Ryu leaped down lightly in front of the hospital, making sure not to jar Kokoro, and raced inside. The nurse at the counter took one look at the three still and bloody bodies, and called for help.
Nurses raced over with gurneys, and Ryu , Hiro, and Shun gently put the three on each of the gurneys.
The nurses raced away, and Ryu ran after.
They went into an emergency room, and one nurse stopped Ryu.
“I’m sorry sir, you can’t come in. No non patients allowed.”
Ryu rounded on the nurse, “That’s my sister!”
The nurse calmly put a hand on Ryu’s shoulder and led him to a chair.
“We’ll do all we can to help her and her friends, I promise, but it won’t help if you get in the way of the doctor.”
At that moment, Hiro and Shun rounded the corner, and a man came out from the emergency room in a hurry. Ryu stopped in front of him and said, “The boy, he’s-”
The man said quickly, “Nohe’snotdead,theonlyonewhocansavethemisGramps,nowgetoutofmyway,Ineedtocallhim,Thankyou!”
Ryu stood, contemplating this, then turned to the others.
“Okumaru’s alive?” he said in a whisper, as though raising his voice would take Okumaru back to the gates of the dead.
Sasuke was dreaming. He knew that. He was in a place that was completely white. Around him, trees loomed, and as he strode forward, they dipped and swayed to the wind that swept through the place.
The sky was white, no birds sang. The snow laden branches leaned down, and it seemed to be winter in this place, but Sasuke was not cold. He didn’t feel anything, nor hot nor cold.
He stretched his arm out, staring at it in an unfeeling way, then stopped, then started onward once more. What use was there of standing still? None. What use was there of going further. Unknown. But still he went on.
Soon, he came to a river. It was a fast flowing river, and flew by with a strength that would have dragged an elephant under. Sasuke stopped.
Why go on? The road has ended.
Snowflakes floated down around him. They never landed upon him, but they never seemed to avoid him. A snowflake seemed to stop in front of his nose, and it hovered.
As he studied it, he saw small eyes peer back at him, and a small delicate body. Long slender snow wings grew from her back, and she stayed there flapping her wings softly.
Sasuke felt no surprise.
The fairy blinked slowly at Sasuke, then she suddenly disappeared. Sasuke looked around him.
He was in a large hospital room (judging by the nurses rushing here and there). In the middle of the room was a large bed, surrounded by nurses, doctors, and machines of various kinds.
An EKG machine beeped irregularly and the doctor worked fast. Green chakra surrounded his hands as he healed the patients leg (which was all Sasuke could see of the patient). Sasuke was passed several times by the nurses, and one even stepped through him.
Sasuke wore his usual blank expression, but he was thinking, ‘What a weird dream.’
His curiosity overwhelmed him, and he strode forward to the head of the bed. The person in the bed had numerous battle wounds all over her body. Blood flowed from the wounds, and the doctors tried hurriedly to suppress the flow. The girl seemed young, an oxygen mask covered half of her face.
Sasuke’s eyes trailed upward from the small mouth under the mask to the familiar nose, and the closed eyes, and he started in surprise.
‘Kokoro.’
The girl lay still on the bed as the doctors healed her. Blood covered her body, and an oxygen mask covered half of her face. She gasped for air in the oxygen mask, her lungs not working properly. A nurse pressed her hand to Kokoro’s chest, and healed her. Kokoro’s breathing became easier.
Sasuke stared at his sister, frozen in place. His dark black eyes took in her still form hungrily, noting the burn marks and dark purple/black bruises all over her body, and they narrowed in anger. She had been tortured.
He stared at her awkwardly, his mask had fallen off in his surprise. Ever since a few weeks after her death he hadn’t seen her in his dreams, and even then, she looked as she did before she died. This Kokoro looked older, more mature, and the dream felt so real it was astonishing. Sasuke studied her face, and knew (somehow) why she looked so much more older. She had killed.
Sasuke carefully reached out and touched the girl’s hair gently, as though touching her would make her disappear. He could feel her, even though all others passed through him. He wondered briefly at this, then pushed it to the back of his mind.
He saw the doctors leave out of the corner of his eye, but didn’t pay them any mind, just stood there looking down at his sister’s bloody face silently. Sasuke had forgotten completely that this was a dream
The doctors left a nurse behind to watch over Kokoro, and left. As they left, a nurse asked the doctor, “ Will she be alright?”
The doctor said in reply, “No. She is in limbo. If left alone, she will die most certainly, but slowly. Not even Gramps can help her.”
The nurse said, “Then what-..?”
The doctor answered, “We are going to ask Lady Tsunade for help.”
