Title: Hold Me Down
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: Izuna/Sakura
Summary: Of healing and angels; his devotion is so great you could drown in it. {AU oneshot}
Other: I owed this to 15thBurningFiddle. And yeah, the timeline is screwed to hell.

-o--o--o-

There is an ache in his eye sockets that radiates through his skull. Despite volunteering for such pain, he isn't ready for it. He feels like he is drowning, smothered by the piercing hurt in his face. He tries to beg for help but his voice catches in his throat, coming out as a strangled garble.

Even with his agony, he can only be glad that his brother is free of it.

-o--o--o-

A hand presses to his forehead, cool despite the glow of chakra that it emits. "… shouldn't have left him so long," someone was saying. Someone female. He can feel body heat next to his shoulder now and through a pain-induced fog decides that she is trying to help him. "… not sure if I can…" Her voice is a melody, but through the pounding in his ears he cannot keep track of what she is saying. Her hand lifts from his skin and all the pressure she has held back crashes into him at full force.

Unable to fight, he sleeps.

-o--o--o-

It's only a dull throb now; an incessant ache that is hardly a bother to a shinobi. He tries to sit up but fails until someone helps him onto the pillows. It's her again- he can tell as soon as her fingers brush his skin. He opens his mouth to speak but there is the familiar weight of a cup pressed to his lower lip. "Drink," she murmurs, "you've been ill for some time." He does as she asks, finding himself thirstier than he could imagine. When he is done she wipes the excess moisture from his lips, her movements tender. He feels incredibly tired and despite his best efforts, he slumps back against the pillows weakly.

She tucks him in, hands shaking in her fury.

-o--o--o-

There is arguing. "You stupid Uchiha and your damnable pride!" It's her again, his angel, and she is angry. "If you had called for me a few days sooner, I could have replaced his eyes!"

"It would not matter!" This new voice sounds familiar. He thinks that it is one of the clan elders. "Without the Sharingan, he is useless to our clan anyway. I would have preferred to let him rot."

There is the awful stinging sound of skin meeting skin; he rather thinks that she has slapped the other Uchiha. "Get out." A muffled noise of protest, and then the sound of something slamming. "My house, my sickbay, my rules. Get out!" The target of her fury makes a scrambling sound as he hurries for the door. Only once it is firmly shut behind him does the woman make her way back to where her patient has managed to pull himself up against the cushions.

"I'm sorry you had to hear that," she murmurs.

"Doesn't… matter," he croaks. His throat burns but he pauses only to swallow. "Only care… about aniki."

She lets out what sounds like a sob and a laugh rolled into one; there is a rustle of fabric as she kneels at his bedside. Secretly he wishes for her touch again and is not disappointed. She brushes the hair back from his face, sighing. "Why do the worst things happen to the best people?" She does not mean for him to hear, he is sure, but he does. He wants to comfort her, to talk the whole ordeal away, but he is unable to manage the simplest of sentences. Instead his hands find her head, running through the soft hair in a tender gesture.

Only the good could endure the worst and remain whole.

-o--o--o-

"I don't want to cause you any undue stress," she explains softly. "Are you sure that it's alright?"

He nods. "Aniki never wanted me to be hurt," his voice is reverent and calm; she admires his devotion to his brother. "I want to see him," he continues in a firmer tone.

Even though there will not actually be any 'sight' for the poor young man, she agrees to let his brother visit him. He responds by pressing a clumsy kiss to her eyebrow- he was aiming for her forehead.

-o-

She can tell as soon as the older shinobi steps into the room that he hates himself. There is only a moment before he drops to his knees at the bedside, hands gripping his younger brother's with desperation. "How are you feeling? Are you hurting? Do you need anything? Are you sure you're-?"

"I don't blame you," the younger man is soft in tone, but it still cuts through the tension like a kunai.

His aniki freezes. "Wha-?"

"It's not your fault that our clan is this way, aniki." The blind teen smiles in the general direction of his older brother, tears leaking from the sockets. "I know you would never willingly hurt me."

The older of the two reaches out and touches his brother's cheek, as if to prove that what he's seeing and hearing are reality. Only a second passes before they embrace, and their overseer takes her leave.

-o--o--o-

"I think I see now," she whispers, "why you are so loyal to your brother." Under his fingers her hair is soft; he lets her rest it on his abdomen and toys with the silky strands. "I can tell just how much you two love each other. Being in the same room- it's suffocating." He pauses, unhappy to hear what could have been tears in her tone. "I shouldn't be jealous but I am. I don't think I will ever have anyone to care for me so deeply."

It takes a few moments to find the right spot, but he tugs her face up and presses his lips to her forehead. "You already do."

A/N: Hold me down (I will live again)
Pull me up (I will break you)
Hold me down (better in the end)
Hold me down
~Had Enough by Breaking Benjamin

15thBurningFiddle and I decided that we should each write an IzunSaku.
Darling Lyn-sama paid her end of the bargain more than once. Me? I'm such a procrastinator.