Haruno Sakura (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
medicalpunch) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
towerofanimus2013-01-08 03:01 pm
medicalpunch) wrote in towerofanimus2013-01-08 03:01 pm
Entry tags:
Arrival
Characters: Sakura and YOU! And at one point Sasuke
Setting: Various places in the tower, as listed.
Format: Starting with action, but will match your preference.
Summary: Sakura's first explorations in the tower.
Warnings: None to start, will update as appropriate.
[Floor 5: Security Center]
[Staring through the cameras at the various ruined worlds is nearly gut-wrenching, but Sakura steels herself against the emotional onslaught, studying each one, trying to divine some sort of order or secret behind them. She can't believe it's real -- although she knows that her own world was facing devastation in her last memories of it, it still doesn't seem real to her that this many worlds have found their end. (It doesn't help that the entire concept of there being this many worlds is a little difficult.)]
[But she's studying them nonetheless, her expression stony and determined.]
[Floor 2: Infirmary]
[It's natural that this floor has caught her interest, and she's giving it a particularly thorough examination. If this is all the medical facilities she's got to work with, then she'd better be clear on what she can do.]
[The stock of medicines is beyond disappointing -- small and basic things, here, as well as a couple extremely specialized formulas she quietly imagines to be ones required by specific residents -- but nothing that she considers truly needful, and no facilities for formulating her own, at least not here. She'll have to see if anywhere else in the Tower is more profitable than this. But she knows the treatment area, at least, and she's reasonably certain it will accommodate any work she needs to do.]
[Cafeteria]
[She's been given the obligatory bowl of oatmeal, and is regarding it with an expression of distrust. Not that oatmeal is necessarily an objectionable meal -- she's not exactly been enjoying gourmet since leaving Konoha to join up with the Joint Shinobi Army -- but the simple fact that she has been told she must eat it before partaking of anything else has her wary. What exactly does this oatmeal hold that it's so obligatory?]
[She stirs it around a little with her spoon, then takes a tiny bite, holding it on her tongue and trying to sort through the tastes, trying to use chakra to work through it as though it were a poison, searching for what makes it special.]
[Floor 28: Lab]
[Sakura is moving through the lab with a frown on her face; not working on anything, not yet, just investigating, figuring out what she'll have to work with in the future. Wherever she is, she's stuck now, and she'll have to make the best of it -- and she's already figured out that in a place like this, her skills will probably be extremely useful. So she needs to know where she can formulate antidotes -- and quite possibly poisons as well. She's investigated the infirmary already, and while it's decent, it won't do for formulating the more complex antidotes she's expecting to need.]
[This is the last place she'd want to work on them in, with poor instructions, no labels on some of the materials in stock, and no idea how much of the equipment works. However, she'll do her best with what she has.]
[Sasuke's room]
[Exploring the dormitories found her the door with Sasuke's name on it, sending her blood running cold. Sasuke, here? There are certain assumptions that she feels almost driven to make; while she doesn't act immediately, within a day or two of her arrival, she finds the room unoccupied and slips into it, tamping down her chakra as best she can and concealing herself.]
[Waiting.]
[He has to come back, this is where he sleeps, and when he does, she will do what she failed to before. Naruto's not here now to suffer the consequences of her attempt. It will just be the two of them.]
[She'll do it this time. She'll kill him. She'll end this destructive tension that's been tearing the remnants of their team apart for years. For Naruto, for Kakashi, for herself... she'll do this.]
Setting: Various places in the tower, as listed.
Format: Starting with action, but will match your preference.
Summary: Sakura's first explorations in the tower.
Warnings: None to start, will update as appropriate.
[Floor 5: Security Center]
[Staring through the cameras at the various ruined worlds is nearly gut-wrenching, but Sakura steels herself against the emotional onslaught, studying each one, trying to divine some sort of order or secret behind them. She can't believe it's real -- although she knows that her own world was facing devastation in her last memories of it, it still doesn't seem real to her that this many worlds have found their end. (It doesn't help that the entire concept of there being this many worlds is a little difficult.)]
