The Sleeping Maiden
Book One of the Shade Trilogy.
A/U: Okay lovers and haters. This is an extremely AU story. Sorry my friends but that's just the way I like it. I'd actually like to dedicate this story to another fan fic author who inspired this story. And as for my other story, what's it called, chapter two will be out in the next week.
Disclaimer: I Do not Own Naruto.
My name is Sakina Tao. And I am the Sleeper. I have lost my Queen and until she calls me, I may never awaken. She banished me a long time ago, sent me into the forgotten realm, because I fell in love with her lover. We were like sisters and I betrayed her in the worst way. But until she calls me, I must live among these humans, being reborn just as she is. I will remain ignorant, I will remain safe, until the day I remember who I am.
And what my true purpose is.
Chapter One
She wonders lost
Among those with no idea
Forgotten who she was
And what she represents
Feeling like she's missing something
She looks towards the sky
For answers that are never there
Who am I? Why am I always alone?
Japan
Folders clicked together as a woman shuffled through them, studying each one with avid detail. Picture after picture flashed in front of her as another file was dismissed. Brown eyes widened however when she opened her twentieth file and saw the child staring back at her with spooky green eyes. Slowly she slid the file out from the others, stood up and walked to her window seat. Finger nails clicked as the woman bent her head and read the details covering the little orphan.
Name: Sakina Tao
Age: five
D/O/B: Childs date of birth remains unknown-has been dated down as the twenty second of January.
Physical Attributes: Reddish brown hair. Green eyes. Dark Complexion.
General Details:
Child in question was found on the door step of Low Dale Orphanage by Sister Clerice, who has since been personal guardian over the child. No birth certificate, papers or I.D was found on the than baby. Sakina is in the Care of said Orphanage.
Personal Details:
As observed by Sister Clerice of Low Dale Orphanage.
I sister Clerice have looked after Sakina Tao since said child was left in the care of Low Dale Orphanage. In my time spent with her, I have found that the child is extremely perceptive and communicates far more clearly than any child her age. At times she seems like she is a normal seven year old child, but there are times where I have observed that when Sakina is alone, she seems much more than she is. I have often seen her calling animals to her hand, this has not been an isolated incident, as other sisters here at the orphanage will also vouch in on this observation. Despite her distance at times, at no time have I felt that she is a danger to the other children, and have seen many times her willingness to protect the weaker and sicker children. In personality tests, Sakina has tested ninety eight percent in protective instincts, ninety two in human communication and ninety four in observation and intellect. She is a well advance child for her age, and I believe it would be in her best interests to begin schooling her as a child three years her senior.
Sakina is a beautiful child with an amazingly gentle heart. She cries easily when told off, but has a maturity that some adults would do well to learn. I believe that would the right guidance, Sakina will be an amazing human being.
The woman continued to read through the child's tests and reports from the doctors who had treated the child over the years. Sighing she leaned back, head resting on the wall behind her as a small sad smile spread across her face. I have finally found her, the heiress's heiress.
One, two, three, four
What did you do to make her cry,
Five, six, seven, eight,
Will you love her once again
Nine, ten, eleven, twelve,
The dawn is breaking over head
Quick before they're both dead
Rome
Kakashi
The Hound
Cerulean eyes stared back with something close to hostility as the masked man bent down slowly. Kakashi's breath hitched as he studied the shaking child, taking in the ripped clothes and the bloody wounds, still bleeding but nothing seemed too serious. Gently Kakashi raised his hands, pausing for a moment when the child hissed, heart clenching at the sound, Kakashi let his hands drop, before straightening and looking down at the blonde angel, staring for a moment he tilted his head in the direction of an open noodle bar. He watched the indecision flashing in those all to knowing orbs when before his very eyes he watched the half crazy child become a real child for a moment. Kakashi watched wary trust replace the hostility in those tired eyes and said nothing when a little hand gripped his fingers tight before tugging him the direction of the food stand.
The night he hides
What nobody wants
Or sees
The bloody floors
The little ones tears
A lonely light
At the end of the hall
A ticking clock at the bottom of the stairs
A silent cry that's stopped before it's heard
"Ne, Kakashi. Why have you never told me what you do. You set me up, you know when I don't go to school, you know when I don't eat my veggies. How can you be somewhere else when you always know what's happening here. Your not spying on me are you, because that's not right and-", a large hand slapped the back of the boys' head as a man sighed somewhere up above. Kakashi tilted his head back as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on he managed to open one lazy eye to look at the blonde angel now sprawled on the path,
"Naruto, for once can't you just shut up. It's been a long day, and I really cant handle your yapping right at this moment", Kakashi hauled the blonde kid up and resumed his walk as he muttered in his head, small doses, small doses, small doses.
