Spring And Fall
Chapter 1
As a medical ninja, her eyes have become accustomed to the most diverse types of sights - from sore throats as a result of colds, sprained joints, to amputated limbs and nasty skin diseases. She was no stranger to prescribing antipsychotics to retired ninjas, who after particularly traumatic battles began to develop mental disorders, and as such were no longer able to perform their duty towards the Leaf village.
However, even her trained eyes could not fully diagnose the condition she was currently observing.
Sasuke was towering over the motionless girl, not much older than herself, preparing to sear her thiny body with his Chidori. His hair was dirty and disheveled, blood was pouring down his face from his left eye in great cascades and his gaze was frantic, like that of a beast. Sakura could guess that the two of them knew each other from before, considering the way the red-haired girl was looking at him - in her eyes, apart from the obvious fear there was also sadness, and being the sensitive person that Sakura was, she managed to notice even a grain of empathy in her eyes for the man who was about to kill her.
The girl lay helplessly on the ground, with a dirty and torn cloak on her, while blood gushed from her mouth. Sakura had no idea what had preceded this girl finding herself in such a state, but she knew that Sasuke, with whom she shared her daily life as a part of Team 7, would never molest someone weaker than himself, nor attack a fallen opponent.
It was evident that Sasuke was not in his right mind and Sakura became even more determined in her intention to not let him fall any deeper into the abyss he was in.
A moment before Sasuke was about to finish the girl off, she stepped forward and shouted his name. This made Sasuke stop in his tracks and turn in the direction of her voice.
'Sakura...'
Sasuke looked at his former teammate as if he was seeing her for the first time - his gaze was expressionless and there was nothing familiar or warm about it. The only hint that he had ever known her was the pronunciation of her name.
Sakura's heart was pounding uncontrollably in her chest and she could feel her blood throbbing painfully in her ears from the rush of adrenaline flooding her body. Her fingers were freezing despite the gloves that protected them, and a kunai was tightly clenched in her hands. There was nothing left of the Sasuke she knew almost 3 years ago.
She didn't know exactly how she was going to carry out her plan. It was certain that Sasuke was far stronger than her and she would never stand a chance against him in a fair fight, but Sakura trusted in the thought that Sasuke wouldn't expect her to be able to betray him.
'Sasuke-kun! I'll abandon Leaf and go with you!'- it was a lie she told seemingly lightly.
'What are you up to?' - he narrowed his eyes suspiciously, coldly responding to her offer.
'Nothing! It's just… I've always felt guilty that I didn't come with you when you left Konoha…. I will do anything you ask of me!'
It seemed like an eternity before he finally answered her, all the while staring into her eyes thoroughly. Sakura's stomach was tied in a knot and she was already starting to feel remorse for not coming up with a better strategy to approach him. She was sure that Sasuke saw right through her intentions and that every second he would punish her for trying to deceive him.
How stupid of me to even think that Sasuke-kun would fall for such a lie!
'Do you know what I want?' - his question brought her out of her panicked thoughts.
'Doesn't matter! I'll do anything you want-'
'I want to destroy Konoha. That's what I want.'
He said it so calmly, as if they were talking about the weather forecast. Not a muscle twitched on his face when he casually announced to her that he was planning the destruction of their homeland.
Sakura was under impression that someone had just moved the ground under her feet.
She definitely didn't expect to hear something like this from him and didn't have the slightest idea where did Sasuke get such pretensions from. She could only watch him with wide-eyed disbelief.
'Would you really be willing to betray Konoha for me?'- Sasuke continued to watch every change in Sakura's expression carefully. A few seconds passed before she answered him.
'Yes... If you wish so...'
'Then you will have to prove it to me. If you kill her - he pointed his finger at Karin - 'I'll let you come with me.'
Sakura began to break out in beads of sweat as she frantically thought of what to do.
'Sakura, you're a medical ninja, right? You'll be a good replacement for her.' - he added coldly.
Sakura took timid, shaky steps to approach the spot where Karin lay in an almost unconscious state. Her fingers twitched and her knuckles turned white from the force of the kunai she was about to use on Sasuke.
If I kill Sasuke-kun now, this will all be over…
Her whole body began to tremble, and despite her will, tears began to well up in her eyes and she involuntarily let her guard down.
All she could see in the next moment was a devastating flash of Chidori approaching her face at a lightning speed. Before she could realize what was happening, Kakashi suddenly appeared between the two of them and received a blow that was intended for Sakura.
The force of the Chidori hit him, sending him flying to the side and crashing into the rock that stood to their right. As he collapsed to the ground, Sakura stared dazedly at the large hole that now existed where their sensei's collarbone had been. His jacket was splattered with blood as he lay unconscious a hundred meters away from her.
Sakura's legs, unsteady at first, instinctively ran towards their sensei to help him. After kneeling next to Kakashi, she felt a great rush of relief as she felt a faint but steady pulse under his neck. His wound will require an enormous amount of chakra to close and certainly several weeks for him to fully recover, but he will survive.
