Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

The Book of Love	By : TheChieftain Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 3193 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the series of Naruto (which belongs to Masashi Kishimoto), nor any of the canon characters and I definitely don't make money with this either. I'm just someone that wants to fill in the blanks properly.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
A/N: This is the last chapter of this ongoing fic in AFF to date (8/17) and I will be updating from this point forward as regular. Hopefully it's been a good ride thus far, and if you're liking this or not, or even have something to say, please send me any comments or criticism. These things help me improve as a writer and help to make a good story even better. Thank you for the support!
Lacuna
Sakura had always wanted to see Sasuke naked. It was one of those few fantasies that stemmed from a burning curiosity on her part. The human body was no mystery to her, of course, but Sasuke's was her curio. To see him bare to her was her yearning— and perhaps one of her only carnal wishes. Hands to brush over his chest. To feel every curvature, perfection, and flaw on his person. To pull off all the weight on his body and let it drop to the floor, so that she could gaze upon him. For the man she loved to see her do these things, and let her. It was her desire.
Of course the moment as she saw it was less of a dream and more of a hurried blur of clothes and panic. Sakura had to get Sasuke dressed for the job he volunteered himself for, and as such, she needed to make him look as presentable as possible— for the impressions that he placed on the people she worked with would influence her reputation— and the last thing she needed was to leave the hospital she created with it's staff thinking less than flattering things about her.
And so Sasuke stood in his boxers, holding his clothes in his arm while Sakura hurried to and fro, trying to find anything that would fit the man. The concern wasn't so much his admittedly buff physique, but rather his height, which was far and beyond what the norm for your average medic ninja. Men as tall as Sasuke tended to be fighters, rather than healers, which made finding a uniform all the more difficult.
"Is this necessary? The clothes I was wearing were clean," he pointed out, watching the young woman rummage through the cabinets. "I already washed my hand like you had asked of me."
"Yes Sasuke. In fact, it's pretty important! You wash your clothes in rivers and lakes. You travel through difficult terrains and brave the outside elements. Not to mention, Konoha isn't exactly the shining example of cleanliness. We need you to be sterile in order to work here." Turning around to face him, she held in her arms some dark grey scrubs, as well as a white doctor's coat. Pausing for a moment, she stared at him, looking him over as Sasuke stood there, expectantly.
"Is that what I'll be wearing?"
Sakura took a moment before quickly turning her head up, as to meet the gaze he was giving her. "Huh? Oh, yeah, this is it." She walked over and handed him the uniform whilst taking from him his normal clothes. She made sure to neatly fold them and place them into one of the large lockers. "I'll keep your things with mine, alright? That way no one else can accidentally take your clothes."
Sasuke cocked an eyebrow at this comment, looking to Sakura with mild confusion. Rather than say anything however, he decided that nothing would be a better course of action. He took the moment of silence between them to put on his clothes.
Turning over to him again, she'd scrunch her eyebrows together in a frown as Sasuke struggled to close the doctor's coat with his one hand. The Susanoo arm was much too large to help with such a delicate process. However, the man's concentration on this task was broken when he heard Sakura sigh.
"Let me help you." She approached him, at which point he dropped his arms to his side, to allow her to begin fastening the buttons. Giving a quick glance up at him, she noticed he was starting directly at her. "To be fair, seeing as you're wearing scrubs, it'd look better if you simply kept it unbuttoned. It'll look like you're naked under the coat if you button it all the—"
"Unbutton it then," he interrupted, resulting in a mildly bothered look from Sakura. She signed impatiently and begun to undo the work she had just completed.
"You didn't have to come here to help."
"It was my decision."
"You don't know anything about medical ninjutsu..."
"Then this will be an opportunity to familiarize myself with it."
Sakura shook her head as she tugged on his coat, making sure he looked well dressed. "This isn't something you can just pick up. You could— at best— learn the mystic palm technique with your sharingan eye...but that jutsu is just a tool. And what is a tool without knowledge? It took me years to learn about the human body and how each part worked. About thousands of chemicals, herbs, and medicines, and how each react with one another. How to diagnose a myriad of symptoms with unparalleled accuracy...why a technique will or will not work...this and much more information had to be studied until I knew it better than the back of my hand. Do you really think that you can replicate that knowledge?"
Sasuke stared at Sakura as she spoke, and moved only slightly when she finished issuing her challenge. He shut his eyes momentarily, lowering his head as he did so. "No. What you offer me is irreplaceable," he stated firmly. It was something that surprised Sakura, and the momentary shock made her pause. Looking up, she met eyes with the Uchiha.
