Chapter Thirty-Eight
Shikamaru hit the striker of the cheap lighter, lighting up another little bundle of death. He dragged the smoke in, knowing whatever soothing effect the cigarette offered would be temporary. Just relax, after tonight, you can quit again, and stay quit. He dragged again as the metal door opened. "Evening, Mr. Miyomoto," Dr. Amando Sanzu greeted.
"Evening, boss," Shikamaru feigned normalcy, not taking the cigarette from between his lips.
The man lit up and took a drag. "So, ready for tonight?"
"You mean that big deal going on at the club, nah, I'm not a clubgoer." Shikamaru heard it would be quite the show, but he had no desire for his wife to put out his eyes if everything was as she'd told him.
"I hear there are going to be some hot, naked women in company; you sure you don't want to come?" The man chuckled as he spilled acrid smoke.
I've seen a hot naked woman; one is enough for me. "I'm a little worried what all the excitement might do for the ole ticker," he thumped his chest. "Besides, someone has to make sure the merchandise moves tonight." While Shikamaru knew the massive shipment of suicide vests was already on the way out, Amando had charged Shikamaru personally with getting the stasis vessels in the lab ready for transport. "Can I ask you something?" True curiosity crept into his voice.
"Yeah," the man nodded as he sucked in more smoke.
"What makes this all worth it?" he waved his hand at the building, cigarette still burning.
"What the hell do you mean?" Amando showed real sign of alarm at the question.
"We are both in a venture that could land us in a deep hole where no one could find us," Shikamaru took a drag, let out smoke, and smiled a grin he'd never used until now. "My motivation is money, maybe a bit of petty revenge. You," he paused to take another drag, "don't strike me as the type to be motivated by money. Is it revenge?"
"No," he mused. "Not that."
"Then what?" Shikamaru again asked, "Humor me."
"You ever lose something so precious that you'd do anything to get it back?"
Shikamaru thought back to the baby he and Temari had lost. It was too soon to even determine gender, much less what the child might have looked like. "Yeah," he dropped his cigarette and stomped it out, "Yeah, I do." That doesn't make you like me!
"That is what motivates me." The other man again dragged before stomping out his own cigarette. "Come, let us finalize things for tonight." Amando opened the door and gestured for Shikamaru to follow.
As they walked back towards Dr. Sanzu's office, there was the faint glimmer of empathy. Shikamaru knew the pain this man must have felt, maybe not on the same level, but they both had lost a child to circumstances beyond their control. And yet, he chose to make a deal with a demon intent on destroying the world his daughter would live in if he even could revive her. That thing in the basement lab is not human, no matter how much it looks like one. The other things in that lab are abominations that were bought with human lives destroyed. How many people did he experiment on? How many needless deaths were caused to satisfy his experiments?
As they came through the office and arrived in the secret lab, Shikamaru took in the fully formed clone in the statis chamber, complete with cybernetic enhancements. It looked like Akebi Sanzu, but even without talking to it, he knew it wasn't her. Whatever the hell was floating in the vat of greenish liquid may have had female anatomy, but Shikamaru didn't classify it as human. "She is beautiful, isn't she?" the other man asked.
"She's all right," he shrugged, "No offense, blondes don't do it for me, anymore."
"I see," Amando shook his head and turned to walk away, "In that case, I'll see you in the morning, don't spend too much time ogling my daughter…" the man's words froze in his throat as his body went rigid-still.
Before Amando could say anything else, Shikamaru turned to face the man, pulled a kunai and drove it into the union of the man's neck and skull. Shikamaru let go of his shadow possession tendril as the blade severed the man's spinal cord and shot up through the foramen magnum into the man's brain. "Surprise, motherfucker," Shikamaru said as the corpse fell limply to the ground.
Amando's eyes froze wide open with dilated pupils as life exited him. Shikamaru stood frozen at what he'd done, but the aquamarine glow from the stasis vessels weighed heavily on him. Three held fully formed humanoid cyborgs – an adolescent male and two young adult females. Shikamaru pulled from his pocket a series of explosive tags, but he did not initiate the detonation as he affixed one each to the glass cylinders.
Shikamaru ran back to a familiar chemical cabinet near the surgical theater. He found the jug he was looking for – hydrochloric acid. Kids, don't try this at home! Shikamaru carried the jug to the vat the fed the intravenous nutrient lines to all of the clones in the stasis tanks. He uncapped the lid and poured the whole five liters into the vat.
