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Snowbows

''A weed is no more than a flower in disguise''

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The fresh air hit Sakura in the face like a brick and she inhaled the clean, unused oxygen. After being cooped up in the hospital after dealing with a genin team that had gone wild whilst on a C-Rank mission, she had temporarily forgotten what it had felt like to be in the open air, where there was no disinfectant to cloud your senses and your pager wasn't constantly buzzing at your si-

BEEEEEEEEEEP.

Sakura froze, a rigid wave of irritation running up her spine. Slowly, she raised an arm to remove the black device from her waistband and then glanced at the message. 'Report to Ward 3 – Sponge bath'

One delicate pink, eyebrow arched downwards to her eye, an unmistakable twitch now beginning to form. Inside, she snapped, and she brought back the arm that held the pager, before hurling it into a nearby wall. A feeling of satisfaction soared through her as it disintegrated into a thousand different pieces.

"Money doesn't grow on trees, Sakura. And they cost money." At the sound of a familiar voice, Sakura turned and smiled tightly at her sensei, who had appeared from nowhere to lean casually against a wall, book in hand.

"Hello Kakashi-sensei. You really couldn't have chosen a better time to come visit me." The jonin sent a lazy eye over Sakura's face, absorbing the strain in her voice and ruffled appearance.

"Bad night, huh?" He returned his eye back to his book, awaiting an answer from the pink-haired kunoichi in front of him. Sakura sighed and ran a hand through her hair, staring down at the ground in hard concentration.

"Yeah - and another one to come too." She allowed herself to calm and gave her sensei a genuine smile. He removed his eye from the orange-covered book to stare at her for a moment.

"Indeed. Sasuke's 'surprise' party, am I right?" He spoke with a bored tone and sighed, lifting himself off of the wall and returning to the porn in front of him.

"Come on. I'll walk you home." Kakashi began to walk into the direction of Sakura's apartment and she scurried along to catch up to him. He and Sakura had become close after Orochimaru had been killed as they had been the only shinobi out of hundreds who had survived. They had fought together on the battlefield, using teamwork that Sakura didn't even know her and Kakashi could achieve. It had been strange, but since then Kakashi had become protective over her. She had figured that it may have had something to do with the fact that her parents had been in the group of shinobi that had been cruelly ambushed by Orochimaru.

"19 is a big number. I'm sure Sasuke is going to be absolutely thrilled with his surprise party." Sakura said, her voice laden with sarcasm. Kakashi snorted lightly and shoved a hand in his pocket.

"He will appreciate it; he'll just have a difficult time showing it." Kakashi spoke in his monotone voice. Sakura smiled weakly at her ex-sensei and looked down at her shoes when he caught her staring. She would say there was a small attraction between her and Kakashi – something that was in danger of growing if they continued the relationship the way it was now. But there was something missing with Kakashi and she couldn't quite place her finger on it. He seemed like more of an older brother. A very strange thing to say about someone who had watched you grow up, trained you to be everything you are and cared for you when shit just seemed to fly at you from every direction.

She looked back up when she noticed that the dragging footsteps beside her had stopped. She frowned in confusion at Kakashi and then followed the direction of his one eye to the thing that had made him hesitate. Her face lit up.

"Itachi!" She extended her arm to wave at the older Uchiha. He was heading down the steps that descended from her apartment and he lifted his head to look at the caller of his name. His lips twitched at the sight of the familiar kunoichi and he began to walk towards them. Kakashi started a low growl in the back of his throat, like a feral guard dog. Sakura smirked tightly and nudged him in the ribs with her elbow.

"Down boy." She muttered quietly as Itachi approached quickly. Him and Kakashi locked eye contact for a moment, an unseen fissure beginning to form in the air. Sakura watched the two stare each other down – Kakashi with a hate-filled stare in his eye and Itachi with a blank expression.

"What did you need?" She enquired into the storm that was just waiting to erupt. The contest was immediately broken and Itachi brought his dark eyes to hers.

