Bleeding Roses

By Corruption Inc.

Rating: T, may change to M later on.

On the final strike, she collapsed. Kneeling there, she prayed mercy to the sky. And as the roses bled for her, she whispered her final goodbye.

Act 1: Wisps of Sky

"This job can be so taxing." A brown haired man sighed as he arrived to his two-story home and slipped off his dark brown jacket, folding it neatly across a dining room chair. He flipped some mail down onto the table, consisting of bills, junk mail, and a subscription to an adult magazine for his perverted roommate. He glanced at the clock reading 7:08 pm and sighed again.

He brought a tan hand up to the scar on his face and rubbed it absentmindedly, walking into the kitchen to prepare dinner for his somewhat awkward family. He turned the knob on the stove, gas ignition immediately lighting up and fetched a worn silver pan from the wooden cupboard next to the fridge.

Tonight seemed so ordinary. One thing the man didn't expect was that something was going to be decided tonight that would alter the rest of his life. But, then again, everything he did altered the rest of his life.

"Naruto! Sasuke!" He called upstairs to one of the two bedrooms up there, trying to gather enough energy as he could to deal with them. He heard shuffling of feet and a few thumps before the two boys came sliding down the stairs. Naruto, the blonde, blue-eyed boy, ran up to him first.

"Hey Iruka!" He said enthusiastically before propping himself up onto one of the barstools at the counter. "What's up?"

Iruka smiled, he couldn't help but love Naruto. He was so joyful. Iruka had found him abandoned on the step of a vacant house and brought him home as a baby. 'That was hard work..' Iruka reminisced, remembering how he ended up having to care for the little demon. "Eh, hard work, something you wouldn't know anything about Naruto." Iruka grinned to show he was just teasing.

Sasuke stepped in to the kitchen, smiling slightly, having heard the majority of the conversation. He sat down on the third barstool, one away from Naruto and smiled. "He's right you know."

Naruto pulled a strange face at the teasing. "Hey!" He said in mock-defense. "I do more work than Kakashi!" He grinned again and Sasuke chuckled.

Iruka laughed. "That's not saying much."

"About what?" Naruto heard Kakashi say and he turned around casually to face the silver-haired man, still smiling, and not at all startled by this, considering the man popped up randomly all the time.

He waved his hand dismissively. "Nothing, nothing." And then he grinned.

Sasuke smirked slightly and looked up at their caretaker. "Hey Kakashi."

The tall man chuckled, the silver hair that fell in front of his left eye moving slightly, looking at the ebony haired sixteen-year-old. He took Sasuke in as a favor to his deceased best friend, and now he was a full-fledged part of their dysfunctional family. He smiled. "Right. Hey guys."

Iruka lifted a hand from his cooking in a hello. "Yo. How was work?"

Kakashi slipped onto the barstool between the two boys, folding his arms across the counter. "Not bad. I had a trainee who refused to scale the rope today. He was your guy's age actually. Shika-…Shikamara…maro…something like that. But he was too lazy to even try to climb the damn thing. It was very frustrating."

Sasuke shook his head. "Why is he even on the team then?"

Kakashi shrugged. "He said he wanted PE credits."

"Hey guys," Iruka said to Naruto and Sasuke, want to set the table for me?"

Naruto pouted. "No not really."

Kakashi shoved him off the stool. "Go now. Both of you."

The two boys groaned as Sasuke got plates and Naruto grabbed silverware and headed into the dining room. Five seconds after they were gone, Kakashi spoke in a loud whisper to Iruka.

"I found another one."

Iruka continued to make dinner. "Ah. Well, we have one extra bed upstairs in Sasuke and Naruto's room. He can lodge there until we find out what happened."

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head uncomfortably. "Well, that's not the thing. You see, it's a girl."

The brown-haired man froze for a moment and then continued cooking the stir-fry. He replied in a casual tone once again. "We can't keep a girl here Kakashi."

Kakashi shook his head. "I was afraid you'd say that."

Naruto finished laying down all the silver ware and smiled proudly at his work. Sasuke shook his head. "Dumb ass, you set them the wrong way, again."

