Disclaimer - I do not - and probably never will - own Naruto.

Summary - The only thing she could remember was the last thing she heard, the sound of his voice, the alarm caused by his words, "Your new home."


The city of Konoha was unusually quiet that night. Quiet for a city, which knew no difference between night and day, only the importance of money and profit.

The daunting night up ahead was black and moonless, clouds shielding the stars from earthly view and the moon from casting its usual halo of light upon its people.

She listened to the nightingale's wail outside, the red breasted beauty perched on the sullen limb of a tree; heard the soft

Today was the Sakura festival, a momentous holiday, for it brought the lower class inhabitants of Konoha great relief and relaxation, their one day of coveted quiet peace pushed aside by the greater temptation to party and mingle between society and the greater urge to have fun.

rustle of the wind against foliage, leaves and grass. Her large oval eyes, the unusual color of pure green, unaltered by any other hue, reached with heavy disdain the mirror that stood across from her.

She watched the movements of the reflection, her eyes traveling the white gossamer gown, the pale porcelain skin without the imperfections of scars and mars, the natural dips and dives, velvet over muscle, earthly perfection. Or so it would seem.

She watched the reflection touch the ends of bright, vivid pink hair that reached the small of her back. A most unusual color. Such an abnormality to

Tonight was the birthday of a most wealthy and socially elite daughter, a Haruno Sakura, a child of riches and rags stories, of prosperous wealth and befitting luck.

Her manor lay not in the square of Konoha, the center of the city, but at the outskirts of town, nearer the leafy forests and primitive beasts than civilized ones.

We find her abandoned in her bedchamber with only a sourly dour old maid to keep her company, as she is forced to sit quietly until the call of her mother.

be born with.

Sakura looked around her, eyes burning with disgust and rage and contempt for her desirous room: the trinkets kept for her 'amusement' had all been smashed and broken to pieces of expensive glass, the clothes that lay strewn across the floor had been mercilessly trampled and ripped to shreds, a horrible calamity.

What does Mother intend, thought Sakura, of keeping me locked up here. I will get out. I will! See that anyone tries to stop me!

The maid, sour faced Ami, looked up with a scowl, "Mistress shall marry ye' off today she will. Then you'll be un goan from this hare hawse and nether high nor lo' can save ye. The widow will be a rid of ye en we will hev ow'selves a fine feast aft'werds."

Sakura pretended not to hear, so as not to give the old hag any satisfaction and turned, mute, to the shut window and watched the outside world and the sky tease her.

Freedom

The bell suddenly gave a clang, startling Sakura, and Ami the maid into hustling and bustling around the extravagant room just as the great oak doors were flung open.

"Sakura."

The sound of her voice made the very insides of Sakura curl in hate and contempt. One should not feel like this for their mother, one should not hate her so -

"Yes….mother?" Sakura leered, not bothering to hide her outrage.

"Refrain from having an attitude today, Sakura. Do not expect me to hold back if you choose to be incompetent in front of any of our guests."

Sakura sneered, "Do not expect me," she started dangerously, mimicking her mother in a petulant tone, "to marry any of those uptight, half assed suitors you put out there!"

At this Ami heartily gasped with scandalized pleasure, "Look how the little missy acts, look how ye let her run 'bout M'Lady, look how ye let her go," And then, with a devious twinkle in her eye, "Fit to be a' punished, M'Lady?"

Sakura, her eyes raging and actually seeing white, perceived her mother obtrusively, clearly for one second through the blinding emotion and saw the older woman as a person might see an abstract in its put together form.

The Haruno nee Mio Sakaya was a young woman, having married at an early age to an older man, stepping from an acceptable middle class position to that of a high class elite and in dong so, had fixed her fate forever.

She was only fifteen years older then Sakura, being only thirty two and not a day older, with only fresh lines under her eyes that gave way to the physical manifestation of her age but only added more to her beauty, showing that she aged only like the finest wine.

Her hair was not pink, like Sakura's, but a deep burgundy, her tone of skin paler than that of her daughter's, resembling that of a bleached cattle bone, and her eyes were a light hazel brown, only light catching the green specks in which Sakura's eyes may have derived from.

