SasuSaku - Past Selves

Chapter 16 - Masterclass

Nobody could have prepared Sakura for the sights that awaited her at her destination. She felt his location closer and closer to her, until she could see the battleground from a distance.

There was no sign of fighting - which gave her cold chills. Suddenly, her sense of Sasuke's location started to fade drastically.

*What's going on? Why is the signal so weak?* Then it hit her, as she picked up her pace. *No... is he completely drained from chakra? At least I managed to track him to this point - I can see the battleground from here.* She ran as fast as she could, trying her best not to let anxiety get the best of her.

The forest nearby was in ruins. Most trees had been burned or cut down. She kept running, until she finally reached the center.

First thing she saw was Juugo's lifeless body.

"Oh no..." she didn't give herself time to react to this sight. She kept running forward.

Next, she saw the badly disfigured body of someone who resembled Sasuke, but not quite.

*This must be Itachi...*

He had a fading pulse. She knew immediately he was in his final moments. *Oh my god, he did it... where the hell is he?* she thought to herself as she kept running and searching.

Suddenly, she noticed a trail of blood. She traced it with her eyes, until they landed on a sight that made her knees weak.

"S-sasuke...?"

She saw a figure on the ground. She ran as fast as she could. Indeed, it was him.

She froze on the spot when she spotted a sword through Sasuke's heart.

"Sasuke!" Sakura immediately knelt next to him, activating her healing jutsu.

"Hey, Sasuke, you're okay! I'm here!" She tried to smile through the tears. "This is just a little stab wound! Piece of cake!"

As she was in the process of healing him, her eyes suddenly widened, her breath shivering.

"W-What the hell..?"

"Why aren't you breathing?" She screamed at him, shaking him gently.

"Come on, Sasuke! I healed the wound! What's going on? Why isn't his heartbeat back?"

*Think, Sakura!*

"Oh no!" She weaved special hand signs, and started running a full diagnostic on the wound.

"Oh no! No!" she screamed, panicking.

*The sword... it must have had something dangerous on it... it seems like it burned through his chakra threads... could it have been Amaterasu? Did Itachi somehow dose his fucking sword with that black fire and put it through his heart?!*

Healing wounds was easy, but it seemed like Sasuke's heart had been cut off from any source of chakra. He had no heartbeat.

"Fuck!"

Every second counted. Sakura realized that her best shot was to take him to a hospital. Except, there was no time.

*He is dead...* a voice whispered in her mind. "NO!" she replied out loud, continuing to heal him.

"No, Sasuke, not now!"

Sakura was fully focused, refusing to believe the reality in front of her. He had no pulse - who knows how long he had been like that.

*His chakra networks are severed... I'd know how to restore them, except his entire chakra supply is depleted.. even if I restore the chakra network, he has no chakra flow to the heart, or anywhere else in his body... I can't believe he used the last bit of his chakra!! He must have known it would kill him...* her mind was racing.