Naruto glared at the ebony-haired boy. "Listen bastard, I've been doing this longer than you have. I know which way the knives go."

"The knives are on the right idiot. Forks on left."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "No forks are on the right."

Sasuke glared. "The left."

"Right."

"Left."

"Right."

"Left."

"Righ-"

"Shut up. Listen." Sasuke abruptly said.

The two teenagers listened closely and faintly heard Kakashi and Iruka talking heatedly about something. They moved to the wall beside the door to hear closer.

"Iruka, as far as I know she has no where to go. And you know damn as well as I do the orphanages here treat kids like shit."

"It's not right. One girl living with five guys? If she didn't feel uncomfortable, which seems unlikely, I would, and I'm sure the boys would feel awkward-"

"Damnitt, sometimes you're so frustrating. She'll be fine. The boys will have to deal. And after we figure out what happened to her parents, family…we can find her some other relative. C'mon Iruka, just do me this one favor."

The two boys heard Iruka sigh. "Fine, but she's your responsibility, got it?"

"Sure."

Naruto whispered to Sasuke quietly. "Dude, a girl moving in?"

Sasuke glared at nothing in particular with a harsh look. "Yea, I know."

"You two should learn to be quieter when you intend to eavesdrop." They heard Kakashi say barely loud enough for them to hear. Naruto shot a glare at Sasuke, and Sasuke one back, and they walked into the kitchen.

Naruto sighed. "Sorry."

"Ditto." Sasuke muttered.

Kakashi sighed and Iruka turned to face them with a bowl of finished stir-fry. He gave them a worried look. "How much did you hear?"

"Kakashi plans on bringing a girl home." Sasuke stated bluntly before Naruto could say anything. Naruto, who had been meaning to, shut his mouth.

Kakashi smiled. "Well, they heard everything."

Iruka shot him a light glare. "How can you be so easy-going about this?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Now we don't have to tell them."

Iruka sighed, not willing to argue. "Alright, fine. Well, dinner's ready."

The four walked into the dining room and sat down, the brown-haired man placing the bowl of stir-fry in the center. Naruto began to help himself, while Sasuke sat with his hands in his lap, just staring at the large amounts of food Naruto was dumping onto his plate.

Iruka looked down and pulled a strange face. "Hey Naruto, the forks are the wrong side again."

Sasuke smirked.

"Damnitt!"

Sakura breathed in the worn fabric of her small blanket, longing to keep warm against the chilly morning air. The sun hadn't risen, though she was sure it was around 6 am in the morning. And it was spring, where's the warmth? She sighed, nestling her nose deeper into the blanket trying to pick up the faint scent of her mother.

"If you tell anybody, I'll kill her."

Her green eyes forced back tears and she swallowed, trying not to think about it, though she sincerely hoped she was still alive. The wooden park bench was getting uncomfortable and she shifted her weigh to the right, leaning against the metal arm if the bench. She'd been loitering here for only three days, and still she was glad they hadn't found her. But someone had noticed her…

There was this tall silver-haired man who walked through the park everyday on the way to the subway station, and yesterday he asked her where her parents were. Did she answer? No way in hell. She may be desperate, but she wasn't stupid.

The birds in the park cawed and chirped, signaling their awake. A small family ignorantly passed her by. The small little boy took one look at Sakura and began to cling onto the hem of his mother's skirt. 'God, I must look like shit.' The green-eyed teenager thought to herself.

She reached her arms past the safe haven of her blanket and into the cold air, with every nerve in her arm awaking with a stinging sensation. She reached up to her hair and pulled out the tie, letting the mess fall down in awry. She pulled a silver hairbrush out of her small backpack, combing back her tangled hair and then retying it into a high ponytail.

Satisfied for now she placed the brush back into her bag and allowed her arms to retreat to the warmth of the blanket once again. Her stomach then gave off a large grumble of hunger, and she put her hand to it, pushing back the ache. She hadn't eaten in two days, since she ran out of money and food. And begging wasn't all that appealing. She sighed again, nestling her head back into the blanket, resting her jade orbs.