He tried not to look, but he did catch the flitting of movement within the tanks as concentrated acid began mixing into the IV fluids entering the cyborgs arms. Shikamaru quickly checked his phone, enough signal to send a text. He punched in the prearranged signal but did not press the send button. He walked back to Amando's corpse, finding a key around his neck. Your little failsafe is going to work perfect, except you're going to be trapped by it. Shikamaru went to a terminal by the man's desk, inserted the key, and turned it in the receptacle.
Alarm klaxons blared, and the lights in the lab dropped down to the emergency lights only. Every exit in the building might as well be bricked over. Amando had been crazy, and thankfully, paranoid. He knew how dangerous playing god was and had rigged the entire plant to lock down to prevent anything from escaping. You knew, you bastard. You knew you were playing with other people's lives, and you only cared enough to save your own ass! While Amando had an emergency exit, it would be unnecessary tonight.
Shikamaru ran the length of the lab back to surgical theater. The first whiff of natural gas leaking from the ventilation system hit him. If the lockdown wasn't disabled in five minutes, the gas would flood the whole facility and the slightest spark would set the whole place off. Must hurry! He slid back the false panel hidden by a set of x-ray light boxes, revealing two glass cylinders. One was air-filled and contained an abnormally long femur bone. The other was fluid filled and contained a human brain and spinal cord.
Shikamaru stared at the brain, already shriveled by the effect prion disease. He grabbed it first and threw it across the lab, shattering against the wall. Mushy brain and spinal cord material splattered with the glass. He grabbed the cylinder with the femur and set it next to Amando's corpse, checking his watch – one minute to go.
Shikamaru ran back to the chemical cabinet, grabbing a bottle of hydrofluoric acid and quickly poured it over the bone and then Dr. Amando's remains. He grabbed his phone and sent the text to his contact. The gas was becoming overpowering. There was a bright flash, followed by a second, and everything went dark.
For a moment, he thought something had gone wrong, but the smell of the odorant in the air gave way to the sweet aroma of fresh air. "Are you all right?" Lord Fourth's familiar voice came through the darkness.
"Peachy," he breathed, desperate to get the residual smell off. As he waved his arms around, there was a bright flash and a roar in the distance.
"You sir, have been a naughty boy!" Minato laughed. "Just like your father at your age."
"My father, a hellraiser?" Shikamaru balked, "Are you sure you're talking about the right guy?"
"Oh yeah," Minato said, shaking his head, "he did a few missions that resulted in big booms."
"I find that strangely easy to believe," Shikamaru finished trying to waft away residual gas. "Time for part two – torching Amando's house."
"Let's make it quick, then we'll head to the club."
Shikamaru bit his lip, "You might not want to hurry too fast."
"Oh, why is that?" Minato asked.
"Let's just say, you might see your daughter-in-law in a very different light if what Temari tells me is true…"
Hinata's heart thundered in her chest as she waited backstage for the song to change. Temari would call her out onto the stage on this side of the club and Ino would be on the opposite side. The prospect of being fully on display for covetous eyes to see turned her stomach upside down.
She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. For a moment, she was the newly twelve-year old girl that had been beaten brutally by Hanabi in an exhibition match on New Years. Remember the mission. Whatever embarrassment this might cause is well worth it if you can draw the eyes of these scumbags!
Part of Hinata had not survived that duel – the lingering part of her paralyzed with fear. Even more than her first mission with Naruto, the close brush with death that grim New Year's taught Hinata how fragile life was, how much tomorrow was not a given under any circumstance, and how much the future was something that had to be fought for, sometimes sacrificed for. That Hinata fainted at the mere presence of Naruto until age seventeen. She didn't become clan leader when her clan psychotic grandfather unleashed Hanabi on her. She was never offered a spot in the KIB/ANBU on her thirteenth birthday. She didn't save dozens of enslaved women by charming her way into Lord Yamamoto's bathhouse. And she never had the daring to ask Naruto to join her in bed on New Years Eve.
"And now ladies and gents, the moment you've all been waiting for! Get on your feet for a warm 24K welcome for Lady Amethyst and Lady Jade.