Australia
Rin
Sleepers Reflection
"Sakina get down here child. How long are you going to mope, we're leaving whether you like it or not", the woman tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for her adopted daughter to hop too. Rin sighed as she shut her eyes tiredly. Twelve years had passed since she had first read her adopted daughters file. Twelve years since she had finally found the sleeping princess, twelve years she had protected the daughter of her soul. Rin had watched Sakina grow up amazingly fast. Talented, independent she had come a long way from the frightened, but pleasant child she had once been.
Australia had treated them well since Rin had first run away from Japan with the young queen. They made friends quickly, and with Sakina's gorgeous looks, they had managed to keep up a normal appearance. Not bothering with lies, Rin had allowed people to know that Sakina was her adopted child and that she had had no children of her own womb, not that it mattered anyway, besides looks, the two appeared to be mother and daughter.
Twelve years ago she had been the Dream queen's mirror. A guardian in a way that not even the Queens two shields the angel and Darkness could understand. That was before she received a vision from the Shade, a realm that both existed and didn't. In that vision she saw her friends dying and standing not as an allies but as an enemy against her Queen was a woman who should have been a comrade but who had become an adversary. Rin had scoured through her people's archives for months, searching for anything on the two words that had come to her through the vision. The Sleeper.
It wasn't until she had finally decided to go through the ancient ANBU files that Rin came across a folder almost three thousand years old. In it, she found information on the Guardian known as the Sleeping Queen and her history with one of the first Queens of Dreams. According to the folder, The Sleeper had been created to be the Dreamers sister. As powerful as the Dreamer, The sleeper was meant to bring together those who the Dreamer could not touch, also known as the forgotten ones. The only problem was that no one could ironically remember who those forgotten ones were. From what she could gather, the Sleeper and the Dreamer were close in the old days until that all changed in one of the generation's. The sleeper apparently fell in love with the Spirit , who once went by another name, but what Rin could not find out as the scroll had been so old and faded that much of the information had been lost, much to her frustration. The Spirit was believed to be the Dreamers mate, as it had always been thought so, but apparently the spirit fell in love with the sleeper, angry, the dreamer in a fit of rage and grief threw her sister from the realm of otherness, to live as a human being, ignorant of her home world and of what she was. It was at this point that Rin found the reason as to why her world suddenly shattered the way it did. Together the Dreamer and the sleeper had always been able to balance the power between good and evil, but the moment the sleeper had been banished, the shade was broken and so it's slivers were cast into that same world that they, the others, had never bothered with before.
Love bound her to her Queen's side, but terror drew her mind constantly away to the mystery known as the Sleeper. Inquiring questions here and there proved to lead no where as nobody had even heard of the Sleeper. The guide book that was passed down to the next generation of ranking guardian held nothing, and Rin had felt like the sleeper had been deliberately erased from their history. Foreboding thoughts clouded her head day in and day out until one day after much nail biting she came across a lead, a picture to be more exact. In many of the generations, each guardian had always looked similar, never the same, but similar. The photo was old and Rin suspected that the person responsible for even being able to hide such a picture was probably someone very close to the Dreamer, maybe that Dreamer's mirror. Seals and spells covered the picture, preserving the person whose image had been captured. Rin instantly felt her heart wrench at the woman with spooky green eyes, eyes somehow the same and yet so startling different to the woman whom Rin recognized immediately.
The Dreamer Queen of old was the exact image of the Queen she now served. Long, pale pink hair was drawn back into a tight bun, kind; almost innocent jade eyes glittered with mirth as the Queen in the picture smiled happily. High cheekbones, dainty creamy white shoulders shown off by a beautiful white and gold gown, the Dreamer had been and was still a beautiful woman. But it was the woman standing next to her that caught Rin's eyes.
Her skin was ebony to the dreamer's ivory. Deep, knowing, piercing green eyes stared back at her, challenging the world too take her on. Her head was slanted proudly as full plump lips were tilted up slightly in a small smirk. Long dark eye lashes almost fluttered and Rin felt a pull to the woman in the picture. Dark shoulders were bare like her sister next to her and her dark skin had been dusted slightly with gold dust, the white and silver gown she was dressed in complimented the Queen standing with her. And the dark auburn wings that curled up and out from her back were curved slightly to frame the two women in the picture.