"Hello again."

Sakura lazily lifted her brilliant green eyes to find the same man from before. She tucked her chin into the blankets, staring into his lone dark grey eye. He seemed friendly, so she decided to give it a shot. It's not like she had anything much to lose anymore.

"…Hi." She said, is such a quiet tone it was almost a whisper, but he heard.

"Slightly more talkative then yesterday then?" He smiled calmly.

She tucked her chin into the blanket and gave a weak nod.

His eyes remained locked on her features, though in a caring, paternal kind of a way. One she'd seem her friends' fathers show towards their children. He chuckled softly. "Do you have family?"

She paused for a moment, contemplating the answer. Did she? Sakura weakly shook her head in response, attempting to use as little vocabulary as she could pertain to. She was not all to keen to trust the male species.

"Ah." His detective tone suggested he had confirmed something. His relaxed smile somewhat comforted her. "Well, if you would like, you could stay with me and my roommate."

At this Sakura's eyes widened, she had known it from the start. He was all up to no good. If she went he'd probably take advantage of her, and then kill her with a crowbar or block of ice or something. Then a team of supposedly smart people would come into the scene and try and figure out who did it, while the old lead detective would be quoting Shakespeare or something. She'd watched the criminal investigation shows before. She knew how it went.

The silver-haired man noticed her reaction. "No, no, nothing like that. My roommate and I have already taken in two other orphaned children. Well, they're teenagers now."

She looked at him skeptically. He continued casually. "Yes, Iruka found Naruto on the step of a vacant house when he was just a baby. Practically raised that demon. I took Sasuke in when his clan was massacred by his delusional older brother. Itachi is Sasuke's only living relative, well, that we know of, and he's locked up in the mental asylum. Sasuke visited him once, but that didn't go over well…" He paused. "Am I boring you?"

Sakura shook her head. No, in fact, she was quite intrigued. Maybe there were some others out there who had it worse than her.

He smiled. "Glad. My name is Kakashi, by the way. Yours?"

Sakura swallowed a little. She still didn't completely trust him, but he at least seemed credible, and he was the only thing she had. "I'm……Sakura."

He smiled again, his one visible eye bending in a curve. "That's a pretty name. Unusual, yet very unique."

She smiled faintly and was about to ask about the two other orphans when her stomach rumbled loudly. A light pink blush spread across her face as the man chuckled.

"Really, you can stay with us, if you would like. I'm sure Naruto would like another person to keep him company."

She looked down at her blanket and fiddled with her fingers beneath. She took a deep breath. A home would be nice.

"If you could…" Her pale face looked up into the face of the man standing before her, Kakashi, and he smiled.

"Thank you."

Naruto slung his black backpack over his right shoulder and called down the school way hall disturbing at least five teachers from their classes. "Sasuke, stop messing around and get your ass down here!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and walked towards the blonde with an identical backpack hanging off his left shoulder. "Damnitt idiot, just because we don't have seventh period doesn't mean the whole school does."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Well sorry. Since when did you care?"

Sasuke glared at him. "Since we got detention last week. Twice."

Naruto shrugged. "How was I supposed to know the principal was going to get mad at us for 'skipping' classes? I didn't think he'd bust us."

Sasuke looked at him skeptically. "Uh huh."

The two boys stepped outside onto the cold ashen concrete and walked along the main road, cars whizzing at their side. After about twenty minutes of silence, Naruto decided to break it.

"Hey, Sasuke."

Sasuke groaned. "What?"

"You really think Kakashi's going to bring home a girl? You know, like us?"

"No. They were only kidding Naruto."

Naruto stopped. "Really?" Sasuke kept walking and Naruto ran to catch up to him after a few moments.

"Sarcasm, idiot." Sasuke rolled his eyes. "It's called sarcasm."

Naruto made an 'o' shape with his mouth in what seemed to be understanding. "So, what do you think she'll be like?" He looked up with cerulean eyes into the grey clouds of November. "Maybe she's blonde, or brunette. And maybe funny. And nice. Or she could be mean and bratty. I dunno, what do you think bastard?"

