A/N: Hi! This idea has been in my head for a while. There was a little inspiration from some other fanfictions (i.e. Come Together and Incomplete) so some credit goes to them. I hope you enjoy.
I do not own Naruto.
"Sakura Nee-san! Hurry up!" yelled a small boy with white hair.
"I'm coming Hidaeki, stop running so fast!"
"You're just slow."
Sakura rolled her eyes as she ran past her brother and into the grocery store. "We're getting milk and bread, and then we'll head straight back to the car."
"Okay~"
They walked to the dairy section of the grocery store and grabbed a milk carton. As they walked to the next aisle to grab their bread, loud drastic screams and gunshots were heard not too far from Sakura and Hideaki. "Stay close Hidaeki, don't do anything stupid." Hideaki nodded slowly.
"Everyone get over here!" Three more gunshots were heard. "If you are not here, then you'll regret it." Sakura grabbed Hidaeki's hand and ran to the front of the store.
"Stay calm." Whispered Sakura to Hidaeki as they walked to the crowd.
"Hey! You! What did you say?" said one of the men who held a gun. He pointed his gun an elderly man right next to Sakura and Hidaeki.
"I didn't say anything, but that you guys were stupid." *bang* *bang* blood splattered onto Sakura and Hidaeki. The old man's lifeless body fell onto the ground.
"That's what will happen when you talk."
Both shaking from the incident that they just witnessed, they moved over and sat on the floor. The men walked around with their guns. A couple of gunshots were heard from a distance. After a few minutes more men walked over. "There isn't anyone left, leader. We put the dead bodies in the dumpster."
"Okay, good job." said the man, who was assumed to be the leader. He was tall and buff, and had a couple of tattoos running down his arm. His buzzcut made him look tougher. The men walked around in circles around the hostages. Outside sirens of the police could be heard. The hostages relaxed as they heard the police draw nearer.
Sakura felt a hand go through her hair as she sat on the floor holding her brother. She tensed. "Why, I didn't know we had such a beautiful girl here among us." Sakura sat there silently as he continue to run his fingers through her hair. "You're so beautiful," he said as he put his hand on her shoulder and ran his hands down her back.
"Don't touch my onee-san!" Said Hidaeki has he stood up and hit the man, who Sakura just recognized to be the leader.
"Hidaeki! Stop!" screamed Sakura as she tried to pull him closer to her arms. Tears were streaming down her face as she hugged him.
"What was that?!" The man who was touching Sakura grabbed Hidaeki from the shirt and dragged him to the front of the crowd. Sakura tried to follow and hold on the Hidaeki, but the man's strength was too much for her. She tripped and fell on the ground as she ran up to the front. The man punched Hidaeki in the stomach. The little boy spit out blood.
"Hidaeki! Stop! Stop! Please!" Another guy came over to hold Sakura back as the leader punched and kicked Hidaeki. With a gun pointed at her head so she wouldn't move, Sakura watched as her younger brother was beaten up. A man on the leader's left side handed him a gun.
"That was for hitting me, and this is for making me upset." *bang* *bang* Two gunshots were fired at the boy, and the leader left. Blood poured out of the small boy as the two gunshots went through his small body.
The man holding Sakura let her go, and she ran towards her brother. "Hidaeki! Hidaeki! No, no, no! Please don't die." She kneeled in the pool of blood underneath Hideaki and cradled him in her arms. Tears flowed from her eyes as she wailed for her brother's death.
Hours, that had felt like days, passed as Sakura sat in the pool of blood. In the end the police ended up rescuing the remaining hostages, including Sakura. The men of the gang fled the scene with all the money in the grocery store. The police found Sakura holding her brother in the pool of blood. They helped Sakura up from the pool, and lead her out of the store. Her heart raced and her head hurt upon exiting the store. She fell into the police's arms as she fainted from the shock.
It was a long day.
Her eyes slowly fluttered open as she woke up. The intense light blinded her vision for a moment, and the annoying beeping of the heart monitor ran through her ears. Her breathing pattern was irregular and her head still hurt. A doctor entered the room and pressed a button on the side of her bed so that she was in a sitting position. "Hello, it seems like you are awake. Is there anything that hurts?"