The thought then vaguely crossed her mind that Sasuke hadn't tried to stop her. When she turned her eyes towards him, she could see that he was still standing where he had attacked her and was looking at her with an indefinite look. If she hadn't just had the chance to see what kind of monster he had turned into, she could have thought that he was surprised by what he had done.
Sasuke tried to kill her.
She had no doubts about it after seeing the severity of the injury his Chidori had inflicted on Kakashi. If their sensei had appeared just a split second later and if Sasuke's punch had ended up in her face instead, she wouldn't be alive right now.
Even though Sasuke tried to take Naruto's life on several occasions, even Kakashi's that one time in Orochimaru's hideout, she caught herself believing for some reason that he wouldn't ever really try to kill her. Now, such a thought seemed absurd to her - why would she be an exception? Even during their genin days he hadn't paid attention to her, let alone now that he had been a rogue ninja for several years.
Before she could start working on healing Kakashi's wound, she heard Sasuke's footsteps approaching from behind her. She swiftly turned around and the only thing she could notice before her sight went black were the dots swirling inside his Sharingan.
A feeling of dizziness and nausea began to overtake Sakura upon regaining consciousness. She slowly opened her eyes and blinked in an attempt to clear her vision, feeling the soft material beneath her. The room around her swayed in front of her eyes as she felt the bed she was on with her hands. She slowly got up in a sitting position and, looking around, realized that she was lying in bed, in a spacious room with a rather old-fashioned appearance. She was still wearing her ninja vesture, and through the large window on the left side of her bed, slightly orange light was coming in - on the basis of which Sakura concluded it was dawn.
The last thing she remembers was the sight of Sasuke's Sharingan, but she had no idea what happened after that, or how much time had passed.
As the feeling of dizziness subsided, she carefully lowered her feet to the floor. When she felt completely stable, Sakura headed for the door of the room. Before she could press the doorknob, the door opened with a loud screech and the same red-headed girl that Sasuke had tried to kill previously landed at her feet, making a thump as her body hit the wooden floor.
She was still wearing a torn cloak, and there was a long, crusted blood stain under her lips. Sakura exclaimed in shock and lifting her gaze up, she saw Sasuke standing at the entrance of the room, watching the two of them with a cold expression on his face. He was wearing new and clean clothes, his hair was washed, but Sakura's sharp eye immediately noticed the signs of fatigue and exhaustion on his body. His eyes looked especially bad, they were unnaturally pale and sunken, with noticeable dark circles under them.
'If you think she can be helped, you are free to heal her. If she's a lost case, tell me right away and I'll finish her off.' - he barely glanced at the girl who was lying in front of her feet and turned to leave the room.
Sakura quickly recovered from the shock and took advantage of the moment Sasuke turned his back to channel chakra into her fist, when his voice abruptly interrupted her attempt.
'Don't you even think. My Mangekyuo Sharingan has drained almost all of your chakra reserves.'- he remarked coldly.
' What..? What have you done to me, where are we?! And what did you do to Kakashi-sensei?! - Sakura demanded explanations furiously.
'Last night I teleported us to Ise, the village where my team and I live. In a few days, when you regain your strength, I expect you to start working on my eyes.'
'Huh! How can you have the audacity to ask me such a thing? You are the last person I would help! You didn't answer me Sasuke, what have you done to our sensei?'- her tone was getting impatient.
'I didn't ask you. You'll do what I say, otherwise you will suffer the consequences. If you plan to escape, know that my teammate Suigetsu will be watching over you and Karin when I'm not around.'
He paused and then added: 'When it comes to that loser Kakashi, as far as I know, he's probably dead by now.'
Sakura felt as if someone had punched her in the lungs, knocking all the air out of her chest. After Sasuke closed the door behind him, she fell to the floor, tears streaming down her cheeks. Probably nothing would have happened to Kakashi if she hadn't tried to kill Sasuke on her own, and now she has no idea if her sensei is even alive, or how her team is doing. She could only hope that Naruto had managed to find Kakashi in time... She was sobbing silently, when Karin's weak voice interrupted her thoughts -
'What kind of ninja are you, when you let the enemy see your tears? – the red-haired kunoichi watched her from the floor with disdain.
Sakura became aware of the girl's presence again at that moment – he said her name was Karin, right? - and only now did she have the opportunity to see the seriousness of the situation in which the girl was.
Karin's body was riddled with scratches and numerous open wounds, dried blood was stuck to her lips and the cloak she was wearing, her skin had taken on a greyish tone and her overall appearance gave off a worrying impression.
I wonder how this girl even survived the night in her condition.
Given that theoretically speaking, Karin is also an enemy, it crossed Sakura's mind to simply tell Sasuke that there is no help for this girl and thus get rid of at least one threat.
However, she dismissed that thought as quickly as it occurred to her. She was a healer at her heart and it would be against her nature to let a helpless patient die, knowing that she might be able to help.
Sakura slowly wiped her tears with the back of her hand, moved closer to Karin and poured some of the little amount of chakra she had left into her body, so that she could more carefully assess her health situation.
A/N: I hope you liked the first chapter! Your opinion, as well as constructive criticism means a lot to me for further work. Thank you for reading!