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Author of 13 Stories |
Paper Flowers
I couldn't take it anymore! I had to go back and redo it! X.X I just got to the point where almost everything was bothering me and I just couldn't deal with the horrible, awful, occness and mistakes GAH!
Warnings, cha, who needs warnings, this shall be rater M, because even if it isn't really bad at all, if I decide to add more, (which I have) then it's going to need to have the rating up.
Disclaimer- I do not own Naruto, all standard disclaimers apply to this and all chapters proceeding.
'thoughts' "speech"
Chapter one- Scarred
Sakura landed on her backside with a disgruntled yelp, sliding a few feet in the dirt, and in the process doing quite the number on herself. The rough ground pulled at her, making her hit her head as she slid, scraping her arms, legs and back, and ripping her red shirt as it was pulled along and ripped from to reveal her lower back to the unforgiving earth. When she finally did stop she had dug her feet into the ground and her hands into the earth, earning angry red marks on her hands and most likely a broken finger or two.
Scratch that, most definitely a broken finger or two.
Her sixteen year old body convulsed slightly as the pieces of dirt stuck in cuts around her lower back and up and down her arms. She sat up shakily fighting off tears, hell she had been thrown by Tsunade enough time's to not get so emotional over it, but this was different, this stung in more than one way. Every part of her body the earth had touched felt like it was on fire.
A numb burning sensation, starting in her arms and spreading to a dull ache in her lower back, spread throughout her shell shocked body. She could vaguely hear something as she sat there in the dirt trying not to cry. She should heal herself, that would be the wise thing to do, get up and act like it was nothing. Her mind registered somewhere that someone was calling her. She didn’t want to talk, her eyes felt hot and wet, like they were to big, dammit she wouldn't cry, it was a scrape, just a scrape, a hot tear escaped her eyes as she closed them; a tear escaped running down her cheek to fall onto her scraped and raw arm.
Causing, in return, more pain on her part, her body shook again from the strain of holding back tears as someone now screamed her name. Suddenly there was a rush of air somewhere to her left. She opened her blurring eyes as the hot liquid was restrained with sheer will power, she was hard pressed not to cry, even if it meant her eyes got a little bloodshot holding it all in. Sakura took a shaky breath, composing herself, looking over at Naruto as he looked at her in return; his blue eyes wide as he stared at her ripped, and torn form.
Sakura frowned, it wasn't that bad was it?
She watched as his eyes flickered, the shocked blue narrowing into an angry red and back again. There was a rush of air beside her once again. Kakashi kneeled by her his hand hovering as he looked her up and down. Sakura almost regretted when the sound came back to her world. She could hear the wind around her and she could hear the flutter of bird’s wings as they landed after being disturbed by her descent. Then she noticed she could hear herself breathing, in constricting breathes, now that she thought about it, her chest did hurt.
She was also aware that her sensei looked frantic from her not so short fall, and Naruto looked down right scary, Sasuke appeared in the clearing with a ‘whoosh’ of air, his hands dropped to his sides and if Sakura was going to call it anything, she'd call it shock.
Kakashi started talking, she realized vaguely, she didn't realize why she couldn't comprehend this in her normal way, his voice shaky, she didn’t think she'd ever heard him talk like he was trying to keep calm. He was the Hatake Kakashi, he was always calm, “Sakura, I want you to look at me.” She did, she looked at him, and when she turned to look at him she felt a numbness settle into her lower legs, and a pressure build at the back of her head. He looked pale too, his hand still hovered, why wasn't he touching her?
Naruto growled suddenly, “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!” Naruto looked like he was going to rip apart the next thing that came in contact with him. Kakashi looked like someone ran over his puppy, or maybe in his case burned up his Icha Icha Paradise books. And Sasuke, he held a slightly anxious look about him, like he was fighting not to fidget.
