Summary: Sasuke, a beast demon, is the crown prince of the hidden demon kingdom of Konoha. Sakura is a young onsen maid who lives in the village outside of the forest where the demon kingdom resides. Sasuke spies upon Sakura one day while taking a walk, and accidently follows her home. A relationship between the two begins, centered around late-night visits. Though Sasuke is suppose to pick a suitable bride before his coronation, he can only think about Sakura, who, being mortal, would be completely unsuitable. Trouble brews as two different parties, a jealous Ino and a local businessman from the village, seperately plot for the downfall of this young couple. (Really sucky summarry, I know. Just read the story. It's only nine chapters long, and the pages are pretty short. (I'm very fond of double spacing)) Pairings: SasuSaku, NaruHina, RockLeexOC (sorry!). Also, anti-Ino...sorry...
Every night I go to bed exhausted on my feet.
Every night I instantly fall asleep.
Every night ~he~ visits me in my dreams.
Every night is a sensual night filled with kisses, feather-light touches and moans.
Every night he takes me closer and closer to the edge of oblivion.
Every night I beg him to take me further.
Every night we get so much closer, but never far enough.
Every night I ask him if he is real, or just a figment of my imagination.
Every night he tells me that he is real.
Every night I beg him to stay with me until morning.
Every morning I wake up and he's not there.
Every morning I wonder if last night was simply a dream.
Every morning I'm more tired than I was the night before.
Every morning I find a scent on my bed sheets that is not my own.
It's his.
Chapter One
"My Lord! Please pay attention!" yelled a disgruntled young, blonde man.
The young demon prince shook himself out of his bored reverie and shifted positions in his chair (well, it was a throne really). Could he help it that whatever Naruto said to him bored him out of his skull?
"Are you insinuating that I was not paying attention?" inquired the dark-haired man in what was suppose to be a dangerous tone.
Naruto was not buying it. "Yes Lord Sasuke, I am insinuating that. You always space out when I am giving you the reports and your agenda, particularly when that subject pops up." finished the demon prince's assistant.
Sasuke shuddered to himself.
"My Lord, your twenty-first birthday is in two months! At which point your father is handing you the thrown since your older brother has opted to abdicate. You must pick a bride before then!" said Naruto.
"Can I help it if all the women you've chosen are hags?" asked Sasuke.
"My Lord, you've been presented with all of the young eligible bachelorettes of the kingdom. These 'hags' are all there are! You need to decide, or, as you well know, your father will choose for you. And as I'm sure you're also well aware of, he is quite fond of that Ino Yamanaka. Her father owns quite a lot of land over the mountain and your father would look favorably upon such a union." Naruto completed, quite out of breath after his speech.
Sasuke could tell that he was starting to get on his friend's last nerve, which, although easy to do, was never a good idea to try. Naruto was a fox demon, quite mischievous when he wanted to be, and the last thing anyone wanted was a vengeful fox on your hands. You'd very likely find your underwear filled with itching powder or a worm in your dinner. Sasuke of course spoke from past experience.
He decided to humor the blonde. "Alright Naruto, I'll try to pay attention while you drone on about these hags, though I can't make any promises."
Naruto instantly brightened up. "Thank you Milord." he paused though, thinking. "But sir, it might not be such a good idea to refer to the ladies as 'hags'."
"Whatever."
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"That…was pure…torture!" declared a disheveled and frustrated-looking Sasuke two hours later.
Naruto only nodded along, playing the part of the sympathetic listener.
After Sasuke had agreed, Naruto exited the room, only to return with roughly fourteen young women in tow. He hadn't been paying attention earlier, so Sasuke had missed the part about him actually meeting some potential spouses today, much to his chagrin.
Naruto had taken his group and lined them up in front of Sasuke so that he could inspect them. Sasuke hated this part. He might have portrayed himself as a heartless, cold, son-of-a-bitch, but every time Naruto, or someone, had some poor girls line up in front of him, eyes wide and hopeful, waiting for his judgment, he always felt terrible and guilty.
It didn't help either that she was there. Somehow Ino had snuck in. She was absolutely horrible. Ino had an enormous crush on the young demon prince and made no effort to hide it. When ever they were in the same room Ino would always hang around, or worse, on, him, dropping all these hints that the two were 'seeing' each other, and shooting dirty glares at any girl who looked at Sasuke twice.
