IMMORTAL DEATH

PROLOGUE

- Destiny changes -


It was sunny day in Los Angeles California: no signs of clouds in the sky. It was already the end of April.

Playful screams and laughter filled the park, and if you listened carefully, you could hear birds singing - this was an ideal day for mother and daughter to go to the local park to have fun.

When mom has to work for long days in hospital and doesn't have much free time, every opportunity to be with her baby girl, she will try and make the time as memorable as possible and this is one of those days. Enjoying her daughter's company, and complete and utter happiness was her plan for this day.

Unfortunately, their fate had other plans…

7-year-old rosette Sakura Haruno was holding her mom's arm as they walked towards the park to meet their friends. The little girl was wearing light a green cardigan and a white top under it, with a pair of black pants, and a pair of white sneakers. Her hair was just above her shoulders, the tips just touching her skin. Her hair waved in the air as wind blew through it.

"Saki, honey," her mother caught the pinkette's attention, and she turned her head towards her mom as they continued to walk forward.

"You should have brought your hat with you. The sun is shining so bright today that you might get sunstroke, and I don't want you to get hurt," her mom smiled to her little girl.

"But I didn't want to. Last time I had it, it was always on my way and I almost lost it!" The rosette pouted for her mom while lowering her head and looking at the ground. Her mom sighed.

Sakura Haruno was a copy of her mom. Her mom, too, had the same pink hair as her daughter but her eyes weren't as light as her daughter's. They are darker and they don't shine as much as her daughter's innocent one's.

Sayuri Haruno is a beautiful woman. She is only 33 years old and not married. She got pregnant with her daughter Sakura when she was only 26 and at her friend's party - so it was only one-night thing with some stranger, but she loves her daughter to no end, nonetheless. To be honest the guy doesn't even know he has a daughter and that's fine with her.

"Try staying under shadows." Sayuri tightened her hold on Sakura's hand. She only nodded as an answer.

"Oh! I want to give you something." Her mom stopped suddenly and started to take something out of her pocket.

Sakura looked her mom curiously biting her lip. Last time she got something from her mom was at her birthday, month ago. As something silver came to her view from her mom's pocket Sakura couldn't wait to properly see it.

"Here." She opened her hand to show silver bracelet with white blossom carvings around it. "I know your birthday was last month, but I saw this in the window of a shop and thought this would fit you perfectly." Sakura looked the bracelet for a while in complete awe.

Sakura hesitantly took it from her mom's hand and placed it around her own smaller wrist.

"It looks gorgeous." Sayuri mentioned, observing her daughter who was smiling.

For a while, Sakura kept eyeing the bracelet to memorize every detail in it. She has never seen anything as beautiful as the bracelet. She rolled it around her wrist just to look it from different directions and no matter the angle, it looked good.

"Thanks, mom." She hugged her mom, who hugged her back.


All kids were either playing in the sandbox or climbing in the jungle gym. And of course like always there are those kids who run around and yell like there's no tomorrow. But that's the only way to get the excess energy out of their system: by making them run. Easy as that.

"Forehead, I want that bucket." Blue eyed blond pointed her friend's bright red bucket.

"Get you own, Pig. This is mine." Sakura said back to her friend as they sat in the sandbox making sand cakes.

"You're annoying." The blond called and crossed her hands with pout on her face.

"And you're spoiled." The pinkette mumbled under her breath as she put sand in her red bucket with her green shovel.

The two girls continued to play with the sand as their moms' were talking with each other and a few other parents. The time passed rather quickly as the parents changed their news and without anyone - least the children - noticing it was getting close to noon.

"Ino! Ino!" Ino's mom yelled for her daughter, who was now swinging on a swing smiling happily and giggling occasionally because of the fast speed the metal swing went.

"What?" The said girl yelled back as she took more speed for her swing.

"We're leaving. Dad called and he is coming to get us in 5 minutes, so come here we still need to walk back to the parking lot." She explained as the blond young girl instantly stopped her swing and jumped happily towards her mom. As she arrived next to her mom, Sakura's mom started to look for her daughter as well but didn't have such a luck.

