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vesperlionheart · 7 years

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Pompeii 31

@thefreckledone

Sakura noticed the Hyuga coming out of the shadows between trees first, but the Uchiha were behind her and Karin and Ino were instantly on guard while Hinata simply bristled at their arrival and drew herself closer to Sakura.

“Sakura!” Shisui exclaimed, touching down like an acrobat from the branches.

There was a split second when his shoes weren't shoes, and his hands weren't hands, but feathers and talons. He reached for her and held his hand back before it could extend close enough to penetrate her personal bubble.

Half a heartbeat later Itachi was beside Shisui, red eyes spinning and oddly fixated on the bloom of sick colors around her wrist. One second he was shadow, the next he had pulled himself out of it and taken physical form.

“What happened?” Itachi asked curtly.

“That’s not a concern we are unable to deal with ourselves, Uchiha,” Neji interrupted, coming up to stand along Sakura and Hinata. He shared a look with his cousin over Sakura’s head that was part blaming part questioning.

“As if,” Shisui sneered.

“We will not be dismissed so casually,” Itachi added, bristling.

Around his head the silken strands of hair seemed to electrify as his red eyes glowed brighter. In response Neji’s pearl colored orbs took on a new level of shine and the veins around his eyes started to stand out. Several other Hyuga came up behind Neji and while Itachi and Shisui were not outnumbered, they did not back down.

“Is this why nothing gets done or solved around here?” Sakura asked, eyes narrowed as she cradled her throbbing wrist to her chest.

Shisui looked hurt first, but her words had an impact on each posturing male. The aggression drained. Both Neji and Itachi seemed to pull back and shift their attention from each other to her and the girls.

“You’re hurt,” Neji stated, trying to still sound matter of fact and not embarrassed about having to be told to stow his ego with a look. “We can get you ice for that. Come inside.”

“We’re going back to the clinic, I don’t need ice, I need to set it,” Sakura said, trying to keep her voice level. Neji couldn’t tell if it was the pain or emotions that made her words almost wobble.

“We still need to know what happened,” Shisui said, voice soft and apologetic.

“Then add yourselves to the list, because I’d like to be the first one to get the memo on what sort of freaky business I keep running into,” Sakura snapped, turning to glare at the Uchiha. “This has happened before, and the Senju said they would be looking into it. Was that a lie? A cover up, or do none of you really know?”

Behind Ino looked down and away, ears burning. Hesitantly she reached out and grabbed a piece of Sakura’s shirt, something to keep them connected.

“The Senju are pursuing leads on Orochimaru.” Itachi glanced upwards at the tree behind her and the parts of it that were still bleeding gold. “He has been known to dabble in the manipulation of their tree craft for his own perversions.”

He didn’t say it, but Sakura knew he was talking about Yamato.

“This was Orochimaru? You and the Senju know that for sure?” Sakura asked, voice turning sharper and sharper with every passing minute the pain in her wrist grew.

Shock would only keep her pain free for a precious little longer before she would have to feel the full force of the break. She had less and less patience for their political bullshit and placating.

Itachi didn’t meet her eyes when he answered. “We would have to confirm that with the Senju, but logically speaking... it stands to reason that this is his doing.”

Karin made a dismissing sound with her teeth and even Ino huffed a little louder in disbelief, neither buying Itachi’s story for what it was; a story. There was no proof and very little evidence to link the trees to the snake monster. But in addition to that, at least Karin’s gut told her that this was something else, something older. Sakura believed that more than she believed Itachi’s words.

“Then what is he doing targeting me? Why now? Why only in the forest? What the hell are his motives?” Sakura felt herself shake with anger. “Why hasn’t anything been done?”

She didn’t say anything else about how angry she was that she wasn’t being included in the investigation or updated with the progress. They told her they would take care of it, pat her on the head, and then went out on their own in separate groups that didn’t work together. She wanted to be kept updated and informed about the thing that had nearly taken her life on more than one occasion, but didn’t feel like she was worth it by the way she was treated. They might like her enough, but they sure as hell didn’t see her as someone important enough to share information with. She wasn’t worth that.

‘Outsider.’

“The Senju are working on it and have made significant progress with the leads available to them.”

“What have you done about it?” Sakura snapped, voice sharp, eyes sharper. Shisui almost flinched. “This is a problem for everyone I thought? I thought Orochimaru was that bad a guy. Why is it only the Senju working on it? And you don’t really mean the Senju, you mean Yamato, because he’s the only one doing anything aside from postering on the stage.”

The air turned stale and Sakura suddenly felt dangerous in front of the monster men of Pompeii. She felt inflated with her own sort of magic. She knew the dirty secrets hidden upon the undersides of their town and she wasn’t scared to bare them in the light. She wasn’t afraid of words when she was covered in gold ichor and blooming bruises. Her bone was broken, these secrets wouldn’t stay in the dark any longer if it meant she had to pay any more for them.

