Blinded by Red

The color of Tsunade's desk was a deep burgundy, with swirls of dark chocolate running throughout, the expensive wood most likely some type of cherry. It would have been able to shine in its full luster too had the beautiful lacquer finish not been covered in piles upon piles of paper. A seventeen year old Sakura sighed and her demeanor drooped ever so slightly; after this meeting she was going to be the one stuck with all of those clearly unwanted papers and files. A thick file was suddenly being slung down onto the surface of the luxurious desk, the loud slam it made effectively snapping Sakura out of her zoned state of mind.

"Sakura, as you know were short on available ninja right now for obvious reasons," Recently the village was having floods of missions wash in every day, of every sort, from almost everywhere, even from as far away as Komugakure. "With that in mind I've decided to pull you from hospital duty until further notice."

Sakura had to restrain the smile that tried to worm its way onto her face, and keep the party that erupted in her head down to a small roar; she was getting off work! From the outside she looked perfectly attentive and eager to listen to her mentor but on the inside she was doing the victory dance at full throttle.

Though it was a bit queer that Tsunade would pull her from the hospital, she was the best medic nin in the whole village besides the Hokage herself, she wasn't going to argue. Sakura remembered a quote her mother had told her long ago, "Only fools cross-examine positive things." The kunoichi was almost certain that it was stolen and had the hell paraphrased out of it, but the meaning was still the same. If it's a beautiful day outside don't worry about why it's beautiful, just enjoy it.

Besides she'd been cooped up for far too long, especially in the unit Tsunade had her working. Emergency surgery was not exactly a fun place to be for twelve hours a day. Along with the set times she worked, the medic was on call too. It didn't matter when or where she was, if they needed her she'd be there as fast as a puff of petals could take her. For a while the work load had gotten so all-consuming that she decided to forlorn going back to her home all together and slept in the unoccupied rooms; lets just say the new sleeping arrangement hadn't done wonders for her back. She thought that the bags under her eyes would never go away. The assiduous shadows had eventually faded with time, just a bit of darkness under her lids was currently all that remained, but it wasn't nothing a little of Ino's concealer couldn't fix.

"I'm putting you on a mission."

Her victory dancing stopped.

Figures. Would she ever get a day off?

"Do you accept?" Tsunade asked cocking one of her golden eyebrows. The question was silly, Tsunade knew Sakura would accept no matter what the mission was; it was her duty to serve and protect Konoha. However, it was mandatory procedure to ask every time before an assigned mission is seen by the recipient nin, protocol if you will. The acceptance was proof that you completely trusted the Hokage to pick something suitable of your skill level. It also showed that every ninja who accepted an ambiguous mission would gladly give his or her life for Konoha, because one would never know if the mission he or she received would be a "D", or an "S" in rank. But that's where the first part comes in. The Hokage isn't going to give a Genin a mission that tells them to go after a missing nin, and she wouldn't ask a Jounin to partake in a mission that told them to go fetch Mr. Whiskers form a tree.

A ninja can still refuse a mission after they know what it entails though. It was extremely rare, and frowned upon, but it did happen. Sakura had heard the cruel rumors that circulated around extreme cases in which someone would decline a mission and did not want that to happen to her. Then again, if a soldier of the leaf couldn't go through with something, were they really worth being called a Konoha ninja?

Decorum was totally different if you just grabbed a job of the board in HQ though, all a nin had to do was pick the job, inform the secretary on shift that they were going out, and were as good as gold. Can't back out of a mission you picked for yourself, right? Well, becoming a missing nin was always an option, but not many did that on missions chosen by themselves.

"Of course Tsunade-shishou." Sakura confirmed her answer with confidence, she was glad to finally be getting out of the hospital, even if it was for a mission. Her spirit lifted at the thought of it, the last time she could recall being on a mission was over a month ago with Hinata. The shy Hyuuga and her were selected to snuff out some pretty nasty bandits along the boarder of Ame, and if Sakura was honest with herself she was positively itching for some action.

The pinkette's mind raced through the possibilities as she tried to predict the outcome, would it be team or solo? Difficult or easy? Would it be long or short? Were disguises and aliases going to be necessary, or not?

It may seem silly but it almost felt like she was getting a vacation . . . even though she really would be working. The green eyed girl was confused as she watched Tsunade rummage around in her desk, was the file that had been thrown in front of her not her mission? Tsunade continued to shuffle through reports and scrolls. For as much respect and authority the busty woman commanded she really was unorganized, more so than usual it seemed, but then again that was what Shizune and she were for.

"Ah! Found you." The honey haired Hokage proclaimed, a smirk of victory playing on her ageless face. Sakura could only assume that her mentor was in fact, victorious; dealing with all of that clutter every day must be somewhat similar to a battle.

