Between Life and Living
Chapter Two: We Can't Save Everyone, But…
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"Dan!"
"Ts-Tsunade…"
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"We can't save everyone, but…"
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The shadows of two apprehensive figures loomed over a hospital bed, as several nurses clad in white uniforms scrambled about inside the miniscule ER room. The elder figure, a silver-haired male well into his thirties, leaned against the cold, bare wall with a small orange book in hand. All apportionment of whatever expression he wore was currently either concealed by the dark mask on his face, or the smutty paperback he was holding in front of him. The deafening, otherwise silence that surrounded them kept them tight-lipped and observant. The nurses were loud in their frantic fumbling, but no voices filled the room.
Across from the older man, at a close but comfortable distance, stood a younger shinobi. A white ANBU mask painted with a mouse-like face completely disguised the impassive, blank countenance beneath it, until a nurse hurried by and briefly asking that it be removed. Sai silently complied, having no qualms about respecting his elders, despite ANBU's protocol which inhibited all its members from revealing their physical identities. As the dark-haired nin slid the painted mask from his face, his opaque orbs darted unblinkingly to his partner, who tilted his head in the direction to his left, unruly silver spikes slightly sweeping the frame of the door as he made the brief gesture.
The younger man sauntered languidly away from the place where he stood, and the short distance was closed between then. Howbeit, without another word, the two stared on in mutual laconism as the frantic, nightmaric scene continued to play out before them.
"Wrap those bandages tighter!" a voice rang out suddenly, but where the panicked nurses jumped in bewilderment, the elite shinobi did not. The equally distressed assistant of the Godaime Hokage, who had exclaimed and broke the silence, began to pace around the room and weave through the scatter of bustling nurses. The best of the best had been brought in, sent for in the middle of the night in regards to the unforeseen situation. Even with this knowledge, and the unrelenting medic team clearly doing their best, it was clear as day that Shizune was no less discouraged than she had been the moment the news had been relayed to her. If anything, the Hokage's personal assistant was just as, if even more so, foul-mooded than the blonde barbaric woman herself.
And speaking of that woman… "Shizune!"
All heads turned attention to the front of the room.
The Godaime stood at the entrance, gripping the doorframe something fierce until the wood began to crack and splinter under the monstrous amount of pressure. Liquid amber orbs narrowly surveyed the room, reflecting immense disappointment at what was currently taking place.
Kakashi warily sidestepped and ducked down promptly, to avoid the ageless woman's fist suddenly swinging out to slam a dent into the wall where his head had been, all the while his visible eye never leaving the page in his book. All irritation vanished from Shizune's demeanor, seemingly having become absorbed by the blonde woman's all-consuming rage. The dark-haired woman relented in her excessive pacing, and paused to regard the last Senju.
"Lady Tsunade…"
A silent exchanged through a heavily strained silence seemed to go on briefly between them at that moment. Shizune's obsidian orbs widened considerably as the mute confrontation neared an end, but Tsunade raised a hand to silence her before her thoughts could become verbal. The blonde warily shifted her gaze to the ruinment of the pinkette being tended to, staring on for a lingering minute before she straightened up, body language somewhat betraying that the gruesome scene had shaken her.
Shizune captured the woman's gaze the moment it strayed back to her waiting impatient expression. A pleading look contorted her meek features; especially in her eyes. The unacknowledged others in the room shifted uncomfortably in the thick tension, until Tsunade sighed inaudibly, clicking her tongue softly as an afterthought.
A brief moment, and then she finally spoke. "All medics not specifically trained under Shizune or myself are now dismissed". Her tone was devoid anything near a touch of emotion. She turned to avoid the gaping look of disbelief on her assistant's face.
Shizune shot a frantic look at the medic team, before drawing her bottom lip between her teeth and chewing it anxiously. "Lady Tsunade…"
Tsunade briefly regarded the misplaced shinobi in the room, but before she could fix them with one of her infamous threatening looks, the two took their leave without a word. The chuunin level medics also filed out behind them, not daring to question the adamant authority of the elite medic kunoichi. Once they were gone, and only Shizune, herself, and their comatose patient remained, Tsunade closed the door and leaned against it dejectedly.
