Obito-Sensei Chapter 8

The Cut That Saved Sakura's Life

It took a long time for Sakura to wash all of the blood off.

Ten merchants had gone missing from Paper Hill, and Naruto had found nine of them; the last, a man named Yako, was dead, killed by one of the cultists, just as the pinned woman had claimed. None of the merchants had known what had happened to his body. It hadn't been taken with them.

They were all in relatively good shape, though none of them had eaten in at least two days. They'd been kept alive and unharmed, and nothing more. When Obito had asked them if their captors had told them anything, they'd all agreed that Hidan hadn't done much more than preach to them.

The man had told them they were the key to his immortality. That had made Sakura shiver. Hidan already hadn't been able to die by normal means; whatever the ritual beneath the lake had been trying to accomplish, she had her feeling that her team had accidentally averted something catastrophic.

It had taken them about a half hour to find their way to the surface; Obito had been too tired to carry them out with his Kamui. The merchants had all given Sakura and Sasuke frightened looks when they'd been led back to the main chamber by Obito; Sakura had never had someone look at her with fear before. She'd given the woman in the front a smile, thinking that maybe this was Haruka, and she'd flinched.

Sakura had been a little offended, but now, in the water, she could understand. If a girl covered in blood had smiled at her, white teeth against dried red blood, she probably would have flinched away too.

"Okay, we're taking these guys back," Obito had said when they'd finally emerged from the cave system. It had spat them out in the forest, somewhere Sakura didn't recognize. "Sasuke, you're up front: I'm in the back. Naruto and Sakura, left and right."

It was a standard diamond formation that they were taught early and often in the academy for the purpose of escorting VIP's, and falling into it helped Sakura forget she was still covered in warm, sticky blood. Her arm ached constantly. Sakura had never been hit with a shuriken before: was it really supposed to hurt that much? Every step she took, she left behind a bloody footprint, dimmer and dimmer with each step.

This wasn't really how her first C-Rank was supposed to have gone, she was thinking all the way back to Paper Hill. It was supposed to be simple. She shouldn't have had to swim through enough blood to fill up a couple hundred people. That was just wrong.

Distantly, Sakura wondered if she was in shock. Surely, she'd have a good excuse. But this didn't feel like shock, or at least what shock had been described like to her. She was just tired. Exhausted, really. All the adrenaline had completely worn off and it left her with a deep and constant exhaustion. She barely remembered the trip back.

It was late when they got back, and darker than ever. Sakura had lost track of time, but if she had to guess, it was probably close to two or three in the morning. There were two people standing guard at the bridge leading into the town, both armed with crossbows; Sasuke had probably given them a hell of a surprise, coming out of the dark and covered in blood.

It was all a blur. The town had come alive, people streaming out of their homes to welcome them back. There'd been cheering, screaming: one woman crying. It had all washed over Sakura without making a single impression. She wanted nothing more than to lie down and fall asleep, but there was no way that was possible while she was still caked in blood, her hair clumping together and the space between her fingers sticky.

"Sakura." That had been her sensei, passing before her like a ghost. He was still incredibly pale; Sakura had wondered how close he'd come to succumbing to Hidan's endless attacks. If she'd been even a second slower, would they all be here, among this noise and celebration in the dark? "You and Sasuke should wash off. Go to the river, okay? We'll find you guys a bed."

Sakura had nodded, and then she was there, or now she was here. She was finding things a little confusing.

The river was cold, but it wasn't waking her up. Sakura had gone in fully dressed, desperate to wash the blood off every bit of her and her clothes. She swam in slow laps, gradually getting pushed along by the lazy current, scrubbing at her arms and legging. The blood whorled off her in thick curls, practically invisible in the dark water. She pulled clumps of it out of her hair, running her fingers through it over and over, fruitlessly trying to get rid of all the tangles.

She really was dumb, she suddenly thought. She'd brought three explosive tags down into the temple, and she hadn't used a single one of them; they probably would have come in handy against Hidan. Maybe if she hadn't been standing around, she could have done something useful. And now, she'd taken them into the river with her, ruining the paper. Three out of the fifteen tags she'd brought on this mission, wasted for no reason.

