A/N: Hello everyone! I've finally started up this story! For those of you who are new to Priestess Sakura, make sure you read Priestess Sakura: The Beginning before you read this story! This is the second part of the Priestess Sakura series! For those of you who want to stay connected with me through social media/my blog, my accounts are on the bottom of this chapter! Thank you all ahead of time for reading this story, it means a lot to me! :)
Walking down a long winding road, Sakura's eyes moved around, in an almost slow motion way. "Where am I?" She questioned aloud, her voice seeming to ring out. The dirt road she was on, had trees on either side, and flowers all around. The sky above her was a pretty bright blue, and there were no clouds in sight. This was all familiar to her. Every time her eyes moved, everything was slow, and it was almost too bright to look at. The sound of a bell hit her ears, and at that she stopped walking. "Where did that come from?"
She was met with silence, and frowned. Feeling like this was too familiar to her. I've been here before. She thought, as she looked down the long winding road ahead of her, it seemed like something was different. Everything was the same, but there was something… something in the air that wasn't right. The ring of the bell happened again, and it seemed to come from behind her. Even though she told herself not to turn, her body turned anyways, and she found herself looking at the purple moon up in the sky. Except this time she didn't let it mesmerize her. "No!" She exclaimed loudly, and then everything went black.
Her eyes snapped open, and Sakura took in an unsteady breath. Feeling her heart race inside of her, she had to keep doing her deep breathing in hopes of slowing it down. Pushing her hair off her hot face, she closed her eyes, and continued her breathing. I had that dream before. That first night home from the mission to find the scroll for the box. It was the exact same dream. Except… I wasn't able to stop my self the first time I had it, and tonight… I stopped it. Is it because I'm priestess now? …I don't know.
Opening her eyes again, she glanced to her side where Sasuke slept soundly. Would it be ridiculous of me to wake him up? I need to talk about this, and he's right here… Deciding against waking Sasuke up, as he had a long day working with the others. Sakura sighed, and pushed the comforter and sheets off of her. Getting out of bed, she stretched her arms up, and looked to the clock. It was a little past four in the morning. I have to meet with my team in Tsunade's office around noon. If I leave now, I can get some work in the hospital done.
Her eyes glanced back to her bed, where Sasuke was sleeping. His expression showed a vulnerability that she could only pick up on occasionally when he was awake. It made her smile. Turning to go to her closet, she already started at the buttons of her nightgown. I can do pre-rounds on the patients we have from the battle, and I might be able to get in a surgery or two before noon. I can talk to Sasuke later.
A little past noon
"Shut the hell up!" Was the loud voice of the fifth Hokage. Her tone showed that she was border lining going on a full rage. Her reason for her anger? That was simple. Team Seven was in her office today.
Currently, Sakura had an wrapped around Naruto's neck, and her other hand was holding Sai close to her face. She had been yelling at the both of them. Sasuke, was the only one not tangled in the mess, but had been the source of what had started Naruto and Sai into an angry argument. After Tsunade's outburst, the four of them were frozen, and staring at her in silence.
"For goodness sake!" Tsunade exclaimed, her eyes narrowed at the four. "All I was doing is calling you here to tell you that you have to take your damn team picture! But, I can't even get that out of my mouth, because you four are so damn loud!"
"I'm not the one being strangled by Sakura right now," Sasuke pointed out, his arms crossed, as he looked plainly to the Hokage. "Or doing any of the yelling."
"Well the almighty Uchiha thinks he's so damn special," Sai scoffed at Sasuke's words. "Nothing is ever his fault."
For once Naruto nodded in agreement with Sai. His eyes going to Sasuke as well. "Yeah teme, you are not that special."
Growling at Naruto and Sai, Sasuke's eyes left the Hokage, and formed a glare at his male teammates direction. "Naruto, don't call me that," he started, before his eyes went to Sai. "And I never said I was special!"
Then that started the three arguing again. Sakura's patience was already worn thin, and she yelled out after a moment. Tightening her arm around Naruto's neck, tightening her hold on Sai's caller, her eyes went to Sasuke. "Would you just stop starting the arguments?!"
Seeing this start more bickering, Tsunade had only one thought. I cannot stand Team Seven! Slamming her hands down on her desk, she stood up quickly. "Be quiet now! Sakura, let go of Naruto and Sai! Sasuke, stop starting the arguments! Sai and Naruto, stop retaliating like children! I want you all out of my office in the next three seconds, or so help me-" She didn't have to finish as they left at that moment. Sitting back down in her chair, her eyes flickered to Kakashi and Yamato, who had said nothing since they had got into the office with their team.
Yamato laughed shakily at Tsunade's irritated look, and Kakashi just rubbed the back of his neck, before speaking. "Yeah, they're getting along skills are still at work."
"I'm glad to know there hasn't been any progress in your team's ability to cooperate," Tsunade bit back sarcastically. Sighing first, then rubbing her forehead. Her temples throbbed, and she was certain her blood pressure was through the roof.