Sasuke sighed and closed his eyes as calmly as he could. "What's got you so hung up on this girl anyway?"

"She's one of us, Sasuke! And she's moving in. Most likely to our bedroom."

Sasuke opened his eyes. He'd never thought of that. "Damn, you're right. I can only hope she's quieter than you Naruto."

Naruto glared at Sasuke as they crossed the street that led to the house they lived in with Kakashi and Iruka. It was fair sized, and the bricks that were once bright red had turned into an ashy terra color.

They came up tot the door and Naruto fished around for a key in his pocket. He came up empty-handed. "Damnitt, I forgot the key."

Sasuke glared. "You really are an idiot Naruto." He sighed. "Iruka should give me the key instead."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Why, because your so much more responsible?"

"Yes."

"Argh! Damnitt all Sasuke! For just once can you-"

Naruto was interrupted by the opening of the door. A small pale face framed with strands cotton candy hair appeared into view. Two jade eyes peered out. "Hello?" The person said quietly, but loud enough to be heard.

Sasuke glared, and Naruto jumped in surprise. "Agh! What the fuck are you doing in our house?!"

The green orbs widened as she opened the door wider, until half of the girl's body came into view, the other half hidden by the door. She was wearing a long and worn dark red sweater where the arm length reached up to her fingertips and down past the pockets of her worn grey jeans. Her pink hair was tied up in a messy ponytail and her eyes shimmered green. She was shorter than both Naruto and Sasuke, but she was filled out pretty nicely, with somewhat of an hourglass figure.

She opened her cherry lips as if she was going to sing but instead came out a soft speaking voice. "Kakashi said I could stay." Said the girl with forced calamity, still recovering from Naruto's outburst.

Naruto blinked a couple of times. "Wait, are you the girl Kakashi said was coming to stay?"

"No, she's an auditor." Said Sasuke sarcastically again.

"I dunno Sasuke, she seems to young-"

Sasuke hit Naruto over the head. "You dumb ass, you never catch the sarcasm. Of course she is."

Naruto rubbed his head. "Well, damnitt Sasuke, stop with the sarcasm. Do yah even have the potential to speak normally?"

"Yes, but only with people who aren't as dumb as a rock."

"You bastard!"

The pink-haired girl looked from one to the other, slightly amused and then slightly curious. "Uh…are you…going to come in?"

The two boys looked from each other to her, and then Sasuke abruptly said "Yea." and stepped in past her. Naruto followed clumsily behind. Both dropped their identical backpacks at the foot of the stairs. Sasuke went upstairs and into the room he a Naruto shared, and now this girl too, and closed the door.

Naruto watched him walk up and then shouted up to the closed door. "That's not very polite Sasuke!" He turned to Sakura and grinned.

"Hello, my name is Naruto. What's yours?"

She smiled weakly but politely nonetheless. "Sakura."

Naruto grinned. "Well, it's nice to meet yah! I'm now officially your brother!" He paused thinking, then returned to his blithe. "Or somethin' like that anyway. Not like, related, related. I mean, if you wanted to go out for ramen sometime-"

She giggled softly at her brother's….well more like roommate's antics. She smiled. "Yea, sure, I guess."

He grinned again. "Yes!" He paused looking around. "Well, for now what should we do Sakura-chan?"

She shrugged. "Dunno. I've been reading those books all day." She pointed to a stack of Shakespeare and history novels.

He looked over and made a face. "For fun? How many of those old things did you read? Weren't they, like, boring?"

She blushed slightly. "Well yeah. And I read all of them. I enjoyed then, personally, but that's just me." She flashed a sheepish smile.

Naruto's eyes were widened. "All of them?! God, you must be hella freaking smart Sakura-chan." He paused, thinking and then made a dash for his backpack. "Would you help me with my homework?"

He brought it back to the dining table where her books sat and threw it down. He grinned. "Please?"

She smiled. "Sure thing Naruto."'

(My first chapter, reviews appreciated, so I know to continue. :D