Hinata took one last deep breath, puffed out her chest, and strode through the curtain as the crowd applauded. Enjoy the show, boys; it's the last one you'll ever see! A spotlight illuminated her, as did Ino. Hinata at the moment wore a midnight purple cloak as well as the lavender and amethyst mask while Ino wore dark forest green for a cloak and wore her shiny emerald mask.
Temari started the music, a song about dancing the night away, and instinct took over. Hinata threw the cloak up and off her shoulders, revealing her choice of costume: a sequined amethyst thong and a tight, matching bikini top that hid her nipples and very little else.
As she strode down the stage, moving her hips to the beat, Hinata caught a glimpse of a shocked Naruto and Sasuke, mouths hanging down and blood dripping from their noses. Hinata ignored their stunned expressions as patrons along the stage began throwing bills her way and hollering for her to take more off.
In the moment, the heel of her right high-heel snapped. SHIT! Years of training thankfully kicked in, and she rolled with the fall to her right, coming to up and onto her knees and posed near the edge of the stage like she'd planned the incident. Again, bills rained down as she undulated with her hips while discretely removing her offending footwear. She took the moment and could see money being carelessly handed off out into the open. Kokatsu Warui had his eyes on her, as did most of his security detail.
Hinata winked at the crowd of men gathered, came to her feet, and found the dancer's pole fixed to the stage. She grasped the pole, sliding up and down, teasing the men with what she could do. She twirled, seeing Naruto approaching the deal with Sasuke behind. Can't let them be seen! As Hinata spun off the pole, she pulled the knot restraining her skimpy top and seamlessly flung the garment into the crowd.
Hoots and hollers came up as Hinata hooked a leg around the pole, leaned back, and twirled. As the men on the floor stood transfixed at the display, Naruto and Sasuke made their move on the group handing off the money. Keep them distracted! Most of the security detail was here at the stage, and she needed to make sure they didn't pay any heed to the screams and hollers coming from their friends in back.
As Hinata spun and slithered to the ground, her free hand slipped a thumb under the thin band of her thong and peeled it away seamlessly. Hinata held the offending bit of material up before the men at the edge of the stage like a treat held up in front of dogs. Naruto and Sasuke had taken the bad guys down. Hinata stuck out her tongue and threw the gawdy undergarment into an overly eager man's face.
She stood, now fully nude, made ready to get back on the pole, seeing Ino had likewise shed her costume except her heels. Hinata felt a chill run down her spine as she gripped the cold metal with her naked flesh. A figure she hadn't seen on their initial sweep was present – JIGEN!
The man stared at Naruto and Sasuke intently and began walking toward them and the men they'd just arrested. SHIT! Hinata sprung to her feet, summoned chakra to her hands, and formed her twin lions.
Sasuke wore a black set of fine slacks and a black button-down dress shirt with no tie and no jacket, much as Naruto was, as they slipped out from backstage toward the private booth where the money from the arms deal was going down. Nightclubs might have appealed to him before being victimized, but now, the place filled him with the wonder of how many people had been drugged and taken advantage of here without being noticed.
Temari announced Ino and Hinata, and the two appeared at their respective stages. Both were cloaked and masked. Hardly eye turning. The song started and both kunoichi flung away their cloaks. Holy shit! Sasuke had seen Hinata in skimpy and revealing outfits while undercover; he'd never seen her wearing something this revealing. Her long hair is covering more skin than that getup!
It took several moments to realize he was staring at Hinata and Ino's taut, voluptuous bodies. A devious part of him wondered just how different things might have been had he chased after Hinata, accepted Ino's advances at a young age, or left Sakura to Naruto or Rock Lee.
"Wipe yourself off," Naruto handed him a handkerchief, "You're bleeding!"
Sasuke took the cloth and wiped blood dripping from his nose as the image Hinata and Ino exposed in all their glory burned into the back of his eyes. "Yikes" Sasuke handed him back the handkerchief, "She really is a mountain range."
"All right," now Naruto wiped blood from his own nose, "You've seen the goods, now back to work!"
A mild tinge of guilt hit Sasuke. He was ogling his best friend's girl, his former partner. He turned back to the target ahead, secretly wondering if Sakura could dance like the other two.
They walked up to a round booth in back held six men, including Kokatsu Warui. The man looked like a bum wearing a fine suit. Even before Sasuke or Naruto could say anything, the other men at the table began drawing weapons.
"Put the weapons away, you're embarrassing yourselves," Sasuke warned. None of them listened as the group pushed out of the booth, leaving the money on the table. Two men pulled swords, the other four kunai.