Her arm really hurt. Sakura checked at her pockets, wondering what else she'd wasted. There was a lump in her left pantleg that she hadn't noticed in the commotion: she pulled it out, drawing it up out of the water.

It was a tin. The tin her father had given her before she left, she realized. The blood had mostly washed off it, and it wasn't any heavier in her hands. Neither the blood nor the water had slipped inside it. That's right: she'd brought it when they'd left Kurasen's house in case they'd ended up searching for too long and she got hungry. The bear had totally driven it from her mind.

Sakura swam to shore, the tin still in her hand, and flopped out onto the mossy bank. She still didn't feel clean, far from it, but at least now she wasn't warm and sticky. She was sure her hair was stuck in an absurd mess. Who cared: it was too dark for anyone without chakra to see her anyway. She fumbled with the tin, feeling at both the catches on the side.

It clicked open, and she peered inside, drawing chakra into her eyes to pierce the darkness around her.

She didn't know what she'd expected. It was a sandwich, wheat bread with some meat, cheese, and lettuce sticking out the sides. Her dad always overpacked sandwiches. There were a half dozen umeboshi, picked plumbs, sitting alongside the sandwich, and a little chocolate; the kind that was rolled into a ball, wrapped in bright foil.

There was a small roll of paper on top of the sandwich, and Sakura picked it up and unrolled it with damp fingers, staining the corners.

GOod Luck! For when you're thinking of home :)

Her father has accidentally capitalized the second letter in "good" and not bothered to fix it. Sitting on the banks of the river, still soaked but not feeling cold or warm, Sakura stared at the note as its edges gradually grew damper, and lost track of time.

"Sakura?"

She jerked, almost dropping the tin. Naruto had crept up behind her; either that, or she'd been so out of it she hadn't heard him approaching. He sat down next to her, staring at the tin. "You alright?"

"Uhh…" Sakura set the note down in the tin, looking between it and her teammate. "Yeah. I think so."

"Really?" Naruto asked. It was quiet, Sakura realized. How long had she been down by the river? The town had gone back to sleep. "Cause like… that was pretty messed up."

Sakura choked. It might have been a laugh. "Yeah. I didn't, umm…" She lost track of the sentence, and Naruto glanced at her expectantly. "I don't know. I didn't think it would be like this."

She heard the footsteps approaching this time, crushing grass and spare twigs behind her, and twisted to watch their approach. Obito and Sasuke emerged from the dark; their teacher still looked exhausted and pale, but he was walking steadily. Sasuke had managed to clean most of the blood off, but his hair was stuck straight up in every direction, as though he'd been electrified. Sakura giggled, and the Uchiha stared at her.

She probably looked just as ridiculous, she thought, and a flash of self-consciousness burned her down.

"Let me tell you guys right now," Obito said, settling down on Sakura's other side. Sasuke walked ahead, looking out over the river. "This is not what a C-Rank is supposed to be like."

"Well, that's a relief," Sasuke said, not looking back. "I'd really rather not do that again."

"Same." Naruto shivered. "I didn't even go in the blood. I don't know how you guys did that."

"We weren't thinking." Sasuke turned around. "Right, Sakura?"

Sakura tried to remember exactly what had driven her into the pit of blood. She'd thought that she could do it, she remembered that, but beyond that sense of urgency, and certainty…

"Yeah," she said quietly. "We weren't thinking. You were so sure about the heart, Sasuke… I just jumped in right away."

"Well," Obito said, leaning back and lying in the grass. He looked and sounded like he was about to fall asleep. "He was right." He sighed. "What a mess."

"Well, hey," Naruto said. "If this was our first C-Rank, all the others should be easy, right?" He laughed, and the sound brought a bit of life to Sakura. Naruto had a nice laugh. It was guileless and loud, and couldn't be cruel. "I mean, what, twenty-something nutcases, some A-Rank ninja-"

"S-Rank," Obito interrupted. "Definitely S-Rank." He pulled a small black book out of his pocket; it looked like a journal. "I found him in here," he said, gesturing with the book. A Bingo Book? Sakura had never seen one before, but she'd learned about them; they held lists of all the notable rogue and foreign shinobi that were of interest to the Land of Fire. Obito was a jonin, after all; it made sense that he'd have one. "Hidan, no family name. Left Yugakure, the village of springs, several years ago after killing some of his comrades. His profile said that he was extremely dangerous, and had notable taijutsu skills. Nothing about being immortal though."

