Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Butterfly ❯ Playing for Keeps ( Chapter 19 )

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine so please don't sue me, I'm poor ^^()

A/N: I'm sorry for the late update today, I had a major plot roadblock earlier and it took me a while before I could sort it out. Huge thanks and hugs go out to Fly, Fanartist and Wicked_Innuendo for helping me work through it. I hope you all like the final result.

Well, you guys are gonna get mad at the end of this chapter again…Oh well there are good things in it that I hope will make you like it anyway.

I also got some new Naruto fanart done while I was brainstorming for this chapter and it can be found on Mediaminer in the Naruto fanart section, by Banana Soap. Also, if you're into some really cool Rurouni Kenshin fanfiction check out Tsuki-san's site here: http://www.tsukisan46.com/heartoftheflamingsword.html (this is the site where the drawing of butterfly Sakura will be used in the design of the original fiction section).

Anyways, thanks again to everyone who has reviewed the past chapters and waited patiently for this one, I hope you all enjoy!

~~~

The Butterfly: Chapter 19

By: Tea Leaf / Banana Soap

~~~

Sasuke sighed. His Ego and Conscience were both passed out and severely beaten.

{Well, at least now they won't harass me…} he thought.

He took another sip of coffee. This was his fifth cup. The muscles in his forearms twitched slightly from the caffeine.

He'd been sitting here for hours and still didn't know what to make of things.

He was pretty sure she cared about him on some level seeing as how she had gone through the trouble of explaining herself to him.

He was pretty sure he cared about her on some level seeing as he had felt relieved after hearing her explanation.

His ego had also pointed out that he was also attracted to her, but he'd known that for a long time now.

The question now was where they stood with each other and where was it going to go from here.

He really didn't know.

There was a sharp pounding on the door.

{Is everyone in Konoha illiterate?} he thought to himself with annoyance as he stood up.

{They must be seeing as none of them manage to read the damn sign on the door…}

He opened the door.

"Now what?" he asked surlily.

The chuunin on his doorstep glared at him.

"Bro sent me to give you this!" Konohamaru said importantly as he handed him a scroll.

"Why did Naruto send you?" he asked condescendingly.

The 3rd's grandson glared at him.

"The 5th is very occupied with reviving the legendary Copy-Ninja so the pervert sennin and bro are running the office." Konohamaru answered.

Sasuke frowned as a mental image of Jiraiya chained to Tsunade's desk while scoping girls from the window as Naruto ran around with the Hokage hat on and sent papers flying everywhere, popped into his head.

"What is it?" he asked then about the scroll.

"Top Secret Mission! Bro wouldn't even tell me what it was and said that if I tried to open it and look I'd be in worse shape than the copy ninja." Young teen answered, his eyes widening in apprehension.

{A mission?} he thought to himself.

"Fine, you may leave." Sasuke responded before turning back into the house and closing the door in Konohamaru's indignant face.

~~~

Sakura sat in the sunny field, comforted by the familiar sound of fluttering wings and the slight breezes they created around her.

This was one thing that no one could steal from her. This was hers alone. Only she could touch the butterflies.

"Pwetty flutterbies!" a small voice exclaimed from behind her and Sakura whipped around in time to see a large crimson and black butterfly land in Mika's small, outstretched hands.

Mika smiled brightly at the insect, fascinated by its bright pattern.

Sakura felt the color drain from her face.

Even the butterflies weren't hers.

"See Sakura nee-chan! Mika-chan told you the butterflies no hurt." The little girl said sweetly.

Gaara rushed up then, he'd lost sight of Mika for a moment. He froze as he saw the butterfly in her hands.

His eyes widened as he looked to the side and saw Sakura. All the color had drained from her face, her eyes were slightly blood shot and small black veins were starting to spider under her now translucent skin.

She stood up. The butterflies that had been surrounding her scattered.

She stared at Mika. Mika's smile fell.

"Sakura nee-chan looks scary…" the little girl said in a wobbly voice.

Gaara sent a small dart of sand at the butterfly in Mika's hand and scooped the little girl up into his arms.

Sakura stared at them, her eyes haunted.

Something was snapping in her mind and she couldn't let it.

She formed a quick seal with her hands and disappeared.

Mika hugged Gaara's neck tightly as she tried not to sniffle too loudly.

~~~

She was running. She shouldn't be but she didn't care. She burst through the front door of the house and quickly scanned the main floor; it was empty.

She bounded up the stairs and burst into his bedroom. He was there.

"Sasuke!" she breathed as she ran up to him and threw her arms around him.

