Book Three: Halloween
"Come on!" Ino yelled at me as she dragged me with her to some random store I didn't bother to look at. As soon as I saw what was in it, my eyes widened.
"Ino," I groaned, "do I have to?" she nodded.
"Yes, Sakura, you do. It'll be Halloween tomorrow, so you must get it today!" I sighed in exasperation.
"Fine, whatever." as I backed up a little to give Ino some room to choose I bumped into someone. I turned around to apologize, but found Sasuke standing there looking at me with a raised eyebrow, he glanced at Ino for a brief moment, then back at me, his eyebrow rose even further. "I-Ino dragged me here, I-I didn't want to come, she-"
"You got that right, I had to fight tooth and nail to get her here." I rolled my eyes at her exaggeration. Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. I turned to Sasuke.
"Wait a minute, what are you doing here, Sasuke?" he jabbed a finger over his shoulder, pointing to Naruto who was doing the exact same thing Ino is. Naruto looked over to us, and at Ino,so I turned and saw Ino look up too and wink at Naruto. My eyebrows furrowed for a second before I figured it out, I gasped in anger. "You two planned this!" I accused.
"And that's a problem, why?" Ino asked.
"I..." I couldn't think of why it was bad, so I fell silent.
"Besides, how are we supposed to match you with Sasuke, if we don't do this at the same time?"
"Well... why do Sasuke and I need to be here for this?" Suddenly Naruto and Ino popped up in front of us, holding the offending things in our faces.
"So you can try on the costumes!" They yelled in excitement at the same time, then shoved the costumes in our hands as they pushed us in the dressing rooms.
Once I was in the cubical, I put on the costume and then finally looked at the outrageous outfit; it was skimpy. I grimaced. The whole outfit was black, but that wasn't the problem, I could actually care less about that, however, as I looked at it, it seemed like it would be more fit for the bedroom instead.
There was a black shrug that was only meant to serve as short sleeves over the... small piece of cloth that covered my chest, there was fake black vinyl at the end of each sleeve. The cloth that covered my chest looked like an under-wire bra top with more fake black vinyl lining the top edge of each breast. With nothing to cover the skin of my stomach, starting from under my bust to my hips, I looked at my bottoms; It was a black pleated garter skirt with a black cloth belt that just accented the skirt.
The rest of the outfit included what people in movies called a police hat, a small black tie that just barely ended at the middle of my breasts, fingerless black gloves, fishnet pantyhose, and knee length black boots with 4'' stilettos. Just as I was about to take the outfit off and give it back to Ino, her voice stopped me.
"You are not coming out of that room unless you show me the outfit first," she warned, "You too, Sasuke." she added as an afterthought. I sighed and walked out of the room the moment Sasuke did too. We both turned to look at each other. Sasuke's was simple; he was wearing a well fitting black suit with a black tie that had mafia written all over it, giving away the fact that this was a costume, not the actual thing. He had one of those plastic things in his hand, called 'guns' in movies. On the same hand there was a set of cuffs dangling from his wrist, obviously meant to be a reference to me. I barely caught Sasuke smirking before I turned to face Ino, she had a smile on her face, "They're perfect." I gave her a sarcastic look.
"No, Ino, they aren't, well, maybe his is okay, but I don't like mine." Ino turned to Sasuke.
"Sasuke-kun, tell Sakura that her outfit is... amazing." Ino paused to put emphasis on the word 'amazing'. Sasuke turned to me, looked me over, and once again he smirked.
"I like it, I think you should keep it." I just glared at him for a minute or two till an idea popped in my head. I smiled a little and shrugged my shoulders.
"Well, I guess you guys are right, now that I think about it, I might actually enjoy this outfit. Just think, as I walk around in this skimpy," I stretched the word for Sasuke's benefit, "outfit, I know I'll definitely catch one or two guys attention, I mean just look at my fan club, most of them consist of guys, and you know how they follow me around, if I'm lucky, I might get to add a few more to the list." I made sure to emphasize some of the words to make them sound sarcastic.
"I don't like that outfit." Sasuke said to Ino seriously. Ino turned to me with a glare, I just smile innocently.
"Fine," she grumbled, "go change." I happily walked back into the changing room and changed back into my clothes. "Alright, now you two can leave while I find something else." she said as we handed her the costumes.
