Welcome to my first Naruto FanFiction Idea
This was something I thought up… and well, I just decided I wanted to do a hardcore serious thing. There are other elements too, of course. Some happiness later and eventual romances, followed with a dose of angst, a pinch of hate, chased down by sorrow, regret, blood loss and a student/sensei fist-fight.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, and this is making me no profit.
WARNING: The later focal element will be SakuLee to let you know – hate for anyone to get involved only to get pissed at the coupling later. For now, it's rather Sakura-centric. There is a Yaoi coupling in this. If either of these two things you disagree with, then perhaps this fic is best left unread. If, however, you are fine; then please by all means continue forth.
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When Flowers Wilt
Shattered boulders and pools of blood dotted the battlefield. You wouldn't exactly describe it as Hell, par say, but the scenery was pretty torn up. The figures of those fighting did not look any better either. At least a dozen were either, from the looks of it, passed out or dead.
Two figures of particular note; they stood out against the mass of grey figures due to their pastel attires. One was visably on the verge of falling, having just take down three of the grey men. The other still looked capable of carring on a bit further.
The first figure, who's hair was a mix of lavender and blue, concentrated moonshine eyes on the closest enemy. Hands set in front and on the defensive; finding a voice to call to the other pastel colored figure.
"I'm not sure how long I can hold out." The voice, feminine in nature, spoke.
"Just do your best, hold on as long as you can. We can do it; there are only five of them now." Another feminine voice answered.
"Alright! I'll do my best!" The first voice replied.
The woman, in appearance, closed her moonshine eyes and brought two fingers to her lips. They were set in an odd symbol like manner; pointing straight up.
"Byakugan!"
After just a moment, her eyes snapped open and seemed to pulse. Veins radiated across her temples, but to her it was as natural as breathing. With this new 'vision' of hers, she quickly scanned the area. It was relatively simple as she had a new enhanced vision of 360 degrees from her one spot. She gasped as she found something disturbing.
"No! There are five we didn't take out!"
"What?!" Shouted the other woman.
Indeed, as the first had admitted, five of the 'unconscious' enemies suddenly rose and converged on the two woman's locations. As quick as she possible could, the lavender beheaded beauty twirled in her stance, hands moving rapidly and took out three of the offending ten. However, as she came to her stances end, a hand blow to the back of her neck caused her collapse.
"Nng!" She squeezed out, as her stomach smacked the rubble terrain.
"HINATA!" The other woman exclaimed.
Though her exclamation lost her valuable defense time, and she suffered a punch to the chest for it. Flying back onto the ground, her back skidding lightly, she wirled her legs around and got right back up; though to say she was still lacking a little bit of oxegyen. The enemies stopped for a moment, and formed a large circle around the woman. There were eight of them, and one of her.
'Shit.' She swore internally. ' First TenTen. . .now Hinata.' She risked a glance at her fallen teammates. She could tell that thankfully they were still alive.
"Down to one. This should be fairly simple." One of the voices around her spoke.
"Yes… but she's a fisty one at that. She has such stamina and strength." Another retorted.
"We aren't to kill them yet, until we extort them of information; so why not play with them – or at least her first."
"Not like anyone will know."
The woman sneered, but held her bitter tongue. She was use to hearing this; any Kunoichi was use to this. She knew she was tiring, even though she still had a bit to go; but she was also smart – she knew she'd not be able to take them out one on one.
'So. . .looks like I resort to that once again.'
She took note of where each one of them stood. Two were directly in front, three were close behind her, on her left side and three were singularly around her on her left right and hind right sides. She smirked at the formation. They were lined up almost perfectly… she's nailed at least six for sure.
She relaxed her stance, bringing herself upright in full, and slowly began to reach up and undo the scarf she had worn over her hair.
"You're wasting my time, and I am never late from my missions. So I'll be generous and kill you all quickly. However, before I do… you might like to know who will be killing you."
The men collectively chuckled, scoffing and mocking. As the woman spoke, she torn away the cloth that concealed her hair and half her face. At this, the men fell silent, a few even gasped.
Medium length strands of pure pink spilled down from its once hidden spot. Some of it swayed loosely in the soft breeze. Blush lips smirked at the reactions and legs partly slightly, beginning a strong stand on the ground.
"She. . .she- it's the.."
"Impossible! Its just not possible!"
The blush lips smiled even more, focusing on the enemies in front of her. Her hands came up in the form of a symbol. The onlookers were too shocked to really move; and most were unsure of what was about to happen. The symbol was not recognized. In truth, the symbol was a real one at all – she knew this, but they did. It was a ploy. A ploy for her to use the small amount of time before pulling off a deadly move.
