Sasuke:
June 20
7:48 p.m.
His eyes narrowed as his hatred for this town grew, especially for the female population.
Always a person who chose solitude over noise, he doesn't know what probed him to come to this festival.
Maybe he realized that too much silence would make you insane - but then again his sanity was already tainted when he was younger...
Or perhaps, it was to get away from Karin...
As he walked - stand by stand - watching kids trying to catch fish in a net made of paper. He noticed a sign that forbid a ninja from using ninjustsu.
'Probably to get them to play a game that is rigged so the stand owner will get more money and to keep those who know how to use it at a disadvantage.' Sasuke thought to himself.
He walked absent-mindedly, but his senses were on full alert. He had no doubt that they were tracker-nins around but he was more confident that they wouldn't do anything since they were many pedestrians around. And soon he came across the more isolated places, where the adults and teens come with their lovers, and there were few stands there as well.
One stand in particular, perked his interest because of the sign; it was the Roma chakra.
It was a wheel that was had a reminsince to that of an wagon wheel. It was a sign that is normally dealt with gypsies. Why would gypsies need a stand? Don't they usually dance?
Curiosity got the better of him as he slowly walked up the stairs, rethinking if this would be just a waste of time. Stopping at the red drapes that prevented him from going in, he was about to leave when,
"Come in."
Sasuke hesitated before moving the drapes out of his way to see a table with two chairs; one of them was already occupied by a female with her back towards him so he walked to the other chair and sat down. The thing he noticed was her face, which he admitted looked nice.
An oval-shaped heard with black wavy hair that stopped an inch under her breasts with an medium-small size heart shaped lips, also with an artistic delicate looking nose finished her off.
"What is your name?" her delicate voice asked, as to which she got no answer.
"The 'Silent type', eh? Well I've heard that you Uchiha's are not the most sociable."
To that Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. After all, he had walked past her and the Uchiha symbol is clear to see on his back.
"Well aren't gypsies supposed to dance?" He asked casually, and didn't miss the slight narrowing of her eyes
"Yes... But I'm a special case. My mother was a gypsy and my father is a fortune teller. It was love at first sight and I was born. There was argument about where I should be raised: My father since male is usually dominate, but I carry my mothers surname. And I stayed with my mother until she - died and I went to my father where I learned about different types of fortune telling."
'Well then,' Sasuke thought feeling it was just as he thought, just a waste of time.
"Hn,"
He got up and was at the drapes when he heard her gasp, he stood there for a while before leaving.
9:25 p.m.
The crystal ball on the table began to become white as what seemed to be snow fill up and flashes of his life came through her eyes and she saw a very beautiful woman at the end and she heard a whisper,
"Help him see, Shugyoku."
Shugyoku, it was her name. It meant jewel and she had gotten it because of the rarity of her eyes; it was blue, green and purple. They all seemed to blend together; one color did not dominate the others and they didn't combine to make a new color. Also were her the blood red hue of her lips that reminded any one who seen them of rubies.
With a heavy sigh Shugyoku realized that she has to do this otherwise the spirit wont leave her alone. After all, it takes one to know one...
'Now,' she thought 'what to do?' She thought dismayed, afterall she does have a limited time on the planet...
10:57 p.m.
Sasuke twitched and turned in his sleep. His breathing became hoarse and his eyebrows furrowed with sweat collecting on his brow. The nightmare about his childhood: His lonely life, his fan-girls, how the dobe was beating him in power at the chunnin exams, the fight with Gaara, his betrayal to his village and about to kill Naruto on a whim, killing his master and the formation of Hebi.
He gasped as a spectrum of colors countered his nightmare and brought him into a tranquil state of mind and soft mummers lured him to relax. With his mind stable, he activates his Sharigan to see if this he is under a genjutsu... After all he wouldn't put it passed Karin to do something like this.
He kept walking half-expecting to see exotic images of her to start popping up soon, for it wasn't the first nor the last (he was sure) she would try to seduce him like that.
a/n: the following conversation occurs while his is dreaming.
