#that realization

I find it interesting because I’ve seen that type of hair somewhere... then it hit me

The world is white and still when Sakura awakens.

She blinks rapidly, trying to clear away her disorientation as she raises a hand to brush the sleep from her eyes. Sakura knows from experience that her slumber was some amalgamation of natural sleep and medical ninjutsu. Her chakra stores are replenished but they feel…off somehow.

Sakura shakes her head roughly, moving fingers through incredibly oily hair.

“How long—?” she begins, her question disappearing into a fit of coughs.

Eyes watery, Sakura glances around the room, surprised to find no one present.

She knows she is back in Konoha and in the hospital.

The plan worked.

Sakura sighs, boneless with relief as she slumps back into the bed. Everything aches. She is well-used to lingering wounds (her right hand was forever cramping in Kumo because of the cold weather) but never has her body felt so brittle before. She feels like her skin and organs have melted away, leaving behind only her sun-dried, fragile bones. She is coming apart at the seams and she is arid like the Suna desert.

Sakura makes some sort of indecipherable sound as she falls into herself to take stock of the damages wrought by Kabuto and Orochimaru. She is mostly healed thankfully but her chakra network is going haywire.

Her chakra presents itself as a core of green that branches off into a multitude of twinkling lights through her body. Right now, the chakra around her leg is lit with blue, frenzied light.

“What?” she murmurs to Inner, studying the system with intrigue. “That’s where…” she trails off, flinching.

Inner understands immediately. “Yeah…it’s where the snake bit you. I was able to augment some of the pain but…” She shakes herself. “Orochimaru wasn’t lying when he called the poison potent. I can’t believe a worm like Kabuto could pull off something so complicated.”

Sakura hums, moving toward the blue lights. She reaches out, only to pull away in pain as the blue chakra dissipates.

“Sakura!” Inner says but it is too late.

Sakura is thrust out of her mind, gasping in agony. She places a hand to her heart, trying to regulate her breathing. She’s never been thrust out of her mind before. In fact, she cannot even communicate with Inner Sakura. And her leg…

Sakura whimpers, biting down on her lip to keep from crying out. Inner must have blocked out the pain because, kami, it is…she’s never felt anything like it.

Sakura spends a few, long, painful moments trying to compartmentalize the pain to a bearable point. Finally, she gains the strength to struggle into a sitting position, careful of the wires attached to her arms.

She pulls back the sheet and stares down at her legs, thunderstruck.

Her right leg, where Orochimaru attacked her and the source of all her pain, is gone. White bandages wrap around the stump that is all that remains from about mid-thigh up to her hip. Shakily, Sakura reaches down and presses into the space where her leg should be.

Empty.

She screams.