WARNING: CONTAINS SLIGHT LANGUAGE.
Cathy: Hi people! Yeah, so this is my first chapter of this story. Well, thanks sooo much to my "royal" editor and co-writer mimi121503!!! Yeah..the infamous cat-lover, pshhh jking. Well, anyway, i hope it satisfy's your curiosity? (Yeah rite) well, i just hope its not too bad...
Eileen: -waves- Well I really dislike long author notes myself, so let's get on with the chapter..
Note:This chapter has been re-edited to fix typos, as well as add a couple of new scenes.
Enjoy!
A Hollow Whisper
Chapter One…
The hot, sticky summer day carried along lazily as 20-year-old ANBU captain Haruno Sakura trained with her teammates. In spite of the retaliating heat and drips of hot, sticky sweat gushing down her forehead, Sakura kept pushing herself on, training her jutsus in every constant motion that time allowed.
Sakura embraced the set of kunai's thrown her way furiously. She leaped up onto a large, oak tree, dodging every single one of her teammate's attacks with splendid grace and skill. Her chakra control was perfect, able to sense every incoming attack without hesitation. Her eyes and her ears were powerful enough to challenge even Kakashi's sharingan, without the defects of the sharingan as well, which gave her a slight advantage over him every time they fought. But in no means did that mean that Kakashi was a handicap. The legendary copycat ninja deserved his reputation.
"Oi, Sakura! Don't you ever get tired?" whined Ino.
Ino started to fan herself with her hand, all the while bossing Shikamaru to get off his lazy ass and hand her a bottle of water. Shikamaru ignored her endless whining and instead focused his attention on Chouji, who was also eyeing the last bottle of crisp, refreshing water available.
Sakura gave a relieved smile, showing no signs of slowing down, even though her insides were begging her mind to slow down and rest for a second. Her mind relentlessly ignored the constant streams of warnings her body gave, and continued to accelerate her body's speed and agility, blasting her strength to full volume.
Sakura continued to practice her taijutsu by herself with the rest of her teammates and Kakashi watching, while sitting in the cool shade, sipping water vigorously.
Sakura stopped for a second to wipe the never-ending sweat from her forehead, and then turned around to look at her teammates. She envied the way they could laugh so carelessly, without a care in the world.
She knew better than that however. Each was equally frightened by the idea of an upcoming war, but none showed any means of wariness. Sakura was probably the only one who revealed her paranoid nature 24/7.
Sakura soon caught Kiba's attention, and saw him flash a big smile towards her direction, showing his large and aggressive canine teeth at her proudly.
Sakura returned the favor by plastering on one of her most infamous fake smiles, hoping no one would detect her lack of expression in it. She turned around and quickly went back to training by herself.
Kakashi watched as Sakura forced on her emotional mask, large (obviously fake) smile spreading across her face. To anyone else, it would seem like a normal, content smile; but to one of her dearest friends, it was a fake smile, used to delusion everyone into thinking she was secure and happy. They all knew better of course. There was a giant gap from a real smile and a fake smile. Her eyes had revealed it, for they lacked the color and the enthusiasm that once danced around in those emerald eyes of hers. Kiba had recoginized it too, for his smile quickly turned into a frown, slight worry visible in his eyes.
Kakashi closed his eyes slowly and sighed. How long was it since Sakura actually gave a real smile?
"Sakura," questioned Kakashi, "How long have you been standing in the cemetery?"
Sakura's continued focusing on the grave in front of her, her eyes never once leaving the scripts written on the tomb.
"I don't know Kakashi-sensei, I didn't keep track…"
Her words slowly faded away softly, as if a breeze had swept away the rest of her sentence.
Kakashi stared painfully at his former student. He understood the pain and regret she had held deep in her eyes, for he felt the same remorse over and over again. First he had lost his teammates, Rin and Obito, now he had lost all of his students, the third one lost in her own subconscious. Bad karma seemed to stick onto him like glue.
After a long silence, Sakura finally kneeled down towards a large, desolate gravestone. Kakashi walked forward and immediately recognized it was her mother's gravestone. Beneath the words, lay a simple rose, its beauty out of place in the lonely cemetery.
"Kakashi-sensei…" started Sakura, "I want their tombs to go beside my mothers, so I can remember each one of them at the same time."
Kakashi fully acknowledged "their" referred to Sasuke and Naruto.
After what seemed like hours in Kakashi's opinion, Sakura finally got up and swept the dirt off her ANBU outfit.
"Kakashi-sensei..." she began, "After Naruto left with Jiraiya, I vowed to myself never to depend on others for help again, you know? I vowed myself never to be left behind as a shadow in their images, but to gain my rightful position as next to them, as comrades, not just a heavy burden."
