Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Chapter 23
Don't worry more on sakura's curse mark will come later
Danzo knew he couldn't hide for long, he knew his ANBU roots would only get him so far, but he was not going to go down without a fight. Ducking into another corner, he dodged two more incoming ANBUs. Once he made sure they were gone he continued to run down the twisty, badly lit halls of the roots division. He painted slightly as he rounded another corner.
"Danzo-sama."
The man stopped dead in his tracks as he came face to face with a pale faced raven haired boy. His visible eye narrowed in anger. "Sai, I see you've betrayed me."
Not bothering to respond, Sai pulled out the small chokuto from his back and placed the cold metal against the older man's neck. "You're under arrest for the murder of the Uchiha clan."
"You think I'm going to go with you willingly?" Danzo spat, as he lifted his sleeve preparing for an attack.
"No, but they're there to make sure you do." Sai replied in his normal bored tone and he pointed to the two newly arrived ANBUs behind Danzo.
Danzo's eye momentarily widened as he casted a glance behind him. He didn't sense their presence at all. Was this really the skill level of Konoha ANBUs? Lowering his sleeve, he straighten his posture as he felt two sharp tips of Kunais pointed into his back.
He was caught
Silence fell on the three ninjas, as the only sound that could be heard was the shuffling of shoes outside the small hospital room.
The sound of the screeching plastic against the wooden ground was heard as Sasuke stood up. Keeping a stoic expression he stormed out of the room. He couldn't look at his brother or at Sakura. His brother was throwing his life away, and Sakura wasn't even trying to talk him out of it.
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"My brother is upset with me." Itachi spoke as the white doors of the room slammed shut.
Sakura stared at the spot Sasuke had just been sitting and replied in a low voice. "Can you blame him. He thinks you're throwing away your life."
"I was prepared to die the day I murdered my clan."
"But Sasuke-kun isn't prepared to lose you."
Itachi's eyes softened as he gazed at the girl. Her expression seemed to be full of pain and regret. "You really love my otouto don't you."
Sakura made a small strangling sound as she had a bewildered look on her face. "W-what?"
"From the time you were trying to convince me to come back, everything you said was for his sake, and even now you are still thinking of what my brother wants." He casually replied as it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"My feelings are one sided though...it's always been like that." Sakura quietly answered as her eyes became hooded.
Itachi said nothing. His otouto was foolish if he didn't see how much this girl cared for him, but then again during their short interaction he did notice the way Sasuke's eyes would soften when she spoke. So maybe his brother wasn't so blind.
"Itachi-san are you sure about this surgery." Sakura asked again.
"Yes."
"Very well." Sakura stuffed her hands into her lab coat. "I'll go prepare the operating room."
Giving a bow to the older Uchiha, she walked out of the room. Closing the door behind her she caught sight of Sasuke from her peripheral vision leaning against the hallway wall.
"Sakura."
She slightly winced when she heard the broken tone of his voice. Turning her head she saw his expression. His eyes carried so much sadness within them that it just made her want to pull him into an embrace and tell him that everything will be fine.
"He's the only family I have left."
"I know." Sakura gently said as she placed her hand against his cheek.
"I can't lose him."
Sakura felt her heart crack. Taking her hand off his cheek, she wrapped her arms around his waist and let Sasuke's head lower onto her shoulder. "I promise I'll make the surgery a success." She whispered into his ear.
She know as a doctor she shouldn't make promises, but just this time she'll make an exception.
"How would you like to watch the operation?" Sakura asked. "It'll help calm your nerves, if you watch everything that I do."
"Thank you." He said into her hair, his warm breath tickling her neck.
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After gather a group of capable medics deemed by Sakura (none of which were fangirls), she helped bring Itachi into the operating room located in the isolation wing. Helping him down on the operating table, the surrounding medics hooked him up with blood, anesthesia, and the heart monitor. Motioning for Sasuke to sit on the small stool brought in by one of the medics, she waited for Itachi's breathing to become even.
When it finally evened, Sakura gave a nod to her fellow medics.
"Let's save this man."
Tsunade never fancied the dark, dingy, moldy, slightly wet halls that let down to the Konoha prisons. It always made her feel trapped. Keeping a face of grimace her heels clacked down the stoney steps. Once she arrived at the bottom two ANBUs greeted her.
