Chapter: 1

Posted: 4/7/06

Chapter Rating: K+

Warning: None

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Konoha's Broken Feet

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We were all getting too old, too fast. We fought so, so hard for all those things we thought were relevent to us—Konoha, mainly—but the time it took to secure such a fate doubled around and bit us in the face. It got us again and again, and every time it did, it clawed a chuck out of our youth. We were too old.

My shoulders heaved as if they held a planet on each side. I was shaking, I knew—weakness. It plagued me, and I wheezed an ironic little laugh. My hands crumpled up under me as I slid my cheek back down against the cool, creviced cement.

No, not cement. Rock. It came off on my fingers like dust.

At what point is it understandable to give in? Mother had raised me religiously, and my mind, though miserable, fought still against the sin that was on my tongue's tip all the time now. Suicide. I wondered when it had turned from weakness to relief. To strength. It shone like a great, big angel to me, fluttering and giggling where my fingers could reach. I just didn't have the will to drag them out from under me.

Is this it, then? Is this the blessed end of darling, dimpled Sakura? My eyes rolled up in their sockets, blurring and honing in on the answer. It stared at me in the shape of damnable, red eyes.

…………………………

I screamed, feeling the water, sharp and sweet like needles, drench me.

"Naruto." My voice tremored with power, and I reveled in the sound. I reflected that it made me feel full and deep in the chest, as if what I was saying was truly important. Like it burst forth from the clouds or something.

Within four long moments, the idiot resurfaced the water, totally oblivious to my comment. I watched as gelatin ripples fanned out from his shoulders, then from his arms when they arched to splash me. I growled in mock fury, prancing onto higher grounds.

Hinata laughed. He was doing this all for her, of course, and maybe a little bit for me. But just a little bit. It made me feel happy, being around the two; maybe I felt like a sort of authority about the affair. They were both so welcoming to my company that it almost erased the guilt I had over being the town's little unsocialite.

"Aw, Sakura's just a fraidy-cat." The sun-bleached face cracked a grin. "Get it? Cats hate water…Hey, do you guys get it?"

I watched Hinata touch her fingers to her mouth, smiling with an almost apologetic expression drawn between her eyebrows. I decided to be the party-trasher.

"Naruto, that was bad," I drawled. My hand found a secure home at my hip.

"Nh." His shoulders jerked a shrug before he re-plummeted beneath the surface. I allowed myself a smile then.

It had been the three of us quite a lot of the time. Sometimes, when the days were good and their bodies were left to recuperate after missions, some of the others from the original rookie bunch would accompany us on our afternoons. Ino would come if I asked, railing on me and whoever else stood in front of her about all the things that filled her pretty head. Kiba and Shikamaru, too, would arrive, with Chouji tailing soon behind and smelling of potato chips and fizzy drinks. Though Hinata told me she coaxed, Neji-san never came. He was always gone. His old teammates, however—the ironic Rock Lee and Tenten, who had proven herself to be a close friend of mine—would trudge along with the pack of us, stalking up and down Konoha's beloved haunts until we'd had our fill. That was the way we did things.

It was not the same, we knew; some of us were absent during those days. Besides Hyuuga Neji, we missed Shino, Hinata's friend and vital team member. Something had changed in him, she told me, and he didn't pass out of the house much. We'd tried, of course. Three of us (including me, Hinata, and Kiba) had pounded against his door for close to a half hour, but nobody had bothered to acknowledge us besides the neighbors. They had thrown pieces of broken garden pots and balls of plastic wrap at us until we'd decided the Aburame's really weren't home.

Damn them. It was all so frustrating. I had always hated change, hadn't I? Always…

Well, it was his fault…Sasuke. He just had to go and ruin our good time—our fine plans. As much as I hated and loathed and stormed, though, I really did miss him. To bad missing wasn't enough.

I never stayed out past eight anymore.

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I was hard put to remember how I'd come to be in that dark place. My hands—they spread themselves against the rock, see-through pale and unhandsomely scarred. So ugly. My fingernails were bruised purple, and each and every one of them wore enough chips and scratches to break a mirror. I raised one of these misfortunes, rubbing its palm awkwardly against my eyes.

His gaze burned holes into my back from where I lay, sprawled like a broken mess on my stomach. The holes in my back shriveled open, revealing to every downcast eye my maimed and defective internal workings. As though they weren't obvious enough from the outside. Drudgingly, I felt a spark flair within me, tiny and half-dead, but I knew it wasn't enough to make me raise my eyes. I could not meet his.

"You are broken."

Yeah, the word had passed my brain a few times already. Maybe that's why I really didn't care enough to reply.

"…And weak."

I felt my eyelids flicker lazily as his boot steps circled my side. Though I'd thought myself past the point of fear, I tensed. I know I did.

Apparently, so did he. "You are afraid, too," I heard him murmur. I sucked in cold, cold air, pulling back; his breath teased against my ear. "Tell me, Little Flower…do you fear me? I want to know."

I closed my eyes, though I was much too exhausted to weep. Whimpers swelled within my throat while it constricted, bent on my suffocation. I felt every single limb of mine shaking, down from my fingers to my shoulder bones.

Two limbs, however, stubbornly refused to quail. There was a rustle near my legs, and a sweet voice—his voice, telling me the things that I didn't want to hear.

"You will never walk, Little Flower."

I'm not too tired to cry, after all.

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"Oi, Sakura! You coming in or not?"

I shielded my eyes against the frigid sun, admiring how it beat against Naruto's ray-bleached flesh. It made him shine orange, cladding the boy in his comfortable jumpsuit even when it lay, discarded and disheveled, on the grass beside me. I swear sometimes, I should have been a painter.

"C'mon, the water's fine!"

I smiled beneath my fanned out fingers, linking together my response as it left my mouth. "No…I think I'm going to start home…" I was saying.

They were used to this, Naruto and Hinata. They watched me go with small frowns, but I knew their worries would not last long. We all knew I was fortunate and happy.

I let myself into my parent's house and wound through the crowded doorways and halls, seeking out my bedroom. I kicked the door closed and settled onto my bed, curling myself away from the window.

I'm not too tired to cry, after all.

But I had made a promise. So I struggled down my tears and saved them for another time, another day when I might need them. I'm a kunoichi, aren't I? It will take more than an ache to break me.

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Author's Note: Hello, beloved readers. I'm planning on making the following chapters longer than this one (depending on whether or not I'll make future chapters; it depends on how the readers ((meaning you)) like it), so please don't be disappointed by the lack of text. This is my very first fan fiction ever, much less my first Naruto fanfic, so please inform me if I've gotten any details off. It's very difficult to keep the facts straight while winding in your own storyline and dialogue. Moving on, I'm currently in search of a beta reader, so leave a comment if you're interested.

Thanks for reading. Now go check up on my stuff over at Fictionpress under my username, Every Thought. If you don't, I'll beat you with a stick.

Just kidding. I love you all, honestly.

Reviewers will be returned the favor, while flamers will be shot with my dad's machine gun.