Kakashi was able to speak, suddenly his voice was very shaky and Sakura was all out of sorts, even her ‘inner self’ seemed to be thrown for a loop. Sakura recognized the signs of the backfiring of the jutsu, when Naruto and Sasuke had pulled out Rasangen and Chidori after being told not to; she had, had that vague since of fleeting hope.
“Sakura, show me were it hurts.” She could hear Kakashi's slightly shaking voice addressing her; Naruto was fuming trying to keep himself cool and all three where staring at her. She felt slightly mad, if she wasn't feeling so light headed she would have told them off. She was a very talented medic-nin and just because she had a mild concussion didn't mean she couldn't walk it off. She shifted slightly and tried to open her mouth, a shaking breath was let lose and she blinked away the remainder of the hot liquid, “Ow.” Was all she could manage, she realized then that maybe sitting there and letting the fluid build up in her lower back wasn't the best of ideas.
Naruto looked indigent, "Should we take her to the hospital or something?"
Sakura heard the idea and couldn't agree more, to bad she couldn't think straight, "I think I bruised my brain..."
"Shit," Kakashi shifted and looked to be debating on how to pick her up, "Sorry, this won't be comfortable either way."
Sakura thought she should reassure Kakashi that he wasn't hurting her, "S'kay, really, I can't feel it anymore."
Naruto recoiled like he was bitten as Sakura was picked up, Sakura looked at Naruto, he looked like he was about to cry. Sakura knew she was filthy, cut up and bruised, she was bleeding and she burned and ached all over. Well, for the most part she felt numb, but where it wasn't numb...
Kakashi looked horrible standing there staring at her with one visible eye the sharigen behind his hitei-ate. 'Maybe I shouldn't have told him that.' Inner Sakura emerged from her shell, ‘THEY LOOK LIKE I JUST DIED! DO SOMETHING.’ Sakura strained a smile, she was good at this, when she was hurt and didn’t want others to know, she was a good actress; but her head hurt, "Shishou's going to kill me." Was all she could get out of her befuddled brain. Then she knew, she defiantly hit her head to hard.
“Kakashi, I think hurrying would be nice.” Kakashi glanced at the Uchiha who looked a just as guilty as Naruto did, maybe just a few tones down, Naruto looked down right awful.
"Come on." Kakashi jumped with Chakra lidded feet towards the Hokage's office, he wasn't a fan of hospitals and he knew that Tsunade would want to be the first to know either way.
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All three stood guiltily in Hokage's office as Tsunade snatched Sakura from Kakashi, “Sakura we are so-so-so-so-so-so-soooooo sorry! We should have been paying more attention, it was an accident, and we will ALL pay more attention next time.” Naruto went ignored for the most part.
Kakashi started, “Truthfully, we won’t ignore you again, none of us were expecting it and I take full responsibility since I was the one to-“ Inner Sakura jumped into her head, ‘NO, NO, NO, NO, N-O!’ She declared loudly in Sakura’s head, ‘HELL NO SAKURA! THERE TALKING TO US LIKE A BABY!’
Sakura’s eyes where a rather dull green as she blinked at them, she stopped Kakashi in mid sentence as her Shishou about broke down the door with her foot, her temper coming out, it was a good thing she was to mad to speak to the three of them and had something to monopolize her time for the moment.
“I’m not a kid who just got tripped, I’m fine, really!” She insisted even though every muscle in her body was too tight, “Nothing a hot bath and a few bandages can’t cure in a day or two.” She insisted. 'Or chakra...' she added as her world started swirling.
She tried to wave at the fifteen people in the room but couldn't remember which ones where the originals, so she just waved in their general direction. It might have seemed selfish, and it did to her, but she didn’t want to be hurt over something as trivial as training. And before she could voice any objections she was being taken, quickly, she may have added, to the medical building.
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"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT!"
The three members of team seven that weren't currently in the hospital flinched as Shizune yelled at them, not only would Sakura be laid up, but Tsunade wouldn't be doing paper work, Naruto gave his best puppy dog eyes, "I just wanna know Sakura-chan's room number!"