She felt dangerous.

“I think it best we take this inside,” Neji said after a breath. He canted his eyes up to the trees and then back at Sakura.

“I think we were just leaving anyway,” Hinata said, lowering her head to Sakura’s shoulder. She looked over at Karin and then Ino. “Right?”

“Hinata,” Neji hissed, looking a cross between angry and embarrassed. “The hour is late.”

“Indeed, cousin. I will not abandon my friend at such a late hour. You may send a car to the clinic in the morning.” Hinata tugged at Sakura, looking to Karin who seemed the most put together of the girls. Ino looked sick and small clinging to Sakura. “Let’s go.”

“Wait, a statement! We-we need to take a statement on the incident still,” Shisui said, starting to walk sideways to keep up with the girls as they started moving back out of the forest.

Sakura stopped, turning only her head over her shoulder. Her hair was a mess that picked up in the late night breeze, showing off more of her bruises. Her lip was bleeding from where she had bit it so hard it bloomed red.

“A statement? Here, then listen to this. Not for the first time, something in this forest has wanted me, specifically me, like a midnight snack. I was sitting, minding my own business and the tree started to move on its own. Reached out and swallowed me up like I was something tasty. I did what I could to fight it off. I was able to hurt it with my knife but then it got even angrier and broke my wrist.”

It hurt, but Sakura turned and showed off her wrist where the colors were even darker than before. It looked ugly enough to make Neji sneer.

“The blood isn’t yours?” Shisui asked softly, looking at the gold ichor speckled and smeared across her front.

“No, it’s not, we just asked her that,” Karin interjected, causing Shisui to turn towards her and glare.

“Why didn’t you do more to protect yourself?” Itachi asked, voice less affectionate than his cousin’s. “Was a knife all you could manage?”

“Itachi,” Shisui hissed in a scandalized sort of tone.

It was the tone that made Sakura flush and realize what it really was that Itachi was asking. Why hadn’t she transformed, used magic, or fought back with the monster inside? Why hadn’t she spelled and hexed her way out of the tree? If it hadn’t been for Karin, Ino, and Hinata’s help Sakura wasn’t sure she would have been able to get free on her own with just a tiny blade. That tree had been more than just wood and bark. It had been alive and hungry and nasty with her.

Itachi had asked her a highly inappropriate question in a public space that made it hard for her to answer. How could she tell him the reason for her weakness when all her friends were watching? How could she joke off such a wound?

“I think we are done here,” Ino broke in, suddenly ruffled and agitated more so than before. Her hold on Sakura’s shirt shook and her eyes were shards of flashing blue. “We’re going. You wanna ask stupid, victim blaming questions then take it up with an attorney. My family knows a good one.”

Sakura might have been mistaken, but Neji seemed to roll his eyes in a dismissive manner as he crossed his arms and leaned back on his heels. Ino didn’t seem to miss it, as she saved part of her glare for the Hyuga male.

“Come on,” Karin insisted, helping lead the group back to the car.

Thankfully no one came up to stop them as they piled into the GTO and pulled away. It was only when they were back on the main road, wind in their hair, that Karin said anything else.

“All other chaos aside, that’s the easiest it’s ever been to remove Hinata from Neji’s watch. I didn’t think I’d ever see that boy back down so fast.” She turned around in her seat. “Like dude, he just let us all walk out.”

Sakura cradled her wrist and grinned sourly through the pain. “Glad I could be helpful.”

The wrist was set and bandaged, but it was the bruises that really made Sakura wince and avoid mirrors. She took a day off, and was pleased to hear that most of her appointments had been able and willing to reschedule for when she was feeling better.

Shizune did what she could, but it was heartwarming to hear how the halflings insisted Sakura eat and rest until she was better, since the eating was what fixed everything for their people. They would wait until she was better. The gnome family that kept coming back with new children said their kids could wait a week or two before getting their annual checkups.

Sakura knew she would be fine if she didn’t get any last minute surprises.

A tea set down on the counter in front of her made Sakura look up from the computer. She blinked before glancing up to Shizune.

“What’s that?”

“It will help advance the bone in its healing, it’s a Tsunade secret formula. Don’t tell her I shared it with you. Even if it’s not the recipe, I know she’s a hoarder when it comes to her remedies unless she’s administering them herself.”

Sakura felt her eyebrows raise. “Really? It is okay I drink it?”

Shizune glared the way mothers glare at their stubborn children. “Drink it. I don’t care what anyone says. You heal too slowly on your own. You’re almost as bad as the halflings we had to reschedule. But don't worry. A few years and it will all get easier.”

