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Covenant
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Synopsis: In a harmonious world, who takes the blame?
What sins are punished and who decides?
Does vengeance leave with the last of its enemies?
As society rebuilds itself, Sakura learns some things can't be restored.
Not all beginnings start anew—not every ending brings closure.
And sometimes, peace isn't always that peaceful.
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3:12. An Unsealing
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"ARE YOU ready?" asked Orochimaru.
"Aa."
When she didn't answer, Orochimaru prompted, "And you, little medic?"
The four of them crowded inside the small tent. She and Sasuke lying on their backs, Orochimaru and Suigetsu hovering by the door. Had someone told her years ago that she'd one day willingly let the Sannin watch over her passed-out body, she would've punched them six feet under.
"You swear it'll only take half an hour?" she asked, staring at the rolling ceiling. "I'm supposed to meet with Kiri's hospital again tomorrow afternoon."
"Thirty was my best guess. It's layered twice, so it's difficult to say. The scrolls all indicate it's a relatively quick process. Surely you'll wake before sunrise."
Though it was impossible for her to trust him, she nodded and sighed. In this situation, it wasn't like she could do much else.
They were ready. Sasuke wanted it. What could she do but acquiesce?
"It may be painful," the Sannin added. "Would you like Suigetsu to find some painkillers?"
Since when did Orochimaru care about the pain of others? Sakura studied him uneasily. Lips turned in that ever-present grin, his arms folded neatly over his chest. His consideration made her more anxious than if he'd laughed about what was to come, like he ought to.
"I don't need it," she said stubbornly. She'd spent eight months with Madara; a little seal release couldn't scare her.
His grin widened with glee. "Good."
Rolling her eyes, she laid her head back as the anxiety dissipated. That was the Orochimaru she knew—a sadist, through and through.
"But if it's not done by ten, one of you will need to send a letter to the Mizukage. Better that than having them send someone out to check on me."
"I'll take care of it," Suigetsu offered.
"...Fine." Glancing to her right, Sakura checked on the man beside her. She didn't think he would, although it was probably safer to make sure—"If you wake up first, Sasuke… Don't leave me."
I won't.
Her mouth twitched down. It was a cruel trick for him to use the seal now, as they prepared to remove it. Per his request—when she had made it clear she'd rather not.
Suigetsu chuckled. "He wouldn't leave you alone with us by choice. Right, Sasuke?"
"I will ensure he doesn't leave if you're worried," added Orochimaru. "I am in your debt, after all."
"I'm not going to," Sasuke spat, brow furrowing. "Enough talk. Get this over with, Orochimaru."
"Shall we? Then, if you're ready, close your eyes, Sakura Haruno."
Taking a deep breath, she did as she was told. A buzzing filled the air a second later. Orochimaru's chakra thickened and coated the tent, swarming over her like a thousand bees. Repulsive in nature and flagrant with hostility.
Her stomach turned when it reached towards her neck.
The Sannin had said they would fall asleep once the seal began releasing, but she wished he'd just knocked her out. Having his chakra mold around her like this was horribly unpleasant.
Reigning in her thoughts, she started counting backward, waiting for it to end.
Thirty… Twenty-nine… Twenty-eight… Twenty-seven…
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Fifteen… Fourteen…
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Blood filled her mouth as she bit down harder and pushed forward again, unsuccessfully.
Holding in a shriek, she squeezed her eyes shut. Focused on the pathways in her outstretched arm, manually unblocking them with her chakra.
When she reclaimed the limb, she dug her fingers into the ground and yanked her body forward with enhanced strength. There was no stopping the animal-like sound that crawled from her throat as her body split around the stakes in five different places.
Fingertips brushing Naruto's, she let her body sag against the ground, tears so thick she couldn't see. In so much pain she was about to pass out.
It was nothing compared to the feeling that overtook her the next moment.
She could tell with just the slightest touch of their fingers. She didn't even need to scan him—
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Naruto was dead.
With a roar, she released the byakugou, thrusting Hundred Healings down her already resealing pathways. She unblocked them again and again as her technique crisscrossed up her arm. If she could heal the wound—she could close it, then restart his heart with a shock—fix the internal damage once he woke up—she'd brought people back from this state before. She could do this. She could—do this, just fucking DO IT! FOCUS!
