Chapter 1
The pursuer was right on her tail. She dared to peak a look over her shoulder, her long hair invading what little vision she already had. She saw him preparing himself to jump on her, possibly to drag her down. She looked around, scanning her options in a split second. She took another quick look over her shoulder, back at her pursuer. Considering her options, she decided to take a leap of faith. This time, she didn´t look back, but went with her instincts; closing her eyes and muttering a quick prayer before rolling aside. As she did this, she saw a body jumping over her, now rolling body, in the corner of her eyes. After rolling to the side, she jumped up, barely eyeing her surprised pursuer whom had started to recompose himself and started running towards the thick tree line.
While she was running away, she noticed the other pursuer, flanking her from the right. Along with this, she heard the faint whistle of a kunai, thrown in her direction. She changed direction and ran straight towards the girl trying to flank her. The girl smirked and kept running towards her while grabbing a few senbon from the pouch on her side in the meantime.
As the girl threw the senbon towards her, aiming on her vital organs, Sakura jumped up high, avoiding them in the process. As she was flipping in the air, she started making a few hand signs. She was ready right before she landed with her hands and one knee on the ground. Her chakra-enhanced punch made sure that the ground crumbled, creating a small, local earthquake, directed towards the girl that had thrown the senbon at her. It was perfectly directed, but the girl jumped away in time to avoid any disturbances in balance. Sakura however, had anticipated that and jumped towards the girl, managing to kick the startled girl hard in the chest. Sakura quickly turned around, only to see the male pursuer leaping towards her, kunai ready. With barely enough time to react, Sakura immediately let her body drop flat on the grass to avoid the kunai thrown towards her. This gave the male the chance to jump right on top of her, before making a few hand signs and grabbing her neck with a chakra enhanced hand.
The male panted but looked victoriously in her eyes. Sakura saw the sweat pearling on his temples as he exclaimed a "give up, or die." Sakura returned his smirk with a mocking smirk before punching him with a chakra enhanced punch in his abdomen.. Using the distraction, she turned the whole situation around at left him on the ground.
"Sakura-san" a deep voice said. "That's enough."
It was enough for her to let the poor coughing guys go and walk back towards her sensei.
"I am disappointed Sakura, what is going on with you today? You know you can do better than that"
She looked directly at her sensei as she saw the questionable look in his eyes. "Yes Sho-sensei, I know." She answered him. She knew she didn't do well against her two opponents. It was because she couldn't concentrate for the full hundred percent. She was extremely tired, but that should never matter to a ninja. It was the long awaited return of her little sister from the extra practice today that distracted her so much.
"If you are still at it tomorrow, I will put you in extra training" her teacher decided firmly.
"Yes Sho-sensei" Sakura answered, impatient to leave.
"Very well, heal your teammates and go to the hospital" he dismissed her, while turning around, walking towards a few other students.
Sakura sighed before walking back to the field to check on the boy and the girl while hearing a distant "What the hell do you idiots think you're doing? How is he going to die from that lousy attack of yours?" from Sho-sensei towards the other students he now occupied himself with. Sakura wanted to go home, to see if her sister was already there, but she didn't dare to convince her sensei to let her. She was too embarrassed to do so anyways. She deserved to be punished for the way she had trained today. It had been a long time since she fought badly like this. Sure, she had her flaws, her teacher always told her that she was too rash, too impatient. Yet, she was supposed to be one of the best students her age. She let out a small sigh before kneeling down next to the girl who had been assigned to attack her and put her hand on the girl's chest. She couldn't find any significant damage but healed her back to full health anyway. The girl grumbled a "thank you" before walking over to the guy. "I'll heal him, you go to the hospital."
"I'm afraid that Sho-sensei ordered me to heal him" Sakura calmly answered, but in reality she was already growing impatient with that brat. The girl looked furiously at her. Sakura knew the girl, named Aira, had a crush on the guy, Kyou, who was lying in the grass, waiting for Sakura to heal him back.
