The Hokage nodded, looking in at the pink-haired Academy student. "Still no idea what was done to her?"
The doctor nodded. "The Sekirei Core is similar to the part of the chakra system where spiritual and physical energy are mixed. The coil system in the area of the Gate Of View. The attack was meant to extract that center - killing the target by eliminating their chakra entirely."
"Except she lived through it," noted the Hokage.
"It's doubtful it would have worked against a Sekirei," offered the doctor. "The backlash might have killed both the target and the attacker but it only was this successful because Haruno there had so little chakra to resist the technique."
"You're saying someone got some details of the Sekirei and tried to work out an attack to immobilize or kill one," said the Hokage.
"Which means a spy somewhere at the main hospital, they haven't been here that long and the only diagnostics done have been there," said the doctor. "Which is why Haruno-san was moved here. I was at first uncertain about allowing the Uzumaki boy to accompany her."
"Apparently he has a liking for her," said the Hokage. "The procedure was a success?"
"Both she and Hinata Hyuga have Sekirei cores," said the doctor. "I work primarily for T&I - I would suggest continuing care and notes be placed entirely within that department."
"Ungh." It felt like she'd been submerged in deep black waters and was just now floating on the surface. It required an immense effort to open her eyes.
"Here's some water," said a voice nearby.
Blinking helped, the world gradually coming into focus. A glass of water with a straw being held nearby. She tried to make a noise, it came out as a croak. The blurred yellow-haired boy moved the straw closer to her mouth where she could sip on it.
"Eh?" she asked, the blurs resolving themselves more.
"You were caught by the enemy nin," said the voice nearby. "I saved you. Well, me and a couple of others. It's been about three days."
"Eh?" she asked, moving her head slightly and the water was taken away. She tried to focus on the boy. "Who?"
"Naruto Uzumaki. Your classmate? I asked you out a few times."
Ah. This was a friend then? Was he her boyfriend? He seems a little familiar but he said 'asked out' not 'dated' - so did I turn him down? She shook her head. "You are a friend of mine?"
"Well, yeah, I got permission from the docs to be here cause of that," said Naruto, grinning at her. "You want to see a doc yet?"
"Wanna sleep," she confessed. "Question?"
"Sure, whatcha want ta know?" asked Naruto.
"Who am I?"
"Amnesia?" asked the Hokage.
"Yes, apparently one of the times we revived her - there was damage. The brain damage was reversed when the chakra system rebuilt - she can heal extraordinarily fast as a result of that, but her memories were largely lost." The doctor shook his head. "She's gone to visit her parents, and she's relearning everything rapidly. Perhaps too rapidly."
"How can her recovery be 'too rapid'?" asked the Hokage.
She wasn't an idiot. Far from it. She knew she was being watched and that while some eyes were friendly or easily fooled, some were not of either category.
She hadn't remembered so much as her name three days ago when she'd awoken in that hospital room. There were still a few gaps that she didn't quite have.
She was Sakura Haruno, age twelve. Former friend of Ino Yamanaka, and the reason that she was no longer her friend didn't make a whole lot of sense. Some boy that apparently had absolutely no interest in either of them?
She remembered dying. The missing-nin that had taken her had flipped open some scroll, made a hand sign, and then used one glowing hand to rip her body apart. She had felt as if she was being dissected down to the essence.
Then there had been some yelling, but at that point she'd been mainly concerned with looking down at her own apparently-dead body and filled with more regret than anything she'd felt since then.
That particular memory had come bubbling up from the big blank area last night. As well as something involving a talking cat, sock puppets, and a singing burrito.
Her memory, Sakura concluded, was REALLY screwed up.
Still she remembered little details of her life, but things were different now and she was laboring to keep the watchers from realizing HOW different things were.
She could sense presences. The Hokage, usually out of sight when he was present, was like a bonfire that had been allowed to slowly dim itself. Burning out but not there yet, and if needed he'd prod his reserves into a blazing conflagaration that could kill her before she'd even begun to react.
The boy who ignored her. Dark and edgy and the feeling of something poisonous there. Sasuke Uchiha. No particular memories there, so maybe he'd done something particularly impressive?
Ino Yamanaka. Flowers. Bright and colorful, but not very substantial. Pleasant though and stopped making references to the Uchiha when it was obvious that Sakura wasn't interested.
Hinata Hyuga. The doctors had introduced the two of them during testing. A kindred spirit of sorts. Two chakras, not fully integrated. She felt of precision and gentleness, sunlight on a grassy field. Sakura wondered how she herself felt to the Hyuga child.
Naruto Uzumaki. A deep dark core of snarling hatred, caged within an unquenchable spirit One was him, one was something else altogether. More than once she'd been caught just staring at him as she tried to make sense of the boy. That he was concerned about her, and apparently really DID like her a lot - she got that too. It was hard not to like him back, at least a little, in the face of that.
Since she couldn't hide that she'd changed, she embraced part of it in front of the watchers. Let them know how quickly she learned and how quickly she healed. A couple of mistakes early on would have left either obvious in any case.
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(Posted Sat, 25 Oct 2014 16:42)
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