The Butterfly: Chapter 8 of 23

[Tea Leaf]

Standard notes apply, for details see chapter 1. Additional stuff, the lyrrics that are in between slashes //like so// are from the song "Chrysanthemum" by Everclear. So this is my "songfic" chapter. Now I know some people may skip over the lyrics (I know I do a lot of the time) but they're really important to the story and act kinda like the secret voices inside of the characters' heads...anyways, listening to the song while reading the chapter could be a good idea too for those of you who download, it adds a nice atmosphere. Actually, "Chrysanthemum" is probably the song I listened to the most while writting this story, the second most being "Gravity" by Maaya Sakamoto (I'm pretty sure...) and is from the Wolf's Rain soundtrack. And if you look at my phrasing at certain moments in various chapters, they're allusions to that song. Anyways, sorry for the delay with this chapter, I hope you all enjoy ^^

Disclaimer: Naruto's not mine but if Kishimoto wants to give it to me, I will gladly accept.

The Butterfly: Chapter 8

By: Tea Leaf / Banana Soap

~~~

Sasuke felt like the rain was never going to end. He?d managed to pick up Sakura?s trail by accident after spotting some discarded gauze at the base of a tree on the north side of town. There had been bloodstains on the gauze and the pattern suggested it had been wrapped around her head.

That had worried him.

If her head was still bleeding that could lead to serious complications in regards to her mental capacities. She could have lost consciousness too and could be stranded, dying out there in the woods somewhere.

He?d almost panicked at the thought but Gaara?s words had come back to him.

?You underestimate her.?

He?d packed up his things and taken off after her almost immediately.

Her trail, though cold, was still easy enough to find. She?d made her own path through the heart of the woods, heading directly north. Because it was an original trail, it hadn?t been disturbed much.

He?d gone slower than he would have liked but he?d wanted to keep his eyes on the trail.

She was limping. Her weight was being supported mainly by her left leg. Understandable, her right one was broken after all.

About two days on the trail, her footing started to become unsteady, often swaying. Then he found a body imprint in the grass. It was the first one he?d seen and it looked like she?d collapsed rather then stopped to rest.

But then the trail continued. And the rain had started.

Every now and then he came across a deep footprint from when she had slipped in the mud but the rain that was still pouring was quickly washing them away.

He wasn?t worried though, he knew Sakura and she always moved in straight lines until something pushed her to a different direction. So he kept going north. He stumbled across a few more abandoned bandages and indentations formed from collapse seemed to be becoming more and more frequent.

And now he found himself at another one.

The rain was pouring down on him but he ignored it as he examined the scene.

It was different; the indentation was larger, as if she?d been moved while she was unconscious and there were no telltale deep handprints that showed that she had showed herself back to her feet again.

Someone else had found her and taken her somewhere.

The logical guess was a hospital, he was pretty sure a good number of her injuries must have been aggravated at this point. Probably infected.

{She probably didn?t care?}

~~~

The rain poured down. It had started raining when she?d left the hospital two days ago and hadn?t stopped yet.

The doctor had told her she?d come in the middle of the rainy season so it probably wouldn?t stop again for at least another week.

The ground was slippery.

She kept away from the roads and trails as well as any means of transportation other than her two feet. She didn?t want to run into other people. She didn?t want to come into contact with other people.

She was in a forest; most of the terrain here was forest.

Her breathing was laboured, her limbs were exhausted but she kept moving. She hadn?t stopped moving since she?d left the hospital.

She couldn?t stop, not when she was this close. Not when she was still this far away.

Her right leg slipped in the mud and she cried out as she fell on the broken limb, jarring her broken rib in the process. She?d landed at the foot of a tree and leaned back against it only to wince as the still tender wound at the back of her head made contact with the wood.

She tried, but she couldn?t get back up. She couldn?t move.

The rain poured in fat droplets, sliding down her already damp skin.

She was desperate, she knew. She was pathetic.

At least it was raining. She was free in the rain.

She couldn?t hurt things when it rained.

//Yes I hate the way I feel
And it makes no sense//

She continued to breathe heavily as she sat, getting soaked.

What was she doing?

She was making some desperate mad dash to the side of some comatose John Doe in the north through the most bitterly hostile weather.

She wasn?t even sure it was him. She almost didn?t want it to be him because it made her all the more pathetic.