He blinked in surprise at first then frowned.

"Sakura, what's wrong? What happened?" he asked, concern coloring his voice as he held the distraught girl to him.

She didn't answer; she simply clung to him for a moment. Then she noticed what he was wearing and pulled back slightly to get a better look.

"Why are you wearing your ANBU uniform?" she asked softly.

"I have a mission…" he responded, frowning more when Sakura pulled away from him even more, taking a few steps back.

"Oh." She said simply.

"Sakura, are you ok?" He asked as he took a step towards her.

She took another step back and nodded, making a small, affirmative noise.

"Don't lie to me." He told her seriously.

"I'll be fine. What's you mission?" she asked, changing the subject as she wrapped her arms around her stomach.

"I can't tell, top secret." He responded warily. He wanted to go over to her but she looked so rattled that he wasn't sure how she would react.

She nodded and gave him a slightly forced smile.

"I understand. Good luck." She told him, her smile brittle and shaking slightly.

Her whole body was shaking.

"Sakura…" he began as he tried to take another step towards her.

Again she stepped back.

There was a knock on the door. It was time for him to go.

He frowned.

"I'll be back in a few days." He told her as he grabbed his katana and strapped it to his back.

"We'll talk then, ok?" he said.

She nodded and tried to smile again, this one a little more stable.

He grabbed his mask and headed down the stairs, slipping it on as he left the house.

She listened to him go, her eyes still stinging with tears she refused to let fall.

She stumbled over to the perfectly made bed, he was so neat, and flopped onto it. She grabbed his pillow and hugged it close, curving her body into a ball around it.

It smelt like him. Clean and crisp, a hint of orange from his shampoo…the stinging in her eyes increased and her throat became sore.

Everything was being taken from her. Tsunade had taken Kakashi from her. Mika had taken the butterflies from her. ANBU had taken Sasuke from her.

Why couldn't there be something she could just keep to be hers and hers alone?

~~~

Sasuke frowned at Konohamaru.

"What are you doing here?" he asked him.

"Bro sent me to make sure you left on time." The kid answered, attitude on full.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed behind his mask. He hesitated on the step then looked back at the house. His jaw set.

He took off quickly for the Hokage tower.

"Hey! You're going the wrong way!" Konohamaru yelled before racing after him.

Sasuke pulled off his mask before practically flying through the doors of Tsunade-sama's office.

He froze.

There was Jiraiya chained to the desk and spying out the window. And there was Naruto wearing the Hokage hat as he sifted through the bookshelves and sent papers flying everywhere.

Both occupants of the room turned to look at him.

Konohamaru pushed his way past the ANBU member.

"I'm sorry bro! I went to get him just like you said but then he came here! I told him this was the wrong way to go, but he didn't listen!" the young teen explained quickly.

Naruto and Jiraiya both raised an eyebrow at Sasuke.

"Is there something wrong?" Jiraiya asked him.

Sasuke blinked the shook his head to clear it.

"Yeah, I can't do the mission." He answered.

"What?" Naruto and Jiraiya answered with surprise.

"Yeah, something came up and I can't leave right now." He continued.

"Sasuke, this is a really important mission and you're all we have available at the moment." The pervert sennin told him as he turned away from the window and faced the Uchiha survivor.

"I know, I understand. Can't you send Kiba? He's ANBU and I know he's in town." He asked, his voice betraying nothing of his anxiousness to get back to his house.

"Kiba just got back from a mission that took two months, he's on vacation." Jiraiya answered.

"He was complaining about being bored and that vacation shouldn't be imposed." He told Jiraiya before turning to Naruto "and seeing as he's got so much spare time at the moment, he's been renewing old acquaintances and hanging out with Hinata."

Naruto's eyes narrowed as flames fired up in them and his hackles stood on end.

Jiraiya looked at Naruto nervously and then glared at Sasuke, he'd bet money that Kiba was doing no such thing and that this spoiled brat had said it simply to gain Naruto's support.

"So, here's the scroll back." He said as he tossed it to Jiraiya and turned, running back the way he'd come before anyone could respond.

Tsunade was going to be pissed at him when she found out he had just ditched duty but…this was more important.

~~~

Her eyes blinked in surprise as she heard the front door being thrown open followed by pounding on the steps.

He froze in the doorway and something clogged his throat as he saw her huddled there in the middle of the bed. She just looked so small, so lost.

"Hi." He said simply as he leaned against the doorway, his chest laboring with deep breaths as his heart pounded away.

She sat up and stared at him.

"Hi." She answered.