"Sayuri, what's wrong?" Ino's mom asked as she took her daughter's hand looking at the frantic parent who was getting more nervous by the minute.

Sayuri turned her back to her friend to see better if her child had went somewhere behind her, but she still couldn't see her. She was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Sakura?" Panic started to rise in her chest because she didn't see her pink haired child anywhere. "Ino have you seen Sakura?" Ino's mom asked her daughter who looked at her friend's mother.

"I haven't seen her since we left the sandbox." Ino said innocently shrugging her shoulders. The thought of a missing child also had an effect on Ino's mother, whose grip on her girl's hand tightened.

"But she was right here." Ino's mom too started to look for the pinkette. It wasn't normal for the young girl to be nowhere around her mother. She has always been a shy and delicate one and felt more comfortable around her mom, who too felt the same.


"Where's your mother?" An old man smiled for the little girl in front of him.

She raised her hand to point the direction of the playground a little further away from the duo. She could see her mom standing next to Ino and her mother- and their worried faces. Sakura and the man were standing behind a tree, under its shadow so no one could see them. "Oh, she looks worried." He smiled and crouched down to her height.

The pinkette didn't answer and looked down. The man was definitely scaring her. He looked a little shaggy like those living in the streets in downtown Sakura had seen while looking through her mom's car's window. His grey hair looked thin and was sprawled everywhere carelessly. The black t-shirt was at least two sizes too big for his thin figure and the slightly fainted jeans fell from him, making him lift them higher from time to time.

Sakura couldn't say what his age would be but what girl at her age could? She only thought there were babies, kids like her, and little older kids. Of course then there was her mom and old people like her grandmother. But she could still place him between the old people and her mom but maybe closer to the old people than her mom.

"Would you like to have some ice cream with me?" The man asked putting his hand on the girl's shoulder, pulling her closer to him but she shook her head as a no. He didn't smell pleasant at all and Sakura had to breathe through her mouth, rather than her nose to avoid the stench.

"Come on. Cute girls like you always want ice cream." He put his fingers under her chin to make her look into his eyes. She still shook her head and tried to look elsewhere.

The man lowered his head for disappointment but stood up and sighed loudly. "I wish we could have done this the easy way, but I guess the hard way will work too."

Sakura didn't have an idea what the man was talking about. All she knew was that she wanted to go to her mom, and that she didn't like this person one bit.

The man suddenly grabbed her forcefully and began to lead her out of the park, completely the other way her mom was. Sakura struggled a little, trying to get his hand off her but to no avail. No man has ever treated her like this. Usually they think she's cute and try to make her giggle and compliment her. This was a completely new situation to her.

"Stop struggling!" The man snapped at her scaring her even more and making her whimper, on the verge of crying. They stopped walking and the man looked at Sakura who was shaking in fear and holding back her tears.

The man crouched once again in front of her and his face was inches away from hers. "If you act like a nice little girl like I want you to, and do as I say, nothing will happen to you." He smiled at the girl. But it wasn't good hearted one and it only made Sakura want to cry more and run away.

Sakura began to yell, "Mo-" but the guy covered her mouth quickly before she was able to continue to scream her mom to help her.

"If you're a good girl you will meet your mother later." He whispered in her ear and looking around them if he had attracted any unwanted attention, but for his luck no one seemed to be noticing them so far.

Tears finally started to fall on her cheeks as she just nodded for an answer.

"Good," He replied as he took her hand again, rose from his position, and continued to walk.

The little girl was terrified. First this man waved for her to come to him, and now he is taking her away from her mother. She had to bite her lip so she wouldn't start crying even more. Maybe if she did as the man says her to he will let her see her mother again. But still this wasn't the way she had imagined her day with mom to go.

After walking few minutes Sakura turned her head to look behind her, wanting to see her mom but she couldn't see her. They were already too far away from the playground, but you still could barely see the climbing frame's top.

