! CAUTION !
This chapter will feature detailed descriptions of character deaths and traumatic, violent injuries as well as mentions of blood. All of this content will be in italics at the beginning of the chapter. If these subjects are triggers to you, please skip the first portion of the chapter. The content will still be mentioned after that, but will not be described in graphic detail.
-x-
Sakura was in a small hollow in a forest filled with intimidatingly tall trees with an equally intimidating girth, the thick treetop canopy blocking out any light that might exist beyond its black curtain. The ground was hard, covered in decaying leaves that had fallen from that very same canopy seasons past, but not a single one moved. Everything was still in this hollow. Sakura didn't hear one bird chirping, nor any squirrels scurrying about, either. It was eerie and sent a chill down the young kunoichi's spine as she took in her surroundings in more detail. Details would be the solution to whatever situation she was in. Kakashi-sensei had taught her that.
There was no obvious path out of this little glade. The boundary of the wall of trees was roughly twenty feet out from herself, and as she turned to look to the side of her, it looked to be in the shape of an oval. It looked as though she'd fallen into some sort of trap, she grimly realized. But who had set this trap for her? A strange sound came from behind her now, and the pink-haired woman spun on the heels of her feet. Her eyes widened in horror at the scene playing out in front of her.
She was now face to face with the person who scared her most - Orochimaru. The sinister man's slanted eyes, snake-like and glowing amber, promised anguish and torment as his face morphed out of the tree trunk. A sick laugh was now the only sound she could hear, ringing in her ears at a deafening level. Sakura tried to move, but found that her feet felt frozen in place, as though she were standing in quicksand.
"Saku...ra..." a strangled cry came from the left of her suddenly, and she spun again, this time without moving a muscle. It was as though she was inside a rotating circle, stuck and unable to stop it from happening. This time she was faced with a motionless Naruto, his face smeared with coagulating blood, lying face down on the dead leaves with a bore hole going through his center and a fading chakra signature. She tried to force her feet to just move, dammit! But they wouldn't, and she couldn't, and the young kunoichi was helpless to do anything but cry as she felt Naruto's presence fade from whatever hell they were trapped in.
The evil laughter met her ears again, and hot tears stung the corners of her eyes as she screamed a voiceless scream to the tops of the treetops, hoping that someone would rescue her from this terrible place. Her stomach lurched as she was spun again forcefully, now looking upon Sasuke.
He was lying directly in front of the tree that Orochimaru was slowly coming out out of; alive, but seemingly just as paralyzed as she was and just as incapable of vocalizing his terror. He was covered in blood, a scene that felt sickeningly familiar to her as she took every horrific detail into her mind. The red substance was seeping from two puncture marks on the Uchiha's neck, where an ugly curse mark danced across his pale flesh, quickly overtaking his body. She could see the pain in her teammate's eyes. He looked as though he was burning alive and drowning in his own blood simultaneously, and her heart shattered as she watched a pair of paper white arms slither out of the tree and towards Sasuke's frozen body. She was powerless to do anything as she watched the Sannin's long, bony fingers thread themselves around her childhood crush's throat, constricting like ten little snakes and choking the life force out of him.
Before she could watch Orochimaru claim Sasuke's body as his own, she was spun around again and tried to scream again, her arms stuck to her sides even though she was desperately trying to break free from her invisible restraints. It took her a moment to regain her composure from the speed but finally, her eyes came into focus and she realized with a drop of her stomach that her teammates weren't the only ones who'd been slaughtered in this forest of death.
She was now staring at a broken Kakashi, pinned to one of the large trees by a Fūma Shuriken that was protruding from a fatal, gaping wound in the center of his body. She felt a scream stuck in her throat as she watched her sensei's blood spill profusely from the wound down onto the ground, where it puddled and stained his exposed toes crimson red. Her sensei's eyes were vacant and wide, the horror he'd faced still locked into both the now-dull Sharingan as well as his normal grey one. She screamed, this time her voice finally breaking free, the ground losing its grip on her as she launched herself at the silver-haired nin, reaching up to his face, shaking him gently.
"No, Kakashi-sensei!" She wailed, her fingers pushing his matted hair away from his forehead, trying to rouse him as though he were only asleep. He couldn't be dead. He was a former ANBU operative; a seasoned shinobi who'd fought in battles so terrifying they'd make any equivalent nin buckle at the knees. He was her strength. He couldn't be gone. He couldn't be!
Sakura shrieked as he gurgled suddenly, a pained gasp falling from his masked lips and she reached up to pull the thing down only to find that his entire jaw was completely and utterly destroyed. It looked as though he'd taken a direct facial hit from his very own Chidori, and she couldn't even discern what had been what or how he could even be drawing breath right now. His nose was gone, obliterated from his face by whatever catastrophe had taken place. His lips were mangled, with broken teeth pushing through the bloodied skin. His body began convulsing against the tree and she tried in vain to push her own chakra into his body, willing it to bring Kakashi back to her.