Sakura's eyes stared dully at the grave while Kakshi spoke.
"Sakura, you're not weak. Naruto and Sasuke are...special... in their own ways. Its their motivation that drives them to succumb for power. Sasuke for his intention to kill his brother, and Naruto to stop Sasuke from killing his brother. It all depends on how strong your motivation is. Sakura, your motivation is trying not to let Team seven fall apart..." replied Kakashi, immediately regretting what he just said.
Sakura gave a small chuckle.
"And what a fantastic job I've done so far..." continued Sakura.
"Sakura, you're not even sure if their...gone... or not." said Kakashi softly.
Sakura sighed, and finally murmured a small goddbye to Kakashi. Kakashi noticed a single tear drip from Sakura's emerald eyes down to her pink, round cheek.
Kakashi stood there dumbly, finally realizing how his student had grown up from the whiny, over-sensitive girl she used to be.
"Kakashi-sensei?"
No answer.
"Kakashi-sensei???"
Still no answer.
"KAKASHI-SENSEI!!"
Kakashi recapped back into memory at the startled noise. He raised his head to notice a questioned Sakura staring at him curiously.
"Kakashi-sensei, the others have left already, you ready to go now?" replied Sakura at Kakashi's responsive stare.
"Of course," ventured Kakashi spitefully. He sighed, he had lost track of time again, flashing back into old memories. It was best not to add more salt to the wound. The pain he got sometimes these past days was as severe as it was already.
Sakura gave a small nod and began chastising Kakashi for throwing his stuff so bluntly on the ground. All the while, Kakashi just took in the criticism, giving a small, weak smile at Sakura's naturely "motherness".
The walk towards the center of the city was awkwardly silent. Twice, Kakashi tried to start a conversation, asking Sakura how her medicine practice with Tsunade was. Twice, the only answer he got was:
"Oh, its always the same so and so."
Kakashi never failed to notice the exact, same counterfeit smile plastered on her face each time.
Sakura stifled a small yawn as she entered her small, unproportional apartment building.
Sakura carelessly slammed the door behind her, too tired to care whether or not the neighbors were cursing at her again for making loud, interruptive noises. She quickly slipped on an oversized mesh shirt and a loose, waist-high Capri. She climbed onto her bed, her eyes glittering a bit as finally realized she could relax.
She gave a small groan as she slipped under the covers of her bed, her tense muscles relaxing as the comfortableness of the sheets hypnotized her body into a deep sleep.
Before she could however, fall into a deep slumber, she was awakened by a small rattle. Sakura first ignored the sound, but then it happened again, and again, and again.
Sakura cursed silently, and dragged herself out of her bed, her fingers wrapped firmly around a kunai. Whoever disturbed her sleeping would pay heavily.
Sakura held her kunai closer towards her chest as she tip-toed outside to her living room. She immediately sensed someone else in her room, and in a flash appeared behind her intruder, kunai placed around the neck.
"Who the hell are you and why are you in my living room?" hissed Sakura viciously.
Although the room was pitch black, she felt her intruder smear a dangerous smile across his face.
Sakura's grip on her kunai tightened. Suddenly, she felt something nibbling on her along the ribs. She hesitated for a slight second, but it was enough time for her intruder to release himself from her grasp.
Sakura figured it would be a burglar, but her intruder was a shinobi. Not one with highly developed skills though.
His movements were slow and lazy, and Sakura quickly broke his hand with a twist around the wrists. Her intruder stopped fidgeting and gave a small cry of pain. He grabbed his wounded hand with his other hand, and began to curse viciously, his voice too delicate for a man's. Sakura quickly knocked him out with a punch, and he became unconscious.
Sakura held on to her unconscious prisoner, all the while slowly trudging towards the light switch.
Sakura was a little surprised. It wasn't a guy that just tried to rob her, but a girl.
"Oh...a girl..." whispered Sakura silently.
A pretty one too. The girl had long, tied back blonde hair, her bangs reaching towards her closed eyelids. Her cheeks were firmly centered, with a small blush of red in them and her lips were a pale pink color. Her plain, black cloak stretched beneath her feet (which Sakura guessed must've been presumably small too).
Sakura decided it was best to not leave her in the privacy of her own home, and decided to drag her out to Tsunade's so she could plan a consequence. Also, it would be embarrasing to call other ANBU athis late at night just to do something she herself could do.The penalty would be much higher for a thief who has shinobi skills, rather than an ordinary thief. Misusing skills a shinobi retained for own personal gain was strictly forbidden.
What did bother Sakura was the fact that her intruder had so easily given in. The noise she had made had been too loud, even for a poor skilled shinobi. The fighting, everything.
Sakura gave a small sigh as the image of sacrificing her comfortable bed to drag a criminal out to Tsunade's entered her mind.