Tsunade tossed the scroll to her pink haired prodigy, "I know it's not a very difficult mission," She let out a small chuckle, "But at least you'll be able to stretch your legs." The Hokage knew very well just how long Sakura had been working in the hospital, and what unit she had her placed in.

Sakura smiled, aptly catching her mini vacation mid air and opening it. All too soon her face fell as her eyes skipped over almost the entire mission profile, for some reason they seemed to be locked on the large red "C" in the upper right hand corner. Ugh, she knew they were short on people, but really, a team of genin should be doing this. Escorting a farmer and his goods. . . . Wow, what a challenging and taxing mission the Hokage had bestowed upon me this time. Sakura thought sarcastically. She sighed knowing that this was way too easy, but even so she was still grateful for her chance to escape the hospital.

"Thank you Shishou." The medic rolled up the tan parchment and placed it in the safety of her kunai pouch as she turned to make her leave.

"Sakura!" Tsunade's voice rang out with a pinch of urgency just as Sakura was about to close the door behind her, "If you see Hatake anywhere, tell him to get his ass in here before I come looking for him!" Sakura cracked the huge wooden door and nodded to her shishou. There was a brief pause before she considered herself dismissed again and ducked out, but down the hall she could still hear Tsunade grumbling to no one in particular about being timely. Wasn't the Hokage's office suppose to be sound proof?

Punctuality, it was an art that only the legendary Sharingan Kakashi could never master. Sakura chuckled as she maneuvered her way back down the worn wooden steps of the Hokage tower. So much for legendary.

Once her feet hit the outside cement she noticed a rather lazy looking Copy-nin nonchalantly lounging around in a familiar slouch. She slowed down to a stop and observed her former sensei, one of his favorite orange books rested effortlessly in his hand, and she presumed another was in his kunai pouch, possibly of a different color. Sakura often wondered how he came upon his strange addiction, but then taking a second to think about what trouble researching the perverted past of Hatake Kakashi could get her into, she decided to just leave it be.

If he wanted to tell her one day she would listen, but until then she would keep her pretty little nose clean. That didn't mean she'd given up on trying to still figure out some things about the masked man. She would still kill to see his face! Five years later and a visual of man's features still eluded her and her teammates. One day she would defiantly see it, and when she did there was no way in hell she was going to tell the Kyuubi container or stupid Uchiha boy. Ha! She could practically feel their jealously already!

Her prey hadn't appeared to . . . Sakura rephrased that thought. Ahem, her victim . . . nope that wasn't right either. Kakashi hadn't appeared to notice her presence yet. Yes, that worked much better, but in all reality he probably noticed her the second she hit the top of the stairs . . . on the third floor. So that all but killed her current idea of jumping him when he least expected it and ripping the mask off. She sighed, oh well, maybe another day. The plans were already forming . . .

"Yo."

"Hey Sensei." She replied shakily trying to sound like someone who hadn't just been thinking up ways of getting him out of his mask. Eww, when she thought about it like that it almost sounded like she wanted to get him out of his clothes. Well technically it was a piece of clothing . . . god she hated her mind sometimes, but the looks on Naruto's and Sasuke's faces when they found out that she got to see his face and not them would be worth any amount of slightly weird and frankly unnecessary thoughts that pass through her head. But for now she had to play it cool until the opportune moment presented itself.

Do not let him think your plotting anything! She thought with unyielding determination. "Tsunade is waiting for you. I believe her exact words were, and I quote. Ahem. 'If you see Hatake anywhere, tell him to get his ass in here before I come looking for him!' end quote."

"Ah, well in that case I should probably be moving on." He replied sarcastically, his indifferent gaze never leaving the page of his smutty book.

Despite his nonchalance Sakura still noticed the small eye crinkle on the visible part of his face; it was the only way she could tell he was smiling. She smiled too, but unbeknownst to Kakashi she was still thinking about getting his mask off.

"I suppose you should, Tsunade-sama seems to be in good mood today so she might not destroy you too much." Not that her shishou was in a bad mood, but that last part of her sentence may just change the second he walked into Tsunade's office. Sakura felt it safe to conjecture that her mentor had been kept waiting for far too long as it was, yet one could expect nothing more of Kakashi. Well, they could, but that just meant they would be disappointed . . . repeatedly. In not so recent years Sakura learned to adapt to his screwy idea of "on time", which basically meant getting up two hours later than normal for everything that involved Kakashi.

Not that they were around each other so much that she had to use it on a daily bases like when she was a genin, but it certainly was a useful skill to have learned, she liked to call it the Hatake Time Theory. Sakura waved a hand to signal that she was leaving and started on her way home. "Bye Kakashi-sens-"

"What's this?" He cut her off and looking up from his book for the first since she'd been with him. "You don't want to hear about how I single handedly helped the little old lady across from my street with her groceries?"