Suddenly, Sakura felt the ground shift, and she realized that she was being dragged down and away from the older shinobi. The dead leaves had transformed into a field of snakes - menacing, black snakes with beady red eyes and huge fangs protruding as they reached for her, ensnaring her in their mass. A cacophony of hissing met her ears, and all she could see were those evil amber eyes glowing as her world faded into a void of darkness she just knew she'd never escape from...
-x-
Sakura woke with a start. Attempting to bolt upright, panic and desperation set in when she realized that her arms were frozen in place, her body pinned down. A scream fell from her lips as she struggled violently against the restraints she still couldn't see. It had been real, she thought to herself as another scream fell from her lips. Her team was gone. Her sensei was gone. They were all gone.
"Sakura, it's me," a voice called out to her her mid-scream. It took her a moment to register that the voice belonged to Kakashi, and as her eyes came into focus she realized that it was him who was holding her down, not a bed of snakes. Her chest was heaving up and down at a rapid pace, and she felt breathless as he pulled her up against his chest, finally releasing her wrists now that she was awake. They immediately wrapped around him, and she sobbed while he rocked her, softly humming against her ear.
They sat just like that for awhile, neither one of them saying a word as she came down from the terror she'd just experienced. Or, what she'd thought she was experiencing. It had just been a nightmare. Another awful, horrible nightmare.
Once her breathing was regulated and her pulse was back to a normal range, Kakashi shifted his position, taking one arm and wrapping it around her waist while the other moved up her her spine to her shoulders. She shivered as she felt his calloused fingers tracing spiral patterns into her clammy skin and allowed her eyes to close, her head resting against his shoulder. Kakashi didn't speak, allowing the young kunoichi to relax before his voice broke the silence a few moments later.
"Want to talk about it?"
She didn't respond, just shook her head as she pulled away from Kakashi to lay back down, turning to face away from him. Sakura pulled her knees to her chest, tucking her chin against them as she squeezed her eyes shut to stop the tears from leaking out. How could she talk to him about the horror she'd just been subjected to by her own mind?
Flashes of Naruto, Sasuke and their sensei and what Orochimaru had done to them passed in front of her eyelids, and she flinched involuntarily as Kakashi's fingertips trailed up and down her back in what she was sure he meant to be a comforting way. Instead, it just reminded her of those snakes that had swallowed her into a never-ending darkness.
Her discomfort wasn't lost on the older shinobi, and he immediately recalled his hand, placing it on his lap as he watched her in silence while she lay there processing her latest nightmare. The silver-haired shinobi wished there was more he could do for her now, watching her lay there in his bed as her mind played a horrifying picture show, every brutal detail seared into her brain. He'd never seen her so broken after one of the episodes. Kakashi wasn't used to feeling helpless, but he did now and he didn't like it. He was supposed to be able to fix this for her. He was supposed to be her safe place. Right now though, he thought with a frown, she looked like she felt anything but safe.
They sat like that in silence for awhile in the dark bedroom. The only sounds to be heard were their quiet breathing and the quiet hum of nightlife dying down outside Kakashi's window along with the occasional thump or bump from a neighbor's apartment. He wasn't sure how long they'd been sitting there before her voice broke the stillness that had settled around them. They spent maybe ten minutes like this before Sakura's soft voice broke the silence with the last words Kakashi would have expected to hear.
"Take your shirt off."
Kakashi froze, and he kept staring at the floor for a moment. Surely he hadn't heard what he just thought he'd heard. He slowly turned to face the pink-haired kunoichi, dumbfounded. "Excuse me?"
"Your chest. I need to see it. Please, Kakashi-sensei," she elaborated quietly, her soft jade eyes meeting his lone grey eye as she silently pleaded for him to oblige her request.
Her voice cracked, and she turned her gaze from him. If she didn't see with her own two eyes that he was fine; that those awful wounds weren't real, she didn't know if she'd ever be able to sleep again. A pit opened up in the bottom of her stomach and suddenly, Sakura felt like all the air had been stolen from her lungs as she gasped for a breath, her heart rate picking back up in speed as she grasped his sheets in balled fists.
Kakashi stood up, placing one hand at the back of his head and the other at his side while he thought for a moment. She looked absolutely terrified; more scared than she'd ever been after she'd come to after one of the nightly episodes. Whatever she'd seen tonight had truly shaken her to her core, and he hated that she felt like she had to endure the worst of what she'd experienced alone.
If all she needed to feel better was to see his chest, he couldn't see a logical reason not to grant the request that, when he really thought about it, had come out sounding more like a demand. He cleared his throat, trying not to feel awkward as he tucked his fingertips under the hem of the black tank, pulling it up to his neck so that everything below his shoulders was exposed to her eyes.