Brown, black and blonde heads bobbed and swayed as their nervous owners shifted their weight from foot to foot, waiting on him. Although Sasuke referred to all of the young women as hags, they could hardly be described that way. They were all very pretty, even by demon standards, which were very critical when it came to qualities such as power and beauty.
Sasuke looked around. There were a few faces he recognized.
To one side stood a women named Tenten. She was quite athletic, strong, and had a pleasant look to her. But she was too much of a tomboy. It wasn't that Sasuke didn't appreciate a woman who didn't mind getting down and dirty, it's just that he also would like a woman who was comfortable in her femininity, and Tenten was most certainly not, as she tugged uncomfortably at her dress's material.
Another face he recognized belonged to Hinata Hyuuga. A young women from a very prominent family. From the few conversations he had had with her he had gathered that she was actually nice, gentile, and just a little shy. Of all the potential brides, Hinata was the one that would be less painful to have to marry…except… except that Sasuke knew that Naruto was quite fond of this young lady, and he would never do that to his friend. No need for both of them to be miserable in marriage, for as lovely as Hinata was, he still would have preferred someone he had actual feelings for beyond friendship.
As Naruto went through making introductions, Sasuke averted his eyes and tried not to look anywhere near a certain blonde woman. But this task was harder said then done, as somehow this aforementioned woman kept popping up in his line of vision, being everywhere at once, giggling her incessant laugh-fest. She would occasionally wink at him, then momentarily increase her snickering, as though the two shared an exclusive inside-joke.
Sasuke then had to actually get up and walk to each one, introducing himself and talk to each of them. This exercise was also dreaded and much loathed upon by the young prince. After introductions, they then had to mingle. Servants brought in trays of refreshments and the line of girls broke up as people turned to each other to start up conversations. Ino made a beeline over to where Sasuke was standing with Naruto and Hinata, the two carrying a pleasant conversation with Sasuke listening in, though contributing little.
After a hour of having Ino follow him around, Sasuke finally got to escape as a distant gong rang and all of the girls filed out.
"I hate doing that." said Sasuke, collapsing into a chair, running a hand through his raven locks. "And to make matters worse, Ino was there."
"Well, maybe that will give you some incentive to choose someone, because if you don't, than you can look forward to an eternity of that, till death do you part."
Sasuke shuddered. He rose up and made his way out of the large room they were in. Just before leaving he turned and said, "I'm going out to the garden, if anyone's looking for me." and then rotated around and exited.
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Sasuke made his way down the familiar garden path. He came upon a small picturesque pond and sat down by it. He always came here when he had to do some major thinking, ever since he was young.
He looked around. The garden was taken care of and looked over by an army of gardeners so that it always looked perfect. In the summer shades of yellows, pinks, reds, blues, and oranges dotted the ground, various flower blooms exploding forth from the ground, displaying their colors. In the fall, the leaves were a blaze with bright reds and oranges. Even in the winter, when all plant life was dead or laid dormant, the place was still beautiful as freshly fallen snow sparkled like diamonds, yet looked and felt as soft as clouds.
But Sasuke's favorite season was in the spring. Everything slowly awakening from it's long slumber. Soft colors swirled around, cushioning everything in a in a dewy down of springtime light. He especially liked it when the sakura blossoms were in full bloom, as they were now. Pink clouds made of a thousand petal hovered over him.
He looked down at the pond and the demon prince of the Kingdom of Konoha stared back at him. His loose robe gave a small peek to his muscular, pale chest, and he pulled them tighter around him to ward off the slightly chilly breeze. He looked at his angular, sharp facial features that apparently made him handsome and desirable. He pushed back his raven hair (another desirable trait) to reveal a small pair of horns.
Sasuke was the youngest son of the royal demon family, a family made up of beast demons. All of the members of their clan sported these horns, which grew with age and power, resembling ram's horns, as they would corkscrew into a sharp little point.