"Well, it's not like we've had much time to let the team bond since Sasuke came back," Yamato pointed out, sensing the Hokage was still very much irritated. "The battle with the people coming after Sakura was just two days ago. Then five days before that, half of the team was still on the mission to retrieve the scroll that Sakura was looking for. Even with those five days when they were all here, it wasn't exactly a good time to have a 'get along or else' lecture with them."
"I understand that," Tsunade said, clearly still annoyed. "But, this was going on long before that mission. When Sasuke came back, it seems to have just gotten worse now that there is four them wanting to kill each other instead of just three."
Kakashi and Yamato were quiet, before Kakashi finally spoke. "We can try to drill it into them next time we can have them all together. The past couple days just haven't been a good time," he offered the last part to excuse them not having done so already.
"Just go," Tsunade growled lowly, clearly not in the mood for excuses.
"What about the team picture?" Yamato asked.
"Once your team can get along for more than the five minutes it'll take to set up and take the picture, we'll talk about that," Tsunade said, crossing her arms. "But, until then, I don't want to have to see Team Seven unless it's a damn emergency."
"Right," Yamato said, laughing slowly, as he and Kakashi moved to leave.
Once outside, the two could already hear the arguing coming from their team towards the bottom of the Hokage tower. "This is just as bad as the day that Sasuke came back."
"I agree," Yamato said, hearing Sakura's irritated sounding yell. "It doesn't look like Sakura's in the mindset of properly mediating their fighting either-" He was interrupted by a chorus of "ow's" being heard below. Then the arguing stopped cold.
Continuing down the stairs, their team was in their view now. The male members of the team were kneeling down, holding their heads. Sakura stood by them, arms crossed, eyes closed, and a big frown on her face.
"Or maybe she's just fine," Yamato said, chuckling at how normal it was to see the fighting being settled down by the pink haired female on their team.
Getting to the bottom of the stairs, Kakashi smirked under his mask. "It sure is a sight to see that the guys on the team seem to be showed up by our female member, yet again."
"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed in starting protest. "I helped Sakura fight against the enemy a couple days ago!"
"It's hardly fair of you to say that she showed us up," Sai added.
"We're doing a fine job," Sasuke growled in agreement.
Sakura hummed, smiled, and opened her eyes. Her smile grew into a smirk at the sight of the irritated looks on her teammates faces. "Awww, that is the sound of your male ego's getting stomped on by my awesomeness."
"Why'd you have to hit me too?" Sasuke asked, finally standing up from where he was kneeling on the ground. His hand still rubbing the area where she had hit him.
"Oh, that's adorable," Sakura started, smiling as she let her hand rest on the side of Sasuke's face, before she continued. "That you think that I'm going to give you special treatment just because you're my boyfriend." She laughed then. "The only special treatment here, is that I didn't hit you that hard. And that wasn't because you're my boyfriend, it's because you weren't the one screaming in my ears."
Hearing that made Naruto and Sai start laughing, Sasuke stepped away from Sakura's hand, and growled at Naruto and Sai's laughter. "You two idiots better shut up or-"
"Alright," Yamato interrupted before anything else could be said. "It looks like that because you four still can't get along for more than two minutes, Tsunade is going to reschedule the team picture… again."
"What? So are we taking it tomorrow then?" Sasuke asked, dropping his hand from his head. The pain from Sakura's hit, faded away. Seeing Naruto and Sai still rubbing their heads, he could tell Sakura really didn't hit him nearly as hard. "We were supposed to take it yesterday, but she postponed it to today. So is this a starting trend or something?"
"More like, she postponed it yesterday, because like today, you four were arguing the whole time we were in her office," Kakashi corrected, an eyebrow raised. "She says you all can't take it until you get along long enough to not cause problems for it."
"Cool. So we are never taking it then," Sakura said, rolling her eyes. Planning to continue, but a feeling of being watched hit her. Her eyes narrowed, and she spun around. Just in time to catch a kunai by it's handle, barely an inch before the point of its blade would have got her right in-between her eyebrows. Not even half a second more passed, when she had knelt down. Sliding three shuriken out of her pouch on her hip, and threw them in the direction the kunai came from.
"Hey!" It was Konohamaru's protesting voice that was heard first, followed by his teammates. The three shuriken had hit just above their heads on the wooden fence behind them. "You could have hit us!"
"Exactly. I could have hit you," Sakura retorted, standing up straight, as she flipped the kunai she had caught in her hand. Catching the handle each time. "You intentionally threw this kunai at me. So, I suggest you give me a reason why I shouldn't return the favor in the next three seconds, or so help me, I won't be missing this time."
Despite her threat, Konohamaru grinned. "Everyone in my year, has been saying how cool you were fighting a couple days ago. I was just testing to see if it was true."
A vein throbbed out in Sakura's forehead at Konohamaru's reasoning. "So you thought you would attack me to test out if your genin friends gossip is true?"