For three years, she?d been sitting at home rotting when all along he?d been waiting to be found and helped.

She was so useless. After he had tried so hard to help her she hadn?t even tried to look for him.

And as luck would have it, it wouldn?t even have been that hard to find him if she had.

She blinked back the bitter tears that stung her eyes. She was not going to pity herself.

She was angry with herself.

She was so stupid and useless.

First she?d said those stupid things to Sasuke. Then she?d stupidly trusted a bunch of traveling vagrants. And then she?d stupidly allowed herself to be drugged and gotten beaten up and probably would have been raped had she not stupidly summoned those damn butterflies and stupidly killed everyone.

{Oh god?} her inner self whimpered as she suddenly felt swamped in guilt, as her tears finally spilled over, mixing with the rain.

And once she started, she just couldn?t stop.

All those people, all of them twisted and mutilated and all because of her.

The tears just kept coming and coming and she was suddenly overwhelmed with everything. With her physical pain, her heart ache, her guilt, her misery, her depression.

As if the images from the city of corpses weren?t enough every painful moment from the past seven years reared their ugly heads to torment her as well.

And then that night came back to haunt her again and made it all worse.

Seven years and she still couldn?t move on. She still couldn?t let that rejection go.

//Five months gone and all I?ve got are
Pretty pink flowers on a chain link fence//

She pulled a kunai out of her pouch without thought, as the rain and tears continued to blind her, and stabbed it through her arm.

She snapped out of her hysteria as sharp pain ripped through her arm. She looked down at the wound. The kunai went straight through her forearm, protruding from both sides of her flesh.

It was bleeding.

The rain diluted the blood, making it seem like there was more. She sighed.

She was such an idiot. She really had to get a grip. Things were only going to get harder, that?s all they ever did.

//And I don't like what it means
'Cause I know there is more to come//

Her breathing calmed and her tears slowed but didn?t stop. She raised her left knee and rested her now injured left arm on it. She didn?t touch the kunai. She didn?t stem the blood that was steadily dripping from her flesh.

Her right leg lay stretched out and she was really glad she had splints instead of a cast. A cast would be far more work.

{Thank the seven mad gods for small mercies?} her inner self commented sardonically.

?Yeah?small mercies?? she answered herself.

But what about large mercies?

He was waiting for her in a hospital just another four days north.

He was alive after all and he hadn?t abandoned her. He hadn?t abandoned her.

//I can't go home without chrysanthemum//

~~~

//I walk around lost
And I don't know why//

Sasuke found the nearest hospital and showed the receptionist a picture that had been taken of team 7 after he had returned to the village and Sakura?s wounds had finally healed up.

Yes, she?d seen the girl. She?d left 4 days ago. He was getting closer.

The receptionist paged the doctor that had treated her.

?Hello, welcome to the Sunshine hospital, I hear you are inquiring about one of our Jane Doe patients.? The doctor said as he walked towards him with a pleasant smile.

?Jane Doe?? he questioned.

?Yes, I never did manage to get her name. It was all we could do to get her to allow us to treat her after she saw that picture.? The doctor continued in a humorous tone.

?Picture?? he questioned again.

?Oh yes, we had her take a look at our book of John and Jane Does and she looked like she would faint after spotting one of our older ones.? The doctor responded congenially.

Sasuke frowned, who could she have possibly seen? He held out the by now heavily creased group picture.

?Is this the girl who was in here?? he asked pointing to the pink haired 16-year old in the picture. It had been the closest thing he had to a recent picture.

?Oh yes, that?s here all right, less happy and far more beat up and much more skeletal of course. And isn?t that funny! That?s the John Doe she recognized!? The doctor exclaimed as he pointed to Kakashi.

//I don't see the faces,
Or the places
That I should recognize//

?What? This man is in your hospital?? Sasuke asked, stunned by the discovery.

?Well, not our hospital as in this one but another branch of our hospital further north.? The doctor responded jovially.

He was in shock, Kakashi had been alive all this time and no one had found him.

{The nins Tsunade sent out couldn?t have looked all that hard.} he thought angrily.

?And you?re sure that she went to find him?? he asked, he needed to be sure as well.

?Oh yes, definitely. Do you require the address?? the doctor asked with an amused gleam in his eyes.

?Heh, yeah, that would be greatly appreciated.? Sasuke responded in a slightly sardonic tone.

//It's like that dream
Where it feels like home
But it don't look right//

This was too coincidental. It felt off. The doctor had been too forthcoming with his information. It was too convenient that Sakura had suddenly stumbled upon Kakashi?s trail after 3 years of his disappearing without a trace.

And it was too easy that he?d fallen upon them both and was only a few days behind.

But still he went on. If something was up, she probably wouldn?t be in any kind of a state to notice after that massacre and discovering Kakashi.

//Yes I will look everywhere tonight//

He?d debated between taking the main roads and getting there faster but decided to follow her cold and fading but still clear trail through the northern woods.

The doctor had told him that she was fairly weak since she hadn?t been eating and because of her injuries. If something happened to her, he needed to know as soon as possible. Too many things could go wrong if he simply waited at the north hospital.

//I will not stop until I make things right//

The rain was still pouring, and it would pour probably until he made it too the hospital.
He hated the rain; it was washing away her trail. It was washing her away.

It was washing her away from him.

//I can't go home until I see the sun

I can't go home without chrysanthemum//