The pain in her body was unbearable. She wasn't healing herself; had no control of any chakra pathways anymore except the ones in her head and the ones she was forcibly maintaining in her arm. But she could—Am...I dying...? Let me save him first. Please God, you worthless fucking bastard, I don't care if you take me…but not him…You can have me, don't take Naruto—barely keep those channels open well enough to plow her technique into Naruto's fingertips.
Weeping, she watched as it slowly slunk up his arm. Hurry, hurry, go FASTER—
Something primal flickered to life inside Naruto, fierce and untamed as an inferno. She gasped when it seized the chakra she fed into him and yanked. Its power burned up her arm, draining her, too dominating to fight.
Never before had Sakura felt anything like it. More painful than the rods staking her down, more scalding than a fresh brand.
Like her life was being sucked out of her.
A revived scream rang through the forest. Crackling, orange chakra blazed over her hand, white noise thrummed in her ears, her mind blanked. A flash of snarling fangs and angry, slitted eyes exploded in her thoughts.
Kyuubi.
Fear had her trying to rip her fingers away before her brain caught the action. But even if it hadn't, the orange chakra locked her there firm as cement. Leaching her dry like a raisin in the sun.
The Kyuubi wanted to save Naruto.
Teeth sinking into her pathways, it mercilessly took what she'd offered. All through her body, her channels ignited. Those few she had control of, the rest that the rods had closed off. They smoldered against her blood as the beast ruthlessly wrenched out their essence.
It was going to kill her.
In the panic, it took her a moment to remember she was willing.
Clenching her jaw, Sakura shoved her face into the frozen earth, trying to push her chakra out as fast as the Kyuubi was pulling, hoping to lessen the pain.
If it meant Naruto survived, she didn't care if she died here. She was going to die here either way. From the moment she ran into this clearing, she was destined to die. From the moment the war started—the moment she became a kunoichi.
From the moment she was born.
If death was the only inevitable, choosing how she went was a mercy. Rather than by Madara's hand or some nameless, faceless shinobi on the battlefield, giving herself for Naruto's sake was best. She was always meant to die for him, after all.
Perhaps they all were.
Somewhere in the distance, a fight was moving further and further away.
A hand brushed her head. Good job, Ugly. Keep going.
It hurts, she whimpered. She'd been so close to death so many times, but never like this. How had he endured it? How had any of her friends handled this devastating ache and fear? It hurts so much, Sai…
Think of home and it will be finished, he whispered over her.
So she did.
She thought of Konoha.
Of Kakashi grinning up at her, hanging upside down in a tree in the training grounds, Naruto and Sasuke scowling on the forest floor. Of opening her front door to the smell of freshly cooked curry and her father's loud laugh in the kitchen. Ino weaving flowers together in a crown only to drop it on her head when she wasn't looking. Letting Tsunade beat her in a card game so the woman would let her leave.
The warm sun of Fire summers. The first snow piled atop its forests. A bench outside the gates, the bridge off the town square, the playground behind the Academy. A dango stand and the ramen shop and a too-crowded barbeque table.
Things she'd never experience again. Places she'd visited and hadn't known it was the last time.
She wished she could see Konoha just once more. Not the desolate, abandoned graveyard it'd become, but the lovely and comfortable place she'd grown up in. The town holding all her fondest memories. All her deepest secrets. Where kids were still dreaming and parents were still laughing and friends weren't dust in some distant land.
…She would've given anything to go back home.
—ra!
—kura!
Sakura—
A ripping sensation in her shoulder burst her into consciousness. She barely had time to process before another four followed and a hand burning in violent chakra gripped her wrist, jerking her away from Naruto's fingertips. She was too weakened to protest. Too feeble to command them to stop.
A beat later, the same violent chakra engulfed her as a body flicker jutsu was cast, whisking her away in a blur of motion. Her head lulled into a chest.
Someone was patting her cheek. "Sakura, wake up. Open your eyes!"
The command pulsed on her neck, sending shockwaves through her scattered synapses. Confused, she obeyed. Her vision swam as she looked up into a cold, gray sky and dead branches. Into a heaven just as empty and lifeless as she was.
Was she dead?
"Stay awake! Where's your soldier pills?!"
Did dead people sound so desperate?
Eyes shifting towards the voice, she was met with wild purple and onyx. Pretzeled around her, Sasuke cradled her in his lap, one arm tucked under her while the other hovered over her pelvis, a green healing jutsu coating his hand. Flickering like a dying candle.
Sasuke was too strong to die. If he was here, she couldn't possibly be dead.