"If neither of you are going to do it, I'll do it myself" Kyou yelled towards the girls. Aira looked at Sakura with a detested look, before turning around, walking over towards Kyou. Sakura sighed. She really didn't want to deal with some young stuck-up girl, whom had a crush on the guy she was supposed to heal. She therefore grabbed Aira by her neck and waistline and turned her around in one smooth motion. Before Aira even realized what was going on, Sakaru had knelt down in front of Kyou. Brushing her long hair over her shoulder before healing whatever insignificant damage he had suffered. Sakura felt Aira's burning gaze on her back as she was healing him and asshe began heading towards the hospital.
As usual, the hospital was empty when she reached the heavy doors of the building. The hospital was the pride of her village. It was also the most beautiful, technically advanced buildingthere. And out of all villages the clans went to, she liked the hospital in this one the most. Yet, unless there were visitors, it was usually empty. There were no real patients in Hakabu no sato, short for Hakabagakure no sato; the village of the hidden graveyard. And the more Sakura had thought about it when she was younger, the more ironic that name was to her. There were no patients, and people usually only died of a very old age. So it was hardly a graveyard. As she got older however, she realized that the name hidden graveyard suited the village, its clan, their abilities and the geographical location. In essence, it was a Hakabu no sato; a hidden graveyard, whether she liked to admit it or not.
"Sakura-chaaaan!" a voice shook her from her thoughts. "Finally, I was waiting for you! Come come, walk with me." Sakura did as told and started walking next to the medic-nin."Unfortunately I have to go Sakuraaaa" she continued with a nagging voice, while throwing her arm around Sakura's shoulders. "I just waited for you to tell you that tomorrow, you're the first person on my list and I'll check aaaall your little brain has learned, okay? This horrible festival business takes priority," and she tried making a puppy face. "So annoying, ne Sakura-chan?" Without waiting for an answer, she released her grip on Sakura's shoulders, ruffled a hand through Sakura's hair and walked around the corner with a last "Hope you are a morning person."
Sakura sighed, but couldn't help but feel relieved. Now she could go home and see her sister. She refined her hair while turning around to head home.
However, as fate would have it, there was already someone else calling her name, while she was on her way home. "Haruno-san" a voice called out to her, a young man came running towards her. He was quite handsome, Sakura thought while she inspected his posture, wondering what he wanted. "I came to inform you that your sister has returned home and your mother requested you home as soon as possible."
"Hai, hai, I'm already on my way." she told the guy while making a waving gesture, not really interested in anything else he had to say, feeling impatient to finally go home. The guy looked as if he wanted to say more, but apparently, he got the memo, because he decided he wouldn't. She raised an eyebrow, before walking through the gate that stated that people were now on Haruno terrain. She rushed towards one of the main houses and ran inside. "Yuri?" she asked while taking of her shoes, "are you there?" She could basically feel the chakra of her little sister as she walked into the kitchen. Her mother was cooking food as usual and didn't even turn around.
Her sister was sitting on a chair and Sakura saw her messy, dry, dark red hair. Yuri turned around and Sakura gasped at the sight of her little sister. She remembered how her first training camp was, but she still hated to see her little sister like this. Yuri was smiling and held her arms out, to hug her sister. There were black bags around her eyes, and the weak smile betrayed the exhausted state she was in. Without Yuri noticing, Sakura started a quick scan of her little sister's body, while hugging her, but a glare coming from mother stopped her. She knew enough though. She had seen her little sister's chakra reserves and noticed that they were extremely low. However, she knew she couldn't help Yuri. It was prohibited anyways. This was one of the reasons Yuri had to go on that camp. That didn't stop Sakura from feeling sorry for Yuri though. Sakura recomposed herself and smiled brightly at her sister and sat down with a "welcome back, I missed you." Her little sister, whilst looking like a little doll, ready to break, smiled back. "Thank you, I missed you too."
The day of the Grand Festival.
Sakura was excited, and ready to go out and have fun. There had never been so many people in their village as there were now. Medics from all over the lands and villages had come to Hakabu no Sato. Sakura was waiting for her little sister to be done with Sakura's hair. Sakura's beautiful red kimono, painted with delicate white flowers and flower petals, was annoying to sit still in when she felt so excited.
