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person4Title: When the Sun Has Gone Away
Author/Artist: Person4
Pairing: Rock Lee/Haruno Sakura
Theme: #16. invincible; unrivaled
Disclaimer: Naruto and all characters, places, and situations found therein belong to Kishimoto Masashi. I'm just playing with them for a little bit.
Author's Note: This chapter contains spoilers through manga chapter 182 or 3ish, but over course of my kisses there'll be spoilers for the whole manga. Fic is manga-centric, so please ignore anything that contradicts something that's anime-only because I haven't seen any of it. Previous chapters found here.
Sakura sighed and massage the back of her neck, pressing her chin down into her chest to stretch the muscles as she rubbed and resisting the urge to just crack it. She'd been sitting in the small, cramped, chair outside of Lee's room ever since the surgery started, and without anything to distract her it was very easy to feel how much her body was complaining about this treatment.
Waiting hadn't been as bad as is could have been, she had to admit. All the nurses seemed to think that her waiting was the cutest thing they'd ever seen, and they'd regularly brought her snacks while cooing about how wonderful young love was. Normally she might have gotten annoyed at how they'd misread her feelings, but with so much else to worry about she didn't have room within her to care.
She'd even had company for a while. Ten-ten had come by half an hour after the operation had begun, and sat with Sakura for a long while. She'd never really talked much with the older girl before, outside of the occasional polite chit-chat when they'd run into each other while visiting Lee, but her company had been pleasant. By unspoken agreement they'd avoided talking about anything having to do with their other team mates or their job as ninja, and had instead enjoyed acting like normal young girls for a short while. Or, at least, they'd enjoyed it as much as they could with Lee lying just a few yards away with his arm and leg sliced open.
When Hinata had shown up a few hours later, just planning on checking in for a moment so she would be able to tell Neji how things had gone when he came home, a nurse had followed with an armful of out-of-date teen magazines to keep them entertained. They'd spent another hour taking ridiculous quizzes about things like what their lucky colors were, how they kissed (or how they would at least, if they ever got the opportunity), and what sort of men their soul mates would be. Ten-ten had nudged Sakura with a smirk on her face and thrown a knowing look at Lee's door when the last one told her that she'd end up with someone energetic, friendly, and boisterous. Hinata had blushed bright red and avoided their gazes when she got the same result, while Sakura stage whispered to Ten-ten how lucky she was to have a soul mate who could be snagged by a single bowl of ramen at Ichiraku.
She ignored it when Ten-ten whispered back that Sakura was even luckier, since she hadn't had to do anything more than stand around to catch hers.
Then both of them left with promises that they'd be back the next morning. Without the distraction they'd provided Sakura couldn't bring herself to do anything but stare at the door, gnawing on her lips until the skin started coming off in thin strips and picking at the bandage wrapped around her leg until it had come unwrapped while time slowly slid by.
Just as she was starting to think it would be worth the trouble it could cause her to crawl up the outside wall and peek in Lee's window, just so she'd know what was happening, the door opened and Shizune came out. Startled, Sakura stared at her silently, terrified out of her curiosity by what she might be about to say.
For her part, Shizune looked just as surprised as Sakura felt. "You're still here?" she asked in a quiet voice after a long moment of silence. "You know, it's two in the morning. We thought you'd have left hours ago."
"I said I'd stay, didn't I?" she whispered back, finding her voice again.
Shizune smiled faintly at her. "That you did, but I don't think you knew you'd be there almost twelve hours when you said it. The rooms on either side are empty you know, you could have stolen the bed in one of them and gotten some sleep."
"No, I couldn't have. Not until I knew..." Sakura took a deep breath, gathering up her courage, then quietly asked, "Is Lee-kun all right? Will he be able to live as a ninja again?"
Shizune's smile grew, though Sakura noticed suddenly that the look in her eyes was completely exhausted. "The surgery was a complete success. It will be a while before your friend is back in top shape, but there's no doubt in my mind that he'll eventually get there."
Sakura gasped, and clutched the armrests tightly, as if holding onto them was the only thing keeping her from jumping up and screaming and dancing in celebration. She knew then that everything would turn out fine. She knew, knew that if Lee was all right then Sasuke and Naruto would be as well, because good things came in threes just like bad things.
She almost didn't hear Shizune continue talking as she picked up the sake bottles Sakura had set beside her chair. "Tsunade-sama will be pleased to hear that you followed her instructions," she said as she glanced at the labels. "She really is amazing, you know. If I didn't know how dangerous the operation was, I would have thought from watching her that she'd done it a million times before without a single failure. Lee-kun's lucky she was here; her skills are unrivaled among medical nin."
Sakura froze, the blood draining out of her face. "If you didn't know... what?"
Shizune glanced at her curiously, then the curiosity morphed to shock at the look on her face. "You didn't know? I can't believe he wouldn't have warned you--" She cut herself off, shaking her head and rubbing her temples as she muttered, "Of course he didn't tell you. That boy's too smitten to want to worry you like that."
