Space to Breathe - [ Sakura Haruno ]

CHAPTER 24

Sakura groaned in frustration as she thought back to her fight with Sasuke. Her fists were clenched where they lay in her lap above the thin hospital blanket.

"I was arrogant," she admitted to the empty space of her hospital room. "I sent Dokuka away just so I could finish the bastard myself."

Sakura sent her fist down onto the mattress as she groaned again.

"So stupid," she muttered, "it would have been so much smarter to have her go around him, make sure he couldn't escape as I hit him from one side."

A soft knock at her door stopped her rambling however, and she watched as Shino walked in with a sour expression on his face.

"I wanted to come and apologise," the Aburame said, taking his right hand and gripping the cast surrounding his left arm. "I wanted to finish my opponent quickly and come back up the rest of you. I failed."

Sakura's eyes widened a touch at that, but she understood how he felt entirely.

"It wasn't your fault," Sakura said, gesturing for Shino to take a seat in one of the two wooden chair in the room. "As team captain, it was my job to ensure complications like this didn't occur."

"I never should have been made chunin," Sakura sighed, but tears did not fall. "I failed as team leader."

But instead of Shino's voice, another came from the doorway.

"We were outclassed entirely," Nanako said, her damaged hand surrounded with bandages and casts too. "It's why Masato and I had to resort to such drastic measures."

Sakura sighed again, shaking her head sadly as she thought about what happened to Masato.

"I'm sorry for leaving you to fight opponents like that alone," Sakura whispered, but both conscious members of her team could hear her clearly.

"We chose our battles," Shino said, clearly having been brought up to speed on the mission's events.

"Shino's right," a third voice said loudly from the doorway, slipping past Nanako and entering he room.

Hinata slipped in after her Inuzuka teammate and nodded, "we would never blame you for the outcome of a battle we fought alone, good or bad."

Sakura's eyes moistened at the support, and slowly she nodded. Everyone let their shoulders drop as she did, and moved forwards, Nanako sitting on the chair beside Shino and Kiba standing beside Hinata behind them.

"I don't plan on letting the Uchiha get away with this, though," Sakura was surprised to hear Hinata the first to speak, more venom than she thought possible in her tone.

"Me either," Nanako replied quickly, and Sakura couldn't help but glance at her hand.

"The medical shinobi said that the chakra pathways are damaged beyond repair," Nanako admits at that, but her smile doesn't falter, "but the actual structure will heal perfectly."

Sakura's eyes widened at that, but Nanako only smirked in response. "I don't plan on letting an injury like this stop me."

A moment later, Sakura understood with a small nod, images of Haku using jutsu with single handed seals flashed through her mind. She had told her team about her first C rank, and Nanako had taken inspiration.

"I've offered to help her train," Shino declared then, "Uchiha Sasuke caused my comrades a lot of pain, I will pay him back."

Kiba didn't speak, somewhat uncharacteristically, but he nodded along immediately. Sakura gave them all a small smile before speaking.