"Is she your daughter?" A husky voice interrupted the man, who he stopped suddenly, making Sakura bump on the back of his legs, and almost stumble on the ground.

"None of your business." The man coldly said and proceeded on continuing his way out of the park.

Sakura looked from behind the man to see who the new guy is and who even might be her knight in shining armor. The boy, who had asked the man whether she was his child or not, was tall and clad in black clothes that matched his pale skin and raven hair. The leather jacket he wore hid most of his upper clothes and gave him the bad-ass aura Ino always talks about. Sakura didn't want to look at his face because her mom had said to her not to stare at people, so she just remained looking down after she observed him.

"I asked you a simple question," The new guy insisted not allowing him to pass him, just moving back in front of him to block him.

"Yes." His answer came unusually fast.

As Sakura held his hand, or rather he held her hand, she could feel his hand becoming sweaty and slippery. She slipped her hand from his, and immediately when their hands weren't touching anymore, he turned to look at her.

"Take daddy's hand, honey." He began to panic slightly offering his hand back at her, but she only shook her head and started to back away from him, "You're not my dad!" She yelled at him as he flinched backwards.

He quickly composed himself and went to grab her hand, but was stopped when the other guy grabbed his hand and pulled him next to his ear. The man tried to struggle against his grip, but failed against the tight hold on his upper arm. "You're going to leave now, without the girl, and you'll never come back here." The young man growled in his ear sending cold shivers down his back.

The older man tried not to look weak and snapped back, "What if I don't obey you?".

His grip tightened around his hand causing him whimper in pain and fear, "I'm gonna kill you." His reply to the older man, made him stop breathing for a moment out of pure fear.

Few minutes passed in that same position they were until he simply let go of his hand and he fell on his butt on the ground. Their eyes locked for a minute and the guy on the ground stumbled up mumbling incomprehensible words from his mouth, keeping his eyes locked with the young man before him, and started to back away slowly. When he got about ten feet away, he turned around and ran at full speed away from the scene. The young man kept his eyes locked on his back until he couldn't see him anymore. Eventually he turned his eyes on the frightened little girl behind him and lowered to her height. She was holding her cries in as the young man smiled at her, "You're okay." He appeased her and patted her shoulder.

One tear fell on her red cheek.

"Don't cry." He swept the tear from her soft child skin but the tears just spilled over, and there was nothing she could do about it.

"I wanna go to my mom." She said under her sobs squeezing the hem of her top tightly.

He inched closer to her placing his hand to her sides and picking her to his arms. He placed her on his left arm and hip and began to walk back towards the playground where she had been taken from a few minutes ago.

He noticed something on her wrist and picked her right arm from his shoulder to look at it. It was a silver bracelet which he had never seen her wear. He furrowed his brows and lifted his gaze to the little girl's face who looked back at him, cheeks wet with fallen tears, almost breaking his heart. It had never been his favorite moments when she cried.

"Where did you get this?" He asked her wanting to distract her from what had happened before.

"From my mom." She said quietly, but he still heard her as if she had said it normally.

Sakura wiped her wet cheeks with the palm of her hand. This stranger's presence was weirdly reassuring, and her body relaxed against his shoulder. This move made the guy smile inwardly. He didn't want to creep her out and that's why he tried to act as cool as possible.

"Excuse me. Have you seen a little girl with pink hair?" Sakura could hear her mother's frantic voice and see how the people shook their heads for her. Her face twisted when she received a negative answer for who knows how many times. It was heartbreaking to look at.

They approached the hysteric mother in silence, neither of them making any other sound other than the young man's shoes hitting the ground.

"Looking for this." The guy replied as they were only few meters away from her mother. Sayuri whipped her head towards the pair instantly and as her eyes saw her daughter safely in his arms her eyes swelled with tears, and she began crying like there was no tomorrow.

Her little girl was safe! She felt so relieved! She extended her arms to take her child from the man, as her daughter extended her arms too wanting to get back to her mother's arms. As the worried mother got thechild in her arms, she embraced her tightly.