"Your loud, obnoxious friend mentioned that you were unsure of the party times. It shall begin at 8:30pm and will finish whenever the pathetic shinobi that are attending are sober enough to leave." His deep, monotone voice echoed in Sakura's ears and she smirked humourlessly at the obvious lack of enthusiasm in his tone.

"Don't tremble with over-excitement or anything," she commented, snorting at the blank stare she received in reply. Itachi inclined his head towards her and then began to head off in the opposite direction. Sakura whistled while she watched the Uchiha walk away.

"Now that's one person who just loves to party." She laughed to herself and raised her head up to look at Kakashi, finding that his cloudy eye was still planted firmly onto Itachi's back. She sighed and shook her head, walking slowly away to descend the stairs to her apartment.

"Thanks for the walk home, Kakashi." She said in an almost mocking voice. She dropped the honorific from the end of his name, smiling to herself as his eye finally drifted upward to glance at her. He raised a dazed hand and she mirrored the gesture, before opening the door to her apartment and heading in, dropping her keys onto the end table. She leant her aching back against the door and tilted her head backward, closing her eyes and sighing in frustration. It had been five years since she had been sent out on a mission. Five years since her life had been exciting. For the first few months after her parents death, Sakura had trained herself to the bone and put off any suspicion that Tsunade was holding her back from missions. But after a full year, it was clear what her teacher was up to.

She lifted herself away from the door and observed her apartment, not even bothering to tell herself that cleaning it would be a wise idea. She had spent the past five years doing intense training in her spare time in order to keep herself in shape and yet Tsunade still refused to allow her out on missions. At first, it had been because she was afraid Sakura would turn bloodthirsty, as most shinobi did when relatives were killed. But now Konoha was low on medics, there was no feasible way to take her off of her shift.

Sakura sighed and ran a pale hand through her pink hair, puffing out her cheeks and letting out a deep breath. Train, work, sleep, train, work, sleep. She was only eighteen years old and already, she felt like thirty.

~*~

"Welcome! Please find a place to hide, Sasuke will be here in 15 minutes." Sakura forced a smile at a couple with the dark-haired Uchiha trait, gesturing inside the vast house she was standing in front of. She shivered as a cold breath of wind blew over her shoulder, chilling her pale arms. It was all well and good for guests to be greeted by a beautiful woman, but it really wasn't doing her any favours.

The chill abruptly disappeared from her arms and she jumped, raising her hands to brush them against the jacket that had just been placed over her shoulders. She turned around and her eyes linked with a pair of familiar dark orbs.

"It is very nice of you to greet all of the guests, but freezing yourself in the process is not wise. On a night like this, you should learn to wear something more than a slither of fabric." Itachi Uchiha spoke to her with a deadpan face and she felt her brow beginning to tense, obviously forming a scowl.

"I'm not a little kid anymore, Uchiha. If I've got the body, I might as well show it off." She retorted, poking her tongue out immaturely at him. He retaliated with nothing more than a speculating look and she sighed, shaking her head before greeting another guest. "Thanks for the jacket anyway. I'll be out here a little while longer," she turned to acknowledge the ANBU Captain, but he had already vanished from beside her. She frowned and begun to murmur something about rudeness, then rotated her head back around to the dark street, only to find herself staring at Kakashi's masked face.

"Nice jacket." His voice was tense and filled with suppressed emotion. Sakura rolled her eyes, grabbing the jacket more tightly around her shoulders.

"Come on sensei. I was cold, he leant me a jacket." The man in front of her let out a deep sigh and stepped toward the door, holding onto the frame as he pulled himself inside. Sakura watched him ponder in, the obvious stiffening of his shoulders showing that the party atmosphere had already made him uncomfortable. She smiled at his back, failing to notice one lively shinobi bounding up beside her.

"SAKURA!" She squealed and jumped around, coming face to face with Naruto. She opened her mouth to scold him for sneaking up on her, but figured that – as a kunoichi – she should have sensed him. I'm really not myself tonight...