"What cell are they in?"
Taking off his fox mask, one of the ANBUs replied. His brown eyes carried tiny golden flecks from the over head flames. "Cell 3, Hokage-sama."
Waving the ANBU away Tsunade continued down the badly lit halls of the prison block. The screams of inmates and the rattling of metallic chains against the cold floor drifted to her ears. Lifting one of her hands and covering her ear, she picked up her pace. The faster she finished this, the faster she can leave.
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Standing before the steel bolted door of cell number 3, she motioned for the two jounins standing guard to open it. The falling of tumblers greeted her ears as the door opened with a loud screech. Walking into the room, she glanced at the three ninjas within it. The two elders were huddled in a corner while Danzo stood against the other one his face emotionless, but Tsunade could make out the clears signs of distress within his eyes.
"Like it down here?" She asked, her voice held a small degree of mockery.
The shuffling of feet were heard as one of the elders stood up. "Release us now Tsunade, the village needs elders."
"I'm very well aware of that."
"Then release us." His tone carried more authority this time.
Tsunade gave a brisk laugh. "Do you really think you two old fools are the only elders that can run Konoha?" She was greeted with two glares from the elders. "I have a much more suitable person for your job."
"Who." One of the elders spat. The malice in his eyes could be clearly seen in the dimly lit room.
"Jiraiya."
"So what you're just going to leave us in here to rot?" Danzo spoke this time, his voice was relatively calm, but there was a hint of anger within it.
Cutting her gaze towards the bandaged up man, Tsunade sneered. She never fancied Danzo. As a child he always seemed like a monster to her, and now he was just a pompous asshole. "No. Your punishment is not up to me to decide, it's up to the eldest member of the Uchiha clan." A look of disgust crossed her face. "Since you wiped out the whole clan, save for two members they will be the decider of your fate." Tsunade saw their faces visibly blanched and her look of disgust turned into a smirk.
"You can't possibly leave it up to them." The female elder sputtered. It clearly crossed her mind that if their fates were going to be determined by the Uchihas it was obvious they were going to die.
Sensing her distress Tsunade's smirk grew. It was always nice to take these people down a notch or two. "Well, I just did." Turning on her heels she walked out of the cell, but before the door completely shut behind her she called out. "Enjoy your stay."
With two medics by her side and three more on the opposite side of the bed, they all send a wave of their chakra into Itachi's body.
"Alright tell me which organs are damaged." Sakura ordered as she look at the five medics around her.
"Heart"
"Spleen"
"Lungs"
"Liver"
"Lining of the stomach"
Sakura clicked her tongue as she heard all the organs that were damaged. "Lift your hands." All five medics immediately drew back their hands, as they awaited for further instructions from the pink haired girl.
Lifting her own hands off the man, Sakura cut a glance at Sasuke. The worry badly concealed in his eyes. "Okay, I want two people monitoring his chakra levels, and two people on blood supply." Four medics hurried to their stations. "We're going to open him up."
Changing the soft green glow of the chakra around her hand to an electric blue, Sakura formed scalpels. From the top of his clavical down to just above his waistline Sakura cut. The skin smoothly opened and parted to reveal its insides.
Sakura's eyes hardened as she saw the mess inside Itachi's body. None of his organs even seemed salvageable. It was miracle he was still alive. 'Heal the important organs first.' She mentally recalled Tsunade's words. Changing her chakra back to the soft green, she turned her attention first to the heart. The organ was weakly pumping blood as parts of it were black and slightly rotting. Forming a bubble with the chakra in her hand, she encased the organ. It was going to take a lot of chakra to heal the damage to his heart.
"Keiko, come here and send a continuous stream of chakra into the bubble." Sakura called the middled aged doctor over to the bed.
Following her orders Keiko placed a hand just against the bubble of chakra and carefully send her chakra into it.
"That's it, nice and even." Sakura complimented as she placed her hand against the bubble as well. "I'm going to also send my chakra into it as well, and I'm going to try and match your level of chakra." She explained as she carefully matched her stream of chakra with Keiko's. Together their chakra melded together inside the chakra bubble and seep into the heart. Not letting up the flow of the chakra, Sakura watched as the black and rotting areas on the heart slowly mend itself back into a healthy pinkish red color and the thumping of the heart picked up to more of a normal speed.