"I think they've chosen…" Naruto paused with a grin, "… death."
Even Sasuke had to chuckle at his friend's morbid humor. "Roll for initiative!" Sasuke shouted at he kicked into the man closest to him. Two men tried slashing him, one with a sword, the other his kunai. Sasuke stepped back from the arc of the sword swing and pivoted to trip the man coming at him with the kunai. As the man fell to the ground, the guy with the sword came at him again, this time Sasuke charged forward, blocked the man's arms as he drew the sword upward, and Sasuke rammed an uppercut into the man's chin. Not exactly playing Castles and Bijuu with big brother and Naruto as kids!
Naruto had taken down two guys in the interim. Kokatsu clearly saw the writing on the wall and took off running, followed by one of his guards. Before Sasuke could give chase, a solid wall of force hit him from behind, sending Sasuke forward through the table of the booth.
The impact left him ornery, Irked at the cheap shot. Going to be sore in the morning! Sasuke turned to see the man, dressed in white, bald except for a single ponytail of jet-black hair. "You assholes, don't you ever DIE!" The man extracted a long black rod from his hand and drove it down where Sasuke lay.
"Not today, asshole!" Naruto grasped Sasuke by the shirt and dragged him out of the way of the rod as it impaled the table, cracking the tabletop in two.
By now, loud shouts began echoing the club, the music went down, and the lights came up. Temari exited the DJ booth and pulled out her fan from its hiding spot, attacking the remaining guards in the front of the club. Ino and Hinata approached to assist despite their nudity.
One thing that didn't happen was Naruto trying to talk the guy into surrender; he instead summoned Tailed Beast Chakra until he glowed orange in his Tailed-Beast Sage Mode. The lack of diplomacy unnerved Sasuke – Naruto deferred bloodshed whenever possible. Right now, his friend wasn't wasting a breath.
The man in white, likely Jigen, moved first. In less than a blink of an eye, he'd shot past Sasuke and dueled with Naruto at unfathomable speed. Sasuke focused with both Rinnegan and Sharingan, looking for an opening, somewhere where he could do damage. Jeez, this guy is fast!
Sasuke's Rinnegan began burning in his left eye socket as he scanned, as if this man's mere presence was overloading Sasuke's ability to predict the man's moves.
Thankfully, the man's presence dampened at Hinata's arrival, now cloaked in her own Tailed-Beast Sage Mode. Jigen was now distracted by two targets, and Sasuke's focus returned. Kill the monster, save the future! The tingling of lightning charging pulsed up Sasuke's forearm as he focused. Wait for it! Wait for it! The spot open, and charged forward with lighting in his hand screaming like a hawk.
As Sasuke prepared to punch his charged hand through the back of Jigen's chest, the unnerving sensation of spikes protruding up through his legs into this chest and abdomen stopped him cold. Sasuke struggled to breathe as he looked down, seeing black rods sprouted from the floor. It was a trap, and I walked right into it! He again struggled to suck in air, but he knew too well his remaining lung was punctured. Shit! I'm so sorry, Sakura! Darkness overcame him.
"Sasuke!" Naruto screamed as Jigen's black receiver rods sprouted from a concealed spot on the floor and impaled Sasuke like a pin cushion. Even without his altered Byakugan, Naruto could tell the wounds would be lethal in a short span of time.
Jigen moved again, moving with speed comparable to him or Dad. The only saving grace of the situation was that Naruto could sense where the man would reappear a split-second ahead of the move. Naruto needed something, anything, to end this quick or Sasuke was history.
Jigen attacked Hinata, now. She dodged with expert skill and speed, but even with her twin step lions, she couldn't make a strike connect, either. How the hell am I supposed to pin him down!
The other man again flashed out of range of Hinata, and Naruto barley turned to block the receiver rod the man held with the Staff of the Sun. Naruto tossed several marked Kunai, high and wide of the mark. Jigen flashed out, making ready to appear behind where Naruto stood. Naruto didn't give him the chance and teleported to one of the kunai. To Jigen's shock, Naruto wasn't where expected.
Naruto summoned adamantine chains and flung them like whips, ensnaring the man. Naruto yanked with all his might, sending the man flying through the wall of the club.
