Chapter Text
ONE
They’re gonna kill themselves.
That was the only thing going through Sakura’s mind at that moment. She honestly didn’t know what had triggered them this time.
She had already been up there for a while, silently watching Sasuke and Naruto trying to beat the shit out of each other at the hospital’s rooftop. It wasn’t until she had fought Ino at the Chūnin Exams' preliminaries, where they had literally beat each other senseless, that she understood why the boys always did that.
It was surprisingly cathartic.
That had also been the moment she realised how stupid she had been to push Ino like she had done, wich drove her to apologise to her rival. She was still surprised that the blond not only accepted, but also gave apologies of her own. She wasn’t expecting anything of the sort.
But this was not what was currently happening with the boys, no. They weren’t simply working shit out, they were way past that point. She didn’t know where Kakashi was, but she was sure he wasn’t there. He’d never let things escalate to this point, she knew it in her heart.
It was the sound of a thousand chirping birds that compelled her body to finally move.
She knew that jutsu. She had seen it once when Kakashi used it against Zabuza, it had been the jutsu that killed Haku.
And Sasuke was aiming it at Naruto.
She didn’t know when he learnt it, or what the hell was going on in his head to be pointing that thing to their blond teammate, but seeing that scene had snapped her out of inertia. To be fair, Naruto was also aiming a jutsu at the brunet, though she didn’t recognise it. But she knew how deadly the chidori was and that was enough to push her to action, because they were gonna kill themselves.
Or at least she was sure that Sasuke would kill Naruto with the chidori. She needed to stop them.
Her feet moved on their own accord and she found herself racing towards her teammates. She ran like she had never run before in her life. She ran like the devil itself was chasing after her. She had no idea she could be so fast, maybe it was her desperation making her body work a miracle, but she could see that she’d reach them in time.
Truth was that Sakura didn’t have a plan, she hadn’t had time to make one. She hadn’t even noticed she was actually running until the image of both boys flying towards each other started coming closer surprisingly fast.
They were being stupid for going to such length in what was supposed to be a simple brawl on the freaking hospital’s rooftop before Sasuke had even been properly discharged!
She was being stupid too, leaping in the middle like so. She knew that, but she had already jumped. There was no way to go back now.
It was one of those strange moments that time seems to almost stop and things begin to move in slow motion. She was already in the air, slowly twisting in between them and just as her body began to turn to face Sasuke, she noticed three things at once.
First one was how both boys noticed her at the same time and their expressions changed from anger to horror simultaneously. Second was Kakashi also speeding towards them from the other side of the rooftop with his lone eye wide. The third, and probably the most obvious one, was that she was gonna die.
Naruto and Sasuke wouldn’t be able to completely pull back their attacks, their momentum and speed was stronger; Kakashi wouldn’t be able to reach them before both jutsus hit her either; and she wasn’t good enough to stop them herself.
All she could do was put herself in between them to make sure they didn’t kill themselves . That meant that she’d be the one getting both hits, but it was okay, because she just couldn’t fathom the idea of either one of them not being there for the other, so it was better that she was the only one getting hurt instead of both boys.
It had taken her a while to accept the fact that they didn’t need her like she needed them, that they never had or would.
As much as she had wished and tried, she wasn’t the person who Sasuke (or Naruto, for that matter) valued the most. The boys had a connection she could barely understand and she wouldn’t let things end like this. Neither one of them would ever forgive themselves if they actually hurt the other, even if they didn’t dare admit it to anyone, especially to themselves. Truth was that they were more than just rivals like Ino and she, they were brothers.
And she… it pained her to admit, but she was dead weight.
After Zabuza, Orochimaru, the exam’s fights… she couldn’t help but be forced to acknowledge it. She had even made a promise to start training more after the exam, she was set on not being left behind, she wanted to stand side by side with them. They were a team of three, not two. Sakura was no fool, she knew that she might never actually be able to stand toe to toe with them, but she was determined to get as close as possible.
However, that didn’t matter now. Not when she actually jumped in front of a chidori.