[But she's studying them nonetheless, her expression stony and determined.]
[Floor 2: Infirmary]
[It's natural that this floor has caught her interest, and she's giving it a particularly thorough examination. If this is all the medical facilities she's got to work with, then she'd better be clear on what she can do.]
[The stock of medicines is beyond disappointing -- small and basic things, here, as well as a couple extremely specialized formulas she quietly imagines to be ones required by specific residents -- but nothing that she considers truly needful, and no facilities for formulating her own, at least not here. She'll have to see if anywhere else in the Tower is more profitable than this. But she knows the treatment area, at least, and she's reasonably certain it will accommodate any work she needs to do.]
[Cafeteria]
[She's been given the obligatory bowl of oatmeal, and is regarding it with an expression of distrust. Not that oatmeal is necessarily an objectionable meal -- she's not exactly been enjoying gourmet since leaving Konoha to join up with the Joint Shinobi Army -- but the simple fact that she has been told she must eat it before partaking of anything else has her wary. What exactly does this oatmeal hold that it's so obligatory?]
[She stirs it around a little with her spoon, then takes a tiny bite, holding it on her tongue and trying to sort through the tastes, trying to use chakra to work through it as though it were a poison, searching for what makes it special.]
[Floor 28: Lab]
[Sakura is moving through the lab with a frown on her face; not working on anything, not yet, just investigating, figuring out what she'll have to work with in the future. Wherever she is, she's stuck now, and she'll have to make the best of it -- and she's already figured out that in a place like this, her skills will probably be extremely useful. So she needs to know where she can formulate antidotes -- and quite possibly poisons as well. She's investigated the infirmary already, and while it's decent, it won't do for formulating the more complex antidotes she's expecting to need.]
[This is the last place she'd want to work on them in, with poor instructions, no labels on some of the materials in stock, and no idea how much of the equipment works. However, she'll do her best with what she has.]
[Sasuke's room]
[Exploring the dormitories found her the door with Sasuke's name on it, sending her blood running cold. Sasuke, here? There are certain assumptions that she feels almost driven to make; while she doesn't act immediately, within a day or two of her arrival, she finds the room unoccupied and slips into it, tamping down her chakra as best she can and concealing herself.]
[Waiting.]
[He has to come back, this is where he sleeps, and when he does, she will do what she failed to before. Naruto's not here now to suffer the consequences of her attempt. It will just be the two of them.]
[She'll do it this time. She'll kill him. She'll end this destructive tension that's been tearing the remnants of their team apart for years. For Naruto, for Kakashi, for herself... she'll do this.]
no subject
It's far more than her Sasuke had ever given her, would ever give her, more than she has ever expected from him, even when they were kids and her heart was set on him. Now, after so much hurt, after that abandonment...
She can't help leaning into it. Can't help herself for drinking up that touch, that small smile. Can't help herself for taking everything that this Sasuke will give her, because at least it's something that she can treasure against all the time when there's just... nothing.
His words are... ridiculous, aren't they? Wouldn't want her to be sorry, even if she had killed him? This Sasuke, this Sasuke who with every passing second shows how much he isn't the Sasuke she wanted to end?
But maybe this should make her wary. It's everything she's hoped for, all wrapped up with Sasuke's beautiful face... and she's already seen that this Tower is a place of nightmares. Is this just setting her up for a deeper one?
The thought makes her faintly nauseous. To doubt him... and yet, she can't not. She's far too much a ninja for that. But if it is a trap, a snare for her emotions...
But if it's not. If he's not.
She can't turn her back on him. So she'll just have to walk into things with her eyes wide open, and hope to catch the trap before it triggers, if there really is one.
"Come on," she says, still trying to be the medic, even with the way she's pressed herself into his touch. "Let's get you up off the floor here. You should be able to stand..." She can't aswer his words, answer his statement that he wouldn't want her to be sorry if he'd died. There's just nothing she can say to it. He's too good, too much.
no subject
The fact that she doesn't know him is heartbreaking.