We both turned heel and speed walked out of the store. Once we were a little ways away from the building, we slowed to a walk. I turned to Sasuke with a small smile. "You know," I spoke, "I really did like that outfit, I probably would've gotten many compliments about how that under-wire bra top accentuated my-"
"You're pushing you luck, Sakura." He warned. I just smiled even more. "Don't think I don't know that you said that just to make me tell Ino not to get it. However, your point was valid." I shrugged.
"Good." He opened his mouth to speak some more, but a voice broke in.
"Sakura." I froze in my stride and turned around to see my father.
"What?" I asked blankly.
"May I please talk to you?" He asked the same question he's been asking me for 6 months now. I sighed in exasperation.
"As I've said before, I'll say again. No." I turned back around and Sasuke and I started to walk again, but my father's hand came up to capture my wrist.
"Please, Sakura, I-"
"Let go of her." Sasuke said with a glare as he turned around and slapped my fathers hand off mine. Sasuke then turned, wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and started walking, urging me along also. I glanced back at my father briefly and saw him with his head down, looking pretty depressed. Is that how he always looks when I reject him? I can still remember when that was me looking that way after I had spoken to Sasuke when we were younger. "You don't need to feel guilty, he doesn't deserve it."
"But can't you remember when that used to be me looking like that because of you?" Sasuke grimaced.
"Yes, but this is different than that."
"How so? The way I'm seeing it is that you gave me a chance, I don't know why, but you did. And looking at my father, seeing him look the way I used to, makes me think that maybe I should give him a chance, or at least hear him out."
"You don't need to, you don't owe it to him, not after what he did."
"But I'm not sure what it was he did exactly! And as I said already, I don't know what I think of him anymore, either."
"You don't have to, let's go." He pushed me a little faster.
~0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0~
I sat on my bed with my hands behind my head as I thought over the day. Ino had barged into my house and threw me off the bed, telling me to get up so she could take me somewhere. Then I bumped into Sasuke in the costume store, where we were both forced to try on a costume (courtesy of Ino). When she got exasperated with us, she told us to leave, where we did, and we had bumped into my father, or vise versa, I'm not sure if he was searching me out or not. Then Sasuke escorted me back here, where I have sat here on my bed for hours. It is now 12:01.
Maybe I should have heard my father out? He has been asking to tell me something for 6 months now, and he has never tried to stop me from leaving, as he had today. What if it was important? What if he wanted to talk about that night so many years ago? If only I had some sort of inkling as to what he wanted to tell me, or speak to me about.
Should I leave and try to search him out? I don't know where he lives cause I never asked and I never bothered to listen when people were talking about it. Maybe I should break into the file room and find out. A picture of an angry Tsunade flashed through my mind and I grimaced. Never mind. What-
"Hello!" A voice yelled out in the silence, breaking off my train of thought. I looked over as I sighed.
"What do you want Ino... and Sasuke?" Why was he dressed up in a costume?
"Come on, put on your costume and lets go!" Ino threw the unknown outfit on my bed beside me. I looked at her in confusion.
"Where are we going? And why in a costume?"
"To a party, and because it's Halloween, duh."
"Aren't Halloween parties supposed to be at night?"
"Yes, but too many people complained about how they had to go with their children trick-or-treating on Halloween night, and they wouldn't be able to make it, so we had to change the times. So get dressed and let's go!"
"Ino, I don't want to-"
"Too bad." I sighed again as I sat up, and picked up the outfit, looking at it. I gasped and looked at Ino as I held it up.
"This is the same outfit, Ino!" Sasuke snapped his head up, it had been bent downwards the whole time, and looked at the outfit, then shot a pointed look (glare) at Ino. Ino smiled and shook her head.
"No, it's not the same. Go try it on." I just looked at her. "Go on." I rolled my eyes, went to my bathroom, and changed into the outfit, then looked in the body length mirror hanging on the back of the bathroom door. It is the- Wait, she was right, there is something that is different. I rolled my eyes, only one; instead of the fake silver symbol on my hat, it's the Konoha Military Police Force symbol, except that the Uchiha fan is a little bigger than I remembered. How did she manage that?
I gave myself a once over, grimaced, and opened the door, letting both of them look at me. Ino smiled and Sasuke raised an eyebrow as he saw the symbol. "This way," Ino spoke, "you will be branded as Sasuke's. Everyone will know you belong to him." Ino looked at Sasuke out of the corner of her eye as she emphasized. Sasuke had a slight smirk, so Ino took that as an 'it's okay' from him because she grabbed my hand and started to pull me in the direction of my front door. "Now come on!" I let out a noise of frustration as I decided she wasn't going to just let me go, so I went with her.