"I have a slight headache." Upon hearing about the headache the doctor gave Sakura some aspirin.
"Your parents are waiting outside, and they want to see you. Are you okay with them coming in?" Sakura nodded.
Her parents arrived silently, hugged Sakura, and kissed her on the cheeks. "I'll leave you guys to talk." Said the Doctor. As soon as the doctor left, Sakura felt a sharp pain on her cheek.
"What is your problem?!" Screamed her mother, "How could you let him die?!" She slapped Sakura again. Her mother's eyes stared at the 13 year old girl with disgust and hatred.
"Honey don't get too loud, the doctors will hear you." Her father's eyes were just as cold, she could not sense anything in them.
"She killed him! She murdered my son! How could I give birth to such a monster?! I hope you die in hell!" She began to slam the bottom of her fists on the top of Sakrua's head. It hurt, but all Sakura could do was sit there and endure the pain.
"Stop honey, you need to calm down," said her father as he patted his wife's back. They left as her mother cupped her hand in front of her face and cried.
I let him die. I killed him. He died trying to save me. She panicked. Her breathing pattern became short and irregular. Her headache worsened. Her hands could not stop shaking. Her chest started to hurt. She feel her heartbeat rise, and she could the hear the fast beeps of the heart monitor. She began to cry and wrapped her arms around herself. A doctor walked in to find Sakura in her condition. "What's wrong?" All he got were more sobs as a reply. Realizing she was having a panic attack, the doctor left the room to get help.
"What seems to be the problem?" asked the second doctor.
"I believe she is having a panic attack."
"Okay, get the sedatives to calm her." The first doctor handed the second a needle with some sedatives. The second doctor tried to hold Sakrua's arms but she kept on moving them out of his grip. After 10 minutes the doctor finally got the sedatives in Sakura and she fell asleep.
She woke up the next day with a small container filled with pills. "These are some medication to help with your anxiety. You had an anxiety attack yesterday. Make sure to take two pills a day."
Sakura stayed there for another week before the doctors let her leave. During her stay, her friends came to visit her. Naruto and Sasuke came with some ramen, Ino and Hinata brought her flowers, and Tenten, Neji, and Lee came with some small gifts as well. They came at different times of the day during her week of stay at the hospital. The day she could leave, the hospital gave her new clothing and let her call someone to pick her up. She called the family driver, Masao. They left and drove towards Sakura's house.
Her house was on the larger side, as her family was one of the wealthiest families in the town. All her parents cared about was their image in front of other people. While they seemed to love Sakura while others were around behind the curtains they never would never even look in her direction. They were never happy with giving birth to a daughter, and were delighted when their second child was a boy. They loved Hidaeki, and hated Sakura. All their attention went to Hidaeki and they always ignored Sakura. Hidaeki had hated their parents for their coldness towards Sakura, and yet that did nothing to stop their resentment.
Sakura entered the cold and dark house as Masao drove away. The was no welcome, no hugs, not even a greeting from her parents. She didn't care, it was the usual. She went to the kitchen and fixed herself a sandwich. Just as she was about to eat her sandwich, her mother appeared. Her mother stared in disgust. "Are you going to eat and not make me any? You're so selfish." Sakura put the sandwich down on her plate.
"You can have this one. I'll make another." Sakura put the plate in front of her mother. The plate and sandwich were thrown to the floor.
"You think I want a sandwich that you touched?!" yelled her mother "I want my son back! I don't want you! Why are you here?! Why didn't you die?!" Sakura took in all the insults as she stood there. "I hate you! I wish you were never born!" Her mother continued for another 5 minutes. She stopped shouting and just stared at Sakura. If looks could kill Sakura would have died twice. Sakura calmly picked up the sandwich and the shattered plate from the ground and tossed them into the trash can. She left the kitchen leaving her mother there.
She's right. I should just die.
The next day Sakura got ready for school. She wore the usual uniform of a white button down shirt and a short red skirt. She kept her hair down and left early to avoid her parents. Masao was outside waiting for her with the car ready to go. He drove her to school, and dropped her off. "Thank you Masao!" said Sakura as she left the car.