But right now, his horns were small, much like a goat's, and easily hidden by his hair. They would not become the grand horns like his father until he came of age, on his twenty-first birthday, and then they would continue to grow in size as he aged. However, since they were still small enough, if Sasuke concentrated hard enough, he could make his horns shrink, making him appear as normal as a human, albeit a very handsome, almost other-worldly-looking human. As long as he was able to focus on this, his horns would remain hidden. Through years of training, Sasuke had built up his will and concentration to the level that he could go for hours, fight numerous battles, and still have focus enough that his horns would not appear, until he fell asleep that is. As soon as he lost unconsciousness, the horns would reappear.
He shrank his horns and stood up. He turned his head to each side, to be sure that he was not being followed. His father often hired bodyguards to watch over him without his knowing. But Sasuke had learned quickly how to shake off any of these goons if he wanted some privacy. However, he did not sense anyone present, and so, he slowly walked out of the garden, not sure where he was headed to, or if he would even know when he was even there.
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Sakura woke up as dawn's rosy fingers pried there way into her room and lay across her closed eyes. She slowly sat up and looked around. Her room was simply furnished, as she had no extra funds to spend on interior decorating. Most of her wages went to pay for this small house she was renting from a rather greedy landlord.
She rose and stepped outside. She went into the outhouse situated just behind her place of residence. Her business taken care of, Sakura went back into her house, to begin her morning routine.
Inside sat a pitcher filled with fresh water. She poured this water into a soft pink bowl. She proceeded to wash her face, hands, arms and hair. She reached for a small towel hanging nearby and dried off. Sakura then changed into a mint green kimono with a kanji character in pink on her back. This kanji was the name of the onsen that she worked at as a maid.
Realizing that she needed to hurry, Sakura grabbed some sandals, and headed out the door. She ran as fast as one can in a kimono. Although this particular kimono was shorter, only coming down to her elbows and just past her knees to give her greater mobility to help further aide the clients, it still had to be tightly wrapped around and restricted her somewhat. She also had to run fast enough to get to her job quickly without making her face red and puffy; she needed to be presentable to the guests.
Turn after turn she went down numerous streets, each one taking her closer to one of the few onsens in Konoha. She finally arrived at her work, with only a few moments to spare.
Sliding open the rice paper door that was the back entrance to the onsen, Sakura skipped along through the hallways until she entered the front room. In there stood a middle-aged woman and young lady around Sakura's age. The woman looked very upset about something.
"You're late." she said, glaring at Sakura. Apparently the older woman was upset at Sakura…again.
"Gomen Nasai Oba-san." Sakura said, dipping her head in an apologetic bow.
The woman huffed, "Make sure it doesn't happen again." she said, though she needn't have bothered. Sakura was not actually late, she was really right on time. In fact, half of the serving girls had not even shown up yet. But for some reason the woman always picked on Sakura, calling her out on all of her insignificant faults, and referring to her only as 'you' or 'girl'.
"Yamazaruko, you'll be working spring number 1, and you, girl." she said, pivoting towards Sakura, "You're working spring number 5.
Sakura inwardly groaned. Spring number 5 was situated all the way in the back and was very private. It was often rented by prominent and rich business men who were either very pompous and arrogant, or very perverted and always trying to put some moves on her. But to her boss she simply put on a smile and nodded.
"And wipe that simpering smile off your face, it's unbecoming and the guests will find it rude." the older woman said.
Sakura's face instantly went blank and as she left the front lobby. She walked toward spring number 5, trying to smooth her rumpled feathers, but with little success.
At last she stepped into the little room situated off of the space containing the hot spring itself. Lighting a candle, she looked around and took inventory. The walls were covered with shelves where various onsen-related supplies laid. There was a huge stack of fluffy white towels in one corner, all freshly laundered each night. One wall housed several bottles filled with scented oils and lotions. There was other sundry items that she took note of. Everything was in place, so she sat down in the chair provided.
Day in and day out she sat in the supplies closet. Her job was very simple. In the room housing the spring hung a rope, knotted at the end. This rope was connected, through a series of pulleys, to a bell, situated in the supplies room. All the patron had to do was tug on the rope and the bell would ring. This signaled Sakura that the guests wanted something, which she was to provide them with.
It wasn't long before Sakura heard the bell ring overhead. She got up and slide back the thick door separating the room she was in from the other one.
In the hot spring sat a rather large, rotund man. Obviously a business man. His large stomach jiggled as he breathed in and out, the folds of flab wobbling. His many chins trembled and his jowls shook as he looked Sakura over with a hungry glint in his eyes.
