Chương 71: Chapter 69: Break down
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CHAPTER 69: BREAK DOWN
Sakura sprinted through the festival grounds, blurring past the stands and bystanders that they were barely able to notice; her heart pounding as if it were trying to escape her chest. She no longer paid attention to the vibrant atmosphere, and the laughter was blocked from her ears, trumped by the pounding of her heartbeat. Her vision blurred, the edges of her world becoming indistinct as she fled to the secluded forest side of the school campus. She came to a stop, panting heavily, and leaned against a tree for support, as her feet could no longer carry her.
Memories began to assault her from every direction like ghosts rising from the shadows of her past. She saw Naruto, Sasuke, and herself as young Genin, waiting in that classroom for their sensei who was over an hour late. Kakashi praised them for passing the bell test, Naruto tied to that stump in the forest. Their first real mission that included protecting a bridge builder from assassins, where Sakura had her first taste of a ninja's disposition, and what it took from you. The chunnin exams, where Sakura realized just how vulnerable she was compared to her peers, and how fatal that could be to those around her. Naruto's back, when he told her off for trying to step in between his and Sasuke's fight. And Sasuke's back the night he left the village. His cold, dismissive words echoed in her mind, cutting deeper than any physical wound.
Then came the memory of her desperate request to Naruto, the promise she had begged him to make: to bring Sasuke back. She could see Naruto's earnest smile, filled with resolve and though she didn't notice it at the time, pain. The subsequent years of training, pushing herself to the limit to become stronger, flooded her thoughts. She recalled the moment Naruto had returned to the village. The destruction wrought by Pain, the devastation of Konoha, the loss and grief that had followed—all these memories played out in her mind like a relentless, haunting film.
Her breath came in ragged gasps, a fist clenching in her chest. She sank to her knees, clutching at her heart, her vision narrowing to a tunnel of darkness. Her body trembled violently, and she felt as though she were being pulled into a bottomless abyss.
"Sakura!" A voice attempted to break through the fog but she could barely see it.
Hitoshi appeared in front of her, dropping down, grasping her shoulders trying to pull Sakura back to the shores of reality but she was still going under and drowning. He shook her. "Sakura, snap out of it! Can you hear me?"
She struggled to focus on his face, her breath hitching like she was swallowing glass shards. She could barely make out his words, the panic making it hard to process anything beyond her own racing thoughts and the unbearable pain in her chest.
"Sakura, you have to calm down," Hitoshi urged, his voice steady but filled with worry. He knew that he needed to keep his head in order to avoid helping Sakura lose hers. Although Hitoshi could already feel the beads of sweat on his head from the panic tighten its hold on him. "Breathe with me, okay? In and out. Slow breaths. Come on, you can do this."
But she couldn't catch her breath, even when she heard his voice. Her vision darkened further, and she felt herself slipping away.
Realizing the severity of the situation, Hitoshi didn't hesitate. He scooped her up into his arms, carrying her as swiftly as he could toward the school's nurse's office. "Hang on, Sakura. Just hang on," he whispered, more to reassure himself than anything else.
..
..
..
When Hitoshi burst into the nurse's office, it was a relief to see Recover Girl. He feared the festivities might have pulled her away from her post but thankfully not. Even though he rushed through his explanation, this wasn't the first sprint on the path involving Sakura, and Chiyo was able to navigate it easily. Giving instructions to Hitoshi, to place Sakura on the bed, who was still breathing in shallow puffs of air.
Chiyo followed through with the regular protocol for handling panic attacks. It was nothing unusual this was high school, and teenagers were anxious, but there was no change in Sakura, except for her face turning blue.
"This isn't a panic attack, it's something more. We need to get her stabilized."
Hitoshi stepped back, watching anxiously as the nurse worked to help Sakura. As her watched the machines being pulled, strapped, and stabbed into her, he felt something knawing in the pit of his stomach. A severe discomfort he couldn't talk himself down from. This wasn't a problem he could fight or fix with his quirk. It gave him a sense of utter helplessness.
Soon Sakura was strapped to everything, including an oxygen mask, even after all this time had passed she remained unconscious, which added to her suffering. Finally, Chiyou conceded to administering a sedative in case another wave of seizures was preparing to roll onto shore.
Sakura's breathing slowly began to steady, the tightness in her chest easing.
"You're going to be okay, Sakura," Hitoshi said softly, his eyes never leaving her face.
As the sedative took effect, Sakura's tense body gradually relaxed, and her breathing evened out. She drifted into a dreamless sleep.
..
..
.
Her eyes opened, trying to clear the haze of the white ceiling and beeping medical equipment. The one feeling she was beginning to despise was the intrusiveness of the needles and tubes in her arms. She knew where she was before her eyes adjusted and the blurriness cleared. Her vision came into focus, and she decided to drive it further by sitting up. Meeting the back of Chiyo, at her desk waiting patiently for the girl to wake up.
