Kunoichi: A Memoir
Full Summary: I am Sakura, Sakura of the Tranquil Spring. Fate has blessed my with a lucky future- for I am to walk the path of a kunoichi. Out of all the girls in the country who dream of becoming a beautiful warrior-it is me. I am lucky...yet I cannot love...I cannot portray emotions...nor can I have friends. For in the Konohagakure, in the end, there can only be one kunoichi that stands...One.
Characters: Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino, Hyuuga Hinata, Tenten, (and later on a bit of) Uchiha Sasuke.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, period.
Just a pre-A/N before the story begins, this is my second fanfiction and if I don't seem to be getting enough reviews or views, I'll stop since I do have my other fanfiction to work on. It's my first try in lyrical form, so those of you that like poems will kinda like it. R&R!
Chapter 1: The Birth of Sakura
I still remember.
It was night, but it was warm.
I still remember.
I had a friend, huddling alongside me
by the small fire we had made in an alley.
I still remember
that we were both alone;
Abandoned to live
by ourselves.
And so, because of that,
I still remember,
that we were not alone.
We had each other.
But then I remember,
when they came.
When they came and took us away.
I still remember.
that nobody heard us
screaming and sobbing
as they threw us into a cold cart
with nothing inside to keep us warm
except for each other.
I still remember,
that with her tear-stained blue eyes,
she told me through hiccups,
"Everything will be alright."
And then I remember
she lied.
For when light shafted into our moving prison,
and when they dragged us out-
us covered in tears, grime, and bruises
-there stood an elderly lady looking down at us.
Disgustedly, she observed us,
like shattered artifacts.
"I'll take her." She said,
pointing
at me.
And then we were ripped
from the reassurance from one another's arms.
Nobody helped us.
Nobody cared.
As we shrieked each other's names
in agony and fear
with our arms outstretched.
And I saw her face,
and called her name.
Yet no avail.
For when I saw her face behind the bars
grow smaller and smaller,
carried farther and farther
by the heartless shadows;
I knew the truth.
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I was alone.
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I was scared.
What do they want?
I felt the leathered, worn hand
of the old hag
lift my face
to look into her squinty, deceiving, expressionless eyes.
Just looking at them sucked the warmth from inside,
my hope.
But I still had fire in me.
"Where is my nakama?"
She slapped me across the face.
A thousand hornets stinging my cheek.
"You belong to us now."
Her cold eyes bored into mine,
trying to hypnotize me
into thinking that I was their item.
But I am like a tree, strongly rooted,
not to be easily moved.
"No! I want my nakama! I want to go home!"
The witch did not falter,
her words hit me
like a storm.
"This is your home now, girl."
She walked away,
leaving her mindless pawns with me.
"You have a great deal of fire and earth in you,
perfect for the Konohagakure."
She told me while I was in shock,
still bent over on the ground.
"Do well,
and I might allow you to become
a kunoichi."
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I felt empty.
This could not possibly be my home.
This could not be my family.
Families were supposed to be warm,
not cold like darkness.
The shadow pawns carried me inside.
I was in a house
with my very own room
for the very first time.
But it no longer mattered.
I wanted to be with my friend
in the streets.
I stayed in the corner.
I did not want anything.
I would rather die
than live here.
I didn't know how long I sat
lifelessly there.
But the purple voided room
started to flow orange.
Although yellow squares laid over my back,
it did nothing to comfort me.
Everything was still dead.
I heard the door creak,
and light footsteps walk over.
One of her pawns have come.
She looks my age
with her amber eyes
and jet black hair in buns
like a panda's ears
as she sets down a tray of food.
"You must eat now."
She softly says,
so that I almost forget
that she was one of them.
But I shall never forget.
so I stayed like a stone.
"Please." She begged gently,
"It's not that bad here."
Hearing that made me wonder
what they had done
to brainwash her.
Would the same happen to me?
"Where am I?"
I ask
in an empty voice I found hard to believe
was my own.
"The Akiten Otomeya in the Konohagakure."
She tells me.
I didn't know what or where that was,
but that didn't matter.
All I needed to know was whether or not
I was lost.
And I was.
"What do they want with me?"
Or was she paid to tell me lies?
"What do they want?
To serve the otomeya of course!"
Her eyes shine.
I could see a dream shining in her eyes.
"And go to kunoichi school!"
Kunoichi?
What was a kunoichi?
I did not listen to her
as she rambled on
about how lucky I was
for the hag to acknowledge me
as a potential kunoichi.
To me,
I was unlucky.
What ever this kunoichi was,
it was what robbed me
from my life.
And so
I hated these
kunoichi.
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They take me to the witch,
who, from that girl
Tenten
I had learned was Koharu Utatane.
She was the okaa-san
of the otomeya.
She was the one
who paid for my education and food.
She was the one
who took my nakama from me.
I wanted to rip her to shreds
as she sat on the tatami mat
in the center of the room,
staring at me
with those beady eyes,
as if I was
some sort of artifact.
But I hold my tongue,
for Tenten-chan had told me,
that I could be punished
for disobedience
with 20 lashes
at the least.
"Sit" she commands.
I am not a dog.
I want to stand,
just to anger her.
To show her that I was not afraid
of her.
Of anything.
I sit.
But that doesn't stop me
from glaring at her
with all the blazing inferno
I could feel inside me.
"Your name."
I say nothing.
I was too proud
to tell her
that I did not have one.
I think she already knew though,
and had only asked
to shame me.
I hate her.
She looks at me a cackles,
walks over to yank my hair
so that I would look up at her.
"I am in charge of you now."
Then a slow smile
wrinkles her ancient face.
"No name?"
She asks with fake pity and shock
like poison dripping
in a sickly sweet honey.
"Then I'll have to name you then."
She studies me.
It makes me feel
aware of my body
as she combs through
my mid-length hair
and pinches
my flesh.
I feel butterflies
fluttering detestation
in my stomach
Not only has she decided
my life,
now my identity as well.
"Such unique rosy hair,
and spring green eyes."
She mused,
walking around me in circles,
as a lion would
to its prey.
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"Sakura."
"You are now
Sakura"
A/N: So...How was it? Well, I can't take credit for it all by myself. This was inspired by (obviously) Naruto, and for some of you that have read Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden, some of the concepts were carried from it as well.
As for dedications, it's to anyone that reads this. I am (yet again) editing this on my own.
I do have vocabulary again as well. I'll be using more of the oriental words due to the fact that this takes place in a rather older setting than my other fanfic. So I suggest you scroll down and actually read these.
Vocab:
nakama- friend, best friend.
Akiten- literally: "autumn heaven", name of an otomeya in the Konohagakure.
Otomeya- literally: "maiden house." It's a made up concept by me and it's where hired or bought girls are set to work by either normal jobs such as waitresses or lucky ones become kunoichi.
okaa-san- mother.
tatami mat- a mat traditional Japanese people sit on
Characters:
Sakura- A once-homeless girl taken away to be sold to an otomeya. Sakura is not her real name.
Tenten- A girl one year older than Sakura and has already been in the otomeya for a while.
Koharu Utatane- The boss, or 'okaa-san' of the otomeya. She's cold, greedy, and only looks at things if they include a profit for her. In the real show, she's one of the village elders.
As for Sakura's 'friend', you'll just have to infer, or figure out because she doesn't come until later!
COMMENT PLEASE!