"Rasenshuriken!" Hinata called out and she flung the bladed mass of chakra through the hole where Jigen had just been thrown. There was a terrific explosion as bits of drywall, masonry, and steel flew everywhere, followed by a deafening ringing in his head.
As the ringing stopped, a wet gurgling stole Naruto's attention – SASUKE! The rods holding his friend had vanished, leaving Sasuke bleeding from at least a dozen puncture wounds through his arms, legs, and torso. Naruto rushed to his friend's sign. "..Ruto… Sakur…"Sasuke gurgled as foam and blood came up his mouth.
"Hang on!" Naruto grabbed his friend, teleported them both to the courtyard of Konoha Hospital. Naruto then flashed back to the backstage area of the club where Sakura had remained hidden. "Sakura, quickly!" he grabbed her arm and teleported back to Sasuke.
Even in the short span of time they were gone, the hospital's rapid response unit was rushing to Sasuke's side. "Oh my god! Sasuke!" Sakura called out as she ran to her stricken lover.
Naruto didn't have time to stick around. He teleported away, praying Sakura could save Sasuke. As he arrived back at his marked kunai, he searched desperately for Jigen, finding no sign of him in the club or surrounding village. "Naruto!" Hinata ran to his side.
"There is no way we got him!" he shook his head.
"He slipped away after you left," she shook her head, "I don't know where, not in range of me being able to detect him."
"Dammit, he could be back any second!"
"I don't think he will," Hinata said, "If he could, why didn't he just come back when I was without you."
"Shit," Naruto gasped, realizing he'd left Hinata vulnerable, "Hinata…"
"Naruto, it's fine! I had this part under control and Sasuke was in bad shape!" She shook in realization, "I should get to the hospital, too, Sakura is going to need help!" She paused, "Could I borrow your shirt? The second I'm out of Tailed-Beast Sage Mode, I'm going to be naked!"
Naruto tore off his dress shirt and brought it over her body. It would at least conceal her modesty enough for now. "I'll be back with you soon!" he said. She vanished in a flash. Naruto stared back at the club, now a wreck and with dozens of ANBU swarming in through the entrance. Naruto looked back at the table Sasuke had been thrown through. Assuming he lives, he's going to need a long vacation! Naruto eyed the money case meant for the arms deal.
Temari knew Kokatsu would jackrabbit at the first sign of trouble. She actually gave him credit for getting out of the club without getting pegged by the ANBU rushing in. Temari had given chase, but she remained cautious not to approach too closely. As expected, he was running for home. Temari let him get inside before closing the distance.
The man hadn't even closed the front door behind him as he stormed into the darkened house, desperately fumbling with the lights. He stumbled about like a bull in a porcelain shop – overturning end tables and knocking over a vase with a loud crash. He was clearly drunk already, maybe even done a few lines to appear alert for the deal.
Temari casually stepped through the door, not bothering with stealth as the man stormed into his bedroom and began rummaging around through chests of drawers. The man pulled out and threw drawers in a drug-fueled search for the essentials of any fugitives. "Where is your wife, Kokatsu?" she asked. Temari leaned against the doorframe, watching him with amusement.
"You!" he exclaimed in shock, skin turning pallid as if he'd seen a ghost, "You did all of this!"
"True" she shrugged, "but tell me, where is your wife and daughter?" Temari laughed, mocking the man. "They sold you out for a better life," she continued to mock the man. "That's what happens when you're an asshole!" At the final insult, he stormed forward, murder clear in his eyes as he approached Temari with arms outstretched.
Temari didn't give the man a chance for a tussle. In one fluid motion she pulled a kunai and rammed it through the man's heart. He gasped and gurgled, eyes stretching out in shock. Temari followed up with a kick to his solar plexus, sending him back onto the bed. "You beat your wife and daughter, molested both of them,"
As the man gasped and wheezed, dying of his stab wound, Temari pulled out a cigarette she'd taken from Shikamaru and then a lighter he'd kept as a spare. One flick of the flint, and the end was lit and glowing red as she sucked in death. How the hell does he stand this shit! She coughed, wishing she was just a bit more badass in the moment.
Temari stared at the now lifeless man, staring eternally to the sky. She rummaged, finding some of his papers strewn about. The papers were tossed on the bed followed by the burning cigarette. Within seconds, the papers began smolder; after about a minute, a small mass of flame emerged. Time to go before the whole place goes up!
