Chirihajime 1.1
"Dead Bodies are buried beneath the cherry trees."
She stood in front of the old drunk, even as her legs trembled and her arms shakily held her kunai. She had always known that the life of a shinobi would never be all rainbows and sunshine, that fights would be had and that blood would be spilled for the good of Konoha. She had always known that an enemy would never show an ounce of kindness – the Demon Brothers had more than brought that message home to her – and that it was her duty to be brave in the face of danger.
Sakura knew that all intellectually, but it was a lot harder to put all of that into practice when faced with an opponent who was so far above them in skill and power that his mere presence overwhelmed her. It was difficult to do so when the fight taking place in front of them was going almost too fast to follow; the screech of metal upon metal and splashes all that she well and truly perceived.
Frantically she recited the first rule that the academy had drilled into her.
Rule 1: "A Shinobi must never show any weakness."
Over and over, like a mantra, and even if cold sweat dripped down her back and sheer terror pooled in her stomach she stood alongside her teammates, trusting in the Jounin that had taken them on as his Genin.
Within seconds that slight glimmer of hope that his warm and solemn promise had alighted in her was gone as she watched her teacher get trapped upon the water, having been kicked away by Momochi Zabuza. Out of that same water rose a body, clone of the one holding Kakashi-sensei hostage in a ball of chakra-laden water.
Stepping unto land it spoke instead of its creator, whose very presence still blanked the field.
"Ha, wearing forehead protectors and acting like real ninja…but you know what? A real ninja is someone who has survived multiple brushes with death."
A hand slowly raised into a seal, and he continued on with his low voice, "Basically, once you're good enough to be listed in my handbook then you can call yourselves ninja's, but right now you should not be referred to as ninja's."
He flashed away, none of them knowing where he would show up, only for Naruto – who had moved forward in his agitation (which was more movement than she was capable of) – to be kicked away with tremendous force.
He crashed into the ground with a big groan.
The clone stood still, bored, watching the blonde get up with disdain clear in his brown eyes. Their teacher shouted across the clearing.
"You guy's take Tazuna-san and run away! You have no chance of beating him! As long as he's keeping me trapped in this prison he can't move! The water clone can't get very far away from his body! Just run away now!"
A Way out, a plan – no, an order! Unbidden another rule sprung to mind.
Rule 5: "A Shinobi must follow their commander's instruction."
It was not cowardice if her superior ordered their retreat, and even as her heart clenched at the thought of leaving the odd man that had lead them for a month now, she knew that he spoke the truth. None of them could face a Jounin and live.
Naruto getting kicked without even knowing it was proof enough of that. Besides, whispered her book learning, Rule 4 states that "a Shinobi must always put the mission first".
Tazuna's survival was the mission, and as such that was paramount.
It was, of course, as she made her decision that the orange-wearing ninja that was her teammate charged the water clone with a shout.
She didn't know what he was thinking, running straight towards an enemy Jounin. She expected that he wasn't thinking, as Zabuza merely scoffed and once more snapped out a kick that sent Naruto back towards them.
Why had he – her eyes widened as she noticed what the blonde held in his hand.
His forehead protector!
Naruto spoke, in that brash way of his, "Hey…you eyebrowless freak! Put this in your book: the man who will one day become Hokage, leaf ninja Uzumaki Naruto!"
He emphasized it all by putting the forehead protector back where it belonged.
She smiled despite the situation they were in, feeling the conviction behind his words. It allowed her to stop her arm from shaking, as if the heavy pressure of Zabuza's presence had let up a bit. If Naruto, of all people, could muster up some courage, surely she could too?
It seemed he wasn't done yet either.
"Sasuke, lend me your ear, I've got a plan." She was pretty sure he smirked that stupid smirk of his, the one when he thought of prank. "Now let's go wild!"
Once again Kakashi-sensei made his orders known, " What are you doing, run away! This fight was over the moment I was caught! Our duty is to protect Tazuna, have you forgotten that?!"
She hadn't, but her heart wasn't as set on running away it as it had been moments ago. When Tazuna spoke up and gave them permission to fight, it strengthened the resolve within all of them. The boys had a plan, and if their smirks and newly gained bravado were anything to go by they would succeed.
The cool smirk on Sasuke-kun's face was enough to even make her blush slightly and boost her confidence even more, as she had never seen her crush fail yet. With him here everything would work out, just as it had at the start of their journey.
