Prologue
"KAYLA!" I coughed up blood. the crimson substance trailed down my chin to where a kunai knife was penetrating my chest. I looked up at my attacker. He was wearing a strange, bird-looking mask. He stepped back, and ran away through the forest. Kakashi ran after him. I fell to the ground, still not fully understanding what had happened. Sakura ran to my side and clutched my hand, crying my name. she was shouting, but why couldn't I hear her voice? I tried to talk,
"Sakura?" I whispered out. "Where are Naruto and Sasuke? Did they go after him?" she ignored me, now focusing on healing my wound with her medical ninjutsu, tears of frustration streaming down her face. I looked down at my wound. Sakura had removed the kunai, and was trying to heal me… Funny, I don't remember her removing the kunai… So much blood, why didn't it hurt?
Wait, am I? I chuckled. Yes, I must be dying. It's ironic, It had been four years since I had become an official ninja, and I was only 15.. in that time… What had I accomplished? And now I was dying? I could barely speak now. my hand brushed a tear off of sakura's face. I knew I didn't have much time left.
"I-t's okay s-sakura" I barely murmurred. "I h-have to go soon, so please l-listen to me." Sakura kept focusing on my wound. "W-when I'm gone… y-you have to be the one to hold the team together...Only you c-can do it." She looked at me, practically sobbing now. I held her face with both of my now bloodied hands, and put on my best grin. "B-be strong. P-please never lose that s-smile you have. a-and make s-sure they don't lose theirs too." I looked up at the sky. Were the stars always that breathtaking? My vision grew blurry. Then, I died.
Chapter 1:
Kayla's arms fell to ground, smearing blood on her tear soaked face. Sakura looked helplessly as her friend's silver-colored eyes glazed over and became lifeless. no. no. NO! NOOOOO! Sakura thought. This couldn't be possible. There was no way she was dead. She was just asleep. Yeah, that's it. She was asleep. And when Kayla woke up, she would show sakura her signature sunny smile. And then, whenever naruto acted stupid, she would get angry and knock some sense into him. When sasuke acted all antisocial, Kayla would put an arm around him, making sakura angry and he would yell at her. Sakura shook Kayla's shoulder.
"Wake up Kayla, this is no time to be sleeping." No response. She shook harder. "Come on, Naruto will be sad if you're dead. Sasuke will be sad. Kakkashi will be sad...I will be sad." Still, her friend did not budge. Sakura cracked. She shook kayla's lifeless corpse violently. "WAKE UP! DON'T LEAVE ME!" I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Sakura...She's dead." Kakashi said. Naruto and Sasuke were still patrolling the campsite. They had been on their way back from their last mission when...
flashback:
"Kayla, pay attention to where you're going. You're running too fast" the green haired girl looked over at sakura.
"Wha-" "BANG!" Kayla suddenly hit a tree. Sakura sighed, she would never change. Naruto hung upside down on the tree kayla had hit her head on, laughing like a maniac. A vein popped on her teammate's head. In an instant, Naruto was sent flying. Kayla let out a 'hmph' and brushed her hands off. She then started to complain to sensei.
"Sensei" she whined. "Can we call it a day? I'm tiiiiired." She emphasized the 'i'. The sensei in question closed the book he'd been reading and sighed.
"Fine, but we set out at dawn." He looked at sasuke and naruto. Sasuke was saying something about getting beaten up by a girl. "Sasuke, Naruto. Patrol the campsite while me and the girls get everything set up here." Naruto whined, and Sasuke nodded, then they both ran off into the forest. When the boys were a good ways away from the site, we heard a rustle in the bushes. We all took out our weapons. I put on my gloves, while Kakashi revealed his sharingan. Kayla, being her cocky self, charged straight towards the sound, katana drawn from its sheath. Then Kakashi suddenly yelled,
"Kayla, WAIT!" Kayla looked back at kakkashi, seeming puzzled. Then it happened. A man with a weird bird mask jumped out of the bushes and stabbed the distracted girl in the heart with a kunai knife. Then ran away.
end of flashback
She waited by her friend's dead body while Sensei went to look for Sasuke and Naruto, her eyes just as lifeless as Kayla's. Her teammate's face was smiling, her steely eyes reflecting the light of the stars. She looked…. happy. Sakura thought back to how she had acted when she died. It had been pitiful. She was angry at Kayla for leaving her. But she was more angry at herself. She made a resolution. She would get even stronger. She would never let anything like this happen again. Her face went emotionless. ever.
Naruto's POV:
"We heard you screaming is everything alright Sakura-cha-" He stopped short when he saw Sakura sitting next to Kayla, clutching her hand and silently crying, her face emotionless. She looked up at naruto, her green eyes were puffy and red from tears. Then she said two words Naruto would never be able to forget.
"She's gone." Naruto gaped. No. That wasn't right.
"What are you talking about sakura, she's right there." He pointed at Kayla. His eyes widened. There was a hole in her shirt near her heart. And it was soaked with crimson. on the ground there was a bloodstained kunai. His gaze traveled up to her face. She was wearing a wide smile, like she always was, except for the splattered blood on her face. Her silver eyes were glazed over, gazing at the starry sky above her, like it was the most amazing sight in the world. He fell to his knees, silent tears streaking down his face. Naruto looked at the night sky. Why was she smiling at that? There were almost no stars out.
Sasuke's POV:
Sasuke wasn't going to cry. As he looked at Kayla's smiling face, her long, bright green hair, and her silver eyes that seemed to be smiling too, he knew she wouldn't have wanted us to cry for her. But inside, he was sobbing. not from grief, but from anger.
"Who did this." His voice was dark and shaking with rage. He got no reply. "SAKURA! WHO THE HELL DID THIS!?" Sakura remained stoic.
"I don't know, I couldn't see his face under that bird mask he was wearing." Her voice cracking at the last few words. "But, you know what she said before she died?" sakura smiled weakly. Both Naruto and Sasuke perked up and looked at her. curious.
"As she died, she said to never lose our smiles." This time, sasuke couldn't hold his tears in. He cried. Just as silently as his teammates did. Sakura sniffled and then said.
"It's funny, you know? Even up to her last breath, she wasn't scared, and when she lay dying, she was worried for us, not herself." Suddenly, a green light started to pulsate from Kayla's forehead. And her body glowed, and started to disappear. Sakura screamed.
"WAIT! DON'T LEAVE!" Sasuke couldn't believe what he was seeing. As her body started to fade, it was lifted to the sky until he couldn't see her anymore. It was as if the stars had taken her away.