"Where the hell am I?" Sasuke said to himself, after he kept walking into what seemed an infinite white universe.
"Uchiha, why do you do this?" a voice suddenly reverberated through-out the white universe and caused the Uchiha to cease his walking.
"Show yourself!" Sasuke demanded, itching for a fight and was suprised when he saw the gypsy. He didn't even sense high charka reserves coming off of her when they first met. She must be good to hide that much charka and get pass Juugo was a feat.
"Where am I?" He said, afterall might as well learn this new trick before he kills her, it could come in handy.
"Did you know that when a person sleeps they are closer to the spiritual realm? Also that tonight happens to be a full moon, that heightens the spiritual energy around us?"
"Where are you getting at?"
"Because of my unique back round, I am able to appear in dreams of almost anyone I want."
"And why do you want me?" 'Great,' Sasuke thought 'another fangirl to be annoyed with.'
This is not what he wanted, he wasn't under a genjutsu - but then again why would he believe her? Afterall, a ninjas daily life includes lying.
"Someone close to you wanted me-"
"I have NO ONE close to me." Sasuke sneered with hate and his eyes daring to bleed red.
His temper was starting to get the best of him; this female has trapped him in something and what was irritating was he couldn't determind WHAT it is or HOW to counter it.
"On the contrary, it was on Mikoto's request that I... do... t-this." Shugyoku barley manage to say, while the Uchiha, with blinding speed had ensnared her throat with his hands.
"Listen," Sasuke whispered, his malice voice scaring her. "...Don't you EVER speak of her again!"
Slowly, he let go of the grip on her neck. He smirked as she gasped for air.
"You are weak, Uchiha." she said as she rubbed her neck, his hand prints still visible on her neck. "And yet you are strong."
"You're either one or the other. You can't be both."
"On the contrary, there are commoners like myself, that, when triggered, can have super powered strength, like you shinobi. You are strong physically, but mentally you are not the best. For instances you couldn't listen to me, so in order to get away from my words you used violence to stop."
Everything was silent for a moment, as cold onyx eyes glared at passive ones.
"In the end, that's the only thing you can do? Hide your emotions with cold words?" Shugyoku said after a few tense moments of silence.
"That's what we shinobi's are: killers. And in order to kill, we must let go of every bonds that holds us with humanity. That is the only way to truly be strong."
"So you kill the heart to get where you want to go? How pathetic," She took a step back once she saw his onyx eyes change to three tomoes in each eye rotating hypnotically against a blood-red mist.
"How would you, someone who isn't even a SHINOBI say such things?! You have no idea what its like." Even though his words escalated his tone did not; it stayed at the same indifference - but much more restrained.
"True as that may be, you are not the only that has experience first hand the blood of a kin."
Her eyes looked downcast for a moment, then looked back up at with a sad smile that held an untold despair that only someone like them could understand.
"You are weak because you rely on strength and power to survive-"
"And what does that have to do with me being weak?"
Sasuke was gritting his teeth, the girl was an interesting one but this isn't what he needs. He was suppose to spend ONE day in this stupid little village before going off and finishing what his blood had started.
"In order to be strong you must be able to not only fight but also think your way out. Look at the leaders of a clan, they must be able to fight to protect the village they live in but also smart to do the diplomatic needs every leader is subjected to do." She clarified and stood silent for the Uchiha to reflect upon her words.
The two parts of truly being strong was being strong and being able to think. It reminded him of when Iruka explained the passage the third Hokage had said what a chunnin must be. His face soften and harden in split second, that to the untrained eye it appeared that frown on his face never left.
Shugyoku, having thought that the Uchiha had enough time to reflect spoke again, "Is this what you meant by breaking all bonds?"
Suddenly she morphed into a 12 year old girl with short, pink hair that was about half an inch under her neck and bright green eyes with a leaf hi-ate used as a headband.