"Sasuke..."
"Don't. It's not worth talking about right now." He turned towards the doors leading to the hallway where the two had caught each other before putting his hand on Sakura. He pulled her off of him and stepped away.
Before he completely turned around, Sakura watched the eyes of the man before her turn blood red. "Don't waste your chakra, Sasuke," she warned.
"It's important that I observe things carefully. My sharingan only uses a negligible portion of my chakra pool."
"Alright," she relented before beginning to walk. Quickly, she passed the other and pushed through the doors before taking a sharp left. It was at this point that she heard Sasuke's footsteps behind her.
As the two walked through the doors, Sasuke squinted, letting his eyes adjust to the blinding brightness that was the operation room. The first thing he would notice was the group of men and woman that were looking directly at him. He said nothing, and instead attempted to move towards Sakura as she took her place between two medic nins that stared at the Uchiha.
She put up her hand to stop him before beginning to put on her gloves. "We need space."
Sasuke nodded and folded his arms- or at least did the best he could.
"Watch my assistant. Take the opportunity to learn the tools. You'll be helping me with them today." She then looked to the man opposite of her. "Doctor Osaki, would you mind if our intern stays close to you until we finish?"
"Doctor Haruno?"
"He's actually the man I'll be going on my mission with beginning tomorrow. I want him to familiarize himself with the work we do as medic shinobi. It's a little short notice, but he has the aptitude to learn."
"B-But...this is clearly Sasuke Uchi—"
The woman snapped her gloves at the wrist loudly. "We don't hold prejudice here. He's willing to put in the effort, so for today, he'll be referred to as the new intern."
With a unison of nods between the doctors, they then went back to focusing on the patient, speaking amongst themselves while Sasuke simply stared at them as they worked. He watched as Sakura dug her hand into the open body of the person on the table. She worked in deep concentration, all the while, calmly giving commands and requests, at which points, he made sure to pay special attention.
"Sasuke?"
The man was already looking at her when she picked up her head.
"Please come closer and gently remove the retractors. We're ready to close him up."
The man was hesitant to do anything that would involve messing with the insides of a person. However, at this point, there was no easier job than to remove the tools that held the skin back so that the doctors could work. Sasuke did his best to be delicate, and with all watching him, he managed to do exactly what was asked of him.
Some of the doctors sighed in relief at that moment, which drew ire from Sasuke. Did they think he'd kill the man so easily? The man prided himself on his skills to kill, but that was not his intent. Of course, it wasn't new— for someone to believe all he could do was kill.
Sakura rubbed her cheek with her shoulder, wiping off some sweat. "Phew! That'll do it. Doctor Haruka, please close him up. I know that's your favorite part."
Sasuke raised a quizzical brow at the excited woman as she raised up a needle into the air. However, at that moment, there was a sudden pick up in speed from the monitor.
"Sasuke! Put the retractors back!"
Without so much as a nod, Sasuke obeyed the command, only for all of them to see that one of the vessels had burst.
"Doctor Haruno was right...the wall of his veins were too weak for this surgery..."
"Now isn't the time! Help me tie off this vessel. And get some swabs! Sasuke, get the sucker!"
"The what?" Sasuke's voice raised mildly in confusion.
"Osaki!"
"Right!"
The green haired doctor pulled from the counter with the instruments, a surgical suctioner, which he then pushed the button for twice to show the confused man how it worked before putting it in his hand. "Get in there," he ordered, pushing Sasuke to the front. Sasuke clenched this suction and put it right where Osaki pointed before the man would run out of the room with the intent of 'getting more blood'.
At the same time that the man was getting 'more', one of the other doctors came with two bags of their own, and began the process of transfusion as quickly and efficiently as they could.
Sakura tried her best to close off the vein but was left entirely perplexed and frustrated. "It's disintegrating," she mentioned with an undertone of horror.
It was enough to make Sasuke's heart beat a little faster. He had never been in a situation like this before. There was no battle— nothing he could defeat to save the man. There was only the fight to save his life. His eyes darted one way, then the other. Everything seemed to blend together. Blood red, with little to distinguish one thing from the other. They all knew what they were doing. They called at each other, shouting terms that flew over his head, all while he held the tool that was keeping the area 'clear' for them. How was any of it clear?! Even with his sharingan...hell, even with the rinnegan, Sasuke couldn't see what they were seeing. All that he observed was more blood.
"He's bleeding out!"
"Sakura, it's clear that routine isn't going to work! Stop trying to close off the vein...like you said, it's not strong enough!"