He put the book back. "That must have been new. Whatever he was doing with his heart, he was probably trying to make it permanent." It made Sakura feel a little better to hear that, for some reason. They'd done some good. They'd killed a monster before they passed beyond mortality. That made it worth it, right?

"Jeez." Naruto whistled. "Hey, since we killed him, do we get his bounty? That would be pretty cool."

Obito laughed. "Didn't even think of that. You're a greedy little kid, you know that?" Naruto stuck his tongue out at him, and the Uchiha sat back up.

"Well, I guess I can consider it," he said. "We could split it four ways, how about that?"

'I got the heart,' Sakura thought, and the bitterness of the inner voice surprised her. 'I'm the one who swam to the bottom.'

"That would be nice," she said out loud. "How much was his bounty, sensei?"

Obito squinted, trying to recall. "Ah, around five million, I think. Something like that"

Sakura blinked, and Naruto almost fell over. Sasuke was the only one who was unruffled, watching them both with a grin. Five million? Split four ways, that would still be over a million each. A million and two hundred fifty thousand. That was as much as she would have made on, like…

Sakura's addled brain tried to do the math; most of her D-Ranks so far had made her about eight thousand Ryo once the payment had been split up. One million two hundred fifty thousand divided by eight thousand was…

No chance. A lot of missions. A lot of money. She settled on that. Good enough.

"What do you have there, Sakura?" Obito asked, peering at the tin in her hands. Sakura blinked, looking down at it.

"Some extra food," she said. "My dad packed it for me." She found that she wasn't hungry at all. "Do you want any? It's some umeboshi, and a sandwich." Her sensei smiled at her.

"I'm good," he said, waving her off. "Appreciate the offer."

"Umeboshi?" Naruto asked, scooting over. "Hey, that's the stuff you said you liked, right? How is it?"

Sakura was surprised. They'd made their reintroductions to each other when the team had first been formed months ago. Naruto hadn't really seemed like he was paying attention at the time, but he'd pulled that out so quickly. He must have been after all.

"It's a little bitter," she said, offering the tin. Naruto reached over and plucked out one of the plums, looking at it doubtfully. "But it's good. It has a really nice texture."

Naruto took her word for it and plopped the plum in his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully, his lips twisting. "Yeah," he laughed. "Definitely bitter. But it's not bad." The Hokage's son smiled at her, and Sakura felt a little less nauseous.

"How's your arm?" Sasuke asked, and Obito's head jerked up.

"Her arm?" he asked, and Sasuke glanced at him.

"You didn't notice?" he asked, and Obito made a disgruntled face at him.

"I think I was busy fighting the immortal guy, Sasuke," he muttered. He looked over to Sakura. "Did you get hurt?"

"It was nothing," Sakura said, feeling a bit of shame. Naruto and Sasuke just had some scratches and bruises; Obito had been stabbed clean through the arm, but he didn't seem to give it much mind. Her own injury felt petty and stupid in comparison. "I got clipped by a shuriken, while we were running. I didn't even notice it."

"Let me take a look." Obito fully sat up, and Sakura presented her tricep. He took hold of it, gently rotating her arm and examining the cut. It had already stopped bleeding, partially scabbing over, but it was still three or perhaps four centimeters of muscle removed from her arm, and it stung constantly.

"You went in the blood with this?" Obito asked, and Sakura nodded, biting her lip.

"I didn't think I had a choice," she said.

"You remember what I said about the lake, right?" her sensei murmured, his Sharingan spiraling out. He examined the wound with his doujutsu, and out of curiosity Sasuke wandered over as well, doing the same thing. Sakura felt a little uncomfortable with two sets of swirling red eyes focused on her arm, but did her best to hold still.

"Yeah," she responded. "Natural energy, bad, don't drink it. I remember. I didn't swallow any of the blood."

"That's good," Obito said. "But it definitely got into your system through your arm. Sasuke, are you seeing this?"

Sakura startled, looking at both of the Uchiha. They didn't look concerned: just puzzled.

"I'm seeing something," Sasuke admitted. "I've got no idea what though."