Shizune ground her teeth, "For you information, she's not in a room right now," Shizune glanced down at the clip board in her hands, "Hmm, seems we need to make room for an autopsy..." With that the dark brown haired jounin turned and went on her way.
Kakashi frowned, she wasn't suggesting... Sasuke's frown deepened, not having a lot experience with the woman he had no idea if she just found it to be one big sick joke.
"GAH! Why!!!"
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“Sakura, I need you to just relax," Tsunade took a deep breath, "and above all else stay calm.” Tsunade knew it was a bit ridiculous to say that, you can’t tell someone that without them freaking out. But Sakura just took a deep breath and remained calm, she wasn't the best medic for her ability alone, even in a dangerous situation involving herself; Sakura could stay calm. Tsunade didn’t linger thanking the gods she listened, and was able to comply, “Let's begin.” She motioned to the two other medics helping her, she would have one hell of a talk with the other three members of team seven when she got out of there.
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Somewhere in the hospital an anxious Hokage stood in a surgery room, trying her best to practice what she preached.
Sakura took a sudden deep breath trying to remain calm as pain shot through her body in violent waves. Her inner self was certainly not helping, ‘HOLY SHIT WHAT THE HECK? WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON!’ The black and white version of herself cried, running around in her head, her choppy hair a complete and total wreck.
The longer Tsunade waited the greater the pressure build up in Sakura’s system would be, she knew she couldn’t put her under without taking the chance that she’d clot and die.
She couldn’t help but feel lacking as her student lie on the table in front of her working hands. Sakura's eyes opened and watched as Tsusade held her hands an inch above her forehead, her Chakra visible, darting from her hands into her forehead. Sakura couldn’t help thinking she was staring at her forehead…her hands began moving, over each limb then back, across and above her whole body. Small cuts where closing while the skin mended itself. Sakura felt her flexibility come back to her instead of the painfully, tight skinned feeling she had been having before due to swelling in her lower back and neck.
Something felt lose suddenly in her arm, then her shoulder, she shifted uncomfortably as blood suddenly trickled down her nose. 'It kinda tickles...' she thought, lost somewhere between pain and passing out. Tsunade knew a clot had formed and was making its way to her heart, but actually feeling it with her chakra made the foreboding little knot all the more fearsome.
She brought her hands back to Sakura's forehead, “Sakura, listen my hands are going to emit Chakra into your body, once you feel it use your chakra and follow it, if you feel a tug then unwind it.” Sakura looked confused for a moment but did as she was told. She could taste the coppery tang in her mouth as her nose continued to bleed. She closed green eyes to the world of concentrated faces and bright lights, suddenly, very suddenly, she could see waves, single lines grouped together to create waves, she concentrated her chakra on the waves and followed them down throughout her body.
Her usually perfect chakra was a mess compared to the perfectly controlled waves and she tried to mimic the chakra amount and way it was being sent. After a brief struggle with herself, blue lines where meshing together sending small vibrations through her body.
It was relaxing really, until she felt something like a wade of gum stuck somewhere in her body. The chakra waves hit it as she imagined a knot slowly coming untied. She continued the process with a few more knots, none as big as the first, until her body was knot free.
The others seemed different, in fact, after each one of the smaller ones had been unwound she felt lighter. The Chakra coming in stopped, as did her own following the example, her hazy green eyes remained closed, the chakra exchange leaving her temporarily out of it. Deciding, now that she had a better state in which to think, sleep sounded nice.
Tsunade took hold of Sakura’s hand and rubbed it gently, careful of the fingers that looked much better than before, “Go get her a change of clothes, I believe she leaves the change in her locker.” A nurse, who had been standing nearby, took the remains of Sakura's red shirt. With a nod she was off with Sakura’s torn shirt in her arms.
Tsunade stared down at the girl with pink hair lying limply on the table, the other medics having cleared out when not needed, “You've been working on that jutsu again... haven't you?” she asked into the empty room, to an unconscious girl.
