Howling Love::.
Chapter 16 xx Haze
At that point, she wasn't really thinking what would happen to them and to tell the truth, she didn't much care about it either. Konoha's policies and council and silly methods of enforcements could wait, because she was thoroughly enjoying the moment and had no intention of worrying herself into a useless puddle over it. So instead she sat back and let the soft pitter-patter of the rain lull her into a fitful slumber.
Sakura dimly remembered running her fingers through the Uchiha's mane for what seemed like hours before then; affectionately playing with his ears, smoothing down his disheveled pelt, and simply holding his furry warmth to herself. When she sought to lower herself from a sitting position so she could sleep, he would slowly readjust, placing his head over her abdomen while the rest of his body lay unmoving beside her. He slept the whole time without making as much as a single noise, and his lidded eyes remained closed in a calm serenity.
She lost the ability to fight against the haze of the morphine sometime after that, and she slowly let herself be pulled into the appending darkness.
He hadn't expected so much pain to be involved with dying.
It was excruciating, and every agonizing moment seemed as if it were being extended into a piercing eternity. He felt like he was being repeatedly stabbed and ripped and suffocated and burnt and frozen all at the same time, and all he could do was writhe in agony inside the swirling depths of his mind as he steadily slipped deeper and deeper into the closing darkness, all light ripped away from him. He couldn't get away from it, all he wanted to do was block it out and be at peace, to escape the endless pain. He backstroked away from it, seeking any sort of warmth or pleasure in vain attempts to distract him from the raging darkness and pain.
Then a tremor of a memory rattled through him, and he found himself utterly surrounded by a single image; a face. A small, petite female face with a pair of glimmering, intelligent and incredibly perceptive jade orbs and a cute, little feminine grin bloomed across her pale face like a beautiful flower. He felt her rippling locks of rose-colored locks running through his fingers and the feeling of her thin frame resting comfortably against his own...
That's when he started fighting.
He clawed his way towards the light, kicking back the dark that clung fervently to his heels. The pain intensified, but he ignored it, for he wanted so desperately to taste that feeling again. His incessant greed was fueling his will to live, because he wanted her that badly. He wanted to see her and hold her one last time before his light went out, and he was going to cling to existence until that final wish was granted, right until the very end.
He slashed his way into consciousness with a final heave, and reality hit him hard.
the Uchiha youth was laying face-down on an frigid operation table, frenzied beeping and loud and frantic shouting and yelling raging like a storm about his ringing ears. People were moving rapidly around him, touching and prodding him and poking him with their sharp tools.
An oily, crimson liquid was everywhere; it was all he could see, pooling beneath his cheek, dripping past his blurred eyes, running down his violently-shaking skin and mingling with the cold sweat that dwelt there.
Then horror grasped him as he felt something cold and unbearably sharp slice down the length of his spine and suddenly a wave of instincts kicked in and he was thrashing away from it, gritting his teeth as explosions of pain fired off from his back. He felt hands slam down against his arms and the back of his neck, forcing him down with much more strength than necessary. The mess of doctors and nurses rushing about him were shouting and moving around again, and he felt someone roughly stab a sharp syringe into the thick of his arm in the midst of it.
He hissed audibly before crashing down against the table again, panting loudly as he felt an odd plastic contraption be shoved over his mouth.
Then, slowly, it began to melt away.
He woke up to a much different world.
The dark-haired youth was leaned up against the back of a large hospital bed and his entire body felt surprisingly numb, spare that single, shattering throb centered around the center of his spine. A large series of IVs and tubes sprouted from both the hollow of his throat and his forearms, and the odd plastic contraption was still covering the majority of his face, feeding him a steady supply of oxygen. A hard and solid brace was strapped around his middle, which was putting an uncomfortable amount of pressure on his back. Another splint, though noticeably more comfortable, was strapped around an ankle. He let his head fall limply to the side, fighting to keep his eyes from closing as he surveyed the blurry room surrounding him.
Someone was staring at him.
His lids drooped heavily and he struggled to see who it was, but all he managed to do was keep them open a sliver, which wasn't quite enough to distinguish who it was.
"Finally awake?" The male voice sounded slightly amused, which seemed a bit ironic considering the Uchiha's current condition. The man sounded a bit bored as well, yet underneath that mask there seemed to dwell a fair amount of inconspicuous interest. Sasuke recognized the speaker, yet he could not quite put a face to it.
He heard faint footsteps as the individual approached him, and the Uchiha glanced up in an attempt to steal a glimpse of the person's face, and he was met with a rather dull surprise.
A thick head of disheveled, gray hair met his gaze, followed by a tilted forehead protector that covered the man's left eye and a familiar mask that covered the majority of his face. His revealed eye looked slightly saddened, yet at it had this soft glimmer of sincerity that seemed oddly out of place.
"You gave us all a pretty good scare, Uchiha." Hatake Kakashi's voice retained that bored and amused tone, and he seated himself comfortably on the edge of the bed before staring off at the wall glumly.