He was quite disgusting.
"Well, aren't we a pretty thing?" he asked in a sickening voice.
Sakura tried not to visibly shuddered and took a small gulp, "How may I serves sir?" she asked in her most professional, polite tone, absolutely hating how her statement may have sounded.
The man smirked an evil, smug smile. He chuckled to himself, "Oh I'm sure I could think of something, but later maybe. Right now I need some refreshments, perhaps some melon and a bottle of sake."
Sakura bowed her head and left the room. She let out a breath of air she wasn't even aware of holding in. She absolutely hated customers like that man.
Since she did not carry melon and sake in her little room, Sakura headed off towards the kitchens.
The kitchen was a very noisy and bright place, as chefs prepared snacks that were to be eaten by guests. Someone rolled out a piece of dough most likely intended to become dorayaki, a sweet pancake like dessert with sweet bean filling, while she saw another person fanning a pot that had a very delicious smell wafting from it, possibly miso soup. Sakura smelled other foods being prepared and her mouth began to water. She loved coming into the kitchen, because she was usually able to sneak some tastes of the wonderful food.
"Sakura-chan, do you need something." asked a cheerful voice at Sakura's right.
Turning, Sakura spotted the girl from earlier in the lobby, smiling she said, "Hello Yamazaruko-chan! Actually, I do need some melon slices and some sake for a guest of mine. Do you think you could get me some, onegai?"
"Hai Sakura-chan, just wait a moment." Yamazaruko replied.
Sakura stood, waiting on her brown-haired companion. She closed her eyes and let all of the smells wash over her again, all drifting on the slight spring breeze, coming from the open door. It was fortunate that there was a breeze today. With ovens going nearly nonstop, the air in the kitchen could quickly become stagnant and very arid.
"Here you go Sakura-chan!" Yamazaruko said once she returned with a small tray containing three green melon slices, a small sake dish and a tall sake bottle already dotted with some condensing beads of water around the lip of the bottle.
"Arigato Yamazaruko-chan." replied Sakura, dipping her head in a grateful nod, before exiting the noisy din of the kitchen.
After a few moments she returned to spring number 5 and slid back the door. She cautiously walked over to the man who was eyeing her in a way that made her feel very uncomfortable.
She knelt down by the man, setting down the tray. As customary, she bowed her head and asked, "Is there anything else sir would like to make a request for?"
"Hmmm, not now." he said finally. Sakura pivoted her body around on her knees and made to stand up when she felt something brush against her bottom and a hand pinching it.
She naturally bristled, but was unable to say anything. Part of this was due to shock, she did not imagine that this man would be so bold. Another part was protocol; the serving girls were not to anger or upset the guests, and Sakura believed that turning around and popping the man one in the jaw would be classified as 'angering or upsetting the guests'.
Slowly, with as much dignity as she could manage after such a situation, she rose and left the room, entering into her little supply closet. Once inside she stared dismally at the floor. She could not bring herself to cry for fear that the man would hear her.
The sad thing was, this was not the first time it had happened to Sakura. Over the few months working at the onsen, Sakura had already received multiple pinches and gropes. She was never sure of what to do afterwards. She knew if she ever called any of the patrons out on it she could end up being fired. Nobody cared about what a little unmarried maiden had to say. She could never talk about it with anyone as she always became extremely flustered and embarrassed about it. The best she could do was simply forget about it, but of course, that task was always easier said than done.
She cheered up momentarily as she remembered that today was her short day. Exactly six serving girls were employed at he Sparkling Springs onsen, and all six had to work six days and rest on the seventh. However, each week, each girl received a day when they were allowed to leave work a few hours early, each girl on a different day. And today was Sakura's day.
"I just have to get through the rest of the day, until three o'clock, and then I could go home." she assured herself, and went about the new task of just trying to get through the day, which was also inevitably easier said then done.
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It was half a hour past three, almost nearing four, and Sasuke had been away from his home for two hours. He was actually quite surprised that his dad hadn't sent out an army of demon hunting parties in search of him already. Maybe his father was beginning to trust him.
Or maybe Sasuke was way smarter than the army of demon hunting parties and was able to easily avoid them.
Probably the latter.