The Hatake Time Theory was helpful, his bullshit explanations as to why he was late though, not so helpful. Sakura knew what he was doing; he just wanted to use her as a stalling device, the man didn't do anything without reason. The longer they talked the longer he would have till it was time to suck it up and face Tsunade's wrath. And who knows? When Tsunade confronts him on his reason as to why he was late in the first place, he might even try to blame his lateness on her. It's not like he would be lying then. She could see it now, the onetime her Shishou actually believes him.

*Dramatic enactment in Sakura's mind.*

ACT ONE – SCENE ONE

(Lights up.)

Tsunade: "Why are you late Kakashi?"

Kakashi: "Well, I don't know if I should say." (Said innocently and as if trying to hide something.)

Tsunade: "Spit it out man! People's lives are at stake!"

(Sakura enters from stage right unnoticed.)

Kakashi: " Alright, I-I . . . I was just too busy being distracted by Sakura."

(Tsunade gasps in surprise and horror.)

Kakashi: (Hides face behind arms in shame and suddenly falls to

knees.) "I-I just couldn't stop her, she just kept talking and

talking!" (Quietly sobbing.) "There were so many questions . . ."

(Lights up on Sakura.)

Tsunade: "I cannot believe you would be so irresponsible as to

distract Konoha's best Jounin!" (Quietly in background Kakashi says

"Thank you." through sniffles. It goes unnoticed by Tsunade.) "I'm

afraid I have no choice but to strip you of your rank as Jounin, and

banish you from the village."

Sakura: "Nooooo!"

Tsunade: "I can only give you one day to hold back the tracker nin,

but that's all. Sakura Haruno, you are here by banished and declared a missing

nin!"(Tears are threatening to spill.)

(Lights down.)

END OF SCENE ONE

*End of dramatic enactment in Sakura's mind.*

Five seconds later. "E-eh, heh . . . maybe some other time Kakashi-sensei." But that would never happen right? She really didn't want to be declared a missing nin. "And I have a mission to get ready for anyways, I'll see ya round." She started walking away. Ooh, that was a close call. One more word and she could have been exiled.

"Sakura."

No! The enactment flashed before her eyes. "Yes Sensei?" She turned stiffly and asked tensely through a false toothy grin.

His book was down now but he paused like he was debating what to say next, weather he should say something next. "I thought you'd like to know that in three weeks Sasuke is being released, a free man it looks like." Kakashi chuckled, "Well, as free as you can be with chakra restriction on, but other than that their letting him go anywhere in the village."

Sakura stopped smiling, all stupid reenactment thoughts suddenly vanished. Sasuke was getting released? They had brought him back approximately three months ago, and to team sevens surprise he had come willingly. It turned out that without Itachi successfully vanquished his drive to kill everyone in his path withered away, and with nothing to do except for wander around the country, Sasuke had gotten pretty bored.

Luckily for him though, the Hokage decided to spare his life, but in turn Sasuke was immediately thrown into solitary. Sakura had caught the whispers floating around HQ that the psych squad had been called in to pick through the runaway's mind. What they found wasn't pretty, but apparently what they thought was ugly didn't threaten the village; so it was decided that he would eventually be released. From what Kakashi just said to her though, his life is going to suck until they allow him to do missions again, which unfortunately for Sasuke would be a long, long ways down the road. "That's great he's being released so early, have you told Naruto yet?"

"Actually, Naruto's the reason they're letting him out so soon, I guess he wouldn't stop pushing for it, and I think we both know how persistent he can be." And almost as if Kakashi could predict the future. "Sai knows too."

Great, so she was the last one to know when her former soul mate was going to be released from prison, ha, so much for unyielding devotion, not that there was anything that even remotely resembled devotion anymore. Disesteem maybe, for putting them through all the shit they had to go through to get him back. Sakura knew that her passion for the Uchiha died a long time ago, and now she just "loved" him like a brother. A crazy brother, who was mentally unstable beyond all reasonable doubt, but a brother none the less. She wondered what it was going to be like with him out again. Would it be like the old days, Naruto speaking without thought and her reprimanding him while Sasuke sat and watched because he was just too damn good for all of it? Or would it different? Would the Uchiha come back with the attitude of a snake charmer? Where would Sai go? Probably back to ANBU, or get placed on another team. Maybe the pale boy could stay? Despite his frequent comments that she was . . . the "U" word, the medic had actually grown fond of him even with his stoic and creepy nature.

"Well, have fun on your mission Sakura." And with that he was gone in a puff of smoke.

"Ah- . . . bye sensei." Sakura lifted her hand to wave good bye to nothing but clearing vapor. Well that was . . . abrupt. The girl thought a bit stand offish, leave it to the Copy-nin to drop a bomb and then dash. He probably wasn't even going to the Hokage's office either. However, Kakashi's lateness was not her affair, even if he was helping the elderly.