The now far of voice of the nurse gasped, “Lady Tsunade?!? But she’s-..” her voice faded away. Sasuke had heard none of this, and was still gazing at Kokoro’s face, as though frozen in place.
A sudden loud sigh roused him, and he looked up into the face of the nurse sitting in a chair next to Kokoro’s bed.
Suddenly, Sasuke had a sudden urge, and he leaned down and pressed his lips to his sister’s forehead. The room whirled as he did so, and in a few swift moments, he was gone from the room, and the little girl in the bed in the large room dreamed, for it really was Kokoro who slept there, and upon her forehead, two very faint lip marks shone.
Kokoro dreamed that she was in a large snow laden forest, and as she walked along, she noticed the figure of a tall, black haired boy leaning against a tree looking forlorn. He looked to be a couple of years older than her. As Kokoro drew near, she noticed his face, and noted that he seemed familiar. (He seemed familiar ‘cuz they looked so alike…)
Suddenly, the part that remembered everything gave a start and took hold of the dream, and Kokoro gave a shout and ran towards the boy joyfully. “Sasuke-onii-chan!” she yelled!
He looked up and grinned so happily that if Naruto and Sakura had seen that smile they would have been struck dumb with shock. Scratch that, if ‘anyone’ who knew Sasuke had seen that smile, they ‘all’ would have been struck dumb.
If Kokoro ever woke up she would not remember this dream. Unless she remembered everything.
Sasuke was back in the forest. Hw leaned against a tree sadly, as he speculated. What a weird dream. It was just that, a dream. It wasn’t real. Kokoro wasn’t alive.
He felt sad that he couldn’t stay there longer. He really missed her.
Suddenly, he heard a joyful shout, a voice so familiar his heart ached, but he paid it no mind.
“Sasuke-onii-chan!”
He looked up at his little sister and broke out into a wide grin, and brought her into his arms, and hugged her so tightly she gasped for breath.
She grinned up at him and said, “I’ve missed you.”
Sasuke frowned at this, and Kokoro looked sad that he had frowned, so he hugged her and said, “I’ve missed you too, so much.”
Kokoro removed herself from his grasp, and danced around him. Sasuke noticed that she was as he had seen her in the hospital, only clean and without any wounds.
“Onii-chan, Onii-chan, I fought a bunch of people and won!” She enthused loudly.
He patted her head and said, “Really? Good for you!”
Kokoro smiled up at him and said, “Luna helped too!”
Sasuke looked quizzical, but said nothing, as he was unable to get a word in edgewise as she prattled on.
“Sasuke Onii-chan, get strong, yes?, so that we can beat Itachi Onii-chan! No he’s not my Onii-chan, not anymore.”
Sasuke bent down into a crouch and his eyes narrowed at the mention of Itachi, but masked his anger, and said, “Yeah.” but a hint of sadness crept in.
He looked up at her smiling face and thought sadly, ‘You were killed by Itachi, sweetheart. ‘We’ won’t be able to kill him, but ‘I’ will. I promise.’
Kokoro laughed and jumped on Sasuke, and he gave her a piggy back ride.
Kokoro laughed again and said, “Onii-chan, you used to ‘hate’ to give me piggy back rides, remember?”
He put her down and tickled her. “Yeah, and you used to hate it when I tickled you!”
She giggled, but then stopped suddenly and looked at Sasuke seriously. “Onii-chan, I have to go now.”
Kokoro looked as though she was fading. Sasuke grabbed her in desperation, but she disappeared under his arms. “ Onii-chan, I have to tell you, I’ve forg-”
She was gone. Sasuke sat back and stared at the spot she had been. The fairy appeared in front of him, and spoke. “Do you miss her?”
“What do you think?” Sasuke spat.
“Do you love her?”
“Duh, Idiot.” The fairy’s eye twitched, but she did not comment.
“More than vengeance?”
Sasuke looked up , surprised.
“What?”
And woke up.
Sasuke sat up in the hospital bead and rubbed his eyes. He remembered the dream, and wondered at the fairy’s question.
‘More than vengeance?’
And answered.
‘Yes.’
Sasuke got up, dressed, and went to the window. He had to train for the final test of the Chunin exams.
He left.
Maybe a few hours later, the nurse, Sakura and Ino, came into the room.
“He’s gone!” the nurse screeched.
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Chapter notes: Hey guys! Sorry about the long update!
I had a stroke of genius as I was rewriting this chapter after it got accidently deleted when my computer shut down unexpectedly.
In the next chapter, Kokoro meets Lady Tsunade!
I'll try to update soon, PLEASE REVIEW!
Warning: I will admit that with Kokoro, Sasuke acts totally out of character.