"Damn it...no, we can make it work..."
"You said the poison in his body was deteriorating his body..."
Sasuke's eyes picked up to look at the man. "Poison," he repeated in question. Wasn't it an explosion? Was there something he missed?
"I took out the poison," Sakura mentioned through gritted teeth.
"Clearly it was much too late. The damage was done...it was a miracle he held on this long."
Sakura's eyes seemed to scan every bit of the man's internal organs. The panic on her face was visible, and one of the women had to wipe the sweat off her brow. "Fine, then open up the drips...get the blood in there."
Sasuke watched Sakura with tension. She didn't even look up at him when she gave him a request in an eerily calm tone.
"Sasuke. Please use the phone on the wall behind you and call 971. Ask the lab for six bags of blood."
Sasuke stood still, holding the sucker in his hand, looking between it and the pink haired woman. It was not until Osaki put his hand on Sasuke's that he noticed how much he was shaking.
"Please, hurry."
Walking backwards slowly, Sasuke turned on his heel and grabbed the white phone with his bloody hand, punching in the numbers that were instructed of him. The dials took forever. It felt like an eternity before someone picked up.
"Laboratory."
"Six bags of blood," Sasuke stated stiffly.
"Uhm, what?"
"We need six bags of blood in the surgery room."
"Which one?"
Sasuke tensed up and turned towards the group of doctors, all of which were intently focused on the patient. His throat clenched up, but he forced his voice through it. "Which room is this," he asked.
The answer seemed to muddle out before it reached Sasuke's ears.
"What?"
Once again, Sasuke couldn't hear anything.
Frowning, he pressed his ear to the phone. "It's on the sixth floor!" And with that, he slammed the phone.
Of course, with all the talking going on in the room, no one noticed. Sasuke turned around to face the scene again. Stilling himself, he approached them, only for Sakura to point him to a a small heap of swabs.
"Please hand them to me," she stated without looking up.
Sasuke could only do that much, he relented in his mind. Being unable to do anything else but watch everyone in the room work in hurry only frustrated him. He felt utterly helpless, only able to follow commands of people better in touch than he was. There was nothing he could do— a feeling that filled his heart with despair. It had been a long time since he had felt like this— but he did his best to hold back.
Sakura was trying to stop the flow of blood while the blood began to enter the man's body. Each time that they filled with blood however, they had to be replaced— and so this was only prolonging the situation. Only temporary.
"Hemeostatic gauze," Osaki mentioned. "Maybe we could—"
The Haruno shook her head as a woman continued to wipe at her face. "Don't even bother. It's not an artery...it won't contract at all."
Thirty minutes passed, with two calls from Sasuke in that time. "Give us forty five minutes...we're a bit thin on blood at the moment."
"Is that a—"
"The joke wasn't intentional. Anyways, forty five minutes."
Sasuke hung up the phone and faced the mass of doctors. "Forty five minutes," he said. It was something that made Sakura go still for a moment.
They all looked at her expectantly, only for her to finally huff in frustration. "Sasuke, go to the cabinet behind you. Get the O-Negative blood."
One of the doctors in the back winced. "You don't mean—"
"Please reconsider Sakura," one woman protested. "There's people with a higher chance of survival that need it!"
"If we don't keep his circulation flowing, he's going to die!" Sakura shouted this at the top of her lungs. The air grew tense as the silence that followed her words hung over them.
The Uchiha turned to the cabinet and took out two bags of blood labled 'O'. "This is all there is," he said.
"I'll make it last...I'll make it last..."
It did not.
Fifteen minutes later, they were out once again, and Sakura was desperately trying anything in order to dam the flow of blood. She demanded that the adrenaline be pumped higher into the man, only to receive note that a higher dosage would kill him.
"Well if he doesn't get more he'll die!"
"Sakura, give it up! He's going to die anyways! We wasted all of our resources trying to save him!"
Sasuke slowly turned towards the screen which showed the man's vitals. They were dropping quickly. The machine started to blare and blink in alarm, while everyone simply stood in place— all except Sakura, who continued to anything and everything, even as the man went into cardiac arrest. He was bleeding out faster than she could work. Suddenly, her hands begun to glow green. It was a desperate move- to use the mystic palm technique. They all knew that it wouldn't work- but she didn't know what else to do.
The beeps became more rapid, and sharply stabbed against their ears, piercing through the silence in a way that made their hearts outpace the rhythm. The inexperienced man could only flick his eyes one way and another, looking for any sort of sign that someone knew what they were doing. However, he only found expressions of pity as Sakura hopelessly kept the man alive.