She had learnt, the hard way too, that she’d die for them, to keep them safe. They were like family and she would do anything to protect them. That was probably why her body had moved the way it did, though she’d never know for sure.
She had jumped facing Sasuke, to shield Naruto from the deadly chidori. She didn’t know exactly why, but she had begun to believe that the blond was, indeed, going to become Hokage one day. That wouldn’t happen if this chidori landed. Also, she was scared about what Naruto’s weird round jutsu would do to Sasuke.
She had jumped because they meant too much to her and she couldn’t bear to just stand there and watched them kill themselves.
Then they hit her, she felt both hits a heartbeat apart from one another.
In her attempt to block Naruto from the chidori, she had leapt as close as possible from Sasuke and spread her arms to make sure none of the electricity would bypass her and hit the blond. Be a bigger target so a smaller one would be safer. It was basic logic.
Considering that Sasuke was falling towards Naruto while she was also in the air, his jutsu hit her square in the stomach in an odd angle, right on her navel. His hand went through her all the way to his elbow.
It hurt more than she could ever have expected, though she wasn’t sure what was worse, being impaled or being electrocuted. It was probably the latter, it felt like it was frying her insides, melting her brain at the same time as making her more alert somehow. That was most likely the reason why she barely felt Naruto’s hit, just some pressure for a brief moment. He was aiming upwards and hit her on the back of her right arm, just under the shoulder. She felt the impact pushing her even further into the chidori, though nothing else.
Before she could make sense of anything, her feet touched the ground and she was sure that the only reason she didn’t fall down like a potato sack was, ironically, because of Sasuke’s arm ‘supporting’ her.
She felt wet all over, her face, chest, back, side and stomach. A familiar distant voice in her head said it was her blood.
From the corner of her vision, Kakashi was apparently saying something because she could see movement on the mask, though she couldn’t hear a single thing. Whether it was because her brain was fried, or her eardrums punctured or because her attention was on Sasuke, she didn’t know.
She coughed more wetness, spraying some droplets of blood on the brunet’s face as his eyes widened and she barely registered Naruto running from the otherside, to somewhere else.
What was demanding her attention wasn’t how close she was from Sasuke’s face, which was closer than she had ever been before. It wasn’t his terrified expression, as rare as it was to be able to see such an open emotion in his face. It was his eyes. They had changed to a shape she had never seen before, it looked like something in between a star and a flower, or maybe that comparison was off and fried-brain induced.
Sakura didn’t even react as someone placed her on the ground, Kakashi and Sasuke hovering above her, though she still couldn’t hear them. She coughed again, just as Naruto appeared, still looking terrified. Despite the whole messy situation, she was damn glad to see he wasn’t hurt. Not a single scratch in either of them, as far as she could see.
The tingling feeling of the chidori was beginning to make her body feel like nothing but a puddle of melted flesh. Her vision was starting to blacken on the edges.
Everything hurt while still feeling weirdly numb. It was a paradoxical feeling, though she knew it would all be over soon. She tried to take a breath, to tell them how much they meant to her but she only managed to cough up more blood. She still had too much to say and fought the darkness that was taking over her as much as she could.
In the end she wasn’t strong enough.
xxx
It was his worst nightmare playing out in front of him and, just like the first time, he’d be too late to stop it. He could only watch as Sakura jumped in between Sasuke’s chidori and Naruto’s rasengan.
He had no idea how the pinkette had run so fast, it seemed like she had unconsciously moulded her chakra to help her sprint, though this wasn’t something she was supposed to know how to do yet. Another thing that surprised him was seeing Naruto using his sensei’s jutsu. He didn’t know how or when he had learnt it.
The one thing he knew was that he had been a fool to let the boys’ rivalry reach such a point where it endangered all of their lives.
He didn’t want to watch, but he could hardly look away. He was a single second too late.
Just like with Rin, the chidori ripped Sakura’s skin and body like it was nothing but warm butter until Sasuke’s hand was protruding from her back. The sound was something he’d never be able to forget. Chirping birds, tissue being slashed and burned through, a broken gasp and then a wet cough.