What was amazing was that everything was proportional from what he could remember from his genin days was correct. But she had marks and bruises on her and was looking at him fearfully... just like when he woke up from that fever in the Forest of Death and the first time he used his cruse mark.
The name of the pinkenette was buried deep within his mind and something was urging him to recall it.
"Sa... Sakura?" he spoke softly and received a nod from the girl he just noticed was sitting on the ground with a kunai in her thigh.
"S-Sasuke..." Even the voice was alike. "You haven't fully broken the bonds I see." Sasuke blinked for a few moments and remembered that the gyps had turned INTO Sakura and for a brief moment Sasuke had felt an inscrutable amount of hate and decided silently that she has hit a soft spot.
"Don't say such things... You don't know fuck about me."
He fisted both his hands into fists, right now he wanted nothing more than to kill her, wake up, find her, then kill her again; but what was stopping was the image of the girl she had transformed to.
"Did you forget, Sasuke, I'm a fortune teller? Not only can I see the future but also the PAST..."
Despite taken the form of the girl, Shugyoku was still wary about shinobi before her, but the fact that he hasn't attacked her since meant that him being able to break all bonds was a lie.
'He brakes before he becomes broken,' she thought to herself and from the memories she had gotten from her... companion it proved valid. Shortly after the chunnin exams his doubts began to build, his self-wroth was going down. The person that he SHOULD be better than was outbesting him, I mean how can the top of the class to lose to the dead last? It was unconceiveable for him to accept that fact and when the truth of him being weaker was becoming clearer and clearer and the only way that he saw to escape (he brakes) that reality was to leave - by any means, even if it meant leaving his home in the past (before he becomes broken).
"... Atychiphobia, the fear of failure. Did you know, you already failed and have not noticed it until now? You did not break all bonds, for you still remember this girls name."
She paused for a minute to study the Uchiha and his posture, noticing that his stance has change from the beginning of the conversation.
"You are getting restless by the fact that I have won. Do you see it doesn't take muscle to win a battle?"
The Sharigan glared at her with full force, but she didn't let that deter from what she must do.
"Without hope laying in front of your eyes you will continue fight without a reason."
"I do have a reason, its to kill-"
"So you did all of this just to kill one person? One person justified the reason of leaving this girl in turmoil? What about the boy you considered a brother?"
She said, hoping that what she is saying is getting through his head.
"Hope, Sasuke. Do you not think that they wouldn't have helped you achieved this goal?"
"It has nothing to do with them. HE chose ME to be his avenger, so I will kill him by myself."
"Pride is it? One of the deadly seven sins that seems to consume the best of us and turn them for the worst."
Sasuke now hated this woman with a passion how dare she call him weak when she is a coward!? Turning into a effigy of Sakura as a means to not get harmed by him! How low! Not having anything to say anything about her 'pride' remark he stayed quiet, but he looked more closely at her when she suddenly transformed back into her original state.
How he was going to enjoy getting the bitch back from what she said about him. Well he would if she wasn't disappearing from the feet up.
"Sorry, Uchiha... It seems that my time is up." She said softly with an unreadable expression in her eyes. "Remember this: You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do." (Elenar Roosevelt)
"What the he-" Sasuke wasn't able to finish his sentence because the light forming at the bottom of her feet rapidly advanced higher and was up to her neck before he could ask a question and within 30 seconds the whole process was complete; she was gone.
Suddenly purple-blue mist over took the white universe and he was wraped in it; he feet became guled to the spot, despite how hard he willed his legs to move and a green that reminded him of Sakura's eyes formed a kanji for 'peace' under him. His mind stoped while the tranquil feeling he first felt when he first arrived in the universe came again.
The kanji then change from 'peace' to 'return' and the last thing the Uchiha remembered was the mist and the kanji.
12:05 a.m.
3:20 p.m.
