Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Beautiful Monsters
Chapter 1: When the World Breaks
"Yes, Kakashi-sensei." His only female student said, giving a small smile when he asked her if she was all right.
They were just outside the Hokage tower, finally done giving their mission reports after that extremely unprecedented mission from the Land of Waves.
He had asked all of them how they were just after the debriefing ended and he was welcomed with an enthusiastic response from Naruto, a shrug from the young Uchiha and a tired smile from the only female member of their team, Sakura.
Personally, he himself was quite tired as well having to deal with Zabusa and to have aided in the death of the young Haku. He hated killing the young and seemingly innocent especially since the child seemed to only be working in the best interest of his benefactor.
And most importantly, he hadn't wanted to kill him in front of his genin team but there had been no other choice, it was either that or have them kill him themselves and he wasn't quite sure they were ready for that.
He sighed. At least it was over with, none of them taking any serious injuries because of the incident.
"Now, that's over. Let's all go home." He said, "We'll resume training three days from now."
He briefly heard a loud complaint from the blonde genin before he disappeared out of their sight, leaving them to their own devices.
They were back in Konoha.
It was safe here.
Blood.
Blood.
Did you see the blood leave his body? It was absolutely beautiful.
Sakura stared at the white ceiling of her room.
She had kept hearing that voice in her head. The voice before that had been harmless in the past, the voice of what she called 'Inner Sakura' chant time and time again of how beautiful it looked when Kakashi-sensei plunged his hand into Haku's body and taking away the poor boy's life.
Never had she thought that her inner self would be this demented. Oh yes, she knew that Inner-Sakura was incredibly violent but she merely dismissed her as the one to voice out her real thoughts on situations and only to herself so as to avoid the judgment of the people around her.
Are you listening Sakura?
The blood. Did you see the blood?
"Yes." She said aloud in answer. She was tired, physically and mentally, her other persona draining what was left of her energy by her words about blood and gore. She wanted nothing more than to just fall into a deep sleep but she felt that the voice in her head would only get worse once she enters dreamland.
She was afraid. Yes, she certainly was.
What if this... thing inside of her was a bigger threat than what she would have liked to imagine.
What if her teammates found out?
Her eyes grew wide at the realization. They wouldn't accept her, she was sure. No one could know, not even Kakashi-sensei. No one.
She stood up, staring at herself in the mirror. She was so clean.
Earlier today with her team, she looked at Kakashi and the only thing she could see was the blood on his hands and how they would drip down to the ground hauntingly slow.
Blood.
Blood everywhere.
"Shut up!" She shouted at no one in particular. She wanted the voice in her head to stop, to stop speaking of such horrible things, of how she wanted more of that delicious red liquid that flowed out of the young boy's body.
This is why you're so weak.
The voice in her head began.
How can you win without anything to motivate you besides the love of a young boy who doesn't even want to be with you?
WEAK.
USELESS.
"I SAID SHUT UP!" She said slamming her fists against the mirror of her dresser watching as the shards fell to the ground.
She looked at her hands, where the pieces of the mirror cut into her delicate skin making it bleed profusely, but she could only stand there and stare as her inner persona relished in the metallic smell and warm temperature of the liquid flowing down her arms.
It was only hours after that she realized the whispers had stopped.
Kakashi watched his genin team from the trees. They were waiting at their usual meeting place. Sasuke and Naruto's one-sided bickering making itself known while the young Sakura just stared at them quietly from quite a distance.
It was unusual to say the least, as Sakura would usually be the one arguing with the blonde on Sasuke's behalf whilst singing his praises.
"Geez Sakura-chan, you've been awfully quiet." He heard the energetic blonde mention when finally got tired of trying to pick a fight with his black-haired teammate, "What have you been doing anyway?"
"Reading mostly. I've been having trouble sleeping lately." She admitted to him.
"Aww Sakura-chan, you should rest more!" He whined at her, the pink-haired girl only gave him a smile in return.
Deciding that he was probably late enough, he decided to make his presence known to his team at the bridge.
POOF!
"You're late!" Naruto screamed at him as if on cue while Sasuke merely gave him a look that he didn't quite know how to place but he wasn't too worried about that. He was more concerned about the reaction of his female student who stood the closest to the spot he had chosen to appear and the girl nearly jumped in surprise before giving him a look that bordered on caution and relief.
"I got lost." He simply said to Naruto's accusations, accompanied by his lazy smile.
"So, on a more serious note, let's do some training today!" He said cheerfully with a smile, his visible eye crinkling with the effort, "I assume you're all well-rested?"
He took them in one by one.
Naruto was pretty enthusiastic, nothing too new for the blonde-haired boy. The prospect of training always seemed to excite him especially after their missions returned to the monotonous and trivial D-ranks.