"Keiko keep going on the heart." Sakura ordered as she released her hands from the muscle and moved down to his lungs.
Creating a chakra scalpel she made a small incision at the bottom of both lungs, and with her other hand she gathered the medical green chakra and pushed down from the top of the lungs. Blood flowed out from the small incisions like a river of red. Once all the blood left the lungs, Sakura began the healing process. Pumping consecutive bursts of chakra into both lungs, the organ began to mend itself back to it's normal pinkish color.
Just as Sakura was finishing healing the lungs, the erratic beeping of the heart monitor resounded in the room.
"SAKURA-SAN...the heart it's…" Keiko trailed off as a frantic look entered her eyes. The pinkish reddish heart under her hands was again turning black. Blood was leaking from all corners of the organ.
Sakura immediately lifted her hands from the lungs and jumped back to the heart. Pushing Keiko's hands aside she send her chakra into the muscle hoping to stop the bleeding. True to her wishes the bleeding stopped but the blackening of the heart didn't.
"SYRINGE" Sakura shouted as one of the nurses scrambled to grab a needle from a nearby compartment. Shakily he handed the needle to Sakura, who wasted no time in stabbing it into the heart. Pulling the back end of the syringe the familiar black liquid came out. 'Shit'
"Sasuke-kun come here." She called for the raven haired male, who appeared by her side in less than a second with an anxious look on his face. "Check Itachi's eyes."
Without having to be told twice, Sasuke moved to the head of the bed and forced opened Itachi's lids. Two red and black mangekyo eyes stared at him. Subconsciously his own sharingan activated.
"What do you see?" Sakura asked as she continued to drain the heart of the black liquid.
"Mangekyo."
Cussing, Sakura called attention to the chakra specialist. "Cut his chakra flow." The elderly looking man quickly wobbled to the bedside and with two swift movements all movement of his chakra flow stopped.
"Sasuke-kun is his eyes still…"
The red and black of the sharingan faded back to it's normal onyx color. "No."
Sakura gave an audible sigh of relief. Continuing with her ministrations of drawing the black goo, his heart slowly returned back to it's normal color and the beeping on the heart monitor returned back to normal.
"Keiko continue doing what you were doing before." The brunette immediately placed both hands back onto the heart and send chakra into it. Moving away from the muscle, Sakura continued with the lungs. Thankfully the black liquid released from the mangekyo had yet to make it to the lungs, so after another two, three minutes of healing the lungs were brand new again.
The spleen was a snap to fix. All she had to do was to draw out the black liquid and heal up some of the lacerations around it. After finishing up with the spleen, she moved on to the liver. Spots of black decorated the organ.
"Syringe." Sakura called out as the nurse grabbed another one from the cabinet. Grabbing out to take the needle from the nurse, Sakura's hand missed. Her vision was lined with white dots, and her head was becoming fuzzy. Mentally cussing she felt her chakra levels reach low points. Knowing perfectly well the consequences of chakra exhaustion she should have stopped. However the anxious look on Sasuke's face pushed her forward. She promised him, so she couldn't stop now. Not when she was so close. Shaking her head, she grabbed the syringe again this time reaching the target. Carefully, she started to draw out the black liquid from the liver, the black spots slowly disappeared. Once all the spots were gone, Sakura healed the organ of all the damages done to it by the liquid.
"SAKURA-SAN THE STOMACH IS BLEEDING OUT."
In that one instant the peaceful beeping of the heart monitor turned spastic as the body cavity started to fill with blood. Screams from nurses struggling to hold Sasuke back from interfering with the surgery filled the room.
The loud wailing siren resounded across the peaceful village of Konoha. Citizens rushed out from their homes and shops were temporary closed as they rushed to the Hokage tower. Villagers grabbing their children rushed down the crowded streets as ninjas leaped from roof to roof.
Tsunade standing on top of the Hokage tower looked down at the mass of people gathering below her. Just beside her was an eager looking Naruto holding a stack of papers while some of the higher up jounins and ANBUs stood behind her. Amongst them were Kakashi, Gai, Asuma, Kurenai, and Sai. Each of them carried a stoic expression.
Once the whole square below the Hokage tower was filled with clamoring citizens. Tsunade took a step towards the edge of the roof and cleared her throat. Almost instantly the mass fell silent as they looked up at their esteemed hokage.
