Getting Lost on the Roads of Life - a KakaSaku Story [CONCLUDED]

The Unwilling Test Subject

"That very nearly went horribly wrong," somebody murmured, followed by several unintelligible sentences.

Roused abruptly from a restless dream, Sakura tried to tilt her head to hear better, but something held it in a strong grip. Something blocking her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, making breathing harder than it should be.

"That's why I don't like men," somebody else whispered. "Reckless fools, all of them."

"Let's just acknowledge we sometimes need them - but can very often do without," the first voice chuckled.

Why were these people whispering?

Sakura tried to move again, struggling harder against what held her down. There was a whisper of pain in her head... until she tried to lift her hands to move whatever tied her down away. Red-hot pain laced up both her arms with such intensity, she sharply cried out.

"She's awake! Finally!"

A person moved closer, Sakura could feel the warmth of a body and could smell... no, impossible. Only one person she knew smelled of jasmine and Sake like this. A person who was far away.

"Shishou? Shishou, is that you?" Confusion made her head spin. Was she... was she perhaps still dreaming?

"Shhh," Tsunade said and put a hand on her arm, "don't move, Sakura. It'll only hurt."

"Where... what...-" She tried not to panic, but that was hard. It felt like she was under water, unable to draw enough air into her lungs, doomed to suffocate, finding herself in the wrong time, the wrong space...

"You're at the hospital. You were very badly hurt, but don't worry, you're on the mend now. Your face should be as good as new in a few weeks."

Her face... now she remembered with a chill that took hold of all her limbs.

The cuts. She had been sliced open by a thousand cuts, like a vicious animal had mauled her. As if Rin had wanted to destroy what made her her. Erase her face, her identity. Of course, the thing keeping her head still was a tower of bandages. That's why she couldn't hear properly. That's why the world was grey-white, muffled and dimmed.

Sakura discovered with a flash of agony that everything about her hurt and that the rest of her was covered in bandages too. Fine? She wasn't fine. Tsunade was lying, trying to spare her. She knew her face wasn't going to be as good as new, not after the slicing it had received. And her eyes... hadn't her eyes failed her?

Sakura tried to lift her hands again to touch the bandages and assess the damage but it couldn't be done, her limbs were heavy like lead. She recognized the effects of a strong painkiller. Gritting her teeth, she tried to calm her breathing. So what if her face was destroyed. Wasn't being alive more important? And if she was blind... breathe, Sakura, breathe. Wasn't it... okay... no. Not okay, it's not okay, what will I do? I cannot be blind, I cannot be blind, I canno...

"Everyone is fine," Tsunade assured her again, which brought back more memories of the fight, the fear, the pain. And...

"Sarada!" Sakura gasped, "they were after Sarada!"

"She's safe. Kaeru and Iruka hid her underground," Tsunade said. "Apparently, Kakashi told them to. He put the village defenses on high alert before he left. It was a close call, but the enemy forces were chased away."

Kakashi...

"Is Sasuke here...?" Sakura pressed out, thinking she would like to see him, feel him near for comfort.

"Sasuke?"

Why did Tsunade sound so surprised?

"Has something happened to him?" Sakura blurted out in panic, feeling a lump growing in her throat. She was going to cry soon, she felt overwhelmed by everything. She remembered worrying about him. She remembered... Karin holding his arm. She felt acute jealousy mingle with her worry. Karin had no right to hold his arm like it belonged to her. She had no right to offer him her toxic skin.