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Kakashi was sitting in the lobby waiting room, his foot lightly twitching; he had tried to read his book but couldn’t even open it without starting to shake, he really hated hospitals. Hospitals were where sick people came to give their sickness to other's who weren't sick. It was so unsanitary, people died in hospitals, all the time! It was like the final frontier for ninjas, death was eminent. But he couldn't leave... he had to wait for Tsunade, she'd seriously kill him if he left, she'd murder him. She may even murder Jiraiya and ban Icha Icha just to spite him!
A sudden burst of noise caught his attention, and he was up immediately clamping a hand over Naruto’s mouth as he rocketed into the quiet waiting room, Sasuke walked in behind him with a scowl on his face, “Quiet you dobe! Were in a hospital-“ Sasuke was interrupted as a frantic looking Ino came in followed by Rock Lee, TenTen followed after Lee dragging Neji who had a look of 'I-don't-care-either-way' plastered on his face. A worried looking Hinata followed by her two teammates, Kiba telling Akamaru to wait for him outside and Shino, well Kakashi could barely see his face so he assumed he was stoic. Shikamaru and Chouji walked in after everyone else, Shikamaru's cheek looked red, almost like someone had slapped him, and Chouji was fidgeting nervously with his bag of chips.
Naruto had tears in his eyes, "I-I tol-ld Sai; Sakura was on her death bed and- and h-he said, he said," Naruto burst into tears, Kiba awkwardly patted his shoulder, "It's cool man, she'll be okay."
Sasuke rolled his eyes, "He said there'd be one less ugly to pollute the world." Naruto just wailed louder. "Dude, seriously, your overreacting, if Sakura was dyi-"
"Sakura? Would this be the Haruno Sakura, you are speaking of young lad?"
Kiba jumped a bit surprised to see an old man in a medic's coat holding a cane standing in front of the group.
"Uh, yeah... why?"
The old man frowned and shook his head, "So much potential in that girl, could have surpassed the Hokage's in their prime had she put her mind to it, I so looked foreword to her brilliance," He shook his head again, Naruto had stopped wailing and was staring at the old man, "What'd you mean 'could have'?" Sasuke rasied an eyebrow, "We are talking about the same person, pink hair, green eyes?" The old man nodded, "That's the one."
The old man sighed and looked wispily at the ceiling, "The suspense is killing me! Please, for the love of youth, tell me what happened to my precious cherry blossom!" Lee cried falling to his knees.
The old man looked at them all with a level face, "For shame, for shame, poor girl died in surgery just a few moments ago, head injury or something of the sort."
Ino who had been oddly silent for a moment let out a little gasp before she turned pale, her eyes rolled in the back of her head and she began to fall towards the ground.
"Shit." Shikamaru grabbed her shoulders before she hit the ground, holding her up while letting her lean against him, "I-Ino," His voice cracked a little, "Ino, come on, snap out of it!"
The following chain of events happened after that:
Chouji dropped his bag of chips, the barbecue kind,
Neji looked at the ground with a frown, a bit guiltily for not taking the blonde annoying ninja seriously to begin with,
Shino put his hand on Hinata's shoulder to steady her as she gave a little cry,
Kiba froze up,
Tenten's hands flew to her mouth and she started crying,
Sasuke stiffened his hands digging into his bare arms,
Naruto got real silent all of a sudden,
Kakashi visibly stiffened, a pained look flashing in his eye,
Lee choked for a moment, before looking down at the ground, tears forming.
Slow clapping interrupted the depressing news, Naruto looked up angrily, Ino, who had just woken up shook with anger, "Who the hell is clapping!" The malice in her voice would have made many people think twice.
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Sakura swallowed the hard lump in her throat and started to breathe through her mouth; as she sat up the hokage smiled at her, “How are you feeling?” Sakura blinked, “Great…actually…” She was surprised, she felt awesome. She brought her hand up to push a stray strand of pink from her eyes when she realized her hands where better. A smile crossed her face, even though they were wrapped with medical tape they where much better than before.