A short moment of quietness passed between them before the Hokage crossed her arms around her green-robed form, and lifted expectant eyes to the woman in front of her. Quietly, she asked her to relay the details. After explaining the situation and viewing Sakura's medical chart, Tsunade hastily assessed the severity of the injury, and gave a curt nod before making her way to her former student's bedside. The girl was more pale and ill-looking than Tsunade had remembered in the last few months she had seen her. As a medical professional, Tsunade knew health was
very important, and despite her minute opportunities to confront the retired kunoichi, she had regretfully neglected to follow through. Tsunade shamed herself for not properly taking Sakura's poor self-keeping into more solemn consideration. Sakura had been through so much these past three years, but no one had ever fathomed she had begun to treat her own life with such reckless care. According to her medical report, there was alcohol currently in system.
When did Sakura begin drinking? Another bad affair that Tsunade could only blame herself for.
After the pinkette had made her resolve and retired, Tsunade thought she had done the respectful thing to give Sakura the space she required, in hopes that she just might come around after she'd had some time alone; to herself. She, almost more than anyone else, had understood the difficult time that Sakura was enduring after the loss of her loved ones in the events of the recent war. Shortly after Sakura had left her office, Tsunade found herself reflecting on her own past. Memories of desperate attempts to revive a loved one with the sharply honed skills of medical ninjutsu wracked her mind. Every lost life had felt like a personal failure, and every failure reminded her that her abilities could only overcome so much. She was only a medic; only a person. Her vast knowledge and her expert skill in healing others were all but useless in the face of death.
It seemed at the time, that Sakura was willing to come to terms with that, though no doubt it had been something difficult to accept in the moment of it all. Tsunade had wondered if her quiet words of understanding had done anything at all to comfort her student, in the same way that the soothing words of her own friends had brought to her.
Now she knew; perhaps they'd been completely ineffective, after all.
The Hokage regarded her ill surrogate daughter with a bleary, tearful gaze, before her eyes became downcast and she forced herself to straighten. "Shizune…" she said, her voice an octave above a whisper. Shizune lifted her head, having been re-evaluating Sakura's current condition when the blonde spoke.
With a soft sigh, she folded the page over and set the clipboard on the counter behind her. "Lady Tsunade…are you sure you want…to do this?"
Tsunade was more than sure. As she touched the pad of her index finger to the small, violet rhombus shape on her forehead, she solemnly entertained the idea of what was about to be done; her eyes became unfocused. The blonde stared on intently at the blurred image of coral and porcelain until a drop of moisture fell from her eye and rolled down her cheek. Tsunade wiped the stray tear before it could hit the floor.
Shizune felt something somber inside of her suddenly begin to uncoil; something she hadn't felt in years, and she knew it had undoubtedly been triggered by the long-suppressed tears of her closest friend. Tears nearly sprang to her own eyes, but she forced them back with the resolve that there could not be two emotionally distraught medical nin in a room with a dying patient, let alone the best two.
"Tsunade…" Shizune mumbled, dropping off the usual, formal title. For, in this moment, the woman shedding silent tears in somber abandon was not, '
Hokage'. Not, '
Princess', not '
Sannin'. She was simply Tsunade; another kunoichi reflecting on her tragic past. The dark-haired woman remained quiet when she was not acknowledged, until finally the blonde wiped her tear-stained face and righted herself. Tsunade's new body language told of something different from what it had previously betrayed. The woman now standing over the bed of her ailing patient was now Hokage. She was now the Medical Sannin, and the last of the Senju clan that carried on the burning Will of Fire for her village. Her calm mask had been replaced, and now her resolve had been made.
For Sakura.
For her brother, her lover and every life she had so regretfully failed in saving.
With a small nod more to herself than her assistant, Tsunade extracted a small scroll from the inner part of her foresty green robes and tentatively began to pull it open. Shizune's breath audibly hitched as the context written inside began to glow a soft, luminous green, but the blonde paid it no mind.
A small, hopeful smile curled onto the Senju's lips as the diamond on her forehead began to glow. Sakura Haruno's life was about to change in ways she couldn't fathom. And this, was only just the beginning.
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