But if she wasn't dead… Was she dreaming?
Countless times, she'd dreamed of Sasuke saving her from this horrid nightmare.
Had she summoned his image in her last moments for comfort? Even though he hadn't come when she needed him most. Despite his leaving the Allies to this slaughter, was he still the final person she yearned to see most?
The mind was such a funny, fickle thing…
"Talk to me, Sakura! Don't fall asleep." When he shook her frame, her brain rattled in her skull; bone fragments grated under her skin. "Come on…"
If she had the energy, she would've thrown up. Surely, the agony in her body was too real to be a dream… Hers might've always tasted of death, but they never felt so real.
Then, was this Sasuke before her real, too? Had he truly come? She blinked, trying to focus on the proud cut of his brow and the soft curve of his cheeks. Black spots trickling over his face, her gaze wandered and dimmed.
Whether he was real or she was dead, she supposed it didn't matter either way. In the end, he was here with her. She wouldn't have to go alone.
Relief soaked her nerves as she slumped into his warmth.
"Sakura!"
She wished he wouldn't sound so frantic. It wasn't so bad, leaving like this, she wanted to tell him. Rather than these harsh shakes and agitated orders, couldn't he hold her gently like she'd always wanted? Admit that he'd miss her just once, before it was all over?
A jab against her broken hip had her reeling from her stupor, hissing back to life. The whole world seemed to sharpen in the flash of pain.
Sasuke. A snowy, forest floor. The tinge of hot blood warming the air.
"Stay. Awake," he demanded, clenching her shattered bones in a vice grip.
That's right. She'd been doing something—something crucial. Just seconds ago, there'd been someone she desperately needed to save… Someone she loved who was more important than anyone…
"N-Naruto, he's—" she croaked; it felt like she hadn't spoken in years.
"Shh, save your energy."
Jerking forward, her mind finally broke through the haze. "Where—where is Naruto?!" She craned her neck as far as she could, searching for him. Finding nothing but empty, dead woods. "Where is he?!"
Sasuke glared down, anger blazing through their seal. "Forget him! Look at the state you're in!"
"Save him, S-Sasuke. Please—he's—"
"It's too dangerous right now, I—"
"Go get him!" she pleaded, though it came out hoarse and winded. "Why did you—why me—where is he, Sasuke?!"
A green-laced hand moved to her shoulder. "You're fucking dying, Sakura! Focus on yourself! Why do you have no chakra?! Where are your soldier pills?"
"GO GET HIM!"
His palm clamped down over her mouth. "Quiet! Have you gone mad? Madara's men are all over the place."
When she tried to push him away, her whole body screamed. She'd lost too much blood and chakra; her bones and muscles were a tattered mess. Like this, she couldn't do anything but lie as still as a corpse.
Defeated, she gazed up, tears in her eyes. "I'm begging you, Sasuke. Please go get Naruto. Please don't leave him. We can't—I can't lose him."
His hand trembled as she spoke through his fingers, words muffled and broken. Beneath her, she thought his legs might've been trembling, too.
And now that she was really looking—Sasuke didn't appear much better than a corpse, either. He was dripping in sweat, skin steaming in the frigid air. Breath labored with fatigue. His shoulders rose and fell in an uneven, agitated count. He was obviously exhausted; she'd never seen him so spent.
Had he been fighting before he came?
…Had he betrayed them?
His hand lifted from her face.
"I have to know he's alive," she whispered. "You have to save him." We need you, Sasuke. You can't abandon us now. Not now. Any time but now. "Please."
A muscle in his jaw twitched. In her periphery, the green jutsu sputtered once and fizzled out.
She could stomach it if he'd turned against the Allies. Maybe they even deserved it. If he'd decided to throw his lot back in with his family, she had no honest way to fault him for it, anymore. What did any of this matter, anyway?
The Kage, Madara—nothing would be left, regardless of who won.
After five years of battle and pain and loss, Sasuke could forsake the whole damned world for all she cared. But he absolutely couldn't turn his back on their team.
He wouldn't have been with her now if he could. He wouldn't leave Naruto to the enemy.
He wouldn't. He couldn't.
She would never forgive him if he did.
"...Damn it, Sakura," he spat.
Without waiting for a response, he gently slid her off his knees and disappeared.
Alone, the uncanny quiet of nature washed through her. The ground was packed cold on her back. Snow drifted into her eyes as the white-coated trees swayed in the wind. They were so far from home in this vacant landscape, brimming with the chill of a long-forgotten anger. So far from the children they'd been when this violence started, she vaguely mused.