Rin had stared at that picture for hours, studying the woman who was Queen's sister. There had been so much love between these two women. It was easy too see in the way they had their arms around each other, the way the Dreamer leaned into the other, and the way the Sleeper curled her wings ever so protectively around the Queen. They had been so young in that picture. So wild and abandoned and Rin had been able to imagine the way they would sneak away from everyone, probably at the Sleepers insistence, they would have laughed together, cried together and told each other every wish.
That was until one male came along. And than everything changed.
Rin made her decision with a heavy heart. And on the eve of her queen's fourth birthday she renounced her title as Queens mirror and left to find the Sleeping Queen.
It would be one year later when she would come across a child abandoned by her parents to the care of Low Dale Orphanage.
Finding that folder all those years ago had been pure chance. A little orphaned girl called Sakina Tao. Rin knew who she was the moment she spotted her picture. A quick comparison between the recent picture and the picture that had taken all those years ago told her all she needed to know. It was the eyes, those haunted, lonely, knowing jade eyes. All her life Rin had been told that the windows to the soul are through another's eyes. And if Rin was to be asked, she would have said that Sakina's eyes were those of a person who had gone through hell and back, and perhaps there was some real truth behind that thought.
Since renouncing her title, Rin had found that not all of her powers had disappeared. Over the year in which she had left the others, she had discovered another sort of power, one much darker, more potent and yet more curiously lighter than the powers of the shade and the Dream Queen. It was these different powers that had allowed her too regain in a way her abilities of old, but she had noticed the difference between her powers as Queens mirror and what she was becoming.
"Woman, are we going or not", Rin snapped out of her thoughts as she turned to look at the young woman who called out to her. I live to serve, the words filtered through Rins head as she met Sakina's eyes, and as much as she wanted to bow her head to the Queen she did not, Rin simply plastered a pained smile on her face. But the moment she saw that subtle shift in her baby's eye, letting Rin know that Sakina had caught the act, the grin dropped. Concern suddenly washed over the younger girls face as her eyes gentled, and the old soul that had been staring out through those green eyes faded as the human was allowed to become herself again.
"Whats wrong mum", Rin shook her head softly, hand stroking her baby's face before tugging on the reddish brown hair. Grinning at the scowl now plastered on the teenagers face Rin just shrugged before throwing her arm around the shorter female,
"Oh nothing, just remembering things from the past", Sakina hummed as she dipped to pick up her bag, before finally looking at Rin with those haunted jade eyes,
"Do you think we'll see them there, back in Japan Rin, do you think she'll know who I am, who I really am", Rin's heart hurt as she listened to the whispered question, and wondered the exactly same thing, because as far as she knew, the Dreamer had yet to call her sleeping sister.
Sakina Tao
The Sleeping Queen
My mother, Rin, she came for me when I was five and she was like an angel, a light in a world that had turned dark to me. I left with the woman, my hand clutched tightly in hers and as we went down the steps of the orphanage, I looked back saying goodbye to the people I would never meet again. I knew who I was, who I had been and what I had done to the woman who had been my other half.
The Sleeping Queen. That's who I use to be. And my sister had been the Queen of Dreams, our leader and my heart. My birth parents were dead, no one knew that, they were probably found and named as Jane and Jack doe.
I knew who Rin was. She had been the previous mirror, my sisters' closest guardian besides me. She had lost her powers as the Dreams mirror, but she didn't know that her being here, next to me meant she had simply evolved, to be mine. As a child I learned quickly that Rin was ignorant of her place in this game that the shard was laying out. Her powers as a other had left her but her powers as a forgotten one were just beginning.
That was how it had always been. An others time would come when over the centuries humans would forget or change the essence of the character. It was why with each new generation their powers would be slightly different, still the same, but subtly different. In Rins case it was the same. Her time as the Dreamers guardian was over, and her time with the Sleeper was just beginning. In a way I was saddened that once again I was taking what was my sister, but in the years to come, Rins part would one day be revealed and when the end came, Rin would be standing with the light or with the shadows.
Now seventeen, I had told my guardian many years ago who I was, but not who she was. In my heart I yearned for her to see the truth, I needed her to understand why she felt such a strong pull to me, why at times it felt like my presence overwhelmed everything else until I was all she could see. She had been stunned to learn that I knew far more than she realized, but I had seen the relief in my adopted mothers eyes. From that day she had trained me, schooled me, and taught me. I was never really human enough. My body always looked human, but my habits were other. The way I spoke, the way I walked, my emotions. But she had shown me another side of the human nature, the ability of forgiveness and unconditional love. It was these two virtues she showed me day in day out. And it was these human abilities that allowed me to become a true sleeper.