The sight of Sakura's border lining angry expression brought nervous expressions on the three genin in front of her. Konohamaru laughed shakily, as he rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I wouldn't say attack-"
"You brat!" Sakura yelled, spinning around, and throwing the kunai sharply at the three genin. An explosive tag had been added in her spin. So when the three genin took off running, the kunai hit the ground where they had been, and exploded. Seeing the smoke rise from the explosion, Sakura spun back around to face her team, and angrily huffed. "That little shit-"
"Calm down Sakura," Naruto interrupted her, a big grin on his face. "Konohamaru was just seeing if you were as cool as they thought… Which you are. So I don't see how it's that big of a deal-" He froze at the glare Sakura shot his way.
"Want me to throw a kunai at you to test out your cool new abilities?" Sakura asked, propped her hands on her hips, as she glared at Naruto.
Laughing rather shakily, Naruto stepped back away from Sakura. "Not particularly."
It got awkwardly quiet for a moment, before Yamato spoke. "We have training tomorrow. You three need to come with new attitudes."
"Which means, stop with the arguing," Kakashi translated, his eyes sweeping over the team.
"Yeah right," Sasuke mumbled under his breath. Sai and Naruto just glared at each other. Sakura was hardly paying them any attention, still angry about Konohamaru and his friends.
Watching their team, Kakashi and Yamato then shared a look. "I can tell that tomorrow will go well," Yamato spoke sarcastically. "They are about as pleasant as ever."
"If only we could have got stuck with a team who actually liked each other," Kakashi added, before he and Yamato disappeared.
As soon as their sensei and captain left, Sasuke sighed, as he looked to Sai and Naruto. "Leave it to you two idiots to get us in trouble."
"It's not my problem," Sai disagreed, his eyes went from Sasuke to Naruto. "It you and Naruto's problem."
"Well, I think you two are the real problem here!" Naruto blew up angrily.
That started the three off arguing. Instead of stopping them, Sakura watched them start fighting, and crossed her arms over her chest. Too annoyed to stop them.
"That's funny," a voice started from behind Sakura, before the person moved to stand beside the pink haired girl. "I heard something like this happened yesterday, and that's why your team didn't get to take your team picture."
"Pretty much," Sakura said, her eyes leaving her arguing teammates, and swept over to look at the person beside her. "Be glad your team can get along Hinata. From what Tsunade is saying, it appears that we'll never get to take our team picture, as she told Kakashi sensei and Captain Yamato that she wants us to behave long enough to take it."
"Well, you guys will just be the only team without one then," Hinata laughed, shaking her head, as she looked back from the arguing members of Team Seven. "Are you ready to go?"
"Hell yeah," Sakura replied, her focus on her team now. "I'm leaving…" she trailed off when her voice wasn't even heard by her loud arguing teammates. Rolling her eyes, she turned around. "Let's just go. Chances are they'll probably argue out here until Tsunade comes out, and kicks their asses away from her building."
Hinata's apartment
"Well, at least it didn't take us that long to get our food," Hinata spoke in her usual 'trying to find the positives' voice, that usually annoyed Sakura to no end.
"There's that," Sakura agreed, walking through the doorway of Hinata's apartment. "Of course, there's also how it's hot as hell outside, we had to stand outside for our food, and it's pretty damn unfortunate with how long and Konoha's summers are."
Sighing at Sakura bringing the negative into the conversation, Hinata laughed anyways, and she sat one of their bags of take out food they got on her coffee table. "I'm going to open the windows. You can open the one's in here, and I'll go open the one's in the rest of this place."
Sakura hummed, setting down another bag of takeout food. Her eyes followed Hinata until she left the living room. As soon as Hinata had left, Sakura fell back over one of the arms of the couch. Closing her eyes, she stretched her arms above her head, and yawned.
"Thanks a lot for helping Sakura," Hinata spoke sarcastically when she had walked back into the living room. Finding the pink haired girl didn't open the windows. So she just went to do it herself.
"Anytime Hinata," Sakura replied back, reaching over to their food, she pulled out her soda, and unscrewed the cap.
"Are you going to tell me about what happened when you were in your coma already?" Hinata asked, sitting down on the couch that was opposite to the one Sakura was on. Grabbing her own, much healthier drink, before setting out their food. "We haven't seen each other since your birthday."
"We saw each other yesterday," Sakura corrected, as she grabbed her container of dirty rice, and some chopsticks.
Shaking her head, Hinata grabbed her own rice and chopsticks. "That doesn't count. It was briefly five minutes that we saw each other. You were so distracted that the only thing you actually said to me was to meet you outside the Hokage tower after your meeting with you team today. Which I might add, I thought you'd be in that meeting a lot longer than you were."
"That's because we got kicked out of her office early… like we did yesterday," Sakura replied, eating some of her dirty rice.