Naruto couldn't die in a place like this. Not Naruto, who looked more like the kid she once knew than anyone else.
Naruto belonged to the smell of lotus flowers that wafted around Konoha's rivers. To the flaking paint of old-clan houses and the training grounds dotted outside the village gates. He was meant to rest in the soft dirt of Fire Country years into the future, under a golden plaque and a bed of flowers.
If she had to give that up for him, she would. He, of anyone, had to make it home. If the Gods required blood in this foreign land as payment, she'd gladly spill hers in his place. And should Sasuke never come back for her—she thought, in this moment, she could accept even that.
So long as he took Naruto far beyond the heavens' horrid, frozen tears mocking everything they'd futilely struggled for, for all this time.
But to her mild surprise, only half a minute later, he returned.
Holding Naruto's limp body like a sack, they popped into existence beside her. Immediately, Sasuke unceremoniously dropped him; he hit the ground with a thump that shook her to the core. Staggering to his knees, Sasuke huffed, hands catching his upper body before he followed suit.
She twisted herself around as far as her wounds allowed. "Is he alive? Sasuke—check—is he alive?!"
"Y-yes," he stammered, face still bent towards the earth. "Now—w-where are your soldier pills?"
Sakura closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. "Good." Her head fell back. "...Then take him and get out of here."
"...What?"
"I don't have any soldier pills on me and I'm too injured to move. Madara's men will find me soon, so take Naruto and run." Having already come to terms with it, the words flew out with ease. Little more than a pragmatic assessment that might've been said over a strategy table, outlining an attack.
"I'm taking you," he declared. "You wanted to see he's alive, and now you have. Just give me a minute to regain some chakra."
"I'll only slow you down. Leave me. We've lost Lightning, so it doesn't matter." What should've been hard to admit felt easy as a midday stroll. "All we can do is make sure Madara doesn't find—"
"I don't give a damn if Madara finds him!"
Her sights narrowed at him. At how much he was cursing, at the dismissal in his tone.
While it sounded like he wanted a fight, they couldn't waste time arguing about something so clear. What didn't Sasuke understand? She and Naruto were incapacitated, and he was only one person against an entire army. He couldn't save them both.
The choice was obvious.
She was replaceable. The jinchuriki weren't.
"You don't give a damn? He's the whole reason we're fighting this stupid fucking war," she said, volume raising on every word. Irritated that he was still here and not sprinting east, yet. "Just take him and get out of here."
He scoffed. "No."
"What the hell do you mean, no? Stop wasting—"
"Then the Kage shouldn't have left you two alone in the first place!" he shouted back. "If he's the reason for the war, let it end with him here. I don't care, Sakura. Leave you? You'll fucking die!"
"So, what, you'll just leave Naruto? Then he'll die."
"Yes. I'm leaving him. If he's so precious to your damned army, someone else will come."
"There is no one else, Sasuke! Look around!"
"That's not my problem. I know a safehouse two hours from here we can hide in until nightfall. Now be quiet and let me knead."
In the small silence that followed, she gaped at him. Had he lost all his reasoning in the short time they'd been apart?
"...I'll scream." It was the only threat she could think of. "If you take me, I'll scream 'til they find us."
Glancing up, he scowled. "I'll knock you out."
"Fine. Then take us both," she rationalized, trying to even out her voice.
It was an idiotic offer. She knew he couldn't move quickly enough carrying two people, but what other option was there if he wouldn't be practical? There wasn't time to make him see sense.
Somehow, they'd have to make it work.
"I don't have enough chakra to run with two people, Sakura!" His hands fisted into the wet, frosted dirt. "What don't you get?!"
A sudden, slow rage boiled under her skin. She was certain she could've lived ten lifetimes and never been so angry with him as she was now.
"Then you should've come sooner! Where were you?!" There was no way someone nearby couldn't hear them screaming at each other by now, but she couldn't wrangle enough self-control to stop. "I've been calling for you from the moment I woke up, Sasuke! You should've answered!"
None of this would've happened if he'd given them even a little warning; if he'd come ten minutes earlier; if he hadn't drained himself of chakra fighting the army he claimed to support. Everything about this situation could've been avoided if he'd done something, anything, different.