"Well you certainly seem in good spirits," Chiyo spoke in a bittersweet tone holding a lot of warning, but Sakura couldn't be bothered to read it. Especially not when she recalled the reason she had been shocked into her current state. "How are you feeling?"
"Drained," Sakura deadpanned.
Recovery Girl nodded, placing a comforting hand on Sakura's shoulder. "That's to be expected. You had quite the episode. Just rest for now."
"The festival…" She glanced at the window, catching the strength of the setting sun. The festivities were over, and everyone was likely just clearing out the school grounds. Sakura could just hope that Izuku and Mirio were able to redirect Eri from her outburst earlier. Although she was convincing herself to be concerned, it felt as if everything around her was covered in grey. A dull weighty sensation in her limbs. The tune she usually danced to, was growing soft.
"You'll be fine, dear. Just take it easy." Chiyo said this not out of care alone, but because as a medical professional, she had hit a wall. Sakura's heart condition couldn't be explained by her or any other expert, and they had consulted without her knowledge on the matter. The doctors who heard her case came up with many hypotheses but tests would throw them out. Some thought it might be a result of her quirk, a quirk that itself was too remarkable to believe there were no drawbacks. However, there was also her injury, a scar that clearly showed a wound going right through her body.
'What have you endured dear?' Chiyo's glimpse was like a glare to Sakura who turned hard towards the women.
"I should tell him that you're up."
"Who Aizawa?"
Chiyo gave a soft grin, "He hasn't left since bringing you in,"
As Chiyo left, Hitoshi stepped in, his face attempting to remain steady but his expression was like paper bending in the wind. He could barely hold her gaze without his eyes fogging. Sakura noticed the little crinkle in his brows, and the way his mouth twitched and his nose scrunching ever so slightly. Putting all those numbers together, she was able to figure out the sum and knew it equaled worry. She read his body language like it was wide text.
"You looking at me like I'm a corpse. I see despite all that training Aizawa hasn't taught you the importance of hiding your emotions. I can read your face like a book,"
"You really want to talk about controlling emotions when you just had a panic attack that landed you here in the first place? You're welcome by the way." Hitoshi shot back, obviously unamused by her antics. "You can try and play this off all you want, but that's not going to work with me. Spent a little too much time with you Sakura, I know you,"
There was a light scoff, as Sakura tossed her legs over the bed, rolling her shoulders. Things could've been better for their reacquaintance. This was the first time they were seeing each other face to face after stalking the halls and passing each other along like ghosts.
"Yeah well, you only know as much as I want you to,"
Hitoshi moved to her bedside, trying to mask his worry with a teasing smirk. "This is the second time I've carried you here for the same reason."
She let out an exaggerated breath, "What can I say? I'm not as glued together as I look?"
Her expression turned distant, and Hitoshi decided to pull her back before she became completely aloof.
"Are you going to tell me why?"
"You think I can tell when will this happen? Because if I could it would be happening a lot less," Sakura promised. "And last time I checked you weren't that concerned about me,"
Hitoshi sighed, crossing his arms. "I saw you running into the forest, and I thought something was wrong. And," He gestured to her sitting in the bed, indicating he had been right. "As for not being concerned, try spending days without sleep because you're thinking about your friend who decided to just run away. Not knowing if she was safe, but that she's definitely on a villain's hit list for taking out their boss. And then coming back to school like none of it happened."
While he was waiting for an explanation, Sakura clearly had no intention of giving him one or defending herself. What could she say after all? To repeat the same song, string the same chords that were ignored by everyone in this world? And what would it matter if she told him anyway? It wouldn't change anything.
"Everyone gets to make their own decisions," she stated plainly. "If you spend all your time worrying about how it'll affect other people you aren't going to move very far. I'm not going to apologize for doing what felt right to me. But that doesn't mean I think any less of you as a friend."
The room's atmosphere was becoming colder, as Hitoshi mauled over Sakura's words as if she had physically struck him in the gut. He had spent enough time with Sakura to realize she didn't have the same patterns of thought as others their age. He credited that to her being alone, without family, which was something she also didn't mention.
Hitoshi chuckled softly, the sound easing some of the tension in the room. "So I'm the one who messed up huh?"
"No," Sakura brushed her hair back, "If you were mad at me for leaving, that's fine. You have a right to feel however you want. But I also had the right to decide what I wanted to do."
That was all she could offer Hitoshi, half-hearted explanations and stories that bonded their relationship like a solvent diluted with water. She couldn't even fault Hitoshi for how he reacted to her leaving, because he had put weight into their friendship, and it may have come off that she hadn't. But what could she say in defense of this other than the conclusion of the matter without the introduction?
He groaned, leaning back against the wall. "Yeah, so I brought Licht to the dorms with me. Maybe you wanna see him? I'm sure that kid will like him too,"
And odd way to inform her that he was over it, but Sakura took the hand he had extended. "Yeah,"
Even though this was a step in a better direction and a rekindled friendship, Sakura still didn't feel any major shift in her persona. And there was still a weight that dragged along with her as she continued to try and pull herself up.