Smiling, not at all surprised to hear Team Seven got kicked out of Tsunade's office, Hinata continued. "Anyway, these past two days have been killing me. I want to know what happened."
"I was just busy Hinata," Sakura told her, sipping at her soda. "You were too. The past two days since the battle have been us healing the injured from it. On top of that, I was busy dodging alone time with Tsunade and the elders. They want to sit down and have a meeting about me being a priestess now."
Rolling her eyes, Hinata shook her head again. "Yeah, well Tsunade did tell you that she wanted to meet with you. No secrets, right?"
Laughing at Hinata's tone with her question, Sakura shook her head. "You know that I can't tell Tsunade the full truth. If I did, our good friend Mr. Serious Pants would be toast. And not the good French toast, I mean the burnt kind of toast that you try to eat, but then end up throw away."
"Thanks for the clarification," was Hinata's sarcastic reply.
"Anytime Hinata… Anyway, I know that Tsunade wants to talk about this whole priestess thing. But, I'd like five seconds of trying to figure out where I stand, before having to sit through being roasted by Tsunade and the elders… and most likely the council. Once Tsunade and the elders realize that I don't have good answers, they'll think I'm lying. Which will lead to them sitting me down with the council… or bring to the interrogation unit. Or maybe they'll execute me for being so weird. If they do, I want the electric chair Hinata. Remember that. Because I don't want some lethal injection shit, I want to go out shocking the world."
Staring at Sakura, as she had started laughing, Hinata slapped her hand to her forehead. "They're not going to execute you Sakura. That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Which says a lot considering what I've heard come out of your mouth over the years. You can't just jump from them questioning you to execution. That doesn't even make sense."
"I know, but see what I did there?" Sakura asked, grinning. "Electric chair… going out by shocking the world?" She started laughing again.
"And here I thought you would change to being more serious once being a priestess," Hinata said, rolling her eyes at Sakura's lack of taking this seriously.
Inner Sakura: Amen Hinata!
Hearing her Inner agreeing with Hinata, Sakura sighed, and she sobered up her laughter. "Alright already. I just want to laugh, and your stuck with a permanent frown on your face like usual," she said, smirking as that got the sides of Hinata's frown to twitch. She wants to laugh. That's good enough for me. "Like I said, I haven't even had time to sit down and process being a priestess myself yet."
"Yeah, well you can deal with Tsunade and the elders some other time," Hinata said, sticking her chopsticks into her rice, before setting it down on the coffee table. Grabbing the container with the sesame chicken in it, she opened it. "I want to know details."
"I haven't really seen Sasuke either," Sakura continued, having not really listened to what Hinata had said. She moved so she was laying back, her head resting on the arm of the couch. "I haven't really gone home to sleep since there was so much healing to do in the hospital. I went home last night, but that was after he had gone to bed-"
"Sakura," Hinata interrupted, a serious expression on her face. "We can talk about how you and Sasuke being separated for more than five minutes makes you feel all sad inside some other time! I want to know details about the day of your birthday!"
"Alright," Sakura said, waiving her hand at Hinata. "And you say I'm the impatient one." She sighed, and grabbed her rice again. Jabbing her chopsticks into the rice. "Where to start… I guess, first of all, I wasn't in a coma exactly."
A few hours later
"It's so damn hot," Sakura complained, feeling sweat on the back of her neck, and it was growingly annoying.
"Yeah, well you talking about how hot it is, isn't making it any cooler," Hinata said, having laid back on the other couch after she and Sakura finished eating.
"Yeah, well I need to complain," Sakura retorted, rubbing her forehead. "I haven't complained that much in the past few days, and it's killing me."
Rolling her eyes, Hinata laughed. "You're so stupid."
"Thanks a lot Hinata," Sakura said, thumbs upping Hinata, as she let her other arm fall to cover her eyes.
A knock on the door was heard, and Hinata sat up. "I wonder who that is," she said before getting up to go to the door. Unlocking the chain lock before she opened it. "Naruto?"
"Hey Hinata," Naruto greeted cheerfully, a big grin on his face at the sight of her. He was in a navy blue t-shirt, and darker grey shorts. "I was wondering if you wanted to go get ice cream with me. It would be nice with how hot is outside."
"Ice cream sounds good right now. But, I haven't even had dinner yet-"
"Come on Hinata. Stop following the rules. Go get some ice cream before dinner," Sakura interrupted the Hyuga girl, sitting up on the couch that had been facing away from the door.
Seeing that Sakura was here, Naruto was slightly taken aback for a moment. His eyes on Sakura, as he tried to form words. "Uh, hi Sakura. You can… come with us if you want."
Shaking her head, Sakura pushed herself up from the couch. "Thanks for the offer, but I'm going to go home and take a shower," she said, as she walked around the couch. Her eyes back on Hinata. "You're going right?"
Hinata smiled and nodded once, looking to Naruto. "I'm going to go change into a tank top real fast, and then we can go," she told him, before walking across the living room to the hall where her bedroom was on.
