Let It Begin

12. Truth

~Gasp!~,

Sakura sucked in air loudly as she jerked up, panting. After catching her breath, she started to observe her surroundings. She was sitting on a futon inside a private room alone with bandage around her waist.

Trying to remember what had happened, she thought long and hard about what happened before she finally fainted from the blood loss, exhaustion, and pain she had had to endure while waiting for her team to find her.

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~Before she fainted~

"We need to hurry!" Denka shouted.

They rushed through the forest that was filling with smoke and fire, trying to find Sakura. As Karin was busy tracking the Leaf ninjas, they had to take the long path to avoid encountering them. All their caution might as well have been for naught as the trail of soaked and burnt forestry created by the bursts of Water Jutsu would easily give away their position if anyone was paying attention.

"Sakura!" Sasuke yelled and picked up his speed the moment he caught sight of Sakura on the ground in a clearing just in front of them. Hina was sitting next to her, eyes closed in concentrating to help Sakura hide her presence while also using Wind Jutsu to shield them from the blazing inferno surrounding them.

"T..thank...you," whispered Sakura as she saw Denka leading her team to her rescue. With great sigh of relief, she released the Summoning Jutsu and allowed herself to relax a little.

It was so tempting to just close her eyes and take a little nap, especially now that she knew she was relatively safe. Then again, who cared of she was safe or not; she was so tired. Only the nagging voices of her two former medical trainers, Tsunade and Kabuto, telling her the consequences of falling prey to her body's desires kept her from falling asleep.

"We need to hurry!" Karin shouted, "I used Sasuke's old shirt as a distraction to send them the wrong way, but it won't be long before they pick up on our trail again."

Suigetsu immediately set to work extinguishing the flames around them as the others attended to Sakura. Jugo knelt down by her side and inspected the wound.

"Sasuke, give her the antidote. Hurry. Sakura, I need to pull this out or we won't be able to stop the bleeding once the poison's gone," he said. Sasuke and Sakura nodded and Jugo slowly and gently grasped the hilt and inched the two-foot blade out.

"Ngh!" Sakura only just managed to hold back her scream as black spots danced in her vision from pain and exhaustion. While Jugo was distracting her, Sasuke took the needle with the antidote Sakura's clone had given him and jabbed roughly into her arm. She barely noticed the pinprick against the excruciating pain in her stomach, but she managed to concentrate on following the cold liquid's path as it wound its way through her body.

Now that the poison was gone, Sakura used the last of her strength to stop the gushing flow of blood leaking from her torso. She didn't even notice Sasuke reaching one arm under her legs and the other under her neck to pick her up.

"Karin, can we go back to the inn?" Sasuke asked once he had Sakura, now soundly unconscious, securely in his arms.

"No, we can't," she answered, "But there is another town nearby. For now, it should be safe to go there."

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~Back in the present~

Sakura's cheeks began to turn red. She had, once again, been in his arms. After softly squeaking like a fangirl for a few seconds, she began removing her bandages and healed what was left of the stab wound along with other wounds she had received during battle.