Darkest Before Dawn

Lastly

A/N: This story was started when I was 13 years old and ended when I was 15 years old. Please try to understand all the mistakes and misgivings as things I didn't understand when I was younger, and in the future I will be going through these chapters trying to rectify those mistakes. Thank you for understanding!

August 4, 2018

::

She looked... dead.

Her body was pale and almost matched the color of the bed sheets she lay on. Her pulse was very, very shallow and one almost couldn't tell that it was there. Tsunade said that she would be alright.

If she was alright, why wasn't she awake?

Itachi had been by Sakura's side every day since she was rushed to the hospital. He hadn't slept or eaten in days, and as a result, he nearly lost five pounds. Tsunade burst into the room one day with an irritated scowl on her face.

"Alright, Uchiha! It's about damn time you get your ass outta here!" she snapped.

"I am not leaving her alone."

"Well too damn bad kid 'cause I'm calling the shots here!"

She pulled Itachi up from his seat and tossed him out of the room, "Eat something, take a shower, and get some sleep then maybe, just maybe, I'll let you back on these grounds."

Tsunade shut the door in his face. Disgruntled and left with no other choice, Itachi sighed and left the hospital.

::

Itachi returned bright and early the following morning. Sasuke tagged along with him and they met up with Naruto, who was carrying a huge bundle of white lilies in his arms. The three of them walked to the hospital without a word and stumbled upon Tsunade herself in the hospital lobby. 

"So you came back, did you? And you brought others along too, how nice." she mused, earning her an exasperated look from Shizune, "Sakura's stable so she's allowed to have visitors today. There's two up there right now."

Itachi was already walking down the hallway with his lips drawn into a firm line and his hands clenched into fists. Sasuke stared at him with a hint of worry in his eyes. He had never seen his brother so worked up before. When the three of them arrived at her room, they were met with visitors and a sight they didn't expect to see.

Kisame Hoshigaki was at the foot of Sakura's bed with her medical clipboard, reading her papers with a critical eye and Hidan was sitting on the stool at her bedside, a worried look on his face. The table in the room was filled with flowers:: sunflowers, roses, freesias, lilacs, origami ones... and tacked on the wall beside them were a couple of crayon drawings.

"Yo." Kisame greeted without raising his eyes. Hidan got up from the stool and smiled at the newcomers as he bowed.

"Nice to meet you."

Naruto's grip tightened around the lilies.

"We... We already met... You're Hidan, dattebayo!"

Hidan straightened and scratched his cheek.

"You met Hidan, but not me. I'm Hideo, one of Hidan's least dominant personalities. I'm also called Mr. Cosmopolitan, but that's not really important..." he added quietly. Hideo quickly sat back on the stool and looked at Kisame.

"Well? What do those documents say, Hoshigaki-san?"

Naruto placed his bundle of flowers somewhere on the table and turned to gaze at the foreign shinobi in the room. Here were more of Sakura's weird friends who just happened to get even weirder, and he hadn't been in for five minutes.