His teammates were worthless piles of bones in the middle of a frozen forest, the Allies had probably lost most of their shinobi—and it was all his fault. Yet he still had the audacity to make ultimatums and threaten to leave Naruto in this wasteland? His own teammate, who'd never once, in nine years, given up on him?
"Fucking Orochimaru knocked me out last night! I couldn't hear you—"
"You're lying! You wouldn't be so drained if you weren't fighting!"
"Fighting? I was all the way in Water Country! I had to kamui—"
"Kamui?"
"—across a whole damned continent and ocean to your tent! It took nearly all my chakra just to get here! Then the rods—"
"Since when did you have kamui?"
"Why does that matter?! I thought you were going to die!" A shadow passed over his face, dark as a moonless night. "The seal woke me up and I thought you were dead, Sakura. I thought I wouldn't make it."
With a frown, she turned the explanation over in her mind. Roles reversed, she could understand why he might've panicked. This seal they shared was designed to tie one person to another like that. Of course, if he'd truly woken up to her screaming in his head thousands of miles away, he would've been distressed.
But she couldn't understand why someone as logical as him was refusing, so adamantly, to save the jinchuriki over a mere medic. Couldn't understand why he was shouting at her as if she was the one who didn't understand.
This was war. There wasn't space for panic, here. And he should've known how vital evacuating Naruto was, too—he, who'd spent years at Madara's side, had to.
"Naruto is the most important person in the whole Allied army," she reminded, though she shouldn't have needed to. "Who cares about me when he's this badly injured? Our top priority has always been—"
"I care!" His body tensed as he spoke. If she didn't know any better, she might've thought the words pained him.
Pausing, Sakura reassembled her thoughts again. It was the first time she'd seen Sasuke act this unreasonable. Typically, he was the most level-headed in any discussion; usually so stone-faced and controlled that she had no idea what he was thinking or feeling beyond a faint annoyance with everything.
But here, under the snow and the gray clouds and the dead branches, crouched over and panting with chakra depletion—he looked little more than an animal backed into a corner.
"Okay. I get that," she said, calm as she could make it, like talking to a child or one of her patients. Like he was the one demanding to be left behind to the enemy and not her. "I know it's hard with the seal, Sasuke. But you have to care about Naruto more right now. You can hide me in some brush if you're that worried. In a few hours, I'll have enough chakra to heal myself and—"
He shook his head. "No."
With that, her patience snapped. "Fuck! Just do it, Sasuke!"
"No."
"You're wasting so much time!"
"Stop screaming! We'll have even less time, now!"
"TAKE HIM!"
"Will you shut up?!"
She grit her teeth. "Fucking go—"
"I won't."
"Sasuke, what the hell is your issue?! Our protocol's always been—"
"Just fucking stop!"
"THEN LEAVE WITH HIM!"
"No!"
"Why are you being like this?!"
"BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!" he yelled, voice cracking. "Damn it, Sakura…"
Mouth hanging open, eyes wide, her next words stalled in her throat.
Time froze. The snow might've stopped falling. The wind might've stopped howling. She thought she might've forgotten how to breathe. For the briefest turns of the world, she couldn't remember what they were doing in this tiny little clearing in the middle of a forest. Even Naruto's still body and her blood leaking out, drenching her hair, faded away as she stared.
Anger morphed into confusion.
Had he just…?
No. Surely, she hadn't heard him right. The blood loss was causing delirium. Maybe she'd lost her mind along with her chakra and was starting to hallucinate. It could've been the stress of this bleak situation wearing her down, or the helpless jinchuriki still too close to the enemy making her deranged.
Sasuke? Sasuke Uchiha? Love?
No—that absolutely wasn't real.
"...Wh…What?" she stuttered.
"Since we were children. Since Team Seven—I—I thought I could manage it with distance." Gazing at his fists, the words left him so fast they sounded slurred. "I'd think I was over it only for you to appear out of nowhere. Orochimaru's base, the bridge. News about you would pass through Madara's briefings when I hadn't thought of you in weeks. Then you were sent as the contact, and I—" Grimacing, Sasuke pounded his hand against the earth. "God damn it!"
Only the creaking of dead trees filled the stunned silence. She nearly even heard the snow drifting around.
What was he even saying? Since they were children…?
This was it: She'd finally gone and lost it. During these long, dreadfully hopeless years of war, she'd seen scores of shinobi in her tent, rambling at people who weren't there and hearing all sorts of implausible, preposterous things. Now at death's door, it seemed she was succumbing to the same fate.
