End before beginning

Unpleasant would be an understatement, it was raw pain the like he had difficulties dealing with, a pain, he would have laughed if he could, of the soul.

With pain he could ultimately deal, but soon he fell into a daze and his thoughts slowed down to a crawl.

He heard a familiar voice calling to him, it sounded familiar and soothing to hear.

He tried to remember to whom the voice belonged, but he could not.

It soon faded away, then he found himself atop a skyscraper overlooking an empty city, it looked familiar, but again, he could not remember. The view faded and another scene took its place. He was on the empty streets, no, not empty. There, in the middle of the street, a small ashen sapling grew. It had seven leaves and seven buds; they too were the colour of ashes.

A flash of light had Sango look up, there a falling star crossed the sky, but it did not disappear as it burned across the sky, instead it turned abruptly towards him.

He had no fear as he could not think, could not understand. The light neared and he stood still, but the star did not reach him as it should.

The small saplings grew a branch with one of the seven leaves and one of the seven buds. Faster than the star it reached him but did not touch his body. It caught the star like it would a plume, it was a crystal cube Sango would have recognised if he could, but he was a dream withing a dream.

The leaf enveloped the crystal and the bud became red, yet it did not bloom, then the branch retracted, and the sapling grew a foot.

The sky grew dark, no stars, as ink. Snow began to fall and freezing cold covered the city.

The sapling's other branches grew again, the leaves grew several foots, they grew to reach Sango and envelop him in their leaves as a mother's embrace.

Soon darkness took him in.

He woke up to crying, it was a sound he found out it was unpleasant, it made his chest pain.

Remembering what happened before he lost consciousness, he understood why they were crying. He had to let them know he was fine, so he moved his hand.

"Sango!" His movement was noticed immediately, someone took a hold of his shoulders and shook him vigorously.

"Stop! Don't move him yet!" An angry voice followed soon.

Trying to open his eyes, even if he could not, would still give him sight, and trying to close his already closed eyes would take it away.

So, he opened his eyes.

Four faces welcomed him; they were all smiling happily but all had traces of tears. He did not think that his situation was so bad that they would react so strongly, but that also meant that they cared deeply for him, which made him happy.

The last thing he remembered was something piercing through his forehead protector, so how was he still alive?

He moved his hand to his forehead only to find it bare, the forehead protector was missing. Seeing his action, Kurenai showed him something.

"Here it is." She had his forehead protector in hand, there was a hole the size of a grain of rice.

Seeing that, Sango brought his hand to his forehead and touched it, there was nothing beside his gem-like protrusion, the gem that has been there since he became 'Sango'.

Wanting to ask what happened after he lost consciousness, he turned to look at Kurenai, but before he could ask her, she jumped on him embracing him tightly to her chest.

She did not say anything, nor did he, there was no need for words. The three young Gennin girls became flustered at the scene of affection, they pretended to look somewhere else, but they were also happy that he was well.

Sango felt her soft chest pressing against him, her warmth and her scent. It made his head dizzy, a bit too dizzy he understood as his body's heat increased abnormally.

Despite his unnaturally high self-control, he found his arms begin caressing her back and pressing himself tightly against her.

It wasn't simply losing control; he felt an instinct as the one that pushes you to fight for your life. Something similar happened before, on the way to the village, but that time was still controllable, now he felt on the verge of assaulting Kurenai, something he would rather cut his own arms than do.

Kurenai felt embarrassed when she first felt his hands wander on her body, then angry as he began more brazen and persistent. When she was about to strike him down, she saw his state and froze.

His body was flushed red and his eyes were sometimes unfocused. He looked as if he was fighting against something, struggling to keep control.