Wednesday 28th, Thursday 29th, Friday 30th of June
Sasuke was asleep next to Sakura and the kunoichi was looking at him worried. It had been three days since he passed out and even with the healing she provided he still wouldn't wake up.
He was alive and from what she had seen and his body was fine. She managed to stop the problem before it got too bad and she really hoped that the scenario that happened to the villagers wouldn't happen to him. If that was the case, there will be nothing she could do about it. Before entering into a panic, she took a deep breath. There was no point in assuming things. She could see that his chakra was flowing irregularly but the rest of his organs were fine. Now that he was asleep, she used the opportunity to check on his arm as well. Everything was going to be fine.
She stood up and looked around to make sure no beast was lurking. She needed to get some water and was about to leave Sasuke alone for the first time in three days.
She turned around and glanced at his body laying down under the wooden roof of a cave made by the roots of two trees. It reminded her of their chunin exam. Back then she had to protect the two of them but failed at it. If it wasn't for Lee, Shikamaru, Choji and Ino, she would've been dead.
She walked to the river and filled up a jar. Things were different this time, she was able to protect herself and protect him in case of an emergency like now. Her medical jutsu just saved his life and she wondered how he would've managed without her.
Once the bottle was filled, she decided to wash her face from the dirt and she cleaned the dried blood off her shoulder. The cold of the water felt nice on her skin. Once all cleaned up, she stood up and walked back to the cave.
Her mind was wandering while she walked and at first didn't realise that her teammate wasn't there anymore. Once she was close enough and paid more attention to what was around her, she saw the empty space and her heart pounded in her chest. She scanned her surroundings, still not seeing him she did the only thing that could be done in a situation like that. She screamed on the top of her lungs his name and waited. Not seeing him come back, she ran to pick up her bag: he was gone. Did he leave on his own? His bag was missing. How would anyone know which bag was his if not him. The anger slowly creeped into her body. Did he actually leave without her after what she did for him? It wasn't taking four steps backwards, it was ten at this point.
She ruminated while getting out of the cave and walked into the forest. How dared him leave her on her own. He was the reason why she was here! He wanted her to come. She...
"Sakura?"
She jumped around and faced a dumbfounded Sasuke. She raised her eyebrows at his expression.
"Why do you seem surprised?"
He frowned his eyebrows and stared at her. His eyes were still blank, empty of any emotion. He finally opened his mouth but close it right away. She knew that he was struggling to find his words and she was glad to see him like that. She wanted to let him struggle a little bit more smirking at him. He finally spoke.
"You said that you were going home after Hoshigakure. When I woke up I assumed that you did. I saw your bag but I remembered that you were the one carrying the provisions and medicine so... I don't know" he shrugged his shoulders."I thought that you left them behind."
The anger she previously felt faded away as quickly as it came. Of course he would think that. She stayed quiet for a minute thinking of what she could say to him.
"Well you passed out in the village and you weren't waking up. I healed you and waited." Remembering what she said during her fight she continued. "But now that you are fine I should go..."
The truth was... she didn't want to leave. The whole meteor situation intrigued her medical brain an the fact that even Sasuke Uchiha got hurt made her wonder how much dangerous all of this was going to be. A part of her didn't want him to face this danger alone.
She didn't know what she was waiting for but she struggled to leave. Her brain told her to but her body didn't act up on it. She looked at Sasuke who seemed uncomfortable. Of course he wanted her to leave. After what she had said to him during their fight, he was probably eager for her to just go back home and leave him alone.
She sighed and turned her back. As soon as she put one foot forward, she turned around and walked up to him. Her hand took her bag off her shoulder and handed it to him.
"It will be more useful to you. I guess I will see you when you're back."
The bag immediately fell on the floor and Sasuke's hand grabbed her arm quickly. She slowly looked into his eyes but he was avoiding hers.
"Wait. You should stay." his voice was very quiet but she heard him perfectly. Her heart beat faster.
He stubbornly looked away while all she wanted to do was look at him. What was going on inside of him. She stared at his hand on her arm and smiled. Six steps forward.
She grabbed her bag and put it back on her shoulders.
"Very well then, let's go to that other dimension!"
"About that... I can't use my chakra."
"What do you mean?" she got a bit worried and pushed him down. He followed the movement and sat on the grass. She kneeled down, sat down on his lap and leaned towards his chest. He slightly backed away but he then saw the green emitting light on her hand, he understood what she was doing. He let her work feeling slightly concerned.
