The first thing that came to mind was that her left arm hanging somewhere above her head was annoyingly numb. The second was that she realized it was quite nice outside, the long grass silky and the gentle wind cool, and if it weren't for her uncomfortable position of her arm she would have liked blissful sleep to claim her for just a little longer... maybe a lot longer. The third thing that came to her however, was the one that wiped the first and second thought from her mind and sent her bolting straight up and wildly spinning on the spot.
Where am I?
Confusion seeped through her like liquid ice, shocking her system and sending it into overdrive. Frantically searching for something even remotely familiar, she fought down the urge to panic and forcefully took in several deep calming breaths to stop her lungs from hyperventilating. The only thing she could see was grass and the blurry beginnings of trees somewhere far off to the right of where she had rooted herself. Nothing looked like it was close to home, which made her freeze on the spot for an entirely different reason.
Where is home?
Instead of sticking to the depressing thought that she didn't know where she lived she then quickly began running over the hopefully positive memory of what she did know. She somehow knew that the longer she panicked about what was missing the deeper her dark and dreary black hole became in which would only end in unnecessary but seemingly well deserved tears, head and heartache. Which led to her collapsing to her knees and grabbing pink tresses with white knuckled fists slightly shaking with poorly suppressed fright.
My name is Sakura.
Apparently if her memory served her correctly she had no parents, house, friends, job, family, enemies... hell she's never seen another human being in her life. It was if kami-sama had created her, threw her onto an empty field of grass with only her uncreative name and made bets with his buddies to see how long she would survive. That asshole probably thought she wouldn't last a week, but she'd live forever if only to piss him off. But what was she supposed to do? With only the nondescript black clothes that covered her she had nothing else. Nothing to barter or trade for food if she did happen to find some sort of civilization and nothing to defend herself if she were attacked. There could be rabid animals and demons laying hidden just waiting for her to stroll by blissfully unaware and unarmed! Obviously trying not to panic wasn't working very well.
"Breathe Sakura, breathe."
Talking to herself gave her little comfort, but she decided that she would gratefully take whatever she could grasp. Pausing a moment to stand once again, Sakura closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, clearing her mind and calming herself. Panic finally put aside, her survival instincts then began to kick in and take command. The sun was high in the sky, and by judging the position she guessed she had about five or six more hours of daylight. She would need to find a water source quickly, and eventually some sort of food. She didn't know where she was going, or what kind of trouble she could find, but she at least knew her own name. Thank kami for small miracles.
It was around three hours later (one and a half spent with a growling stomach) that Sakura spotted the strangest thing. Two large stone statues of upside down legs stuck out of the ground wearing straw sandles while a large and colourful banner with 'Shiba' written on it and hung between the toes. It was so completely out of place in the large field that baffled her so much that it took her longer than it should have to notice that in between the garish statues was this enormous chimney attached to-
A building!
Running as fast as she could, Sakura let the scenery blur around her, focusing solely on the object of her hopeful desires. It appeared to be a household of some sort, which meant that there would be a family living there, right? While they might have had strange tastes in their front yard decor, she was sure they would be able to provide her with something other than design recommendations.
Water! Food!
What seemed like a lifetime in mere seconds, she was running past the strangely shaped limbs holding the colourful banner and nearly crashed face first into a yellow covered chest. The heel of her boot dug into an inch of earth and she sprung back swiftly, landing softly a few yards away from the large man who had placed himself in her path.
Righting herself quickly, Sakura then noticed that another man wearing identical clothes (they could have been twins, their narrow eyes, eyebrows and mustaches matched but one had a longer chin while the other had a split chin) as the first approached and stood shoulder to shoulder with the other with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. It was quite off-putting to have the first people she meet be seemingly on bad terms with her before she had even said anything to offend them and raised her hands up in (what she hoped was in this strange place) the universal sign of 'I come in peace'.
"Identify yourself stranger! We, Koganehiko and Shiroganehiko shall not let you pass!" The one on the right (she wasn't sure which name went with whom) bellowed at her, and she opened her mouth to respond when the second beat her to it.
