was leaning forward with an empty hand in the air. He had a determined smile on his face.
"Well THAT'S how you use it!" Then he stood back to a normal stance and put his left hand on his right shoulder and began twirling it with his eyes closed and a confident smile on his face. I ran over and punched him in the head.
"YOU THINK THAT'S FUNNY? WHY WOULD YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT ARE YA TRYING TO KILL ME!? YOU CAN'T JUST USE ME FOR TARGET PRACTICE YA KNOW!"
"OUCH COME ON SAKURA!" Naruto held the top of his head and ducked down from me. I immediately stopped fuming and stood straight up with my arms crossed.
"I've got to admit though, that was pretty impressive." I winked. Naruto looked up and me and smiled. He stopped hunching down and stood normally.
"So why is your house such a wreck?" Naruto got an angry look on his face.
"Because all of my shit is gone! I left the hospital earlier when I told you I would be back and tore it apart then. All of my kunai and shuriken aren't here anymore!"
"Shuriken…? Wait never mind. Did all of your stuff just randomly disappear overnight?"
"No, it's been gone for a while. Ever since Iruka put his seal on my neck for his mind control jutsu. He must've had someone come here and wipe my house clean of all my weapons."
"Weapons? Weapons for what?" Naruto used his thumb to point at his chest.
"I'm a full-fledged ninja!" I just stared at him. A long silence went by until I couldn't hold it in anymore.
"HAHAHAHA! WHAT!?"
"Hey what are you laughing at!?"
"Because you said you were a NINJA! HAHA!" Naruto got an angry look on his face. I wiped the tears from my eyes and when I lowered my hands he was gone.
"N-Naruto?" I stepped backwards and bumped into him. I jumped and quickly turned around.
"Wait you were just…how did you…?"
"Like I said, I'm ninja."
"Naruto I-"
"Still don't believe me!?" He put his hands together and closed his eyes.
"Naruto its okay you don't have to…oh my God." Naruto turned around and started to walk up the wall, then onto the ceiling. I covered my mouth and he looked down at me smiling with his arms crossed. Then he jumped back down onto the floor in front of me and landed on his hands and feet like a cat.
"Now do you believe me?" Naruto stood up and I laughed while nodding my head.
"Ok yes, you're a ninja. Now my question is…well everything! Have you been able to do this kind of stuff the whole time? And well my answer about the need for weapons as been answered. But still, this is all so confusing. Are there more people out there like you?"
"Whoa Sakura one at a time. And yes I have always been a ninja. I was trained starting at 10 years old. There are others out there like me, in fact, that entire 'hospital' that Iruka owns are all full of elite ninja like myself. Iruka and his 'staff' like Asuma all have the 'patients' under a jutsu. This jutsu places a seal on the back of the person's head near the bottom. This seal keeps the person under their control."
"Well what do you mean by 'control'?
"This jutsu prevents the person from remembering anything about their past. It also keeps their chakra under control. So they can't use it for their abilities." I gasped and covered my mouth. Naruto gave me a weird look. The realization finally hit me. I've never felt so dumb.
"That's why everyone was acting so strange! When Hinata tried to tell me about her Byakugan she suddenly got a headache and grabbed the back of her head, right where this 'seal' would be. And when Kiba tried to tell me about his dog Akamaru he did the same thing! Then when I brought it back up to both of them again, they acted like they had absolutely no idea what I was talking about! It's like; the strength of the jutsu seemed to wear off so they remembered some of their past, but when they brought it up that seal must've taken its effect and caused them to have this 'headache' which made them forget again." Naruto's jaw was dropped.
"I can't believe they even remembered that much, and how they were so comfortable to talk about it with you."
"Naruto you did the same thing! When you were under Iruka's jutsu, I asked what you knew about Sasuke. You just shrugged your shoulders and told me how he was nice to you and you didn't understand. Then you said something crazy like how you felt like you had a connection with him. After that you got a bad headache and had to go lay down in Iruka's office. Do you remember that?"
"Yeah now that you mention it I do."
"It's because Sasuke was your friend, and still is. It was weird though. When you saw him like…like he is now. It threw you over the edge or something. You went crazy Naruto! You, you weren't yourself. When I finally got you to calm down, you passed out. And when you woke up, you remembered everything. Earlier you told Sasuke that the 'nine tails' came out of you it caused the seal to break. What did you mean by that?" Naruto looked down and slowly lifted his shirt. On top of a beautifully tan and ripped stomach was a black circle around his belly button.
