ᗰOᑎᔕTEᖇ [🧡 ᑎᗩᖇᑌᕼIᑎᗩ 💜] [Ɱҽէąʍօɾքհօʂìʂ] Bσσƙ Oɳҽ

Yumiko

Chapter Fifty-Three

Yumiko

June 1, 2010

She couldn't breathe.

Ino dug her nails deeper, straining to break the iron grip inhibiting her lungs from expanding.

'Why?' she voicelessly questioned those dead emerald orbs glinting back at her, 'why, Sakura?'

Hot tears burned her cheeks...

They weren't hers.

She hadn't blinked, hadn't looked away for a moment and yet those same jade eyes that held an emptiness more terrifying than the darkest void, now blazed with emotion. A sadness so deep it hurt her heart, a pain so profound the suffocating kunoichi wanted nothing more to soothe the crying woman. She was broken. Her pink haired soon to be murderer was so, so broken.

'What happened, Sakura? What's wrong?' she asked silently as her lungs screamed for air, 'who hurt you?'

Her eyes crossed even as she silently asked those ridiculous questions. Strength left her arms in a sudden rush, her opposing grip slackening as her vision began to darken. She felt floaty and scared. Her pulse thundering but her heart sluggish. She could hear it thumping her ears. Such a soothing lullaby.

"How could you do that, Ino?"

Sluggish baby blues drifted drunkenly to the speaker.

'What did I do?'

"Why did you do it?" her best friend sobbed, "tell me why..."

Lips trembling, arms shaking, Sakura tightened her grip abruptly, her quaking arms at odds with the merciless squeezing of her steady hands. Ino flayed, adrenaline flooding her slumped body, driving her grip back to those strangling hands. Prying, pulling, wrestling with the iron clasp around her throat, the light headed blonde fought for air. Ino twisted, her legs kicking, aiming for the woman atop her but meeting only air. Her slow heartbeat launched into a full on sprint, beating so painfully against her ribcage she feared it'd bruise her insides.

"I have to do this. You know that," Sakura wept, her voice so shaky, Ino could barely hear her over the rushing in her ears, "I don't have a choice...you gave me no choice. I don't want to do this...I don't want you to go...but she didn't want to either. You didn't give her a choice!"

'Who?' she questioned, 'I didn't give who a choice...?'

Dizziness slammed into her harder than an uphill bolder, ripping away her strength once more. Her arms flopped to the bed, her teary blue eyes rolling into the back of her skull as her vision blurred. Darkness crept into her peripherals, muting the light in the room...in her own tear stained eyes.

"Why did you do it, Ino?!" she screamed.

'What did I do?'

The vice on her neck lifted abruptly.

Sucking in a harsh breath, Ino rose from the soft bed below, hand flying to her throat, panicked gaze darting to the person next to her.

Dark eyes met her own.

Familiar eyes she hadn't seen in what felt like forever.

Reality seeped into her racing mind, her environment at large bleeding into awareness. She looked around, taking in the sparse room, the hospital like aesthetic, the burning bright light overhead. Turning back to the figure seated on her narrow bed, her senses tuned themselves to the significance of his presence.