"Sasuke, please—"
The man, with eyes widened, looked to Sakura. His ears where ringing. He could feel his heart pumping fast as his vision blurred.
"Heart compressions!"
He understood this. It was one of those basic skills that a ninja was taught about in the academy. He'd never done it in his life, and so he tried to remember the rhythm. Yes, it matched one of those old folk songs that his mother had sang to him as a child. He tried to remember it as he put his hand on the man's chest, and begun to push down on his chest in rhythm.
Sekkaku hareta kara tte.
He remembered his mother's singing and clenched his teeth as he pumped.
Īwake o hitotsu hōri nage.
He closed his eyes at that moment.
Garēji kara ikioi makase tobidashita.
At that moment, his mind drifted, and when he opened his eyes, he could see he was looking up. He was on his mother's lap, listening to her sing melodiously whilst she brushed his hair back. They were on the porch on a warm autumn day, the cool breeze kissing his skin.
The song echoed like a ghost in the wind, comforting, yet somehow eerily clinging in an otherworldly fashion.
It was then that he noticed his hand was warm. Too warm.
Raising his hand up, he saw the blood drip from them. He stood up and turned to face his mother— only to see that she was collapsed on the floor, dead. Looking around, what had once been a peaceful scene was now a field filled with corpses, all which wore the crest of his clan. The sky turned red, as black clouds billowed in the distance.
The ringing in his ears were their screams. They grew louder and louder, from a small hum in the air, to a loud thunder that would make him tremble. Pleas of agony, of mercy— wails of pure despair. It was so loud that it became a screeching in his ears.
Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut, his heart practically beating out of his chest, when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder.
Opening his eyes again, he froze in place, once again met with the now grey face of the patient. His eyes were opened wide, and his breath hitched as he realized where he was again. He turned towards the vitals. The line was flat. The screams he had once heard were unified into the machine's tone.
The room was still and silent, watching the machine.
One doctor looked awkwardly to a clipboard in his hands. "Time?"
"5:47 P.M." Another said in hollow voice.
Osaki pulled off his coat and kicked an empty trash bin before storming out.
It was over— the operation, his life— it was all over.
Sakura was not in the room. Sasuke frowned at this, but was quickly interrupted by the hand on the shoulder squeezing him slightly.
"Excuse me," the woman spoke, needle in hand. "I need to close up the body."
Sasuke moved away to allow the woman to work, his sharingan deactivating at that very moment. There was no finese in her work. Not deliciateness. At that point, he turned around and left the room. His first instinct was to place his hand on the wall and hang his head, frowning in deep concentration before suddenly punching the wall with a yell.
He shuddered, his body beginning to tremble. "What the hell is wrong with me...?" How could something like this control him so much? He had not felt such empty pain in a long time, and it ached at his heart in horribly twisted ways. "I don't even know him," he said under his breath. His chest started to rise and fall faster, as he forced air into his lungs. His vision blurred again. However, when he closed his eyes, he could not see memories of a time of long ago. Only darkness— it was all he ever saw.
Sasuke screamed viscerally as he punched the wall again, his hand making a dent into the metal. At the same time, he had heard it crack and snap, bones crushed under the force. He grit his teeth at the pain and punched the wall again, further damaging it before turning towards the darkened hallway.
Sakura was sitting against a wall, almost tucked into a fetal position.
There was a pause. He slowly stepped away from the wall, only to stop right in front of her.
She looked up at him. He glanced down. Neither said a word.
Slowly, the woman stood up, still maintaining full eye contact. Dark eyes locked with her dulled green ones. Drained, she leaned against him, almost slumping over him as she did so.
The fabrics were much too thin, Sasuke thought to himself. He could feel the hot tears streaming down her face and onto his chest.
Slowly Sakura reached up to him and clutched at his coat before fully burying her face against him. She cried, whimpering and sobbing softly with quick, sharp breaths in between. She pressed herself into him, her body shaking terribly.
Was it often that she lost a life, he wondered to himself. How could she deal with it? Killing someone was one thing— he was used to it; he was proud of his capabilities— but to watch them die, was entirely different. They tried to save him. He couldn't look away from the man. Even when his mind drifted, he knew he had been staring at him the entire time— watching the life drain from his face until he was nothing but a husk...a corpse on the table without hope. It was beyond agony, to know there was nothing they could have done differently.