She sighed and squinted up toward the sun, it was getting later. Sakura had to get going if she wanted to make it to her mission, she still had to get home and prepare. She should probably read the scroll over more thoroughly too, the light skimming she'd done prior wasn't enough for her to even know where she was going, or professional for that matter.

The Hokage's apprentice pulled out the rolled sheet from her pouch as she began the march back to her apartment. Green eyes focused on the summary at the bottom, after a reading and re-reading through the paragraph she was ready.

The medic had a two weeks to get to a farmer just outside of Ishigakure and escort him to Kusa, then another four days to come back. Ninja could travel much faster than any civilian, so four days would be plenty of time for Sakura's return. The pinkette was there to protect him and his merchandise, if you could even consider cabbage merchandise. But who was she to argue? One mans cabbage was another mans . . . cabbage? Yeah, cabbage was cabbage, not treasure, and as far as the pinkette knew there weren't many hardened criminals out there who were after a full serving of vegetables. Printed above the summary was the clients name, Tsuchida Yumirimo. Above the title was a picture of a grumpy old man. Tsuchida had more hair on his face than on his head and his brow was pushed so far down it looked as if his face was contracted in an immutable grimace. How pleasant. Sakura thought sarcastically. I'm going to be traveling with a crabby old man who smells like farty produce.

Adrenaline radiated through the kunoichi's veins like a fire ravaging a grassy plane. It spread hot and fast with each anxiety filled pump of her heart. A heart was all she could hear, beating so fast she was surprised that cardiac arrest hadn't already taken her life, but her heart wasn't weak. It was the heart of a ninja, well oiled and zealous, years of training having already prepared the muscle for the day it had to pound out such an unsettling rhythm. Her body was electrified, vibrating and tingling with the only thing in the world that could be sensation. If the chemical in her brain wasn't blinding her, and overriding her ability to feel the girl would've been dead long ago, just from the affliction of pain.

Sakura's lungs felt like they'd been scorched by hot iron, ash and smoke filled the air, suffocating her with every slight intake of breath, every labored pant. Soot and debris covered her from head to toe, a layer of newly formed sweat made the foreign objects as well as her clothes even more apt to sticking to her heated body. Blood that wasn't hers and blood that was soaked its way up and down her body, re-staining her already red uniform a different, darker shade. In some places the scarlet liquid was patterned in splattered streaks that could only be from the dexterous swinging of a blade; in other places the lethargic seepage from stab wounds caused large irregular splotching to occur.

Cement clouds, on account of punching the tiled ground with chakra laden fists, engulfed her and covered her in dust. A crimson flow was running from a freshly made gash just above her right brow, she would have stopped the chafe bleeding had she enough chakra to do so, but much to her dismay she just couldn't afford to waste any at the moment. The muscle in her chest, though well conditioned, was beating too fast for clotting to take over. Without the assist of chakra aided healing the sanguine fluid would continue to leak down into her eye, burning and temporarily blinding her. Bright green eyes remained open though, constantly fighting the stinging sentiment that the blood left behind; it probably looked as if she was crying blood from one eye, but she didn't know and wasn't going to take the time to find out.

It was one of the first things her Shishou had taught her. Although it may have been difficult for her to master at first, the act came like second nature now.

Never close your eyes in a battle. However, this wasn't a battle, it was a fight to the death.

Sakura let out a weak, shaky breath that was an awkward mix between a scoff and a small laugh. Leave it to Haruno Sakura to turn an escort mission into a suicide run to no mans land. It was beyond the call of duty on her part and defiantly past what the mission description entailed. A simple "C' rank escort, that was it. She wasn't even escorting an authority figure of any sort, and it only ranked "C' because the route that the brainless civilian wanted to take to get to the destination cut through a pretty nasty village in Ame! But no, nothing could be simple for her could it? The village was basically run by criminals, there was no law that officially stood and no one held any type of respect for authority whatsoever. It was nothing but bars and brothels, pick pockets and con artists waiting to catch a break as far as the eye could see. While rapists, murderers and rouge enemy ninjas littered the streets, like garbage that hadn't been collected for weeks. On her way back to Konoha, she set her eyes past that pathetic excuse of a village. Sakura knowing better than to try and tempt fate twice, decided to go around that hell hole, take the back way home if you will.

Yes, she had heard the numerous cat calls and she seen the way the men in that village looked at her, not like another human being, like a piece of meat.

She'd been wrong, horribly . . . horribly wrong. Instead of avoiding trouble like previously though, it just so happened trouble liked to follow her like there was no tomorrow. So here she was. What she estimated was a good sixty feet underground with no back up and squaring off with Kabuto, who was now thanks to his ever advanced medical skills, some sort of fucked up, mutated snake man who can resurrect the dead. God she was in deep shit. Besides running out of oxygen and temporary blindness, she hardly had any chakra left, and with the persisting waves of pain in her wrist she was positive it was broken. The bone had been splintered into pieces she was sure of it.