When Hinata was gone it was quiet between Sakura and Naruto. Naruto watched Sakura, as she stared back at him. "Are you avoiding me?" He blurted out.
Surprised at his question, Sakura shook her head at him. "No Naruto, I am not avoiding you," she replied, crossing her arms over her chest. "I've been busy. Every since the battle, I've been at the hospital. Any free time I've had, I've been avoiding Tsunade and the elders."
"Me too," Naruto agreed, and he scratched the side of his head. "Well I haven't been at the hospital. I actually want to stay away from that place for the rest of life… I've been helping the others, um, secure the village- but the point is, I'm avoiding them too."
Raising an eyebrow, Sakura questioned him. "Why have you been avoiding them?"
"They want to talk to me," Naruto started, a frown on his face. "Tsunade told me the day after the battle when she had all of the teams go out to survey around the village. She said the elders wanted to see me with her." Pushing his longer hair out of his eyes, he continued. "I know that they wanted to talk to you too. But, I didn't want to say anything to them, unless you had already talked to them. I didn't want to tell them anything that you don't want them to know."
It was quiet before Sakura smiled, reaching up to his hair, she pulled at a strand of it.
"Ow!" Naruto yelped, his hand going to his head where she had pulled the hair. "What was that for?!"
"Your hair is longer like your dad's was. It's easier to pull it now," Sakura explained, still smiling as she rested her hand on his shoulder where his mark was now. Stepping closer to him, she started in a low whisper. "Thank you Naruto. For not saying anything to the elders or Tsunade yet. I would like us to talk together first before either of us talk to them. I think it's important for us to understand before they do."
Naruto nodded once, his eyes on her hand where it rested on his mark. Having noticed Sakura was looking at it. "It doesn't hurt anymore. It just hurt after I woke up in the hospital. The next day I was fine," he told Sakura, his eyes went back to her. "Can I… uh… talk to Hinata about it?"
Smiling at Naruto's want to talk to Hinata, Sakura nodded once. "You are welcome to talk to Hinata about it," she told him, moving her hand from his shoulder, and letting her arm fall to her side. "I've talked to her about it. You can trust her." Was all she said, before moving so she was the one outside Hinata's apartment, and Naruto was inside.
Turning to face Sakura, Naruto spoke. "When will we talk about it?"
Pausing, Sakura thought about his question. "Soon… I promise." Then she started walking to go down the stairs to the bottom floor.
Naruto watched her go, before shutting the door to Hinata's apartment. He moved towards the window in the front of Hinata's apartment. Watching closely, as Sakura made it to the bottom floor. His arms crossed over his chest, a frown on his face. Soon…
Back at the Uchiha house
Closing the front door, Sakura was surprised she wasn't pestered by the others right away. That's odd. Is everyone out? She thought, looking around to the empty living room. Of course they shouldn't be gone from the house because of their restriction, I guess they could have got someone from the team to come over. Moving through the living room, she went up the stairs, and to her bedroom. Going straight to the balcony doors, she opened them. The air in her room was so hot it was suffocating to her.
Her feeling of being sticky and hot from the hot air, made her go to her bathroom. Turning on the water for a shower, she stripped down eagerly, and stepped into the shower. Sighing happily, as the cooler water hit the back of her head. Turning around to face the stream of water, she closed her eyes, and let the water pour over her face. Her thoughts of all she has done over the past few days ran through her head. What I wouldn't do for just silence in here?
Then she heard nothing. No more thoughts, just the sound of the water pouring down around her. It was like she pressed the empty button on her mind. I like this priestess thing. She wasn't sure how much longer she stood there. But, it wasn't until she felt her head dip lower, making her jerk her head back up. Opening her eyes she stepped back from the stream of water, and wiped the water from her face. "I almost fell asleep," she said lowly to herself, her back up against the wall, and her hand pushing her hair out of her eyes. "I almost just fell asleep in the shower."
Saku Inner: Maybe you should focus on cleaning yourself up in here, and relax after get out of the shower. That way you can't drown yourself.
"You're telling me," she said lowly, her eyes widened, as she took a few deep breaths. Then she reached for the shampoo.
Twenty minutes later, she was out of the shower, and wrapping a towel around herself. Leaving the bathroom, she grabbed underwear and a bra from her dresser, and then walked into her closet. Slipping on her undergarments after drying off a bit more, she pulled on a simple pair of grey shorts, and a black racer back tank top. In the mirror, she studied her neck. Three cords were hanging from her neck. My Angel necklace, the necklace with my parents rings on it… and the new one. Her hand went to the new necklace. Touching the red crystal made her pause. I have too many necklaces. I should just take one of them off.
Although she didn't. She left her closet, and walked to her piano. Moving the key cover off, she sat down, and began to play. A peaceful song that came to her mind was what she played out. It wasn't until she was almost finished, that she realized something. What song am I playing? Allowing herself to finish it off until the images of the keys in her mind faded away with the ending of the song. I've never played that before… I don't even remember learning it…
Inner Sakura: Maybe, you have played it before. You've played a lot of piano in your life.