Temari walked out of the room, out the front door, and closed the door to the house behind her, knowing it would burn down within an hour or two. She walked the street away from the house, toward her safehouse as the sound of fire alarms blared in the village as the orange glow of the now burning Kara Corporation building in the distance turned night into a ghostly twilight of smoke and haze. As she reached the safehouse, she was greeted by her husband. "Is it done?" he asked.
"Done," she said, taking him in her embrace, "How about you?
"It was messy, but I got everything," he sighed. "What a pain."
"You withdrew all the money we saved on this trip?"
"And packed our bags," he gestured to two suitcases near the edge of the bed, "Lord Fourth will be taking us home."
"After these last few months, I'm ready to go." The thought of being back in Konoha, back in the Nara compound soothed aches she'd become accustomed to after pretending to be a cocktail waitress turned DJ for so many months.
"Temari…"
"Yes?" she pulled back from his hug.
"When we get back, I'm going to make an appointment with Akemi."
"So soon?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.
"A promise is a promise, and if all that pregnancy and conception literature is to be believed, the process could take some time." He wasn't wrong. While their first pregnancy had been unexpected, they had been making love unprotected for some time before the miscarriage.
"Fair, but I have a request," she replied.
"What sort of request?"
"I want an actual honeymoon."
"A—honeymoon?" he cocked up an eyebrow.
"We never took one," she took his chin in hand. "I want to finally stop and have fun for a change, before getting set up in mommy mode."
"Where would you like to go?" he leaned his head to the side and crossed his arms. "Troublesome woman."
"We've been to the desert," she shrugged.
"How about the sea?" he asked, "I know this place in the Land of the Waves, nice private island with just a cabin or two."
Temari had never actually seen the ocean, "I'm listening…"
Sakura didn't wait for the rapid response team to reach her as she summoned her healing jutsu to her hands and began working on Sasuke. He was already unresponsive and in shock. She barely registered the team lifting him onto the stretcher or running along side as they entered the ER. Once inside, the lights of the emergency room flipped a switch in Sakura. "Which operating room is ready?"
"OR three!"
"Get him in there, someone page Lady Akemi and Lady Tsunade!" She continued to run alongside the stretcher. The team transferred him onto a proper table. "Sasuke! Stay with me!" She again activated her healing jutsu, finding it strangely ineffective. Goddammit, now is not the time to have a rookie mistake in technique, close these wounds! He was bleeding all over the table and it was now dripping on the floor.
Hinata came running in, "Someone grab two units of AB, if not available, type O! Hurry!" Hinata was dressed in a black dress shirt, half-buttoned," and a white doctor's coat, fully buttoned, but clearly nothing else underneath. I'm not even going to ask!
"Hinata, what the hell did he get stabbed with?" Sakura asked as she frantically tried closing a variety of puncture wounds.
"Some kind of black receiver rods, why?"
"I can't get his wounds to close!" Adrenaline threatened to make Sakura panic. "Try it!"
Hinata also tried her healing jutsu to no avail. He was going to bleed out if they didn't think of something. "Whatever Jigen used must be suppressing the effect of healing jutsu!"
"No shit!" Sakura groaned, "We don't have time to get him into surgery to do things the old-fashioned way! we have multiple organ punctures, and we're just as likely to kill him by opening him up!"
"Lord First's cells!" Hinata snapped her fingers.
"Hinata…"
"I know, it's damn dangerous, but he's going to die if we don't!" Hinata reminded, "Besides, his brother survived, so we know we have a decent chance!"
Hinata's logic did little to settle Sakura's thundering heart as Sakura bolted from the operating room to the secure pharmacy. They could only culture so many cells at a time, and the cells required special storage to remain viable. Everything or nothing! She grabbed one of the vials containing the cells and a syringe and ran back to the OR. By now, Sasuke was limp on his back. "Sakura, hurry; he's slipping!" Hinata shouted not looking up from Sasuke as she tried healing him to no avail.
Please let this work! Please don't leave me!" Sakura quickly filled the syringe, jabbed it into Sasuke's left upper arm, and held her breath as she injected him. She withdrew the needle just in time for him to start seizing, as had happened with Itachi and Naruto. Now came the dreaded minute to see if he lived or if the cells rejected him.
He convulsed, coughing up blood as he did so, and he then fell back on his back. Oh no! "Sasuke!" she shouted.
"It's all right," Hinata held her back, "it worked!"