"Hn, you hear that?"
"Yeah, you ready?"
Yes, she answered in thought. She was ready to protect Tazuna as they went out and put their plan into motion. She gripped her Kunai tighter, willing to stand her ground and do her duty.
Then came laughter, it held no joy. It sent a shiver down her spine.
"You guys will never grow up," said the former Mist-Nin, "going to keep playing Ninja eh?" The expression on his bandage covered face shifted into a crazed look, one of hunger, if she was interpreting it right.
"When I was about your age my hands were already dyed red with blood!"
The newly released burst of killer intent was more intense than the one before. Her arm shook once more. Even Sasuke-kun looked put out by the declaration.
"Demon… Zabuza"
"Ah, you've heard a little bit about it."
"Long ago in the Hidden Mist, also called the Bloody Mist, there was a final obstacle to becoming a ninja"
The low voice of Zabuza carried well, surprise evident in it. "Hmm, you even know about the exam."
Naruto asked the question that was on all their minds, "What exam? What's this graduation thing?"
That same laughter filled the clearing, followed by a declaration that set her teeth on edge. "Fights to the death between students."
Their teacher elaborated, Zabuza practically reveling in the description coming forth.
"Friends who have trained together and eaten at the same table are pitted against one another…until one of them loses their life. These are friends who had helped each other and shared dreams but 10 years ago the Hidden Mist exam was forced to change. This change came after the previous year…when a demon appeared. "
She paled, at the thought of killing her comrades. Her mind was awhirl with conspiracies and she had to know what had actually happened. Was the change for the worse?
"Change? What change, what did this demon do," she all but demanded.
Her teacher answered, words heavy; "Without pause of hesitation a young boy who was not even a Ninja had killed over a hundred of the students."
Her mind put two and two together, aware that they were now facing that same demon when he was older, better, and stronger. As if to prove her point the clone kicked Sasuke-kun to the ground viciously, uttering a single word.
"Die."
Things moved fast then once more; Naruto clones popping, and her crush catching a Wind Shuriken from the original. He launched into the air, shouting.
"Shadow Windmill!"
With a mighty whir the great starred blade flew around the water clone and towards the real Zabuza. Both representations of the man spoke then, "I see that you're aiming at the real me, but that's still not enough!"
He spoke true, catching the wicked weapon with other hand with what appeared to be extreme ease. A second one, however, seemed to appear out of nowhere. One that also missed its target as the Missing-Nin merely jumped over it.
With a pop the wind Shuriken turned into her blond teammate, who launched a kunai towards Zabuza with a shout.
Her eyes once again widened as Sakura cottoned onto what Naruto had been planning since getting kicked in the face twice by the clone.
A moving projectile that the man couldn't dodge whilst stationary, and as Zabuza's right arm left the ball, it fell apart, releasing their teacher from his prison. A very clever move, one that evened the playing field.
Or, it should have, if the water clone hadn't still been there, because while the original was stopped from immediately working out retribution onto the real Naruto, the clone had no such hassle to contend with.
Sakura had only seconds to process that the clone was no longer stationary. Even as she spun in place, she knew she was too late. Roars rent the air as she felt steel cut through her like she was butter. The world went sideways, and with a thud she hit the grass. Vaguely she was aware that the same fate had befallen the man she was supposed to protect.
Rule 2: "A Shinobi must always watch their back."
Within seconds of that thought a panicking Haruno Sakura, 12 years old, bled out and died.
AN: Another start to a fic, and this time I actually have somewhat of an actual outline for what I want, and I my recent interest and delvings into philosophy should keep this going at least until the completion of Chirihajime. A low bar, sure, since it it the first of six parts, but given my track record, it is in all likelihood a necessity. The title of this one was first going to be Hanami, but Mono no Aware felt more thematically appropriate.
Hanami (花見): literally means flower viewing.
Mono No Aware (物の哀れ): literally "the pathos of things", and also translated as "an empathy toward things",or an awareness of the transient nature things and life as a whole. It therefore also expresses a wistfulness for the things that pass, one of them being life.
Chirihajime (散り始め): litterally as "start scattering", and is a term that is used to refer to the phase of a Sakura tree when its leaves are grey and dull and begin to fall. It is a term used by avid partitioners of Hanami, the art of watching Sakura trees bloom and picnicking beneath their pink canopy.