"Go back to wherever you came from little girl! Or else you will face death!"
"Hold on a second!" Shouting back with indigence, Sakura was not only exhausted and hungry but she felt a terrible combination of confusion, irritation, disbelief and anger. "First of all, just because I'm short does not mean I'm a little girl! I had my twenty-second birthday four months ago!" Crossing her arms angrily, the floodgates opened as she closed her eyes and smiled with deceitful sweetness that made the two almost gulp with nervousness.
"And go back to where I came from? Ha! If I even knew where that was and how to do that I wouldn't have been wandering around for the past few hours trying to figure out where the hell I am, how I got here and why the only thing I remember is that my name is Sakura. Just Sakura! It's like I have no surname!" With each passing moment the irate pink-haired woman's grip on her arms clenched tighter, the scary smile on her face promising the two men (who were exchanging nervous glances) plenty of pain.
Sakura felt childish, like she was throwing a temper tantrum. However she couldn't push aside being overwhelmed by the situation-which would be normal for any regular person in her shoes, would it not?
No. There was a nagging inside of her that berated her for acting in such a manner, for not looking at everything with a critical and analytical mind to sort out her problems and resolve them in the most efficient manner possible. That was what she was supposed to be doing. Whoever Sakura was, she most definitely wasn't a regular person before she had come to this place.
"Oi! Koganehiko! Shiroganehiko! What the hell are you two doing?" At the voice, Sakura stopped her tirade about wandering around starving and hoping to find some food and snapped her eyes open to see a young woman approaching with an even younger boy trailing behind her. With a katana strapped to her back and a long scarf wrapped around her head and knotted at the side, her wispy black hair escaped through the folds of cloth and trailed behind her like silk threads. The next thing she noticed was a missing limb wrapped in bandages and the woman's state of dress, or undress with the large expanse of skin that was displayed for all to see.
Despite how the outfit was scandalous in its minimalism and could be perceived as something only a lower-class woman would dare to wear, the rosette knew at once that the busty woman was the one in charge. While her posture appeared relaxed, her head was held high and her left hand perched on her hip in a no-nonsense manner, and Sakura could practically see the authority rolling off of her figure.
"Yes Ma'am!" The two burly men stood straight as a board, their hands snapping up to salute the woman. Split-Chin turned his head in Sakura's direction and reported, "we were dealing with the girl, Ma'am!"
"She appears to be a new soul to Soul Society!" Long-Chin finished for his almost twin, and the answer made Sakura blink with disbelief.
Soul Society?
"Who are you?" The air of authority and demanding nature of the question made Sakura stand a little straighter, and she stared unblinkingly into the other woman's eyes.
"Sakura."
"Hmm..." The woman hummed and then turned to the boy who had remained silent the entire time. "Ganju! Go open the door! We have a guest!" The said boy gave an enthusiastic 'Yes sis!' and ran towards the large manor when she turned to grin at the bewildered Sakura. "I'm Shiba Kuukaku, and this is the noble Shiba household! Come on inside and we'll have a chat." At that, Kuukaku spun on her heel, flyaway hair and loose skirt fanning out and around her with a dramatic flair.
It only took a split second for Sakura to settle on accepting the invitation as the pros definitely outweighed the cons. Not only was Shiba Kuukaku offering her answers but she was also providing her with shelter. The alternative would be to try and find her own way to the next source of civilization sans memory or map of the area and do so while being riddled with questions and confusion. No, she would much rather take the former option rather than the latter. Besides, there was something about Shiba Kuukaku that made Sakura feel safe, a gut feeling that told her the woman meant her no harm.
Taking a deep breath, she started towards the household with determination.
"Excuse me?" Kneeling on the tatami mats of the surprisingly large, underground household, Sakura blinked owlishly at the woman lounging carelessly a few feet across from her, a pipe perched between slender yet calloused fingers. Of all the explanations of her presence here in this strange place, this was definitely not what she was expecting to hear.