Sakura: But, I feel like this piece is one I wouldn't forget so easily.
Inner Sakura: Maybe you'll remember when you learned it… soon.
The tone her inner used, reminded Sakura of the clues that her inner had dropped to her before the mission to go find her parents. It was one that annoyed her to no end. Pulling the cover back over the keys, she stood from the piano bench. Moving to her bed, she froze at something catching her eye at her door.
Sasuke stood there, leaning against the door frame. Appearing to have been standing there a while. "You were in the shower for a long time."
"Yeah, I almost fell asleep in said shower," Sakura replied, nodding her head, as she yawned. "I've never been so exhausted in my-"
Interrupting Sakura by appearing in front of her, Sasuke pushed her back on the bed, and moved so he was on top of her. Keeping her from moving. "I haven't really seen you in the past couple days… or nights." He told her, as he began to deliver kisses slowly down her neck.
"It was only one night technically," Sakura pointed out, finding his kissing her neck to be a welcome distraction. "I was only gone the rest of the day of the battle, and then I was gone yesterday. I slept at home last night. So I was here."
"Yeah, but you didn't come home until after I had gone to sleep," Sasuke replied, continuing his kisses back up her neck. "You were gone before I woke up this morning as well."
"But, I was technically here," Sakura repeated, smiling at his kisses getting back up her neck.
"Still," Sasuke murmured against her neck, stopping the kisses, so he could look back into her eyes. "I missed you."
This made Sakura's smile widen, as her eyes dropped to his lips. "I missed you too," she told him, before pulling him closer to her so she could kiss him. Their kisses grew heated quickly, as it had been a few days since they had been with each other like this.
"Go bother someone else!" The sound of Suigetsu's loud voice from downstairs broke them apart.
"You are the one who got us in trouble! So I am going to yell at you as much as I want to!"
Karin's loud yell back at Suigetsu made Sakura sigh, as it started more arguing between the two. Her eyes swept back to Sasuke, and she saw him looking towards her bedroom door. "Living with Karin and Suigetsu together has been such a great experience."
Hearing her sarcasm, Sasuke smirked, as he looked back down at her. "If only I could just kick them out."
Seeing Sasuke's smirk, Sakura rolled her eyes. "Look, I'm going to talk with the council about letting you all off restriction. I've just been busy these past couple of days. You know, with me discovering I'm more of an odd ball than I originally thought, then there was the battle, and then me avoiding the elders and Tsunade. Then the hospital-"
"You're avoiding the elders and Tsunade?" Sasuke asked, interrupting her.
"They want to sit down and have a meeting about me, and I don't really find that sounding all that enjoyable right now," Sakura explained, before deciding to change the subject. She flipped them around so she was the one on top of Sasuke now. Kissing him deeply. She pulled back after a moment. "As much, as I would love to just stay up here, and kiss you like this, I can't."
"You can't?" Sasuke asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yep, I can't. My freak show hearing is making Suigetsu's and Karin's argument sound like it is on blast in my ears," Sakura told him, getting off of him, and then getting up from the bed. "So I am going to go punch Suigetsu to shut him up, and that should fix the problem." She finished, before skipping out of the room.
This left Sasuke watching her door that had been left open, as she had left the room. She changed after her birthday. Physically and she's changed on the inside too. Then Naruto… something happened to him as well. Shaking his head at the thought, he leaned back so his head was resting back on the bed. His eyes focused up on the ceiling. I want to ask her what happened… why it happened. But, I don't want to push her. If I push, it might be a repeat of the fight we had on the way back to the village after finding the scroll she was looking for.
His ears picking up on the sound of Sakura telling off Suigetsu, and Karin's laughter following. Suigetsu asking why she was only mad at him. Sasuke mad himself drown out what Sakura followed up with, and sat up on the bed. I don't really think anyone got a real explanation to what happened on Sakura's birthday a couple days ago. She's been busy… I wonder if she told Hinata. That made him shake his head again. Of course she told Hinata. She was over at Hinata's apartment for most of the afternoon…
His thoughts switched to his blonde haired teammate. I wonder if Naruto would tell me anything. Probably not. He'd be stubborn, and keep quiet, unless Sakura told him otherwise. I'll just have to ask Sakura myself- Hearing a crash from downstairs, he smirked, and crossed his arms. Maybe not when she's pulverizing Suigetsu into dust.
An hour and a half later
"I making a plan alright?" Sakura spoke, particularly to Suigetsu, as she tapped her chopsticks on her dinner plate. "I've just been too busy these past couple days-"
"I get that you were in a coma and all, but you had time before that," Suigetsu interrupted her, his arms crossed, and he had his elbows resting on the table. "Almost five days- ow!"