After many minutes -I had lost count- we finally reached our destination. Ino let out a squeal as she grabbed Sasuke's hand too and she ran forward into the house, dragging us behind her. The place was blaring with music, almost to the point where it hurt my ears. As I skimmed over the crowd to asses what was going on, all I saw was people gyrating against each other, and doing scandalous dance moves. Ino, letting go of our hands, got lost in the crowd.
As I looked more closely at the people to see if there was anyone I knew here, I saw all the girls were drooling at Sasuke, but I didn't feel any kind of jealousy or possessiveness, Sasuke wouldn't give them a second look. Plus it helps that I know how it feels to be stared at like that. To prove my point, every guy that my eyes landed on was looking at me, and I don't mean they were looking into my eyes.
"Hey, Sasuke," I said in his ear, "I don't think the changed symbol made anything different."
"Well, they're looking, but they aren't making any advances, so-"
"Yet... I mean, think about it, it's not just your clan symbol, it's the symbol of the Konoha Military Police Force. People could just think I'm loyal to my village, not that it meant I belonged to you. Because the Uchiha fan is naturally in the symbol, they might not think anything of it." Sasuke's eyes narrowed at the thought, before he said 'hn' and shrugged. "You know, I'm going to go get myself something to drink." I walked off, and hopefully, away from the stares following me.
As it turns out, the kitchen wasn't empty, it was full of people. I cursed all the movies and stories that said the kitchen is always empty, what a load of bull. I tried to push my way through the crowd to get to the snack table, however, someone had grabbed my elbow and started pulling me away. I wasn't able to fight against it, because there were too many people around me. If I tried anything, then I would end up hurting them. I barely felt my aura being swallowed by the aura of the person dragging me, before that persons disappeared too.
The moment I was pulled into an empty room, I jerked out of the persons hold, and turned around to look at who it was as the person flicked on the lights. My eyebrows shot up as I got out of the habitual fighting stance.
"Father?" he gave me a small sad smile.
"Hello, Sakura. I know you probably don't want to see me, especially after earlier, but-"
"Actually, I have been wondering about that all day. For you to be trying to tell me something for 6 months, and for you to start trying to force it on me, it must be important, to you at least. Don't get me wrong though, I am mad at you for what you just did." I glared at him. He nodded.
"I can accept that. I can even understand if you continue to hate me after what I tell you. Of course I'd be sad, but you deserve to know." My eyebrows furrowed.
"Know what?" I said cautiously.
"Please sit down." he gestured to the bed. I grew wary, everyone knows that bad news comes after words like that. I walked over to the bed and sat down.
"Okay, so what is it?"
He sighed as he sat down on the floor across from me, "It all began before you were born..."
~0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0~
As he finished all I could do was stare at him with a blank face, however, my body took control as tears leaked from the corners of my eyes. I briefly noticed my name being called out, and that the house was totally void of any presence except mine, my father's, and two others. I heard the opening of doors, and the closing of them about 3 seconds later. After a minute or two, someone finally reached our door; it was Sasuke. He almost closed the door, before he realized someone was actually in here. He opened it all the way and looked at my tear stained face to my father. His hand clenched, but I stood up on shaky legs and walked over to him to put my hand atop his closed one.
"Sasuke, can we go?" he looked at me and nodded. He bent down and picked me up. He must have seen that I was having trouble walking on my own.
"Sakura," My father spoke. "I-"
"Just give me a little time to absorb everything." I said quietly. Sasuke looked down at me in curiosity. "Later." I whispered. He nodded and walked out of the bedroom. Just as we were about to walk out of the house we heard Ino's voice.
"Oh no! What happened?" She asked as she ran to us to see if I was injured in any way.
"Not exactly sure," Sasuke spoke, "I found her in a room with her father, they looked to be having a conversation, and she was crying." Ino turned her confused eyes to mine.
"What did your dad want?"
"He finally told me what he's been wanting to tell me for 6 months. I'm not quite sure I wanted to know. Yet, at the same time, I feel like a fool for not letting him tell the first time he asked." as the conversation replayed in my head, a tears or two more come out.
"Okay... well, I think she needs some rest, Sasuke, take her home." he shot a tiny glare at her for commanding him to do something, especially since he was already doing it.
He walked out the door and started on his way to my house. "Sasuke, can we go to your place? I don't want to be alone right now." he hesitated for a second before nodding and turning the other direction.