Sasuke let his head fall back against his pillow warily, his expression indifferent beneath the oxygen mask. He didn't reply, and his old teacher frankly didn't expect him to.
"You scared all of the nurses at one point too, when you woke up. I wasn't actually there, but the recountment sounded funny enough." The Copy-Ninja chuckled lightly to himself as he pulled out one of his explicit books. Sasuke watched him guardedly, his lids fluttering sluggishly. Leave it to Kakashi to try to make light conversation out of a shitty situation. He watched as his old teacher nonchalantly flipped out a small orange book and began leafing through it, his brow furrowing in a dull concentration.
A short silence ensued in which the jounin simply read his explicit novel while Sasuke drifted in between the conscious and unconscious worlds. Finally movement at the end of the bed a while later woke him, and he turned his head slowly, his eyes slowly rising to see what had caused it.
The former ANBU member had his book rested on his knee and was staring thoughtfully into space, his single eye distant.
Sasuke coughed into the mask, closing his eyes as the movement spurred another lapse of excruciating pain. Using all of the energy that he had stored he warily stretched his hand up and hooked his fingers around the elastic band of the mask, then let gravity pull his arm back down with the string in hand. The contraption fell easily from his face and he cautiously allowed a brief sigh to pass through his paper-thin lips as the fresh air engulfed him.
Something about breathing real, substantial air just felt good.
"I'd keep that on, Sasuke, unless you wanna take a trip down to the morgue." Kakashi glanced back at him, his dry humor sparking no sort of reaction from the half-asleep youth.
Sasuke's lips cracked open as if to say something, but he was unable to conduct any sort of sound. Kakashi surveyed him silently before pocketing his book once more.
"You're lucky Shizune-san was here, your heart almost stopped on several occasions.... The new generation; always reckless, but I suppose that's unavoidable." Kakashi stared off into space dubiously, arms crossed in faux concentration. His former student continued to watch him carefully, his onyx hues narrowed.
"And my students are especially careless, it seems." Kakashi cast him a wry grin beneath the mask. Sasuke stared at him distantly, his consciousness slowly fading again.
"A medical dispatch team is arriving shortly to pick up Sakura, so I'd better be off to meet them..." He stopped when he caught a sudden glint flicker through the Uchiha's expression, and he chuckled lightly.
"She's fine, Sasuke..... Thanks to you." The Copy-Ninja nodded to himself, fingering his chin thoughtfully. "I had the villagers who found you two fill me in. Quite an uncharacteristically-valiant effort, if I'm not mistaken." His dark eye glinted as he surveyed his former student, smirking beneath the mask.
The man approached the dark-haired youth suddenly while reaching his hand into the depths of one of his many pockets. He brought his hand back out carefully, and resting daintily in his gloved palm was a beautiful, silver chain with a familiar clan symbol dangling loosely from its end.
The Hatake dropped the necklace in Sasuke's lap, his eye suddenly twinkling.
"Upstairs, room 108."
And then he was walking towards the door at a brisk wave, only turning around to send him a short wave before disappearing. The Uchiha watched him go, rolling the small, metal fan around in his hand, deep in thought. Then, quietly, he slipped his hand through the chain.
LINE
A/N: MERRY MERRY MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!! And a HAPPY HANUKKAH and HAPPY EARLY NEW YEAR!!!! I hope everyone has a fantastic day, whether you're spending it with family or friends or kicking back by yourself.
I had my own little Christmas miracle (lol) thing this morning when my little twerp-of-a-brother woke me up at like 7:00am, I was sifting through my closet for my favorite pair of sweats and I found my SASUKE PLUSH. I was ecstatic, 'cause I lost him about a month ago. ): I really don't like to advertise my Narutard-ness, and besides an old Ed Elric key-chain he's about the only anime-related thing I own, so I was a bit upset when I couldn't find him one morning. But he's safe and cute and his duck-butt hair is as spiky as ever. :]
Oh and yesterday, I was at a cookie decorating/Dane Cook watching party thing with a couple friends, and there was another cool little thing. I put down my frosting-covered spoon on my plate to grab some rainbow sprinkles, and when I picked the spoon back up again the sprinkles that were just laying around on the plate had stuck to it in a perfect SMILIE FACE. We must have taken like fifty pictures lol. xD
Anyway, I hope this chapter cleared up some questions you guys might have had, and if not here are the procedures in which to follow:
1. Perhaps read back a few chapters to see if it was already explained
2. Read my authors notes (they're there for a reason guys...)
3. Ask yourself; is my question a question that will most definitely be answered in the next chapter? If so, I probably shouldn't ask, should I? :D
3. If these all turn up negative, either ask me in a review or a private message, and I'll be happy to answer. A lot of people have been asking stupid, (yes there are such things,) questions that I must hae answered over a dozen times throughout this fic, and having to reply to all of them is getting tedious. Sorry!
Again MERRY CHRISTMAS, thanks so much for reading, and please REVIEW! Bye! :D
--xxIndigo