The source of Suigetsu's pain was Karin's arm slamming across his chest, as she hit him. "Don't be so insensitive you moron!" She exclaimed at Suigetsu, before lowering her voice. "She had her parents funeral-"
"Yeah, well what right do you have to hit me?!" Suigetsu raised his voice back at her.
"Stop arguing," Sasuke said before Karin could reply. He along with Jugo had been the quiet one's since they sat down to eat dinner almost twenty minutes ago.
Karin sighed, but didn't say anything. She just went back to finishing her food. Suigetsu, on the other hand, was focusing back on Sakura. "Okay, so you've had things to do. I get that princess-"
"Don't call me princess," Sakura interrupted, her tone taking a notch of irritation.
"Anyway," Suigetsu acted as if he hadn't heard her, before he continued. "You are not the one confined to be living in a house, restricted on training, and being stuck with the same two people for long periods of time." He waved off Karin's look at that, and continued his focus on Sakura. "My point is that you are taking forever."
This made Sakura narrow her eyes, as she set her chopsticks down on her empty plate. "Yeah, well here is my point," she started, grabbing her water from the table. "When I go to get you all off restriction, I will make sure you get thrown in jail for a month if you don't stop annoying me about it."
"You wouldn't do that," Suigetsu argued immediately, a smirk on his face. "We're friends."
"Really? I wouldn't do that?" Sakura countered, shaking her head, as she sipped at her water. "I guess you'll just find out, won't you?"
Suigetsu dropped his smirk then. "You wouldn't do that, right Sakura?"
Moving to stand up from the table, Sakura was the one to smirk now. "Try me," was all she said to him, before resting her hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "Will you come outside with me?"
Sasuke's eyes trailed up to Sakura's. Noticing a serious look in them was way too familiar for his liking. These past few weeks, that's all I've really seen from her. He pushed his chair back without replying, and followed her out of the dining room. Leaving through the glass sliding doors in the living room, it remained quiet between them.
Once they were off the back porch, Sakura led Sasuke out through the garden, onto the dock, and all the way to the gazebo. With the sun setting now, the water was a bit darker than it was when the sun was shining fully on it. Getting to the opposite side of the gazebo, Sakura stopped, and rested her arms on the railing. Her eyes focusing on the water, where she was still able to see her reflection. When the water rippled because of a fish moving, she snapped her head back up. "Alright."
Having been focused on Sakura standing there in silence, Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her finally speaking. "Alright what?"
"I want to tell you what happened to me… on my birthday," Sakura replied slowly. She remained facing the pond, and her eyes were focused across the pond. Mainly on the forest on the other side. Then she started to relay everything that happened. Leaving out minor details of her vision when she was unconscious in her "coma", and just gave him a generalized idea of what happened. When she had finished, it left them in silence. By now, her shoulders had collapsed from their tensed position to a relaxed one. Feeling better just by saying everything that happened out loud again.
Sasuke had remained quiet as she told him what happened, and now he was observing her. He had been leaning back against the railing off to the left side of the gazebo, and he had crossed his arms. I'm surprised how she told me without me having to ask… "Is that what happened to Naruto as well?"
Sakura shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know."
This made Sasuke raise an eyebrow. "You don't know?" He repeated, watching her nod her head. "What? Did you two just talk about the weather or something? I would think that both of you would want to talk about what happened."
"It's not that we're avoiding talking about it. I haven't had a chance to talk with him one on one about it," Sakura replied, sighing heavily at the thought. "When we met after waking up in the hospital, our priority was getting to the battle to help. Then after the battle, I spent my fifteen minutes of free time with you. Because as soon as I got back to the village, I had gone straight to the hospital to help out… And I was avoiding Tsunade and the elders like the plague, which you already know that. So, I was kind of in hiding whenever I had free time, so I didn't really have time to talk to Naruto. I did tell Hinata though. This afternoon."
"I figured you did," Sasuke said, nodding his head once. "What are you going to do now? Now that you are a priestess."
That made it real quiet between them after Sasuke spoke. Sakura released a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding in after he had spoke. This made her chuckle, as she shook her head. "It's so weird. Hearing that word. Knowing that's what I am now. It's only been two days since the battle, and every time I hear that word it takes my breath away…"
Keeping his eyes on Sakura still in silence, Sasuke thought of how to respond to that. "Things have changed. Clearly, they have changed. You have new abilities, a lot of which I'm sure you haven't even discovered yourself. And, even though it's not by much, you look different too. So does Naruto. I guess what I should have asked is: now that this has happened, what are you going to do?"
"I don't have a clue," was Sakura's reply after a moment of consideration. "The only information I got is that I am a priestess, Naruto is somehow mixed into this, and I'm going to have to change. Then I woke up in the hospital, and the abilities I used in the battle were ones that I don't have control over. They just happened. The box is useless to me, and I'm just kind of playing it by ear."
Saku Inner: Liar!
Sakura: I am not lying.