Earlier in her fight Kabuto had been coming at her fast, and with no room to escape her plan to use a substitution justu and evade the attack only came a second too late. Her hand was useless now, and he knew that. Without her hand, no hand signs could be formed, and without the ability to block attacks from that side she was as good as dead. The words: I'm dead, I die here. repeated through her mind like a broken record that just wouldn't stop. Sakura could only pray that her team found her body before Kabuto had the chance to use her as a cadaver.

"Sakura-chan . . ." His voice was even starting to sound like Orochimaru's; it's slimy texture sent unwanted shivers of fear down her spine. She tried to figure out where his voice was coming from, but the cave they were in was creating an echo that made it nearly impossible. Dust, smoke and burst of fire were giving the freak perfect cover. "You're low on chakra, aren't you?" He asked coyly knowing full well she was almost out. His shrill snickering bounced off the walls making it sound like he was all around her, he was thrilled at the lack of her lack of response."How are you going to heal that arm of yours, my dear little Cherry Blossom?"

Did he really just call her, Tsunade-sama's apprentice, that? Oh, if she ever was able to get her hands on him he was going to have hell to pay, she began drawing on the last of her chakra reserves pulling all of it into her left hand. He was just trying to get under her skin by calling her that, she knew it, and it was working. Playing with their victim was common tactic deranged lunatics and sociopaths liked to use. It would have infuriated her at any other time but right now was different, right now she was on her last leg trying win a three legged race. She pushed her irritations to the side, she shouldn't let that get to her- couldn't let that let to her, one small fluctuation in her concentration and she could lose the last bit of her chakra. She didn't plan on it though, this last bit was reserved for Kabuto's face. If she was going to die, she was going to do it right.

"Quit worrying so much Sakura, it's not like I'm going to kill you . . . right away." His slippery voice came from every direction, enveloping the kunoichi in a sick prison of sound."I just have too many experiments, and not enough subjects, and you're perfect for this next one too! I need a strong, healthy body for it and civilians just don't make the cut for this one I'm afraid." He sighed happily as if in some sort of masochistic medical fantasy dreamland.

Sakura's frantic heart skipped a beat, and then sped up ten times faster to make up for it. She could feel the once heated blood in her veins freeze, it was almost the world had stopped for a moment. Just for her, just so the terror of what her future was could sink its teeth into her very soul. Hearing those words from his mouth truly made her want to die, dying she would have been okay with, in death she would at least have peace.

Kabuto's rats didn't get peace though, they were tortured.

To the very. . . Last. . . Breath.

She didn't want to imagine the utterly repulsive and twisted tests he would put her through, like she truly was no more than a white lab mouse born and raised to be manipulated.

In a blur of rapid gray and white movement Kabuto was on her, holding her by her neck with one scaled hand, crushing her wind pipe. Sakura's head made an audible crack against the jagged rock wall of the cave, blood began to leak from the wound and coated her long pink hair in the sticky red fluid. The kunoichi could feel his elongated nails digging gouges into the fragile skin of her neck. She gasped and choked for air like a fish that had recently been plucked from the sea would flex its gills in search for water. She clawed relentlessly at his hold with both of her hands, no matter how incapacitated the right one was. Pain shot through her arm and crippled the nerves, the arm was basically a wet noodle in comparison to what it use to be. Something so strong was now so weak.

Someone so powerful yesterday was now crushed today.

Now it probably looked like the scientist had picked up the little white mouse and was dangling it by its tail. Sooner rather than later she began to lose consciences, her vision started to fade in and out between murky black blobs and the scene of the crumbling underground. Desperate tears unknowingly started to brim over her eyes and further abstract and blur what little she could see. She felt rather than saw Kabuto lean in next to her ear and whisper words to her that were barley audible in her sad state; she'd never been so feeble before an enemy. The semblance of his breath cooled the salty dampness along her neck and the light breeze it created moved some her pink strands ever so slightly.

"Actually Sakura, I'm glad you came, you made it easy for me. Who knows what would've happened if you hadn't, I might have had to swing by Konoha to retrieve you."

Kabuto was so near that to Sakura that he seemed omnipotent, his white lips brushed against the shell of her ear, and even in Sakura's disabled status understood what he was implying. If he would've went to the leaf multitudes of innocent lives would have been lost.

"Because Sakura, if you look closely, there's more to project than meets the eye."

She could feel the vibrations of his chuckle as he finished hissing out his sentence, like he had some personal fetish for the optical region of the body. His influential grip on her neck loosened ever so slightly, allowing her to only just breathe, apparently he wanted her conscious and able to hear what he was about to say.

