Chapter Thirteen

-Sakura's POV-

I hurried back into the house after realizing what Matsuri was sprinting towards.

"Everybody, let's go! Right now!"

Almost everyone was present, either in the kitchen scrounging for food or sitting at the dining table, and they all turned to look at me in shock. My eyes locked onto Naruto's and I grabbed his arm and pulled him up, "Right now! It's Hinata! Come on!"

That's all I needed to say. I didn't turn back to see if everyone else followed us, but he and I hurried back outside and started sprinting as quickly as possible toward the burning facility down the road. From where the house we'd stayed at was located, we approached the backside of the asylum.

Naruto was about to run right into the ablaze building and I was tempted to follow him, but Matsuri yelled at us from a small patch of forest a dozen or so yards away, "Over here!"

My heart was beating so quickly. We didn't come all this way just for her to die a terrible death like being burnt alive. '

My eyebrows rose in half-relief when we caught up with the short girl and saw that she was crouched next to an abandoned was open and its contents had spilled slightly out onto the muddy ground. I tried not to get my hopes up too far, but made myself say something reassuring for everyone's sake, "It could be hers! She could be outside somewhere."

Matsuri picked up the bag and dug around in it to see what all it held, "Why would she leave it, though?"

Multiple quick footsteps were heard from behind us and we turned to see everyone else catching up to us. Ino handed me my shoes and coat. I looked down at my bare feet in disbelief. My toes were blue. I'd been so worried that I completely forgot about my boots. Kiba handed Naruto his winter gear as well and we put everything on.

Just as Shikamaru was handing the Uzumaki boy one of the handguns we'd swiped from the dead security officers back in Konoha, Kiba sniffed the air before frantically turning in the direction of the more crowded residential area, not in the same direction as the house we'd stayed the night at. "Follow me." We did as told and followed the boy as he jogged with his nose slightly raised so he could hold onto whatever scent he'd caught.

After less than a minute, he swiftly stopped and picked something up off the ground before turning to face us. My heart sank in my chest. It was a dark brown coat, with multiple holes and blood on its back.

"Is it hers?"

Kiba nodded,"It's her blood, but there's someone else's on it, as well."

Before anyone could respond, gunshots could be heard in the distance, in the same direction we'd been traveling. My feet were moving before anyone could give instruction and I noticed Naruto was running, too. We ran for multiple minutes, past a couple of residential blocks, before I spotted a body in the distance. I yelled for my blonde friend as I rushed over, terrified it was Hinata, but was overcome with relief when I realized it was a man instead.

A disgusted gasp escaped me when I realized the dead man's neck looked like the orange-haired man's from the car dealership in Konoha. The only difference was that it was black where it oddly protruded up from beneath the skin.

Naruto shoved the body onto its back and both of us stared in surprise at the sheer amount of blood on the man's clothes. I looked at the ground where he'd been laying. There wasn't a puddle, which meant the blood had left his body while he was upright. He'd been running around like that.

My eyes shot over to see how Naruto was taking things and felt my brow furrow when he looked overcome with despair, like each second not knowing if she was safe or not was killing him.

"Sakura, look!"

Refocusing, I followed his pointed finger to see a trail of blood droplets leading away from the scene. "It has to be her!"

I nodded and wordlessly covered his six as he began following it. What I really wanted to say was that if she was leaving a blood trail, that meant she was hurt, but that wouldn't help anyone right now. He knew that already. Things were silent for a minute or two before our friends caught up to us since we were moving at a slower pace to follow the blood. Kiba confirmed it was indeed Hinata's blood leading us.

Gunshots sounded once more, closer to our location than the last ones had been, and then we were running again. My body couldn't feel the cold as adrenaline flowed through me. The gunshots came every few seconds for a bit before they stopped and then Kiba froze, which had us all coming to a standstill to see what was wrong.

His eyes were slightly glazed over, "I-I can hear someone moving in one of these houses, but I can't tell which one." He pointed in the direction the blood trail was leading, "It's this way, but I don't think it's on this block. It's further away."