Since he was holding me in his arms, the moment we got to the door, I reached into his pocket and pulled out the key to put it in the door, unlock it, and open the door. I put the key back in his pocket as he walked forward, into the house, kicked the door shut, then walked to his bedroom, and laid me down on his bed, where he sat down next to me awkwardly. I sat up slowly, and crossed my legs.
"Lay back down, you should rest." he reprimanded me.
"I'll be fine, I'm not tired, I don't need to sleep." He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. I looked down at my hands and bit my lip in my nervousness. "Sasuke, what would you think if I told you I wasn't born to be an actual person?" I glanced up at him and saw his eyebrows furrow in confusion.
"What do you mean?" I looked back down at my hands.
"... Nothing." Sasuke grabbed my chin and made me look at him.
"Does this have to do with something your father said?"
I looked away, but Sasuke's fingers tightened slightly, making me look at him once more. "Yes, it does." Sasuke's eyes narrowed in anger.
"If he said-"
"No, he didn't say anything, well, not in the way your thinking."
"What exactly did he say, Sakura?"
"Well, it was pretty long, hours actually, so I don't have time to get it all out."
"Summarize." I stared at him for a second before sighing, and nodding.
"Um, to put it impossibly short, and to leave out a lot of details, I was a mission."
"A mission? What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said, I was an assignment... and an experiment."
"Elaboration..." Sasuke said impatiently.
"Many years ago, there was a scroll that Konoha needed to protect from everyone, including its own people because the people couldn't be trusted, well, no one thought they could be, anyways, that's not the point. Because the scroll had been around for decades, the use of what it was made for had been long forgotten, all that was known was that is had a considerable amount of power, and some people wanted to know what kind of power it was exactly, my parents were among those people. However, word had gotten to the elders and Hokage about this, and they sought to put an end to it, so by some lucky, or cruel twist of fate, my parents were assigned to find a way to get rid of the scroll.
"Depending on how you look at it, they had completed their mission, the scroll is gone, however, they also disobeyed their orders because even though the scroll is gone, the scrolls contents are still alive... in me."
"Wha-?"
"My parents activated the scroll, but they weren't expecting it to be what it was. My father said it looked like a glowing translucent globe. It floated up, out of the scroll, and into my mothers stomach, my parents where dumbfounded, and looked to the scroll again, but it was blank... It was a few short months later that my mother found out she was pregnant. Figuring that the ball of light is what caused it, she and my dad couldn't wait to find out more about the ball of light, so they continued to let me grow. At first, when I was born, they started the tests, but as father said, after about 2-3 months, they grew attached to me, and they started to finally think of me as their child.
"Somehow, someone found out that my parents had the scroll, and they went after them... on Valentines Day. From what my father tells me, what my mother had told my dad before she was killed, was to make sure I was given her love, and that I knew the truth. The reason my father ran away, is because he was giving the enemies the thought that he was either carrying the scroll on his person, or he was running away so that no one could get the information that only he had. None of the enemies even suspected that I was now the scroll." I looked down as tears leaked out of my eyes. I sniffled a little before looking back up, "Sasuke, if I thought I didn't know what to think my father before..." I sniffled and shook my head as my tears ran faster, "I don't know if I should be mad at him for the reason I was originally born, if I should be thankful for all he's done for me, or if I should be regretful for treating him the way I have, and for thinking bad of him for all these years." I brought my hands up and laced my fingers through my hair in frustration, sadness, and stress.
I felt Sasuke's hands slowly take my hands out of my hair, then pulled me into his lap. "Sakura, it's however you want to feel, and whatever you think is right, because honestly, I don't know anymore either."
"You're acting as if the scroll hasn't changed anything." I stated.
"Why would it? Sakura, do I need to explain the birds and the bees to you? Babies don't come from balls of light." My cheeks lit up in a bright red color as the tears on my face slowly stopped.
"Shut up, Sasuke, don't tease me." he smirked and shrugged.
Sasuke leaned forward and touched his forehead to mine, his smirk spreading wider, "Speaking of the birds and the bees..." He trailed off as he put his lips on mine, and pushed me down slowly, leaving us to get lost in the night.