"This is a seal. Inside of me, there is a monster. This prevents it from ever breaking free. I've had a shitty childhood because of this thing. What you saw happen to me was when the chakra from this beast comes out. It's no ordinary chakra. It seems to only come out when my own chakra is spent, or when I get infuriated. Especially if someone close to me is hurt. I'm sorry you had to see that, and I'm also sorry I hurt you because of it."
"Naruto don't be sorry, you didn't have much control over your rage at that point. I'm just glad I got you to calm down when I did because Iruka would've seen you that way otherwise. Then shit really would've hit the fan." Naruto nodded. I walked over and sat down on his bed and he sat down next to me. We both sighed at the same time. I just thought about all of the things he told me. Such a scary but beautiful thing. I had no idea people could harness such uncanny powers. But what made me feel worse is that, I felt so simple compared to him. Compared to all of the 'patients'. Who was I to be hired as a nurse for the mentally handicapped…or so they were called. Under a spell from Iruka, so when they do speak of things they sound crazy to a normal person like me. But they themselves are going crazy from these memories that come and go by force. I couldn't hold back my tears any longer. Naruto looked over at me sadly. Sasuke came to my mind and I stopped. Something told me to mention what happened to Naruto.
"Naruto I seen Sasuke's eyes before I left, they were red…" Naruto gasped and his eyes were wide in disbelief.
*I knew that would mean something to him.* I looked into Naruto's eyes. There was hope in them. I could feel it.
"Sasuke and I kind of developed a way to speak to each other. I would ask him questions and he would answer with his eyes. If it was a 'yes' he would look away and then back at me. If it was a 'no' he would just stare. When I saw his eyes like that I asked him if that was his 'gift' and responded with a yes."
"Yeah that's his Sharingan! I don't even understand how he could use it with his body like that!"
"I figured something like that would take a lot of focused energy or 'chakra' as you call it. I was surprised he could use his gift in that severe of a condition as well. So that means there's hope. There's some fight in him, actually a lot of fight. We need to figure out how to get him back Naruto. We need him more than ever if we are going to save your friends from Iruka."
"Don't you think I've been trying to figure that the whole time!? What can we do? Iruka and his team are unstoppable with that jutsu. The only one who could imitate it is Sasuke. That's what his Sharingan is for. He can see his enemy's moves before they even make it in a fight, and when they do, he can see exactly how they do it and copy it right back in a second."
"I get it, so that's why Iruka never placed the seal on him, because he knew he couldn't with Sasuke's ability. That's so amazing. If he got back to normal, we could figure out a way to get him to copy Iruka's jutsu!"
"Don't you think Sasuke would've done that by now!? Even with Sasuke's Sharingan and him being not burnt to a crisp he wasn't able to do anything because he was all alone. And now that I'm finally out of this shit, he's pretty much dead and now I'M alone. It's hopeless, there's no use." Naruto leaned down and put face in his hands.
*I want to slap him so hard right now for thinking like that! But, he IS right. What CAN we do? Think Sakura…* Naruto lifted his head out of his hands and got a puzzled look on his face.
"My question is…why was Sasuke using his Sharingan on you before you left this evening? Sakura, do you have any abilities? Have you ever tapped into your chakra?"
"What? No I can't do anything! I don't even know what chakra is! I didn't even know there were ninja out there that had their own school for training and everything. I think a lot of people don't know about you guys. Well maybe that's why you're called ninjas."
"Yeah those who become ninja are usually because generations of their family before them were ninja."
"Yeah no ninja in my family…just doctors and nurses."
"Well think Sakura, did any of them ever leave for long periods of time or did you even know what hospital they worked in?"
"Now that you mention it, my father was always away. And he would never let me come to work with him. My mother wasn't allowed to come with him either; when I would ask she would always say 'it's a secret.'"
"That's it. He must've been a medicinal ninja himself. There are ninja out there that can use their own chakra to heal others."
"Well I don't think he was a ninja…" I laughed a little but Naruto was completely serious.
"You don't know that though."
"Naruto my mother is dead, it's not like I could go ask her and find out anyway. So why is this even relevant?"
"Because that means it runs in your blood! Sakura I know you have been to medical school so this all seems impossible, but believe me when I say this because I had to learn about it, this shit regarding our chakra is down to a science! A biological science." I learned forward and put my hand on my forehead.
"I just don't know Naruto. No…I can't do anything. Even if I could, I don't know how to even harness my chakra or whatever you call it."
"Sakura I was an idiot in school. If I could learn than so can you."
"Yeah but you started learning when you were 10."
"Sakura just hear me out, why would Sasuke of used his Sharingan on you? He sensed it; he sensed your chakra so he was trying to read it. What exactly happened when he first used it on you?"