Sasuke heaved, deep breaths followed by intermittent coughs. "Sasuke!" she called out.
He opened his glassy, obsidian eyes, "Ouch," he gasped before losing consciousness.
"Sasuke, Sasuke," an angelic voice called through the groggy haze filling his skull. Oh fuck me, I've died and gone to hell… again!
"Ugh," was all he could answer. He could feel the effects of painkillers, dulling his senses while leaving him acutely aware that he was in pain. He blinked several times to try clearing his eyes. When his vision cleared, he focused on Sakura's pink hair and green eyes.
"Sasuke, can you hear me?" Sakura's voice was soothing, if still concerned. She had the look on her face she had when he came out of a catatonic episode a few years earlier.
"What the hell just happened," he took in his surroundings – a sterile white hospital room. Beside Sakura, Itachi and Mother were both present. Mom looked on with the concern that had carved into her face any time she was near him. His brother, too, wore lines of worry more appropriate of Father.
Sakura resumed, "We had to do an emergency injection of Lord First's cells into you, much like we did with Naruto and Itachi."
"Swell," he sighed, aching all over as he rested his head back on the pillow. "How long was I out?"
"A couple hours," Itachi said, "a testament to how strong the healing ability of those cells can be. They grew back your right lung."
"Uh huh," his head did not rise from the pillow. His head pounded like it was in a vise being tightened.
"Sasuke, isn't there something you want to tell Sakura," Mom said as she walked up to the edge of the hospital bed.
It took a minute for him to figure what she was talking about, "Oh, thank you." He wished he could summon more enthusiasm, but having almost died and being drugged up left him unable to summon the faintest bit of energy.
"Sasuke, you are terrible with telling people you care about how you feel," Itachi chided.
What are they getting at? "Thank you for saving me," he again looked at Sakura, "my love."
Itachi looked at Mom, "At least better than his first attempt." Itachi shrugged.
"Sasuke," he felt Sakura squeezing his hand, "I…"
"It's all right, Sakura," Mom encouraged, "tell him."
"Tell me what?" confusion swirled his mind as he raised an eyebrow.
"I- I want to get married!" she cried, "I'm so sorry I turned you down last time!"
"Sakura?" He tried sitting up, but invisible hammers began attacking his skull, and he was forced to lay back. He sighed deeply as he struggled against he room spinning.
"I really almost lost you again, today!" tears ran freely from her eyes. "I- I can't…" she pulled back and wiped her nose on her sleeve, "I can't…"
He took her hand again, "Sakura, I don't want this if you're unsure…"
"Dammit! I've never been so sure of anything the past few months! I know we had just miscarried, but that was no excuse!"
"Sakura," Itachi spoke up, "It wasn't an excuse; it was a legit crisis. No one blames you for your decision not to move forward after such a terrible event!"
"All the same; I closed you off!" Sakura wailed, not taking her eyes from Sasuke, "I didn't want you to see me in that state, and it was stupid of me!" She heaved several breaths, "I lost you once, I lost a baby, and now, I've almost lost you again! Life is short and precious, Sasuke! I don't want to go on wondering if my next moment with you will be my last!" She sunk inward on herself, "I don't want to miss out because I was too scared to take a chance again."
Sasuke squeezed her hand. Neither of them was healed from the miscarriage. However, she was right – they lived in a dangerous world, and recent events were proof that delaying life and living right now might mean there would be no future. "As long as you're sure this is what you want," he said.
"Sasuke, I want…"
"Then I want it, too," he said. He turned to his mother and brother, "Itachi, Mother, will you help us make the arrangements?"
"Of course," they answered in unison. For better or for worse.
Author's notes: Hello everyone, thank you as always for reading, and also thank you for your patience with this work. In addition to work, life, and all points in between, I finally contracted covid last week (skipped it the whole pandemic). I'm fully vaccinated, and I'm all right, but I shudder to think how bad it could have been.
On a happier note, this concludes the Kara Arc in this continuity. Those of you eagle-eyed know there are going to be quite a few people not in the future that Himawari returns to at the end of this story. The next few chapters are going to be filler. We have several weddings for the characters to attend, and several pregnancies to get started before we enter the final acts. With that in mind, I do need your help. I will be posting a poll to my FFN profile so that I can focus my energies for the next few chapters. Please, input is always appreciated.
Thanks again. Until next chapter, stay healthy, and stay safe!
-Adam