~~~

//No I can't go home without chrysanthemum//

[TimeShifter16]

Great chapter. Something is definitely up. Is Ataksuki really destroyed?Are they 100% sure Orochimaru is dead? I'm starting to wonder. Post soon so I can find out. Or I'll be sad. (Just kidding)

[jasx316]

great story but its qutie sad.. duncha think ??? anyway when are the next few chapters coming out i want to find out what happens soon....

[csmlee]

Just a curious thought... Wouldn't the doctors see Kakashi's leaf hitai-ate and report back to Konoha that they have one of their people lying in the hospital? And I mean, his Sharingan is a dead give-away too. Or were the doctors too lazy to even bother??? :x

And Sakura needs to stop hurting herself!!! *bonks her and then hugs her*

And then that night came back to haunt her again and made it all worse.

Seven years and she still couldn?t move on. She still couldn?t let that rejection go.

It's that night, isn't it? I don't think Sakura will ever be able to let the rejection go unless Sasuke does some explaining. *whacks the boy*

Oh, and another curious thought. Is the mysterious "him" (from one of the first few chapters) Kakashi? Sakura was using Kakashi's towels??? Wow...

*red warning light starts blinking for Sasuke*

[Tea Leaf]

My excuse for the doctors not knowing that Kakashi was from Konoha is that he didn't have his forehead protector on because the crew had gone in ANBU uniform and the ANBUs don't carry any village markings.

For the Sharingan...we'll say that seeing as they're simply doctors, they don't have any knowledge of infamous ninjas such as Kakashi and so didn't recognise them.

Plausible? Sorry, I hadn't thought of that while writting it ^^()

Yeah, its that night. That manga chapter is actually the one that inspired this whole fic so I had to keep it important.

Ah, I'm so happy you made that connection with the first chapter, I was afraid it would be passed over. *grin*

[csmlee]

Ah... makes sense about the forehead protector thing. I completely forgot he went on the mission as an anbu.

Yeah, since the Uchiha clan was wiped out a few years ago, it would make sense that the doctors didn't recognize the Sharingan. My bad!

And that night... call me weird but I found that chapter kinda romantic... in a bittersweet way. And I'm not referring to Sakura's confession. I mean, how often do you see the Uchiha Sasuke thanking someone? He even make sure Sakura heard him before knocking her out!!! And I'm just absolutely dying to see Sasuke's eyes at that exact moment he thanked Sakura. I don't know about you but I think the expression in a person's eyes is very important in portraying his/her true feelings, especially for characters who close up themselves so much like Sasuke and Heero (from Gundam Wing). We saw the "thank you" scene twice in the manga (the actual scene and then a short flashback in Sakura's POV). But during both times, Kishimoto purposely kept us from seeing Sasuke's eyes and that's just plain unfair!!! :-? I mean, how much did he have to tease us?!! (Or at least this particular fan...)

(Though of course, to Sakura, that night was anything but romantic...)

And hmm.... so something did happen between Kakashi and Sakura in the past...

+1 point for Kakashi
0 point for Sasuke

Things are not looking so good for Sasuke... But what's the fun of it if he gets everything handed to him on a silver platter?