Nevertheless, she grabbed the collar of her intruder's coat, and started dragging her outside of her apartment.
During the day, the streets of Konoha were bustling with merchants, adults, children, and all sorts of living creature that dwelled there.
During the night, it closely resembled the ghost towns in western films Naruto had forced her and Sasuke to watch a week before the genin exams.
Sakura quickly dismissed the memories of their childhood days, afraid that the pain would drive her insane again at the memory of Team seven's former members.
Still, her mind pranced around her happier childhood days. The days that consisted of laughing, and quarrels between Sasuke and Naruto that Sakura always had to stand between in. Sakura smiled at those memories.
But always after the happy cascades, the dark, gloomy ones came, and Sakura's smile vanished.
It was memories such as the "departure" of Sasuke, and the solemn face of Naruto that brought her on the verge of tears. After those days, she vowed to become stronger, never having to rely on the energy of those around her. So why was she feeling pity now?
Sasuke….Naruto….
Sakura pulled out a kunai instantly to defend herself from the rush of kunai's in her direction. The girl she had previously hung onto drifted away from her grasp carelessly, a wicked smirk on her face.
"Shit, she was pretending," muttered Sakura silently to herself.
Soon, she was defending herself vehemently from the blur of kunai's rushed towards her direction. When the assaults finally stopped, she looked around.
Damn, she was trapped.
Around her, three cloaked men surrounded her, each holding onto a kunai. Sakura started trembling slightly after she noticed the red clouds swirling around their cloaks.
Akatsuki…
Sakura sensed their chakra levels. Each was too high leveled, there was no way she could escape three Akatsuki members.
Her head started swirling around in confusion. No one spoke, each Akatsuki eyed Sakura suspiciously. Sakura noticed her previous intruder was one of the three.
In all her training of shinobi, she had only heard of two Akatsuki. The missing mist-nin Kisame, Sasori, and the infamous clan muderer Uchiha Itachi…the older brother of Sasuke who he had sworn to kill.
Suddenly, Sakura felt a dangerous rage about to consume her. This man, indirectly were the roots of almost everything.
Wasn't it him who had led Sasuke down the park of darkness, with Naruto chasing after him.
He was the cause for their misfortune, their suffering.
She took several breaths, attempting to calm herself. Emotions should never overrule a shinobi, she had learned that She had learned it through things too painful to think about.
Sakura stared hard into the eyes of each and every one of them. Kisame smirked maliciously at her, his eyes considering what to do after they captured her. Every once in a while, Sakura noticed how he tapped the blade of his sword against his palm, just anticipating the moment where he would get to press his blade onto the soft tenderness of her skin.
Sakura just noticed the blonde grit his teeth at the intense pain Sakura had inflicted upon his wrist. She smiled at him dangerously, glad to have hurt at least one of the Akatsuki member. The blonde turned his eyes away, ashamed to have been hurt by her.
Sakura finally focused her gaze on the emotionless eyes of Itachi the longest. She noticed that his eyes were a dull, crimson color, and his expression was one without a care or a damn about the world. Sakura stared long, and hard into his eyes. It was these eyes that watched Sasuke shrivel up as he witnessed his parents murder. It was these eyes that murdered all of the innocents of the Uchiha clan, all the small infants that held no guilt to the world, except wanting to be loved and caressed by their parents.
For some odd reason, Sakura could somehow relate to the emotionless expression in those crimson eyes of his. Hadn't she herself been feeling the same in these past couple of years? Sakura suddenly felt slightly guilty, but soon decided she was a much better person than Uchiha Itachi.
Sakura's cheeks turned a bright crimson color as she further indulged herself into his emotionless eyes. Sakura's grip on her kunai tightened, as she readied herself to charge at the Akatsuki members, Itachi being the one she wanted to inflict her wrath upon the most.
Before she could actually reach them however, she saw Itachi disappear from his usual position in front of her, and appear suddenly in front of her. The others had not even moved from their space.
Sakura was about to argue, when she felt herself slowly fade away into a subliminal unconsciousness. Her mind began to dizzy, and the last feeling she felt before drifting away was an awful pain in her stomach.
"I'm not a girl," hissed the blonde, was the last thing she heard before being carried away by the infamous Uchiha Itachi.
TBC...
Well, I guess that was a good first chapter...seeing as a first impression counts as a last impression...yeah.. well, I just hoped it didn't suck that much .
Cathy: Well, PLEASE REVIEW….PLEASE PLEASE –begging on my knees- REVIEW. Yes I am desperate people -- . Well anyway, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, and wait at least 3-4 days for my to come up with a new chapter!
Eileen: God Cathy..don't be so pathetic --
Adieu
Thanks for shopping at Kroger!