A move both deadly to her attackers and herself.
After all, it was based off a forbidden jutsu.
'Ich!'
The men watched and waited for her to move, but she just stood there, symbol and stance almost stocic.
'Nii!'
One of the men snapped to attention. "Her chakra is rising!"
'Son!'
At this point, the ground began to tremble, the air around her beginning to swirl fast and dangerous, while sparks of pink chakra tendrils began to flare out like bands. Her hair was billowing about her like it was being blown by stormwinds.
"What the hell is going on?!"
"Do something!"
'Ge!'
A pulse wave of chakra spread across the area by at least 500 feet. The pink tendrils now wind and smoke like came fall down – five in all – and spread out; one directly in front, one to her left, one to her right and the last two behind her diagonally, respectively. If one were to view it from above, it would resemble that of a flower.
A Sakura blossom.
The men tried to do anything, but failed as they could no longer move, the pink chakra had been a trap; and what was worse was that the woman's chakra was still rising. Gazing at her now reviled her to be almost a glow; extra bands of pink chakra swirling around her form, while mingled with masses of red, and the occasional flicker of emerald green.
Her skin was almost pure white.
"GOU!"
Her shout was covered again by another pulse, and this time she moved. Or disappeared.
Round house kick to the face to the first opponent; punch through the chest to another. A Kunai pierced straight though an abdomen of another. One man cried out as he watched his teammates seem to just fall without reason, only seeing the aftermath after the fact. The same man also blinked for a moment as what felt like sudden rush of wind hit him, only to open his eyes and be staring at his feet. Before he could scream, he could feel something slither around his torso, and yank him up, high. This action caused him to turn around – to be face to face with his attacker.
The woman was readying a punch, while her left arm was holding onto something. . . it was too much for him to precise. The punch came, to the throat, and whatever had been holding him snapped, and he flew back against the ground.
The rest of the onlookers were horrified. The woman's figure, pink chakra radiating dangerously around her was beginning to descend down to the very spot she had first stood. The last thing the remaining men saw, could take worthy note of, where the woman's eyes.
A thin ring of green and nothing more. Almost completely empty.
And then nothing.
As she came plummeting down, she shouted out, and brought her left arm straight down in the manner of a forceful punch. She connected to the ground. A blast, an earthquake like tremor, and upturned earth erupted.
Then all became quiet.
The chakra all faded like wisps of smoke; the rubble settled, the air returned to normal and everything was a deadly silent.
For a moment, nothing moved at all. Only for a moment, however, as when it passed, the woman stirred and promptly fell to her side, ragged breathing and aching all over.
"Damn…it always hurts."
For a moment, she lay there, attempting to rebuild the small reserve she had left. She kicked in her healing abilities and was soon staggering to her feet. Slowly she made her way over to her two teammates. TenTen was stirring.
"Nnn.. Huua!" She gasped as seeing the landscape about her, and the condition of her teammate.
"Sakura-Chan! Are you alright? What happen?" TenTen pushed herself up, making her way quickly towards the worse for wear woman.
"I'm alright; Hinata and I got them." She gave a smile. "There were a few more than we thought, and one jumped Hinata; she's ok, just unconscious." At this she pointed over to the other member of the cell. TenTen went to the fallen woman and picked her up gently.
"What about all this?" TenTen indicated the torn up land around them.
"They got me mad."
The brunette bunned woman sighed and shook her head lightly.
"I know Hokage-sama helped you with such super strength, but you should really be careful with it. You don't want to over exert yourself, going about and busting up boulders with punches and kicks. I've already dealt with that with another team member."
"You have no idea." Sakura said lightly.
TenTen gave her a questionable look, but Sakura shook her head dismissing it. The brunette sighed audibly, but went about helping the unconscious Hinata. Sakura herself sighed in turn, mostly from the fact the woman didn't question her further; nor saw reason to. Sakura winced as she felt her left arm pulse in pain. Upon further inspection, she could see blood trailing her fingers. Turning away from the other Kunoichi, she pulled back her sleeve. Blood was beginning to seep through the wrapped bandages.
"Shit…again." The muttered to herself.
Letting the sleeve go and her left arm to dangle, she looked about the landscape. It really had suffered a Hell now. She was just grateful no one would reflect too much upon the damage done. While TenTen was right in all respects of her being able to do this kind of damage with her strength alone, she was also misinformed.
Sakura wasn't about to tell TenTen what she really had done. She wasn't about to tell anyone. Only her self and one other knew about this little invention of hers and that was damn well how it was going to stay.
Though she knew Tsunade-sama would be royally pissed at both of them if the elder woman ever found out.
For that matter a pissed off Kakashi would be just as equally scary.