Tsunade smiled, “Well, your fingers are still going to be a little weak but all and all you are okay and in the clear!” She stated happily. Sakura smiled before realizing her utter lack of clothing on her upper area. Sakura’s cheeks flushed as she shifted nervously, Tsunade merely smiled, “It’s being remedied, I sent out a med to get your spare so you aren't forced to walk with mere wrappings.” Sakura smiled at her Shishou thankfully.
Tsunade leaned against the bed in the room they had moved Sakura too, “Tell me what happened.” Tsunade had a sudden dark look in her eye. Sakura bit her lip, the truth would only cause trouble, but... she wouldn't lie. "From the beginning.”
Sakura swallowed and nodded, “Alright, it all started-“
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Sakura jumped into a oak tree, hiding in the branches, perched atop a high limb so she could observe the fight going on below her. The three other members of team seven, Kakashi-sensei, Naruto and Sasuke.
She found herself frowning at the site, her fist shaking as the tell tale cries of 'CHIDORI!' and 'RANSANGEN!' Filled the air. Sakura dug her nails into the branch of the tree, she couldn't stop the two without getting herself killed in the process, the training had been carried too far, the sparring had gotten to both Naruto and Sasuke and both had lost control.
Kakashi had already disarmed them twice to no avail, it was really becoming to much, this time the two wouldn't cancel out each other's attacks. Next time the Chakra would need a new outlet, it was more than likely it would discharge back the way it came, through the two of them. Four times... Sakura knew Kakashi's limit for Chidori was four, she had no idea what Sasuke's tolerance level was, but there was no way in hell she'd push it.
She pushed of the tree ready to use Ranshinshō, a technique Tsunade had shower her recently, to stop the two in their tracks, but before her hand could reach the ground... "Chidori Nagashi!"
Sakura's eyes widened, electricity consumed Sasuke, his final Chidori would be merely to paralyze Naruto. Sakura shifted immediately but there was a problem, Naruto's demon fox had leaked out in order to counter the electric discharge, if Naruto used his wind based technique at the last minute it would destroy the entire area and them.
Kakashi seemed to be thinking the same thing, in the blink of an eye, everything went down hill, Kakashi used a Jutsu Sakura had never seen, the wind picked up right at the moment the two where about to clash, the earth split and Sakura could only scream as the two attacks collided with the third, the shock wave being dissipated away from the three users as they were on going attacks.
Sakura braced herself for impact.
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Tsunade looked at the girl with sympathy as she let out a sigh, "If my body would have been functioning half as fast as my brain I would have been long gone,"
It had been 20 minutes since Sakura had arrived there, Tsunade smiled softly feeling a bit of a pang in her heart. “Why don't we up your training hm? I know we've both given it a break lately, me because of paper work, and you, well with Sasuke back and team seven training again...” Sakura stared surprised at her for a moment, before she smiled, “That would be wonderful Tsunade-sama!” The pink haired teen was turning back into her much more laid back self, and that was a relief.
A knock on the door sounded and Tsunade called the nurse in, "Here you are, I'm afraid this is your only spare," She handed the shirt to Sakura who, in turn, slid from the bed to slid her shirt on, thanking the nurse she smiled politely and waved to her Shishou before heading out of the Hospital wing.
Tsunade smiled at Sakura as she left, momentarily forgetting why she was still at the hospital, her eye twitched with the realization.
"Ka-ka-shi." The clip board in Tsunade's hands snapped in two, the nurse who was cleaning up gave a startled 'eep' and ducked. Better to play dead while the Hokage was this irate.
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Well, there you have Chapter one revised, now I shall go and continue to revise all the chapters I have posted. Thanks and goodbye. (basically it means don't be confused if the chapter's are weird for a bit.) Review!