Sacred Flower

Alrighty, here’s another chapter! Thanx to those who bothered to review this crappy story! Sorry it took awhile to get this chapter on, my internet’s being a pain in the ass.

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Sasuke awoke with a gentle drift flowing in through the window. Sakura has barely moved an inch since last night. Sasuke left her alone for awhile in search of food and a toilet. While Sasuke was out, Tsunade came into Sakura’s room with a bottle of pills and a glass of water.

“Sakura,” she called. “Sakura, I hope you can hear me but here are your pills for…that special reason.”

Tsunade opened Sakura’s mouth wide enough to drop the pill inside and pour a little bit of water. Sakura’s weak body managed to swallow it, but her eyes were still closed. Tsunade smiled just the tiniest bit.

“I take it that you can hear me, can you? Even though you don’t have much energy left to move. Well, I hope you feel better Sakura. I have to leave now. Too much paperwork for me to do. Goodbye, and rest well.”

Just after Tsunade left, Sasuke came back into the room. Sakura suddenly felt sleepy and fatigued all over again. What was making her so tired? “Sakura,” she heard. It was Sasuke’s voice.

“Sakura, please wake up. Wake up for me.” Sakura felt like she was falling into the depths of hell. Everything was black. She didn’t know where she was.

‘What…what is this?’ she asked herself. There was a glowing pink chain wrapped around her body. It seemed to dance off of her skin. Some of that pink chain faded away. Every inch that disappeared, she became more scared and she would be engulfed in more blackness.

‘Sasuke!’ she tried to scream out. ‘Sasuke! Help me! I don’t know what to do! I can’t do this by myself…’

“Please Sakura, wake up. Come back to me,” she heard. ‘Sasuke, I’d love to come back into your arms, but I don’t know how. Please help me…’ she silently answered.

Sasuke placed his hands over Sakura’s and stroked her knuckles with his thumb. He used his chakra to increase the feeling. He hoped that she would feel his hands stroking hers and that she’ll grab onto his hand and awaken, but he knew it was all a stupid dream. He released the smallest amount of chakra into her system and prodded around to try and find her within her body.

‘Hey, what is that?’ thought Sakura. There was a little stream of blue headed her way. ‘Am I supposed to touch it or something?’ Seeing that she had no other options of escaping her internal prison, she grabbed onto the glowing stream of blue. When she got closer to that glowing blue chain, her eyes widened.

‘Sasuke?’ That stream of blue revealed itself as Sasuke with an aura of blue. ‘Sasuke! You saved me!’ she cried. But she as she clutched onto the blue, it disappeared. ‘Sasuke?’ She wept bitterly, losing more hope of freeing herself from the confines of her own body.

‘What the hell was that?’ thought Sasuke. He felt something pull at his chakra and he released his hold on Sakura’s hand the moment it tugged. He sighed a heavy sigh. ‘Why did it have to be her? Why couldn’t this illness get to me? Why her?’

Sasuke stayed into his little cloud of depression for awhile until a certain blonde loudmouth and a perverted old man walked into the room.

“Hey Sakura!!” called Naruto. Sasuke cringed at his loud voice.

“Can’t you shut up? We’re in the hospital!” yelled Sasuke.

“Oh yeah, well you’re no quieter than I am!” shouted Naruto. Kakashi sighed. These boys weren’t any different than they were when they were 12.

“Boys, calm down. Sasuke has a point, we’re in a hospital so be quiet.” They both became quiet; Sasuke basked in his small victory while Naruto sulked.

While in their overwhelming silence, Naruto made a few shadow clones and began to play poker with them while Kakashi kept reading his book, Icha Icha Paradise. While the Naruto clones continued to play poker with themselves, Naruto tried to peek over Kakashi’s shoulder while he was reading to see what was so interesting in that book. Naruto had read about four words before he felt the beginnings of a nosebleed come on. Naruto was so preoccupied with dealing with his nosebleed that he didn’t notice his sensei disappear and reappear right behind him.

“So Naruto, you like to read?”

Naruto froze in his position which was him trying to cover up his nose and holding in the blood. Sasuke looked up from Sakura’s face to the situation which unfolded itself before him. For a few seconds, there was complete silence, save for the beeps of the machine measuring Sakura’s heart rate. The drip of blood hitting the ground broke the silence and Naruto turned around with an angry face. Before Naruto had a chance to speak, Kakashi sighed.

“Naruto, these kinds of books aren’t those you should read.” Naruto wiped away the blood from his nose and exploded.

“I shouldn’t read them!? Why do you!? How could you even read that trash and not blush or anything!?!?” Kakashi shook his head.

“Naruto, do you understand that you just called yourself trash? I only read these things in books. You have your Sexy no Jutsu and you peep on women in the hot springs.”

“But, but…” Naruto stammered. “Not only that, I read these things for self control, not for leisure.” Naruto had nothing to say.

“Just shut up!” Naruto plopped back down with his poker clones and sulked.