"He never even acted like there was a possibility of it failing," Sakura said, staring down at her hands as she twisted them together in her lap. "I mean, I'm not stupid. I knew that there had to be a chance of it failing, even if he didn't want to talk about it. But, I thought that, unless something went really wrong, failure would just lead to him still not being able to use his limbs properly. Maybe losing them altogether. How dangerous was it really?"
Shizune sighed and squatted down in front of her. "All right, I'm only going to tell you this because it no longer matters. Keep that in mind; the operation's over and he's fine, you don't need to start worrying now. Okay?" She waited until Sakura nodded, then said, "At best, when he went into the surgery he only had a fifty-percent chance of living through it."
Sakura stopped breathing.
Her eyes darted around, trying to find something to focus on, anything to keep her from thinking about what Shizune had just said. It doesn't matter! she thought to herself angrily. He's all right, it's stupid to get upset now. Finally, he eyes rested on the now-exposed scratch on her leg and she felt something twisting inside her from stomach to throat as she remembered how upset he'd been when he'd seen the bandage covering it. How he'd asked her to forgive him for not protecting her from her own clumsiness. Lee-kun... You must have been so afraid, but you still found room within you to worry about me. You shouldn't waste that kind of strength on me Lee-kun, I don't deserve it. Her vision blurred, and she realized that tears were starting to fall. She tried to hold them back, mindful of the fact that a ninja must always hide their tears. Worse, that Shizune had the ear of the Hokage and could tell her that Sakura was too soft-hearted to be a kunoichi, but the other woman just made a soft, sympathetic, noise and handed her a handkerchief then waited until she'd gotten a hold on herself.
"I need to get these," she hoisted the sake bottles up, "to Tsunade-sama, but you just keep waiting here, all right? We'll be moving Lee-kun to his recovery room shortly, and I'm sure she won't object to letting you stay there with him as long as you don't disturb him. The room we're putting him in even has a small couch in it, so you could stretch out a bit and try to get to sleep. Would you like that?"
"That would be nice, thank you," she murmured, her throat still feeling thick from her crying jag. "I'd like to be able to be there when he wakes up."
"Well then," Shizune said, standing up and brushing herself off, "I'll just go tell Tsunade-sama that. Although I probably don't even need to bother; in half an hour she'll probably be so drunk that she won't remember whether we asked or not." She paused with her hand on the door, glancing back at Sakura and smirking slightly, "Don't tell anyone I said that about our illustrious Hokage-sama." And then she was gone, leaving Sakura alone to sag with relief.
Everything would turn out fine.
Author/Artist: Person4
Pairing: Rock Lee/Haruno Sakura
Theme: #16. invincible; unrivaled
Disclaimer: Naruto and all characters, places, and situations found therein belong to Kishimoto Masashi. I'm just playing with them for a little bit.
Author's Note: This chapter contains spoilers through manga chapter 182 or 3ish, but over course of my kisses there'll be spoilers for the whole manga. Fic is manga-centric, so please ignore anything that contradicts something that's anime-only because I haven't seen any of it. Previous chapters found here.
Sakura sighed and massage the back of her neck, pressing her chin down into her chest to stretch the muscles as she rubbed and resisting the urge to just crack it. She'd been sitting in the small, cramped, chair outside of Lee's room ever since the surgery started, and without anything to distract her it was very easy to feel how much her body was complaining about this treatment.
Waiting hadn't been as bad as is could have been, she had to admit. All the nurses seemed to think that her waiting was the cutest thing they'd ever seen, and they'd regularly brought her snacks while cooing about how wonderful young love was. Normally she might have gotten annoyed at how they'd misread her feelings, but with so much else to worry about she didn't have room within her to care.
She'd even had company for a while. Ten-ten had come by half an hour after the operation had begun, and sat with Sakura for a long while. She'd never really talked much with the older girl before, outside of the occasional polite chit-chat when they'd run into each other while visiting Lee, but her company had been pleasant. By unspoken agreement they'd avoided talking about anything having to do with their other team mates or their job as ninja, and had instead enjoyed acting like normal young girls for a short while. Or, at least, they'd enjoyed it as much as they could with Lee lying just a few yards away with his arm and leg sliced open.
When Hinata had shown up a few hours later, just planning on checking in for a moment so she would be able to tell Neji how things had gone when he came home, a nurse had followed with an armful of out-of-date teen magazines to keep them entertained. They'd spent another hour taking ridiculous quizzes about things like what their lucky colors were, how they kissed (or how they would at least, if they ever got the opportunity), and what sort of men their soul mates would be. Ten-ten had nudged Sakura with a smirk on her face and thrown a knowing look at Lee's door when the last one told her that she'd end up with someone energetic, friendly, and boisterous. Hinata had blushed bright red and avoided their gazes when she got the same result, while Sakura stage whispered to Ten-ten how lucky she was to have a soul mate who could be snagged by a single bowl of ramen at Ichiraku.
She ignored it when Ten-ten whispered back that Sakura was even luckier, since she hadn't had to do anything more than stand around to catch hers.
