Volume 3: Criss-Cross

Chapter 12. Fire

Sasuke stared down at what was, he was just now realising, the corpse of his best friend.

Not far away lie the bloodied body of her killer. He was well dead. There was no revenge to be found there. No one he could punish for doing this. All he had left was Sakura's body.

He stared through the red haze of the sharingan- the copy-wheel eyes- that had activated at the moment of her fall. His family's bloodlimit. A powerful ability that was said to be able to see all, with such great speed and detail as to allow its user to predict every movement of an enemy.

It had activated too late. His sharingan could only show him, in perfect detail, his friend's corpse. Her ashen skin. The blood spilling from her mouth. Her bloated neck. Her half-lidded, lifeless, staring eyes...

It was too late. He was too late. He had been too weak.

He lifted his hands from her shoulders. They were covered in blood. He didn't know whose blood.

He raised his head, looked around. There was Naruto- alive, so very alive, he hadn't lost everyone yet- and the old farmer was there, stemming the flow of blood around Naruto's wounds, one hand clutching a handful of bloodied arrows.

Further away, Kakashi. Two copies of him. Behind and in front of a woman; one Kakshi holding her weakly struggling form, another whipping through a long series of handseals.

Sasuke rose to his feet and walked toward them in a daze.

Kakashi's hand shot out and grabbed the woman's face. She convulsed as though electrified, before falling. And then there was only one Kakashi, turning to face him.

"Sasuke. Don't."

Don't what?

Without noticing, Sasuke had taken out a handful of shuriken. His feet continued carrying him forward.

"Sasuke, it's over. Go take care of Sakura."

"She's dead." Sasuke didn't feel his mouth form the words. "Get out of my way."

And finally, Kakashi's eyes met his. Sharingan red. His Konoha headband had been lifted; his right eye held the same black Sasuke was used to seeing, the other eye burning red with his family's bloodlimit.

Sasuke froze in his tracks.

That eye.

"She's dead," Sasuke repeated.

'Mother and father are dead!'

"They killed her. This one needs to die, too."

'There is no value in killing the likes of you... Foolish little brother, if you wish to kill me, then Hate me, Detest me, Curse me, and survive in an unsightly way.'

Kakashi stepped forward, blocking the woman from view. "Sasuke. Look at Sakura."

"I saw her!" he roared, fist tightening around his shuriken. He had seen her clearly, all too clearly. Every pore of her pale flesh, every mote of dust in her half-closed eyes.

Kakashi was in front of him in a flash, grabbing him by the shoulders and shoving him around in a circle. "Look! Properly!"

It didn't hurt any less from a distance. Still pale. Still unmoving. But… there was something else. A haze around her, just barely visible. Something green, with a warm brown undertone. And something else, something wrong; a strange icy current...

Sasuke's eyes widened. He craned his neck to look back at Kakashi. And there, too, was a haze; stronger, a sparking flow of white that seemed to envelop his body.

"Chakra. She's..."

Kakashi nodded. "Chakra. She's still alive."

And then Sasuke was breaking from his hold in an all-out sprint and what had he been doing he had left her, left her to die-!

And Sasuke was in front of her, hands on her shoulders, watching as her chakra seemed to fade by the second, and he didn't know what to do-

"Easy, young man." The old farmer and Naruto were abruptly crouching by her other side.

"What happened to her?" Naruto cried. "Is she..?"

"She'll be fine," the farmer said, putting a hand under her chin and popping her mouth open. He inspected the inside of her mouth closely before reaching to rummage inside a pocket. He removed a small pouch and unbuttoned it, taking a small bottle of pills, removing one and reaching out-

Sasuke grabbed his wrist lightning-quick.

"Easy, boy. It's just an antivenom. Sublingual tablets."

He relaxed his grip and let go, watching as the man pried open her mouth again and lifted her tongue, pressing the small pill beneath it. He put the container away and studied the inside of her mouth, pressing gently along the sides of her neck, craning down to listen to her breathing.

It was no wonder Sasuke had thought she was dead. Her lungs were barely moving.

The old man removed a tiny capped pen from his pouch, popping off the cover to reveal a needle. He pressed it into the side of her neck and replaced it in his pouch. He leaned down to listen to her chest again.

Her body began to shudder, and faster than he would have expected the old man could move, he was lifting and spinning her over his arm and thudding a palm against her back.

There was a choked coughing noise and something landed wetly onto the ground.

She began to breathe normally.

"Just a clot. Easy, kid, it was just a clot."

It took Sasuke a moment to realise the man hadn't been speaking to him; tears were streaming down Naruto's face and he was raising his hands as though to do something, anything.

Sasuke's eyes burned and itched, but there were no tears forthcoming. They had run out long ago; he had not cried in years.

I was useless.

In a daze, Sasuke followed as they put Sakura's body on the cart, laying her on her side in case she needed to cough up anything else.

"My wife never lets me leave the house without an antivenom and an allergy shot," the old man was saying. "There are too many snakes out in the fields, and this wouldn't be the first time I've seen someone get this bad..."

