Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Butterfly ❯ Tainted Blood ( Chapter 18 )

Disclaimer: Naruto, its characters, etc., do not belong to me. This is for entertainment purposes only so I'm not making any cash from it.

A/N: Thank yous and cookies for everyone who reviewed the last chapter, thank you all so much. I'm so glad that Saku/Sasu scene at the end was so well received ^-^-^-^ so here's the next chapter…some of it feels a little rushed but overall I'm pretty satisfied with it. I hope you all enjoy and I look forward to your reactions.

Oh, and for those of you with AOL, I'm on tonight until around midnight eastern time so if any of you care to chat about the story or Naruto or whatever, drop me a line ^-^(I'm CatAlmasy)

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The Butterfly: Chapter 18

By: Tea Leaf / Banana Soap

~~~

Tsunade glared at the various vials in the rack in front of her. There were three, one with Sakura's blood, one with Mika's and one with Kakashi's. She'd tried everything she could think of but so far she hadn't found anything unusual.

Then it hit her.

She grabbed a random minion who had been waiting outside the door.

"Get me Shikamaru and tell him to bring me any butterfly poison he has." She ordered.

The minion nodded and disappeared.

She should have thought of this sooner.

~~~

Shikamaru sighed in annoyance as he made his way towards the hospital labs. He was carrying a large box that held all the left over butterfly samples from he and Ino's experiments.

"You rang?" he muttered sarcastically as he stepped into the room.

Tsunade looked up at him.

"Did you bring it?" she asked bluntly.

"Yep, everything's right here." He said as he set the box down on a clear counter.

She practically skipped over to it and opened it. She grinned as she grabbed a jar with butterfly wings in it.

"Perfect!" she exclaimed.

She pulled on a pair of gloves and opened the jar. She grabbed a wing, rolled it and placed it in a vial of Sakura's blood.

The wing dissolved and the blood turned black.

She tried to hold back her smile.

She took another wing and put it in Mika's blood

The wing dissolved and the blood turned black.

She bit her lip.

She placed a wing in Kakashi's blood.

The wing didn't dissolve completely. Black spots appeared in the blood.

Kakashi wasn't completely immune.

"Shikamaru, be a dear and fetch Sakura for me." She said sweetly as she continued to stare at the vile of Kakashi's blood.

"Fetch Sakura?" he asked, stunned and offended by the request.

"1) Sakura left town remember? And 2) I'm a jounin, I don't do "go for" work." He responded with more attitude than Tsunade liked to hear from her subordinates.

She snapped a glare at him.

"1) She has returned. She is most likely to be found at Uchiha's place. And 2) you will do whatever I tell you to do. Now go!" she commanded.

Shikamaru jumped and raised his hands placatingly.

"Ok, ok, no need to get upset." He said.

"Now." The Hokage growled at him.

He disappeared quickly with a small puff of smoke.

She had quite a few questions for that pink haired girl.

~~~

There was a knock on the door downstairs. She didn't move. He didn't want to move.

The pounding came again, louder, more insistent.

He glared and pulled away from her. Her arms dropped from his waist.

"I should answer that." He said briefly as he took one last look at her. She looked so…calm?

He left the room and jogged down the stairs. He pulled the door open and dodged the hand that had been trying to knock again.

"Shikamaru? What do you want?" he asked suspiciously.

"Look man, I'm as inconvenienced as you are to be having to do this and I'm sorry and everything, I am, but Tsunade-sama wants to see Sakura right away and said she might be here." Shikamaru answered quickly in response to Sasuke's narrowed eyes. An ANBU member was not someone you wanted to be on the bad side of.

"Tsunade-sama wants to see me?" Sakura said from behind him. He turned; she'd put her shirt back on before coming down.

"Yeah, she's at the hospital." Shikamaru answered her.

She nodded and pulled on her sandals before slipping past Sasuke and leaving with Shikamaru.

He blinked. Then cursed. She'd left him behind.

~~~

Once again, Sakura found herself sitting on an examination table waiting for Tsunade.

"Ah, Sakura, thank you for coming so quickly." Tsunade said as she opened the door and stepped in, closing the door again behind her.

"Tsunade-sama, if you don't mind my noting, you seem to have been spending a lot of time at the hospital lately. Who's running the village?" Sakura asked with sarcastic sweetness as she tipped her head to the side.

Tsunade grinned evilly.

"I enslaved Jiraiya and drafted Naruto to take care of business for me."

Sakura blinked in surprise before shaking her head against the mental image of Jiraiya chained to the desk and scouting out the girls from the window as Naruto ran around with the Hokage hat on and sent papers flying everywhere.

"So, what do you need of me today?" Sakura asked directly.

"I have a good number of questions in regards to you and Kakashi's past interaction." She told her as she sat down in a chair facing the examination table.

"Such as?" she asked with a slight frown.

"Have you ever mixed blood?" Tsunade asked bluntly as she set her clipboard on her knees.

Sakura blinked as she was suddenly swamped with random images of bare flesh and blood.

"Umm…yes, probably." She answered hesitantly.

"A lot of blood?" the older woman asked.

"Maybe…" Sakura responded almost questioningly.

"Sakura, I need specifics. Why won't you give me a strait answer?" Tsunade exclaimed with frustration.

Sakura shrugged helplessly.

"Because at the time I wasn't paying attention to blood specifics. There have been several times when it's been possible that our blood had mixed. I don't know how much or even if any did." She answered honestly.

Tsunade sighed.

"Well, I think it has, in fact, I think a significant amount must have mixed. While I was running tests on your blood, I discovered that butterflies dissolved in it and that it tuned black. In Kakashi's case, the butterfly wing I used only partially dissolved and only spots of black appeared in his blood." She told her.