The Sleeper, the Angel and the Darkness, the three sides that surrounded the fourth, the Queen. We were her trinity, her guardians, the sword, the shield and the armor. But something changed before I was banished from the shade. Something that would change the game indefinitely.
He was the Riddle, my sisters love, but not her only. He had always been the most beautiful of all the others. Tall, dark, handsome and completely untouchable by anyone but her…and I. The trinity and the Queen had all grown up together, seen each other at our best and worst. But it had always been the dreamer and the riddle and the sleeper and the jester. Until that fateful day when everything changed. I knew he was in love with her, my little jester, he always had been, but it had never been strong enough to really bother him, it was in that generation when the imagination of a single human child changed our very existence. The classic princess of the shade had always been blonde, fragile, and blue eyed with all the best qualities one could possibly think of when it came to royalty. But my sister had been born different. Her features were different, animalistic even. Born with a single white horn in the middle of her head with the hands of a predator and the feet of a grazer she was not at all what the others had seen before in their queen. But her animal features had simply enhanced her beauty, she was the True queen, a queen no one had seen in a millennium. The others of our generation were borne similar, with an animal feature of this and that.
That human, that mask as we had once called them had given us a different meaning in our world, they had given us roles that had never been explored or even open before. I had watched as the Jester turned further from me, watched as my Queen unintentionally drew his heart from me. Saddened, I had drawn away from the polished castle walls we had grown up in, sheltered away from the rest of the world. It was when I finally found the courage to leave during the middle of the night that I tasted real freedom and I found myself excited for the first time ever. I left no note behind and my disappearing act surprised and scared everyone in the shade.
She couldn't find me, couldn't sense me and for once in our very long life together she couldn't see me. I travelled for days across the countryside, learning everything I could. During my travels I met others I would never have believed existed. Some looked like the Guardians back in the palace, and some were beyond our imagination. Ogres, beast, here in the outside world, it was a common thing for an other too be or to have animal features. They were the creatures of fable. Days, soon turned to months and months to a few years and during that time I travelled I learned one thing. Despite these outsiders loyalty to my queen, there was another they waited for, someone they called the Lady of Weave.
I never once wondered why I had never been found. I never questioned whether or not someone had been sent to look for me, if they came, they came if they didn't they didn't.
And than one day he showed up, the Riddle. His eyes burned red and fire surrounded his body as the air around him shimmered with restrained power unlike anything I had ever seen before. He surprised me he did this old childhood friend of mine. Gone was that impulsiveness that defined him as he questioned me rather calmly and quietly.
Flashback 3000 years ago
Sleeper ducked and weaved as daemon after daemon attacked her. Her swords flashed as fast as lightening, two blades sang as blood was splattered on the ground. Everything faded away until her enemy was all she could see. It had been so long since she battled a worthy adversary. Her feet tapped across the air as her wings became weapons unto themselves shredding those trying to attack her from above. She laughed quietly as she spun, swords locking with the arms of a razor daemon, before he too was dead. She thought she had taken care of them all, but just as she turned to see the one whom she had missed aiming to hack her head off, it froze. Frowning Sleeper stepped forward pausing when an over familiar power washed over her. Power didn't have a natural taste. But his always seemed to have an almost intense overpowering sexual flavor too it. Sleeper watched the body of the Daemon fall forward before slowly raising her eyes up the tall body of her sisters lover and shield. She had always known he was too beautiful, far more beautiful than even the shining prince, but the Riddle had never acknowledged his beauty and he had always ignored those who only saw his pretty face. And it was common knowledge that it wasn't the face you had to be aware of, but the man behind that mask. He looked at her with those unreadable eyes, he appeared calm and restrained but those flashing red eyes and the way his body slightly shook every now than told Sleeper she was very much in trouble.
She barely had time to think when all of a sudden his sword came lashing out towards her. Instinct and training had her raising her swords together in defense before she had even realized he had tried to strike her. She felt her sudden shock at his attack slowly turn to cold anger as she pushed him away with one strong shove. He came at her faster than he had ever done so during their sparring sessions and the viciousness of his attack left her breathless and silently grinning. The dance was an old one as old friends twisted and weaved beneath the others attack. Her mind focused on him as she swerved backwards to avoid a blast of fire that had flown from his fingers, her arm snapped out as she sent her own variety of power back at him, watching with satisfaction when her blast caught him in the shoulder sending him flying back into the ground, fingers raising signaled his pull from their dance of swords. Sleeper raised her sword in acknowledgment before crouching low, trying to steady her breathing from her two fights before snapping her head up when she heard the most curious noise.