"It wasn't a snake," Sasuke mumbled. "He put something in her mouth."

"Many shinobi poisons utilize venom."

"Sensei!" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke turned to stare at him. The sharingan was now covered, leaving behind one eye that blazed coldly outward. Beyond him, the bodies were gone.

Kakashi noticed the direction of his gaze. "I have my summons carrying them to the nearest outpost; we should be met with some Black Ops members soon." His usual drawl was gone. "I have other nin-dogs scouting the area for the fallen Black Ops members."

"What?" Naruto asked.

The pieces fell into place in Sasuke's mind. "Those headbands... those ninja were from a foreign village..." He clenched his fist. "The Black Ops were using Sakura as bait."

Kakashi nodded once. "They were from the same village as the previous shinobi team that were found around our walls." He walked forward and lifted one leg of the palanquin, nodding to Naruto. He took the hint and made several clones to take up their positions at the other legs. The real Naruto remained beside Sakura.

"That symbol on their headbands; it was a music note." Sasuke said slowly. "Otogakure. The village hidden in Sound."

Kakashi didn't reply. There was no need to.

"What do you guys mean Sakura-chan was bait?" Naruto asked, grasping one of her hands.

"I was suspicious that they would let us out of Konoha so soon after deciding to lift our ban on missions. But I did not think the enemy would attack her when she was so well-protected." He shook his head. "We'd already caught two team members. It was foolish of me to expect there would only be one left, and more foolish to expect our backup to make a difference. They must have pulled some Black Ops members after we reached the outer town without issue." He made a noise of disgust. "The sound ninja would have been waiting for an opportunity just like that."

"You keep saying Black Ops this, Black Ops that. What are Black Ops supposed to be?" Naruto prodded.

"ANBU," Sasuke said. "The elite of Konoha. Technically, nobody is supposed to know they exist, but..."

"On the contrary," Kakashi said. "It is very much to our benefit that we are known for having a strong ANBU base. It is only their deeds that are meant to remain unknown."

"Like using a genin for bait," Sasuke bit out.

"No," Kakashi said. "ANBU operate alone. It would have taken something unusual; that order would have had to come from someone with enough authority to overrule their custom. And I intend to find out whom."

Suddenly, a small pug jumped onto the cart, directly in front of Kakashi. Its mouth opened: "All bodies have been recovered and the nearest outpost has taken our report. You have a team covering you and they'll be awaiting your full report in the village."

"I sensed their arrival. Thank you, Pakkun."

Naruto stared. "You're a dog!"

The dog growled. "Hey! Don't you act like I'm just some cute dog!"

"I didn't say anything about cute," Naruto grumbled.

Sasuke ignored them and looked back at Sakura. He wasn't sure if she looked better, or if it was just that his sharingan had deactivated at some point without him noticing. Still, her neck was less swollen, and her chest was rising up and down in even, steady breaths.

The old farmer caught his gaze. "She'll need medical attention, and quickly, but she'll make it through."

Naruto's grip tightened on her hand. "I'm sorry, Sakura..." he mumbled. "I was useless. I just froze, I wasn't able to fight at all..."

The old man shook his head. "You saved my life, kid. If you hadn't grabbed me when you did, I'd have been the one filled with arrows. And something tells me I wouldn't have recovered as quickly." He gave Naruto a considering look.

Sasuke stared. Naruto did? Naruto could barely dodge a kick. How had he managed to act so rapidly?

If Naruto hadn't saved the old man's life, Sakura might be dead now. In comparison, all Sasuke had managed to do was get her hurt worse. He had tried to save her and ended up the one needing to be saved.

Weak. "I nearly got her killed. And then I left her for dead." He didn't know why he was telling them this. He just couldn't stop himself before the words spilt out.

The farmer shook his head again. "Listen, boy. I may not have those fancy eyes your clan had..."

Sasuke looked up sharply. But yes, now that he thought of it, the Uchiha clan had been famous while they'd been alive. The sharingan was well-known; a boast of Konoha's strength. This man's age meant he had probably lived and worked alongside numerous members of his family. They had been many, before…

The man continued, not noticing Sasuke's look. "But I'm on in my years, so I know a thing or two about ninja. You can't live this long in a town full of Konoha shinobi without understanding the Will of Fire. And you kids have it."

"The Will of Fire..." Naruto said.

He nodded. "The one thing special to Konoha and precious to everyone who lives in her walls. It's the Will of Fire in our land that protects every one of us… Not only shinobi but even an old geezer like myself." He smiled. "It burns in all of us. The will to protect something precious."

Everyone in Konoha… something precious… the will to protect…

Sasuke looked between Naruto and Sakura, then the farmer, and Kakashi beside them holding up the side of the litter and running in a full-sprint toward Konoha.

Sasuke flicked his eyes over the path ahead of them that lead to the village where he was born and raised. The town where his family had spent their entire lives, until they were gone.

The old man grunted. "Well, maybe you kids are a little young yet..."

"Give us some credit," Sasuke smirked.

Naruto caught his eye and smirked back. "Yeah, even we can understand something like that."