Sakura blinked in surprise then frowned as she felt an unexpected pang in her stomach. She'd been doing experiments on her butterflies? She wiped the thought aside, that was unimportant at the moment.

"Tsunade-sama, I need to tell you something. I would have told you sooner but I only just realized it myself." She started.

Tsunade nodded for her to continue.

"For the weeks I traveled after my encounter with the gypsies, I often lost consciousness. Every time I did I relived memories from my time with Kakashi. And I know that's negligible normally but the only memories I ever had in those times involved Kakashi-sensei, none of my other memories had surfaced. But what was really weird was when I was in a coma for six days in the north I had a conversation with him. It wasn't a memory and I know I didn't imagine it because he told me things I didn't know about." She told her.

"Sakura, are you trying to say you have some kind of psychic connection with Kakashi?" Tsunade said condescendingly with an arched eyebrow, highly skeptical.

"I don't know, but I think its possible." She responded.

Tsunade frowned. How could there possibly be a subconscious connection? What could cause it? And if there was one, could that affecting the coma?

"Sakura, what other kind of contact have you had with Kakashi? Obviously there's blood contact. Anything else?" she asked her.

An image of blue bolts sizzling around the blood and the skin flashed in front of her eyes again.

Her inner self glared. {Now is definitely not a good time for that memory!}

"Umm…I think chakra. I think we may have exchanged chakra…maybe?" she said, she was really starting to feel uncomfortable.

"Chakra? How did you exchange chakra?" Tsunade asked absolutely perplexed.

She could feel the crimson heat creeping up her neck and engulfing her face.

She did not want to discuss this with Tsunade.

"Does it matter?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes, it does. I need a full understanding of the situation. Sakura, what are you hiding?" Tsunade ordered. She was getting very annoyed with this beating around the bush.

"I can't tell you." Sakura answered.

"You have to tell me Sakura, this is really important." The Hokage exclaimed.

"I can't." Sakura responded again as she looked down.

"Why not?!"

Because you won't understand.

Because it's private, it belongs to he and I.

Because that time it was more than humanity.

She didn't answer, she continued to look down.

Tsunade glared at her. She didn't have time for this.

"Damnit Sakura, I don't want to have to do this but you aren't leaving any choice…" she said as she stood and performed several quick seals with her hands.

Chakra glowed at her fingertips.

"Mind-meld jutsu" she said as she placed her fingertips to Sakura's skull and shifted through her memories, her eyes growing steadily wider as she learnt it all.

She gasped at the last one and stepped back, raising her hands to her mouth.

Sakura couldn't look at her.

She jumped off the table and disappeared.

Tsunade was in shock still. She had never suspected that…

But it certainly explained a lot.

~~~

He sat at his kitchen table with a large mug of steaming black coffee between his hands.

His mind was a mess.

He took a sip of the scalding, bitter brew hoping it would help clear his thoughts.

She'd made it clear that he wasn't the one important to her. Everyone was important to her but in a mass and general sense of it being just a different body that mattered to her. Everyone was interchangeable to her. Everyone as individuals meant nothing to her now.

His jaw tensed as he looked down.

He wasn't important to her anymore. She, the one he had come to rely on as the only one who believed he was truly worthwhile, didn't think he was important anymore.

He took another sip of his coffee.

But she had told him. She had told him that about herself. That had to mean something right?

{For pete's sake, enough with the self-pity and grasping at straws already! Take what she'll give you and roll with it.} his ego complained.

His conscience rolled his eyes.

{He's not grasping at straws and wallowing in self-pity you idiot! He's trying to understand the situations and her motivations behind it. I think the fact that she told you at all means you at least mean something because she cares whether or not you understand her.} Conscience responded rationally.

{What-ever man, I think she just doesn't want you to think she's a dirty whore when she tries to jump your bones.} Ego countered.

{What the hell is the matter with you?!} Conscience exclaimed before kicking Ego in the stomach.

{You're primitive brain must still be on overload from her demonstration earlier.} Conscience muttered to the incapacitated Ego before turning his speech back to Sasuke.

{She's not about to "jump your bones" as my counter-part so eloquently expressed it. She may eventually (emphasis on eventually) want to sleep with you in that sense but seriously, I don't think that will happen any time soon.} Conscience told him.

Sasuke lifted a brow as he took another sip of coffee.

{Besides, you have more important things to deal with at the moment, such as the fact that she doesn't appear to be in love with you anymore. Further more, she might be in love with Kakashi Hatake, and seriously, are you really going to let that perverted old man take her from you without at least attempting to fight?} Conscience continued.

{Now who's being primitive?} Ego said sarcastically.

{Excuse me?} Conscience said dangerously.

{Dude, you're trying to make him jealous! That's one of those base emotions that qualify as a deadly sin, remember? And you're trying to make him resort to fighting, also a primitive means to an end.} Ego said smugly.

Conscience glared and dived at Ego.

Sasuke shook his head, trying to clear the ensuing dust cloud as the pair battled it out.

He sighed and took another sip of coffee.

{You guys are useless…} he thought to them.

~~~

Sakura crashed through the woods as she ran to the field.

She felt so violated.

{That bitch raped our memories!!} her inner self screamed in outrage.

She broke through the tree line and collapsed to her knees in the butterfly field. They were fluttering peacefully in the sunshine.

She looked to her right; her kunai was still there, jammed in the ground.

She reached for it and ripped it out with her right hand and sliced it across her left palm.

That didn't count as real cutting right?

The blood pooled in her palm.

The butterflies flew to her.