Then we were moving again. Not another minute could pass before a single gunshot rang through the air and it sounded like it came from nearby. The blood led to the front door of a house, but when Naruto tried the door it wouldn't budge. With my desperation taking over, I pushed him out of the way before taking a step back and tackling the door with all my strength.

The wood broke as easily as a twig and I quickly shoved broken pieces of furniture out of the way, "Hinata! Where are you?"

A hand clamped over my mouth and I looked over to see Ino staring at the small red dots leading through the house with a serious face, "The shooter could hear you."

As if her words were brought to life, a gunshot came from behind us and someone fell to the ground, but I didn't know who it was. Shikamaru, Naruto, Tenten, and Sai all hurried back out the front door to chase the shooter, but I turned and followed the blood trail out of the house through the back door.

It led to the right through the dead grass and my eyes raised to see that the house next door was almost completely engulfed in flames. My gaze fell back down to the blood and I hesitantly followed it, my blood chilling in my veins when I realized they stopped at the burning door.

Gunshots went off in the road in front of the house, but I didn't even flinch at them. Instead, I circled the house with my eyes trained to the ground until I made it a full lap. There weren't any other blood trails leading away. She was in there, inside the burning house.

Tears fell from my eyes as I hurried around front to join everyone else, hoping they'd found something that didn't fit with my hypothesis. A dead body lay nearby and I assumed in the back of my mind that it was the shooter. The flames weren't as harsh on that side of the house, so everyone was standing just in front of the porch.

Kiba was crouched down with both hands covering his face as he sobbed loudly. All the girls and Naruto were also crying. My voice cracked as I approached, "What is it?"

Ino turned to face me before somehow speaking through her sobs, "Kiba said he can smell a body burning in there."

Some sound that I don't know how to describe came from my chest and I turned to look at the house again with a feeling in my chest that made me want to be sick. The sound of glass shattering above us distracted me from my despair and my eyes widened when they landed on Hinata herself, falling from the second story window.

"Hinata!"

Naruto didn't miss a beat and sprinted over to try and catch her before she could hit the ground. I don't know how he did it, but he somehow managed to tackle her mid air so he could land on his back with her on top of him. Shards of glass fell on top of and around them. No one said a word as we hurried over.

Naruto sat up underneath her with small cuts on his face and hands as he winced and frantically situated her in his arms. She was unconscious. "Hinata! Hinata, wake up!" His voice was heartbreaking and tears started to fall from his eyes when she didn't respond.

The girl looked like some kind of broken doll. Her hair had grown so long that her bangs were parted to the side and she looked even thinner than I pictured she'd be when Naruto told us she was starving. Her clothes were tattered and torn and drenched in blood. Luckily, she'd landed face down, so her face didn't get cut by the shards of glass like Naruto's had, but she did have what looked like road rash on one side of it.

Something snapped in my mind and I lurched forward to throw my knees onto the grass beside them so I could try and heal her if she wasn't already dead. Other than trying to bring that man back to life after I accidentally killed him, I've never tried healing anyone but myself. Sharp shards of glass dug into my knees, but I ignored them. I pressed my hands against her face, arms, shoulders, chest, legs: anything I could reach and let out a shaky sigh of relief when I saw her cuts slowly start to heal.

I tried to speak through my tears, "S-She's alive!"

Various sounds of relief came from our friends and I let out a small laugh of disbelief as I continued to heal what I could. It felt like I hadn't seen her in over a year. Her appearance was so different from what I was used to, I could hardly recognize her.

"Help!"

I turned to see Sai and Kankuro struggling to hold up Sasuke, who was slumped over like a ragdoll. I looked between him and Hinata before struggling to my feet and rushing over to the Uchiha boy. Hinata's wounds were healed enough that she wouldn't die in between here and the house, but I didn't know what was wrong with Sasuke.

Shikamaru started barking orders at those who weren't holding him up, "You, carry Hinata. You two, help Naruto. Let's go. We need to get back as quickly as possible."

I lifted Sasuke's face in my hands and frowned anxiously when I noticed how pale his skin was compared to usual. My eyes danced over him to try and locate what was wrong, only to nearly bulge out of their sockets when I saw a small hole in his coat. It was on the right side of his pelvis.