He was laughing. She stared in wonderment at the sound, realizing how long it had been since she had heard that intractable man even chuckle. She stared at him with big eyes as she watched pale cheeks flush slightly and shoulders relax since the first time she saw them. He took a deep breath, fingers combing through the silky grass beneath him, before he turned his dark grey almost black eyes on her. She felt her heart twist at his look as they stared for what seemed like eternity at each other. Her eyes moved down the length of his body, before they made their way back up too his face, searching for any differences she might have missed. She watched him sit up, moving slowly as if she were a frightened animal, scared she might spook if he made a sudden movement she couldn't predict and at that moment sleeper had a feeling she would run if he moved to fast.
Riddle felt his eyes soften and his heart skip beats as he looked upon a lost friend for the first time in almost ten years. She was still beautiful after all this time. Still the same but something had changed about her eyes. They were older, ancient even as if she had seen things she might not have saw had she stayed at the palace. He knew how the outside changed an other. Knew it from his own experience. But even so, those eyes of hers which were the same shade as the Dream Queens jade orbs and so different were still the same, except he could no longer read the emotions that were once so clear in them.
Infatuation, love.
When she had disappeared the castle was in an uproar, Dreamer had sent everyone she could spare out after Sleeper, but it was like she had simply disappeared. He argued with his partner day in day out to send him after her, but deep down, he knew she knew his feelings for her sister, the love he would never allow to be acknowledge for the Dark queen. He seethed and he fumed as he watched the hopeless attempts from the Hound and the Feline. And with each failed attempt he watched the Queen withdraw further into herself and away from all of them.
What possessed the Sleeping Queen to leave he could only hypothesis on and he knew it all had to do with Jester.
His brother and her mate.
He had seen the way the Shining prince looked at the Dream Queen, seen the way he had touched her, would talk to her. Riddle had all the memories of those who had come before them and he knew that nothing like what they were going through had ever happened before. Like his feelings for the Sleeper for example.
He watched her with his dark eyes until he saw diamond tears fall from her eyes. He was in front of her the moment he saw them, arms opening to hold her tightly to him, surrounding her with his presence. His hand shook as he ran it through her long, silk reddish brown hair, and the moment he felt her warmth seep through his cloths his eyes closed as he let out a shuddering breath of relief, he rocked her in his arms, lips kissing the top of her head,
"Shh, it's alright, it's alright", he whispered to her, hand lightly stroking the auburn wings hugging tightly to her back, he bent his head closed when he heard her whisper cry,
"You came for me", Riddle smiled sadly before nodding,
"Yes love, I came".
They sat in a meadow not far from where the fallen daemons were now being eaten by the shifters. She sat in his lap, head buried in his shoulder as he leaned against the bark of a tall white oak tree. He held her in his arms softly, hand running soothing circle's between the joints of her wings. They sat there for hours, him watching the sun set and the moon rise while she held onto him and dozed. He leaned forward a little, opening his purple wings to stretch them. She stirred at his movement, before he found himself looking into deep jade eyes. She smiled hesitantly at him and watched that unreadable face of his open up a little to her, before he finally said,
"Lets go".
From that day on I knew, or she knew that she had fallen for this warrior. They travelled back slowly, and the Sleeper was like a child describing her adventures in this new fantastic world to the patient man who walked or flew beside her. They relished in each other's presence, feeling content just to be. And by the time they arrived back at the palace both had known they had fallen hard for each other.
Back in the present day however, I knew better and the mistakes of the past would not be repeated. Because once again the game had changed. Rin had received a vision from the shade and it was time to go back, because despite what Rin believed, the Light Queen was calling for her counter part to return. The Dreamer had finally called her Sleep Sister back to her side.
She awakens beneath the Mask
Too seek out her other half
When sun and moon reunite
The game begins and starts again
Fin…
A/N: Okay so first off, this story is so dedicated to a story by Riddler_of_Words-Cold. I suggest ya'll read it, it's brilliant. I know right now the real character's aren't in it yet. But please beware that this is an AU and as such it will be extremely AU. However I've made it pretty easy to guess who is who at this point. And if you cant guess who Sakina is meant to be, don't worry it'll be apparent later on through the story. R&R's are welcome, but I'm telling you right now, if your going to flame with out any structure, I will find a way to ban you from this story so help me high up.
Thanks guys and girls.