Sasuke had wandered into the human territory a long time ago, and now he was meandering aimlessly around the outskirts of the village that the humans called 'Konoha'. Of course the original Konoha was run by demons and set back way in the woods, but no one seemed bothered to correct the humans. Probably felt it was a waste of time.
He now stood at the top of a hill absolutely covered with colorful wildflowers. He stood behind the trees that hugged the curve of the hill, marking off the boundary of where the demon's woods began and where the human world resided.
He momentarily considered picking a few flowers for his mother, who was very fond of such things. But suddenly he spotted a figure, coming up the hill and he shrank down further into the shadow of the tree.
On closer inspection he saw that the figure was that of a young mortal girl, possibly his age, with hair the color of the sakura blossoms. She was actually quite pretty, for a human. He decided to try and get a closer look and slowly edged his way through the shadows of the forest, staying completely hidden.
He leaned forward, to get a better view of this interesting girl. Fortunately she faced the woods so he could see her face, though she was too preoccupied to look in his direction. She had lovely mint green eyes, that positively sparkled as she looked around her and began to pick the wildflowers. Her hair was pulled back from her face into a tall elegant bun held in place with two chopsticks. He wondered vaguely what it would look like if she let her hair down. When he concentrated he realized she was singing a song. She had an incredible voice, and even that did not give it true justice.
Sakura! Sakura!Yayoi no sora waMiwatasu kagiriKasumi ka kumo zo izuruIza ya! Iza ya!Mi ni yukan. Saita sakura,Hanamite modoro,Yoshino wa sakura,Tatsuta wa momiji,Karasaki no wa! toki wa!Iza yukan.
He recognized the song. It was one his mother taught him when he was young. It was a simple song that told about the coming of spring and the cherry trees blooming. "Cherry Blossoms! Cherry blossoms! Under the April sky…"
He noticed that the singing had stopped and he looked to see why. To his amazement, the girl was sitting there, crying. He was truly shocked by this. He felt compelled to step out and comfort the girl, but his instinct for self-preservation kicked in and he stood where he was, helpless.
Soon as it started, the crying stopped, and the girl laughed. The laugh was cheerful enough, but there was a hint of bitter resentment, or maybe it was just sadness. The girl got up and began to walk off, towards the village.
Sasuke was torn in two. He knew that the responsible thing would be to go back to his castle and apologize to his overly-protective father for disappearing for nearly three hours. However…
For some reason, he found this human girl very interesting, and he became very curious about her. Sasuke pondered on whether or not he should follow this girl to find out more about her, for curiosity's sake of course.
So he began to quietly follow the maiden, silent as the grave, observing her from a distance. He even ended up trailing her all the way to her humble little abode.
All for curiosity's sake of course.
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Sakura silently changed into her night gown, unrolled her sleeping mat, and laid down. She had had a very exhausting day and she really needed the rest. First there was that man, and when an image of him flashed in her mind Sakura involuntarily shuddered.
And of course no matter how much she tried not to think about it, the more it kept on popping up in her mind. The man absolutely ruined her entire day.
She had even tried to cheer herself up by going to the wildflower field. Being surrounded by the beautiful colors in spring always made her feel better. In all of her twenty years, she had rarely found more joy than that of the simple act of walking through a field of flowers. But today, after the initial joy of seeing the flowers wore off, she was reduced to a blubbering sap, all because of that stupid man.
Then the rest of the day she had this paranoid feeling that she was being watched. At first she had assumed it was the guest from the onsen and was about to freak out. But a few times she would sharply turn her head to look behind her and she thought she caught a glimpse of someone who was most certainly not the man from the onsen. Though she never got a good peek, she had a notion that the person who was spying on her, if in fact these paranoid feelings were not a figment of her imagination, was actually quite handsome, tall, dark, and young.
But it was all speculation.
Trying to find escape from the troubles of her day in sleep, Sakura rolled her head over towards the left side of her mat, facing the open window showing a full moon and closed her eyes.
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He wasn't sure why he was here. It was bad enough that he followed the girl home, worse still that he had followed her in to her home. How was he going to explain this to his father?
But even so, Sasuke did not want to leave. He crept over to the sleeping young woman, and knelt down. The girl made a sudden movement and turned her head up, her delicate nose turning toward the ceiling. The prince tensed, before realizing that it was safe. The girl was just turning over in her sleep.