"Kakashi got here earlier than you! Where have you been?" She whispered loudly. Naruto grinned and grabbed her upper arm, turning her away from the door that led to the hustle of people and then he leant in toward her ear.

"I can't find Sasuke." Naruto murmured into her ear. Sakura's eyes widened and she pushed Naruto backwards, glaring angrily at him.

"What do you mean you can't find Sasuke?!" Sakura clapped her hands to her mouth the moment the loud words left her mouth. The party behind them had fallen silent and she slowly rotated, noticing that several of the guests were now staring outside toward her and Naruto.

"You were supposed to keep an eye on him!" She exclaimed in a whisper. Naruto placed a hand behind his head and laughed nervously.

"I guess he found out I was tracking him-" Sakura grasped Naruto's hand and pulled him inside, then she stopped and cupped the edge of her mouth with her free hand.

"Everyone HIDE!" She yelled, throwing Naruto over the edge of a black, leather sofa and ignoring the yelp of pain that rung from behind it. Everyone ran to hide behind pillars, tables – anything that would disguise them. The only two shinobi that refused to hide were Kakashi and Itachi, who were having yet another one of their staring matches. Sakura rolled her eyes for the second time that night and ran toward Kakashi, pulling him out of the deadly glare he was enforcing upon the Uchiha.

"You're aware this is a surprise party, right? It won't be much of a surprise if Sasuke comes in and finds you staring down his older brother." She pushed Kakashi beside a fragile looking woman, who was hiding herself very obviously behind a dining chair. Sakura sighed and shook her head. It didn't matter – the lights would be off anyway.

She glanced around the room, mentally checking off each of the guests. She was sure she had seen everyone that had been invited... She froze. She scanned the room again, then a third time. The most important guests of all were missing. Sasuke's parents.

~*~

The party had been in full swing for about two hours, having successfully surprised Sasuke. Well, he must have been surprised inside because he certainly didn't express any shock on his face.

Itachi took another sip of his drink and leaned back in the chair, watching the pink-haired woman carefully. She had handed her glass to the person who had been speaking to her and lightly placed her hand on their arm, before murmuring something and swiftly leaving. A short while after Sakura had progressed through the door, Itachi placed his unfinished drink on the table and quickly followed.

~*~

The cold air hit Sakura's shoulders violently and she cursed herself for leaving Itachi's jacket back at the party. Sasuke's parents hadn't turned up and the party had been in action for over two hours now. It was clear Sasuke was getting more and more depressed with every minute that passed and she was taking it upon herself to find out why his proud parents wouldn't even turn up at their own sons party.

"Itachi... wrong... help..." She froze at the entrance to the Uchiha compound and her ears pricked up. The voices that she heard in the distance were muffled and quiet, meaning a sound-proof shield must have been placed around the area. She extended her chakra to her ears and penetrated the barrier easily. After she had finished the process, she hurried quietly around the edge of a tall, elegant building and pressed her ear to the posh, stone wall.

A scream from inside caused her to jump back suddenly and she stared at the section of wall in shock. She shook it off and quickly scurried round to where a small air vent laid, then she slowly leant inwards to press her eyes against the cold metal. Her body went numb with fear.

On the dark, wooden floor laid one silhouette, faced away from her and the dark pool that was beginning to form underneath the body was unmistakably blood. But that wasn't what had struck Sakura almost limp with fear. A sword was being wrenched and then plummeted over and over again into the already dead body.

"Itachi, please."

Fear was replaced with horror. Sakura was witnessing the death of Sasuke's parents. And they were being killed by their own son.

A/N: I know. I should be writing a new Rainflakes chapter. But this idea just seemed to pop into my head and I'm really excited about how far this story will go! I've planned out the entire thing already and as soon as I've finished Rainflakes, I'll continue this. I might update it before then, I don't know...

Tell me what you think of the first chapter. I'll be explaining a lot in the next one, so try and save your questions until the third chapter or so. :P

Please review! Thank you. :)