He takes the opportunity, while he's still cupping her cheek, to thumb a few tears from the corner of her eye. She shouldn't be crying over him. She should never cry over him.
He lets her help him up, though he's sure now he would be able to stand on his own. She's good. She's very, very good. He has to keep reminding himself that this is a very different Sakura, because the similarities are staggering. It makes him wonder what the differences are.
no subject
Searching for something to say, she finally settles on a relatively neutral question. "How long have you been here?" It's not much, but hopefully it will get easier words flowing. She needs to know this Sasuke, to find out who he is -- how different he is. Because utterly, totally really isn't enough to go on.
no subject
"A few months," he answers at length. "A little more than three." He runs a hand back through his hair, a gesture of the mildest discomfort. Feels that it's slick with sweat, between the fight and the poison, and sighs sharply through his nose. He suddenly feels his previous tiredness sagging back onto his shoulders, thinking consciously of what just happened between them. Thankful for what didn't, more for Sakura's sake than his.
"Come on," he says abruptly, nodding his head back down the hall and moving toward his door once again. "Come inside, and let's talk." Privately. And with some invitation for her, this time.
no subject
She nods, feeling a little numb suddenly as the last of the adrenaline rush leaves her. She's burned chakra so recklessly, first in the attack and then the healing, that she desperately needs to have a quiet place, at least relatively safe, to sink down and rest. Not as bad as Kakashi gets, but more than enough to feel it.
"Yes. We... I think we have a lot to talk about." And it's probably going to hurt.
She follows him into the room, settling herself and looking to him, studying him again, just tracing his features -- the difference in how he holds himself, how he looks. He's older than her -- 18, he'd said -- and she can't help admitting that the extra years have only made him more heartbreakingly handsome. Maybe especially him, because the lines of coldness and cruelty aren't setting themselves in his face.
no subject
He lets Sakura study him, doesn't object or squirm. He's so familiar, so close with his own Sakura that it doesn't really strike him as uncomfortably as it should. Even if he knows that isn't her, that this isn't the Sakura he knows, but he can't bring himself to be discomfited or wary all the same. It's still Sakura.
He does sink down onto the edge of the bed, feeling heavy and sore. "Have a seat, if you like." He gestures toward the bed next to him, to the trunk beyond that if she wishes. He wishes he had a chair or something to offer.
For a moment, he's silent, hands folded in front of him, leaning over his knees.
"I'm sorry for anything you've been through because of me." He can't even imagine. "Or any version of me."
no subject
Okay, so... talking. They need to talk. Because they're here now, and if he's the kind of person he seems like... then she has a feeling they won't just go their separate ways after this.
"I'm not going to lie," she adds after a moment of thinking. "What he put us through... was pretty bad. But I don't hold you responsible for any of it. You're not the same person." Because Sasuke, the Sasuke of her world, the last time she'd seen him...
...Well. There was little question in her mind that that Sasuke was absolutely, utterly insane. This one, though, his only madness was in that absolute forgiveness, even of her attempt to kill him.
no subject
"I did a lot of stupid and selfish things when I was younger. I still put my hand through Naruto's chest." There's the barest hint of tightness in those words. Sasuke still hasn't forgiven himself for that. "If your Sasuke left... I can't help but guess we had the same path up to a point." Sakura still knew who he was. She'd mentioned Naruto. So much had to be the same.
no subject
The same path up to a point -- was that it? Was everything else before it the same? She considers it, then takes a slow breath, asks cautiously, "If you fought Naruto -- at that valley, right? Then the big things, the reason you were out that far, that will probably -- maybe? -- be the same." Not wanting to say it directly, too much discretion to blurt out, what happened to your family?
There's so much to say, so much hurt to pour out, and she doesn't want to hurt him with it. This isn't the Sasuke who deserves to suffer for what she and Naruto went through.
"... Are you sure you want to compare it?" she asks. "It won't be good."