Sasuke sighed and shook his head at Naruto’s idiotic movements. ‘What a loser,’ he thought. He turned his attention towards Kakashi, who continued to read his dirty book. Sasuke felt something touch his hand and looked down. Sakura’s hand moved an inch!

‘Oh my god…is she waking up?’ Sasuke stared at her intently, making sure that he was the first thing she saw when she woke up…but she didn’t. She laid there, motionless, dashing Sasuke’s hopes in the process.

“Is something wrong Sasuke?” spoke up Kakashi. Sasuke shook his head. ‘Damn, why isn’t she waking up? What’s wrong with her?’ wondered Sasuke. ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t protect this from you too…Please come back to me.’

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Tsunade got worried. She had no idea what was wrong with her protégé. ‘Maybe I should check on her. It was my fault she’s in this state after all.’ Tsunade walked down the corridor outside the office.

“Shizune, I’m going out for a little bit. Please take care of things for me.” Shizune looked up from her desk and nodded. “Goodbye Tsunade.” Tsunade smiled that the petite young woman. Shizune continued to do her paperwork.

On the way to the hospital, Tsunade was deep in thought. ‘Why is it that I seem to bring despair to everyone I care about? Shizune lost her uncle. Dan…’ Tsunade hasn’t thought of him in a long time.

‘First Nawaki, then Dan, now Sakura…who’s next? Shizune? Naruto?’ Although Naruto annoyed her to no end, she still cared for him. He was the last thing that reminded her of Nawaki. Tsunade felt guilty.

‘I can’t believe that it was my fault Nawaki and Dan are gone. How could I not be able to save them?’ Tsunade shook off her depressed expression and plastered on a confident face. ‘I will save Sakura…even if it’s the last thing I do.’

Upon arriving the hospital, Tsunade was greeted with Naruto. Then another Naruto…then another Naruto. “Hi Granny-Hokage!” they all shouted. Tsunade was close to beating the crap out of Naruto.

“Don’t you know not to call me that? And why are you yelling? We’re in a hospital!”

“Idiot,” said Sasuke under his breath. “Lady Hokage, why are you here?” asked Sasuke. Tsunade turned her attention on Sakura.

“I’m just here to get a blood sample from Sakura and try to bring her out of her comatose-like state, that’s all,” she replied. Sasuke nodded and got out of her way. Kakashi continued to read his dirty book.

“Make sure you sterilize that thing,” noted Kakashi, the book still in front of his face. Tsunade focused on Sakura, intent on taking her blood sample for study. Once the feat was done, she left with the tiny bottle of crimson-red liquid.

Tsunade got back to her office in record time. “Shizune, I need you to analyze this for every chemical infused with Sakura’s blood.” Shizune took the bottle from Tsunade, handling it with care. Shizune immediately ran off to study the components of Sakura’s blood and noted them down.

Tsunade stepped inside of her office and resumed her paperwork, which were piled up on her desk. ‘Sometimes, being the Hokage sucks. Why did I even take this up?’

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Back at the hospital, the original Naruto and one of his clones began to argue. “You cheated!!” yelled Naruto.

“No I didn’t!” yelled the other. They both bickered like five year olds until Kakashi silenced them.

“SHUT UP!!” Everybody in the room froze in their spot. Sasuke’s eyebrow twitched while all the Naruto clones disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving the only Naruto.

Satisfied with the silence of the room, Kakashi continued to read his book. ‘Wow…Kakashi-sensei is scary…’ thought Naruto.

‘But let’s see him get scary when I do my Sexy no Jutsu!’ Naruto silently crept over to Kakashi and quietly executed his plan.

“Sexy no Jutsu,” he whispered. Naruto turned into the beautiful, naked, blonde girl with clouds over specific parts of her. Naruto plopped into his/her sensei’s lap.

“Kakashi-sensei,” said Naruto in his feminine voice, “how come you always belittle me? How come you don’t yell at Sasuke the way you do me?” Kakashi sighed and pushed the girl with the perfect curves off of his lap.

“Because Sasuke isn’t an idiot who tries to seduce me with that kind of technique.” Angered, Naruto transformed into his original form.

“FINE! Favour Sasuke-bastard over me! I’m better than him anyway!”

Naruto stomped out of the room, but before he reached the doorway, Kakashi gave him a proposition. “Naruto, if you calm down and not make any more noise, I’ll treat you to ramen later.” Naruto turned his head around.

“Really? You will?” he asked cautiously. Kakashi sighed. ‘Should I really do this? He’s going to wipe out my pay check.’

‘Yeah, but it gets him quiet.’

“Yes Naruto, I’ll buy you all the ramen you can eat tonight if you could stay remotely quiet.” Naruto ran and plopped back down near Sakura’s bed.

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Soon, the sun started to set and Naruto’s stomach growled louder and louder by the minute. “Hey, I kept my end of the bargain, so where’s my ramen!?” demanded Naruto. Kakashi looked up from his book and out the window.