"You see my sweet blossom," He paused to take his face away from her ear to look at her,even though Sakura's eyes were shutting. "This project wouldn't work with anyone else but you. . ." Sakura felt her heart begin beating too hard a resounding thud-than-thud, thud-than-thud pattern deafened her ears. As the hammer of her heart grew louder it drowned her, washing away everything she knew, and everything she was.

Like a child who'd stayed up too late, she slipped away into a peaceful unconsciousness. The rest of Kabuto's sentence was lost on her dead ears. His attempt at keeping her awake to listen to whatever sick things he had to say to her vanished.

Blackness. Absent light was all around her, and seemed to somehow be . . . alive . . . and it was slowly eating her up. She was wholly unaware, yet completely cognitive at the same time, she could still absorb.

She didn't know how it was that she was sensing things so acutely, but not at all. Was it a feeling? Was it physical or mental? Sakura couldn't quite tell, was it terror, or panic? Both? Why did the need to flee ripple through her body like a tilde wave?

Was she-

There was a sound. What was that? The thought was a plague so great it could rival the black death. Was it her? There it was again, clearer than before, was she making that blood curdling noise?

Screaming . . . there was screaming, and . . . something else . . . pain, all of the feelings surrounding her ambiguity were centered around mind numbing pain.

It was overwhelming and fogged her ability to think. The undeniable pressure of a scalpel somewhere on her flesh, leaving scorched trails of ember and ruin in its wake, it was continuous and agonizing.

She wanted to run, to fight, to rebel anything that might get it to stop, but her body wouldn't listen to her, it was like she was trapped by an invisible weight holding every single limb of her body down. Like she was trapped within a inescapable shell of herself.

Unexpectedly she got an air of where the pain was disseminating from. Her eye was on fire, the burning made it so she couldn't distinguish between the untouched areas, and the places where it felt like skin was being melted off of the bone.

The torture paused, the briefest flash of falling came over her shot nerves before her entire body was hit by something solid.

Although she could see nothing Sakura could sharply feel everything again, her skin was so sensitive that if she weren't under such excruciating conditions it would have made her wonder if the tissue was new. Every feather light tickle, every whole in her flesh that was irrefutably from a suture, every joint popped back into place, every bone that had been broken being re-broken and set into a more natural position.

Then, it all just stopped. Sakura's mind shut down, burring itself in the deepest layers of lethargic senselessness bliss.

"Sakura . . . wake up." An indiscernible voice called out to her from a place she didn't recognize, a place she couldn't reach while cloaked in sheets of blissful ignorance. "Sakura . . .please." It almost sounded like the voice was friendly, but it was out there, and the outside was only filled with suffering.

"Please. . ." She could tell that the voice was sad and pleading, maybe she should move? But was it worth it? Would calling back to the voice cause her more trouble than it was worth?

"Sakura . . ." In her consideration the voice was becoming clearer, was that-?

A scream so high that it sounded like someone was being murdered ripped its way from her parched throat. Lungs gasped for air much in a way that made it seem like she was breathing for the first time in her life. Eyes wide, the world spun around her making her nauseated and disoriented. A head rush, as she would come to understand later, from bolting into an upright position.

Her body was giving out on her as strong pair of arms encased her body and kept her torso vertical. There was that damned voice again, trying to sooth her screams and calm her down. Slowly her shrills of horror turned to sobs, her cry's unabashedly echoing loudly in the small room. She buried her face in rough fabric that covered a muscled shoulder, and tried doing exactly as the voice told her to, breathe.

It was delayed but her brain recognized the scent, the one of off-brand deodorant and ramen, that wafted from his clothes. It was Naruto. Oh thank god. Was the only thought her exasperated mind could handle at the moment.

"Shh, it's alright Sakura-chan." His voice cooed, "It's me, Naruto."

Sakura did her best to wrap her arms around the orange clad boy and grip him as tight as she could, but much to her dismay her right arm had a cast on it, and instead of gripping his jumpsuit it just strained against the plaster. It hurt to move, and hurt even worse when pushed on, but she didn't care. She was only scarred of loosing him, loosing herself. What if she let go and plummeted back into the darkness?

The tears came flowing from her eyes in such an onslaught of raw emotion that they could put any river to shame. Naruto rocked the both of them and stroked her hair gently, whispering sweet nothings of comfort in her ear. Though, Sakura was too shocked to notice. She had to be the worst shinobi in the world, if anyone else saw her in such an emotional state they would have mocked her, told her to get her act together and carry on. That any real kunoichi would never show such disgrace, but there wasn't just anyone with her, it was Naruto. The closest thing she had to a brother, to family, since the passing of her parents so long ago.

They sat there like that for an immeasurable amount of time, it could have been five minutes it could have been fifty, but unfortunately the world still kept spinning. Sakura was slumped in Naruto's arms, totally drained, only the occasional whimper and sniff escaping her.