My fingers shook as I fumbled with its zipper and my breath got stuck in my throat at the large blood stain on his shirt. Earlier, when I heard that gunshot and someone fell…had that been him? How had he managed to get back up and stay awake so long?

My breathing was heavy again and I motioned for Shikamaru to come over and help me, "I can't heal him here. The bullet's still inside. We need to get him back to the house right now."

The return to the house was frantic and I threw my coat off the second I got inside, "Clear the table and put him on it!"

I turned to see Kiba holding Hinata and motioned for the others to help him, "Find a flat surface in one of the rooms and have the girls undress her and lay her on her stomach. I'll be in there as soon as I can to get the bullet but, ladies, I need you to try and get the glass shards out."

Everyone headed off to do as told and I hurried over to quickly tear Sasuke's shirt out of the way as they lay him on the dining table.

"I need tweezers, rubbing alcohol, a spoon, a lighter, and bandages. If you can't find the exact items, then get as close as you can."

My adrenaline was pumping and I was too focused on saving the man before me to pay attention to anything else that was going on. I shoved the dining chairs out of my way before unbuttoning his jeans and pulling them lower so I could move the right hip band of his boxers out of the way and properly reach the wound. I couldn't care less that it was located in such an uncomfortable spot and only cared about healing it.

Tweezers were placed in my hand and I looked over to see Kankuro and Sai standing there with everything else. I pointed at a decorative wine glass further down the table and it was quickly handed to me. After rinsing it with water, I poured the rubbing alcohol in it and swished the tweezers around in it before bending over Sasuke's body and lining up the tool with his bullet wound.

Just as I was about to begin extracting it, he woke up and immediately tried to move because of the pain.

"Hold him down!"

The two young men sat the items they were holding down on the chair closest to me and did as they were told without complaint, but it wasn't enough. Sai tried talking his brother down, but he wasn't hearing any of it and kept fighting.

With my patience wearing thin, I climbed up on the table and straddled his waist because his legs moving wouldn't affect my accuracy at the new angle. Taking a calming breath, I dug into the wound with as precise movements as I could.

The young man beneath me wasn't necessarily screaming, but it was close to it. The first few times I had to do this to myself, I reacted the same way. The only reason it came easier to me was because I was forced to do it over and over again.

The bullet was almost out when suddenly his knee came and hit me right in the face.

"Sakura!" Kankuro made the mistake of letting go of Sasuke's arm to see if I was okay and the man wrapped it around my waist and tried to pull me off of him.

Nose bleeding and physically fighting my patient, I held on for dear life as I pulled the bullet the rest of the way out and immediately slapped my hand over the wound to start healing it. The struggling ceased and I let out a sigh of relief when I peaked under my hand to see that while the process was incredibly slow, the wound was reacting well to my healing.

Sasuke was breathing heavily, but I couldn't tell if he was awake. I really hoped not. Once it was closed enough that he wouldn't need stitches, I had Kankuro hand me the bandages. The spoon and lighter were a backup in case my healing didn't work and I needed to sear the wound closed and I was beyond relieved that I didn't have to resort to that.

After carefully bandaging the much more manageable wound, I finally climbed off the young man and accepted a tissue from Kankuro as I spoke to Sai, "I don't care if he has to be naked, do not put clothes over that bandage, do you understand?" The boy nodded, looking pale with all that'd just happened.

When I looked down at the table, I was stunned to see Sasuke staring up at me with his eyes glazed over. My brow furrowed and I hesitantly laid a hand on his shoulder, "If I'm able, I'll come heal you the rest of the way once I'm done Hinata and Naruto, okay?"

The boy didn't do anything but blink and I didn't have time to dwell on whether or not he was conscious enough to have heard me.

I pressed my hand against my bleeding nose as I carried my supplies in my other arm and climbed the stairs to search for the room Hinata was in. It wasn't likely I'd have enough energy to give Sasuke another visit tonight. I was already feeling exhausted and I hadn't even started on the Hyuuga girl yet.