She took her time and got closer to his face. Her position was uncomfortable so he just assumed that she was moving to make it better but he didn't understand how her face being so close to him was necessary or comfortable. On the contrary, the intimacy of her head made him very uncomfortable and all he wanted to do was run away. Her presence was somewhat comforting so he let her do what she had to.
"Well," she backed a bit further away. "it seems like that meteor messed up your chakra system. There's not much I can do about it. I've never had to deal with a situation like this but what you have is very similar to how the Hyuga gentle fist affects one's body. Only time will tell if it will go back to normal or not so..."
"We don't have time" mumbled Sasuke. "we need to go to that dimension quickly. I can't even use your chakra, you probably are in the same state."
She said no with her head. "I'm fine. I gathered some chakra in my abdomen, I think it protected the centre from the meteor's energy. I can lend you some, how much do you need?"
"A quantity that won't affect you."
Using the tiger hand seal to release the seal Sakura walked behind Sasuke. Once the familiar black patterns covered her face she pressed her hands onto his shoulders. The unfamiliar chakra travelled into his body leaving a cold sensation.
"Now!" she screamed.
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He activated his rinnegan and a spiralling portal appeared in front of them. They both entered it, Sakura's hands still on his shoulders. Once inside, their body got sucked into oblivion.
They both landed into the lava dimension, this time on a rock. They could see the volcano from there just above the castle. That was their next destination.
Sasuke stood up and looked at Sakura to make sure that she was following. Seeing that she was out of breath, he lend her his hand that she gladly took and was quickly back on her feet. The two ninjas looked in front of them. Sasuke evaluated the distance separating them from there. There wasn't any road to join it, just lava.
"I need to summon Garuda. He can make us travel there quickly..."
Sasuke was ashamed to ask but once again she repeated what she did just before.
Sasuke summoned his hawk and asked Sakura to jump on it. The kunoichi felt a bit weak but managed to get on it safely. He followed her closely and they flew to the roof of the castle. The heat was barely bearable and the duo decided to go inside as fast as they could.
Once inside the air was a bit stuffy but more fresh. They were both standing in a hallway made of stones and the only source of light was the lava visible from a small window. Sasuke sat down against a wall.
"Do you need to rest? Are you feeling good?"
Sasuke looked at her and hated answering her question. No, he didn't feel good. In fact he was feeling dizzy and nauseous but he remained quiet. His silence was probably enough for Sakura who sat down opposite to him and leaned against the wall. Her hands searched for something inside the bag and came out holding the jar of water.
"That's the only water we have. Drink up."
"I feel nauseous."
"I'll give you a mix of herbs to swallow with then water then, why didn't you say it?"
Once again he didn't want to reply. He felt weak and stupid. She was there, perfectly healthy, even after using her chakra, when he could barely stand up.
Her hands were back inside the bag and took a box out of it. She opened it and he could see a small mortar and few pouches. She careful opened two of them and mixed them in the mortar.
His eyes looked at her. She saved his life and was about to keep him healthy. A feeling of guilt filled his body. She never deserved what he did to do her. Since they were in the same team she always took care of him, cried when he was hurt or praised him when he did something good. He always felt the need to protect her and he couldn't understand how he managed to turn on her and try to kill the very person that he always wanted to protect.
"Stop, Sakura. I don't need that."
"Of course you do. You are feeling sick and that's the least I can do for you."
He didn't want her to. He didn't want her to help him, he didn't deserve that help.
"I'm fine."
She looked at him annoyed.
"Stop pushing me away. You're so annoying."
His face dropped when she said that.
"I can't try more than I am Sasuke. Get it into your head, we won't give up on you no matter how far you push things, so stop doing it to yourself."
"That's not what you said in the forest." he slightly pouted but corrected himself really fast. He quickly glanced at Sakura who giggled and realised that she caught that. "Great" he whispered to himself.
"Is that what's going on in your head? I was angry at you. Angry for leaving the village, angry for going to Orochimaru, angry for attacking us when we tried to help, angry for bringing our hopes up and then crushing them again. Angry because when I finally thought that we had you back, you left on a journey. I am angry at you, I think. I don't know what I feel but I'm trying to look past it. The past is the past and I want to keep it there. If you're back, then we need to learn to work with each other, especially now."
"Angry..."
"Yeah and it's not like we can go back in time to change everything. If there is one thing I learned from working in that clinic, it's that children have the ability to move on. They don't think about what happened in the past, not when they are under ten years old. They move on, and try again. If they fail, they stand up and keep going. We are ninjas, we are going to have to do things that will ultimately hurt someone. If we keep thinking about it, it will slowly destroy us. Naruto and I, we're here and we're not going anywhere, no matter how many times you fail. So try and fail or succeed. We are like a family, we faced the most horrendous things together at a very young age and we created bonds that even yourself didn't manage to cut. Here, take this and stay quiet now, I'll see how your chakra is doing."