"As you may be aware, Uchiha Itachi is back in Konoha." Tsunade began. Chatter was heard again from the crowd.
Raising a hand Tsunade silenced them once more. "However, this man is not who you think he is. He did not murder his clan out of cold blood, in fact he did so based on an order from the elders of Konoha." Nervous exchanges were made amongst the villagers. "Naruto has copies of the mission details regarding the massacre of the Uchiha clan nine years ago." Tsunade motioned for Naruto to toss out the stack of papers in his arms.
Grinning, Naruto ran to the edge of the roof and started to throw the pieces of paper in his arm off the roof. The paper fluttered down to the mass of villagers like confetti, as everyone struggled against one another to grab for a sheet.
"News regarding Itachi's return will be posted on every bulletin in the village." Tsunade continued. "From this day forward Uchiha Itachi will be reinstated as a Konoha shinobi."
Finishing her speech, she turned around to walk back to her office. Naruto still happily tossing down the paper, and fellow jounins snatched up a few of them to staple them around the village. Clamor grew amongst the villagers as they took in this information. While some are more accepting others still doubted the Uchiha. Leaving all this chaos behind, Tsunade ducked back into the quiet Hokage tower. It had been a long day for her and all she wanted was some sake and a nap.
"CALM DOWN!" Sakura hollered. All the nervous shouting from medics dead down instantly. No one wanted to face the wrath of a pissed Sakura. "Sasuke-kun sit down you worrying is a distraction." Sasuke made a disgruntled snort but nonetheless complied with her request. "Now Muira suction."
A boy in his late teens with wild blond hair and electric green eyes grabbed the clear tube like object from the surgical tray and ran to Sakura's side. Placing the tube into the body cavity the excess blood ran up the tube making slurping sounds as it left the body.
Keeping one hand on the liver, Sakura searched for the bleeder with her other hand. 'There.'
A small rip had formed along the lining of the stomach during this procedure. Gather chakra to her hand she began to stitch up the tear. Once she was sure the rip was sealed she ordered Muira to stop suctioning. The blood level in the body didn't rise meaning that there was only one tear.
"Muira clear out the excess blood, and Tanaka keep an eye out on the stomach."
Again the slurping sound of the suction was heard, and soon the heart monitor returned back to it's normal beeping. Placing both hand back on to the liver Sakura continued to pump her chakra into it. The dizziness in her head got worse but she ignored it. Once she made sure the liver was healthy she moved on to the stomach. Tilting the overhead light to a better angle she examined the stomach.
Asking for another syringe she began to draw out the black goo from the wall of the stomach, once that was finished, she gathered chakra once more and started the healing process around the stomach. The once strong green glow of her medical chakra was weakening as her vision continued to blur. Blinking her eyes repeatedly she managed to clear up her vision. After ten minutes of nonstop pumping of chakra the stomach was officially healed.
Wiping the blood off her hand on a small towel given to her by a nurse, she placed her hand back onto Itachi's forehead and spread her chakra out like a web throughout his body in search of any more possible damages and the black liquid. When she found none a smile broke out across her face. She had just done the impossible. Sealing up the incision she made down his upper half, she officially ended the surgery. Everything was functioning properly. His heart rate was normal, his breath became easier and his skin was now a healthier color.
"Well done people." She said, her voice came out weak, but no one took notice as they were all happily clapping each other on the back. "Now just make sure his chakra flow is completely sealed until I say otherwise, we wouldn't want the black liquid to spread again." She continued, as she motioned for the chakra specialist to completely seal off every chakra point in Itachi's body. After she watched the man completely stop the flow in every inch of Itachi's body, she weakly turned to Sasuke, who had relief written across his face. Taking a step towards him, Sakura felt her breathing become more difficult and her vision completely gone. The world seemed to spin underneath her feet as she felt her body lean forward unable to support her weight. Shouts were heard all around her, but before her face hit the cold ground she felt something or rather someone break her fall. A crisp autumn smell wafted to her nose, as her face was buried in a soft material. She could vaguely make out the person who was holding her, his voice laced with concern.
'Sasuke-kun'
With that final thought she let the darkness consume her. Her breathing completely stopped.
Hehehehehehe...a cliffy...
anyways please leave a review :D