She had to have gone crazy. That was the only answer for it. No way was what she'd just heard real.
…Because she thought she'd heard Sasuke Uchiha confess to her. Thought he'd admitted to loving her for years, but—
It couldn't have been true. It couldn't have. Him? With her?
It didn't even make sense.
In most of their meetings, he barely tolerated her presence. She had to beg him for his time, pester him for conversation. He'd tried to kill her, for God's sake.
Love her? When he'd joined a war against everyone she loved? Killed people she cared about and hunted her best friend?
He was so brutal when the agreement started. Spoke so harshly at her when things didn't go his way. Berated her for using their seal to initiate contact, ordered her around, went weeks without sending any word. He'd told her tens of times that his kinder treatment was only a product of the seal. Warned her not to read into any of his thoughtful or caring actions.
No. Someone who loved her wouldn't have done that. Someone who loved her wouldn't look like a sword was plunging through his chest just by admitting it aloud.
Sasuke didn't love her. Absolutely not. She had to be mishearing things.
"Sasuke, what are you saying?" she muttered, brow scrunched.
"You heard," he growled.
Why did he seem angry? "I… I don't understand. You don't love me, so why are you saying that?"
"Didn't I just say that I do?!" His shoulders heaved before he lifted his head, regarding her wearily. "Please, Sakura, just let me knead. Don't make me repeat it."
If her heart hadn't stopped, she was certain it would've been beating out of her chest.
"I don't believe you. Why are you telling me this now? If it's to convince me, it won't—"
"I don't need to convince you. I'm taking you, and you can't do anything to stop me in your state." Sights softening, his voice lowered, barely carrying it her way. "I'm telling you that I won't lose anyone else who's precious to me, Sakura. You, most of all."
Her blood froze and ignited all at once; she wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. It was all she'd ever wanted, given at the one moment it couldn't have mattered less. Vision dropping to Naruto's crumpled body beside him, she swallowed the shock and the sickly sweet joy bubbling up her throat.
If it was real—if it was true—
Gods, it might have been one of the cruelest things he'd ever done to her.
Why now? Why bother? What was the point in burdening her with something so long overdue? Here on the corner of the map, in the frost of winter, minutes from battle—his confession changed nothing.
They were still three shinobi in the middle of no where, with no chakra, and no coverage, and no soldier pills. Two parties couldn't move; an enemy army was assuredly searching for them nearby.
No matter what he felt or wanted, they both knew he had to choose Naruto. What good was his honesty in a moment like this...?
In a different life, maybe he'd spoken those words sooner. In a different universe, they ran away together and lived happily. It wasn't a hard thing to imagine: Somewhere far in the future, or in the past, or in a dream—she and Sasuke were normal people doing simple things, and he told her he loved her over a cup of coffee, on a quiet street, in a peaceful town.
But they weren't those people, even if she desperately wanted them to be. A hundred wishes on a hundred falling stars couldn't erase the roles they had to play in this awful world. Here in this lifetime, she was Sakura Haruno, and he was Sasuke Uchiha, and the closest they'd ever get to one another was on a battlefield.
That was their reality.
It would've been better if he'd said nothing at all.
Softly gathering all the emotions welling within her, she shoved them into the back of her mind. Boxed away what she couldn't handle, suppressed the parts that made her weak. She'd gotten horribly good at it in the last few years—falling into the rational commander everyone needed her to be.
"...Naruto is still more important than any of that." Her voice sounded foreign and empty.
Chuckling darkly, Sasuke pushed onto his knees. "Is that all you have to say?"
"We're in the middle of a battle, Sasuke. What else am I supposed to say?"
"Nothing," he intoned, mask slipping back over his expression.
"I won't leave if Naruto doesn't leave, and I won't forgive you if you force me to," she continued. "So, please… Just take him and run."
"Then none of us are leaving. We'll all get caught." Head falling back, he stared at the sky.
"...You'll just give up?"
"I won't leave you."
"Sasuke…"
He took a breath and closed his eyes. "Drop it. If we're found, I'll fight. Focus on unblocking your pathways so you can knead and heal. We'll figure it out."
He was a talented fighter. Maybe even the best she'd ever seen—but in this state, he could barely stand. It would take a day or more of rest to regain enough chakra to unblock her sealed pathways. And while she'd no idea how far out Madara's men were, this couldn't have been more than five miles from where she'd first found Naruto.
They had half an hour before someone found them, at best. Only if they were extremely lucky.