Despite this beauty, the woman gave off the aura of a classical queen, a dignified posterior, cold, apathetic eyes, and now, a newly placed feeling of that of a grieving though surviving widow - if only for show.

Sakura knew her mother did not miss her father. Haruno Soushi the second had been naught but a wealthy, brilliant business man in his early forties, and a notorious playboy.

He always claimed, in life, of going on business trips in faraway lands for the most part of Sakura's life, to the point that he was only father in name and stranger in reality.

The 'business trips' he described were actually journeys varying from underclass whores in the whorehouses to his favorite high class mistresses.

Sakura did not miss him one bit, and certainly not grieved for the fact that he should have been what he was not but angered by his sudden reason of death: having boarded a ship with a mistress the same age as herself that had been sunken by a storm.

But the thing that angered - and disturbed -, her most was her mother's reaction; the woman did not grieve nor rage, she did not smile ruefully or cry with earnest.

She just did not feel.

Her mother, Sakura decided, was void of all emotion. She was an empty high class widow with nothing in life except her material gains and her class-made privileges.

This was what made it perfectly acceptable, perfectly not horrid, to marry off her own daughter for the sake of her purposes.

"No, not tonight Ami." Sakura was wrenched from thought into the present and she gave her mother a defiant glare whose recipient only returned it with an uninterested glance and left, the old maid scuttling after her.

"Come out and join the guests when the bell rings for you."

And with that, the heavy oak doors closed with a dramatic bang and an angry, helpless Sakura collapsed into the floor in tears and rage.


That night, the lights at the Haruno Manor were the only ones glaring in defiance against the blackest of nights. Chatter and laughter could be heard from within the walls, music streaming through the open windows.

"Che, the make it so easy - Oy, oy! Teme, what do you think you're doing?" In the thicket of the garden foliage, trees bearing all types of fruits, a loud whisper sounded.

The face to the voice?

In the shadows, a taut, muscular, lean figure could be made out.

Blond, wild hair in uncontrollable spikes fell over cerulean orbs, clear as the bluest sea. The figure emitted a sunny aura, no doubt his natural disposition.

Uzumaki Naruto.

"Idiot, shut the hell up. Do you want us to get caught?" His companion drawled in an annoyed, deep velvety voice. He contrasted deeply with his boyish ruffian of a fellow.

This new figure was - while his companion was good looking above normal - extravagantly beautiful, almost an unnatural handsomeness.

He was paler than most with black hair that spiked unusually at the back and ended carelessly a few inches from his shoulders.

But his most captivating features were his eyes.

The orbs were deep obsidian but with unusual rings of crimson detailing in a pattern in the space of his pupil; obsidian, crimson ring, obsidian, crimson ring, obsidian and on until they reached the pupil.

His name?

Uchiha Sasuke.

The blond stood restlessly, impatiently staring back and forth from the lights of the manor to Sasuke, who eyed him with a glare and said, "Hn. Calm down idiot."

"Who are you calling idiot, teme?"

"Hn. Who else?" Sasuke eyed the shadows dancing around them, discerning which were real and which were just shadows played out by the light, "We'll go in when Kakashi gives us the signal."

Naruto harrumphed crossly and crossed his arms over his chest, plopping to the ground with his legs crossed as well and stared impatiently at the manor.

"Geez, these rich folks man."


The ballroom was enormous in size and extravagant in beauty. The room blared with white diamond chandelier lights up ahead and beautiful crystal littered candles adorning the walls on all sides.

The guests were all of the highest wrung in society. Old money and new money, uptight Konoha 'royalty' and day old politicians that were not expected to last.

The only thing missing was the presence of the King himself.

Sakura watched from the small opening allowed through the oak doors, careful not to let any of her real emotions charging through - perhaps that was her problem, she was just too emotional - but proud not to seem too happy-go-lucky about the charade either.

Haruno Sakaya could be spotted easily among the guests, even if she did have a small frame. She was one of the most regal in the room, her form a show of quiet confidence, her eyes flashing with critique.