Then both of them left with promises that they'd be back the next morning. Without the distraction they'd provided Sakura couldn't bring herself to do anything but stare at the door, gnawing on her lips until the skin started coming off in thin strips and picking at the bandage wrapped around her leg until it had come unwrapped while time slowly slid by.
Just as she was starting to think it would be worth the trouble it could cause her to crawl up the outside wall and peek in Lee's window, just so she'd know what was happening, the door opened and Shizune came out. Startled, Sakura stared at her silently, terrified out of her curiosity by what she might be about to say.
For her part, Shizune looked just as surprised as Sakura felt. "You're still here?" she asked in a quiet voice after a long moment of silence. "You know, it's two in the morning. We thought you'd have left hours ago."
"I said I'd stay, didn't I?" she whispered back, finding her voice again.
Shizune smiled faintly at her. "That you did, but I don't think you knew you'd be there almost twelve hours when you said it. The rooms on either side are empty you know, you could have stolen the bed in one of them and gotten some sleep."
"No, I couldn't have. Not until I knew..." Sakura took a deep breath, gathering up her courage, then quietly asked, "Is Lee-kun all right? Will he be able to live as a ninja again?"
Shizune's smile grew, though Sakura noticed suddenly that the look in her eyes was completely exhausted. "The surgery was a complete success. It will be a while before your friend is back in top shape, but there's no doubt in my mind that he'll eventually get there."
Sakura gasped, and clutched the armrests tightly, as if holding onto them was the only thing keeping her from jumping up and screaming and dancing in celebration. She knew then that everything would turn out fine. She knew, knew that if Lee was all right then Sasuke and Naruto would be as well, because good things came in threes just like bad things.
She almost didn't hear Shizune continue talking as she picked up the sake bottles Sakura had set beside her chair. "Tsunade-sama will be pleased to hear that you followed her instructions," she said as she glanced at the labels. "She really is amazing, you know. If I didn't know how dangerous the operation was, I would have thought from watching her that she'd done it a million times before without a single failure. Lee-kun's lucky she was here; her skills are unrivaled among medical nin."
Sakura froze, the blood draining out of her face. "If you didn't know... what?"
Shizune glanced at her curiously, then the curiosity morphed to shock at the look on her face. "You didn't know? I can't believe he wouldn't have warned you--" She cut herself off, shaking her head and rubbing her temples as she muttered, "Of course he didn't tell you. That boy's too smitten to want to worry you like that."
"He never even acted like there was a possibility of it failing," Sakura said, staring down at her hands as she twisted them together in her lap. "I mean, I'm not stupid. I knew that there had to be a chance of it failing, even if he didn't want to talk about it. But, I thought that, unless something went really wrong, failure would just lead to him still not being able to use his limbs properly. Maybe losing them altogether. How dangerous was it really?"
Shizune sighed and squatted down in front of her. "All right, I'm only going to tell you this because it no longer matters. Keep that in mind; the operation's over and he's fine, you don't need to start worrying now. Okay?" She waited until Sakura nodded, then said, "At best, when he went into the surgery he only had a fifty-percent chance of living through it."
Sakura stopped breathing.
Her eyes darted around, trying to find something to focus on, anything to keep her from thinking about what Shizune had just said. It doesn't matter! she thought to herself angrily. He's all right, it's stupid to get upset now. Finally, he eyes rested on the now-exposed scratch on her leg and she felt something twisting inside her from stomach to throat as she remembered how upset he'd been when he'd seen the bandage covering it. How he'd asked her to forgive him for not protecting her from her own clumsiness. Lee-kun... You must have been so afraid, but you still found room within you to worry about me. You shouldn't waste that kind of strength on me Lee-kun, I don't deserve it. Her vision blurred, and she realized that tears were starting to fall. She tried to hold them back, mindful of the fact that a ninja must always hide their tears. Worse, that Shizune had the ear of the Hokage and could tell her that Sakura was too soft-hearted to be a kunoichi, but the other woman just made a soft, sympathetic, noise and handed her a handkerchief then waited until she'd gotten a hold on herself.
"I need to get these," she hoisted the sake bottles up, "to Tsunade-sama, but you just keep waiting here, all right? We'll be moving Lee-kun to his recovery room shortly, and I'm sure she won't object to letting you stay there with him as long as you don't disturb him. The room we're putting him in even has a small couch in it, so you could stretch out a bit and try to get to sleep. Would you like that?"
"That would be nice, thank you," she murmured, her throat still feeling thick from her crying jag. "I'd like to be able to be there when he wakes up."
"Well then," Shizune said, standing up and brushing herself off, "I'll just go tell Tsunade-sama that. Although I probably don't even need to bother; in half an hour she'll probably be so drunk that she won't remember whether we asked or not." She paused with her hand on the door, glancing back at Sakura and smirking slightly, "Don't tell anyone I said that about our illustrious Hokage-sama." And then she was gone, leaving Sakura alone to sag with relief.
Everything would turn out fine.