This time, however, there were new sounds. The rasengan’s whoosh, followed by another lower ripping sound and yells.
Kakashi reached them just in time to make sure they didn’t fall one on top of the other.
All the years and experience stirred his mind into cold and efficient rationality. He felt detached from the scene as he quickly analyzed the situation to determine the damage extent and plan what was the best course of action. All before his feet even touched the ground.
He knew, though he hardly processed actually doing it, that he had ordered Naruto to find Tsunade and drag her to the hospital because if Sakura could be saved, she’d be the only one capable of such a feat. He felt himself laying her down on the ground after Sasuke foolishly removed his arm from the wound and it began to bleed that much more, though he couldn’t blame the kid for that .
Somehow he ended up pressing his flack jacket into her stomach to slow down the bleeding. Luckily the chidori didn't hit her in the heart like what happened with Rin, maybe, with Tsunade, she had a real fighting chance.
But there was also the missing right arm. The rasengan had ripped it out just above the elbow and it wasn’t a clean cut either, so the chances of being able to save it were just short on none at all and he didn’t need to be a medic-nin to know that. He instructed Sasuke to remove his shirt and use it to stop the bleeding from that wound.
Kakashi tried to talk with the girl, but she seemed hypnotized by Sasuke’s brand new Mangekyou. He’d possibly be more helpful if this wasn’t such a fucked up dèjá-vu situation. It was like he could barely maintain himself breathing regularly, he kept seeing Rin in Sakura’s place and it was enough to make his head spin.
Naruto came back yelling that Tsunade was coming and bringing a lot of doctors with him. Sakura’s eyes snapped to the blond, like she had heard what he said, though it didn’t seem like it. She didn’t seem to notice the nurses running around, trying to stop the bleeding so they could move her in.
Soon, too soon, her eyes shut closed.
He felt sick, but held strong. He could see the raw horror in Sasuke’s face, not the same, but similar to the expression he wore as a young kid after the massacre.
It was fucked up, but Sakura could very well be his first kill.
A boy who was hellbent on avenging his clan by killing his older brother and he looked to be a few seconds away from a full meltdown. Naruto too. The blond’s eyes were glued to the shattered bloodied arm that a nurse had fetched and placed next to the girl.
Quickly the medic team took Sakura in, leaving the rest of Team Seven sitting on the bloodied ground, staring at their backs in a heavy silence.
Praying to every Kami that the Kyuubi wouldn’t pay a visit right now, Kakashi took a deep breath, shoving his sick feelings on the back of his mind as much as possible. He yanked both boys by the arm, so they were standing on their feet.
“Let’s go.” his voice was steady as he pushed them towards the door.
They didn’t object.
He made a clone to go fetch Jirayia, just in case the nine-tails’ seal failed. He knew better than to trust that seal after Orochimaru had apparently tempered with it. Just before they walked through the threshold, Naruto broke the silence in a quiet, heavy voice.
“Can they fix her?”
Kakashi had seen injuries like that too many times in the past. He wasn’t optimistic.
“I don’t know.” he wouldn’t lie to them.
As much as it sucked, they had to face the consequences of their reckless actions. He’d be there for them as much as he could, but he had his own demons to deal with. He also needed to prepare the boys and himself for the possible scenarios to come.
He wouldn’t let them go through what the village had done to him back then, but he couldn't let them walk away unpunished either. He had a lot to think about during the horrible waiting he’d be doing while the medic staff and the Hokage herself worked to save the injured girl’s life.
He had a bad feeling, but he could only hope for the best.
xxx
It had been a tiring week. Being the heir of a clan rooted in two different Lands was no easy task, especially if the population in those places had conflicting belief systems such as shinobi and samurais did.
It had taken him years, but Haruno Yukio was now accepted and even respected by the remaining members of his clan, the samurai and the Leader of the Land of Iron. He had been sent there, about five years ago, for political reasons. The Third Hokage had wanted to strengthen Konoha’s relationship with the Land of Iron and who better for the job than a jonin who already had strong ties there?