~0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0~
I groaned as I tried to blink the grogginess away. I looked down as I felt someones arm on my waist, I smiled and looked up into the black eyes of Sasuke Uchiha. I leaned up and kissed him, "Good morning." I whispered, he nodded in agreement. I sat up and stretched, raising my arms above my head as I did so, the sheet fell off in the process. I exhaled a large breath as I let my arms fall to my sides. I started to move to the edge of the bed, but Sasuke staring at me caused me to stop and look at him with a tilted head and furrowed eyebrows. He was wearing a smirk as he looked me up and down. I looked down and saw my naked body, then I looked back up at him with a glare. "Perv." I grumbled as I got off the bed and headed to the shower.
I made quick work of washing my hair and face, then washing the soap over my body, but when I concentrated on rinsing off the soap, and therefore, concentrating on the water, I had to stay in to let the water beat down on me, it was so relaxing. Sadly though, I had to get out of the shower sometime, so I turned off the water, wrapped a towel around my body, and got out.
I walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, looking to the wall where I thought my dresser to be, but I suddenly remembered that this was Sasuke's room, and that I had asked him to take me here last night, I briefly noted that the person this room belongs to wasn't in the room any longer. I sighed as I went to pick my bra back up off the floor, and I snapped it on. I went to Sasuke's dresser and started from the bottom drawer, trying to find the two things I was looking for. As I got the the top drawer, I saw the things I was looking for; his boxers and one of his shirts. The boxers were plain black, and really soft, I decided I didn't want to find out what material it was, I'm not quite sure how he will react when he sees that I am wearing his stuff, let alone that I had to search through his drawers to find it. I quickly put on the white button up and walked downstairs.
I looked around, hoping to find Sasuke somewhere in this big place, I didn't even see one strand of hair that belonged to him. Considering I can't 'feel' his aura, I guess that means he isn't even here. I sighed as my stomach rumbled. I turned around from my place in the hallway, and I made my way to the kitchen.
The moment I stepped into the kitchen, my eyes were drawn to the being that was sitting at the dining room table, peacefully eating a tomato. I ground my teeth together and clenched my hands. I closed my eyes as I inhaled deeply and held it for a second or two before letting it out and letting my teeth unclench along with my hands too. I opened my eyes and looked at him.
"Why are you hiding your aura?" I asked him.
Without looking up he answered. "Wanted to see how long it took you to find me." with just that small little sentence, my frustration and anger came back, but before I could yell at him the doorbell rang. I just stood there staring at him for about 5 minutes, letting the doorbell ring about 2 more times. "Go get it." I narrowed my eyes at him (of which he didn't see).
"This is your house, not mine!" he mumbled something that I didn't hear, "What?"
"I said that I wasn't going to get it." he said louder, but his mumble sounded shorter than that sentence. I huffed in exasperation and went to answer the door; it was my dad. He was looking off to the side, but the moment the door opened, he snapped his head up and started speaking.
"Hello, Sakura, I just wanted to make sure you were okay, your friend Ino..." he trailed off as he finally saw what I was wearing. Before any one of us could say anything, Sasuke, who was in nothing but his boxers, came up behind me to see who was at the door. I groaned and rubbed my temple.
"Yes, I think I'll be fine." he nodded slowly before snapping out of his stupor, and he looked down.
"About yesterday, do you..."
"I don't know..." I answered, predicting that he was asking how I felt about him. He nodded slightly before starting to turn. I felt a little bit of panic rise up in me and I impulsively jumped forward to wrap my arms around his shoulders.
"Um..." I tried to think of something to say after just jumping on him, "I just... give me some time." He slowly nodded and hesitantly wrapped his hands around my waist.
After a minute or two, I stepped back, and gave him a half smile as he gave me a wide grin and set off away from the house. I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned around; Sasuke was smirking. "What?" I asked. He shook his head.
"Nothing." I rolled my eyes, that means he won't tell me, and he'd just let me find out in time.
"Well, last night is certainly another memory to tack onto a holiday. Now the only thing to do is decide if it was a good holiday memory, or a bad one." Sasuke wrapped his arms around my waist.
"I'd say it was good." I gave him a sarcastic look.
"Of course you would."
"I say we redo last night and... perfect our mistakes." I thought I saw a slight wiggle of his eyebrows, but I wasn't sure. I laughed.
"Perv." he lifted me in his arms.
"Hn... let me show you how much of one I am." he said with a smirk as he sped back upstairs to his room and set me down, where we made sure that we closed all the curtains, we don't want any youngsters to see this now do we? I laughed in mischievousness as I slowly closed the door and turned to face Sasuke with a smirk. Now, where were we...?