He gazed down on the face that he had been unable to satisfyingly examine earlier. Her face was gentle, with an elegant curve to it, along with well defined cheeks and a strong chin. He saw that her hair was down and instantly decided he liked it that way better so that it could frame her face. It was short, just past the shoulders, but it did not detract from her beauty. If anything, it added to it, giving her a still feminine look, without some outrageous and impractical mane of hair. Her skin looked soft and absolutely glowed with a radiance that was beyond youth and beauty. Her lips were full, rosy, and looked extremely soft. For a moment he wondered what they would feel like on his own lips, but he shook his head as though he was trying to dislodge some water in his ears; he could not stray down that path.
But as he stared at the beautiful face in front of him a little longer, he felt terribly compelled to reach out and see if her skin was as soft as it looked, if her hair was as silky as he imagined it would be, if her lips were really that yielding…
He found himself gently stroking her cheek with his left hand, light enough that he was sure she wouldn't feel it and wake up.
Nevertheless, her head turned once again, and laid itself in his slightly cupped hand, moaning slightly at the small contact and the minute warmth it produced.
Sasuke was going too far, he needed to step back from the situation before he got himself in trouble. He was already in a very compromising position, holding this girl's head in his hand.
And still, Sasuke could not just simply get up and walk away. He watched the girl for a few silent moments, before the young women parted her mouth just slightly and let out a small sigh of pleasure.
He felt the warm breath on his skin and goose bumps instantly arose. There was no stopping himself this time. He leaned down, placing his right hand on the other side of her face, he gently turned the head to face him, leaned down, and placed his slightly cautious lips on her rose petal ones.
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Sakura was in the middle of a wonderful dream. She was a princess locked away in a tall tower, under a dreadful sleeping spell, waiting for her prince to arrive.
He finally did, fighting constant monsters and dragons along the way. He had made his way up into her tower. He stood next to her bed, reached out and gently stroke her cheek with such silky fingertips.
He then took caressed her face in his hands, and placed his lips on hers.
It was so realistic.
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All semblance of common sense had left the young demon prince. He was correct in his assessment of how soft this maiden's lips were. But her lips weren't quite as wonderful as how she tasted…
He probably would have stopped a long time ago, unable to continue kissing an unconscious body, if the girl hadn't started kissing him back.
At first he was unsure of what to do beyond just laying his lips on top of the girl's, he was inexperienced in such matters. But then suddenly the young woman began to move her lips against his, and he got the general gist of the idea.
He continued to hold her head in his hands as she reached up and wound her arms around his back and pulled herself closer to him. The heat at the closeness of their proximity was delicious and warmed him up, top to bottom.
After a while the two pulled away due to need of oxygen. Panting, he touched his forehead to hers, scared to look down and see her realize that their was a total stranger in her bed and freak out.
But when he finally gathered the courage to look, he saw that her eyes were out of focus. She thought that this was a dream perhaps… or she didn't care if it wasn't.
Abruptly, she raised her lips to his and kissed with much fervor, which he returned enthusiastically.
He would have stayed there for all eternity if he could have. With a pang of regret, he realized that he needed to return home sometime before dawn. Sasuke broke off the kiss and he heard a sad sigh from the young girl.
"I'm afraid I have to go now." he explained in a hushed, soothing voice.
She looked at him with sad, hazy eyes, but gave a small nod.
"What is your name?" he asked, figuring he should at least learn that if he were ever to begin to get over this slowly growing obsession for this mystery girl.
"Sakura" she replied with a small smile, which he returned. The name suited her very well, what with her cherry blossom hair.
"I'm afraid I have to leave you for now Sakura, though Kami knows I don't want to." he added on a slight side note.
b
"Are you, are you just a dream?" Sakura asked hesitantly, unwinding her arms from around his neck, much to his disappointment.
Planting a small, chaste kiss on her lips, he whispered, "I'm as real as you are Sakura-chan. Now, try to get some sleep, neh?" Sasuke then got up, and exited the house.
Sakura laid back down, and slowly closed her eyes, allowing sleep to overtake her and carry her from one dream to another.