" . . . N-Naru- . . ." The words were there, trying their damnedest to escape her lips, but they couldn't. Her body was too weary and her throat was too dry.

Naruto hushed his pink haired comrade, and pulled away so he could look at her. "I have to go now Sakura, heh- someone has to tell Grandma Tsunade that you're awake." He offered her a tentative smile.

Sakura nodded and watched as her teammate got up to leave, the blond stopped before exiting and turned to her.

"Just . . . don't get out of bed yet." As he said this his bright blue eyes were averted but somehow pleading. "I'll come back as soon as I can and we'll get everything figured out."

She gave her team mate another nod as he walked out of the room and laid back on her bed. Everything figured out? What needed to be figured out? Her situation wasn't that strange, ninja were hospitalized all the time. The only thing that was odd about hers was the fact that she shouldn't be; Kabuto had left her alive for some reason, she didn't really care why though, right now all she wanted was a glass of water.

The initial shock of waking up was starting to wear away and she was beginning to feel the extent of her injury's. Her whole body ached even though the IV in her arm was most likely pumping her full of pain killers. Sakura reached her undamaged hand up to her eyes and wiped the at the lingering tear trails, she didn't want anyone else to see her like this. Something was off though, there was a large bandage wrapping around her head and covering her right eye. Why was her eye bandaged?

She lifted her hand up and let her finger tips graze gently over the bandages, she didn't remember getting injured there, then again she wasn't remembering a lot of things very well at the moment. Sakura took in a shaky breath, her mind was scattered. She deduced that she was back at Konoha, in hospital, ICU to be specific. She looked down at herself; all the cuts and scratches were cleaned and bandaged, there was also a thick white cast on her right arm.

Her eye scanned over the rough material of the cast. She let out a weak breath that was supposed to be a laugh. The white surface had a blemish on it. There, on the top of her fore arm were the names of her teammates. Naruto. Written on the top of the list had a heart next to it and a poorly drawn smiley face. Underneath Naruto was Sai, his name was beautiful, but what else was to be expected of the artist? There was even a little design next to the name, it looked like an eye. wierd. The second to last name was the hardly legible chicken scratch of Kakashi. It surprised her that he of all people had taken the time to come see her while she was out of it, the names made her wonder just how long she had been unconscious.

Then she got her answer, under Kakashi's name was the elaborate kanji symbol for warrior. Sasuke had been here too, and if Sasuke had been here that meant it had been over three weeks at least. Sakura leaned her head back on to the lumpy white hospital pillow, and looked up at the ceiling. Her lids were heavy but she didn't want to go to sleep, not after she had just woken up.

Her bed was raised at a comfortable forty five degrees, but the room seemed cold and empty. Through the opaque glass of the door Sakura could see the shadows of other medics, her co-workers, shuffling through the halls perfectly fine. If it weren't for the fact that Sakura knew medics had to know who was in every room of the floor they worked on, Sakura would have come to the conclusion that they oblivious that she was even there. Was this really what it felt like to be on the other end? She had been in the hospital before, but never like this. She had a recurring feeling that her death was encroaching upon her, even though all the monitors next to her told her that she was fine. No wonder Kakashi hated hospitals. She thought a bit put off. This is the place people come to die.

Eventually her gaze left the cloudy glass and wandered completely around the room. She sighed, the intensive care unit wasn't a very cozy place. She never really enjoyed this part of the hospital for one particular reason, there were no windows. Sure there were the windows that allowed her to look out into the hospitals hallways but currently her blinds were drawn, leaving her room with barley enough light to see by.

The kunoichi was quickly becoming squirmy. Tiredness in her limbs told her otherwise, but she wanted to move. Sakura did a check over her body, it didn't feel like anything else was broken besides her arm and a few ribs, so she could probably walk. It may have been a tad vain of her but, she wanted to see what she looked like. Were there scars on her face? Was she hideously maimed? Was that why Naruto hadn't looked at her when he was leaving?

Naruto had told her not to get out of bed, and being being the specialist she was, one would figure that she would listen. Her friend had clearly assumed that she would heed his request just because she knew full well what over exertion does to a body in recovery. Naruto assumed wrong. No body listened to her when they were in the hospital and they all turned out fine, so why should she listen to them? Sakura could be stubborn when she wanted to be, and dammit all if she didn't deserve to be a little stubborn after all she went through. Besides, they wouldn't know if she just went to the bathroom and back.

Slowly she lifted the thin blanket that was covering her, they were minimal in weight , but to her it felt like twenty pounds. She paused in her quest for a mirror after discovering she could hardly lift a blanket, if she barley managed that how was she suppose to walk? Only one way to find out. The pinkette decreed in her mind with a sense of resolve. Her legs were the next step, painfully slow she was able to lift her two cumbersome limbs over the edge of the bed. It felt as though she hadn't used them in quite a while, they were stiff and difficult to move.