"It's a remnant," Obito said, releasing her arm. "That blotch you're seeing is a sign that the chakra migrated into her system." Sakura flinched, and Obito frowned. His hand came up, next to her face. "Do you mind?"

Sakura shook her head, and Obito pushed her head a little to the side, examining her face. His eyes glowed in the dark.

"Kai," he muttered, and Sakura felt a shock run from the top of her head to the bottom of her toes as her chakra system jumped at the sudden pulse from her sensei. He'd reset her chakra as easily as someone flipping a light on and off. Her teammates watched her carefully. Did they think she was going to go crazy or something? Sakura felt like a bug under a microscope.

"I'm not seeing anything," Obito admitted after a second. "Sakura, do you feel anything? Anything weird?"

"No," she said, pulling back. "I didn't feel anything weird in the blood, and I haven't since. It hurts, but it's a little deep, so I think that's normal." She looked down. "I was worried about the same thing, but I think it was nothing. I think when you stabbed that heart, the blood just turned back to normal. All those people died."

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Obito said with a frown. "Sorry. We're just dealing with something pretty strange here, you know. I think you're fine but when we get back, I'd like you to see a medic, alright? Just get a checkup, make sure nothing is blocked up or anything. Sound good?"

"Sounds good," Sakura nodded.

"Cool," Obito said, looking like he was going to fall asleep again. Had using his Sharingan, even just for a minute, tired him out that much? "Cool. Kurasen's offering us some beds. I say we take them and leave tomorrow morning. Get back and report the mission success, you know?"

Mission success. It sounded strange, but that was what it was, Sakura thought. They'd completed the mission, even though they'd come up against the worst possible situation. Two dozen crazed fanatics and an S-Ranked ninja, all immortal to boot.

But right now, they were the ones sitting by the river, alive and discussing what they'd do tomorrow, and all those people were dead.

It felt… kind of good. She'd get to go to sleep tonight, and they wouldn't.

Right now, sleep was more appealing to Sakura than anything else in the world.

"Alright," Sasuke said. "Let's go then. And try not to wake Kurasen up." He directed the last comment at Naruto, who smirked.

"Nin-ja," he said, driving his thumb into his chest. "I'll be quiet."

And to his credit, he was.

###

Even though they left early in the morning, Paper Hill was still there to see them off. It was a cold and dim day, looking and feeling like it was about to rain, but no one seemed to care.

"Thank you!" Kurasen shouted as they crossed the bridge. "Thank you for saving us from those devils!" The whole town shouted in agreement, showering Team Seven with praise, and Sakura felt herself blush.

"Of course!" Naruto was walking backwards, waving and jumping and shouting just as loud as the civilians. "Thank you for the food! Have a good one!"

Obito just waved; Sasuke did the same. Sakura turned, and made eye contact with Haruka.

The woman didn't flinch this time. She smiled, and after a moment of hesitation Sakura smiled back. She waved, and the town cheered again. It only stopped when they were out of sight.

"That isn't normal for C-Ranks either," Obito said with a grin. "So don't get used to it. People usually aren't that glad to see shinobi."

"Why not? We're pretty cool," Naruto said, and Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"If shinobi are showing up outside the village, it means something needs fixing," he said, giving his friend a poke. Naruto swatted at his hand, and the genin nearly devolved into a slap-fight before Naruto hopped ahead with a laugh. "We got lucky this time; this was an easy fix. Next time it might not be so easy."

"Well…" Sakura said, and her teammates looked at her. "It might not be, but let's hope." She smiled. "That was kinda nice."

"No kidding," Obito said, before suddenly snapping his fingers. He stopped, and so did his students. "Hold on one second. Almost forgot the body!" He whirled out of existence, and Team 7 was left alone in the woods.

"Man," Naruto said, looking around. "Think there's another bear around or something?" He laughed, and Sakura laughed too without much thought. It felt nice to just laugh at a stupid joke. It helped her forget there were still bits of coagulated blood in her and Sasuke's hair.

"Alright." Obito swirled back into existence right where he'd been standing. "Body's secure. Now we can go."

Team Seven headed back towards Konohagakure and left Kami no Sota, which they had saved from an unspeakable fate, in the past.