"I was so worried." She whispered to her hair, petting the pink locks.

Sayuri looked up the man who brought her daughter, "Where did you find her?" She wanted to know where her child had been, maybe next time she would find her there if she was to face a similar situation but not that she ever wanted to face a situation like this.

"Not far." He simply replied shrugging his shoulders, and pocketing his hands, brushing the subject away.

"Thank you so much!" She said to the man who just nodded as response and turned to leave without another word to say.

Sayuri couldn't just let the man leave without paying for him his help, "Wait!". He stopped and turned to face the pink haired woman, who held her daughter tightly against her upper body, his face emotionless as a board.

He didn't reply anything just looked at her waiting for her to say what she had intended to say.

Sayuri wasn't sure what to say to him, but she still needed to pay for him somehow, "I want to repay you."

"That something you can give me, I can't have yet." He said with his stoic voice and continued his way out of the park without a second look at the reunited mother and daughter.

"What the.." She went speechless. She had never before heard anyone say something like that to her or anyone else. What a weird guy, she thought to herself. Normally people would be wanting something, maybe not saying it directly but still.

"Mom, I want to go home." Sayuri turned her attention to the girl in her arms, who now looked at her.

"Of course. Let's go tell Ino and her mother you're safe. They're probably still looking for you." She settled her in front of her on the ground, and whipped Sakura's hair out of her face with motherly care and a smile.


Sakura and her mother walked through Los Angeles' streets, hand in hand towards their home. Sayuri had decided not to take a car for it was such a beautiful day and it was good for her and Sakura to get some fresh air.

"I'm so glad that man brought you back to me. I was so worried that I almost called the police." Sayuri sighed to herself and looked at her daughter who happily hummed some tune she made up by herself.

They walked in silence after that. Sayuri promised to herself she would never let her daughter out of her sight, except when she has to go to work and take her to her grandmother, but she'll make sure her mom doesn't let her out of her sight either. It would kill her if she lost her daughter.

Unintentionally she tightened her hold on Sakura's hand, which made the little girl look at her mother confused, and stop her happy humming. Her mom has never looked the way she did today - hectic and worried to death - and that made her little sad to know she caused it somehow. She has never made her mom upset.

"Mom, are you okay?" All she ever wanted was to make her mom happy, and right now she felt like she had failed her mom.

Sayuri looked back at the little girl, "Of course I am. There's nothing for you to be worried about."

They stopped at street lights waiting for the lights to change so they could walk over to the other side. Theyusually didn't use these light because the traffic was congested at this time of the day, but Sayuri wanted to get home as fast as possible and start making dinner. Often they walked more quiet streets, mainly for their own safety.

The lights changed and the mother and daughter begin to walk forward along with other people. There were people coming towards them and walking the same direction as they were. You could say it was pretty chaotic. You had to parry other people and try to walk at their pace. For a little girl this isn't the best place to be especially for one as small as Sakura was.

Holding her mom's arm, Sakura almost had to run as she tried to keep up after her mom. Automatically when she tried to keep the pace up, her arm swung and she felt something fell from her right arm. She quickly turned her head to look what it was. It was her bracelet. Her eyes widened from shock as some businessman walking the way they were coming from kicked it further away from her.

Her mom was holding her hand, but wanting to get her bracelet back, she slipped her arm away from her mom's, not caring and headed to get her silver bracelet. The only thing in her mind was to get her bracelet back.

She ran past other people who mumbled something like 'Annoying' or 'Watch it!' when she slowed them down and stumbled on their leg. Her balance faltered few times, but soon she got away from the crowd standing alone in front of her bracelet that had stopped next to a sewer, lucky for her, it had not dropped in it.

Kneeling down to pick it up, she took it in her hands and sighed deeply, feeling relieved having her new treasure back in her hands. She got up and turned back to go to her mom whom at the same time yelled, "Sakura!".


A/N

This is an edited version of the original because I finally got a beta reader for this story.

- Jakura