"I…I thought you said you had a mission?" she said softly, confusion flooding her previously empty eyes that she kept locked on him as he moved closer.

"I did." He said as he sat down facing her on the bed.

"Then…why are you still here?" she asked, frowning slightly.

"I declined." He answered.

"You what?!" Her voice raised slightly with shock as her eyes widened with incomprehension. A ninja simply did not decline a mission, especially not a ninja as highly ranked as Sasuke.

"I declined. And then I baited Naruto and left before anyone could tell me I wasn't allowed to decline." He answered, a slight smirk curving his lips.

A wobbly smile and finally a real smile spread across her face.

This was the first time she had truly smiled at him in seven years.

He smiled back.

She leaned forward and leaned her forehead on his shoulder as she felt laughter start to bubble up from her throat. He wrapped his arms around her back pulling her more firmly against him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and snuggled up to him.

"So, what's wrong?" he asked her.

"You just fixed it" She answered into his neck.

Conscience and Ego applauded.

~~~

Tsunade sat in a chair facing Kakashi's comatose form.

Sakura's blood explained why he'd survived the poison.

The last night he'd spend with Sakura before he'd left on the mission explained he and Sakura's connection.

She looked away as she felt a pang of guilt flash through her. She shouldn't have stolen that memory from Sakura. She had no right to have any knowledge of that moment.

But now that she did she couldn't wipe it from her mind and she couldn't help but feel a little jealous. She'd lost that kind of passion a long time ago.

She shook her head to clear it and turned back to the problem at hand.

She was reasonably sure that Kakashi was comatose because he hadn't been completely immune to the butterfly poison.

She knew that the younger butterflies of this species had weaker poison, the first causing sleep and warm skin, the second causing paralysis and minor burns, the third killing and melting flesh.

Kakashi didn't have any burns but his skin was warm to the touch even though he himself wasn't giving off that much body heat. He was also in a coma, a state of both sleep like and paralysis like.

The questions that remained were 1) why did his skin react to Sakura's skin and flare in that particular pattern and 2) had he really moved his hand when she had found Sakura here this morning?

She sighed as the dying light of the sun filtered in through the hospital curtains.

There was also the question of what the hell had happened that he would encounter these butterflies to begin with but she figured that wouldn't be answered until he woke up.

So now the most important question: How to wake him up?

The poison itself had been washed off several times but was constantly renewing itself. That suggested that there was something inside creating this poison. It was probably this constant regeneration of the poison that was keeping him in this state.

Tsunade frowned. The pattern that flared across Kakashi's skin every time Sakura touched him was the same pattern on the butterfly wings and the same pattern that had spread across Sakura's skin when she had joined with the butterfly all those years ago during the battle with Orochimaru.

Could a butterfly have joined with Kakashi? If so, then how could she get it out?

She remembered that in Sakura's case, the butterfly had been bled out in sheer luck when the three shirukens had hit her back.

But that had been an accident; they hadn't known the butterfly had been there, it just fortunately had. How was she going to find a dissolved butterfly in Kakashi's bloodstream, assuming of course that there even was one?

Then she remembered her earlier experiments. The butterflies didn't fully dissolve in Kakashi's blood. She'd be able to find it.

Now, how to scan Kakashi's blood? Tsunade frowned.

The image of chakra cackling like lightning and stemming from open wounds flashed into her head.

She grinned, that memory was proving to be more useful than anticipated.

She would bounce chakra through his blood stream and feel around for any obstruction, the obstruction would presumably be the butterfly.

She looked at the window again; the sun was almost completely below the horizon now. She would start the procedure in the morning.

Right now she had to go and make sure Jiraiya and Naruto hadn't caused too much damage at the office.

~~~

The fading light filtered in through the curtains that covered the windows. The shadows were steadily growing and consuming the room.

But they didn't care.

Today the shadows didn't hold any nightmares for them. Today, the shadows crept in and coated them like a soft blanket. It was peaceful.

The were lying on the bed, he on his back, she half on top of him with her ear over his heart and her arm encircling his chest, his arms were around her back, holding her to him as one hand idly played with her long strands of cotton-candy pink hair.

They hadn't talked much since he had come back to the room, neither really had much to say at the moment.

{You know, now is probably a really good opportunity to find out more about her…} his conscience suggested.

His ego snorted. {Yeah, like what color underwear is she wearing, better yet, how does she look with them off? She might go for it, I mean there was that moment earlier--}

Ego was literally cut off as Conscience threw a couple dozen kunai, shirukens and other small and sharp projectiles at him.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. But they were right; he couldn't waste this opportunity, he had to do _something_.