Saku Inner: The box is not useless. There are scrolls in there that you have yet to touch. So why did you just lie to Sasuke?
At her inner reminding her, Sakura sighed heavily. Deciding not to bring this up to Sasuke, as she didn't want to deal with the question of why she hadn't read them yet. Again with silence in the air, Sakura thought of something that had been bothering her. "I saw my parents that day."
Hearing that took Sasuke slightly off guard, as he had let his eyes widen. But, was careful to mask that as to make her too uncomfortable to continue. Stepping closer to her, he did the only thing he could think of, and rested a hand on her shoulder.
"I got to spend almost twenty minutes with them," Sakura continued, keeping her face looking towards the water. "We talked. And even though I'm pretty sure I screwed up at least everyday since they died, they were still proud of me. I mean, I made more of a mess than really did anything worth being proud of. But, they were still proud. I was able to touch them, to smell them, and I felt so warm. So secure. It was a feeling I haven't felt since they died." She sighed, before finally looking to Sasuke, tears trailing down her face. "I really miss them. It feels like they're just out my reach now, and this is the first day since that happened that I realized how special that was. Because I can't feel that anymore."
Instead of saying anything, Sasuke stepped closer to her, and wrapped his arms around her. Deciding that he couldn't say anything that'd make her feel better, but at least he could show he was there for her. Something his past self would have never even bothered with. She's still changing me everyday.
Resting her chin on Sasuke's shoulder, Sakura's eyes were focused on the distance. The sight of a bird flying caught her eye. Even though it was far, her ability of seeing far into the distance gave her a close up view of the bird. The sight brought darkness to her eyes. Then there was a flash of red, and then she could see normally again. It's tonight. She thought slowly, moving her head so she could rest her face against Sasuke's neck. Sniffling as a result of the tears, she closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. The black crow.
That night, around midnight
Ughhh. Sakura thought, as she shifted slightly on the bed. It was hot as hell, her skin felt like it was on fire. The only cover on the bed was the sheets, as it was too hot for the comforter she had. She was laying on her back now, staring up at the ceiling, and Sasuke was beside her. He was laying more on his stomach, and had one arm loosely wrapped around her. It's too fucking hot. This is September for crying out loud! Isn't the temperature supposed to be going doing down by now?
Saku Inner: Well, you have lived in this village for the bigger part of your life. You should expect this by now. Long Summers, and short Winters.
Sakura: Thanks Inner for nonchalantly reminding me that I haven't actually lived in this village my whole life. Way to make me feel great.
Saku Inner: That wasn't my intention… Why are you being dramatic? Shouldn't you at least attempt to accept the fact that you have a different past? Don't you want to explore it? Find out more?
Sakura: At this moment, I want to be comfortable, not hot, not cold, comfortable. But instead, I'm burning up. I want to be asleep, but instead, I'm awake. Because it's tonight. And I can't sleep until it happens. I also want to be in silence, but instead I am hearing your annoying voice in my head, and I really would like to not hear you.
Blocking her Inner from replying, Sakura sighed, and looked back up at the ceiling. Watching the ceiling fan circling was like it was teasing her. As it the fan hardly did anything for the hot air. I just want- Stopping herself, her ears picked up onto small taps from the roof above her room. Easing herself out from under Sasuke's arm, she sat up, and then got up from the bed. Careful not to wake up Sasuke, as she crossed the rest of the room to the balcony doors. As they were already open, she was able to slip through them easily.
After closing them more behind her, she walked across the balcony, and stopped by the railing. Her eyes able to make out the reflection of the moon on the pond, and partial outline of the gazebo in the middle. Resting her elbows on the railing, she sighed heavily. "You better talk fast. Sasuke might wake up."
"Don't worry so much Haruno," a low husky sounding voice hit her ears from behind, before this person moved to lean back against the railing beside her. "He won't even know I was here."
"The only reason why I agreed to you coming is because that you said it was important. I wish you would have told me when you wrote to me that it was going to be tonight. But, I guess the crow you sent was good enough for you," Sakura replied, rolling her eyes at the sound of laughter from the other person.
"You are extra moody tonight," the person told her, his voice hinting to that he was amused.
"I'm moody, because I am being deprived from sleep. Like I just pointed out; you said this was important," Sakura told him, turning her head in his direction finally. Her eyes raised up slightly to look this person in the eyes. "What is so important… Itachi?"
A/N: Well here's to the first chapter of this story! It's set only two days after Priestess Sakura: The Beginning ended. I wanted to give you all an idea of what happened throughout the two days, which mostly consisted of Sakura at the hospital healing people, and avoiding Tsunade and the elders.
I also want to note the scene of Sakura and Naruto talking at the front door of Hinata's apartment. Which is basically them saying they haven't even really discussed anything of what happened to them both on the day of Sakura's birthday. As well as Sakura noting that she hasn't really looked into her priestess self that much yet.
Thank you all so much for reading this first chapter, and also for reading PSTB as well!
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