She shuttered for a moment before dropping her gaze lightly, she felt a little bit of remorse, reflecting on her actions during a time long ago. Had she ever said 'Thank you?' She didn't let it faze her too long, as she could hear TenTen finishing up with the remaining team mate. It was best not to dwell on it. After all, a year had passed without incident thus far.
"Are we ready to move out?" Sakura called over to the other woman.
"Yeah; Hinata's light so I won't have any problem. You?"
"I'm fine. Let's get home." Sakura gave a smile. "I need to keep my time."
With that the two Kunoichi disappeared, taking off for their home village of Konoha. Sakura was indeed in time; something she always made point to be, and on most occasions tried to be ahead of said appointed time. Though, she was never late.
The two women had made sure Hinata was looked after at the hospital, before each going their separate ways for the night.
Exhausted from the mission of the day, Sakura returned home promptly. Though she was tired, and fatigues, she decided a shower was in order first. Slowly making her way to her bedroom, she began to slip out of her easier to slip off garments. Her long black boots took her a bit more effort of wiggle out of. The last remaining item she shed was the now overly bloody bandage that ran along her left arm, up to her elbow. Careful as to not cause any more pain, she examined the arm.
All along it were cuts, scares and bruises from various missions times before. The new wound was just as ugly as the others had been. Nothing a little water and time couldn't heal. Making her way towards the shower, Sakura stopped as she caught her gaze in the full length mirror she had in the corner. She stared at herself for a small time; critically analyzing her aged body.
No longer the unmarred sixteen year old body, she now sported the twenty-two scarred body of a dedicated shinobi. Her legs had bruises and cuts; as well as her arms and a few nicks to her shoulders. Her stomach had two almost invisible scars running across it. Even her right breast supported the spoils of battle. However, the most painful thing on her body, was really no longer physically painful – but it still left as much a mental scar on her life as it did her body.
It was a wound she had received on her first S-Rank mission. The enemy had been using some awkward weapon; not those she was familiar with. What ever it was, it had been throw at her. She dodged it, or so she thought, until it dug into her body. The area of impact was right where her right ovary would be. She had been going to remove the weapon when she felt exploding, shredding pain. The thing had, somehow, opened, and shredded the inside area of where it had embedded itself. Things were fuzzy after that point, up until she came around in the hospital. She found out later the weapon had done such immense damage, that it had destroyed her ovary, without any chance of repair.
To most women, this would have been a bit of a loss, but not too awful much. They had two ovaries to rely on. However, for Sakura, the news brought her despair. When she was young, she had been born with a defect in her right ovary; it never produced what it needed to, so thus the work was taken on by her left one; causing it to work overtime. To Sakura, the news she was told was something that would scar for the rest of the life.
She would never be able to have a child now.
She had been robbed of motherhood.
And to remind her of this, day in and day out, was an ugly scar that's shape and look was that of any other. It was as if it would be a haunting memory and an ironic reminder. The way the cuts radiated outward, like little jags; like that of a blooming flower, with just enough 'petals' to be given a reference.
A scar shaped of a lotus blossom.
Not a day went by since that mission that the god's irony failed to reach her spirit. It was a constant reminder in her life that her youth was a foolish one; and that she had thought herself unmatched. Oh how wrong she'd been. Oh the things she had experienced after. From the loss of ever being a mother, to her knowledge of being alone; who could want such a battered and bruised thing as she? Though most of it was her own fault. The other kunoichi, she knew, didn't go through their battles like she did. No, she threw herself into them. A fight was something to take and eliminate. It was an obstacle that needed to be knocked down.
Sakura had no regard for her health half the time she went on a mission. Her life was the missions; for there was nothing to come home too except an empty house. It was inviting, but it was cold and dark. Her house was like her own mind; inner turmoils making it a lonely place, but there was still a holding out of hope. Though it diminished every new scar, every new bruise, every new cut she received. Each step brought her closer to being nothing more than a tool of death. It was a wonder she wasn't an ANBU. Truthfully though, there were few precious times that allowed her happiness.
Her friends were those times. These were people important to her that had shaped her early life as a child growing up. These were people she fought alongside with, and would happily die for.
These were people she loved.
Yet. . .
She wanted more.
Exhaling lightly once more at the image in front of her, she closed her eyes and cast off the glance she gave herself before returning to the task at hand. The shower was inviting her into a world of relaxing and warmth. Promises of unseen lovers and unknown fantasies lingered there, and she wasn't about to deny her aching body and soul. Grabbing up a large soft towel, she ventured forth. Soon after she would fall into a sleep of worlds not here; places unknown, and in embraces that promised possible futures.
x Chapter 1