Sakura smiled weakly, accepting the tea and the kiss to her hair. Sakura knew that creatures who didn’t transform healed just as slowly as any old human, but the gnomes, halflings, and other smaller stature creatures like dwarves seemed to heal at an even slower pace. Dwarves were a bit different though, since when their bones broke it was a much bigger deal because their marrow was some of the most durable organic material Sakura had ever come across.

It was getting harder and harder to not see how pathetic she seemed when compared to the others she helped.

Sakura cradled her tea and took it back up to her room, leaving the computer and the work behind for a later time and date. She was a hypocrite that couldn’t honestly rest even when she told everyone else she treated to do the same.

She settled down into her bed covers and pulled her knees up as she reclined with her tea. Around her were the stuffed animals her friends had gotten her for her birthday in various states of rest. She pulled one of the yellow ones onto her lab and held it to her chest before tipping the tea back.

The tea was horrendous and she finished it all, knowing that the best things for a body tasted the worst.

“That could be improved with some mint I think,” Sakura coughed, making a face as the recoil made her shiver. “Ugh, no wonder Tsunade didn’t want to share it with anyone. I‘d be embarrassed too.”

Sakura turned over on her side and curled up around her stuffed plushie. It helped to hold onto something, even if that thing was non living. It gave her the feeling that maybe, maybe, she wasn’t as alone as she felt.

She felt bad for the rest of the girls who had fallen into hot water with their parents and families over the incident in the woods. None of them seemed to care and insisted this wasn’t the worst thing they had been caught doing, but Sakura still felt bad for how hard the hammer came down on the girls.

She doubted it was as hard for the sons and boys that caught out late.

Sakura closed her eyes and drifted in and out of snoozing, knowing it was best to heal and not fall into the trap of self loathing that prompted her to hurt herself in emotional ways.

‘Your fault.’

Her eyes snapped open and she pulled herself up in bed, looking for the voice and seeing no one. That voice was hers. She knew that. Her dreamcatcher might have worked at keeping other things out, but on nights where her guilt was a bead in her belly, she was her own worst enemy, harvesting the fruits of her self doubt like rotten fruit.

“Not true,” she said out loud, knowing she was better than her doubts. “It’s not my fault and I didn’t ask for any of it.”

‘Then why were you the only target? You don’t belong and the forest knows. That’s why they are trying to get rid of you.’

Sakura swung her legs over the side and stood. There was no one else in the room but she knew what worked best for her was to face the voice inside her as if it was a figure in front of her. She reached out with her good hand and felt the magic thrumming around her room, protecting her from the outside, loving her enough to protect her. She wasn’t hated. She was loved. She wasn’t as weak as she wanted to believe. She wasn’t the strongest, but she was far from the weakest. She wasn’t-she wasn’t….

“I’m not unwanted,” she forced herself to say out loud, hating how her voice wobbled with the lack of confidence.

The way Itachi watched her, looking like he blamed her for not being able to do more to get free. She hated the way he seemed to see through her and know she wasn’t suited like the babes born and raised on Pompeii ground.

She was an invader but she wasn’t unwanted. She was new, she wasn’t a local, but she wasn’t unwanted. She was a transplant, but she wasn’t a reject. She wasn’t unwanted. She wasn’t! She wasn’t a-!

SLAM

Sakura jumped, turning sharply on her heel, eyes wide to see the book on the floor, pages bent and spine upright. It didn’t have a face but it looked upset. She rushed to pick it up and right it, setting it back on the end of her bed, muttering apologies.

The pages flapped on their own and Sakura flinched back as they began to flip faster and faster through unending pages until they stopped, flat and perfect as the words started to bleed through the pages.

It had been days, maybe a couple of weeks since she had last been shown something from the book. She had honestly forgotten about it for a few days.

They don’t understand.

I’m not like them, I’ll never be like them, and it showed more and more each day. She’s trying to blend in and be one of them but I can’t, even for her, I can’t. I want to, I have never wanted anything more than to just fit, to belong, especially by her side.

I’m frustrated by how little fruit my efforts have presented me. For how badly my wanting is I would have thought that I would have been able to achieve something of merit by now. Did they not consider me prodigy? Did they not say I was brilliant? What good is brilliance if it can not make a space for me to belong, for the both of us to belong, side by side in this damn town?

Sakura recognized the handwriting. It was a little more harried and messy than other times, but it was the same person she had read from times and days before. Instantly her heart hurt for the writer as more and more of their thoughts and recorded feelings showed up inside the book’s pages.

Do others have such doubts, I wonder. It seems they all fit so perfectly into place. Where is their doubt, does it even exist? I can’t be the only one who feels this way, but I’m so alone. I can’t find solace in anyone else, so I must do what I can.