Sasuke was hesitant, but he raised his arm, and placed it on Sakura's back firmly and lowered his head. He hadn't embraced someone since he was a young boy. It almost felt alien to him— the concept of drawing someone closer— and yet he held her. For as long as the moment lasted, she wouldn't suffer alone.
...
Sakura and Sasuke didn't talk to each other after that. They weren't apart— in fact, Sasuke followed her quite closely. She even healed his hand. However, he did not speak to her, and she did not speak to him. Instead, they cleaned the blood off their bodies, changed, and then continued to work in silence for the next two hours.
"It's eight o'clock," she finally told him. The Uchiha tilted his head towards her as he put the tools back on the cart he had been moving. Sakura was turned away from him, looking to the vitals monitor of a sleeping patient. "Do you...want to eat something?"
Sasuke would briefly take pause, before turning back to the tools.
The woman looked over to him, speaking shyly and with uncertainty. "I don't know if you ate while you were in the village...so I thought maybe we could—."
At that moment, there was a knock at the door. Sasuke quickly turned and walked to open it, only for him to see a group of ANBU swarm in. Sasuke's first instinct was to grab his sword— only for him to remember that Sakura had placed it in her locker.
"We're not here for you," one of the cloaked men said, putting up his hand. "We came to talk to Sakura Haruno."
Sakura furrowed her eyebrows at the group. "Me? Why?"
At that very moment, a scroll was pulled from the sleeve of the black op, who then handed it to her.
Without further delay, she unfurled it and quickly skimmed over the contents, looking up every few lines in order to affirm with the man. When she finally drew her head up all the way, she narrowed her eyes. "So the enemy ninja were caught in the explosion as well...and only one of them survived?"
"One that we know of. He was reportedly last seen being escorted in with the rest of our ninja…likely because it was difficult to discern who was who at the time. Anyways, we've identified him as Ren Sanada, a ninja from Shimogakure, a budding new ninja village in the Frost country. He is a ninja of unknown origins, but it seems he has a criminal record...at first for selling contraband but later on, for conspiring with Orochimaru to take over several countries. Each time he was caught, he escaped death by providing his services to the countries in question, free of charge."
"Services?" Sakura raised an eyebrow. "What sort of services could he provide?"
"As it turned out, he reportedly had claimed he was trained by Tsunade and Shizune while they were traveling the world. This was prior to her becoming hokage, and he tagged along with them for two years before finding himself in service of Orochimaru. We don't know how this happened...but we've messaged Lady Fifth and confirmed that she did tutor someone by his description."
"So he's a medic ninja...no wonder we found such an advanced poison in the survivors of the blast. He likely infused some sort of venom into the shrapnel in order to make sure the job got done. Lady Tsunade and Shizune were extremely adept at fashioning poisons, and there are particularly nasty herbs to be found in the region where he hails from." Sakura put a hand to her chin and turned away from them, seemingly losing herself in thought, all while everyone watched.
Sasuke put a hand on his waist and cocked his head to the side. "If he found himself in service of Orochimaru, as you say, then it's likely he knows more than simply medical ninjutsu. He could even have a curse mark, and the power to kill most anyone in the hospital. He needs to be restrained as quickly as possible. A man trained by two of the sannin might be more of a handful than most ninja."
"We can keep him sedated," Sakura suggested. "A curse seal didn't work on you when you were younger, so I doubt it'd work now. Better to keep him just lucid enough to answer questions. Okay, you ANBU can leave now. We'll take it from here."
"Right. We'll be close by, if you need us." With that, the group disappeared in unison and in silence, leaving Sakura and Sasuke alone once more.
Sasuke closed the door once more. "So what aren't you telling me? Advanced poisons denotes more than simply a simple attack of ninja on ninja. They were after these Konoha ninja for a purpose. It's possible that this man was even planted for the purposes of espionage."
Sakura sighed. "The scroll said that the 'reconnaissance' mission was actually an escort mission. The daughter of the daimyo was being escorted to their summer estate for her ninth birthday. It's likely they were targeting her, due to a rise in tension between civilian governments and ninja villages."
"Why not attack their own civilian government?"
"They're a new village...they are likely looking legitimize themselves."
Sasuke frowned for a moment and mulled it over, letting the information sink in for a moment. After considering all the information, he nodded. Politics was something he rarely wanted to be involved in. However, this involved Konoha, and there was no way in Hell he'd allow anyone to mess with his village. "We need to interrogate him."
"Do you know what you want to know?"
At that moment, Sasuke's eyes begun to turn red. "Everything."
- 8
- 9
- 10
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The Book of Love