She was chatting with a handsome man, young and red haired and brown eyed, easily one of the most sought after in the whole room, with a smile that did not reach her eyes and just as Sakura was pushed out into the lion's den by Ami the maid - damn her - Sakaya had brought over said man and was well on the way to introducing the two.

This, it turned out, was Sakura's latest marriage prospect.

"How do you do, Madame." He bowed slightly, taking her hand and giving it a slow kiss. The gleam in his eyes immediately roused Sakura's dislike.

"Fine." She said coldly, only bothering to add somewhat bored if not rudely, "And you?"

Sakaya shot her a warning glance, cold eyes promising severe retribution if Sakura did not act as she commanded.

"Quite well - not that this little lady is with us." A quick cursory glance went to her chest and then back up with some satisfaction.

Sakura nearly exploded in disgust.

"Ah, Miss Haruno."

Sakura turned around, this time with a slight feeling of relief, from her mother and the imbecile to a man that immediately captured her interest.

He was unusual and different from the other guest, and while he was dressed to the nines in his grey suit, he wore a mask over the most part of his face, only revealing a grey eye that twinkled with some amusement.

Not only that but he had an air unlike anybody else in the room, one of that of a man not used to being catered to left and right, but someone who worked hard for what he got. That much she could sense.

And the fact that he held a playfulness about him.

Sakura turned suddenly to her mother, whom she thought she heard a soft intake of breath.

Maybe she had just imagined it …

She turned back to the man in the mask.

"And you are …?"

"Kakashi, call me Kakashi."

"Um, okay, Kakashi-san," Sakura could not help but want to giggle at his strangeness, "What is it that you want from me?" Too bad if that's rude.

"Hmm, spirit," He murmured to no one but himself and then, added aloud, "Nothing, nothing - only that you may come with me."

"Wha - ?" Sakura sputtered as he grabbed her arm quite roughly.

"How dare you - ?" Came her mother's outrage - or as outraged it could get - voice.

Suddenly there was a loud bang and then, darkness surrounded them.


Sakura stood in shock for a second or two and then her senses kicked in.

She grappled in the darkness, kicking and lashing out for the masked man named Kakashi, only to ding that her free legs could not find him anywhere. It was as if the hands painfully enclosing her wrists were disembodied and then came his voice.

"Stop that," The man murmured almost bored, "This is for your own good, squirt."

"My own good!" Sakura scoffed vehemently, "You - you - you pervert! Let me go at once!"

The man only gave a small chuckle and then whistled into the darkness.

Damn, thought Sakura, where the hell was everybody?

As soon as he had whistled, clouds of some sort had conjured around them.

Sakura could feel she was no longer in Haruno Manor. The wind sifted past her legs, the dress lifting a little off the ground, and Sakura tree leaves whizzing past them, gently caressing their faces on their way.

"Where- where are we?" She gasped.

This could not be happening!

The clouds departed along with the wind.

Sakura stared out in shock.

In front of her, there was a cliff overlooking a beach that stood against, outlined in the moonlight, miles and miles of ocean.

There were no other forms of life around besides them.

A new voice - much more velvety and smooth and husky than that of the masked man's - reached her.

She looked up to see that she was not held by Kakashi any longer but a new person.

The haze Sakura met when she reached those crimson eyes, dotted with three black marks, was unfamiliar …frightening.

The only thing she could remember was the last thing she heard, the sound of his voice, the alarm caused by his words,

"Your new home."


A/N - Yay! So I'm finally finished with this chapter - the first to my new and first Fanfic. I am so happy! I can finally go chomp on cookies and work on the next one and just let it all out. Anyways, I hope you guys really enjoy it. And yeah, it's a little ole England society, especially with Ami's - HA! - Yorkshire accent but other than that its got some Japanese cultural things going on, too.

Plus, I made Sasuke the captor! Yeah, I know, that's so primitive blah blah. Psh, whatever. A captor Sasuke is an unbelievably sexy and irritable Sasuke so whatever.

^.^ Next time, peoples! Ciao! Reviews please, mademoiselle and monsieur.