Sakura had to think about the next step that would be carried out, she took a breath to steady her nerves and hoisted her body up onto its feet. She felt heavy, like someone had suddenly turned the gravity up on high. Her legs stumbled at first and she almost toppled over, but eventually she regained her balance. The medic immediately notice the pain in her leg once she put wait on it, something she must have missed in her earlier self assessment. She winced, but deciding she could tough it out, continued hobbling on her way to the bathroom; there would be a mirror in there. Suddenly there was a tug on her arm, she looked down. Shit. Her IV, was caught. Sakura made her way back over to the bedside and grabbed the IV stand, it actually worked nicely as a crutch. She had to hurry Naruto was going to be back any moment.

She groped blindly for the light switch in the bathroom. Sakura had to shut her exposed eye tightly once the light was flicked on. She wasn't use to the brightness, the pain was almost too much for her to even consider opening it again, but eventually the contracted muscles behind her eye loosened and she was able to open it against the discomfort. As her vision slowly adjusted her reflection in the mirror became clear.

The visible green eye became wide at the sight of her, and her mouth fell open. She had felt the bandage on her head, but the more she looked at the work of the binding the more it looked like a transplant had taken place. If the wound was in fact, merely a wound, it would have had stitches and a cloth bandage covering to keep it safe. However, this was different, there was medical tape covering the work, with padding and gauze underneath. Either she no longer had an eye or a transplant had definitely taken place. What's going on? The query taunted her and jest around her mind like a puppy who'd just been given a new toy. The monitor on her IV stand started to beep more frequently, it was fast and sporadic. The machine preformed its job flawlessly, letting everyone who was in earshot know heart rate just increased. She stared at her reflection in the mirror, without consciously deciding to move them, her hands went to the thin compress. Her slim fingers gripped the tape around her head loosely and began removing the material.

With the adhesive gone, each layer that peeled off allowed more and more of the blood that tarnished the white truss make itself known. The sheer tenderness of the area was bordering on excruciating, every time a sheet was taken off the more irritated her eye became. Her very nature as a medic screamed for her to stop, told her that what she was doing was wrong, insisted that whatever was underneath the bandage should be allowed to heal; but she couldn't stop, not now, she was so close.

Seconds later there was nothing left but the bloody swathe that covered her eye, her medical skills that were begging her to stop also told her not to rip it of immediately, the blood would be infused with the gauze as well as her wound. She leaned over the pristine sink and turned on the water to luke warm so it wouldn't stress the already shocked area anymore than necessary. As carefully as her shaky hands could manage she dabbed the water onto the bloodied cloth. Before the medic could take the cloth from her eye it fell into the sink, she watched as the still running water mixed with the blood and stream a dull pink down the drain. Slowly bracing herself for the worst she looked up to the mirror.

Sakura could've fell to the ground with happiness the moment she saw that there was still an eye in her head. It was swollen shut, but there was no doubt in her mind that an eye was still there. She idly wondered if by any chance it still worked, instantaneously inflamed purple lids cracked open ever so slightly, but all she saw was red. It wasn't bloodshot red though, the bloodshot she had been expecting would have looked pastel compared to this, this was red. It was a red two shades deeper than blood. Sharingan red.

No.

Sakura's heart stopped for the second time in her life, and her breathing ceased.

No.

She opened the damaged orb as far as she could, pain split from it like lightning, but she didn't care.

No.

One little black tomoe greeted her.

No!

"Noooo!" Sakura's word turned to a shriek of denial, her body no longer wished to work, slowly she crumpled to the ground. There, her heart started to beat again, and oxygen was able to reach her lungs through short rapid breaths.

If she hadn't been so totally engrossed in her rejection of the eye she might have noticed the sound of the door being swung open with force or the beeping of the heart monitor skyrocket. If her mind was healthy and aware she might have noticed her normally boisterous friend calling out her name in fear and concern. If tears weren't obscuring her eyes she might have even noticed that the Hokage was with him.

End of Chapter One

An- Here is the revised version of chapter one. Not a whole lot changed except for some grammar issues, and I tweaked Sakura's reaction at the end. If there is still things messed up I have legitimately missed them because i have read this chapter only 3 billion times looking for errors. I really am not the best with grammar and things like that.

There have also been a few reviews on the first version that have said something to the effect of hoping that I haven't abandon the fic. I assure you I have not. I wanted to finish writing the piece so that I could give constant updates like a good author should, but I guess that I never really cleared that up. My bad. I wrote something on my profile explaining it, but then after I read cass' review it hit me that no one probably bothers with profiles. Can't blame anyone though, I wouldn't. lol So, in a botched apology I am going to post chapter two as well. But just to be clear, I will not be posting any more than that until I finish this thing. Oh, and if you're logged in when you leave a review I WILL reply to you. Thanks!