Hidden In The Leaf

Part. 9..

........ Death, the great motivator.....

........................HAIKU(9)....................

             
                TSUKI  NO DE NO

           KUZA NI KAZA FUKU
    
                 HOTOTOGISU.

                                           ... Shiki

...................O0O0O0O0O0..................

        Heat. Like liquid fire it stings but barely so. As though it were an unspoken promise of something much deeper; a prequel or prologue into a tale that'll singe you from the inside out. God her blood was boiling and it continued to as the feel of a known energy coated her barely healed wounds. Hands aglow she knew, swept over her outwardly unconscious frame while clashes of anger raged on hellishly beyond this seemingly passed out state.

Incredible indeed Sakura thought in her beaten form.  Her chakra had dwindled down to such an alarming extent that even a week's long slumber would have proven insufficient enough in reclaiming that which she had lost.  Desperately she tried to move her limbs, shifting if she could; though on the inside it felt possible, but on the outside she still remained a motionless pile of abused meat under the depleting life force of her mentor. Battle cries filtered in like distant howls; echoing frightfully. The scent of blood, as familiar and unwelcomed as it were, drifted in aggressively. Whether or not they were her own or her friends, her comrades, or her enemy's remained a mystery for Sakura was slowing dying.

Aside from this still ongoing slaugther that knew not an end and persisted depsite having already having it's fill, She too fought on unfortunately. Stuck in a war of her own behind closed lids and under numb limbs, Haruno Sakura was slowly battling the able blades of death; relentless in her refusal to bow beneath their weight, just yet. However, the truth as ugly and unwelcomed it stood, once again proved to be one hell of a dam pill to swallow.

      But swallowed she did. She had to.

All of Tsunade's efforts were being wasted for her body had sustained too much damage and the worst of them slept beneath the surface. She knew it, and the Hokage most definitely did as well. But silently Tsunade persisted, quietly offering prayers to what ever form of deity resided in the heavens... Ohh Sakura heard her alright. Words spoken not by lips and tongue but through the wavering flow of her very own life force; she heard them. Never the less, no amount of chanting on her shishou's part were going to cut it this time around. Zetsu's darkened tendrils had embedded themselves further than the mere surface of her flesh, borrowing as deeply as her mind and even beyond; into that place which slept her reserves. Thus explaining the sudden disaperance of her master's mark, the seal of longevity.

Her nerves were begining to give out from her toes coming up. Evidence of such were made as pain's existence began to ebb dreadfully slow, giving way to a numbing sensation. Sakura's body, they knew, had already adapted that ominous glow the dead loved quite intimately. But her heart fought on. Its rhythm thumped heavily against her chest, dancing in sync to chaos's wild tune. She sensed them all, albeit in a fogged up kind of way, but never the less, Sakura sensed them by the ticking seconds. Dying wasn't such a sad thing was it? To leave behind the ones you loved, cherished, or on the verge of appreciation, all for an unknown afterlife.

But to be forgotten; to just be a passing memory of the person you once were, whom once existed. Now that spelt the true definition of sadness.... Subconsciously clenching her swollen jaws, She finally managed to muster every last ounce of Chakra Zetsu hadn't been able to steal. Her senses fell over the entire expanse of the beyond repair battle field. Stealing a quickened breath, she combed through each fighting presence until her mind found the ones she cherished more than her own miserable existence.