Sasuke ignored him but he could tell the young Uchiha was very pleased with the prospect of actually doing something that he deemed important enough. He did notice he took.
Sakura only looked at him with eyes that were unusually cautious.
"Sakura, you go first against one of my clones." Kakashi said, conjuring up a bunshin and proceeding to walk with the two boys to the shade.
He saw her take up a stance and proceeded to watch as she and his clone stared off, waiting for each other's moves. It was his clone that acted first upon his whim, Sakura could be extremely patient when she wanted to be and she was an extremely cautious fighter if the mission to the Land of Waves was any indication.
The clone charged whilst the pink-haired genin tried to back away and make some distance but he had been successful and took Sakura into a battle of taijutsu.
He watched and inwardly cringe, the girl was extremely bad at it. He wasn't surprised though, even she had admitted that it wasn't one of her stronger points. She knew her weaknesses at least.
She reached for her pouch and released a handful of shuriken in his bunshin's face and suddenly Kakashi had a sudden feeling that something was wrong with the young girl's movements.
He found it strange that Sakura would do something so uncharacteristically malevolent to someone she knew but maybe she had the mindset that it was only a bunshin.
She was successful though as he made his bunshin back off, avoiding the flurry of weapons directed for his eyes and watched as she took out a scroll from her pouch before throwing it in front of his clone and releasing a handsign.
She'd won.
Sasuke stood to the side, slightly impressed at the pink-haired girl who stood rooted to the spot staring at the area where the clone had disintegrated a while ago, after the explosion of weapons practically shredded it to ribbons.
It was slightly disturbing the lengths that she had gone to win that spar, knowing it was only a training session and what if that had really been Kakashi? Maybe she would have reacted differently, maybe she wouldn't. Would the copy-nin have evaded that surprise without a single injury even when his clone was practically torn to pieces?
"Good job, Sakura." He heard their sensei clap beside him, a little late on the uptake. He saw the jounin give a strange glance at the girl who turned to look up at him, "Although I'm pretty surprised you knew how to seal weapons." He said, ruffling her hair when he approached the young girl in the middle of the field.
She gave him a small smile, "It was what I was reading on the past few days."
"I see. Keep it up then." Kakashi said, in a voice that made Sasuke wonder if the jounin was thinking of something else, "Sasuke, Naruto, you're up."
Sakura walked past him in order to get to the shade and she said in the most chilling voice he has ever heard, "Not even a single drop."
"What?" He paused.
The young girl turned her face to him, giving a smile meant to reassure that he had not just heard her whisper something that that sent a sliver of something he couldn't name down his spine.
"It's nothing, Sasuke-kun."
Blood. I want blood, Sakura.
The whispers were beginning again. They kept assaulting her mind every time she stopped focusing on anything. It was why she had been reading and training so much the past few days.
Her body was sore but it was a welcomed pain compared to the suffering her mind was forced to endure under the hands of her deranged inner self.
Hurt them.
The first time that she had hurt herself in the mirror, the whispers had stopped and the moment that she dropped onto her bed, she fell asleep almost immediately. When she woke up, they increased ten-fold.
Shouts echoing in her head, demanding blood and pain. She had been so close to hurting herself again just to make it stop, but the screams only increased asking for the suffering of anyone other than herself, otherwise her other personality vowed to make her pay.
She had hoped that they would dwindle down through time, that it would cease after a few days, maybe an effect of trauma from witnessing death for the first time but everyday they kept on getting worse and worse.
She watched slowly as Sasuke and Naruto began to spar. Trying to shut out the whispers in her head.
Look at Sasuke. Wouldn't it feel great to make him bleed? Once and for all, shut him up for looking down on us.
'No.' Sakura thought firmly, it doesn't matter if he did look down on her. Violence was not an answer, especially not violence on a comrade.
Naruto would be a great target too. He'd heal and we can just bang him up again. Let's do it. Do it. Come on, Sakura. I know you hate them deep down in your heart. I'm you, after all.
She was losing her patience, 'No. You're not.'
She stood up from where she was previously sitting cross-legged in the shade and approached her sensei who was watching intently, as the two boys began their spar.
"Kakashi-sensei, do you mind if I do a few laps?" She asked intently, hoping that the physical exhaustion would get her mind off of the psychotic voice in her head asking for the blood of her teammates.
"Sure, Sakura-chan." Kakashi said as he turned to look at her briefly, "You should rest though. You look just about ready to fall over." He said, giving her a look with his visible eye.
'If only you knew.'
A/N: Hi there! I'm pretty much testing the waters here so this chapters pretty short. I'm not entirely sure of the potential of the story but the idea has always bothered me what if her inner personality, being as violent as she is, would be prone to some kind of break and would go all psychotic. I'm looking for a beta-reader though so if you're interested please message me!