"Sit still Sakura, I'm never going to be able to do your hair like this" Yuri said, while slapping her softly on the head. To distract her big sister she started talking about something other than the festival. "You know" Yuri started, "your hair is turning darker too, just as mine. It used to be so pink, but now it's a dark red color. Like a bitter, aged wine." Sakura looked at her dubiously, "gee, thanks" she said sarcastically. "Oh, it's really quite beautiful" Yuri quickly said, not wanting to upset her sister, "I hope that when I get older, my hair will turn this color too." Sakura smiled bitterly at that, but didn't answer. "There, all done." Yuri answered.
Sakura looked at her mirror image. Her bangs, cut sideways, would not shift or stir for Yuri had put so much of her 'special-special stuff' in there that Sakura was afraid her hair might just fall out of her head out of pure misery. The result was splendid though. Sakura knew she looked nice with her long hair put up and the matching hair pins. Sakura looked at her sister whom also looked gorgeous in her white kimono. Mint green and vague yellow drawings made Yuri's eyes look beautiful. She looked more delicate than Sakura did and always had a sweet smile playing around her lips, but Sakura knew better than to think of her little sister as weak. She was a member of the Haruno clan, strong in both skills and character. Unfortunately, she was chosen by the council, otherwise she would´ve been a great medic-nin. "Shall we?" Sakura asked her exited little sister, whom bopped her head up and down, blushing because she was so excited.
When Sakura and Yuri passed the gates, looking for their parents, they got both jealous and approving looks. When they walked further multiple friends of Yuri joined them and she blushed about all the compliments she received. "Sakura! Yo!" Sakura looked at her right and saw her friend Naniko sliding towards her. She looked great in her deep blue kimono. "You look great Sakura" she exclaimed meters, before she reached Sakura, brightly smiling. "As usual too much energy" Sakura said, smirking. "What, me?" Naniko answered, "Instead of commenting on my eternal gift to always keep spirits up and distracting people from your grumpy face, might as well comment on my gorgeous dress". Sakura laughed, "you wish. If anything, people like me around you because then they have a person to turn too, when your babbling becomes too much to bare." Sakura stated. "Pffff, are you implying" Naniko started while making a quasi-dramatic gesture, putting her hand over her heart, "that people wouldn't like me for my charismatic abilities? Ah, what has the world become? Even best friends lie out of jealousy because, clearly you are jealous, plus" and she poked Sakura in the chest, the other hand on her hip "are you still going to comment on my dress, or are you just going to ignore it?"
"It looks gorgeous on you Naniko" Sakura answered her friend. "Why thank you Sakura," she said while putting one hand in her side and the other stroking her brown hair, creating a posing look "I had not expect you to comment on my dress, really, that is so kind of you." Sakura just shook her head in amusement.
Sakura spotted her parents before Yuri did, while Naniko was babbling about some boy she met on the training field. She grabbed her little sister and pointed to where her parents were standing. Her mother looked stunning as ever next to their handsome father. Her mother noticed her daughters and smiled, gesturing them to come over. As Sakura and the entourage they had gathered (well, mainly Yuri who was very likeable and Naniko, whom shouted at everyone) went over towards her mother and father, she saw her mother making a sudden movement. Her father followed his wife's gaze. They were looking at something together. Sakura looked peculiar at the two before she sensed it. It was like someone hit her with something on her head and she got dizzy because of it. Something was different. Different than before. She looked at Yuri and Naniko to see if they noticed too, but they seemed oblivious to it. She wondered if she was starting to imagine things. She let go of Yuri's hand and checked if the knives on her leg were still in place. From a corner of her eye, she saw her father grabbing the hand of her mother and whispering something in her ear. The bad feeling she had changed into a form of panic. Then people suddenly began running in various directions. Yuri suddenly looked scared at all the people around her and grabbed Sakura's hand, while Naniko screamed a scared "what's going on?" At her left and right, she saw people running towards houses, or run towards the city walls. One of the last things she saw was a thick fog settling over her village, swallowing her mother in its heavy embrace. She could feel the sky darkening and the ominous present of something very, very bad.
And all hell broke loose.