"HEY! SAKURA! I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE BACK!" Yelled Naruto as he ran up to her.
"Hi Naruto. I'm glad to be back."
"LOOK! THERE'S SASUKE! HEY~!" Sakura followed Naruto as he ran towards Sasuke. "At least try to look happy about the fact that Sakura is back."
"Welcome...back." Said Sasuke slowly.
Sakura smiled. She knew how hard it was for Sasuke to say stuff like that. "Thanks!" Together they ran off to their homeroom.
Kakashi was already there waiting for the students to arrive. "Hello Kakashi-sensei!"
"Hey. Looks like you're back. You have lots of work to make up."
Sakura shrugged off his comment and went to her seat.
The day went by quickly and nothing much happened. In fact for the the next few months nothing really happened. Sakura rarely ever met or talked with her parents. All she did was go to school and go home. Occasionally she hung out with her friends, but it was rare she was out past 12:00 in the morning. She was proud of the fact that she hadn't had a panic attack since her stay at the hospital and hoped it continued that way.
She had grown closer to Sasuke through the months as she was constantly invited to dinner. They had always been friends, but after her brother's death Sasuke had seemed a little bit more over protective and caring. He always shooed off annoying guys hitting on her and constantly asked her if she felt alright. Sakura was only slightly bothered by the change in attitude, so she shrugged it off and ignored it.
It was a cold February day when Sakura arrived at school. The air was dry. Sakura ran towards the school building to escape the coldness. Her energy felt drained from the small sprint and her chest felt tight. She let out a nasty cough which made Sasuke turn his head in concern. "I'm fine, you don't need to worry." As the classes continued Sakura's coughs got worse and became more frequent. Soon it was time for their Gym class ran by Gai-sensei. He always gave them the hardest exercise in the winter when it was too cold to go outside. First he made everyone run 10 laps around the gym. Sakura could feel her energy was gone by the start of the 2nd lap. Her head began to pound as she started the 3rd lap. Her running speed began to slow down and soon people were overlapping her. She could hardly breath by her the end of her 6th lap and decided to stop to catch her breath. In between each breath she would let out a nasty cough.
"Sakura! Why did you stop?!"
"I -(huff)- couldn't -(huff)- catch my -(huff)- breath." Her head was once again pounding as she spoke. She lifted her hand to her head to calm it down. She took a wobbly step to continue her laps, but instead fell on her knees squeezing the left side of her chest as a pang of pain shot through her chest. Sasuke quickly ran up to her and lifted her up bridal style.
"I'm taking her to the nurse." Said Sasuke as he quickly left the gym. He could see Sakura wincing in pain as they went towards the nurse's office. "How are you feeling?"
"It...hurts." answered Sakura followed by a series of coughs.
"We're almost at her office." Said Sasuke.
Upon arriving, Sasuke quickly put her on one of the resting beds and called for a nurse to hurry over. The nurse came to see a girl in pain and immediately called an ambulance to come.
Once the ambulance came, they put an oxygen mask over her face, attached a heart monitor to her, and laid her on the stretcher. They got her on the ambulance, where Sasuke followed them. They rushed to the nearest hospital. Sakura's breather patterns were becoming more uneven and irregular than before, and her heartbeat was rising close 200 bpm.
"How are you feeling?" asked one of the doctors.
"My head hurts and my chest is throbbing."
Shortly afterwards, they arrived at the hospital. Sakura was quickly pushed into an operating room.
After a few hours, a doctor came out to approach Sasuke. "How is she?" asked Sasuke.
"She is currently fine. Right now she is sleeping. We did some test on her already and have confirmed that she has pulmonary hypertension. This is a disease where high blood pressure is impacting her arteries. It seems it is caused by some minor blood clots and failure of her lower left heart chamber. This disease can be cured if taken care of carefully, and so you must be very careful so there won't be any complications." Sasuke nodded. "You may visit her tomorrow morning. Please leave now."
Sasuke slowly walked away from the hospital. I hope she is alright. Please let her be alright.
A/N: Yeah chapter 1 is done! I hope you guys enjoyed this and please, please, please review!