Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Tag, You're Dead ❯ 04-Here ( Chapter 4 )

Edited: March 5, 2008 - thanks to KaguyaToriko for pointing out the flaws in it - just for you, I've added an entire extra section of Sakura, which plays her in a much more flattering light. Enjoy!

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

 

Summary: The Sound is coming. Get ready to play. [A series of 6 - Ino, Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, Sasuke, Tenten]

 

Tag, You're Dead

Chapter Three: Not

 

She slams her fist into the enemy's face, then spins to kick another one sneaking up behind her. Her face is tight, drawn, but she is just as happy as she is worried. Worried because her friends are here, worried because the last of the civilians had not been evacuated yet, worried because some of them are just too stubborn to submit to the fact that they are going to die if they don't leave. But she is also happy, because in battle she is free to let loose the Inner Sakura, free to let go, to not be in complete control, to listen to her instincts.

 

Here, now, she is free.

 

She glances around her, at the familiar faces of her comrades, and the unfamiliar faces of her enemies. She wonders, even as she drops two men, if Sasuke is affected by this. She is fighting strangers, but he is fighting former comrades. He looks as cool as ever as he fights them, as he fights the people who were once his, and she wonders if she could ever do that. She wonders what's beyond the façade, wonders if there is anything there - anything genuine.

 

The pink-haired medic shakes her head. That is a foolish thought. He loves her. She only wishes he would tell her so. She stumbles forward suddenly, reacting to a kick at the base of her spine. Suddenly, she is very happy that they are fighting such weak enemies, because otherwise she would be dead. Distracted, that's what she was; thinking of her personal life, when she knows that love has no part in this, not until it is over, not until the last of their enemies is dead or gone. And a low-level chuunin had been able to surprise her. She shakes her head. Pitiful.

 

In a blur of motion, she turns and smashes a chakra-filled fist in a furious uppercut. The head jerks sickeningly to the side, and the neck bones crack. She doesn't bother watching as the body flies, skidding along the ground before crashing against a tree with a thud that he can no longer feel. Engaging the next chuunin, she sees the boy's teammates running to him. She wonders where they were when their teammate had died, wonders if they knew that if they had all teamed up on her, maybe that boy would still be alive.

 

One is a boy, the other a girl, she notes, automatically blocking a chuunin's valiant, although untrained, attacks. The girl is crying, the boy furious. She is reminded of her own genin team, Team 7, and she quickly disposes of the chuunin with a move similar to the one that reminded her a little of Sasuke (only smaller, weaker, far less sexy). She spins in time to meet the charging teammate. He is fueled by anger and passion, and lasts a few seconds before she manages to slit his throat. It hurts her heart to kill the boy (so innocent and idealistic, so like Naruto, except without the pain). It hurts her heart, but she does what she must for her home, so she kills him.

 

The girl stares after him with strange amazement and shock, then pounces at Sakura. That is the only way to describe her motion - it has all of the feline grace of a tigress, though, unfortunately, none the skill. The pink-haired kunoichi feels a curious sense of déjà vu as she grabs the girl by her long hair, bringing her to her knees. The sense vanishes as the girl simply kneels there, crying. Contempt, pity, and sympathy wash over her all at once, and she knocks the girl out, placing her body next to her teammates.

 

The sun is traveling downwards, now, burying itself in the hills and mountains and forests that spread from Konoha, and the battle itself is slowing, something that she both encourages and despises. The fools, Inner Sakura rages, why won't they fight? Sakura shakes her head. She knows better than that - knows that this is tactics, this is strategy, this is war - and when you are being beaten as badly as they were, you retreat. You hide, and choose your battles.

 

Slowly, she stands, picks her way across the battlefield, strewn with bodies and blood and weapons, and she feels sorry. Now that the adrenaline is no longer rushing through her system, no that she thinks instead of feels she sees the havoc that has crossed the world today. She makes her way to him, because even after all this time, he is still everything. But she has duties, she knows, and she will attend to them, but she must make sure of him, first; make certain that he is still here, that the body houses a soul. He stands there, so still, staring out toward the horizon, and it's just a little bit awkward now, because she knows what he's thinking, and she doesn't know what to say to his bloodlust, to his need to kill Orochimaru and Kabuto.