"Call Kakashi, then," she suggested. "We just need someone who can carry one of us out, right? Can you carry one?"
"If he has soldier pills."
"Do you have enough chakra now to get a message to him, at least?"
"...Maybe." Nipping his finger, Sasuke pressed his hand to the ground, face contorting in pain as black circles spiraled around it.
Two small hawks materialized between them, cawing their soft greeting. Lungs ragged again, he pulled out parchment and charcoal from the sealing scroll on his wrist. Tearing the paper into three parts, he used his thigh to scribble out the marks for a jutsu.
"Go find Kakashi and Suigetsu," he mumbled under his breath, tying two of the pieces around each bird. The third, he tossed over his shoulder.
The hush that settled between them as the hawks popped away was cold as the air. Her throat felt hoarse from the way she'd spoken to him earlier.
If no one friendly came for them, she didn't want to end it on a screaming match.
"You said Orochimaru knocked you out…?" she asked, searching for something to fill the space. Carefully ignoring his earlier words that were searing themselves through her psyche.
"...Last night," he drawled, refusing to look at her. "Madara sent word that the attack was happening in the evening. When I sat down to write you a warning, he got me from behind. I don't know if he's betrayed me or not, but when the seal woke me up, both he and Suigetsu were waiting in my room."
"Why would he do that?"
"I don't know."
"But they didn't try to stop you from coming here…?"
"No." Sighing, he stood on shaky legs and approached her, settling down inches away. "Here."
Sasuke lifted her head and placed it in his lap. In the adrenaline rush, she'd almost forgotten she was star-fished in the midst of a snowstorm. She shivered as his body heat seeped into her.
It was strange—him doing this. Offering her some comfort. Granting her his personal space. It wasn't the first time, but was still so unlike the detached, frigid man she was used to that she nearly pinched herself awake. If it'd been anyone else, she wouldn't even consider it particularly intimate.
Was it because he was tired? Because he'd let slip some words he usually wouldn't?
Or was it because he, too, knew this was probably the last time they'd speak?
Over the past few minutes, she'd tried her best not to acknowledge that. Telling him to leave her, knowing it was for the best—that was one thing. Admitting to herself that she was in her final moments was another. But what else was left to do?
They were cornered. There was no guarantee Kakashi would come. He might've been in the middle of a fight or too far away to get the message in time. Might not have been alive anymore, for all she knew.
"I almost thought you'd abandoned us," she whispered, gaze on his chin.
"Almost?"
"I hoped you hadn't…"
"Mm… You seem to have too much faith in me." Fingers brushing through her bangs, he inspected the bloody state of her shoulders. "I barely made it... I was still too late."
His hand was warm on her forehead. His voice basked over her, deep as the sea and calm as a meadow. Closing her eyes, she forgot the snow and the wind and the ache in her body. Instead, she imagined them in Konoha, just like this. In a park, or just outside the village gates. Maybe it was springtime there. Maybe they'd just made jonin together. Maybe he was coming over to her parent's house for dinner that night.
She thought her parents would've liked him.
"Maybe it's because I love you," she said, peeking at him. What did it matter if she said it now? Hadn't he already said it first?
Scoffing, his sights drifted to hers. "Not enough to leave with me."
"This and that are different things," she deflected, chest tight.
"And what would you do if it were me, asking you to let me die?"
"Who could kill you? You're Sasuke Uchiha." The corner of her mouth lifted, twisting up with her gut. "But I'm just a medic."
"Tch." Hand sliding to her left shoulder, the green of a healing jutsu flickered back to life.
"Save your chakra," she said, trying to flinch away.
"Just to finish sealing the skin."
"You barely have any left."
"Shush," he murmured.
It was then that she felt it. Really, truly felt it. In the clumsy, barely-there way he healed and the quiet glances over his shoulder. In the defeated shadow that slipped over his brow as the sound of metal clanged somewhere in the distance.
All three of them were going to die here.
...She at least had to try one last time. "Sasuke, please. For me. Save Naruto."
"I won't," he declared. "And even if I would… I think we're out of time."
Before she could answer, a fourth presence sprung to life beside Naruto. Startled, she jumped, cursing when her broken bones grated against each other.
"What's happening?" Kakashi panted, doubled over yards away. "Quickly. We've got less than ten minutes before Madara's men get here."
.
If you're confused...reread chapter 22 :)
and thanks to Leech for beta-reading