"Sasuke!" Karin yelled happily; it was rare to see her this happy, but then again Suigetsu wasn't went them and it was because of him that they had to stop in the little town and wait for him to show up. Of crouse it was Karin's fault that he wasn't there with them in the first place.
Normally Sasuke would agree with Karin that Suigetsu was... unique (werid and annoying as Karin had stated), but now that if he isn't them, he noticed that Karin had TOO much time off her hands, from not bickering with him. It was then that he realized, if he isn't there than no one will stop her from getting his attention. Great just what he needed another Ino to deal with.
He could already feel the headache forming.
"Ne Sasuke, do you know what this town is famous for?"
Karin asked and took that he hadn't went ahead as a sigh for her to continue.
"Well this town was once a feudal village and they was a girl who was a mistress to the major feudal lord, but she didn't love him and had an affair with the lord from the opposing village and had a baby with him. Once the fuedal lord found out he had her killed and then killed himself; it was said that he was in love with her and wanted to be with her, even in death. That is the most heart-breaking love story I've ever heard!"
With clasped hands Karin went into daydream mode wondering if Sasuke would do something like that for her.
Sasuke on the other wasn't paying any attention to female next to her and scarcely wondered if he should go and see if that gypsy hybrid was still there, it will give Suigetsu more time to catch up but he was fed up the females swooning over him.
But by now, she would be long gone; who would be stupid enough to mess with an Uchiha and stay there? With a sigh he thought better of it and besides the sooner they leave, the faster his brother will be found. He was about to announce it to the team, but Karin beat it to him.
"I've just remembered something." She said, "Not much was known about the mistress besides her first name, had the ability to perceive the future and had an affinity for dancing." Karin said with shrug.
"Well she sounds better than you, Karin."
Karin whipped her body around and saw it was Suigetsu who said that while lifting a canteen to his mouth.
"What's with the crap on the floor anyway, was there a party?" Suigetsu said, not at the least paying attention to Karin's heated glare.
"No, they had a festival yesterday and it was to honor her and they say that on the night of the festival, which is always held on a full moon in June, she appears to help troubled souls."
"Whats her name?" Suigetsu inquired and took another sip from his canteen.
"It was Shugyoku." She said and none of the group noticed that Sasuke eyes widen and dimly try to remember what Karin had said of her and the things he did hear it sounded alot like her...
Authors Notes:
Whoa! That's the most I have ever written for a one-shot! This is around the time Sasuke is looking for his brother. This one-shot is based loosely on the Kanone Hilbert arc from Spiral - Suiri no Kizuna.
Let me clear some things up, cause most of you might be confused: Shugyoku IS a ghost and also my OC and some of you might have already guessed that she is a ghost from the hints I gave. Also when she said to Sasuke that he isn't the only one had first hand experience the blood of kin her father side of the family didn't want her to live with her mother anymore and they gave her one more chance to give her up and when she didn't she was killed in front of her. Then around the age of 16 she ran off and worked her way up the ranks to be a mistress (probably to keep her father from doing what he did to her mother to her).
I put the secont to last time lasps at the end because it signified that the day was over and Shugyoku disappeared exactly at 12:00 a.m., way its 12:05 is because of the time it took Sasuke to leave the white universe. And the last time is 3:20 p.m. because after what happened Sasuke needed time to sleep since he didn't have the luxury the other night.
The Roma charka is an Indian sign that symbolize gypsies, yea so I didn't make that up and I thank my beta reader: SASUKE HARUNO101, for reading and improving my story and it was because of her that this story is an implied SasuSaku pairing. Hope you enjoy the story and I might do a VERY angst (non-shuupden) Garaa one shot - depends if I have the time cuz I already have parts of the plot worked out, also the summary.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto - if I did I'd be yelling 'I'm rich bitch,' off the top of my lungs.
REVIEW please, I would like to know how I did - meaning no flames. If you have questions I'll be obliged to answer them. If anyone thinks they can make a decent plot off of this ask me first and I MIGHT give it to ya.
Choa.