“Alright, we’ll go get some ramen now.” Naruto cheered and ran out the door, but rushed back into say goodbye to Sakura.

Naruto bent down and whispered softly in her ear, “goodbye Sakura. I hope you wake up soon.” Naruto stood up straight.

“Goodbye Sasuke-bastard,” he spat out bitterly. The two of them and a staring contest until Kakashi mentioned about the ramen again. Then, Naruto broke the stare and ran towards Kakashi.

“Goodnight Sasuke, Sakura. I hope you two will feign well,” said Kakashi. Then, he and Naruto left while Naruto was babbling different ramen flavours he wanted to eat.

Sasuke held Sakura’s hand again, missing her touch. He didn’t hold her hand while Kakashi or Naruto was in the room. With Tsunade, it was okay because he was sure that she knew of her emotions towards his little cherry blossom. “Please wake up for me,” he whispered.

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“Tsunade, I have the results from Sakura’s blood sample,” said Shizune at the doorway. Tsunade looked up from her piles of paper and looked at the file in Shizune’s hands. Shizune walked in and placed the file on Tsunade’s smallest pile of work.

“Thank you very much Shizune.” Shizune left the room and gave Tsunade privacy.

‘Okay, now we’ll see what’s making you so sick Sakura.’ As soon as Tsunade opened the file, she nearly fainted.

Inside the contents of the file were the ingredients used in the pill Tsunade gave Sakura to repair her reproductive system. ‘How can that be? All these chemicals are relatively safe.’

That’s when she noticed one particular ingredient: blood of the Kusanagi Coral.‘Oh my god! The blood of the Kusanagi Coral…it’s…it’s going to kill her!’ Tsunade rushed out of her office, knocking over a stack of papers on her way out. “Shizune, I’m going back to the hospital.”

Tsunade rushed to the hospital in a frantic scurry. ‘If I don’t do something now, it may be too late.’

As soon as she got to the hospital, she burst into Sakura’s room. Sasuke looked up from Sakura to see Tsunade distraught and worried. “Hokage, what’s wrong? Is…” Tsunade didn’t even give him a chance to finish his sentence.

“Sakura’s poisoned with the Kusanagi Coral’s blood!”

Sasuke’s heart froze. “Hokage, are you sure? The blood of the Kusanagi Coral?” Tsunade hesitated to answer him but she nodded. “But, wouldn’t she be…” trailed off Sasuke. “Wouldn’t she be dead by now?” He choked on the last few words. ‘She can’t be dead. She just can’t be!’

“Sasuke,” said Tsunade, “that machine is still registering her heart beat. She’s strong, but I’m not sure how much longer she can hold out. I need to put her in the critical emergency unit.” Sasuke nodded and got out of her way while she pushed the bed towards the unit in question.

“Doctor!” she called. A doctor poked his head out of a room. “We got a case of Kusanagi Coral poisoning!” Doctors and nurses rushed out to help Sakura. “I’m sorry Sasuke, but you won’t be able to stay with her this time. All you can do is watch her through the glass,” Tsunade told him.

Feeling helpless, Sasuke watched the doctors hook Sakura up with machines and IV bags that made her seem robotic. ‘What can I do to help her?’ ‘There isn’t much for you to do anyways,’ answered his inner mind. Tsunade sympathized with him and tried to help him ease his internal pain.

“Sasuke, none of this was your fault.”

Sasuke didn’t reply. He didn’t even nod. “How was she poisoned?” he asked. Tsunade gulped. She wasn’t sure how to tell him. ‘Oh, it was totally my fault for giving her an untested drug!’ Yeah, that would work. “Sasuke, I’m sorry, but I gave her an untested drug.”

Sasuke’s eyes shot wide open. “How could you do this to her!? Why would you give her a drug that might not be safe to use!?” Tsunade spat it out.

“She was desperate for it! All because she loves you!” Sasuke was speechless. ‘What does she mean? Why was Sakura desperate? Desperate for what? My love? She already captured mine as I’ve done hers. What was wrong with her?’

“What do you mean, she was desperate? What was she desperate for?” demanded Sasuke. Deep inside, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear the answer. Tsunade sighed and turned back to the window, watching the doctors tend to Sakura.

“It’s best that you hear it from her.” Tsunade started to walk away but Sasuke called after her. “What was she desperate for? Tell me!” he bellowed.

‘Why am I left in the dark?’

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Okay, and I’m gonna leave it there for awhile. Please R&R!

To clarify things, the blood of the Kusanagi Coral is something I made up because it sounded cool and the blood is supposed to be poisonous to humans. Once ingested, the person looks like they’re sleeping or in a coma, when in fact they aren’t. They’re awake and asleep at the same time…do you get me? Yeah, I’m not good with explaining things. I haven't really thought of a cure or anything, so feel free to throw some ideas at me. ‘Til next time!