..
..
..
Annoying.
That barely summed up the expression he felt towards Sakura Haruno. Despite attending the same class, their first real interaction had left an indentation of disappointment in him. Like a foolish child who didn't know any better, wrapped in naivety and their own vanity. Selfishly claiming care over someone she didn't even know well enough to read. She was oblivious to the reality they lived. The one he and Naruto had endured for so long. But she had been made a part of the team. And she became tolerable. Then time went on, and just as he learned more about Naruto, he also learned more about Sakura. And vice versa.
He coordinated easier with her, than the the knucklehead who couldn't take instruction the first time around and questioned his every decision. She was smart enough at least, if not for her lack of ability in the ranges a ninja needed to reach to do the job. But she managed despite this. She did the best she could with what she had at her disposal. Even going as far as to risk her life for him, despite all he had done to push her away. Time continued to play its part, along with proximity. Just as Sasuke could call Naruto his best friend, the boy he had treated as a hindrance, he could acknowledge her as his friend as well. And if she wasn't behaving in her usual mannerisms that he deemed annoying, he became unnerved.
That was problematic, he realized when he left the village. The futile attempt she made to stop him. The icy tone he had taken in dismissing her cries wasn't subject to her alone, he had given Naruto the same deliverance when he tried to pull him back from the darkness. It was after his encounter with Sakura, after leaving her on that park bench that he realized he needed to numb himself to any further advances to take him back. Or he wouldn't be able to turn his back on them, and he wouldn't be able to achieve the power he desired.
Then after he left, he did everything to fill his days with perilous preparation and training for a fundamental moment that might be his last, He didn't care about anything else because he couldn't afford it anymore. He didn't look towards a future beyond receiving his revenge, and so when he encountered her after years, he was indifferent, unmoved, just as he was towards Naruto.
But then he had to learn the truth about the darkness he was chasing, about his brother who massacred their clan. Only to find a bigger pit to sink into. A greater darkness to chase. He was a blank slate that someone sought to paint to their liking, and Sasuke, for all his ability and strength, allowed his weakened spirit to fall deeper. He wanted to destroy everything in his path, everyone he believed was smiling at his brother's expense, even those he called his friends. Looking back now, he realized he was like a wounded child whose strings had been pulled to someone else's liking.
His vision of the world had been morphed, everything was grey and black. There was no true goodness in anything, for all the light that shone, there were shadows created in turn. He resolved that he would embrace this fully. The concept of hatred that had been so clean-cut for him before, had grown to a greater feat. If it hadn't been for Naruto, he would've been completely consumed.
But one thing that didn't change in his stance through everything was this, Sakura Haruno was annoying to him. Even now, after he watched Kaguya rip through her body and throw her far away, Sasuke momentarily forgot his goal. The one, he had stressed to Naruto had to be prioritized over everything else, including Sakura and Kakashi who had been dragged into the clash.
And he found her annoying because even after a funeral had been held with her name etched into the stone with so many others who lost their lives in this war. Sasuke was still here, sharing a stance with only one other that her name didn't belong on that tablet.
And for months he had been adamant in proving it.
The blistering heat from the lava bubbling barely a few feet beneath him, wouldn't so much as shift his expression, that blank mask he rarely allowed to fall. This wasn't the first time he had entered this dimension. Searching for that sliver of hope. But he knew by now he wasn't going to find anything but heat here. And exits, as well as entrance, he stepped into the dark void and was hit with a splitting chill.
The temperature plummets as he crosses the threshold into this new dimension, the air biting with a ferocity that cuts to the bone. Frost clings to his cloak, and his breath emerges in visible puffs. He tries not to think back on his first arrival here, focusing instead on the castle perched atop a distant mountain peak, its silhouette stark against the icy backdrop.
The castle, he hadn't noticed upon his first arrival to this dimension, as Kaguya had held all his attention. It was more of a relic, reduced to a skeletal framework of what it once was. This had puzzled him, as the impression held someone or something had been occupying this place.
Sasuke pushes open the heavy, creaking doors, stepping into the shadowed interior. The palace is a labyrinth of cold stone and silent echoes, each corridor leading him deeper into its heart. His Sharingan flickers, scanning for any signs of life or hidden dangers. Frost hangs in the air, disturbed only by his passage.
Finally, he arrives at a chamber, the room wide standing up with broken pillars, where a large stone tablet stands prominently in the center. Ancient runes and carvings cover its surface, only having meaning to his eyes. He reads them briefly, eyes narrowing as he deciphers the message. His fingers trace the intricate symbols, and he channels his chakra into the stone.
The tablet responds, groaning. The top of the tablet shifts with a grinding noise, revealing a hidden compartment. From it, a single scroll emerges, ancient and weathered. Sasuke's muscles tense, anticipating booby traps, but none come.
He takes the scroll and with practiced caution, he opens a portal, stepping through the swirling vortex.
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