"Naruto I have no idea. I'm still confused by the whole thing. I was talking to him and I remember saying how if I could have any power then it would be to fix him. I went to leave and when I did he actually moved! He grabbed my wrist to stop me. And when I turned around to look at him his eyes were red. I asked him if that was his gift and he answered 'yes' as I told you before. So I said I don't understand why you're stopping me was it something I said and he responded 'yes'. When I repeated my last statement to him which was 'I wish I could have the power to fix you' he grabbed my wrist again and answered 'yes'." Naruto's jaw dropped. He then grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into an embrace.
"Sakura you're the answer! You can fix him!" I pushed Naruto away from me and gave him a weird look. He had a huge smile on his face, and hope was in his eyes.
"He was telling you that you DO have the power to fix him. He could see it with his Sharingan. Don't you get it!? That's what he was trying to tell you!"
"But…"
"Sakura, you have a family with generations of nurses and doctors. And a father that was never home because 'it was a secret'. How more obvious can it be? Harnessing your chakra to heal is in your blood!"
*He might actually be…no…he can't be right. This is crazy!* The thought that I could actually have this ability running in my blood was too farfetched. I remember watching the silly movies with ninjas in black outfits. And now to think that I could potentially harness the power of one was beyond me. This all was happening too fast. I didn't know what to think. But what I did know is that I wanted to help Naruto. What I did know is that I wanted to see Sasuke look like he used to. Even though he didn't particularly like me, I still felt a deep caring for him.
"Okay I'll do it." Naruto looked up at me in confusion.
"You'll do what?"
"I don't know! Whatever it is that you think I can do! Teach me…I don't know…"
"Ah man look at the time, we need to get some sleep first. We have to make sure we get to work on time and act like everything is what it was. I will teach you soon. But for now…" Naruto stood up and began to walk out of his room. He gestured at me to follow him. He took me into his living room and walked over to his book shelf. He grabbed a bunch of books and handed them to me.
"These will get you started. Study these to learn how to channel your chakra and the way it works with your body. Remember you're a nurse for a reason, so this stuff will be a breeze to you. It's in your blood."
"I don't understand, wouldn't of Iruka had these taken out of your house too? Being that he was trying to erase your ninja past from you and all." Naruto grabbed the first book from the pile and blew on the top of it. A large cloud of dust formed in the air. Then he opened the book and slammed it closed, more dust.
"I don't read. Everybody knows that. Those were just the ones I was issued from the academy." Naruto laughed and place the book back on top of the pile.
"They have been sitting in that same spot for years. I just remembered that I even had them!" Naruto pushed his stuff out of the front door's path and held it open for me.
"Go home and get some sleep. Call me when you get there." He wrote down his number and handed the piece of paper to me.
"N-Naruto, maybe you should come with me? What if Iruka finds out that you're not under his jutsu anymore? I mean don't you think he would've sensed it or something?" Naruto scratched the top of his head.
"Shit you've got a point. I mean, he hasn't been acting any different. I guess we'll have to find out the hard way. This just means we will need to get Sasuke better twice as fast."
"Yeah, and you only live 5 minutes away from the hospital. Not to mention he knows where you live. Yeah, you're staying at my place for a while. I will worry too much won't sleep. This way you can help me learn faster too."
"Another good point…just let me grab a few things and I'll meet you out in the car." I see Naruto run down the hallway and pull his kunai out of the wall. Then he runs into his bedroom. I walked out to my car and put the books in the back seat. I sat for a few minutes and he finally came out with a full back pack. I could see clothes hanging out of it. He jumped into the passenger seat and we drove to my house. I sit the books on the floor next to my bed and get a blank and pillow so he could sleep on the couch.
"I've got my alarm set so we won't be late tomorrow."
"Ok Sakura, goodnight. And thanks for your help. You're really smart you know that? I can tell. Sasuke will be better in no time!" I laughed.
"I'm not sure how I helped but you're welcome. Goodnight." I turned out the light and closed the blinds. I hear Naruto start snoring almost immediately and laugh quietly to myself. I lay on my side and stared at the top of his head. His hair seemed to be permanently spiked.
*Such an optimistic weirdo. Well at least one of us is.* I sighed.
*I really hope I can learn how to do this. He's really depending on me… Sasuke's really depending on me.* The image of his face came to mind. How I yearned to see it once more in person. But I had no hope that I could ever heal him. The thought that if I didn't learn how to heal with my chakra, well then I would be deciding everyone's fate at the hospital. Their doom to be under Iruka's eternal control would be my fault. Sasuke needed to be back to normal if this plan was going to work. The plan to free all of their fellow ninja…their friends.