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The next morning, Sakura woke up with an extremely groggy head. Images flashed through her mind as she tried to recall everything.
There was a man, a very handsome one. Hair as dark as the night. He appeared out of nowhere and disappeared just as quickly to her dismay. She still could feel his lips on hers and how breathtaking that had felt.
But surely he was only a dream, an incredible, delicious, magnificent dream.
She wrapped her only blanket around her, burying her head in the familiar material.
Sakura inhaled a deep breath through her nose, a ritual she normally performed when she felt something was wrong and she needed comfort. The well-known scent of the blanket always comforted her.
But today, she didn't smell the scent of wildflowers and hand-made soap. Instead she smelt a completely new fragrance, a strong, masculine smell, of the woods and clean sweat. Something connected in her mind.
It was his scent.
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Welp, I am finally posting this thing… it only took me forever. I've had this uploaded on DA for almost half a year, but FanFic keot messing it up so Ihad to fix it... and I just never really got around to it.
This idea came when I was sniffing my sheets. You know, like when you're snuggled deep down in a cocoon of softness and you sniff a familiar scent and everything becomes okay? *Looks at all the stares* err… well anyway, I was sniffing my sheets, and instead of smelling like I expected (of Tide and home) they smelled differently… almost like a man's cologne (No idea where i that /i came from)
So I decided to apply it to a SasuSaku fic! (besides, I owe this couple a fic, since I've already done all of my other fave hetero couples at least once.) I don't know where the demon idea came from… but somehow I can easily picture Sasuke with some ram's horns on his head…him…
Anyway… hope you're enjoying it so far.
I apologize for people who do not appreciate Out-of-timeline, original-characters, or Alternate-Universe kind of fics, because this one clearly is. It's set in Japan (again, sorry!) sometime in the feudal era, but before the revolution. Sakura is a peasant, and has peasant like things (such as just sleeping on a mat, where as Sasuke gets a nice expensive bed…) I hope this is semi-clear. Even so, it's not terribly important that you know that, just know that it is a simple time…
Warning: This thing is long! My longest yet. In Word it's like 101 pages (then again I have a space between each paragraph instead of indentions)
Translations(Some of these you probably already know though…)
Sakura-no, not the character. This Sakura refers to cherry trees, often found in Japan. They bloom every April with beautiful pink blossoms. Only appearing for a few weeks of the year, the Japanese will often times hold a Sakura-blossom viewing picnic.
Kimono-Japanese robe
Kanji-Japanese characters
Onsen-hot springs (like a hot tub) Japan has a lot of public bath houses with onsens…
Gomen Nasai-"I'm very sorry"
Oba-san-respectful term used for older women, equivalent to "aunt"
-san- a common title in Japan. Equivalent to Mrs. or Mr.
-chan-title used mainly for girls, or younger boys.
Sake-(pronounced isaw-kay/i) Japanese alcoholic beverage. I think the alcohol concentration is fairly low, considering Asians usually don't have a high tolerance for alcohol (true fact, while Europeans drank alcohol because water was often too dirty, Asians mane the water into tea, so they didn't gain the tolerance most Westerners have) then again, since it's in such a little bottle, it might actually be a high concentration…
Dorayaki- a pancake type desert with some sort of filling (although it already says so in the story…)
Miso-a paste of fermented rice, barley and/or soybeans, with salt and the fungus kojikin. Added to a stock it becomes Miso soup.
Onegai-Please
Hai-yes
Arigato-Thank You
the song Sakura sings- I'm not translating the whole thing… It's an old folk song entitled "Sakura" and is often taught to young children as the learn to play various instruments (like when a child learns how to play "Mary had a Little lamb" on the piano or something)
Sleeping mat-um... this is actually a futon, but I wasn't aware that that is what they were called at the time (or the fact that futons are japanese... I think I thought they were italian or something...) Anywho, since the story is placed in the Feudal Era, Sakura is sleeping on a sleeping mat. Very simplistic and popular in Japan (possibly other Asian countries, but I don't know) You just roll out the mat, sleep on it, and in the morning roll it back up in the morning. It saves space.
Kami-God
That's it. I think chapter one contains most of the need for translation, but I will continue to put up a glossary.
I own nothing except for the concept, Yamazaruko and Masuhiro Nagatsuka
Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto