Two neighboring countries are at war, and a young woman's whole family is slaughtered while she is out in the woods hunting. Let's leave it at that.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, and I don't think I'll ever own anything. :-/

--Sanded Silk--

Emerald eyes narrowed dangerously as an arrow fitted into a taut bow was aimed at the heart of an unsuspecting deer. Veins in the arms of the owner of the emerald eyes stood out starkly against her pale skin, and sweat beaded her forehead, matting her short pink hair.

With a decisive zinggg, Haruno Sakura released the arrow and sent it flying into the heart of the deer at lightning speed. The deer keeled over, eyes still innocently open, grass still lying half-chewed in its mouth. With a smile, Sakura walked lightly to the side of the dead deer. Yanking the arrow out, she tied all four hooves together and dragged her prize home.

With the war still raging between Konoha- Sakura's home country- and Suna, a neighboring country, food had been hard to by because of the steadily-rising taxes. For her family, food was especially hard to obtain, because they lived in the woods many miles from the nearest town. Hunting was also a high risk, because their house was- conveniently- only a mile or so from the official border between the two warring countries.

Luckily for Sakura and her family-which really only was her and her parents, Suna had chosen to attack in more open areas because they were unused to trunks sprouting from nowhere, branches blocking the sunlight from their faces, and the sharp spikes that grew in the wild vegetation and the thick, offending bramble and underbrush.

For a short time, the forest would protect her and her family. But no one knew for how long.

With a huff, she pulled her dead deer into a small clearing. In the center of the clearing stood a tiny cottage, with small, bright flowers surrounding the tiny house.

Stepping around the flowers, Sakura threw the door open, a greeting on her lips that died immediately. The walls, the floor, the furniture, even the ceiling: everything was covered in red, rusty-smelling blood.

And in the center of the mess lay two almost-unrecognizable bodies, both with pink hair and milky emerald eyes, widened in a permanent expression of shock. Their limbs were twisted and yanked from the sockets. Various bones were broken here and there, and the blood seeping from the countless wounds stained the dirt floor that they lay dead on.

Dropping the deer, Sakura took a step back, hands held out before her, as if she were expecting her parents to come to life and eat her intestines. Her eyes were wider than she thought was possible, mouth even wider with shock.

Her parents? Dead? Who killed them? Why?

The Sunan warriors. Of course. They came, braved the forest and the spikey brambles, and killed the first people they saw. How could she have missed their raucous footsteps and laughing? Even if they had been stealthy and quiet, she would have heard them: Sunans were more accustomed to deserts and plains, and would never have made it through a forest without leaving clues and making sounds.

Still in shock, with a racing mind, Sakura took another step back, and realized that she had stepped into a puddle of blood. The blood now stuck to the bottom of her boot, and made prints wherever she took a step. Frantically, she took several steps back, as if walking would take the print off of her shoe, trampled the flowers that her mother so diligently raised, and fell onto her backside. Not noticing, Sakura rubbed the bottom of her shoe into the grass, removing most of the blood. Still spooked, Sakura stood up and proceeded rubbing her boot into the grass when she felt the prickling sensation on the back of her neck- the feeling that told her someone was watching her.

Sakura froze. Her skin broke into a cold sweat, and shakily, she grasped the bow from her shoudler and fitted the arrow she had used to kill the deer into the bow.

The tip, she noticed, was still covered in the blood of the deer.

With every cell in her body shaking, Sakura turned slowly on her heel, scanning the forest, still terrified. Despite her fear, Sakura stilled her insides and tried to focus. She closed her mouth and narrowed her eyes, heart beating crazily. And slowly, she heard it, felt it, tasted it in the air- the heavy breathing of soldiers, the rustling of heavy metal-soled boots shifting in bramble, the sweat that formed on their brows and under their thick armor.

Fear. It bathed the tip of her tongue with a bitter taste, and froze her limbs. Fear of the breathing and rustling she heard in the shadows that she could not yet see- fear of the two dozen soldiers whose breath and boots she could hear, feel, and taste. Her hunter's instincts foretold her of the danger she was facing, but the knowledge froze her on her feet. Her muscles screamed at her to shoot, to whip as many arrows as she had from her quiver and to send them at lightning speed into the hearts of the soldiers that she could feel.

But her mind couldn't unfreeze her limbs. Her muscles were frozen in cold fear, and an equally-cold sweat bathed her from her fingertips to her hairline on her forehead. The arrow in her bow remained there, shaking slightly from her quaking.

She swallowed, and felt her throat almost convulse at the dryness. The momentary pain shook her into her senses, into the practical girl her parents knew her as.

Her parents. Dead, on the floor of the cottage...

No! At a time like this, she had to be focused. She had to think, to buy herself time, to figure out a way to fight herself through the deathly ring of people around her.

With a deep breath, Sakura drew her feet together until her ankled touched. She straightened her knees, pulled three more arrows from her quiver, fitted them into her bow, raised them to eye level at the nearest presences she could feel. She didn't know what their weapons were, didn't know what their special abilities were.

But she didn't care. The image of her parents lying, dead and motionless on the floor, awaked something deeper and harder than fear- a pure hatred, steeped in sorrow.

Licking her lips and swallowing again- less painfully this time- she loosed her arrows, and heard the cries of four men as they fell.

Immediately, small daggers with tips covered in poison darted out from all around her. With a cry, Sakura dodged and flipped, avoiding all of the daggers that flew at her. To her satisfaction, she heard the cries of men who had been accidentally hit.

Finally, she only felt three presences in the woods. Fitting three arrows, she turned to face her three attackers and loosed her arrows, eyes glinting with hate. The arrows hit their targets, and the three men fell without enough time to scream.

Sakura stood motionless in the clearing, her last arrow clenched in her hands, the bird feathers fletching the smooth wood digging against her fingers. Pants escaped her lips in small breaths, and she looked around her, her heart still beating wildly. Even in the shadows, she could now see the bodies of the soldiers she had killed, and the arrows sticking out of their chests.

Robotically, she walked to every body lying on the forest floor and yanked her arrows from their chests. The last man had the arrow sunken deep into his chest. Sakura stomped a foot deep into his chest and yanked hard on the arrow. With a thin spurt of blood, the arrow broke free.

Without bothering to clean the arrows, she slid them into her quiver, chose a random direction, and walked.

Anger bubbled inside her- anger and guilt. She had killed at least two dozen people in a few minutes. But the guilt didn't eat at her frozen heart. It gnawed uselessly, and fell away into the depths of her mind to haunt her dreams later.

With her fists clenched tightly around her trusty bow, she walked quickly, away from her house, from the bodies of her parents and the soldiers, the blood covering everything. Sakura walked on, tripping over random branches and brambles, scuffling the dirt and dry leaves, but her eyes didn't see anything. They were staring deep into the distance, re-playing the sights she had seen in the last few minutes. The bodies, and the blood. The blood. The blood.

She tripped again, and this time, she allowed herself to fall facedown. She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth, digging her fingers into the dirt.

But she couldn't stop the tears that flowed down her cheeks and into the dirt.

A/N: Oh god, this was emo. But it gets better!! Keep reading!!

And review, of course. Ah-dur.

--Sanded Silk--