บท 22: Chapter 22

The weight on the end of his bed disappeared quickly as Sakura ran over to his side, pulling his shoulder towards her, forcing him onto his back, "Sasuke! No, don't use that mark! Sasuke, stop it!"

"I can't!" he grunted out, as something feral seemed to emerge within the depths of his unconscious. His fingers began to twitch with sudden urges to hurt something, to destroy, while his conscious mind was doing everything in its power to resist.

There was a pause behind him as he continued to writhe in agony, and he wondered dimly what Sakura was doing. She pulled him up into a sitting position and he felt her bend down to his head. He could barely keep the curse's desire to reach about and strangle her under control—she should leave, she could end up getting killed. His grasp was slipping…why was she still here!?

"Gomen."

A sudden force hit the back of his neck sharply. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he smirked slightly in realization at the irony as he began to lose consciousness—this had been the same way he had knocked her out when he left three years ago. Blackness then took him as he finally passed out.

"He WHAT?!" Tsunade exclaimed slamming her hands down the desk as she faced Shizune who had just brought her news from the hospital.

"He activated the curse mark somehow," Shizune replied nervously at the Hokage's angry mood, "Sakura managed to knock him out, but the marks are still pulsing on his skin. She says that they feel warm to the touch."

Tsunade clenched her fists tightly before murmuring to herself, "I should have nipped this in the bud years ago when I brought him out of his coma."

"Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked timidly, not sure what the Hokage would do.

"Shizune!" she exclaimed sharply and the young woman jumped to attention, "Gather the top elite medical ninja who specialize in curse binding and get them to meet me at the hospital. Now go, quickly!"

"Hai, Tsunade-sama!" the assistant exclaimed before dashing out of the room.

Tsunade didn't waste another moment as she leapt over her desk and ran out of the room, down the flight of stairs and towards the hospital. People hastily jumped out of the sprinting Hokage's way as she made her way down the street in a hurry. She just barely missed running over some visitors who were leaving the hospital as she burst through the front door. She didn't bother with the elevator but ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time, people jumping out of her way as she dashed down the hallways. She skidded to a stop in front of room two hundred and twenty one, and flung the door open.

Sakura was sitting on the edge of Sasuke's bed, holding his hand in hers, looking extremely pale and nervous. The curse mark was spread over half of Sasuke's body, having not quite extended to the other side; he was unconscious still, but the curse was causing him to shiver in a feverish way. Sakura looked up at Tsunade in a relieved manner as she approached the side of the bed, tears forming in her apprentice's eyes.

"Alright—come with me, Sakura," Tsunade ordered, not asking any questions or allowing Sakura to ask her any.

Tsunade picked up the unconscious boy and slung him over her shoulder like he was a sack of potatoes, ignoring Sakura's look of shock and merely motioned for her to follow. Leaving at a brisk pace, Sakura matched it, wringing her hands as she walked.

"Tsunade-sama—?" Sakura began but Tsunade cut her off.

"What happened, Sakura?" she asked as they stepped into the elevator, the doors closing behind them.

"Oh, Tsunade-sama," Sakura wailed, covering her face with her hands, "I think it might have been my fault!"

"How so?"

"Sasuke wasn't being very cooperative, insisting that he could manage on his own…so I let him have his way, and—" Sakura took a shuddering breath, "—well, it wasn't very flattering for him. He fell and crashed into things a lot before he finally accepted my help. Do you think that perhaps because I put him under that strain, that the curse would…?"

"No," Tsunade replied firmly, a smile coming to her lips regardless of the situation, "Damaging someone's dignity never harmed anyone, and it certainly does not activate curse marks. An interesting method Sakura—somewhat amusing."

"Then what…?" Sakura asked, taking some deep breaths to calm herself.

Tsunade closed her eyes and pondered it for a moment, "I can't imagine he was in a good mood after being publicly embarrassed like that. Curse marks get sensitive over time, and I wouldn't be surprised if the anger caused it to activate."

Tsunade stepped off the elevator as soon as the door opened, striding down the hallway to a room that was dedicated to binding curses and other jutsu-inflicted damage.

"Then it was my—" Sakura began despairingly, but again she was cut off.

"How did he react to the curse flaring up?" Tsunade asked shortly, kicking open the door to the room and was disgusted to see that Shizune was late in bringing the ninja.

"He seemed…worried—no, more like terrified," Sakura pondered, clutching the handkerchief that Shizune had given her, knuckles white.

"Exactly," Tsunade replied, setting down Sasuke in the middle of the empty room, "He was not expecting it to react, and was desperately trying to control it. You did the right thing in knocking him out—who knows what might have happened if you hadn't done so."

"What are you going to do?" Sakura asked, seeming to have noticed the room for the first time.

Biting her thumb, Tsunade drew blood from the broken veins, and began to write the words of sealing that would form a pentacle.

"Some medic ninja and I are going to put a complex binding jutsu on that mark—one that will be a permanent binding," Tsunade replied, writing furiously, her movements sure as she smeared her thumb against the cold floor, "This is the last time that Sasuke will ever be connected to Orochimaru—he will never be able to use the power of that curse mark again."