"You heard me, you're dead." Pausing to lift the thin pipe to her lips and taking a leisurely drag, she exhaled the smoke almost lazily. "Soul Society is a place where souls come after they have died in the physical world. It isn't uncommon for one to lose their memory, so don't worry about that. What is uncommon however..." The rosette's stomach gave a low rumble, and the young woman's cheeks were dusted a light pink as she took up the onigiri once again to stifle the noise. Kuukau's slender eyebrow rose at the sight, her next words were more like her own thoughts spoken out loud than anything. "...you're hungry."
Nearly choking on her mouthful of oh-so-delicious-rice, Sakura blushed a deeper shade and quickly swallowed the food. She wasn't stuffing her face with the onigiri or demolishing it in any other sort of barbaric way (she actually found her self-control for not doing so quite admirable), so why was the sight of her eating at a relatively normal pace strange? Kuukaku's burst of laughter at her mishap only served to make her feel even more embarrassed, and she wasn't even sure what she was being embarrassed for!
"S-Shiba-san!" Sputtering out, Sakura tried to make some sort of sense to the seemingly humourous situation. "I would think that being hungry after wandering around for some time without any food or water would make it perfectly normal for me to be hungry!"
The chuckling woman waved her hand in a dismissive manner. "Kuukaku is fine, Sakura." Straightening somewhat, the fireworks master gave the other her full attention. "Souls don't have a physical body so they don't need to eat - they don't get thirsty or hungry. The fact that you require nourishment to survive means only one thing."
Holding her breath at the dramatic pause, Sakura leaned forward slightly as if a closer proximity would pull the answer from Kuukaku, her mind running on overtime trying and failing to figure out what her hunger meant in this world of the dead.
Kuukaku slightly parted her lips when a boyish voice sounded instead.
"It means you have reiatsu!"
Both woman (one confused and the other rather irked) snapped their heads to the side to see Ganju at the open door holding a tray of tea. The young boy's eyes were excited, obviously proud at knowing the correct answer and being able to add to the discussion. However the poor boy's moment of glory was rather short lived when a cushion went crashing into his face, the sheer force of the normally soft item turning dangerous as it sent him tumbling back into the hallway and onto the polished hardwood flooring.
"Who said you could interrupt!?" Kuukaku huffed angrily at her younger brother before snatching up her pipe, inhaling a copious amount of smoke and blowing it out, resembling something like an annoyed fire breathing dragon.
When she thought she heard a feeble 'I'm s-sorry sis', Sakura let out a little laugh and felt somewhat at peace. The sight was familiar in some way, and strangely enough she could admit to herself that it was like home. She didn't know anything about home or why it would summon up such a feeling of nostalgia, all she had was a mere feeling. It was bittersweet and all so frustrating.
When Kuukaku looked back in her direction, she pulled herself away from her thoughts-feelings and couldn't help but ask, "...what is reiatsu?"
"Reiatsu is spiritual energy. Souls that have reiatsu require food and water, just like the living."
While Sakura vapidly listened to the explanation of reiatsu and more about Soul Society, she could see from beyond the still open doors that Koganehiko and Shiroganehiko were cleaning up broken china and spilt tea from the floor, a few other workers attempting to straighten Ganju's robes only to have the boy shout out that he could do it himself. The growing noise began to visibly agitate the lady of the household, causing the said woman to shout at them to shut up, stop ruining her explanations and to behave properly in front of their guest.
Somehow in the presence of Shiba Kuukaku and the rest of the Shiba household, Sakura almost felt at ease, the blunt and crass busty woman was easy to get along with, and the others were fun and kind.
After a lively and eventful evening, Kuukaku had invited Sakura to stay with them in the Shiba household for the time being, and she had gratefully accepted. Based on her limited knowledge, it wasn't the norm for a noble family to pick up stray souls and teach them about their world, but when she had brought the thought up with Kuukaku, the woman had scoffed at her and said that Kaien (the household head who was currently a Shinigami and in Seireitei) would have done the same.
Since when were nobles so laid back and friendly? It wasn't a common occurrence, of course with the exemption of-
...of who?
Was she familiar with nobles of both the stuck-up and carefree varieties? She couldn't remember, she couldn't remember anything. There was that barely there (but still there) annoying nudge in her gut, the one that basically held up a neon sign flashing 'You're missing a lot here!'