He didn't know what to expect as she sat there, staring at his chest with complete focus for a moment, as though she was looking for something that was only visible to her eyes. He had only turned away for a moment when he suddenly felt his abs tighten up involuntarily, his breath catching in his throat when he felt both of her palms pressing up against his center. She was standing in front of him now as he stood completely motionless, her small hands touching every inch of first his center, and then lower, where the six-pack he usually kept covered was now on display for the young kunoichi.
Her palms felt like fire as they glided across the expanse of his skin, around to the sides of his hips and then up and down his back. Her front was pressed tightly against his now as she explored the bottom of his shoulder blades, where his arms met his trunk. Palms suddenly turned into fingertips that probed along his spine all the way down to the small of his back, where they stopped and spider-crawled their way back to his front, stopping at his abs as she gazed up at him. A lump caught in his throat, and he swallowed hard as he felt her fingertips creeping up his chest, then over the shirt bunched at his neck and then finally coming to a stop at the top edge of the mask. He reached up, gripping her fingertips with his own, hesitating for only a moment before allowing her to tug the mask down, exposing his face to her in its entirety for the first time.
Sakura wasn't paying attention to what he looked like though, and Kakashi stood statuesque as she examined him. Soft fingers checked the solidity of his squared lower jaw, leaving a trail of fire in their wake. The older shinobi closed his eyes, a small, strangled sound catching in his throat as he next felt her run the pad of one thumb over the expanse of his parched bottom lip, stopping at the corner of his mouth for just a moment before he felt her other hand on him again. Both hands searched for his nose, stopping when they found it in its rightful place, unmarred. Finally, she released a sigh of relief and rested her head on his shoulder, her arms curling around him and holding him tight.
"You're all here," she whispered so quietly he wasn't sure he was meant to hear her. Confused, he lifted a hand to the back of her head and began stroking her hair slowly, threading his fingers through the tussled pink locks.
"Of course I'm all here," he reassured her. "I'm not going anywhere, Sakura. I promise."
It was something a shinobi shouldn't do, promises. He could die tomorrow for all he knew. All it would ever take would be one small misstep, one small miscalculation, one small fraction of an inch, and his life would be over. That was the life of shinobi, and they both knew it. And yet, his promise sounded real to her.
They stood like that for a few moments longer before Sakura looked up at him, her eyes widening as though she had only just now realized he'd let her remove the mask from his face. She'd been so focused on making sure he wasn't injured - wasn't dead - that she hadn't taken the time to study his features. His nose was long and sharp, smooth and unblemished with nostrils breathing hot puffs of air onto her face. His lips were thin but not unattractive, she pondered as she absent-mindedly trailed her thumb back up to the corner of his mouth. Before she could even wonder what those lips might feel like on her own, Kakashi reached up and grabbed her hand, his grey eye watching her carefully as he placed her hand back at her side before pulling the mask back up and the tank back down over his body, sitting next to her on the bed. He waited for her to lay down first before taking his place next to her.
"Think you can fall back asleep?" He asked her quietly as she nestled in against him. He brushed the hair away from her eyes, seeing the heaviness of exhaustion starting to take over her now that the adrenaline had dropped. Before she could answer, her eyes fluttered shut and soon enough she was back asleep, her mouth parted slightly as she softly snored.
Kakashi smiled softly as he turned the lamp on, grabbing a copy of Jiraiya's newest book from the nightstand. He could doze tomorrow sometime, he told himself as he flipped to the page he'd left off on the afternoon before. As he tried to read, though, he found himself distracted by the memory of her fingertips and the fire they'd left behind, still burning his skin even now. He could still feel her palms pressing tight against his core, her fingernails grazing his skin as they trailed up his spine and he could still see those beautiful green eyes of hers staring up at him as she'd tugged the mask down, revealing to herself a piece of him he rarely let anyone see. She hadn't been curious; no, it had been something far more urgent. She had needed to see him in his entirety. It had been the only thing that had calmed her, though it'd had the complete opposite effect on the older shinobi. Once he was sure that Sakura was asleep, Kakashi gently shifted to put a bit of space between her rump and his groin, feeling the same twitch as the night before. He sighed. This was going to be a long night.
-x-
A/N: So, I've been working on this story a lot the last few days, and I've come to realize that it's becoming more of a slow-burn than I had intended. I don't want to spoil anything but rest assured the lemons are coming within a couple of chapters. The good news about that is that updates will be coming frequently, so you won't have to wait much longer to get there.
I also want to take the time to thank everyone who's taken the time to leave me a review. They aren't what I write for, but they definitely encourage and inspire me, and I really appreciate you all. If there's anything you're hoping to see in this story, let me know. I hope you keep enjoying as much as I'm enjoying writing!