If there is no place for me than I shall carve out for myself a place of belonging. I will take it upon myself to make a place where I fit, where I can belong. The dank of depression is not where I wish to dwell. I will build my castle of belonging with my brilliance.

I will not be denied.

The book went blank, the words bled away and it closed itself seemingly done with her. There were no words from it, but Sakura felt like it was telling her to get over herself and stop dwelling on her dark thoughts. It didn’t like when she did that.

Sakura didn’t think herself brilliant, but if there was one thing she would not deny herself, it was that she was a hard worker. She did not give up, she fought tooth and claw for everything that didn’t just come naturally. She studied twice as hard as the boys with photographic memory and the girls with connections through fathers and friends. Not to disparage anyone else’s efforts, Sakura knew she worked hard, harder than others.

She would build her own sense of belonging. She wasn’t the only one who felt alone in Pompeii, after all.

A jolt raced up her spine and Sakura felt drawn to the stairwell just in time to hear Shizune struggle with a body in their lobby. The sky outside was dim with twilight, but the blood on the floor still gleamed with a reflection of light.

“Yamato,” Sakura gasped, taking the stairs two at a time and landing as lightly as her bones would let her. “What happened?”

He looked barely awake and she doubted he was fully aware of his surroundings. It was a wonder how he managed to get himself to her clinic in such a condition.

“The Senju dropped him off like this.”

Sakura felt her face heat with anger, but saved that for later. “Let’s get him into the room.”

“Sakura, your wrist!”

“It’s fine,” she ground out, too angry to feel the ache. “Your tea works wonderfully.”

Shizune didn’t say anything more as she helped carry the broken man into the open room with a table just waiting for him. Sakura helped prep him, cutting away his torn and bloody shirt before dabbing the areas of puncture. She noted that the punctures were all over, most of them bruising or inflamed in some way. He looked like he had fallen into a pit of snakes and taken one too many bites.

Sakura felt sick when she realized she probably wasn’t too off the mark with that guess.

“There’s a lot of venom, isn’t there?” she asked with growing dread. She hated how weak her voice sounded when she needed to it be strong for the patient, even if it was Shizune who was mainly treating the injuries.

Shizune’s face was white and tight with worry. “Hold him down. I have something that can extract it. Tsunade left it with me in case something like Haku ever happened again. Just hold him and wait.”

Sakura swallowed, but did as she was asked. She took Yamato’s better looking hand and squeezed it to let him know she was there more than anything else. He cracked open the only eye not bloated and turned his head enough to see her.

“You look terrible,” he chuckled weakly.

“You don’t look so hot yourself, buddy.”

“I’m always hot. What are you talking about,” he coughed, sounding thinner and thinner with every word until he sucked in a good gust of new air. His eye settled on her again. “What happened to you, Sakura?”

“Evil tree tried to eat me. They said it was probably Orochimaru, but you know… Is that what you were doing?”

Yamato looked confused for moment before coughing. Blood stained his lips. “He-he can’t manipulate trees. What are they talking about? That’s the whole reason he ended up making me. He couldn’t handle the Senju dna in his own body...that’s my reason for being, they said.” His eyelids started to drop and a wrinkle formed between his brows. “I’m the bastard Senju that can’t do anything perfect enough to be worth it.”

Sakura leaned in, holding his hand closer to her chest, heart skipping around in fear as he grew whiter and whiter. His skin was almost see through in parts. “Don’t worry about that. You’re amazing and I’m proud of you. Thank you for trying to keep us all safe. Thank you, you’re going to get better. I promise. You’ll get better.”

His lids lifted enough that she was sure he saw her. She inched closer and gripped his hand as tightly as she could with her good hand. He seemed halfway out of it and she wondered if he was even aware of what he was saying or hearing.

“Thank you for saving us. We appreciate you so much, Yamato.”

“No,” he breathed, eyes dropping again. “Not everyone...not anyone, just you. No one else even says my name.” It seemed like such an effort when he looked up at her again. “Just you.”

“Th-that’s not true. Maybe the others don’t show or share it as much as they should, but you save us all, you protect us all. Even if they don’t know it, they’re thankful to you and I am so proud of you. I really am.”

She could hear how heavy his breathing his was as he struggled to inflate and deflate his lungs. They sounded wet almost. She needed to get a stethoscope and check that-

“If it was just for you, it was worth it.”

Sakura blinked and looked up to his face, but he was on the edge of consciousness, eyes closed, likely unaware of what he was even saying.

Shizune came back into the room but Sakura hardly noticed. Yamato winced and grunted through the procedure, but Sakura didn’t let go of his hand, and he seemed to know that.

#Pompeii #weird Wednesdays #Uchiha #yamato #stuff is going on #stuff is going down

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