Loneliness suddenly gripped her with frigidness and she reached out for warmth only to grab a handful of her blankets. Startled, she looked to her other side to find that she was alone, and a longing that pulled at her heart made her ache on the inside.
Who? Who? Whowhowho-
The question played in rapid succession in her mind in vain. There was no answer, no clue as to who she was supposed to find at her side.
Sighing as she rolled in her futon, Sakura tried to sort out the rampaging thoughts and emotions that felt as if they were attempting to burst from her brain. Even after the relaxing bath she felt emotionally and physically exhausted and knew she would need the sleep, however her mind running overtime would keep her awake if this kept up. Mentally commanding herself to stop thinking so much didn't exactly work so well, so she settled for laying still and staring at the dark ceiling while considering counting sheep of all things.
One hundred and forty two sheep later and the quick (disappointingly) unsuccessful search of a hard heavy object that could serve the purpose of knocking herself unconscious, Sakura nearly tore the blanket off of her before sliding open her room door and padding through the empty hallways. She met no one as she made her journey upwards and finally outside, settling herself on the cool ground with her back against the outer shell of the Shiba residence, tension leaving her as she sighed, vibrant eyes focused on the glowing half-moon.
The air was slightly cool and crisp, and she felt herself more at ease with the quiet sounds of crickets and soft wind that drifted through.
Under the bright moonlight and gentle wind, Sakura felt her mind fall blank, calm and comfort soothing her previously tensely strung muscles and alert mind. Her eyelids lazily slid shut, blissful sleep finally claiming her.
Amazing! Even after two months I can only catch glimpses of him every now and then. He's so fast!
I wonder what his name is.
Will I be able to become that good one day?
When she awoke the next morning, it was to the sounds of running feet and shrill yelling that made her wince. The sun was high in the sky, and she couldn't help but silently berate herself for sleeping in. Sakura didn't know what her normal wake-up time was supposed to be, however she quickly shrugged off the slight apprehension and instead took up the more immediate issue of the panicking residents of the noble Shiba household. Somehow she didn't think that the current behaviour was the norm when it came to nobles, but it made her grin with amusement nonetheless.
Standing to stretch out the several small kinks in her back, she skipped lightly back inside to see what all the ruckus was about.
"SAKURA-SAAAAN! WHERE ARE YOU SAKURA-SAN!?"
Ahh... Now all of the yelling and running made sense. The servants most likely went to wake her up in the morning only to find her missing from her room-thus resulting in the current chaotic environment. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to just get up and disappear outside without telling anyone, she didn't think about the possible consequences when in her small fit of un-rest and felt guilty, responsible and even a tad touched. It was nice - having someone worrying for her.
It didn't take long for a random servant running through the polished halls to catch sight of her vibrant hair and she smiled sheepishly and waved slightly as the said servant yelled loudly and happily that he had finally found their guest. She felt more at home here, and knew that she would grow to love living with these wonderful people.
But the image of vibrant green leaves and flashes of black spiky hair refused to leave her mind.
A/N: For those who don't like the author notes, important things will be in bold.
- Expect slow updates - I am by no means a fast updater. It took me a year to write this one chapter because I wanted to be absolutely sure I wasn't going to go back and change something as I kept writing, and I'm really slow at writing. The quickest update you'll possibly get from me would be every few months, but I make no promises. I won't even get to writing the next chapter until I've caught up on my reviewing of Wynth's stories (go read them, they're wonderful)... I'm such an awful reviewer...
- Naruto-verse is AU - obviously with Sakura being 20-ish, the Naruto-verse has been altered and therefore some characters may seem OOC.
- Story starts before Ichigo and co. are introduced - Shiba Kaien is currently alive, the Shiba household has not yet fallen.
- Let me know if I've made mistakes! - I most likely have plenty. And if there is an issue with spelling/grammar please let me know about that as well. I don't have a beta reader and after going over this chapter a billion of times I'm likely to have missed many.
Thank you for reading to the end, until next time =)