Sasuke stared at the mixture. His brain was fuzzy and he didn't know what to think... no, he couldn't think. A family, they were his family.
He took the mortar off Sakura's hands and picked up the weird green mixture and swallowed it with some water. Sakura's hands touched his abdomen slightly and the familiar green light appeared. Her head was down but he could see parts of her face. She was so close to him he could see the barely visible freckles on her nose.
He kept looking at her without seeing her. He went back into his head and tried to make some order in his brain. He failed at it and he reluctantly watched the images of his memories unfold. He saw everything from his life at home, his mother, his brother, the massacre, team 7, Zabuza, Haku, Sakura being hurt, Sakura crying on him,... He saw how he grabbed her hand in the forest of death when the curse mark was too painful to handle, he remembered her worry when he decided to fight, he recalled the night he left and the first time he saw them again in years.
For the first time the memories weren't filled with emotions, they were just pictures. Pictures that made up who he was, who he is and who he will be. At this point he understood something, our past makes who we are but it is our responsibility to change what we don't want to face again and he, for sure, didn't want to feel darkness anymore. He wanted to feel what he felt when he was a child, brightness and love. Before he knew it, his eyes closed and he fell asleep.
Sasuke opened his eyes in the darkness of the castle. He was facing the ceiling and he felt something comfortable behind his neck. He turned his head to the left and saw Sakura putting food on two plates. Everything was still very blurry but he saw her looking at him. He gave her a barely noticeable smile and sat down. He was still feeling dizzy so he leaned against the wall.
"Did you have a nice sleep?"
He nodded and took the plate she was handing him. Rice and a bit of the dry meat they bought in Tanigakure.
"Did anything happen while I was asleep?"
"No, nothing. I went over that book again to try to find a connection or something that would explain this dimension. Could you explain to me what you know about Kaguya or..."
He thought about what he knew. Was he allowed to tell her? He then realised that she needed all the information he could provide if she was going to help him. So Sasuke started speaking softly.
"A millennium ago, she arrived on Earth. We don't know how exactly when, she searched for the God Tree. She was discovered by the people living on the land and was brought to their emperor. Eventually she grew closer to the him and fell pregnant. She ended up by losing faith in humanity. Wanting peace she wanted to obtain god-like powers. She ate the fruit of the God Tree and became the first person to possess chakra. She ended the wars and took control of everything. She was worshipped by all and gradually changed. She created an army to protect her chakra from being stolen. She gave birth to Hagomoro and Hamura and gave them some of her chakra. Wanting more power she fusionend with the tree and became the ten tails. Her sons sealed her and created the moon. Just before it happened she managed to create an artificial human, white Zetsu, who's objective was to revive her. He manipulated every single reincarnation of Hagomoro's eldest son. She ten got revived and sealed by us."
Sakura nodded pensively.
"So what are we exactly looking for?" she asked.
"Kaguya became obsessed with power. She was the most powerful being back then so I want to understand why she created an army of white Zetsu. There must be a reason."
"Maybe to protect her chakra?"
"No she did create an army for that but it wasn't them. My theory is that she feared something or someone... We are here to find as much information about her and her history. Maybe if we can find something about her past then we can connect the dots. It is safe to assume that the meteor that hit Hoshigakure is linked to her. It either created this dimension or might be connected to it. It is also safe to say that the castle in this dimension and the one in the ice one are key pieces to the puzzle. They all have to hide some sort of information. She created this place to either hide or rest. We also can't assume that the dimensions are empty, we might not be the only ones here."
"We can also say for a fact that the energy from this meteor has a negative effect on our bodies which proves that it doesn't come from our planet. We need to inform Kakashi of all of that, especially what we saw in Hoshigakure."
"Not know, first let's see what is in this dimension. Once we get out we will tell him."
Sakura agreed silently. The situation was already very complex and could potentially be extremely dangerous. The weight of the entire world fell on her shoulders. She looked at Sasuke who was also lost in his thoughts. She smiled, at least she wasn't alone.
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Hiii, I'm sorry to interrupt you... I just wanted to say a huuuuge thank you to everyone reading this story. Thank you to everyone who comments and upvote! It really, really means a lot to me. Some SasuSaku moments are coming now that he finally came to his senses ahah. Anyway I won't bother you any longer but once again thank you so much ❤️