 

She touches his arm, and its fairly quivering with nerves. Sasuke turns, reaches out to her, and crushes her to him in an unprecedented move. He always was possessive and overprotective, she notes. It only stands to reason that it would be even worse (better) after a battle. “You're all right?” he asks, and Sakura nods into his chest as she checks him over. He picks her up, swinging her into his arms. “Sasuke-kun?”

 

“Hn. Sleep. You have such low stamina.”

 

She does, burying her face into his chest, happy to drift off into happy oblivion for a few minutes, because Sasuke-kun will protect her, and she'll be stuck in the hospital tomorrow. She doesn't have enough chakra for a full day of healing, really, and she wonders where the others are.

 

She wakes moments later, as he sets her gently on her feet in front of the hospital. “You shouldn't have done that,” she yawns. “I shouldn't have let you.” He gives her a noncommittal grunt, a sound that means only you know that you liked it, and I wanted to.

 

She offers him a smile, and she's walking into the hospital, tying her hair up, preparing to slip into her scrubs. She'll undoubtedly be in the surgery tonight, and she wonders, in that uncaringness, unknowingness where she is medic and kunoichi more than girl, if she will be the one to watch her friends die. Maybe not. Maybe they'll all be lucky. Maybe they'll live.

 

It is later when she leaves - days, weeks, months, years. It is hard to tell, when you spend your time among the dead and dying, to whom time no longer matters. Even such a brief sojourn, just ten or twelve hours, before she is kicked it and replaced with fresher surgeons, leaves her dizzy, uncoordinated, lost.

 

She awakes to the smells of hot foods. Like all surviving shinobi, there is no area between sleep and awareness, just black and light. “Sasuke-kun,” she says, her voice husky with sleep. She sits up, rubbing her eyes, “Sasuke-kun?”

 

“Hn.”

 

She pushes herself off her couch, moving the blanket out of the way, and yawns, stretching. “Dinner?” He's standing in her kitchen, rummaging about for her mismatched plates, and there are paper bags of take-out on her tiny table.

 

She stumbles toward him, stiff from sleeping on a narrow, hard couch, and collapses in a chair, “How did I get here? How long did I sleep? Did I get my orders? You? Where are we stationed?” He holds up a hand to stop the flow of her questions, bringing back her mismatched plates and unpacking the food, “I brought you home. You slept for three hours. You are at the hospital tomorrow, I at the battleground. Kabuto is mine. Oto lost over sixty chuunin, twenty genin, one Jounin.”

 

She sucks in a breath. The numbers are so high! Where had Oto come up with all those people? Did they no longer have civilians? “Kumo?” she asks the Jounin in her taking over, “How many did they send? Casualties?” He shakes his head, “They haven't arrived. Rumor is they have about fifty on the way.” He sits down, and they quickly break their chopsticks, “Itadakamisu.”

 

Busy stuffing her mouth, the pink-haired girl asks, “Missing?” She expects there to be none, and is shocked when Sasuke replies, “We have a few of theirs.” He anticipates her questions, replying before she can ask, “Ino is… `playing' with them. She'll drop by later.”

 

She nods, relieved. None of her friends are among the dead or wounded, else Sasuke would have said so, but… “Sasuke-kun? What's wrong?”

 

He glances at her, as if judging her, and she nearly flinches before quickly pulling herself up and glaring right back at him. He averts his gaze, “Nothing much.”

 

He's looking back into her eyes now, and she's sure that there is something there - something he wants to say to her, but won't. She smiles reassuringly, but he just watches her, dark eyes unreadable, “You know,” he begins, voice hesitate, “You know… this is not the end.”

 

“Of course-” she begins, but he cuts her off, eyes harder than she has ever seen them, “Oto is strong, maybe even stronger than Konoha. Definitely more brutal. Kumo is not as strong as Suna, but…” She watches him, wondering what he has to say.

 

“Just… Just be careful.”

 

She grins at him. “When am I not careful?”

 

His gaze reminds her that this is not the last time that they will speak of this.