It was a win-win situation for him too, which was why he had accepted, though with a heavy heart. He’d be able to solidify not only Konoha’s relationship with the Land of Iron, but also both parts of the Haruno clan for the first time in many generations. The downside was that he didn’t quite know for how long he’d be forced to stay away from his family and, even though they visited, it was only once a year for a few days.
But this was set to change.
Ever since his parents had been killed about a year ago, he placed a special request to the Hokage to be able to return to Konoha and take care of his imouto, Sakura. She was too young to be left alone and he missed her so damn much. It had been too long since he saw her, considering she hadn’t come to see him the previous year because she had just graduated from the Academy.
At the time, her absence had left him in a sour mood for the first few hours of his parents’ visit, he couldn’t believe that she’d rather stay in Konoha getting D-ranked missions than to come see him. But Yukio soon relented when his dad remembered him how he had never been given the chance to appreciate the value of D-ranked missions, considering he had been sent to fight in the war even before his genin graduation.
Those memories were something he had stuffed away into the deepest, darkest places of his mind, never to be shed light upon ever again. He had been five when he first stepped into war, faced death, made his first kill. The war ended four agonizing years later.
So he was damn glad that Sakura was growing up in peaceful times.
He was also grateful that she hadn’t come as she was supposed to, because it had been on the journey back to Konoha that their parents' convoy got ambushed and slaughtered. A week later he had given the Hokage his request and, within a few days, it was accepted. After four months he had left Sakura to go back to the Land of Iron to start the process of officially completing his duties there and finally return home, permanently .
It was, however, a slow process. It had taken him about three more months to get the clan ready for his departure and four more to be done with his duties in the Land of Iron. His replacement was due to arrive in another two months, the shinobi had been delayed after the Third’s death.
He understood, though he was anxious to return to Konoha, Sakura, and the warmth of the Land of Fire.
Yukio was sipping on his hot cocoa (though he’d never willingly admit to preferring it over alcohol to warm himself in the freezing weather of the Land of Iron) and working on some clan related documents when he heard a faint tap on his window. It could only mean Konoha, because the samurai never ever entered someone’s home through windows, unless they were under attack. They also never sent messenger birds.
Quickly opening the window and immediately shutting it after the hawk flew in to avoid his room’s warmth being overthrown by the icy wind, Yukio grabbed a cloth to clean the bird’s feathers and walked closer to the fireplace, to warm them both. Then he got the note on its foot and rolled it open to read.
He almost dropped the bird as his eyes scanned the words.
The scroll read: The blossom tree is unwell, currently stable and hibernating by work of the resident landscaper, though gardener’s presence is required. Extended care will be needed next season. It looks like the leaves are about to change colour in the upcoming week.
Sakura was badly injured and, if he had interpreted the wording correctly, she’d be unconscious until next season, which would be in about three months. That meant it was probably a medically induced coma and that was bad news. The only thing allowing him to be able to breathe and not immediately speed away back home was his Inner chanting in his head that the note said she was stable.
By ‘resident landscaper’ he hoped it meant she had been treated by the new Hokage herself, who was the most famed medic-nin in history. That hope allowed him to walk back to his chair before collapsing on his bum and get a hold of his emotions.
It wasn’t time to panic. It was time to plan his hasty departure and he had a week until his replacement arrived.
Luckily most of his affairs were already settled and if he hurried on his way back, he’d be able to reach Konoha in less than two weeks of travel. He’d be by Sakura’s side in less than a month.
Anxious to feel like he was actually doing something rather than sitting duck, Yukio fed the bird, then left to talk with the Leader of the Land of Iron, to explain he’d been summoned back, and thus would be leaving earlier. It was always better to be direct and honest with samurais, they were terribly prejudiced against most shinobi and tended to react violently when surprised.
His mug of hot cocoa sat forgotten on his desk.